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~•~Paige hired the wrong men for the job. When we arrived at the house, all three of them were just sitting on the couch, watching TV. It seemed as if they hadn’t even seen the news or they would have fled by now.I was the first to enter and they were on alert immediately. “Who are you?” One of the fools asked.I didn’t answer. I just signaled the cops and soon, five cops were inside with me, guns drawn, and pointed at the three men on the couch.“Hands behind your heads.” One of the cops commanded while I started looking through the apartment.It was a small one and the first door I opened, which was the bedroom, revealed my daughter. It had been locked from the outside.She was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall and hugging herself. “Kimberly!” At the sound of my voice, Amelia’s head snapped to me. “Daddy!” She stood up at once but before she could run, she fell to the ground. I rushed toward her immediately and picked her up.Kimberly rushed inside the roo
KIMBERLY~•~Twenty-four hours later my parents hadn’t stopped calling me yet. After Reiya came over the previous day, I called George back and after I assured him that Amelia was fine, he hung up.I tried to call him after that but his number wasn’t going through. He had blocked me again.That was what I should have done to my parents but I just couldn’t bring myself to block them or change my number, no matter how much I tried. I hated it.I knew that if they ever tried to apologize to me, I would run back to them. No matter how grown I was, I still craved the approval of my parents. It was almost pathetic.Not to anyone’s surprise, my phone rang again.Reiya pursed her lips. She had a lot to say but she was keeping it to herself. I was still sensitive from the whole Amelia situation and she didn’t want to annoy me or get me mad.“Mommy, your phone keeps ringing,” Amelia stated the obvious. The least I could do was keep it silent but I couldn’t. The ringing reminded me how much my p
JACKSON~•~“Will Skye’s sister attend your party?” My ears perked up when I heard Asher questioning Amelia.“I don’t know,” Amelia responded. “Stop distracting me.”I held back a laugh at her frustration. She was trying on several dresses to see the one she was going to wear at her birthday party and she called us in to model the dresses for us.“Why didn’t you ask her?”“I want Skye at my party and I don’t care about her sister. Why didn’t you invite her to your party when you had one?”A blush crept up Asher’s face. “We weren’t friends then.” Whoever Skye’s sister was, I could tell that Asher had a crush on her, which was why he was bugging Amelia about it, meanwhile the poor girl just wanted her seven-year-old birthday to be perfect.“What’s Skye’s sister's name?”The two kids turned to me when they heard my question and Asher cleared his throat as though he was just realizing I was in the room with them. I wasn’t even surprised he was already having crushes. He was eleven years
KIMBERLY~•~I waited for only a few seconds before Jackson came in, pushing a trolley that contained only one plate. I arched an eyebrow at him and he chuckled. “We’ll start with appetizers first.” He explained and I took his word for it. He transferred the plate from the trolley to the table and stood beside me, waiting for me to open it.“Aren’t you eating?” I questioned, wondering why he was acting weird.“I will. I just want to know if you like it first.”I shook my head. He was so eager for compliments. Decoding to give him what he wanted, I removed the cover of the plate and my eyes widened immediately.I gasped and my hand flew to my mouth to stop myself from screaming. When I looked back at Jackson, he was already on one knee. I looked back at the plate in front of me. It was more of a dessert than an appetizer. It was a piece of chocolate cake and the words “Will you marry me?” were written on the plate using icing.I had suspected it could be a proposal but I waved it off
KIMBERLY~•~For the first time in a million years, Jackson was taking me out on a date. It was an impromptu one at that and when I told him I didn’t have anything to wear, he told me we would visit the mall first. Apparently, he already had everything planned and all I had to do was show up.I kind of liked that. Caro was back so she could look after the kids and we were free to spend as much time as we could outside.“Mommy, where are you going?” Amelia whined when she came into my room and saw me putting on my make-up.“Nowhere, baby.” I knew if I told her I was going out with her father, she’d want to come too. She couldn’t just stay back and let me leave alone with her father. “But you have lipstick!”“I’m going to work.”She frowned, creases forming on her forehead. “But you already went to work in the morning. It’s not morning anymore.”I sighed. “It’s a special meeting, Amelia. Why don’t you go and play with your brother? I won’t take long.”“No.” She shook her head. “Asher i
