Lila's POVEn route back to the house after work, I took sluggish steps as I walked across the street. I watched as cars sped by like there's no tomorrow, the wind swirling unpredictably. The few people left on the street ran to seek shelter as the first drops of rain began to fall.It was like I was seeing all of that without really seeing, because I was only staring into space. I was too broken to be affected by the activities going on around me. Even as the rain crescendoed, pouring down in torrents, I didn't stop. I kept moving with a melancholic gait. I would have worried if I currently had a phone on me, but my quirky phone won't come on for days, so I saw no need to take it along with me to work this morning. As though the rain carried the power to wash all my sorrows away, I let myself get drenched by the downpour, each raindrop on my skin a painful reminder of the harsh words my boss hurled at me today. “You're always absent minded at work,” Greg roared, his eyes blazing
Lila's POV The whole apartment was filled with so much smoke that I could barely see. “Mother? Elena?” I called out in a trembling tone, but no response was heard.I don't want to believe what is running through my mind with the sight before me“Where are you mother?” I cried as I struggled to fight my way through the room.The house only responded back in a heartbreaking silence.I haven't seen mum or Elena as the smoke continued to threaten my vision. But I desperately manoeuvred through the smoke-filled room, down to the kitchen which happened to be the source of the whole smoke. The food in the pot was completely burned down, and the pot damaged.I managed to turn off the cooker that had caused the mayhem, thankful that the house wasn't on fire just yet. I dashed back to the living room when I heard my mum break into a fit of cough. “Li...la.,” she drawled weakly.“I'm here mum,” I responded, tracing her sound and rushing toward her, only to see that she had fallen off her whe
Lila's POV“Lila,” I felt someone tap me softly but I stirred on the bed, adjusting my sleep position to continue to enjoy my sleep.“Lila,” the voice came again with another tap and my eyes fluttered open to see mother. She just woke up too and I'm happy to see her looking better.But I'm surprised that she isn't smiling back at me. I was about to question her when she stopped me. “Lila, you're late for work”A gasp escaped my lips as realisation dawned on me when my eyes darted to the wall clock. “Oh my God!”I have to resume work in the next 25 minutes if I don't want to be made redundant. It looks so impossible to get ready and be at work in that little time frame. Just then, we heard a knock. That must be Elena. I scrambled out of bed to get the door and it turned out that Elena had been knocking at the door for a while. I quickly dashed to the bathroom to get ready.En route to work, I couldn't help but think about how mum scared the hell out of me last night. I feared that so
Damian's POVI reclined in my seat, tapping the table gently with my pen in a rhythmic sequence while I waited for my personal computer to boot successfully. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door and I looked up, remembering that I sent my secretary, who is also my Personal assistant, to get me some files. “Yes, come in,” I echoed. The door creaked open to reveal Valerie in her usual smart dress as she strode towards me with a warm smile. Most of my staff barely look up to my face until I ask them to, and I enjoy the feeling I get from their absolute submission to me. Being my personal assistant, and a competent one at that, I'm a tad lenient with Valerie compared to others. I hate clumsy people. Only people who are smart and consummate like her can work well with me. Even though I won't tolerate any overfamiliarity, I allow her to be a bit free with me at work. Now that I watched her stride towards me with that graceful smile again, it seemed to me as though there's something
Damian's POV A cruel laughter preceded the sound of the menacing footsteps that were approaching the entrance of our hideout. A laughter that carried a mix of confidence and evil.The voice finally gained a face as the assailant came into view, and I quickly shoved the waitress behind me in order to protect her. “Well, well, well, look what I found here. My pretty prey has company now, or should I say hero?” he let out another chuckle. The building is not well lit, but we could still manage to see each other's form faintly in the dark. “Stop hiding behind him, little prey. Step aside now!” He commanded, threatening with the knife pointed towards us. When the waitress quietly obeyed, he momentarily focused his attention on her. “We were supposed to make this very easy. You give me all the money on you and I let you go. But you decided to make it complicated by stressing me to chase you down here. Now you'll have to pay double with your money and your body.”“Please don't do this
Damian's POV I knew it. I knew that guy was a maniac. Despite the pain he's going through as he cannot even manage to lift his leg from the nail that went deep into his feet yet, he still managed to snatch the knife from her.He is now attempting to cut her with the knife he's holding with one hand while he holds her leg with his other hand. She was lucky I reached there just in time as my shoe landed heavily on his face and he let out another loud yelp, releasing his grip on her before crushing to the ground. I was approaching the final exit of the abandoned building when suddenly, the waitress ran past me. “What was that for?” I asked. “I thought you wanted to babysit him some moments ago.”‘Oh please! I've learnt my lesson. Don't throw it in my face,” she gawked at me whilst still panting from the run. “Thank you for saving me,” she said, her genuineness leaking into her voice. I simply nodded and I watched her turn to leave.“How would you get a cab by this time of the ni
