THEAI almost couldn't say that to him, when he came closer, everything was awakened again - the locked up need to wrap my arms around him and beg him to make love to me just as he did five years ago. It was an uncontrollable desire that I had felt also last night when I saw him, but I survived.Lord! He had changed, now he looked good looking, neat and even his voice was deeper, richer and full of life. I just couldn't help but appreciate his looks and I hated myself for even loving anything about him. I wished I could stamp his face and rain curses on him, I wished I could paint him bad before those investors. I knew the better half of all the investors, and I could make them not invest in his business but I wasn't so bad. Although, I hated him, seeing him again last night and him daring to walk up to me, asking me how I was surprised me.At that moment, I wanted to kill him, I wanted him to drop dead. He had the guts, the audacity to walk up to me, thinking I was going to talk nice
THEAAs I drove into the garage and stepped through the front door of my house, a wave of exhaustion washed over me. The weight of the day's events pressed heavily on my shoulders like Hercules body weight threatening to crush me under its damned burden. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I went up the stairs, it was threatening to spill over and betray the facade of strength I had been wearing all day - particularly in that closet, with the man I hated now. But I couldn't let myself break down. Not now. Not when things were finally starting to look good for me and my company, all thanks to my workers and Sebastian.I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself, and repeated a mantra in my mind: "Tyler will not be the cause of my breakdown. Tyler will not be the cause of my breakdown. Tyler will not be the cause of my breakdown." I kept on saying that, hoping I will live up to it.Because why not? It had been a long and hard journey to get to this point. My company had be
THEAI wanted to smack the smirk off his face. I probably hadn't given him enough kicks the last time. I don't know what gave him courage but he sure had plenty coming here and staring at me in the face. I loved how unsettled he was at the meeting, I wish I had said something to bring down his ideas but they were actually interesting. I didn't know he'll be heading the project, I wouldn't have involved myself in it. After the party, I didn't want to see him again. But seeing him look all messed up and tardy made me happy. It made my insides turn due to unending joy. I craved his downfall.There was nothing left of Father to fight for again, since he left us and disappeared into thin air, so I had to build my own empire against Tyler and then crumble his. My biggest regret was trying to fight for him in the first place, but all those disappointments were truly worth it, as they made me who I was today. I hadn't still thought about how to tell Tyler about Lily. He'd want to have more in
THEAMy persuasion was useless. Deep down I was glad that it was. I watched as Sebastian burned with fury, wanting to charge at Tyler on my behalf. Lily was still distracted by her game pad and I was glad. I thought about the reason I came back to this shit hole. To find my father, and to give this monster a taste of his own medicine. The restaurant wasn't so crowded, at least not with familiar audience. There were no cameras either, and no awkward press outside. Tyler was alone and there was no one to guard him, both inside and outside. I smiled. It was the perfect opportunity for me.I tried playing the nice card first, so Sebastian would be more infuriated. I also tried to consider Lily for once, seeing two grown men fight wouldn't make much sense. She was an intelligent inquisitive child, and she'd start asking unnecessary questions. I wanted this to be in closure, and I wanted no word of it to escape. Unless Tyler wanted to tell himself which I was sure he wouldn't. I kept glanci
TYLERI sat down there in solitude, anger coursing through my veins. Curse that man! I yelled within me. Fuck them all. How dare she speak to me in that manner. How dare all of them? I should have exposed her for the slut that she is. My head felt heavier than my body, probably because of the mighty ache I was having. I couldn't go to a hospital, what would be my reason? I needed a hotel. I couldn't even go home and dare to start countless rumours amongst my house workers. Blood still dropped from my nose, even if it wasn't broken. I called my assistant and ordered him to come pick me. So much for having fun alone. I didn't even expect to run into her.I underestimated her, and that's why this happened to me. I cursed more under my breath clenching my fists and flinching at the same time. My stomach hurt. My insides hurt. Was her husband a boxer? And who was that little girl? Her daughter? She said I shouldn't come near her family. Where the fuck was this driver and what was taking so
TYLERDamn Thea Andrew! Damn Booker Greyson! Damn her for putting my heart in jeopardy!I sat alone in my dimly lit bedroom , my mind consumed by thoughts of Thea. She was more persistent than her father and that scared me. After the whole background check on her, I was thrilled, under her new identity, she created an empire and successfully controlled it without the bussiness teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. She made it all herself. Damn! I was thrilled.Now, it's been weeks since she had returned to Manhattan, and yet her presence lingered in my thoughts like a haunting song sang on Halloween. It never really left my mind, her name, her smell and her moan, nothing left my mind, it wss still fresh, like it happened yesterday. I couldn't understand why I was so captivated by her, why she seemed to have cast a spell on me - yes, she is beautiful and yes, she is ruining my sanity.I found myself daydreaming about that night. I remembered the first time I saw her without clothes, her
