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
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
Thea’s POV If there was anything I absolutely loathed, it was asking for help.It was something I was never particularly excellent at. I was always the 'I can handle it all by myself girl.' and I usually could. I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist as everyone seemed to think I was. I just preferred to do things a certain way. Okay, maybe I was a perfectionist but it wasn't a bad thing. It got things done most of the time, even though it meant living exclusively on caffeine and oxygen.I was at the Capa Decal Hotel, a seven star hotel in Manhattan. I was here to do the one thing I hated the most, to ask for help. Normally I wouldn't be so bothered by it if the person I was to seek help from wasn't a renowned douchebag and asshole.My eyes wandered around the restaurant when I reached the door and within seconds, I spotted the man I had come to see. Tyler Blackwood, the CEO of Blackwood Oil. He was sitting beside the glass wall of the restaurant. Tyler was our biggest competitor in t
Thea’s POVI hated how gorgeous I looked.I was standing in front of the mirror in my walk-in closet, staring at my reflection in irritation. It wasn't that I didn't look good, because I infact did. It was because of who I was looking good for. Tyler fucking Blackwood. I couldn't exactly pinpoint when I had made the decision to take his offer but at some point I had. I had decided to swallow my pride and shame and sleep with a man for my father's sake. I hated the fact that I had to do this, but I was running out of options."It's only sex." I muttered for the upteenth time to convince myself as I stared at my reflection.The red silk dress I wore hugged me in all of the right places. The dress was a slip red dress that was tight enough to accentuate my curves and loose enough to form a sexy silhouette around my body. My entire back was bare, the dress only joining right above my ass. The length of the dress wasn't any more chaste than the rest of the dress, stopping just an inch belo
Tyler's POVI watched as the beautiful blonde woman slept like a tired kitten on the king size bed of my hotel room. She looked peaceful in her sleep. I had been with a lot of women, but I had never had one as hot and eager as her in my bed, nor one I wanted to take to bed again. I stifled a groan when memories of her mouth sucking me off flashed in my mind. I felt my cock twitch in response. No, no, no. We can't.I remembered the first time I had seen her was at a conference meeting for business owners. She had been with her father and I had thought her to be gorgeous even though for some reason she was wearing a very unflattering dress that covered all her curves. She had smiled at me and we had talked for a while mostly about business. I knew from our interaction that day that she was an intelligent woman and I had wanted to fuck her. I wanted to approach her but then, I didn’t like to mix work with pleasure. She was the daughter of the man I wanted to do business with and if some
Daniel’s POV What I wanted most right now was to get to the tallest building and jump down, without feeling any pain as life slowly leaves my body.I felt like hell. Hell was an understatement, I had lost everything that ever mattered to me, I felt useless and devastated and the pain shoot through me like dagger stabs, radiating all through my body and making me feel less alive than I did as I called that Blackwood boy. I looked at my hands, my fingers, they had typed the simplest, but deadliest message to the young blackmailer called Blackwood, simple words of "I accept your offer."I wasn't in the right state of mind as I sent that to him, I was obviously afraid to lose, to go back to being penniless after all I've been through to build my oil empire. Even my wife contributed to the growth of the business, now, with my own hands, I sold it out in less than twelve hours.Slowly and painfully, I let my mind flow back to the disastrous meeting that put me in this dilemma. The moment I
Thea’s POVI splashed water again on my face, refusing to accept the consequences of the recent happenings in which I was somewhat involved in. Tyler fucking Blackwood had ruined my family, and my life along with it.While I was busy enjoying his hands over me, he had his own evil scheme planned out in his head, and unluckily for me, he got away with both things. I felt worse than I did when I dressed up to meet him at the hotel. It was my fault either ways, I should have read the handwriting on the wall.My reflection stared back at me, if she were a different person, she must have been disappointed and heavens knows, I was disappointed. How did I let this happen? Why didn't I see this coming? If I had, maybe I could have prevented it. But, perhaps, somehow, shamelessly, I wanted to warm Tyler's bed, I had seen him on several occasions and he charmed my imagination, but pride made me ignore him.Damn me! Even in the midst of all this shit, all I could think of was sleeping with Tyler
Thea’s POVThey were clapping as I walked to my seat. The applause started out in a fine pitch, until it rose to a crescendo. I looked around me, feeling proud of what I was able to achieve in five years. It was unbelievable but I did this.This was the third meeting to be held this month and it was as a result of the company's sales. The company even had its name in the mouths of the top investors in Italy. It's in the good books that Booker industry was beating the odds. Today, the main discussion was to find ways to expand our business to my hometown. The place I left years ago, it seemed like yesterday; I and Cora alone, but now, I had more responsibilities.I smiled when I sat down and took the paperwork before me. I had these thoughts since Booker industry hit limelight, but I wasn't sure how to present it to the other stakeholders. They were mostly French men with few from America. I knew they might not approve of my decision but whether or not they agree, Booker industry will
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,