“Are you almost done?” Lily Bashwood asked Rudney as she glanced at her watch for the fifth time in three minutes and tapped her foot against the magnolia floor of Top Taste Wine shop.“Hey, um, could you spare me another fifteen minutes? I just need to wrap this up real quick and we will be good to go,” Rudney said.But Lily checked the time again; if she waited on Rudney, she would not be able to catch her brother’s baseball practice, and it would really break his heart.“Honestly, Rudney, it’s fine. We could always do this tomorrow. You don’t have to walk me to the bus station every freaking evening,” Lily tried to dissuade Rudney.The look on his face indicated that he did not want Lily to be on her own. “I could be really fast,” Rudney pressed.“Sorry!” Lily said stubbornly as she opened the door to the shop and walked into the street. She was not a baby that needed babysitting, and one day, she hoped that Rudney would understand that. Lily walked towards the bus station, whistl
“My name is Ashley Grander. I am twenty six years old. I have an interesting personality and my hubbies include partying, going on vacations, painting when I feel like it, and casually enjoying a glass of Mojito in the beach.”Lily’s hand shook as she held the paper and read through her new personality for the umpteenth time. She hadn’t slept a wink the entire night, and it was almost morning.“Take that again. You have to master it so that you don’t make any mistakes,” Emily told Lily. “And for the love of Christ, stop fidgeting!”Lily swallowed again and tried to steady her hand. None of them in the room had slept at all. “My name is Ashley Grander. I am twenty six years old…”“What did you do on your twenty-fifth birthday last year?” Don Grander interrupted Lily impatiently.Lily tried to remember what she had read that Ashley had done. “I went skiing in Vermont, and after that, I travelled for a girl’s trip to Venice,” Lily answered, hoping to God that she was right. The one-eyed
“I don’t belong here,” Lily said to herself as she stood in the middle of the strangers watching. It did not feel like her wedding day at all, and she felt as though she was in the midst of sharks as she stared at the wealthy, powerful and influential guests, most of them flanking around Christopher, and totally ignoring her.“Have you ever tasted such power and luxury?” Lily startled as she heard a familiar voice behind her. She turned and saw that it was Emily.“No,” Lily shook her head and said.“Then you should consider yourself lucky that we selected you to be Ashley’s replacement, because we both know that your job would never have gotten you anywhere close to this even in the next decade,” Emily told Lily.“I never wanted this,” Lily reminded Emily. In fact, now that Lily had said her vows, she was even more scared and frightened than she had been when she was kidnapped.“You do not have a choice, dear. Remember that you owe me five thousand dollars every week,” Emily reminde
Lily and Christopher rode in his limousine to their new home. Lily had never been in a limousine before, so instead of staring at the rigid features of Christopher, she decided to fill her eyes with the beauty of the car.She could not understand why he was so upset.“Why are you looking around like that?” Christopher asked.Lily was a little startled at the sound of his husky voice. He was eventually talking to her! They hadn’t exchanged a single word since they said ‘I Do’, and even when they got into the car, Christopher sat away from Lily. Don Grander and Emily told her all she needed to know about whom she would be impersonating for a year, but they failed to tell her what sort of relationship Christopher and Ashley shared before her death.Heck, she did not even know how Ashley died.“What?” Lily asked, confused. She could not meet Christopher’s cold stare.“Why are you looking around the car like that?” Christopher repeated.Lily chuckled nervously. “First time jitters, I guess
Lily started to unpack the moment Christopher walked out of the bedroom. She was still shaken by his last words, but Lily convinced herself that she would have to step up her game of impersonating.“I cannot afford to mess this up. Joe’s life is at stake here, not just mine,” Lily reminded herself as she opened the boxes of clothes. “Why does she dress like a whore?” Lily asked no one in particular as she looked at the endless tons of revealing dresses. She was yet to take off her wedding dress, but thinking about wearing any of these made Lily’s skin crawl.“Do not think much about this, Lily,” Lily gave herself the pep talk. “They are just clothes, and you can handle it,” she told herself.Just then, she heard a knock on the door. “Come in,” Lily said without thinking. She knew it couldn’t be Christopher Bridger; he was too arrogant and prideful to knock in his own home.Maggie, the housekeeper entered. “Hi ma’am, I just thought that you might need some help unpacking,” she told L
Lily was still shivering from the threatening call she received from Ashley’s lover, and she did not know what to do. Christopher did not even give her enough time to dwell on it or come up with a solution, because a few minutes after that, Lily found herself in Christopher Bridger’s private jet.“Welcome, Mrs. Bridger, we are glad to make your acquaintance, and congratulations on your wedding,” the air hostess, a young and attractive woman with a deep London accent said to Lily.Lily swallowed for lack of what to say. She instantly felt small and inadequate in her presence.“I am Matilda, Mr. Bridger’s personal hostess,” she went on to introduce herself when Lily looked tongue-tied.“Thank you. It’s nice to make your acquaintance as well,” Lily managed to answer. If Christopher’s air hostess could be this sophisticated, then Lily could only imagine what the other women in his life would look like. Well, from the wedding reception, Lily already had an image of that etched in her head
