"Mummy Mummy, come an play with uncoo Cha Cha and me. We are playing hide an shik."Emily cried to me excitedly on one of Charlie's visits. I had been in the study preparing for an auditors conference that was supposed to hold in a couple of days and I had only come out to check on them before diving me back in to work, but the little creature had me trapped. "I'd love to sweetheart." I replied with a smile while crouching low so I could be face to face with her. "but mummy is very busy right now, I'm sure you can understand that. Once im done, ill play with you okay?"Her face fell and my heart broke."Okay mummy." She replied with an unhappy pout. "But it's really fun to play hide and shik, especially with uncle Cha cha And when you are done uncle Cha cha would be gone. So can't you play now and work later?" She asked with big blue eyes that neither Charlie nor I had. The kid was special.As she spoke, her voice quakesd a bit and her tiny lips trembled like she was going to cry if
Door after door, I heard him open and shut until eventually, he opened the door to the room where I was hiding. I didn’t move and I tried to lay flatter…as if that was even possible. It took a while but eventually he finished searching the room and when he decided that I was not there, he walked towards the bathroom door. He turned the knob slowly and stepped into the room. I could see his shadow looming as he seemed to be scanning the room for any signs of me. Who knew that playing a stupid game of hide and seek could raise my anxiety levels to heights beyond the roof? Because I most certainly did not. At this point, all thoughts of the work I had been doing prior were temporarily forgotten as all my attention was completely focused on how to remain hidden and not get caught. I heard the sound of the door shutting and I let out a breath I didn’t even know that I was holding as it appeared that Charlie hadn’t found me. I wanted to stand up almost immediately but I decided to wait fo
"I was right. Baby Emily was struggling to find a suitable outfit for me to wear. She had turned my room upside down and was almost buried in a heap of my clothes. Thankfully, I showed up in time to rescue her from her mission. I thanked her anyway and told her she could go continue playing with Uncle Charlie. I checked the time, realizing she still had at least thirty minutes before she had to say goodbye to Uncle Charlie. "Okay, Mommy! Thank you, Mommy!" she exclaimed excitedly, making her way towards the exit to continue playing with Uncle Charlie. "I picked out your pink shirt, your blue shirt, and your black shirt and laid them on the bed for you," she added. "I didn't know which one to pick, but I think they would all look good on you," she said. "That's so sweet," I replied, ruffling her hair and pinching her nose before letting her go. Once she had gone, I took my time changing into a more suitable affair and began arranging my room, which had been thoroughly rummag
I had been married to Russell for well over three years and during that time, I had learnt that there wasn't a single thing in this world that I couldn't talk to him about. I could tell him about my fears, about my worries about literally anything. Even when I felt like what I had to say was going to upset him, I always said it anyway because in the end I knew that he was going to forgive me, and correct me with love and understanding.Not once in all the years of my marriage and even before it had I felt so terrified of having a conversation with my husband.As soon as I turned Charlie out of the house earlier today I knew that I was going to have to tell Russell about what had been going on behind his back for the past year or so.It wasn't like I planned to keep it a secret from him forever. On the contrary, I had every intention of talking to him about it at the risk of him getting mad but I wanted to wait for the right time.Now that things had escalated to this point though, the
“Babe, is everything alright?” Russell asked that evening as we ate dinner together. We were having roast duck, mashed potatoes and peas with apple pie for dessert. I knew that it wasn’t the fanciest of dinners but I was honestly not in the right head space to do much. The thought of what I had to discuss with Russell was weighing down on me and although I thought I was doing a marvelous job at hiding my worries and feelings, it turns out that I was doing quite a shitty job if Russell could tell that there was something wrong. But he was always the perceptive one so it made sense that he was able to read me like an open book.“Yeah, sure. Everything is fine.” I replied, mustering the brightest smile I could with the hopes that it would convince him. It didn’t.“Come on babe, talk to me.” He replied, taking the knife from my hand and taking over the slicing of the meat so I could sit down myself. “What is bothering you? You know that you can always talk to me right?”“Of course I know
Russell never came back to the room that night, and by the time I woke up in the morning, he had already left for work. He had left without having breakfast with Emily and me and without kissing us goodbye. I knew he was angry, and he had every right to be, but the realization of that fact didn’t make it hurt any less.I had to travel for my presentation the very next day so against my better judgement, I got up, lightheaded from all the crying and made my way towards the bathroom to get showered and changed. In the midst of grief, I considered simply cancelling all my appointments so I could wallow some more in my sorrow. I could tell Ms. Jenny that I had fallen ill or something along those lines. She would obviously not be very happy about it and she might found a way to punish me for it, but I didn’t think finding a suitable replacement for me would be much of a problem, especially since there were at least more than a few capable staff in the department. Still, I decided against t
