He shifted to sit next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist while whispering in her ear, “Then the third option will be the best one to take. Think about it.”
She said nothing because she needed time to think. Harold was right. She regretted attending the funeral.
He kissed her shoulder. After taking a card from his wallet, he left it on the table. “Text me a month from now about your decision. I need your number too.”
She mentioned her phone number, and he saved it in his phone. “Please don’t call me. Just send a text message. I don’t want Harold to be mad at me.”
Afterward, he left her. She took his card and read his phone number. It was still the same old number he used. She couldn’t tell Harold about what s
The next day, Jacob sent a text message to Emily because he wanted to meet with his children. ‘Emily, I want to meet with Jason and Mia. Can I buy them ice cream?’ At first, he only wanted to use his children to approach Emily, but after interacting with them, he liked Jason and Mia and wanted to build a relationship with them.Yet, Emily didn’t reply, so he waited for a half hour. Still, she hadn’t replied yet. So, he called her number. In the second ring, she picked up the phone.“I told you to text me! Why do you call?”“If you replied to my text, I wouldn’t call you.”She groaned and talked to herself in her mind to stay calm. “Fine. I’ll read your text and reply.”
He held her chin and smiled because of how nervous she was. “Tell me something.”“What?”“Why are you so nervous when I’m near you?”“Because you treat me as if we were close.” She glared at him.Jacob grinned because his plan to taunt her worked well. “Of course we are close. You were my ex-fiancee, and we almost wedded at church, remember?” Then he patted his finger to his chin. “Ah, we also had two adorable children to prove how close we were.”“Jacob, what do you want?” she asked.“I want to get back what’s mine. You and my children are mine.”
“Why?” she asked. “You didn’t know me at all back then. Why did you change your mind?” Then she gulped. “Because my face reminded you of Amy?” Even after almost three years, recalling the past was still hurtful.“How do you know that?” He creased his forehead.She bit her lower lip and let out a long sigh. “When we …. When we …” She couldn’t continue her words. Her face was crimson because she remembered their lovemaking.However, he understood what she meant. So, he helped her by continuing her words, “When we made love, and what?”“Yes, you called me Amy.”He shook his head. “No, it’s i
“Mommy?” Jason asked.“Yes, sweetheart?”“Do you still love him?”Emily took a deep breath because she didn’t expect to get such a question from her son. “Why do you ask?”Her son stared at her for a second. “Well, from the TV, I saw a movie that daddy and mommy love each other. That’s why they could have babies. Mr. Jefferson and Mommy had Mia and me, so you loved each other, right?”It was a flawed logic, but Emily smiled to follow her son’s thought. Jason was intelligent, much more than the average children of his age.She reached out her hand to caress his head. “Yes, it’s true.”
When they would go home, Mia clung to Jacob, unwilling to let go of his hand.“Dad, will you visit us again?” she asked.“Of course, sweetheart, but maybe next week.”“Dad, why don’t you stay with us?” the little girl asked again.Jacob grinned to hear such an innocent question. “Well, if your daddy isn’t at home, I can stay there.”The little girl was quiet as she pondered Jacob’s answer. “Mommy, why don’t we stay with Dad?”Emily gasped because she didn’t expect her daughter to say that. “Mia, don’t say that.”“Why not? D
Emily stood and said to Jacob, “Will you excuse me? I got a call to take.” Then she walked inside to the living room. “Yes, Harold?”“Baby, let’s go outside tonight. It’s been a while since we haven’t gone to dinner. Just the two of us. What do you think?”“Sure. I’ll tell the nurses to look after Jason and Mia.”“Yeah, I’ll bring something for them. Will Mia love a castle with a princess and a prince inside?” He was talking about a set of castles with a prince and princess who lived in the castle. It was a new toy set that many little girls liked.But then Emily shook her head. “No, Mia is still too little to have that kind of toy. Besides, we spoiled her too much.&rdqu
When Harold was asleep, Gwen wore a brown wig and lay with her back toward him. She wanted to experiment if Harold would treat her better if she tried to make him think she was a bit like Emily with the wig.So she waited until he awoke. Harold was disoriented at first because he forgot where he was. After a few seconds, he remembered he was in another suburb house with Gwen. Yet, when he saw the brown hair, he couldn’t stop thinking that it was Emily.“Baby?”Gwen grinned and lay on her position without moving or saying something. He hugged her waist with both hands and whispered, “Baby, am I dreaming?” Then he turned her body to see that she was Gwen, not Emily.However, he cupped her face and chuckled. “Naughty! I though
Emily was worried because Harold hadn’t gone home last night. She waited for him all night long until she was asleep on the living room couch. She wondered if she should apologize to him.Jacob’s words crossed her mind as if he mocked her. He was right. Harold was a normal guy who had sexual needs. If she denied him for years, he might have someone to fulfill the needs, but she only wished it wasn’t true.When her phone rang several times to show there were some text messages, she immediately reached for it because she wondered if Harold might text her. However, when she saw the message, she almost dropped her phone because the pictures were of his naked husband with a naked woman. No words were in the messages.Her husband was asleep, but the nakedness had already told her why he didn&
Jacob and Emily talked about the twins, about the past, and also their current situation. Then Emily said, “I’m sorry for not letting you know when I was pregnant with Jason and Mia.”“I forgive you,” he held her hand and squeezed it, “but can you consider divorcing Harold? I want to marry you and be our children’s father and your husband.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “We can’t repeat the past, but if you give me another chance, I promise I’ll protect and care for you and the children.”She let out a long sigh while biting her lower lip. After knowing Harold’s infidelity, it was getting harder and harder to stay in her marriage.But then she shook her head. “The reason I ran away three years ago was because I knew