Lila's POVI hurried out of the apartment, my feet trembling slightly from embarrassment. How could I be so careless?I'm not oblivious of my sleeping habit of shifting all over my bed sometimes, yet when he offered me his couch to sleep on, I didn't take it. I stubbornly went ahead to sleep on the same bed with him.I wonder what even gave me such confidence. Well, maybe he gained my trust a little because he helped me save my job, as well as my life in one day.This sleeping habit of mine doesn't come into play every night from what I've heard, but why will it choose the previous night of all nights to embarrass me? I still find it surprising that I could sleep on the same bed with some stranger. I knew I had no other choice than to follow him to his apartment. He looks like one who could be trusted, but I still told myself that I had to be careful around him. The need to stay on guard prompted me to divide the bed with pillows for a start. As soon as I heard that the shower had
Lila's POV After what felt like a lifetime, I finally got home. I couldn't contain my joy, seeing that mum is looking better now. She had been taking her medications well. I couldn't even bring myself to tell her about the things that that stranger said when I was enroute to the house. I just concealed everything because I didn't want to spoil her good mood. Even though her leg gives her pain and she can't walk until she gets her surgery done, she wears a smile almost all the time. A smile that attempts to hide her pain sometimes because she never wants me to get worried about her. But I see through the pain she tries to hide from me. While I can only afford her medications with the work I do for now, I'm still trying to figure out how I'll get the money she needs for her surgery. “Are you okay, Lila?” mum asked me. She must have noticed that I was a tad absent minded.“Oh, sure mum,” I replied with a bright smile. “I'm just happy to see that you are feeling better, compared to
Damian's POV It was nearly midnight when I pulled up to my house, the driveway dimly lit by the overhead lights lining the walkway.The entire place was silent, cloaked in the deep shadows of the night. As I shut off the engine and turned to look at Valerie, still asleep in the backseat, I realised I had no choice—I couldn’t very well wake up the household staff and ask them to prepare a room at this hour. She was in no state to be moved again, and I was too exhausted to bother with formalities.I opened the car door and stepped out, moving around to Valerie’s side. Carefully, I scooped her up into my arms, her body warm and limp against mine. She stirred slightly but didn’t wake, her head resting on my shoulder. I carried her up the stairs, feeling the weight of her both physically and emotionally pressing down on me.As I navigated the stairs that snaked to my bedroom which was on the second floor, my thoughts drifted—unwillingly—back to Lila. The first time she stayed over at my
Damian's POVThe bar felt suffocating now, with its dim lights and clinking glasses as I hurried back inside to retrieve my phone.Spotting the phone right on the table where I’d left it, I grabbed it, and turned back toward the exit, my thoughts racing instead of my heart. What was Valerie doing here, in such a state? Why did it unsettle me so much to see her like that?Valerie’s eyes, usually so composed and collected behind her glasses, were glassy and hollow. The way she had looked at me, wide-eyed and fragile, was a side of her I’d never imagined existed. I've always been indifferent towards whatever goes on in her life, but now, It felt wrong to see her that way—exposed and bare. When I returned to the threshold of the bar, Valerie was still there, leaning heavily against the doorframe. I noticed her eyes were rimmed with red, as if she had been crying before I collided with her. Yet, there was a faint glimmer of relief in her gaze, as if my presence had pulled her out of a da
Damian's POVAs soon as the driver pulled the car back around, we were right where we’d seen them before. I stared at Lila, trying to keep my expression unreadable, but inside, my emotions were spiralling out of control. I reminded myself—again—that Lila wasn’t mine. We weren’t together, and I had no right to feel possessive. And yet, there I was, watching her, unable to tear my eyes away.She seemed comfortable, too comfortable, with that guy. They were laughing, chatting easily. I could tell from his body language that he was flirting, leaning forward, his gaze locked on hers like she was the only person in the room. My jaw tightened as I watched him reach across the table and take her hand. As if everything unfolding before my eyes wasn't enough to spite me, this flirt just took her hand and planted a kiss on it, his gesture slow and deliberate.Damn!My fingers knew what to do. They didn't take permission from me before curling into a fist beside me as if warming up for an impen