TYLERI sat in my personal office at home, my mind consumed with thoughts of Thea's personal life. I couldn't help but feel a burning curiosity about who she really was as Booker Greyson, and what made her have the nerve to talk to me anyhow she wants now. The incident at the restaurant, where Sebastian had defeated me in a fight and given me a black eye, had only fueled my hatred towards him. I needed to know more about him and his connection to Thea.I called in some of my trusted men and instructed them to investigate both Thea and Sebastian - both of their lives in their city, what made them come close to eachother to delude everyone that they are into some kind of a relationship. They were to gather quite a handful of information as possible, focusing particularly on Sebastian's background and his position in the city.I called the men in, eager to hear what he had discovered about the assignment. As they entered, I motioned for me to take a seat. I was always that nice to my loy
THEALily will be fine. Lily will be fine.I never thought I would find myself in this situation, constantly worrying about the well-being of my daughter, the girl I had raised by my own self and left to be alone back in the city we were coming from. But here, I was worried, I can't even let her out of my sight because I was scared Tyler might see her and probe her with questions, and the secret that I have been keeping from him will be out.I couldn't forget the way he looked at her with a mix of curiosity and something else I can't quite put my finger on. Like I hurt him, like I betrayed him, like we had something more than a single night together, like we were - lovers! And I cheated on him. That was how he looked at me, an unreasonable strange combination of hurt and longing. And he looks at Lily as if he knows there is a connection between them but can't quite grasp what it is.I know Lily looks a lot like Tyler, it was even worse when I first gave birth to her and I held her in
THEAI excused myself and went outside. I didn't want to imagine that Tyler left without telling me. He was all smiles when we were planning the surprise birthday party, he couldn't leave without a word. As I stepped outside, lashed by the cold fingers of the wind, I was taken aback by the sight of someone sitting on the staircase. For a moment I stood still, then remembered that the person's clothes looked familiar. It didn't take long for me to figure out it was Tyler and when I cleared my throat, he turned back, his eyes fixed on me with a mix of awe and longing. My heart skipped a beat as I made my way towards him, my senses heightened by the tension between us."Hey," I said softly, sitting down next to him on the step. "What's going on? I thought you left."He chuckled and turned to the moon, his eyes still filled with wonder. "that," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper as he pointed to the cloudless sky. He continued to stare at the moon for what seemed like minutes un
THEAI saw him first before Lily and I immediately went to stand in the doorway. Lily was by my side, holding a welcome home banner she designed herself and I was holding one too. I couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions.Excitement to see Tyler again after a whole lot of time and then the thought about how he would react to the party. As I thought of that, a hint of sadness washed over me and I immediately deleted it from my mind. Although our time together had been cut short by his accident then I was glad he was fine.He would be receiving the rest of his treatments and recovering at home. The doctors said he was healing well, but I knew I would still see the faint scar on his chest, which would be a reminder of the traumatic event that had brought us together - Lily's kidnapping. I took a deep breath and stepped forward when I saw him enter the house, holding out the banner. "Welcome home, Tyler!" I exclaimed, trying to sound cheerful but deep down I was bursting with excitement
THEA"Why do you care about Tyler after all he's put this family through?" This question rang in my head. How would I explain it? Yes, Tyler had helped us, but it wasn't enough for the amount of care I felt entitled to show him.I looked up and met father's gaze, he stared at me expectant of a reply. "When you left, I and Cora moved to Manhattan." I watched his eyelids flutter at the mention of Cora, no doubt he was starting to get emotional."Things were pretty rough, I struggled to build an enterprise from the start before deciding to come back here in quest of revenge against Tyler, but as life would have it; things changed. A lot of things changed.""What changed?""I found out Tyler had a pretty good reason for leaving us, I couldn't really blame him. All he did was try to save us, everybody including you. Also..." I trailed off, unsure of how to break the news of Lily to him."Go on, I won't judge you." I didn't really care about his judgement, I just wasn't sure it was right to