JACKSON~•~We were getting ready to go to the store when I heard the doorbell rang. It was a Saturday and we weren’t expecting anyone.Most of the workers weren’t in the house so I went downstairs to get the door. Before I could get there, the doorbell rang again. With a sigh, I pulled open the door, surprised to see Mr and Mrs. Watson. What were Kimberly’s parents doing here? It wasn’t like they weren’t welcome to visit. It was just weird that they didn’t inform us before coming. “Good morning, sir, Ma’am.” I stepped aside to let them in. “Kimberly is taking a shower. She’ll be down soon.”They nodded. “Sorry for barging in on you guys.” Her father spoke while his wife stayed silent, staring at her feet like a child who had been scolded.“It’s fine. You’re family. Take a seat. I’ll get you something to drink.”“Water is fine.”I nodded and went into the kitchen to get two bottles of water and cups for them. After setting it in front of them, I went back upstairs to our bedroom just
KIMBERLY~•~It was crazy how easy it was to win the people’s favor again. The same people who bashed and condemned you were always ready to start singing praises for you as soon as things turned around.They were so fucking hypocritical and even if it was a good thing, it annoyed me how easily the masses started defending Jackson’s company after stressing him for four whole days.Jackson’s visit to the prison hadn’t been fruitless. He had gotten substantial evidence from Emily. She had recorded a conversation between herself and Chris (I still couldn’t believe he orchestrated this whole thing by the way. Jackson had warned me about him but I ignored it even if I never spoke with him after that) and the tips she gave Jackson made their investigation smoother.They didn’t release any statements until they had a lot of evidence to back up their words which I commended them for. Jackson was smart as hell because an hour after his press conference ended, people were already defending his
JACKSON~•~I sat on a chair in a dimly lit room, waiting for the girl I grew up with as my sister.Sometimes, I felt bad for her that she was living in such a place; that she was locked up here, but then I’d remember the evil things she did just because she didn’t like Kimberly for me.It would have been slightly different if her actions were justified but Kimberly didn’t even do anything to her. Kimberly barely even retaliated or she would be in much worse trouble.After waiting for a few minutes, the door to the room finally opened and an officer led Emily in. She was still handcuffed, but luckily for her, they freed her of the handcuffs before leaving.I appraised her form. “You have gotten thinner.” Emily had always been obsessed with maintaining a thin form, going on several diets as many times as she could to make sure she stayed fit.“The food is ass in here.” She scoffed and sat down in front of me with a table diving us.“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t make stupid decisi
JACKSON~•~After talking to the ‘sick old man’ the previous day, I was able to get in touch with one of the people who also testified against me. After threatening to make sure they lost everything they had, they finally confessed and said someone met them a day before to tell them to testify.From the description, I was able to pinpoint them at once. Christian Walsh’s secretary. However, I didn’t have proof just yet. Christian and I were business rivals but I never knew he would stoop as low as defaming my company.It was way too low.I didn’t know why he did it but I didn’t care to find out, I was working on tracking his secretary’s whereabouts, hoping to find footage of him meeting the witness.“He visited the hospital three days ago,” Jeffrey commented, reading from his phone most likely a text. “Maybe if we can get footage from inside the hospital, we can see him entering the guy’s room.”“That’s a good idea.” I nodded. “Also find a way to get the man’s hospital file. I want to
KIMBERLY~•~Jackson hadn’t been gone for two hours when another video of him started trending again.It was from the same man and he had started recording claiming he was going to show the world Jackson’s true colors. After that, Jackson stood up and got out of the room, along with his secretary trailing behind him.It didn’t show anything odd but the fact that Jackson left as soon as the man started recording made him look shady. I hated the fact that a lot of strangers on the internet were giving their opinions based on a ten-second video while they knew nothing about him in real life.I was worried as hell. He was under fire on the Internet and I couldn’t reach him or his secretary. I tried to engage the kids but I found my mind straying to Jackson every few minutes.When my phone rang, I scrambled for it only to find out that it wasn’t Jackson calling but it was just my mother. I sighed. I had already spoken to her this morning. What more did she want from me?Knowing that woman,
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