KIMBERLY~•~Jackson was out of his mind and needed professional help because he had to be crazy to think we would ever get back together.I scoffed, turning around. “You’re out of your mind.”“Please, Kimberly. I’m so sorry for everything that happened. I was stupid and didn’t treat you the way you deserved. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”I bit the inside of my cheek. Jackson was apologizing to me, but he was five years late and it angered me. “I regret everything I put you through. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness but let me make it up to you, okay? Will you let me?”So he knew he didn’t deserve my forgiveness. What then did he think would happen after he apologized? That I’d accept it and allow him back in my life? He was either delusional or didn’t give me enough credit. I was certain it was the latter.He thought I was still a stupid woman who would go running back into his arms the moment he uttered that he wanted me back. I shook my head, not bothering to waste my time
KIMBERLY~•~Sooner or later came sooner than expected.Well, I couldn’t say I didn’t expect this, but I expected to have at least one more night of rest.It was nine o’clock at night and Amelia was already sleeping. I was watching TV when I got a call from Reiya. “You have a knack for trending, don’t you?” She asked as soon as I answered the call.“What do you mean?”“Your picture is everywhere, honey. They’re speculating again, wondering if this means you and Jackson will get back together.”I shook my head. “Now how the hell did they draw that conclusion?”“What did you think would happen when you decided to represent your ex-husband in court, especially since he didn’t clarify what made your marriage end?”“He didn’t?” I didn’t know why I was surprised. It wasn’t like he would tell the public that he left me because his ex-girlfriend came back with a child. That would create a scandal and affect the stocks of his company for not ‘taking his marriage seriously’.“He didn’t.” She af
KIMBERLY ~•~I groaned as my phone rang for the umpteenth time that morning. “Mommy, who keeps calling you?”I held back a sigh. “It’s nobody. Focus on finishing your food so you’ll be ready by the time Aunt Ree arrives.” At the mention of Reiya, she nodded and continued eating, forgetting about the question she asked.My mom had been calling me nonstop ever since I hung up on her last night. I didn’t know if it made me weak but I couldn’t block the number. I didn’t have it in my heart to do so. Yes, she was a bad mother and treated me like a commodity instead of a daughter but I had cut her off once. I didn’t know how to do it again.When George told me we were coming to New York, I didn’t think about the possibility of my mother trying to reach out so I didn’t know what to do.“I’m done!” Amelia announced.“Finish the apples.”She pouted, but a stern look from me had her eating her apples. Just as she was done, there was a knock on the door. I was more than relieved when I opened
KIMBERLY~•~I took a deep breath as I stood in front of the house that I grew up in.I didn’t know how I ended up here. One minute, I was on the phone with her and the next minute, she somehow convinced me to pay her a visit during the weekend.It had been three days since she called me and I was finally outside her house. I didn’t know what I would say to her. I didn’t know how I would act around her. I didn’t know the outcome of this meeting. It scared me.I wondered if she had changed or if she was still the same.As soon as I lifted my hand to ring the doorbell, the door was pulled open and the woman who birthed me stood in front of me. “You’ve been standing here for ten minutes already. Do you intend to reconnect with the door?”My tongue poked the inside of my cheek, not responding because I didn’t have anything to say to that. I didn’t know if it was good to see her again. “Come in.” She ushered.The last time I had been here, she didn’t let me step foot in the house so I gue
JACKSON~•~I knew I had no right to want Kimberly back but the more she avoided me, the more I wanted to get close to her.It was crazy. Back when we were together, I took her love for granted. I knew she was in love with me but I never addressed her feelings. I ignored them, thinking I could live without her. As soon as she stopped showing up, I realized that I had lost a good thing.I tried to find her but I couldn’t. Paige kept bugging me and it looked like Kimberly tried her best to stay away from me so I gave up. Now that I had seen her again, I couldn’t fathom the idea of letting her go again even if she wasn’t currently in my grasp.I didn’t know whether to call it obsession, but I wanted to know her every move. I wanted to know where she went and who she hung out with. I wanted to know if she was more than just friends with her boss. I wanted to know their dynamic badly. I surprised myself when I hired someone to follow her.Now that someone was currently ringing my bell.Bef
Chapter 21KIMBERLY~•~I expected some reporters but I didn’t think they would completely block off the entrance to the courthouse.George looked at me with an amused smile. “You aren’t getting off?”“Would you?”He laughed. “I didn’t know you were so famous. Who could have thought?”“Shut up.” I gritted out. I looked out the window again, seeing them waiting patiently. It was a good thing the windows were tinted or they would have swarmed the car already. “We have enough evidence to end this case today, right?”“Yeah, there’s a recording, footage of his employee stealing the contract, and the contract itself. I think this case is done.”“Good. We’ll leave tomorrow.”“You’re so eager to leave.”“Of course. I do not want to deal with this.” I gestured to the crowd outside.George looked at the watch on his wrist. “If we don’t go in now, we’ll be late and today might just be another waste.”“Fine.” I exhaled heavily, preparing myself to go through the crowd.“I’ll go out first, okay?”