THEAMy eyes were closed and I felt like I was in a different world as the remaining drops of tears escaped from my eyes. I wasn't sure how long my head was bent or if I had drifted off into thought, but the next thing I felt was a tap on the shoulder softly.I paused for a minute to wipe off the corners of my eyes before almost jumping off my chair eager to hear anything from the nurse, maybe then I would calm down. "How is..?" I rose my face from the edge of the chair, but couldn't complete my statement as I stared at the face which stared right back at me. Was this real?The walls of the reception began to revolve around me and for a second my head went blank. Was I dreaming? Someone wake me up, I found it hard to believe. Hard to believe that after so many years of neglect, my father would show up to the hospital in search of me because this was definitely not a coincidence.It wasn't a coincidence that he chose to walk into this particular hospital, pass through the outer lobby a
THEAThe slap that led to all of these replayed in my head. Maybe I did blame myself earlier for Lily's abduction, afterall it was me Sarah was mad at. But now that I think about it, if she had just been sensible and didn't raise her hand to hit me, maybe we wouldn't be here right now.If anything, I hated Sarah more than ever now for whatsoever she put Lily through. Lily looked like a shadow of herself and it scared me so much. Judging from the little I had seen of Sarah, I could imagine she starved my baby of food and most likely put her through pain. She looked frail and she didn't deserve to go through all of these at such a young age.I didn't know when the tears began to fall from my face neither did I try to stop them, I let them flow freely while hugging Lily tightly. "I missed you so much and I'm sorry baby. I'm sorry I let you out of my sight," I whispered into her ears."I'm sorry Lily," Tyler apologized. I resented him a lot because I trusted him to keep watch over Lily as
TYLERI gripped Thea's hand as we sat in the car ready to go to the location. Inputting the coordinates into the GPS, I stared at her and nodded my head "let's do this.""Hell yeah, let's get our daughter back."Inwardly, I knew I was scared, but I couldn't show it. The maniac like laughter of the kidnapper over the phone scared me, what if she was mentally unstable? What if she doesn't release Lily after everything? There were so many what ifs in my head, it was hard to concentrate."Are you okay?" Thea asked as I drove."Sure I'm fine, I just want to get Lily back," I lied."Take a left turn ahead."As directed by the GPS, I turned into the pathway which looked like it led into the woods. Thea's breath hitched audibly as we kept on going and lost track of humans and normal surroundings."You'll arrive at your destination in a minute," the GPS informed.There was a cabin out front and I wondered if that was it.My phone screen lit up with a text message from the kidnapper, we were be
THEAI heard the woman's sinister laughter as she said, "Anything? Are you willing to sacrifice your own life for your daughter? You would do that?"As I saw the tears welled up in Tyler's eyes, I saw he choked back his emotions, probably because he did not want me to break down into tears. He couldn't lose Lily as much as I couldn't, I saw in his eyes that he loved that girl more than gold and silver and when he said, "Yes! I'll give anything if it means Lily's safety. Just tell me what I need to do and where you want to get it from." I knew this was true love from a father to his daughter.I was shocked that Tyler was ready to give everything for the sake of Lily and I knew how much he had suffered to take his company to great heights. I had always known that he was a driven and ambitious person, but I had never realized just how much he had sacrificed for the sake of his business. He had sacrificed a lot, he built up my father's crumbling company. As I thought about it, I could ima
THEA"I just want my daughter..." I said that in my mind after calming my nerves. I sat on the warm sofa, but to me, with my heavy heart, it felt like I was on a cold, vinyl chair in the hospital or the police station, my heart was heavy with worry and my mind racing with thoughts of my missing daughter, Lily. And Tyler, sat across from me, his eyes filled with a mixture of guilt and determination, the policeman was still around and he worked a great deal before I calmed down.From where I sat, I knew Tyler wanted to reach out to me, he did reach out, apologising but I pulled away from him, my anger and resentment still raw. "What good are your apologies now, Tyler? Where is Lily? I trusted you with her."Tyler didn't look at me, he faced the policeman directly. His jaw clenched in determination. "We need to find her. I can't just sit here and do nothing, waiting for your men to find herThe man nodded, his heart heavy with grief. "Yes, we need to find her. And trust me with this, I
THEAIt'd been three days without my baby. Although she wasn't so much of a baby anymore, her absence hit me hard. It gave me time to reflect on many things but I was so used to her presence, it left me longing to see her. Tyler couldn't even call me in the midst of his enjoyment with my daughter. She's his daughter too but she was mine for now, I did raise her on my own. The way things had taken a turn still surprised me. I wasn't so sure if my decisions, but they seemed the best fit for the situations at hand.I bought a new bow and a new game pad on my way to his house. It was going to be a surprise visit, I wanted to catch them in the act. I wondered which games they could have been playing. Sometimes, seeing them together brought tears to my eyes. I had a lot of regrets, but I couldn't count giving birth to my daughter as one. She'd been my greatest blessing. My own father abandoned me, and I know it was unfair to keep the secret of her father away from her. They bonded anyways,