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
THEAA loud bang made me stir, it came again and I still thought it was from my dream until it came again and I woke up to the sound of the doorbell ringing. My eyes flew open and I sat up, The sound came for the fourth time and my heart skipped a beat. It was early in the morning, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. Without wanting to, the events of yesterday came to my mind, they were still fresh, and I couldn't shake off the feeling of worry. I glanced at the clock on the bedside table, realizing it was much too early for any visitor. Lily stirred beside me. She must have been woken up by the noise as well. Tyler was up too, his hair mussed and his face more handsome than ever. Even in this state of worry, I couldn’t help but admire his handsomeness. I couldn't help but be captivated as I watched him rack a hand over his luxurious hair. The way the tousled hair fell gently over his forehead, and the peaceful expression on his face made my heart skip a beat. His eyes sl
Tyler’s povThe officer eyed me with a suspicious glint in his eyes as he showed me a piece of glass and presented Sarah’s hand bag to me.It was clear they were suspicious of what had occurred here and with the bad press surrounding me right now, I couldn’t fault them for it. I’d be suspicious too if I was a detective. “Yes that’s Sara’s bag and yes was here. I had invited her over for dinner to talk about business but unfortunately she slipped and fell on her way to the kitchen and had knocked over a vase, you see my daughter had spilled water on the floor and had forgotten to clean it up.” I could feel Booker’s eyes on me and her hands holding on to me like her life depended on it. I put my hands around her, unconcerned whether or not the officer’s would be suspicious, I could bear to see her like that.The officer on the other hand seemed satisfied with my answer, in fact he looked like he didn’t want to be here any more than I did.“Oh, I understand, I have daught
The officer eyed me with a suspicious glint in his eyes as he showed me a piece of glass and presented Sarah’s hand bag to me.It was clear they were suspicious of what had occurred here and with the bad press surrounding me right now, I couldn’t fault them for it. I’d be suspicious too if I were a detective.“Yes, that’s Sarah's bag and yes she was here. I invited her over for dinner to talk about business but unfortunately she slipped and fell on her way to the kitchen and knocked over a vase, you see my daughter had spilled water on the floor and had forgotten to clean it up.” I explained to them in the calmest voice I could muster.I could feel Booker’s eyes on me and her hands holding on to me in a vice grip that I was sure she was going to leave bruises.Without thinking, I wrapped my hands around her and drew her closer to me, unconcerned whether or not the officer’s would be suspicious.The officer seemed satisfied with my answer, in fact he looked like he didn’t want to be her
THEAI watched as Lily happily packed up her bag for school, a worried knot forming in the pit of my stomach. I did not like the idea of her going to school today due to recent events but she was not having it and I didn’t want her to throw a tantrum again.“Lily,” I said, crouching down to her level, “you know, if you stay home with mommy, I’ll cook you your favorite meal and we can watch cartoons all day…”“No.” She shook her head firmly. “I want to go to school!” she said with finality in her tone and walked away to do something else.I sighed as I dragged my hands down my face, knowing there was no way in High-water or hell, I would be able to convince her to stay home now that she had made up her mind. I had informed her last night that she wouldn’t going to school today and she had practically complied a list of the reason she should be allowed to go to school and had asked me to compile my own list of why I didn’t Want her in school and when I hadn’t been able to come up with
THEAI let Sebastian envelope me in his warm embrace, happy and equally surprised to see him.“You look well.” Sebastian said as he kissed the top of my head. It had only been a week but I had missed him.“So do you.” I replied with a smile, as I pulled away from him. “Come on in.” I told him and locked the door behind him as he stepped in.“I’ve missed you.” I said to him with a soft smile as I came to stand in front of him. He looked handsome as usual in jeans and a white compressor shirt.“I’ve missed you too.” He smiled, ruffling my hair. I slapped his hands off and he chuckled.“Being here has made you a bit harsher huh?” he said in a playful tone and I rolled my eyes at him in response.I beckoned for him to come with me and he followed me into the living room.“Where’s Lily?” he asked as he glanced around, looking both unimpressed and uncomfortable in Tyler’s space.“She’s at school,” I told him as I plopped down on the couch.“is that a good idea?” He asked with raised brows.
Sebastian’s POV“You don’t mean that.” My voice came out a little broken as I stared at Booker, hoping to God she’d take back her words.“Yes, I do.” She said, enunciating each words with both her eyes and her mouth. Her words hit my like a ton of bricks and I realized something I’d been hoping was not true. I straightened and put on a mask of calm even though I felt the furthest from it. “If that’s how you feel.” I said to her in the most emotionless voice I could possibly muster and immediately turned on my heels. I Walked out the kitchen into the living room and outside the door, not letting myself think until I got back home. I had hoped that she would stop me or call me during my drive back home but nope, she’d not even bothered to text me.I opened the door to our apartment before I let myself feel anything. I matched over to the kitchen and plucked a bottle of whiskey from the Mini bar. I took out a whiskey glass from one of the cabinets and poured myself a drink.
THEA"Oh my God, what have I done?" I asked as I walked into the empty kitchen with my hands covering my mouth as the weight of what I had done sank in.I sunk into a stool beside me and groaned out, upset at dumb things that I had said to him . How could I have said that to Sebastian? He was only looking out for me.I wanted to run after him but he knew he was long gone."Everything okay?" I heard Tyler's voice from the entrance of the kitchen. I glanced up at him and he looked at me confused."No." I shook my head, "I did something stupid.""Hey, it's okay." Tyler rubbed at my back.We were now in the living room sitting on the couch and I had just finished telling him what had happened between Sebastian and me and how much I had fucked up by literally telling him to go back to his country. I had carefully omitted the fact that the fight had been about him as a he tried to calm me down but I didn't need calming."No, it's not. I said horrible things to him." I looked over at Tyler
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,