Damian's POVYesterday was a whirlwind. The demands at my company had me tied up all day, so much so that I didn’t even make it to Monroe Corporation. Valerie had been doing well at keeping things in order while I was away. But there was still a lot to do, so I assisted her myself with some of the tasks. My deed caught her by surprise. She knew I would not reduce her salary because of the help I rendered to her, so she voiced her gratitude to me a couple times with a smile on her face each time. Actually, Valerie is beautiful, but I do not see her in any other light apart from being my PA. Aside from being perfectly qualified for her job, she doesn't spark up anything in me. Nothing at all. I've figured out that she likes me, but she knows the stakes. She dare not make me sense that she's making any advance towards me. She should keep it all to herself. It wasn’t until I finally settled down at home, my mind free of distractions, that I realised something surprising—I actually mi
Lila's POVI was deep into reviewing some documents when my phone buzzed, interrupting my concentration. Glancing down, I saw his name flash across the screen again—Connor.I huffed. This guy won't just quit. Since last night, he had been so intent on blowing up my phone. I got a call last night from a strange number that popped up on my screen. I wondered who could be calling me quite late at night, only for me to answer the call and find out that it's Connor.As soon as I heard that it's Connor, I hung up on him immediately, even though I didn't like how something in me disapproved of what I did. First, I wondered how he got my contact information but I didn't ponder it too far before I reckoned that since I'm now the CEO of a big company, he must have searched me up on the internet and got my contact information there. I tried to stay as low-key as possible in the shopping mall yesterday by moving only with Elena, but he must have seen the guards and the luxurious car that wai
Lila's POVThe last thing I needed was to be stuck in my own head, tangled in the web of confusion and anxiety that had been tightening around me since I discovered the truth about my parents. Damain had left early today to fully attend to some functions in his own conglomerate. So, using his company for my distraction wasn't an option. As I kept pondering on what else I could do, that’s when the idea struck me—shoppingShopping felt like the perfect escape from the overwhelming stress I’d been under. It was my first evening free in a while, and I needed a distraction—something to take my mind off the haunting discoveries about my parents and the lingering anxiety over my mum’s upcoming surgery. With everything happening, I’d been avoiding the company's apartment, going straight from work to home every day. But today, I was determined to break that routine.After work, I decided on a spur-of-the-moment shopping trip. I wanted to pick up a few things for the house, for Mum, and for
Lila's POV When Damian walked into the office this morning, I felt a strange mixture of relief and unease. I hadn’t been able to sleep much the previous night; the discovery in my mum's old journal was haunting me.I needed to tell him about it, to share the weight of this terrible secret with someone who might have answers—or at least know what to do next. All the times that Damian and I had spent together, I've seen how he handles situations. I could tell that he is a better problem solver than I am. Maybe he could help me figure this out. He looked calm and composed as usual, flashing me his reassuring smile as he approached me. "Good morning, Lila," he greeted me warmly, but I could tell he sensed something was off. My face must have betrayed my restless night."Damian, we need to talk," I said, my voice a little shaky as I stood up and gestured towards the corner office. I couldn’t have this conversation out in the open. His brows furrowed slightly, and he nodded, following m
Lila's POVDespite the fact that I had additional company in the back seat of my car, the silence we maintained was strange, yet I revelled in it, hoping the soothing silence helps me clear my head.The two guards who would stay at home permanently were in the car with me, together with my two personal guards. The driver and I made it six of us in the new SUV car that drove us home, yet it was as silent as a graveyard. Well, nobody would say a word unless necessary, or unless I engage them to. And I'm not really in such a mood.The soft hum of the car intertwined with my thoughts as my driver drove us home. I've not just had a long day, I've stumbled on something that has stirred up some unrest within me.Finally, the car pulled up in front of the house, and as I tried to alight, I suddenly paused when I heard the voice that came from one of my guards at the back seat. “I'll get that ma'am,” he said. I was lost. I didn't understand what he meant until he quickly alighted from the
Lila's POV The morning air was crisp with the usual buzz of the company coming to life. My mind was preoccupied with everything that had happened lately—the shattered windows, the break-in, and all the tension that seemed to hang like a dark cloud over my head. The more I paid attention to these things, the more I realised that a danger might be lurking somewhere in the shadows, waiting for the right time to manifest. But I just can't seem to wrap my mind around whatever it is. Even as Randall seemed to be my prime suspect, judging from his sudden change of behaviour, I still can't be too sure since there's no solid evidence to corroborate my speculation of him.Speak of the devilI barely had a chance to settle into my thoughts when I saw him—Randall.He was one of the first few people I ran into, standing by the reception desk, talking to the receptionist as she was flipping through some documents. When our eyes met, he greeted me with a wide, innocent smile that caught me compl