but then again, she had already left the house for more than twenty four hours now, and Ashley’s room was usually cleared out within every forty eight hours. “No, no, I can’t risk it. I have to go,” Lily told herself.If she delayed any further, Ashley’s room would be cleared out, and it certainly would not be by the old maid, and when that happens, the diary would be found, being that it had already been taken out of its original hiding place. Where Lily hid it could easily be reached once they cleared out the room.“Crap, how did I even do this to myself?” Lily continued to question and scold herself as her heart beat faster and dreadfully.This was something that could have been avoided, but instead, she had made another terrible mistake, and now, she would have to return to the place of her torment just to get it. Lily thought of completely abandoning the diary, but her conscience just wouldn’t let her do that, especially after the promise she made to the old maid, hearing snippe
Gently and slowly, Lily turned and faced Emily, and she made the terrible mistake of smiling, even though the smile did not reach her eyes.She was scared to her bones!“Wipe that ugly smile off your face; you look like a flipping monkey,” Emily said coldly as she approached Lily, and instantly, the smile disappeared from Lily’s face.She hadn’t even realized that she had given Emily a smile that she didn’t deserve. The smile was only borne out of dread, and the fact that she had been caught.“Stop standing there and come over here,” Emily said gruffly. “I detest the fact that we still have to tell you literally everything. You claim to be better, but you still act dumb to me,” Emily added bitterly.Lily walked solemnly to the living room and took a seat after Emily. Emily had always been hostile to her, which wasn’t a new thing for Lily, but now, she just saw her as a completely different person, especially with what she had come to know about her.“She is here, isn’t she?” Don Grand
Lily was beyond herself with joy when her hand grazed the hard back of the diary.“Thank goodness!” Lily whispered to herself in gratitude.She had no idea what she would have done if the diary had been taken out, especially now that the old maid had been fired. “I am never going to let this out of my sight,” Lily vowed to herself, referring to the diary.She proceeded to put it inside her hand bag and leave the room, but a thought crossed Lily’s mind; what if Don Grander and Emily decided to search her before leaving? What if they demanded to see that exact thing that she had claimed to have forgotten? The fact that her prayer for them not to question her about what she must have forgotten did not mean that they would not act their usual self on her way out. Lily had now known Don Grander and Emily, and she knew exactly what they were capable of doing, and she wasn’t going to take any chances.Lily looked around Ashley’s wardrobe, trying to see if she could take something of Ashley’
Derek lurked around the apartment that Aimee had texted to him as the address of the lady he was supposed to be taking care of.It was not until Derek waited and waited for over an hour that it dawned on him that he did not even exactly know what he was here for. Derek was a skilled private investigator who had worked on her own terms for a couple of years now, but he could not tell why he had been given this task. The job to dig out ugly and filthy secrets about Ashley Grander had been his specialty, as well as finding out that Rosa held the information that Emily desperately and earnestly needed.“So what am I here for?” Derek asked himself.In order not to waste his ample and precious time, he called Emily, and thankfully, she picked, because if she hadn’t, he would have grabbed a cab and left. Derek could very well own a car of his own, but being that he had been in this job for years now, he knew that having a car was pretty risky. First of all, he could be traced with his car, b
“Damn!” Derek expressed in awe.It was though Derek was laying eyes on the most beautiful woman in the entire universe, and he was completely enamored. Derek stood right there and allowed his eyes to follow Trisha all the way to her post box. She was casually dressed and had her hair in a bun, but she gripped Derek’s heart already. For years now, Derek had not been remotely attracted to any woman. At first, he had been worried, because usually, he should have craved the presence of a woman, but then again, he had been too busy taking on assignments and digging out dirty information for his clients to even have the time to think about a woman.The only times that Derek ever allowed himself to have a good time was when he went to the bar occasionally to pass time for an hour or two, and most times, those bars were filled with whores; Derek was not a man that got enticed by a woman that any man could have, so he had never given any prostitute a second look.But this woman right here had
“Come with me, Aimee,” Christopher had said after the meeting was over, making Aimee exceedingly glad.Actually, the meeting had ended a couple of minutes ago, but Christopher had continued discussing with two of the senior associate male staff members, and somehow, Aimee had just found a way to remain in the boardroom.However, she had also been itching to hear from Derek. He had made her slightly uncomfortable with the last conversation that they had before she had gone in for the meeting, and there was nothing Aimee hated than the feeling of a misunderstood task, so she had seized the opportunity to speak with Derek over the phone as she had excused herself and called Derek in the restroom connected to the boardroom. The moment she had come out, Christopher had asked her to go with him.Aimee knew that some of the men, especially the ones who were still unmarried had eyes for her, and were even jealous of her closeness with Christopher, but Aimee never gave them a second look, beca
