JACKSON~•~I wanted to wait for Kimberly so we could all go back to New York today but she suggested I leave first with Amelia. It was the first time I was going to be traveling alone with a child. I couldn’t deny that I was quite scared.However, since Kimberly trusted me to fly alone with Amelia, it meant I had nothing to worry about. Amelia was very excited to go on an airplane anyway.I’d always wondered why my father had a private jet but now that I was to fly with my daughter, I was contemplating buying one as well. Amelia’s suitcase was bigger than expected, which made me wonder how long Kimberly would take to come to New York. According to her, she wanted to wrap up some loose ends. The only thing that gave me hope that she’d eventually relocate was the fact that Amelia was coming with me and she would never abandon her.“Is it okay if I introduce Amelia to Asher? He is staying with me for a while.” I didn’t want to do anything that she wouldn’t be comfortable with. Kimberly
JACKSON~•~I watched as they stared at each other curiously. As expected, Amelia was the first to break the silence. She turned to look at me. “My classmate told me she had a lot of brothers and sisters. Now I finally have a brother. Daddy, can you give me a sister too?”My eyes went wide but she stared at me with such hopeful eyes that I didn’t dare deny her. “I’ll try my best, baby.”Asher, on the other hand, “I don’t want a sister!”Ameli looked at him, her eyes almost popping out. “You don’t want me?” She asked the question with puppy dog eyes, looking so sad that even Asher got the gist that he couldn’t affirm it.“That’s not what I meant. I– You–“I laughed when he stumbled on his words. Even though they were just kids, I was thankful that they didn’t hold any resentment for each other. No child liked to share their parents with someone they had never seen before. I could only hope the world didn’t strip them of their purity.“Asher, why don’t you show Amelia around? When you
KIMBERLY~•~Having Amelia in a different city prompted me to move faster. I only lasted two more days in California before I was packing up my shit to leave. I hadn’t even found an apartment yet. I intended to stay at a hotel while I figured that out.I had thought a break would be nice. I’d been working and taking care of Amelia all year round. I deserved a vacation yet my heart wasn’t at peace, knowing she was a few hours away from me.My house was almost empty as I’d spent the last two days fitting all we had into boxes. I wasn’t moving them with me. I’d ship them to New York after I got settled there.I was just about to leave the house when I got a text from Jackson. He had told his IT guy to track the source of the article before removing it and he told me it was from my office, along with the model of the phone used. All the evidence pointed to Emelda.I contemplated paying her a visit but I didn’t want to run into George again which was why I merely sent a text.I forwarded h
KIMBERLY ~•~ I was surprised that the two men knew each other. I was even more shocked to see them glaring at each other. I cocked my head, looking between the two men. “Do you know each other?” “Yes, we do,” Chris answered me. “We’ve met a lot.” “Have we?” Jack acted oblivious. “You must be a fan. Sorry, I don’t recall you.” However, the glare suggested otherwise. It was obvious Jackson knew how Chris was. He just didn’t like him. Chris laughed, not caring about Jack’s dab. “Well, how would you? You’re too busy running after your ex-wife in California to be aware of your surroundings. What a businessman you are.” Chris paused when all of us remained silent and his eyes went wide as he turned to look at me. “Oh, oh.” He had come to a realization that I was the ex-wife he was speaking out. “This is no shade to you, Kim.” “Kim?” Jackson repeated, unamused. “You’re acquainted?” “We’re quite close if I do say so myself.” Chris bragged even if all I knew about him was his na
KIMBERLY ~•~ Caroline dropped everything she was holding and ran toward me. In all the years we’d known each other, she’d never hugged me nor I, her, but this time we couldn’t help ourselves. She careened toward me and I opened my arms, accepting her hug wholeheartedly. “I’ve been waiting for you for forever, ma’am.” I laughed, hugging her even tighter. “I’m not your boss anymore, Caro. You can call me Kimberly.” “I dare not.” She responded, not bothering to release me from the hug. I allowed her to hug me as long as she wanted. I missed her as well. I would have brought her along with me if I didn’t want to leave every trace of my past behind. I never thought of the possibility that after five years, she would still be working for Jackson. I thought I had inevitably lost all contact with her. After what felt like forever, she finally pulled back. Sparing no restraints, she held my face and turned it from side to side, inspecting me carefully. “Have you been well all th
JACKSON~•~I hated that I knew Paige so well but it was exactly because I knew her that well that I knew she didn’t have any good intentions toward Amelia.She had repeatedly said that Kimberly was lying about her pregnancy in the past and that she knew a pregnant woman when she saw one. She had gotten in my head a lot and I was stupid to believe her.She knew that her only connection to me was Asher. She hated that Kimberly had that same connection to me. She hated Kimberly. Period.“What are you talking about?” She tried to act innocent as though she didn’t have a murderous look in her eyes just a few minutes ago.“I’ve warned you, Paige,” I told her anyway. “If you even go near her, you’ll have me to deal with. Trust me, you don’t want that.”If it wasn’t for Asher, Paige would be in jail by now. She had done a lot of things that would get her in trouble but I overlooked them because none of her shenanigans caused real damage to me or anyone around me. Amelia was a different case
KIMBERLY~•~There was a loud ringing in my ear and my eyes were going blurry, but I forced myself to stay in the present as the taxi zoomed toward Amelia’s new school. I couldn’t believe what Jackson said to me over the phone. I hadn’t processed it yet. I was hoping that when I got to her school, I would see Amelia.I arrived at the school to see that kids were playing as they usually did at the end of any school day. I didn’t even know where to go so I pulled out my phone and called Jackson again. Thankfully, he answered immediately or I might have run mad.“Where are you?”“Principal’s office.”I hung up and went straight there. I didn’t bother to knock. When I went inside, I saw Asher sitting on a bench while Jackson was exchanging words with the principal.Asher ran toward me, wrapping his hands around my waist. “Aunty.” He sniffled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lose Amelia. It was my fault.”I took a deep breath and pushed down all the feelings threatening to pour. I couldn’t
KIMBERLY~•~Paige was not taking her calls. She had gone into hiding, which further proved her guilt.Jackson and I visited her house but when we got there, the door had been left open. Her clothes had been thrown around in the room as though she had been in a rush.It frustrated me. Getting to her was the fastest way to find Amelia but she was nowhere to be found. I felt like punching something and her face was number one on the list.“What are we going to do now?” I asked Jackson as we left Paige’s place.“Arthur has informed me that there were only three cars that looked like mine. They are tracking all three of them.”I nodded. I wasn’t going to be relieved until Amelia was back in my arms but that was a start. Jackson didn’t even bother to tell the police. He had his men get the CCTV footage close to the school and we had started from there.“Let’s go back to my place. Asher must have finished drawing by now. From there, we’ll go to the police.”I nodded, letting him take the le
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