Monk sat by in a small pub downtown as he watched Benedict order his third bottle of beer in less than ten minutes while also staying on a call with Don Grander. He had trailed Benedict all the way to the pub when he received instructions from Dom Grander.“Is he still there?” Don Grander asked.From the sound of his voice, Monk knew that he was with a young whore getting satisfaction. “Yes, and from the look of things, he is trying to get himself wasted,” Monk told Don Grander. He had not removed his eyes from the lawyer ever since he trailed him into the pub.“Is he alone?” Don Grander asked.“For now, he is,” Monk answered.“Then that should make the job easy for you,” Don Grander said, eager to get off the call and get on with his business.Monk did not have to be present before he knew exactly what Don Grander was doing or how he was feeling by simply hearing the sound of his voice, because he had been working for Don Grander for more than a decade now, and he knew his boss like
Aimee surprisingly arrived in the blink of an eye, as though she had been waiting in the corner. Lily felt as though she was going to pass out.“Thank goodness you are here, Aimee,” Christopher said.The relief in Christopher was palpable, and Lily knew that she had lost, but she couldn’t let that happen. Her mind flashed back to Don Grander’s violence and his visit to Joe during his game and shivers ran down her spine. “I can’t let this happen,” Lily said to herself.Christopher then turned to the lady in charge and said desperately, “Please hurry up and clear her.”“Right away, sir,” she said and began to punch on her computer with speed.Lily was still thinking of what to do before Aimee would be cleared and then she would go with Christopher on the trip instead when Aimee turned to Lily and gave her a look that said she had won. Lily could not forget Aimee’s words to her on her wedding day about not getting comfortable, and it dawned on her that perhaps, Aimee had a hand in it. C
The moment Lily’s butt touched the plane seat, she breathed a breath of relief; one hurdle crossed!She could hardly believe that she almost lost an opportunity to get some information that might help Don Grander and get him off her back. Christopher did not say a word to Lily as expected, so she did not let it bother her, because ever since she got married to him, they had been living like absolute strangers. Lily thought about being in a country for the first time, and she could not help the thrill that came with it. When she was a little child, she had often dreamed of being a pilot, because Lily wanted to tour round the world, but then again, her parents had died tragically, and she had had to step into their shoes. Lily had had to forfeit her dreams to help Joe chase his.When Lily was tired of thinking about everything and looking around, she dozed off. It was better that way than being awake, because if she stayed awake, her mind might wander into unhealthy territories. Upon t
After Christopher got out of the bathroom some minutes later still looking very upset, he turned to Lily and asked, “Would you mind a drink?” Lily looked at Christopher, stunned at the question. It sounded as though he was asking an acquaintance or a friend of his out on a date, and even though he still looked angry, the tone of his voice was lighter.“You have been acting like a zombie all through the trip and getting stunned at every damn thing,” Christopher complained, and Lily realized that she was doing it again.She could not understand why she was letting herself get carried away when she should be bringing her A-game to this business trip, because her performance mattered more than anything in the world.“God, please help me not to mess this up,” Lily prayed in her heart, hoping that God would forgive her for doing something bad and actually come to her rescue this time around.“I don’t know what this is, or what has been going on with you that has been making you to act thi
Lily walked around the room as she held the phone to her ears, waiting and hoping that Don Grander would take his calls.Lily had not been given the schedule for their stay here, but Christopher could actually waltz back into the room and inform Lily that they were going out on a dinner date with the business associates he travelled all the way to see, and she was yet to go through the things Christopher said he sent to Ashley’s email about them.“They are possible questions that might be asked as a couple, and our story must be in synchronization,” Christopher had told her strictly.How could Lily even forget those words so easily?The bigger problem now was that she had no access to the email, and if Don Grander would just pick up his phone and give her Ashley’s email login details, then she would be able to practice the lies before any meeting they might have with the businessmen.As Lily paced about, her eyes caught sight of the large ocean through the wide window.“Oh heck, no!”
“Excuse me, who are you?” Lily asked, blinking in confusion.Running into people would never end with the way things were going, and Lily was beginning to wonder how many more coincidences she would have to deal with.What if Christopher had been in the room?The female staff cocked her eyebrows at Lily in disappointment. “You most certainly haven’t forgotten about me, have you?” She asked coyly.Lily became irritated!Aside from the fact that she clearly had something to do with Ashley Grander, this was the most unprofessional experience that Lily had ever had. All through when she worked at the wine shop, she never acted out of place. They were strictly taught to respect customers and clients and to always put up their professional hats. So Lily could not understand why this hotel staff had the audacity to approach her.“This is so unprofessional, and I am going to ensure that the hotel management handles this strictly,” Lily said firmly.Right now, she hardly cared if she sounded l
Lily was back to pacing back and forth and talking to herself in the hotel room.“I am doomed. I am ruined,” she kept repeating to herself.Each time she felt as though she was getting something right, other things always came and destroyed everything. She was supposed to be acting as Ashley to get her parents what they wanted from Christopher, but at the same time, Ashley was still the same person ruining things for her.“What am I supposed to do now?” Lily asked herself frantically. “I can’t go for this meeting, otherwise if her words were true, they would catch up with me right away,” Lily pondered. Then she stopped pacing as her shoulders fell in defeat. “But I have to go for it; it’s the reason I am here for crying out loud,” Lily added.She was conflicted, and confused, and defeated, and angry at Ashley Grander for making things extremely difficult for her.“Gosh, I hate you, Ashley Grander!” Lily said out loud, and vehemently.This was the first time that she would be saying so
“Huh?” Lily asked like a zombie as she stared at her hair on Christopher’s hand.Indeed, some of her hair had turned to wavy blue, her original hair color. It had been weeks since her hair was dyed to auburn, and they had all completely forgotten about it.“Why are there strands of wavy blue hair on you?” Christopher asked, staring at Lily skeptically.It was dark, but Lily could very much see and feel Christopher’s skepticism and suspicion on her, and she knew that she had to do something real quick before things got out of hand.Lily cleared her throat, “I am pressed; I need to use the restroom quickly,” she said as she hopped out of bed immediately.Thankfully, Christopher’s hold on her wasn’t strong.“Ashley…” Christopher called out, his voice a little strong.“What? I just said I have to pee,” Lily said as she opened the bathroom door, entered and slammed it shut.She really needed some time to gather her thoughts together. First of all, she stared at her reflection in the mirror
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