When Don Grander’s palm connected with Lily’s left cheek, she staggered backwards from the impact as her eyes saw stars. This was the first time that Lily was getting slapped in her entire existence.The fact that the slap came from an enraged strong man almost sent Lily to her grave. For a moment, Lily thought that she was going to die, or maybe if she had seen it coming, she would have either prevented it, or gotten herself ready for it, although Lily doubted that anyone could ever be ready enough for such violence. Lily held her left cheek and cried in pains.It was as though Don Grander had broken her cheek bone, because the pain that Lily was feeling was worse than she had ever felt.“I see that you have a lover somewhere,” Don Grander spoke.Lily could not respond, even though it came out more like a statement than a question, but she knew that she was meant to say something, but then again, Lily was nursing her face and pain, so much that she did not even think she would be a
Christopher had been in a meeting for hours now with his senior staff members who were associates in his company, including Aimee Landon. Christopher went to his office as soon as the meeting ended.He had an international business call to make.Even though Christopher Bridger had trusted senior staff members who were associates, he sometimes handled some of the work himself, and discreetly. Christopher had always known even before he took over the company that in business, no matter how trustworthy or loyal one’s associates were, you could never trust them completely, and you should never show them all the reigns of the company, because sometimes, they either got greedy, or your enemies could get to them.When Christopher’s father was alive and dealing with a strong enemy at that time, the enemy had kidnapped one of his most senior and trusted partners, asking for vital details about the company that would help him sabotage the company, but because the man had no idea about it, he ha
Lily arrived in the house and went straight upstairs. She made certain that she bowed her head as she made her way into the house. She had no idea what she looked like, but her cheek bone still hurt like hell and her scalp was also hurting bad. On Lily’s way back, she had to touch her head to be sure that blood wasn’t coming out, or to be sure that that area of her hair that Don Grander had pulled hadn’t become bald.Lily got to her room and opened her door, but she was met with harsh resistance.“Who the heck locked up this room?” Lily asked angrily. She shook the doorknob again, willing the door to open, but to no avail.“Who shut this door?!” Lily asked, her voice hitting the roof.When she had left this house a couple of hours ago, she had left an open room, and she knew that Christopher had not been at home, so who had the guts to shut her bedroom door in her absence? Being here, Lily realized that it would be better to actually act like Ashley Grander, because the domestic work
"Shit! Shit! Shit!” Lily became frantic as she thought of what to do quick and fast.“He cannot see me like this,” Lily said to herself.“Ashley!” Christopher’s enraged voice reached Lily in the room again. This time around, the voice was closer, and for Lily to hear the pounding of his footsteps against the stairs, she knew that he was enraged, and that was when Lily remembered that she had actually stepped out with one of Christopher’s securities who she never came back with.In fact, after Don Grander was done hitting her, threatening her, and ensuring that she never did anything that would jeopardize their chances of getting what they wanted from Christopher, Lily had had to jump a bus to get back to the house. It wasn’t a big deal for her, because all her life, when she wasn’t walking, she was jumping buses. Anyway, Lily had ensured that she bowed her head low enough so that no one would recognize her, because that would be more dangerous. “What do I do now?” Lily asked hersel
After the agreement, Christopher grudgingly left.Lily knew that he was dying to have the discussion of her whereabouts that day, but he could not, because there was nothing he would have said that would have made Lily opened the door for him. Her face was still battered and swollen.Lily took the ice pack and placed it on her face. She sat on the bedroom couch and tried to close her eyes so that the ice pack would be able to work its magic, but then again, her head started banging. She could not tell if Don Grander had done any real damage to her head, especially internally, because she could not feel any blood, but the pain was so excruciating that it caused a dull headache at the center of Lily’s head. Lily used the intercom in the bedroom to ring Maggie.“Get me some painkillers for my banging head,” Lily said into the phone.In less than five minutes, Maggie arrived with some painkillers. Without turning to face her, Lily said, “Just drop it where you are and leave.”But Maggie h
“Excuse me?” Lily asked, stupefied.For a moment, she had lost herself and forgotten whom she was supposed to be impersonating. In fact, she was about to say that they had never met before it booted in Lily’s head that she actually called Ashley, not Lily.The lady cleared her throat and said loudly, “Um, I was complimenting your makeup.”Christopher didn’t hear what she had said the first time, because she had whispered the words into Lily’s ears alone, so when she lied and said she was just paying a compliment, Christopher looked at Lily’s face, and in that moment, Lily felt scrutinized under Christopher’s gaze, almost making her uncomfortable. She feared that he was going to see her bruised cheeks, and even know that she was struggling with a bad headache with the way he stared at her, but instead, he ended his stare with a look of irritation and disgust. Fortunately, he reserved that look for Lily alone, so no one else in the living room knew that he was giving her a bad look. In
Ashley, two nights before your wedding, you were found at a nude club, why?” The words rang in Lily’s ears; she could not believe what she was hearing, neither did she understand fully what was going on. If Rosa said two nights before the wedding, then it meant that it was probably the night that Ashley had been found dea.Christopher had not only been shocked, he was also enraged, so much so that he jolted out of his seat in a rage.“What is the meaning of this?!” Christopher charged at Rosa.Rosa got up in fear and she staggered back, trying to get away from Christopher’s wrath. “That question wasn’t part of the questions Aimee sent to my mail that you were going to be asking, so what is the meaning of the damn question?!” Christopher barked.“I am so sorry, Mr. Bridger,” Rosa apologized. She probably did not expect that Christopher would react angrily to her question, and for a moment, Lily thought that Christopher might know something about it, and if that was the case, then Li
Lily began to shake dreadfully.“Don’t you dare bring that game on me, Ashley, because if I have to choke out the words from you, I will,” Christopher threatened harshly.“I have no idea what she was talking about,” Lily answered.She was being honest, because in truth, she had no idea what happened that night, because she never even knew that that night had existed, but the good thing was that Christopher would not read meaning to her words.Instead, Christopher stared at Lily; a worried expression on his face.Lily was confused, because she could not tell why Christopher was looking at her with such expression. He was supposed to be mad with rage and forcing her to explain as he threatened, but instead, he was more worried than confused.“What is it? Lily had to ask.Christopher stared curiously at Lily for some seconds before he said, “Nothing.”Nothing? Lily could hardly believe it. Now, Christopher was acting all weird and strange, and she could not fathom what was going on. “Yo
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