From the hospital, Emily was about to go home, but she walked to a cafe near the hospital. After ordering and paying for a cup of latte, she took a deep breath and called Jacob. He took the call after the second ring. “Emily? How’s Jason? Is he okay?”It warmed her heart to know Jacob cared so much for their son. “Jason is well. I just visited him. I … I wonder if we can talk.”“Oh? Sure. What do you want to talk about?” “Well, about the offer you gave.” She licked her dry lips. “I’m at a cafe near the hospital. Can you come here so we can talk?”“Okay. I’m on my way.”After thirty minutes, Jacob arrived at the cafe. Since a few visitors were there, he could spot Emily right away. She waved at him, and he walked toward her table. After seeing her empty cup, he said, “Do you mind if we go elsewhere?”Emily shook her head. “No, it’s okay if you want to go somewhere.”So, Jacob escorted her to the parking lot, his hand on the small of her back. Since he drove the car alone, he opened t
Then, it was the time Viona left Harold’s office. He was already awake and promised her to give a jewelry set because he enjoyed the surprise.When Viona met Emily, she smiled and pretended to be shocked to see her. “Oh!” She covered her mouth with a hand. “You’re here.”Emily recognized Viona’s voice as the voice on the phone. However, she didn’t want to create a scene in Harold’s office.Viona sneered and then bent her head to whisper, “Mr. Montgomery is such a generous man. He promised to give me a jewelry set.” Then she licked her lips. “Maybe he loves my surprise.”Clenching her hand, Emily took a deep breath. She smiled at the assistant. “You can have your lunch now.”
After thinking about what happened, Viona knew Harold was someone she could count on. Considering her nephew told her how happy he was working at the Silent Syndicate, she knew if she could have Harold at her side, she wouldn’t need to work again.She hated Jacob because he fired her. She also hated Emily because she got the men he wanted. First, Jacob, and now, Harold. However, with her joining the Silent Syndicate, not only as Harold’s secret agent to spy on Jacob and the Gold Cleaner, being in Lee’s team would help her approach Harold.When she went to the penthouse, she heard a few maids chatting about how Harold treated Emily and the twins well. It made her hate Emily more.The next day, Viona went to Montgomery’s Express. Since Harold would be in the office until eveni
After the meeting, Lee approached Harold. He shook Harold’s hand first and congratulated him. “Can I talk to you?”“Go ahead.”He glanced around to see some leaders remained there. “Well, can we talk privately?”Harold nodded and escorted Lee to the next room. It was a smaller room. He sat on a brown couch and gestured his hand to ask Lee to sit too.Then he asked, “So, what do you want to discuss with me?”“We currently want to recruit a new member. Since we need a diversion, the member is outstanding at providing it.”“Oh? So?” Harold raised his eyebrow because recruiting a team member wasn&rsquo
Gordon Wilson, the Silent Syndicate leader in the drug department, raised his hand.George nodded at him. “Yes, Gordon?”“I think it’s better we raise our hands for people who choose Harold as our leader.”Then all raised their hands, except Harold. When they realized it, the leaders laughed aloud.George grinned at Harold. “See? I told you.” Then he headed to the door and pressed an intercom. It connected to the guard outside. “Bring the champagne!”Some servers entered the meeting room with empty wine glasses on trays. Another bought a cart with two ice buckets and a few bottles of champagne. They opened the bottles, poured the liquid into the wine glasses, then se
At night, Harold attended a meeting of the Silent Syndicate in the headquarters. The agenda was to determine their next leader. It was a regular thing they would discuss every decade. Considering they could choose a new leader after a decade, it would ensure that the syndicate wouldn’t have a bad leader for too long.Five-year leadership changes were suggested because a decade seemed too much. However, most leaders opposed the feedback in the last meeting. It was impractical to change a new leader every five years. Besides, creating a leadership structure required a long time. Changing it every five years would be unproductive.Harold willingly stepped aside for a new leader to take his place. It wasn’t a big deal for him to be the highest leader or not because he was already busy in his business too. Yet, since most of the Silent Syndic
Jacob immediately lifted Jason and ran to the parking lot. Emily, who didn’t notice what happened, was confused because Jacob ran so fast. When Jacob called her, she accepted the call right away.“Emily, we must go to the hospital. It’s an emergency. Please hurry to the parking lot!”Emily was anxious now because she didn’t know what had happened. Yet, she lifted Mia and asked the nurses to rush to the parking lot. When they were there, Jacob was cleaning Jason’s wound.“Oh, no! What happened?” The mother put a hand on her chest because it was the first time she saw her son was badly injured.“Jason tripped and fell to the ground, face first. His forehead hit a rock.” Then Jacob ordered Jimmy,
When they arrived at the theme park, it was crowded. However, Jacob already had some reserved tickets for them, so they didn’t need to queue for a long time. The two nurses also received their tickets.Jacob already created a schedule so the children could ride what they wanted. They enjoyed the carousels, Ferris wheel, seeing some princes and princesses in the castle, then they rode the train too in the theme park.Afterward, they had lunch at a restaurant. Emily ordered salmon salads and also orange juices for the twins. While she ordered seafood spaghetti with mushroom sauce and mineral water for herself.“Go ahead. Order your food,” Emily said to the nurses.However, they shook their heads. “Please order for us, m