KIMBERLY~•~“What the fuck is this?”“I should be asking you that question. Kimberly.” Jackson exasperated.“Yeah, you had me followed and photographed but of course, I don’t have any right to ask questions.” My words were dripping with sarcasm as I threw the pictures at his feet.“That’s not the point, Kimberly. You have a daughter!”Fuck. I had no intention of letting him find out about Amelia which was why I wanted to leave New York as soon as possible, but now, there was no denying the fact that I was a mother. However, I could still hide the fact that she carried his DNA. “And so? Am I not allowed to have a life after leaving you?” I questioned, acting like I wasn’t affected.“She’s mine, isn’t she?”I snorted. “You are crazy. She’s not yours.”“Of course, she is! You told me you were pregnant before you left. She’s my daughter. Stop lying.”“I was lying back then. I wasn’t pregnant. My pathetic ass only wanted to stay with you by making up things.” I lied boldly without batting
KIMBERLY~•~“I’m going to miss you guys a lot, Kim.” Reiya pouts, hugging me and Amelia at the same time.“You’ll visit California, won’t you? It’s not like we’re continents apart.”“You’re right.” She sighed, finally releasing me. “Don’t let me hold you up.” Reiya had driven us to the airport this morning and she was reluctant to let us go.George chuckled at her theatrics and she glared at him. She took a step back, waving at me. “Bye!”“Bye.” I chuckled, but before I could turn to leave, a car zooming towards us caught my attention. The car stopped right in front of us and the back door opened to reveal Jackson.My eyes widened as he strode purposefully towards us. Reiya stared at me. So did George. Meanwhile, Amelia stared curiously at the figure approaching us.“W-what are you d-doing here?” I stumbled over my words, taken aback.“I can’t let you leave, Kimberly. Not like this.” His eyes were pleasing and I could tell that he didn’t take into consideration all that I told him t
JACKSON~•~I’d never been a patient man but there was a different degree of impatience running through my veins as Jeffrey drove us to the hospital the sick man was currently at. I’d managed to push it to the back of my mind during breakfast but as soon as the meal was over and Jeffrey knocked on my door, I dipped. I didn’t even have enough time to say bye to my family. Amelia was probably going to rant about how much I didn’t care about her but I could handle that later.Thankfully, the hospital wasn’t very far from my house.When we arrived, I didn’t wait for Jeffrey to properly park before I got out of the car and headed straight for the entrance. I just wanted to get my answers. I wanted to meet the bedridden, cancer-driven man that was trending online.The nurses at the reception noticed me immediately but I didn’t bother to stop even when I saw them secretly bringing out their phones to record me. Jeffrey had found out the ward he was staying in so I went there straight up.I d
JACKSON~•~I had work rivals. There were a lot of companies secretly competing with mine but I didn’t know anyone who would want to go the extra mile to sabotage me like this.Our products have been in use for years. It had been tested and verified and there had been no complaints about our skincare section so the fact that someone out there was claiming that it caused them cancer was saucy.Even worse, a news outlet quickly followed up with the information not bothering to verify its validity. They were playing with fire; the news outlet, the supposed dying man, and the other behind it.If they wanted to bring me down, they should at least use facts, they shouldn’t make up stuff that could be easily disproved.It was the first day of the new year and I was getting calls from everywhere. Almost every shareholder was trying to reach me at the same time. My father had told me to take care of it as soon as possible but how could I work effectively when everyone was blowing up my phone?
