070Eliaz's POV It's been two days since Laura's visit and simultaneously two days since I had a good night's rest. No matter how hard I tried to shake it off and classify her visit as something meaningless, it just didn't work out for me. Time and time again, I found my mind wandering back to that day in the office. In fact, I wasn't exactly sure which was more shocking, her audacity, or the message she had come to pass across. I want you to testify in Alora's favour in court in the next two days. Her voice echoed in my ears. With the unhealthy number of times my brain had replayed her voice on its own, I hated to see that I could recognize her voice anywhere now, even in my sleep and I didn't like it one bit. I wish she had never walked into my office. Laura didn't just have the guts to stand up against me, she made look like a fool while doing it too. I hadn't put much thought into dealing with her yet, but now, I guess I was just going to have to consider it. Whether
071Alora's POV I was still having a hard time grasping it all and it might sound like an exaggeration, but I honestly didn't see that happening anytime soon. It had been close to an hour since the verdict had been given, but if you asked me, I would absentmindedly say it just happened a couple of moments ago. The only thing that would easily dispute my claim though, was the fact that the courthouse was now empty and stripped bare, except for the few people thst still hung back, myself included. I was currently waiting for Laura and Fredrick. In their words, they needed to finalize something with the court so as to not have any problems moving forward. Thanks to them, I also learned that the judge had been extremely favourable to us. Usually and according to practice, failure to bring your evidence was a risky thing to do. Yes, people did it, but the success rate after that, was usually very low and you had no one else to blame but yourself. Over the past weeks, I haven't rea
072Fredrick's POV “Are you sure that's all we need, Laura?’ I watched her throw some documents into her bag. We'd been waiting in front of this office for the past hour now and now that we had finally been attended to, the last thing I wanted was anything ruining that for us, especially Alora. “Yes. Yes.” She murmured absentmindedly. It was a very small thing, but I found it really upsetting. A part of me wanted nothing more than to call her out, but I just knew that it wouldn't be fair to either of us. “I've cross checked everything. I just need one last thing before we can leave. I'm coming.” Before I can get any more words out, she dashed into the room opposite the office we'd just walked out of, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I ran a hand through my hair, not knowing what else to do. The last hour had been so intense, I wasn't sure I'd ever felt this tensed up before. Laura had pulled a big what if in the court room today, and if it had gone south, we could be lookin
073 Alora's POV The drive home was quiet and I didn't like it. Yes, sometimes I craved my peace and didn't want to hear from the world, but this wasn't one of those times. Tonight, I wanted to scream. My mind was a beautiful mess as a million and one thoughts all raced at once, each one of them begging to be picked and expanded on. The downside of the whole issue, was that I didn't have the mental health nor the energy for any of that. I was exhausted, with a side serving of anger too. I snuck a glance at the man at the wheels. I'd caught him staring at me life times than I could count, but I didn't dare call him out on it. I wasn't scared of what he was going to do, I was just scared that he would start talking to me, and I didn't want that. I guess Fredrick had kind of made it up to me by showing at court today, but that wasn't exactly the case. I was stil mad at him because a tiny piece of me felt that if he had just listened tor, none of this would have happened. Because o
074Eliaz's POV My body ached and it was weird because I couldn't particularly pinpoint something stressful that I'd done that day. The only thing that involved stress had to do with my mind and I didn't even feel as mentally tired as compared to the physical. Maybe it was a kind of foreshadowing of what was coming. I had no idea, but whatever it was, I just needed to rest. I pushed the door open and breathed a sigh of relief the moment I was met with silence. The lights were out and I quickly put two and two together that Cynthia had gone to bed. She'd been bugging me about the whole picture issue and I wasn't sure she would want to hear that I hadn't fulfilled my part of the bargain. She was a handful. And sometimes I wondered if I had done the right thing by getting married to her. I counted to ten and once there was no sound coming from any of the rooms, I settled into the living room. I'd ordered takeout on my way back and eaten it in the car, so there was no need to star
075 Alora's POV. My mind was a reeling mess, but I tried my level best to keep it in check. I was feeling all of the emotions I could think of at the same time and it was becoming overwhelming at this point. Right now, if I could be granted one wish, it would be to disappear forever till everything was back to normal again. But I knew that couldn't happen. This wasn't a fairytale and I wasn't exactly the luckiest person alive. I sighed. With as much dexterity as I can, I slip into the suit jacket just hanging off the cost rails. I stared at my reflection in the mirror and even though I'm the picture-perfect representation of what a confident woman should look like, that's now how I feel on the inside. I'm on the verge of collapsing. Last night was a blast, and while I enjoyed it, I genuinely did not want it to end. Fredrick had taken me to one of my favorite spots in the city but that wasn't all. He had booked the entire restaurant just for the two of us. I actually thought it w
Alora's pov There was no way this could be happening. My ears buzzed and I felt the world around me fade away into nothing. I tried to stare at the man in front of me, but I couldn't. Instead, the more I stared, the more the colors around me blurred together, before forming a single color. Black. I blinked back, but it did nothing to return to my immediate environment. I blinked and blinked, but nothing came. What the hell was happening to me? Before I could so much as ask myself another question, Mr Donald's voice reached my ears. I'm sorry ma'am, but we'll have to pull you out. The panel wants you disqualified, effective immediately. No no no no. I wanted to scream but I couldn't bring myself to force the words out. I couldn't even see what I was and it felt like I had been transported into another universe. An idea popped up in my mind and I froze. Had I died somehow? Had the news been so shocking that I died right on the spot? My mind raced, but as I thought about I
077Fredrick’s POV “Are you even listening to yourself?” I was furious and even that couldn't fully describe how I was feeling. One would think that with the beautiful memories I had of last night, it would transcend into the remaining parts of our lives. Alora and I had had a shitty life combined, especially her. It didn't even help that even after she'd returned for her fresh start, things were still going horribly wrong. And the worst part, it wasn't just from one person. At this point, if she already had the thought that Los Angeles was cursed and probably not the right place for her, I wouldn't even judge her. In a way, it was true, because the number of things she'd experienced in just this short period of time wasn't exactly nice. That's why I had organized that dinner for the both of us. I'd rented out her favourite restaurant just for the two of us. While the cherry on top had to be the rooftop view, I still had other activities planned out for the rest of the week. I
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