120Alora's POV I sucked in a deep breath, willing my thumping heart to stop least calm down for a couple of seconds, but it didn't. Instead, or seemed to skyrocket all the more. My palms were sweaty, and I'd lost count of the number of times I'd wiped it against my skirt, and right now, I wouldn't be surprised if it was soaking right now. “Mrs Alora.” I jerked up at the sound of my name. I blinked back a couple of times, just to come face to face with a man. I had no idea who he was, but he didn't look any older than Fredrick. “Good afternoon.”“Good afternoon.” I gave him a small smile. “Um, can I help you?” “No, not really.” He shook his head. Not only that, he had an awkward bait that had me thinking if he was still recovering from an accident or something. A look crossed his face, and I easily narrowed it down to shame or probably embarrassment. “I just came to apologize.”“Apologize?” I'd kept an open mind when he approached me, but this definitely what I'd expected him
121Fredrick’s POV I couldn't believe my ears. The world spun around me, and I staggered a bit. Colours clashed into each other, and I honestly thought I was going to pass out, or worse, run mas. Luckily, no one had paid me enough attention to catch that, but it still didn't make things any easier. I blinked a couple of times, wishing that what I'd just heard was a sick prank. I'd never wished it before, but right now, I wouldn't even mind if I had to come to the conclusion that I'd been hallucinating. I stared at Eliaz, and the snug grin he wore was all the proof I needed to know that I was nowhere near hallucinating or being delusional. This was real, and he had just exposed the one thing no one else was meant to know. Fuck. “What?” Alora exclaimed. Her voice held every bit of shock and confusion, and I wouldn't say I blamed her. “What are you talking about? That can't be true. There's no way in hell that's possible. Eliaz, what have you done??”“Nothing.* Eliaz gave a lazy
122Alora's POV I'd never been more confused in my life than I was right now. My mind was a mess, and my emotions were all over the place, and like that wasn't already traumatizing enough, fate just had to spice it all up with a little drama out in the open. No, not little. The biggest drama I'd ever witnessed in my entire life. If someone had told me that what seemed like a perfectly normal and good day could easily morph into one of the worst days in my existence, then best believe that I would have laughed my asses off. Thanks to the lucky streaks I'd been getting, I liked to think that my days of bad luck were over. Or not. I pressed my eyes shut, just for a little moment. When the press release had gone well, and the ratings of the interviews I'd conducted were all five stars, I felt on top of the world. Literally. I told myself that nothing was going to top it all off, except finally getting the contract in my name again. I had no idea how much I'd missed it and how I
123Alora's POV I paced around the living room,. The sound of my footsteps slapping against the wooden floors bounced around the walls, and while I would have usually found that annoying, I couldn't exactly bring myself to care. I had bigger things to worry about. My heart dropped to my feet, and I fought the urge to curse out loud. It had been happening more frequently than I'd liked and I couldn't shake off the feeling that it was a sign that something bad was happening. Not me though.Fredrick. A shiver raced down my spine, and I crossed my hands around myself. I was nervous, anxious, and whatever word that could be used to describe how I was feeling, and I didn't like it. I wanted to calm down, to stop feeling like this, but how the hell was I going to do that when Fredrick was still unconscious? He'd been unresponsive since last night, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried. When I'd followed him yesterday, I'd kept an open mind, but never in a million years d
124Alora's POV You know those moments when you know what you're about to do is a bad idea and could potentially come back to bite you, but you still go ahead to do it anyway? That was the situation I was in right now . Was I going to regret it? Maybe. Did that reduce my zeal in any way? Not a chance. I found a parking lot as quickly as I could, before getting down from the said vehicle. For a moment there, I'd almost forgotten to lock my doors. On the one hand, I wasn't sure anything bad was going to happen. What if I didn't lock my doors, what were they going to do? Hot-wire my car? Probably. I let out a small sigh. I was fidgeting and rambling on about all the thoughts in my head, and if that wasn't a tell take sign that I was nervous, then I had no idea what would suffice. My heart slammed in my chest, and I really thought it would break through at any moment from now. If that was going to happen though, I really would have preferred if it happened when I had gotten to m
125Fredrick’s POV A groan slid past my lips as I finally stirred awake. My limbs hurt, and I could already feel a burning coming up at both sides, and I wanted nothing more than to curse mother nature. My head was on fire, and if I didn't know myself better, I would have said a group of monkeys had snuck into my brain, and started a band in there. It was banging so hard my ears were ringing. In fact, when I'd first opened my eyes, my vision was hazy, and I was left with just one minute to figure out if I was blind or not. Even after sleeping for hours, it did nothing to make me feel better and I hated it. But did you really sleep though? A voice whispered in my mind. I wouldn't say he was wrong. I hadn't been able to sleep a wink since the doctor did whatever he did to bring me around again. I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, but a small part of me really wished he didn't do all that he had done. He could have delayed a little longer, or given me an extremely high dosage. A
126Alora's POV Growing up, I'd heard what they referred to as the walk of shame, but I couldn't exactly say I had experienced it before. The ones who said they had in fact experienced it, I told myself they were simply exaggerating and there was no way it could be as bad as they made it out to be. I was wrong. Freakishly wrong. I gulped, but it did nothing to push down the shame and guilt I'd been harboring since I left Deutchmond enterprises. It was a lot if I was being honest, and I really didn't see it going away any time soon. It was here to stay, unless I did something about and Eliaz and his wife would stop rubbing it in my faces. Right now, none of them seemed the least bit possible. A small sigh slid past my lips as I ran a hand through my hair. The drive home was eerily quiet, save for the occasional car honks once in every ten minutes. The roads were deserted, and I couldn't help but laugh at the large contrast of held, opposed to the state of my mind right now.
