JACKSON~•~The last time we had a family meeting was when I was twenty-six, back when my parents wanted to tell me about the wedding arrangement with Kimberly. Well, my father wanted to announce it to all of us. My mother was against it because she thought Kimberly wasn’t good enough but my father’s words were law.I didn’t agree to the marriage at first, but my father promised to step down for me and let me take over as CEO. It was just a wedding and the woman I wanted had left me already so I saw no problem in a marriage of convenience. Kimberly was a beautiful and kind-hearted woman. I wouldn’t have any losses.We were having another family meeting for the first time in eight years and yet again, it was about Kimberly.“Are the rumors true?” My father asked in a deep baritone voice.“They might be.”“What the hell does that mean?” My mother imputed. “Are you seriously considering going back to that woman?”“Mom, you needed to see the way he insulted me because of her. She has bewi
KIMBERLY~•~I was more than happy when I got back to California, leaving the problems of New York behind. Even though Jackson’s last words to me haunted me a bit, I tried not to dwell on it too much.George gave me a week’s break from work after our little trip, giving me enough time to spend with Amelia. She had spent most of our time in New York with Reiya.We had been home together for two days and I had watched more Disney cartoons than I ever did when I was a child. We built a fort in the living room and didn’t sleep on our beds for the last two nights. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could before the school session started and she had to resume school.“You’ve had too much sugar and it’s only eleven o’clock, Amelia,” I explained as we sat on the couch, watching another Disney movie.“I didn’t take sugar!” She argued.I chuckled. “The candies you’ve been eating contain sugar. A lot of them.”“I want candy, not sugar.”I shook my head softly. “You’ve had too much can
KIMBERLY~•~I paused, uncertain I heard him properly. Jackson was normally a cold and aloof man. The only woman I knew he ever loved was Paige and the only reason they broke up was because she moved away and she didn’t want long distance.Or did she dump him again?I wouldn’t lie and say I wasn’t intrigued but I wasn’t about to let him know that. “I don’t see how that concerns me, Jackson. If you’re having problems with Paige, you should go and meet her and sort things out instead of disturbing my life.”“Paige and I are over, Kim.” He explained. “If she’s the reason you’re skeptical about giving me a chance, then you’re good. We ended on very bad terms and have no chance of getting back together. I never want to see her again.”My tongue poked the inside of my cheek. “That’s exactly how I feel about you, Jackson. We also ended on bad terms and I hate you so much for what you did to me. I also never want to see you again. I don’t know if Paige was your Karma but the way you feel abou
JACKSON~•~For the first time since I ran into Kimberly at that restaurant, I was taking a step back to think about my actions. I still wanted her back, that was for sure, but I needed to also think about what she wanted. I was in love with her, which meant I had to put her happiness first. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by being around her all the time. I knew how I would feel if Paige tried to get back with me.I hated myself for accusing her of lying. I hated myself for threatening her and the kind doctor who revealed her pregnancy. I hated myself for doubting her when she’d been nothing but a kind and supportive wife. I hated myself for not appreciating her and taking advantage of her kindness.As soon as Paige was back in my life, I pushed Kimberly out. That was my biggest mistake. Sure, Paige came back with my child but Kimberly was still my wife.I also hated the fact that I was connected to Paige forever. I hated her but I couldn’t hate the child we had together. I
KIMBERLY~•~Amelia loved going to the park.She was only four but I could already tell she was an outdoor girl.“Mommy, can I have ice cream?” She asked, pointing to the ice cream truck. Her favorite part about the park was the ice cream truck that was always present. She asked for a new cone as soon as she finished the first one and if I wasn’t good at saying no, she’d be taking an unhealthy amount of sugar.Before I could respond, she pouted, giving me her regular puppy dog look. I pinched her cheeks, making her wince exaggeratedly. “You’re so adorable. Let’s go.”As I stood up from the bench and took her hand in mine, I came to an immediate stop. I had been the one to call him but somehow, I was still surprised to see Jackson walking toward us.He was donning a very casual outfit, but I was certain it cost thousands of dollars. Everything about Jackson was expensive. I would know.When I halted, Amelia looked up at me, confused. But then, she followed my gaze and when she saw Jack
JACKSON~•~I never thought the first day I’d be spending with my daughter would end with all of us in the hospital.It was crazy. One second, she was grinning happily on the swing. The next, she was on the ground, crying that her leg was hurting.I felt responsible. I had been the one to put her on the swing and that ended with her in pain.Arthur had dropped me off at the park but Kimberly had driven there. She gave me directions to the hospital and I drove as fast as I could while she stayed in the back seat with Amelia, trying to comfort her.Since none of us were professionals, we couldn’t determine exactly what was wrong. We couldn’t even touch her foot for fear of making it worse, but from the way she kept crying, I could tell it was bad.“Drive faster, Jack!” Kim yelled out from the back when Amelia started crying again.“Any faster than this, then we won’t be able to explain to the cops if we get pulled over. That will waste even more time.” I tried to explain gently. I knew
KIMBERLY~•~“We haven’t seen you for a while.” The receptionist said as I walked past.I smiled warmly. “The boss loves overworking me. What can I say?”“Good morning, Miss Watson.”“Morning Kim!”I responded to the greetings as I walked toward the elevator. I loved my job but sometimes going back to work after a break – short or not – was annoying. I hadn’t been to the office in three weeks yet I was already used to not being around.The elevator took me to my floor and the first place I went to was my boss’ office. I knocked twice, then pushed the door open.It was early in the morning yet he was already nose deep in huge files. “Missed me?” He looked up at the sound of my voice. “Thank God you’re back, Kimberly. I can’t deal with all these cases myself.”“Sure sure.” I drawled sarcastically. “Bury me with work as soon as I resume.”“It’s different this time, Kim,” George said as he stood up to approach me. He closed the door behind me and placed his hand on the small of my back,
KIMBERLY~•~I gasped and my body stayed frozen, not knowing what to do.George, on the other hand, took that opportunity to plunge his tongue into my mouth, kissing me even deeper.There was a knock on the door and it was immediately opened after that, causing George and I to spring apart. Emelda, George’s assistant, looked between us weirdly. I cleared my throat and moved away from him, putting enough distance between us. George licked his lips and stood up from the couch. “What brings you over?”I didn’t know how he managed to stay calm. We were almost caught. Hell, I had barely even processed the fact that George kissed me, not to talk of getting caught.“Uh…” she looked from him to me and back to him. “Just came to drop over some files.”“You can drop them on my desk.” He informed her, dismissing her with his hand.It was normal for me and George to be in the same office with the door closed. What was not normal was me acting guilty as fuck. Almost everyone in the office knew Ge
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