Lily had arrived at Christopher’s company with the help of his driver, and she had been awed by how big it was.Now she understood why the city called it one of the most thriving and biggest companies in the city. Lily had never seen anything as huge as this, and she wondered why she had never come to his company until now. More so, she wondered why Christopher had never invited her. Well, judging from how ice-cold he had been towards her, she did not expect anything different anyway. After successfully leaving Don Grander’s mansion, Lily had decided to take her assignment seriously by paying Christopher a surprise visit in his company. It dawned on Lily that she would never get anything done for Don Grander if she just stayed in the mansion as Christopher’s dutiful wife.“Step out of the car for a moment,” Lily had told the driver and bodyguard after they had arrived at Christopher’s company and had parked in the parking lot.Thankfully, the car had tinted glasses, so it was quite
Lily had not expected the attack from Christopher, because that was exactly how his question sounded to her, but she was more than ready for him.“I made the choice to,” Lily lied.“Why?” Christopher asked firmly.“Wouldn’t you have been embarrassed that your trophy wife still had indecent things out there for the world to consume? What if bloggers got hold of it and decided to circulate it just to ruin something important for you, huh?” Lily asked Christopher firmly.It might be a lie, and Lily was definitely still in the dark about this issue, because just like other times, Don Grander and Emily hadn’t deemed it fit to tell her that they had wiped off everything about Ashley’s lifestyle from the internet, but this was the only logical and convincing explanation that Lily could think of, and she was certain that this was the exact reason Don Grander and Emily might have done what they did.No one would ever have been proud of the lifestyle Ashley lived, including her father, even tho
Lily left Don Grander’s mansion, more relieved than she had ever been. At least for the very first time, he was communicating with her without spewing curses and threats when she reported a problem that she had found herself in. He was helping her fix a problem for the first time. With a new burst of energy and excitement, Lily decided to make her date with Christopher a memorable one. However, she did not want to go right back to the mansion and face Maggie so soon, because Lily had the feeling that Maggie would blackmail her yet again, especially knowing that Christopher wasn’t at home. So Lily surfed the internet with Ashley’s phone for the best planning services in the city, and she got options to pick from almost immediately. Then Lily gave her driver the address of the one that caught her fancy. “You are welcome to our store, Mrs. Bridger. It is such an honor to have you grace our store with your important and gorgeous presence,” Lily was greeted with so much enthusiasm and
Christopher had a new secretary by the time he got to the office, and yet again, he was reminded that she was there as a result of Aimee’s prompt response to details. However, that was not even slightly compared to the fact that it felt awkward not having Aimee at the board meeting. It dawned on me that Aimee had never been absent. “What did I let her do to me?” Christopher asked himself. The other board members were competent, but it just wasn’t the same with Aimee’s absence, or maybe it was because Christopher was already used to having Aimee around. If he had fired her or demoted her as a result of misconduct, he would not be feeling this way, and also, Christopher just felt as though he had done something wrong, and his conscience had been pricking him slightly since he arrived at work. Christopher even wondered if Aimee would show up at work again. He would not be shocked if Aimee decided to turn in her resignation, because the truth of the matter was that deep down, Christop
Derek wasn’t completely shocked, because he knew this already, but what he did not know was what they did together that had created this animosity, so much so that Aimee wanted Trisha to be killed. “I would love to hear all about it,” Derek requested calmly. He really had to be tactical about this issue, otherwise he would risk losing Trisha, and also getting to the root bottom of what exactly went wrong, because the last thing Derek wanted to do right now was go back to Aimee for anything at all, especially an explanation. He still hadn’t been able to decide how exactly he was going to handle what he just found out about Derek, knowing that she was supposed to be facing the full wrath of the law for taking a life. Gosh, he could not even believe that she would have the guts to kill anyone in cold blood and then try to pin it on someone else. If Christopher Bridger wasn’t a powerful man, Ashley Grander would have been in jail by now for a crime she did not commit. A worse and mor