Jason was right. The people in the cafeteria were indeed staring at me, and not at the two of us, as I had initially assumed. Apparently, I had now become the figure of interest for everyone, and I didn't think that was going to change for a very long time. When I was away on my trip, I honestly thought that with the way Charlie was delaying releasing the information he had on Rossel and me, he had changed his mind. I couldn't help but think that he had decided there was nothing worth risking the relationship he had with his brother, or the one he had with me, for that matter. That could, in turn, end up affecting the relationship he had with his daughter, which considering the stunt he pulled the last time we were together, was already on shaky ground.It turned out I was wrong - Charlie hadn't let the issue slide after all. Instead, he'd been waiting for the perfect moment to drop the bombshell, which explained the delay in releasing the article. But it didn't matter now, because
Growing up, I had always been a shy kid. I hated attention and was always that girl who his behind her thick glasses and massive hoodie. Obviously, it made me become the word girl who got picked on by her mates, but I ignored it and tolerated it because I didn't want to have any confrontations with anyone.Fortunately or unfortunately for Me, Sasha, my sister was the direct opposite of me and was always willing to take it on with anyone. She didn't mind yet to g in trouble. In fact, she was in trouble most days so whenever she saw that I was being picked on, she was always quick to jump to my defence. Of course, I told her she didn't have to but she never listened to me. Whenever i was getting picked on, she appeared, swinging her fists and fetting in fights on my behalf. One time, she gave one of the mean boys who were bothering me a bloodied nose and got suspended for it, but the very next week, she was back and agile, ready to break a couple more noses.Sasha was the reason why my
Detective Jameson's eyes narrowed as he watched Charlie being handcuffed and led away. The confession had come unexpectedly, but the motive was all too familiar. "Revenge," he muttered to his partner. "The oldest motive in the book." Rodriguez, Jameson's partner shook her head. "Family dynamics can be toxic. Brothers, especially." As Charlie was taken into custody, Elisa finally felt a sense of closure. Her daughter, Emily, was safe, and the kidnapper had been caught. But the truth was harder to swallow. Charlie, her husband's brother abd the man whom she had once thought of soending her life with had orchestrated the kidnapping. "It was all about revenge," Charlie spat during the interrogation. " He took everything from me – our parents' attention, the family business... He left me with nothing." Jameson's expression remained stoic. "And you thought kidnapping an innocent child would even the score?" Charlie's eyes flashed with anger. "You don't understand. Russellalways got e
“What are you doing here?” He asked, composing himself and trying to pretend like he wasn’t affected by my presence but I could see through his charade. He wa spanicking a lot and although he thought that his hideout had been pretty secure, here i was standing right there in the flesh. Still, he couldn't show his fears or he was going to appear guilty.“What do you mean?” I came to see you.” I replied, pretending to play his game.“Cut the crap Russ. What are you doing here and how the fuck did you find me?”“What can i say? I was just passing by. i mean i was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by to say hello to my only brother.”At my words, he huffed and went over to his bedside to put on his shirt, and boxers on pretending to ignore me."Are you going to stand there and watch me get dressed?" He asked probably in a bid to get rid of me."Its nothing i've not seen before so you can relax."Charlie sighed in frustration at my adamancy.“Well, you’ve said hello now so you can
I had faced a lot of challenges in my life. I mean, that was avoidable considering what i had achieved. No great achievement came without challenges and I was proud to say that I was fairly successful myself. I also prided myself in the knowledge that I was a troubleshooter and a problem solver. I always had an idea on how to get out of complicated situations, and if i couldn't get an answer right away, all i had to do was sleep over it and come morning, I'd have a solution on my hand.But two days had passed and I was yet to discover a solution to my most prominent life problem. My daughter was missing and I had no idea where she was or where to look. With every passing day, I felt as though the very world in which I live d was crumbling in on me and I simply felt suffocated and helpless. The police had no leads and the one sure lead I had; they were not giving me the go ahead to look into. They weren’t looking into it themselves either or at least they weren’t look into it fast eno
