KIMBERLY~•~“What the–“ I cut myself off as Amelia jumped on her father. “What are you doing here?” I asked, standing up to approach Jackson.George stood idly by the door, watching the exchange with a grim expression. I winced.“Mommy, you didn’t tell me daddy was coming today!” I let out a sigh, glaring hard at Jackson even if he pretended he couldn’t see me. “Jackson.” I gritted out.“I tried calling you and you weren’t answering. I thought something was wrong.”“So you stalked me all the way here?”“I didn’t stalk you.” He shrugged as he dropped Amelia to the ground. The little girl didn’t let go of him though. She held on to his thumb. I didn’t know why she was so obsessed with having a father. Their father-daughter bond was special and adorable to see, but Jackson kept interfering in my life because of it. “We exchanged locations because of Amelia, didn’t we?”My tongue poked the inside of my cheek at that reminder. I had forgotten about that little fact. Even George didn’t ha
JACKSON~•~“Are you ever going to tell me what the hell you meant by that statement?” Kimberly asked for the umpteenth time.I shrugged, making her glare at me.Her interest was piqued and that was a good sign. She was very curious about that statement that she had asked me about it every time we met since that time, but if I explained it to her, she would wish she never asked.I felt like an asshole too, but I couldn’t help myself. I had known her boss liked her. I just didn’t know she liked him as well. I hated the idea of their relationship and it was obvious the relationship was new or she would have mentioned it long ago.It wasn’t going to last anyway, not with me around. “Jackson!” She scolded.“Shhhh,” I smiled. “Don’t let Amelia think we’re fighting again.”She exhaled heavily, most likely holding back her words. I grinned as she pushed me away and held the trolley, pushing it instead.Kimberly and I had taken Amelia shopping for school supplies. Kimberly didn’t want me to
KIMBERLY~•~“I’m going out of my mind, Reiya,” I confessed one faithful evening. I had been thinking nonstop about Jack’s words that sometimes, George found me zoning out. “What’s wrong, love?” She questioned. “You sound more stressed than I am and I am very stressed about the upcoming wedding.” I chuckled. Reiya’s wedding had finally been set for December. Even if it would be very cold, she wanted to have a Christmas wedding. It was her favorite holiday. That meant I was spending my Christmas in New York. She was, for lack of a better word, a bridezilla, and since I wasn’t in New York to help her, her husband-to-be was taking the brunt of it.“Jackson has been here for almost two months and he is already ruining my life.”Reiya gasped. “What did he do?”I sighed. I was exaggerating, but he was messing with me on purpose. “You know how I accepted George, right?”“Hmm.” “Jackson deliberately showed up in George’s house one day, claiming that he was worried something bad happened t
KIMBERLY~•~“Are you very excited to go to school?”“Yes!” Amelia exclaimed, bouncing on the mat. She had too much energy. I could only hope that school was what she thought it would be and wouldn’t get tired of the said school soon.Her enthusiasm was good for me though. “Really? Why is that?” George asked her.“Mommy said I’ll make friends at school.” She repeated what she told Jackson when we went shopping together. “Are you sure you won’t cry when you’re left alone?”Her lips flattened in a thin line as she gave him a disapproving look. I chuckled. “I’m a big girl, Uncle George. Why will I cry?”George’s eyes went wide when he saw the look she was giving him. He turned to look at me and I shrugged. “My bad, Amelia. I underrated you.”Her nose scrunched cutely the way it did whenever she didn’t understand a word. “Under…”“Underrated,” George repeated for her.She frowned. “What does that mean?”As George looked for a way to properly explain the word to her, I looked into the d
KIMBERLY~•~Amelia was basically bouncing in her seat. I’d never seen anyone this excited to go to school.Her enthusiasm brought a smile to my face though.When we pulled over at the school, she rushed to open her doors but Jackson kept them locked. She whined in frustration but he ignored her and got out of the car before turning around to open her door.The smile was immediately back on her face when she got out of the car and stared at the building in front of her.Before she could take off, Jackson picked her off the ground and placed her on his hips. Her eyes widened dramatically! “Put me down, daddy! My friends will think I’m a baby!”I laughed as I gathered her stuff from the car and got out as well. “One, you’re a baby. Two, you don’t even have friends yet.”Amelia gasped. “What? I will have friends today! Put me down!”“If I put you down, do you promise not to run? If you even walk faster than me, then all your classmates will see when I’m carrying you inside the class.”S
KIMBERLY~•~“You never filed the divorce.”Jackson nodded shamelessly.I slapped him. I didn’t know when my hand moved or why it did, but I didn’t regret it. Was this a way to control my life again? What the fuck was this man up to? I was beginning to tolerate him but he just had to fuck with my life again! It was almost like he was mocking me, flaunting that he was still a part of my life.I didn’t know what kind of reaction I expected from Jackson after I slapped him, but all he did was open the passenger’s door for me.My breathing was labored and I really didn’t want to be in a confined space with him, especially not after the bomb he just dropped, but I had no choice. We just enrolled Amelia at a new school. I didn’t want to create a scene and have that stigma follow my daughter around.I glared at him but got into the car anyway, banging the door shut with more force than necessary.He sucked on his bottom teeth and rounded the car to get into the driver’s seat.“Why?” I asked