127Alora's POV Fredrick going in and coming out again wasn't the plot twist I saw coming, at all. When he'd turned his back to me, I really thought it was over, and I'd decided that if he didn't come back, I would let him be, before finding a way to salvage the situation. I had no idea how I would have done it, but best believe I was more than grateful that he'd decided to come around. We sat in silence for what seemed like the longest time. If I was in any way correct, it had been approximately thirty minutes since he sat down, since he last spoke. Now, thirty minutes later, he still hadn't said a thing. I was anxious. It was eating me up and it made me wonder how he would be feeling inside. I wasn't the one about to explain something that was probably traumatic, and here I was panicking like I'd shot someone. I sucked in a deep breath, before letting it out again. From the corner of my eyes, I watched Fredrick sitting to the side, and my heart broke into a million pieces.
160Alora's POV I couldn't believe my ears, at all. I'd heard of moments when one would be so shocked, that one would be forced to think that time had somehow rolled to a halt. I'd experienced my fair share of that moment, but I never thought another occurrence could top the charts of the most shocking one. If anything, what had just happened now was something I wouldn't be forgetting in a long time, even if I died, or went into a coma. “You’re alone now, Alora.” his words echoed painfully in my ears. “Abandon Fredrick, sign over your shares to me, and we could go back to being a couple”. The words seemed to be on loop, and the more I tried to get his voice out of my head, the more they settled into my mind. As they did that, I struggled to find the motivation behind it all. Was he really that audacious for him to think that I was going to agree to his terms? Or perhaps he was delusional and was only playing a prank on me. I raised my gaze to meet his face. My eyes scanned the
159Alora's POV I was conscious, but for the life of me, I didn't even want to open my eyes. Call it embarrassment, or probably depression, I didn't care. All I knew was that I didn't want to feel like this, at all. I couldn't even remember the last time I felt this way. I'd been through hell and back, literally, from the contract being ripped from me the first time, to bring framed for something I had no idea about, to you g to jail, to dealing with Ethan and a whole lot of other troubles I didn't wabt to remember, I wasn't sure I felt the way I was feeling now, and i hated it. I let out a deep breath, before finally forcing my eyes open, and the all too familiar sight of my ceiling greeted me. I knew I should be happy, or at least feel a tiny bit of comfort, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't summon it. All that ran through my mind, were the events that led to this moment. It wasn't a lot, but it was still embarrassing. I'd passed out in the Inspector's office a
158Fredrick’s POV A small groan slid past my lips as I slowly peeled my eyes open. A dull throb spread through the back of my head, and all around me, but I didn't let it get to me. My body ached, and I felt like I was going to pass out again. My lungs burned, and even the side of my torso too. I had no idea why it hurt, but for the life of me, I couldn't even bring myself to check. More groans slid past my lips as I forced myself into a sitting position. My back came in contact with the wall behind me, and I regretted it immediately. Something slimy seeped into my clothes, and I jerked forward immediately. Even that wasn't a good choice, because the moment my hands came in contact with the floor, a burning sensation raced up my body. I scrambled to my feet, and my legs ached. I tried to walk to the other side of the room, but I just couldn't. With all the strength I could mutter, I found myself limping to a part of the tiny room I felt was clean enough. Once there, I pressed
157Alora's POV I paced around the room, my footsteps slapping loudly against the clear tiles. I hadn't expected the sound from beneath my shoes to be so loud, but in my defense, I also hadn't expected to end up here of all places too. What the hell was wrong with my life? Why was there always some evil plan lurking around in the background and waiting for the right time to rear it's ugly head? I pinched the bridge of my nose as I continued my pacing. While I did that, I didn't miss the angry glares that the other people in the room threw my way. Did I care? Not in the slightest. It was selfish of me, but if nothing was going well for me, then I honestly didn't mind ruining a couple of other people's day too. I shook my head slowly. For the past hour now, I struggled to comprehend what the hell had just happened. One minute, things were going relatively fine, if you excluded the missing funds, and the next, Fredrick was being arrested. Fucking arrested. My mind darted back t