"Thank you for coming to lunch with me,” Derek said as he pulled out the chair for Trisha.Trisha smiled; a sight that Derek would give anything for to constantly see. “We have become friends over the last couple of days, so why not?” Trisha said as she took a seat.Then Derek signaled the server. After placing their orders, the server left them alone. Derek looked at Trisha, amazed at how beautiful she was. Her beauty and presence brought some sort of peace that Derek had never experienced before, and he would not have missed this date for anything in the world.“You are beautiful, Trisha,” Derek complimented deeply, making Trisha blush slightly.“You flatter me, Derek,” Trisha said with a sweet smile.“I only state the facts,” Derek told her.However, the words that Aimee said to him in her drunken state some hours ago still hadn’t gone out of his head. In fact, it kept gnawing at Derek. First of all, Derek now realized that Aimee was more dangerous than he ever thought her to be. H
Don’t forget our deal…” followed Lily out of Christopher’s mansion like a haunting word as she entered into one of his cars and proceeded to go to Don Grander’s house.That alone was enough to encourage Lily to take this step that she was taking, because Maggie was already posing to be a dangerous threat, and she could not continue to just relax and do nothing about it. She needed to act fast, because if this spiraled out of control, she would be the one to suffer for it, not Maggie.Lily did not call to inform Don Grander about her visit, but she hoped to meet him at his mansion, and also make the visit a short one, so that she could return to Christopher’s mansion in peace and plan the date. Lily wanted more than enough time to plan it, because now that the task had been placed on her shoulders, Christopher would expect nothing short of elegant, classy, and downright luxurious and expensive. First of all, Ashley Grander was supposed to be planning this date, and secondly, Christophe
Lily waited patiently for Christopher to get ready and leave for work so that she could go over to Don Grander’s mansion and inform him of a new threat, because for the life of her, she had no idea what she should do with Maggie.As usual, Christopher was very discreet about having his shower and getting ready, and Lily just lay on the bed, waiting for when he would leave. When Christopher came out of the dressing room, Lily’s breath was stuck in her throat, because of how handsome he looked. His suit pants clung to his strong and firm thighs, and his jacket hung to his muscles like it was specifically made for Christopher. Of course it was made for him, because Christopher had a personal designer who took care of his fittings, making him look dashing and ravishing.“Now I can understand why Aimee is head over heels in love with him,” Lily said to herself, because without warning, she had also fallen for Christopher.However, his cruel words still rang in her head, jolting Lily out o
Lily was greatly troubled, so much so that she did not sleep a wink over the night. How could she possibly sleep when she was tormented by Maggie’s revelation and request? “What do I do?” Lily asked herself while Christopher slept soundly on his own side of the large bed. “How do I handle this situation with Maggie?” Lily continued to ask herself. The option of firing her was totally off the table now. If Lily attempted to fire Maggie, she would only be pushed to blow the whistle, and that would ruin everything for her and Joe, and Lily could not let that happen. If her life was the only one at stake here, she would have risked it, but she could not let Joe lose his life and dreams on account of her. Never. “I really need to do something about her,” Lily told herself. Blackmailers were never satisfied; Lily knew this from documentaries and movies that she had watched, and also stories that she had read. Maggie was asking for everything that she could get from Christopher. She
"Get here as fast as you can!” Aimee barked into the phone. She was still very enraged, and she feared that her anger was getting over the wall, which might lead to a heart attack if she didn’t take care of some things, and one of them being Trisha. “I will be there in thirty minutes,” Derek answered over the phone. “Jeez, make it twenty!” Aimee said and ended the call. She was fuming and she needed to vent. She still did not understand why she was getting a mockery text from Trisha of all people, and it made it all the more painful because of what transpired between them. Trisha did not only mock her, she still sent another text message right after that. “Don’t think I have forgotten what I told you in your apartment, Aimee. I am going to tell Mr. Christopher of your deeds, and he is going to make you pay for it. I hope you have realized now that you mean absolutely nothing to him.” When Aimee had read the text, she had smashed her phone in a fit of a rage, and literally scatte
Lily wasn’t sure she had heard correctly; her ears had to have heard wrongly, right? Slowly and gradually, Lily turned and faced Maggie; she had a sinister smile on her face. “What did you just say?” Lily asked. “I know who you are,” Maggie repeated without an iota of fear in her. “You are Lily Bashwood,” Maggie added. Lily almost collapsed in that moment. Her knees became weak, almost making her give way, and she had to fall to the ground, but thankfully, she was still close to the dining table, so she grabbed the chair to steady herself. The confidence with which Maggie had called her name indicated that she truly knew Lily, and that was not a good sign at all. Lily quickly glanced upstairs to check if Christopher had really gone upstairs and was out of earshot, because she would be damned if he got a hang of this conversation. It dawned on Lily that she was in a deep mess here. “How…how do you know?” Lily asked, stuttering. She would have liked to play the denial game, but sh