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
The day for the meeting came like a flash, and Lily had never been this unprepared before in her entire life.“I am going to give you time to get dressed,” Christopher said.He was dressed in a fitted suit that clung to his body and made him look like the most handsome man on earth. In truth, Christopher Bridger was the most handsome man that Lily had ever set her eyes on. Anyway, Lily shook her head to get rid of the thought; now wasn’t the time, and a man like Christopher Bridger would never belong to a lowlife girl like her.“Have you mastered all that I sent to you?” Christopher asked.“Yes, I have,” Lily lied boldly.Of course she hadn’t gotten the time to try enough to get access to Ashley’s email, and Don Grander wasn’t even helpful at all, so she had no idea what Christopher had sent, but she would have to give this her best shot, even though she would have to do so blindly.“Okay then, hurry up. I don’t want us to keep Mr. Yang waiting,” Christopher said. “When you are ready,
“Hey, Rudney, there is someone here to see you,” one of the staff members of the wine shop informed Rudney who was arranging some bottles of wine on the wine rack.“Alright, I will be out soon,” Rudney responded.It would be his lunch break soon anyway, so he just decided to finish up what he was doing so that when he would attend to that person, he would not have to be in a haste. When Rudney was done, he got out and saw Joe waiting at the reception area.The moment Joe saw Rudney, he broke into a smile.“Did I come at a wrong time?” Joe asked.He was dressed in a pair of faded jean trousers and a jersey shirt from his baseball club, and he also wore the neckpiece that Lily got for him on his last birthday. “There is never a wrong time for you, Joe,” Rudney said and he meant it. “I was just around the corner and I thought to say a quick hello,” Joe said.“Even though Lily is not here anymore,” Rudney mused, but he didn’t know that he was loud enough for Joe to catch his words.Joe
“It isn’t something you should be worried about for now. Just do it, as you have promised. I will send you his code and full name,” she said before stepping out of Christopher’s office and shutting the door quietly before Christopher could say another word.After she left, Christopher was thrown into utter confusion.The Ashley he knew, at least the most that he knew about her, rarely cared about anything in life. The only thing that she was interested in was going to parties, and squandering money, which was why her demand for dates did not quite surprise Christopher.But baseball?Christopher knew without a doubt that betting on a football player, especially during their tournament was a lot of money, and secondly, one had to be really interested in baseball game to be betting on their players, and the fact that she had specifically mentioned a baseball player’s name made him more confused.Again, there was something off with Ashley Grander.One minute she was acting like Ashley Gra
“What?! Why would I do something like that?!” Christopher asked, turning blue.Lily almost burst out laughing, and at the same time, she was very jealous, because Christopher seemed liked he was going to pass out simply because she asked that he demoted Aimee. It pained Lily that he was that attached to Aimee.Christopher might deny all he wanted, but Lily was not stupid. She might be a virgin and a naïve girl who had never had a boyfriend, but she certainly wasn’t stupid; there was definitely something going on between them. At least, Aimee was not denying it, because she accosted Lily right there in their wedding reception, but Christopher on the other hand, would continue to deny it even if a gun was placed on his head, even though he had been caught in almost compromising positions with Aimee. Lily wondered why.If he liked Aimee, and Aimee was obviously crazy about him, why didn’t he just go for her? Granted, he and Ashley Grander were bound by a contract, but Lily knew that a l
“Do you give me your word?” Lily asked.Even though he already said it, she still did not want to take chances. Lily knew that whatever she was asking Christopher for had nothing to do with Don Grander, which meant that if Christopher doesn’t honor his word, she would not be able to do anything to him.Knowing how Ashley was treated by her own father, Lily was certain that even if Don Grander hears of the manhandling, he would not fight for her. Don Grander was a man that would literally stand by and watch his own daughter get tortured without standing up for her, as long as it benefited it. So if he could be that way with his biological daughter, Lily only wondered how he would be towards her, knowing that she was only impersonating his dead daughter.“I have never promised something and gone back on my words,” Christopher said, his breathing harder than normal; he was obviously still affected by what happened.Lily was also worried about Christopher in a way, because there was somet
Lily stood still, unable to move from the spot that Christopher had had her pinned against his wall. She could still feel the pain of his tight grasp on her neck, and Lily was white with fright. He could have killed her right this minute!Lily swallowed hard, trying to fathom what was going on.Before she was plunged into the world of the rich, powerful, and influential, she had never known violence. Her parents had raised Joe and her with love, compassion, and tenderness. They always frowned at Lily whenever she even tried to be a little rough with Joe when they were playing. Whenever they fought, her parents were always quick to create reconciliation between them, and they always ensured that they hugged each other and shared each other’s snacks afterwards.That was why she and Joe shared an unbreakable bond even after the passing away of their parents. Lily would rather die than watch anything happen to Joe. She would protect Joe with her life, and even though she did not live wi
Christopher only recognized what he was doing when he saw the raw look of fright in her eyes, and immediately, he pulled away from her and stepped back. Then he also turned back, unable to look at her as a result of what he just did. If she decided to sue him for violence, he would sink to the ground.It was happening again, and Christopher thought that he would never touch a woman in that manner ever again. He was not a violent man, but women always had a way of bringing out the beast in him.“What did I do?” Christopher asked himself in agony.He had thought that he had been able to do away with this part of his life, and this was another reason why he intentionally stayed far away from women. Aside from the fact that their presence, especially when it was seductive or alluring, made him scared to his bones, he never wanted what happened before now with Nanny Brenda to ever repeat itself.It was the one mistake that Christopher ever made, and he knew that if it ever got out, he woul
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 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
“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
“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