JACKSON~•~Kimberly wasn’t just angry at me. She was pissed, which was why she could barely look me in the face. I understood why she was pissed and I knew I deserved that. That didn’t mean I didn’t hate it though.I was trying to pull her back into my life. I didn’t know how I managed to fuck everything up every damn time.As she exited the car, I let out a sigh and went back inside the car. My phone rang again and I rolled my eyes, thinking it was Paige again, but it happened to be my father.I answered the call and brought it up to my ear while watching Kimberly at the same time.“Paige said you haven’t been taking her calls.”“It’s only been a few minutes,” I told him. She was so quick to report me to my father anytime something happened. My father didn’t like her as well, especially after what she did to our company, but his grandson was involved so he had to take her calls as well. “I’ll call her back later.”“No need. Just come back to New York. Asher is sick and is asking for
KIMBERLY ~•~ I was pissed as fuck as I walked into the building that I couldn’t even see where I was going and ended up running into George. I let out a huff as my nose hit his chest and I stumbled back, almost falling if he didn’t catch me on time. My phone wasn’t very fortunate though. I visibly flinched as it fell to the ground. George shook his head, helping me to pick up my phone. “Why are you so in your head? Is it because of him?” His eyes darted to the car outside, which alerted me that he had seen Jackson drop me off. That was the least of our problems though. “You seem angry.” He added when I didn’t say anything and just kept staring at him. “Did he do something to you?” I didn’t even know where to start speaking from. I knew it wouldn’t be right to keep the newly found information from him. It wasn’t fair to him. Before I could speak, my phone lit up with a text, and since it was in George’s hand, he was the first to see the text. His jaw clenched and he hand
KIMBERLY~•~“Go home, take a bath, eat and rest.” My mother told me when she came to visit me in the hospital. I hadn’t eaten nor showered in twenty-four hours and I couldn’t even feel the effect. I was just too focused on Jackson that I was numb to every other thing happening around me.I shook my head. “I want to be here with him.”“Kimberly.” My mother called out sternly. “You have to be in a good condition to take care of him. He’s in a very fragile state and the smallest germ can hurt him even more.”I paused, considering that angle. She didn’t lie but I doubted I carried that much germs with me. I chewed on my bottom lip and looked at Jackson. He was still unconscious and wasn’t showing any signs of waking up yet. I didn’t want to leave but I guessed I had no choice.Letting out a breath, I stood up and my mother smiled at me. She had called me earlier to go back home and rest but I simply hung up on her which was why she came here personally.I turned to leave but paused. “You
KIMBERLY~•~“What is going on?” Mr. Clarke asked, bringing both our attention to him and his wife.His wife, on the other hand, looked appalled. “How dare you slap my daughter? Her brother is lying in a hospital bed and you dare to slap her??”At that moment, I didn’t give a fuck what they thought about me. Emily wasn’t just a spoiled brat. She was evil and thoughtless. She had gone too far and I would slap her again if I could.I laughed humorlessly. I hated that we were creating a scene right in front of Jackson’s hospital room but there was no helping it. “Go on, Emily. Tell them what you said to me.”Emily stayed quiet, holding her cheek.Since she wasn’t going to speak, I was going to do it for her. Thankfully, there were no passersby to spin a story on the situation. “She said she didn’t know Jackson would drive my car and it was supposed to be me and on that bed.” I spat out bitterly. Even if I didn’t want to explain my actions to her parents, they had to know exactly what the
KIMBERLY~•~Even after surgery, Jackson still didn’t wake up. I was worried as hell and my eyes were red from crying. I knew accidents happened to any and everyone but I never imagined Jackson would be lying down on the hospital bed, unconscious.His surgery was successful. Well, successful in the sense that nothing went wrong during the process and he didn’t die. I stayed with him in the hospital all night, unable to sleep. By the next morning, everyone in New York knew about Jackson’s accident and I was getting so many calls at once.I had already informed his family of the accident and they would be arriving this morning. I had also received a call from Reiya and after answering her call, I put my phone on silent. People called a lot whenever there was bad news and it irritated me a lot.There was a knock on the door and the door opened to reveal the doctor. She smiled warmly at me. “Good morning, Mrs. Clarke. I’m here to check up on the patient. If you could please step out of th