“Run Lily, run!”The voice called from the distance. Lily stood by the side of the beach, twirling and turning, searching and seeking the direction of the voice.“I can’t see you!” Lily called out.The voice was oddly familiar, but Lily struggled to recall whose voice it was just as she struggled with finding the owner of the voice.“Run! Lily please, run!” The voice called out again, more urgently this time around.Lily looked around frantically, her breathing growing faster and faster. She looked at the large body of water and the waves slapping against the tides. Lily stared in horror.“Take Joe and run as fast as you can!” The voice urged, pulling at Lily.Then it dawned on Lily; it was the voice of her mother. She would never have figured out the voice if she hadn’t mentioned Lily’s brother.“Mummy!” Lily said and ran towards the water. She was certain now that her mother’s voice was calling her from the heavy tidal waves.“Don’t come any closer!” Her mother’s voice became stern
Christopher Bridger sat in the balcony and worked on his iPad. If his members of staff could see him now, they would be bewildered; why the heck was he working on his honeymoon?!But this was far from a honeymoon to Christopher. He knew what this marriage was all about and what was expected of him and now that they were not really in the eyes of the public, there was no need pretending to be a couple in love.Christopher wasn’t married for up to three days and he could not wait for the one-year marriage contract to be over so that he could go back to his life and space, but then again, Christopher’s mind wasn’t even fully concentrated on work; his mind was elsewhere.On his wife, Ashley Grander.“What is going on?” Christopher asked himself.It was early morning the next day and he just wanted to spend this time alone, so he had called the hotel service staff assigned to them for the period of their stay to take Ashley out on a tour. In truth, Christopher could not stand Ashley, and h
"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
“We will be down in a minute,” Christopher told Maggie.Before Maggie turned and walked out of the room, she took a quick coy glance at Lily, making Lily even shocked.She was so shocked and confused that she had had to replay the whole scenario in her head. “I am certain I fired her,” Lily said to herself.She had been explicitly clear in her orders, and it was because she had been certain that she had come up to the bedroom, more relaxed. So Maggie didn’t leave? It dawned on Lily that she was in for a bigger battle than she had expected. Lily had thought that this was a usual rebellion, but clearly, Maggie was definitely up to something.“Are you deaf?!” Christopher barked angrily.His loud voice jolted Lily out of her reverie, and she looked at Christopher, almost as though her senses had been wiped out; she was completely lost in thoughts of Maggie for a moment.“What?” Lily asked.“What is wrong with you? You completely blacked out a second ago,” Christopher said.“It was nothing
Lily was still in her room, thinking about the depth in Ashley’s first page diary when she read the notification on the blog about Aimee being demoted.Lily almost forgot everything about Ashley’s dairy out of excitement!Oh, she wished she could see Aimee right now and mock her to her face. “Don’t get too comfortable.” Those were the exact words of Aimee Landon to Lily during her wedding reception, and Lily yearned to use those same words to Aimee. She wanted desperately to tell Aimee that she was the one who had gotten too comfortable, so much so that she had thought that she was too important to be treated as any less.“Well, now we know who has been tossed about,” Lily said to herself as she smiled coyly.Before she read the news, Lily had been disturbed about Ashley’s diary; it seemed almost too horrible to be true. Lily already knew that Emily Torres was a cruel and uncaring woman, but to suggest that an eighteen years old girl be taken to a pub to work as a prostitute for mone
The CEO of Bridger Empire, Christopher Bridger, without clear terms, has officially removed one of his senior associate staff members, Miss Aimee Landon from the list, and demoted her to the position of a regular staff. This is shocking, as just a while ago, Mr. Christopher and Miss Aimee attended a party together where he was given an award, and they both looked like a perfect duo, and Mr. Christopher ended up in Miss Aimee’s apartment later that night. Is something going on in the Bridger Empire that we are not aware of? – Curiosity Blog reports.”Aimee tossed her phone, almost crashing it as she read the heartbreaking news in her apartment. She was enraged, embittered, and venomous. When Christopher had told her about it in his office, a part of her had thought that it was just an unusual prank, and that it would go away. She hadn’t expected Christopher to actually pull through with those words. In less than an hour, Christopher had made the announcement, and the HR had immediatel