“But according to Miss. Jones’ statement,” The judge continued. “It appears that she told you that she was pregnant but you refused to acknowledge it and rather accused her of lying.”“That’s true your honor.” Charlie agreed. “But in my defense, the first time she told me about her pregnancy, she called me through my brother’s phone. Now prior to the time, she and my brother Russell had never met before. In fact, I had never even told her that I had a brother, so it didn’t make sense to me that she was calling me from his phone. I took it as it was a prank planned by my brother seeing as my brother and I often play such pranks on each other.”Wow, Charlie was really going in for the kill with his calculated lies and fabricated lines. I never knew he had it in him, but then again, he had enough money to hire the best lawyers to give him legal advice. But unfortunately for him, our lawyers were just as good, maybe even better, and that is why he was bound to lose.“You claim that you lo
As expected, the news that Charlie was suing for custody spread like wildfire. In less than 24 hours, media houses had carried the news. Social media hashtags were eating this up and even my family and friends somehow got a wind of the situation. My phone was constantly pinging with calls and texts and calls and Russell’s phone was honesty not any different. At this point, I had still not gotten around to telling my parents the real story behind how Russell and I met and the circumstances surrounding our marriage so when I received a call from them as well, my anxiety creeped in. I thought about ignoring them for a little while longer, just until I could gather my thoughts and gains dome courage, but with the issue of Emily’s paternity being debated, I knew that there was no more hiding it from them. So the very next day, I got on a flight and flew home. Russell offered to go with me and knowing how much I hated flying, I honestly wished he could accompany me. Him holding my hand duri
Elisa’s POV“…And you should have seen April’s face. She looked like someone who had swallowed a turtle shell. And Amy, she was so horrified, she couldn’t even bring herself to say hello to me. Apparently, they hadn’t been expecting me to show up as soon as I did. They thought that I’ll take at least a couple of days off, giving them enough time to recuperate and get used to the latest developments.” I said laughing. After the close of work, I decided to use my evening to give Russell a recap of my day and apparently he had some pretty satisfying stories to share as well.“I thought you said Amy was the nicer one?” He asked, fully invested in my story. “How comes she is the one who couldn’t stand to speak to you." “Honestly, she and Amy switch up on most days and I can hardly choose which of them I prefer. I think that they both have their moments.”“Hmmm.” Russell replied thoughtfully. “I Can’t even tell them apart honestly. They look exactly the same to me.”“No they do not.” I rep
Elisa’s POV\I couldn’t believe my eyes, or my eyes for that matter.I was standing in the center of our living room, staring at the massive LED screen that served as a television in our home. I was already on my way to work that morning but I was forced to stop and take a closer look because of what was showing on the screen, or rather who was showing. A gasp of surprise left my throat as I realized the scene that was playing before me. My mouth fell open without me even realizing it, and even after realizing, I couldn’t bring myself to pick it back up.On the screen, Russell was sitting in an interview segment with one of the most popular TV shows in the city while looking as fabulous as always in his signature three piece although this time, it was a dark shade of maroon red and an auburn tie. His lean legs were crossed leisurely in front of him and he sat with an air of confidence that was peculiar to him. He was the guest on the show but yet somehow, he managed to look like he ow
Russell's POV I sat still, criss legged at the tv station as I waited for everything to be sorted out. Skipping work on a day like this may seem like a bad idea to a regular onlookers, and they'd probably be right considering everything that was going on. An emergency board meeting had been scheduled in line with the new information that my beloved brother had been so kind to release to the public. Logically speaking, I was supposed to be seated with my lawyers, buried in a mountain of paperwork, trying to find loopholes in my grandfather's will that allowed my contracted marriage to Elisa. As expected, Charlie was the leader of the team seeking to bring me down and their argument was that I had not fulfilled grandfather's conditions in honesty and hence didn't deserve the position of CEO. The board was meeting today to come up with a final decision, but rather than getting ready, here I was, waiting for a TV segment interview which most might consider unimportant, while
“Are you really married to CEO Russell?”“Was it really a contract marriage?”“Are you two getting divorced soon as per the details of the contract?’’“Has he paid you the settlement money?”“Are you really asking for more money than was agreed in the initial contract?”“Did you really seduce him and trap him with a pregnancy?”“Who is the real father of your child?”“Are you a gold digger who is only with Russell for his money, and fame?”The questions were endless, all of them unkind, and for some reason they all seemed to be directed my direction and my direction alone as if I was some kind of villain in my own love story. It was all so fucking ridiculous. Like, why was I getting stabbed with all the shards of glass, like everything was my fault. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want Russell receiving any heat, but I also didn’t feel like I deserved any either. If anything I felt like I was supposed to be comforted and consoled, especially since my only offence was falling in love with