KIMBERLY~•~My mom didn’t want me to tell anyone, but Jackson wasn’t just anyone, was he? He was my husband and naturally, I was supposed to tell him about everything going on in my life.He pushed off the wall and approached me. “Cancer?” He asked again when I didn’t say anything, which made me wonder how long he had been listening in on me.“You were eavesdropping?” I accused.He shrugged, not feeling bad in the slightest. “If I didn’t, how would I know that your mom was sick and she’s taking it out on you?” Jackson questioned. “I thought we had agreed to trust each other?”“We did. I do trust you, Jackson.”He sat at the edge of the bed, close to me. “Then why can’t you still tell me anything? I’m your husband, baby. I’m supposed to share your worries.”I sighed. “It’s not like that at all. It’s just jot my secret to tell.”“But it’s your burden.”He was right. It was bothering me and I’d feel bad if he couldn’t open up to me about his burdens as well. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Ye
KIMBERLY~•~Things were beginning to look up for me.Asher had accepted me in his life. The scandal about my supposed nudes was dying down already. Well, a scandal about Chris dating two models at once was making its rounds on the internet so it took the limelight off of me.Chris had looked like a gentleman when we first met on the plane. I couldn’t believe that he was two-timing. Then again, it was the internet and everything could be taken out of context just for a story.Jackson had done his best to erase everything but some people had taken screenshots and even if I knew it was never going to be completely erased off the internet Jackson had vowed to legally deal with anyone who shared it. I was the lawyer in the couple but he was acting like one all the time.The only stress I had at the moment was my mother. I didn’t know if it made me a bad daughter but I was beginning to think she wasn’t sick and was just faking it because she kept using her sickness to manipulate me. If she
KIMBERLY~•~“Wake up wake up wake up, mommy! Santa came last night!”I shut my eyes even tighter and subconsciously moved away from the noise. “Mommyyyyyy!” Amelia started shaking me incessantly.I gritted my teeth as my eyes snapped open. Amelia wasn’t the only one present. Asher was also there and Jackson was grinning down at me.“Merry Christmas!” They chorused, agitating me even further.Jackson was a bastard. He didn’t let me sleep last night and we only got to sleep around two in the morning yet here he was, an accomplice to the little devil waking me up at seven in the morning. I held back a sigh and closed my eyes back.“Daddy says we need to have a good attitude during Christmas.” Amelia continued. “Or Santa will take back his presents.”Fuck Santa. Jackson and I spent days cracking our heads for the perfect presents for the kids yet all the credit was going to Santa.“Wake up, mommy! I want to open my stockings!”With a groan, I opened my eyes again and sat up. “I’m awake,
KIMBERLY~•~I was shocked to see that a new article had been uploaded and a lot of news outlets had run with the information. It was crazy. As soon as Jackson found out Emily was behind it, he reported her to the police. When did she have time to post a second article? Did she have an accomplice?When I traced the original article that contained my supposed nudes, I saw that it had been posted early this morning. Was it a timed post? She was even craftier than I thought. She didn’t care that she was getting arrested. She didn’t care that she would spend a longer time in jail after releasing those pictures. She didn’t care about anything but her revenge. It was crazy.As if I didn’t have a lot to worry about already, my parents were blowing up my phone with calls and texts. I knew opening their texts would annoy me but I did it anyway.[Mom: Kimberly, call me back right now!][Mom (2): what kind of pictures are those? Why did you take them? Don’t you have respect for yourself?][Mom (
KIMBERLY~•~Everything was happening too fast. The messages were traced back to Emily, which made me understand why the blackmailer was so desperate for money. She had been cut off from her family and since she wasn’t working, she had gone broke and needed money as soon as possible.Jackson was quite shocked to find out it was her but he was relieved it was her and not some other person who had evil intentions towards me. He said it was a good enough reason to lock her up since there was no proof of her orchestrating his accident.On our way back to the city, Jackson contacted the police and forwarded the evidence he had to them. I had asked him if he wasn’t going to inform his parents first before taking action but he dismissed it and said he had to act fast before she released another article.It was late at night, but Jackson insisted we return to New York immediately after the wedding was over. It was only an hour's journey but the kids were already asleep.“You’ve endured a lot
JACKSON~•~Someone was testing my fucking patience. I hadn’t been okay with Kimberly’s decision to forget about such a serious issue until after the wedding but I didn’t want to make a big deal about it since it was about her and it was her best friend’s wedding. It seemed like the blackmailer had other thoughts though.Without saying anything, I took the phone back from Kimberly and forwarded the message to my secretary as well as the number accompanied by a message of my own.[Me: take care of this as soon as possible]Thankfully, his reply came immediately.[Okay sir]“What did you do?” Kimberly questioned when she saw that I had pocketed my phone. “Don’t worry about it.” The topic easily got me worked up. The only reason the blackmailer was doing this for me but they were stupid enough to try and create a scandal with fake news. It could be proven wrong but once it was out there, some people were going to believe it no matter what. I didn’t want her reputation to be tainted with
KIMBERLY~•~Jackson and I agreed to take care of the blackmailer after Reiya’s wedding.However, I knew the person behind the screen wouldn’t take too well with getting ignored so I just told them to give me some time to get the money. After telling them I’d get back to them in a week, I put it at the back of my mind and focused on my best friend’s wedding.The days passed by in a blur and in no time, it was her big day. Amelia and Asher had arrived early in the morning. Caro said they were eager to come because they missed us. They were with their father though as I still had to be by Reiya’s side.“You look stunning babe,” I told Reiya when she started looking into the mirror too much. I could tell she was anxious but I couldn’t blame her. I was just as anxious on my wedding day and I wasn’t even getting married out of love.Then again, I think that made my anxiety even worse. I didn’t want to do something stupid and make him regret his choice to marry me.“You think?”“Come on Rei