156Alora's POV An additional week had passed since we started the real estate contract in earnest, and I knew I should be glad that things were beginning to shape up, but I just couldn't shake off the unease that lodged itself in my chest every now and then. It didn't always come when I was distracted, I only seemed to feel that way anytime I set my eyes on our two new employees, Marcus and Phineas. They'd been eagerly at work, making choices and decisions that were sometimes out of my reach, but there wasn't a lot I could say. I didn't agree with half of their thought process, but Fredrick was always ever ready to back them up. “This is the new innovation I was talking about.” He'd said. “let's just let them do their thing, I'm sure it'll come out great.” I had so many questions, but for the sake of global prace, I'd decided to shelf them, until today that is. I'd arrived at the office like any pretty normal day. Once in a while, Fredrick and I often did routine checks, to
155Alora's POV It'd been a week since we started the real estate contract in earnest, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't proud of myself. It was stressful and overwhelming, and in the past week, I could swear I'd lost count of how many times I wanted to give up. From the preparations, down to going to the site and managing the workers, everything was a lot. I'd cried to Fredrick more times than I wanted to, and at a point, i honestly deliberated giving it all up. “Do we really have to do this?” I'd said to Fredrick a couple of days back. “Is it really too late now?” “Yes.” Fredrick had let out admit a series of chuckles. “We can do this Alora. We fought so hard for this, from the very beginning too. We can't give up now. You're saying all of this because you're stressed. I'm sure once your vision starts coming to light, you'll forget all about it.” To further support his reassurance, Fredrick had taken me out to dinner. He insisted it wasn't a date, but just an avenue
154Alora's POV I wasn't one to look forward to office days, but I would be lying to myself if I said I wasn't excited this morning. I couldn't even hide it even if I wabted to. From the moment I woke up, I'd been in a beautiful mood, and nothing, absolutely nothing was going to change that. Apparently, my excitement had been passed to Fredrick as well, but he was doing a good job at keeping his in. After the interview slash live session a couple of days ago, it felt like our luck had turned around significantly. We had more partnership deals than we'd ever had since we got back and our stocks profit had skyrocketed more than expected. Fredrick and I had finalized the details for the real estate contract, and we officially supposed to start the project today. Fredrick had headed to the office earlier than me, just to make some final decisions before my arrival. I was so excited, that I literally completed my morning routine with twenty five minutes extra to spare. I tapped m
153Cynthia’s POV The sun was up, and shining, and I couldn't help but bask in it. I mean, who wouldn't, especially when I had a huge dick sitting on one of my fingers. I'd been wanting to get this ring for a while, but Eliaz never really came around to getting it for me. Now, I didn't have to wait around to be able to get what I wanted, I could easily get it for myself, and through Halo too. A wide grin made its way to my face at the mere thought of it. To the people at the counter and probably the other customers miling about the mall, they would probably think that I had gone psycho, but I knew better. I was psycho, but in a happy way. While the total cost of my goods was being calculated, I couldn't help but recall the events that led me to this moment. I saw my world crashing down the moment Eliaz thrust those DNA reports in my face. When Alora had said she was going to expose me, she really did mean it. I'd run her over just to stop her, but I guess I let a tiny detail
152Henry's POV A pungent smell hit my nose, and I fought the urge to throw up. I pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose and my nostrils, but it did nothing to stop the stench from getting in. The stale stench had hit my nose the moment I got in here. One would think that with how posh the building looked from the outside, a small part of it would be bearable, but I guess I knew better now. I cursed underneath my breath as I walked to the other side of the shoebox of a room I'd been tossed into. Maybe the rancid smell wasn't coming from every part of the room. Perhaps I'd been unfortunate to walk to one of the walls where the stench was more prominent. But I was wrong, very wrong. Every part of this stupid room felt like it had been forsaken by both God and the devil. In fact, if someone were to walk up to me, just to tell me that this place used to be a dumping site for every sort of waste product you could think, then I wouldn't even bat an eyelid to doubt him. In