KIMBERLY~•~It had been an hour since Jackson left to go get tampons but he still wasn’t back. By now, the kids were dozing off while I was still up waiting for Jackson.When I called his number several times and he didn’t answer, I started to get worried. I was still on my period though, which was why I went upstairs to search through the closet to see if I had a menstrual cup. I didn’t like using them, but I had no choice.I tucked the kids in and went to the bathroom to do my business. When I was done, I started calling Jackson’s line again and it still wasn’t going.Fuck. We should have exchanged locations after getting back together.I was calling for the seventh time when Jackson finally answered the call. “Jackson! It’s taking a long while just to get tampons. Where are you?”“Is this Mrs. Clarke?” I heard a feminine voice ask and I could feel the hairs on my arms rise. “Yeah, who’s this?”“I’m a nurse at the city hospital.” My heart dropped at those words. “Mr. Clarke was in
JACKSON~•~Despite being six years older than my sister, I grew up with her after all and she hadn’t changed a bit, which was why I could tell that she was raging inside.I had thought that with time she was going to develop a brain and start acting like an adult. I thought she was going to be civil with Kimberly even if she didn’t like her but clearly, I was wishing for too much.I didn’t want a wedge between me and my family but she was too damn insufferable and it was pissing me off.She glared at me hard but I merely arched an eyebrow, waiting for her response. She had already ruined the mood at the beginning and she was making things even worse. I needed to shut her mouth with duct tape or something.My mom laughed awkwardly. “Don’t be rude to your sister, Jackson. She came here to celebrate Thanksgiving with you.”I chuckled humorlessly. This was exactly why she still behaved like a child. My mother was there to pardon her wrongdoings. In fact, she made her feel like she didn’t
KIMBERLY~•~Thanksgiving was my second favorite holiday. There was something about families gathering at a table to eat that made me feel at peace.For the past five years, I wasn’t able to celebrate Thanksgiving as I liked. It was always just me and Amelia. Reiya had to be with her family and George had to be with his, which was why this year excites me to the point that I offered to do the cooking for Thanksgiving. Of course, Caro was going to assist me.It wasn’t just our immediate family. My parents and Jackson’s parents were going to be here. I didn’t like the idea of Emily coming around but after Jackson made his father cut down her allowance, she had been pretty obedient. It was crazy that the only thing that made her behave was the hope of getting her allowance back. It was going to be dinner for nine people and I was more than excited about it.Caro and I spent the whole day cooking. Jackson offered to help but after I yelled at him more than three times for doing something
KIMBERLY~•~ According to Jackson’s sources, George had left New York and Paige was all alone. I wondered if he had truly backed down or if this was another one of their schemes to take me by surprise.Either way, Paige wasn’t going to get out anytime soon and I was going to make sure of that.Now that Paige was helpless and alone behind bars, Jackson was making preparations for my party. I didn’t know anything about planning parties. The only activities I’d ever organized were Amelia’s birthdays and even then, the guests were never more than five.Jackson invited an event planner so I didn’t even have to do anything. I merely answered questions the planner had about my preferences and left the rest up to her.“It’s kinda unfair that we’re starting up a firm together and you’re the only one having a party,” Reiya said as she popped a grape in her mouth.I chuckled. “You’re very much welcome to join.” I shrugged. The party wasn’t my idea in the first place. It was Jackson’s idea and s
GEORGE~•~I fucked up badly.I had told myself I wasn’t petty enough to ruin Kimberly’s career because of my heartbreak yet I was stupid enough to drop all my pending tasks, leave California, and come to New York to make a fool out of myself.I didn’t even know what I was thinking. When I answered Paige’s call at first, I thought her request for me to represent her was audacious. I cared about Amelia and she was asking me to defend her against Amelia, but over time the devil reared its ugly head and I found myself packing up and booking a flight.Kimberly and I might have broken up because she was still in love with her ex-husband, but that wasn’t reason enough for me to betray her like that.As if the betrayal wasn’t enough, I went ahead to set her up, kiss her, and capture it on camera. That was too low, even for me. I didn’t hate Kimberly. Jackson was the one I hated and while I didn’t care about his stupid company, my actions directly impacted Kimberly’s life. I had thought I did
KIMBERLY~•~Surprisingly, the press conference was effective and all the blind supporters of Paige and George started to turn on them. It pleased me more than I cared to admit. I never thought a day would come when I’d be okay with George being blasted by the public but he clearly didn’t give a fuck about me so why should I care about his feelings?While George tried to restore his image, Paige was still silent. It seemed like she didn’t even care about what was going on even if she had more to lose. George could go back to California and try to block New York’s news from getting there. He could go back to being the perfect lawyer.Either way, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to strike.I stood by the door with the cops as we waited for Paige to open the door. Because of Jackson’s influence, the cops allowed me to tag along for Paige’s arrest.When she took too long to open the door, I rang the doorbell again. A few seconds later, I heard slow footsteps and soon, the door was pu