THEAI was dreaming... dreaming that I was seated with him and he was talking. I weighed his words, his pain and how he trusted me to have told me so much. He trusted me so much.He had started, telling the graphic story like I was there with him, he said, "... as I grew older, I found solace in drugs and sex. To escape from the pain at home, I turned to drugs and sex, I had my first penetration when I was fourteen, then again when I was sixteen and it was constant, every day I had sex and every day I took drugs."I saw him again, when he was little, I saw his Ma and Da physically grappling and he was there looking at them, I was like a statue, I couldn't move, I wanted to help him, to pull him away, it was then I heard a bang and slowly, the house I was in was fading and even little Tyler and his parents were fading, it took long to realize I was dreaming and not really in Tyler's old house. I was in Manhattan, on my bed and it was last night I saw Tyler and he told me this.I opened
TYLER"Check your messages, it's on again!" I got those last words from my new manager and truly as I took my phone, I was faced with a barrage of messages on my phone, each one more alarming than the last. Each one tearing the tissues in my heart and making me sink back on my bed. Investors were cancelling their deals with my company, citing concerns about my personal life, citing concerns about my 'illegitimate child'. I had no idea what they were talking about, but the words "illegitimate child" and "bad father" kept popping up over and over again.I tried to shake off the confusion and focus on the situation at hand. My business was crumbling around me, and I had no idea how to stop it. I had just started to recover from the last scandal, when one of my companies got burnt down, I don't think I would ever recover from that, and now this new matter had arisen.I stumbled out of bed and made my way to the kitchen, still trying to process the news. My mind was racing with thoughts of
TYLERI sat back in my chair, feeling a heavy weight lift off my shoulders. I felt a mix of relief and exhaustion after delivering that unbelievable speech at the conference. I never planned for this, but the instant I saw the news stories saying terrible things about Thea, I knew I had to do all in my power to get her out of the mess I caused - I don't even know how I caused it. On a normal day, if this was what I have been preparing for weeks, I would have been pouring over notes and rehearsing this delivery until I know in me that I was confident and prepared. But this, this came unexpectedly and I had to do the speech without rehearsing. And heaven knows as soon as I stepped onto the stage and began speaking, at first I was scared of what to say, and how my speech would sound like, as I began, I could feel the weight of the faces of the men I've worked with all my life bearing down upon me.If I lost it all, how would I live? How was I going to make ends meet. How am I supposed
SARAHI sat still, unable to move, not because of anything but because of what I watched on the news. I have been whipped, lashed with this reality, that felt like a betrayal, a slap in the face. I clenched my fists, feeling the urge to break something.The memories flooded back – the late nights spent talking about our future, the dreams we shared, and the plans we made. Not once did he mention being a father. Was it all a lie? How could he keep such a significant part of his life hidden from me? I stood up abruptly, knocking over the coffee mug at my feet in the process. The hot liquid spilt onto the rug, soaking into it quickly, but I didn't care. My anger consumed me as I stormed around the room, knocking over books and smashing picture frames against the wall. Each crash brought temporary relief from the pain and betrayal that coursed through me. The shards of glass scattered across the floor mirrored the shattered pieces of my heart. How could Tyler deceive me like this? Did he
BOOKERI stood in the lobby waiting for Tyler to return from his phone call while wondering what was so important he couldn't take the call in my presence. My mind searched for answers, was there another crisis? Or was he about to do something to create one? I couldn't quite put it all together, but feeling safe had gone down to the bottom of my list these days. Everything was suspiciousThe door swung open revealing a strange woman who attracted my attention. "Tyler, baby boy, I'm..." She paused and stood still for quite a while and there was shock written all over her face. Confusion was beyond me, I had never seen this face in all my years in earth and here she was barging rightfully into Tyler's house about to utter what I imagined to be sweet words.The shocked look on her face soon turned into that of anger and bitterness and for some reason I couldn't fathom, I stood there watching her with growing curiosity each second. What was it about her that attracted me? I didn't know an
THEAI must have been sitting for almost thirty minutes when the strong stench of blood started to etch its way into my nose. It was then I realised the blood hadn't been scrubbed off, perhaps it was because I was used to having the servants do everything. Fortunately, they weren't around now to witness the horror that took place and unfortunately, this meant I had to do the cleaning by myself."Ugh" I groaned dreading the long walk from the lobby to the kitchen. Whatever Tyler was on when he decided to build such a big house, I needed it now. I just couldn't understand why it took almost ten minutes just to make my way to the kitchen.I walked slowly, each step heavier than the last. I was drained, all my energy must have gone into slamming the vase on her head. Getting into the kitchen, I grabbed a bundle of toilet paper, some wash soap, a towel and a bucket.Walking out of the kitchen, I thought about what would happen if Sarah had actually died. Would I still feel the same way I f
THEA"Welcome to today's edition of the news at noon. Here's our top stories...""Damn!" I cursed silently and switched off the TV, returning to the couch I've been sitting on all day. Even though the paparazzi were about half a mile away from the main house in front of Tyler's gate, worry consumed me. My mind was filled with a whirlwind of thoughts, ranging from work-related stress to the ever-present reminder that Tyler, had told the whole world that he was Lily's father. Paparazzi were everywhere, even in his own house but the distance from the gate to the house was far enough not to hear their voices.Work was piling up, I needed to see to some things. The paparazzi had swarmed outside Tyler's house, making it impossible for me to leave without attracting unwanted attention. I needed to get some essentials for Lily and myself, but I couldn't risk stepping out into the chaos outside and getting chewed up. Lily couldn't go to school and the constant presence of those people outside i
THEA"Didn't you hear me? Mummy, there's blood on Tyler's neck."As Lily asked that question again, I watched as her eyes widened in shock at the sight of blood on Tyler's neck and she reached up to touch it. Panic immediately set in, and without thinking, I blurted out, "It's just jam!" With that, Lily's little finger stopped in mid-air and she looked at Tyler.Tyler quickly caught on and played along, "Ah, yes, jam. I need to clean it up now, Lily, I'll be right back." He said and got up.I smiled awkwardly as he left and was glad that Lily bought the lie. But deep down in me, I knew this was more than just a simple accident. It was another reminder of the chaos that had consumed our lives lately. The constant presence of paparazzi, their cameras flashing everywhere we went, had taken its toll on all of us. And now Lily was being pulled into it all too and damn, I've thought of this over and over again and it's not worth it anymore and I feel so tired.I couldn't help but feel the r
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,