"I am, sir. It's very nice to meet you." Derek replied, feeling like he had repeated the words 'it's very nice to meet you,' a million times already.He offered his hand for Ava's father to shake, fully prepared for the hand to be ignored, and was surprised when the man shook the hand without hesitation."You say it's nice to meet me. Well, I call bullshit, and I can't say the same about meeting you though." Ava's dad said."Oh. I'm really sorry to hear that.""You should be.""Grandpa. You said a bad word." Harper chastised."I know honey, and I'm sorry. Anyway, I think dinner is ready. We should go eat." Ava's dad said, getting up.Derek remained where he was standing, wondering if it was going to be rude to tell them goodbye and beat a hasty retreat. He couldn't do that, though. It was better to face and hopefully overcome their anger now than to postpone it since he had every intention of getting back with Ava and building a family with her if she was interested."Well, what are
Ava bade Derek goodbye, feeling really sorry for him. He looked very worried as he left, and she guessed that he was probably worried that her parents would convince her not to let him see Harper or something.Her parents would never do that, and they had, in fact, urged her to tell Derek about the birth of his daughter after she gave birth to Harper.They believed that every child should have both parents in their life, so long as the parents in question were good parents and anyone could see that Derek was a great father.What they were worried about was the fact that Ava was so close and friendly with the man who shattered her heart into a million pieces years ago. Although Ava certainly understood where they were coming from, she was also an adult who could make her decisions by herself, and she valued her friendship with Derek very much because it made co-parenting with him super smooth and easy."Well? Has he left?" Ava's mom asked her as soon as she got back."Yes, he has," Av
"You're making a big mistake." Ava's father told her."No, I'm not dad. I'll be making a big mistake if I let you talk me into marrying Marcus. I'm not interested in marriage ... definitely not now or anytime soon, for that matter. Besides, I don't know why you think I'll get married to Derek again. He hasn't even hinted at anything else apart from taking care of and seeing his daughter as frequently as he can. So I'd appreciate it if you dropped the subject.""Fine, I'll drop it, but don't say I didn't warn you. You're right when you say that you're an adult, and I can't force you to do anything you don't want to do. I can only try to advise you, which is what I have done today. It is left for you to decide whether you want to take my advice or not. Even if you do decide that getting married to Marcus isn't what you want, maybe you should sit down and think twice about rekindling your romance with the young man who just left here. You ended your marriage with him for a reason, and
Steve had never been humiliated as much as he had been by Derek just over a week ago. He stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom, peering at his reflection and touching his face gingerly.His face, which was his pride and joy, was now looking very different, despite the fact that he had taken Derek's unsolicited advice and sought treatment immediately after their altercation.His face was still red and swollen from the injuries that he had sustained during his brawl with Derek.If the truth be told, though, it wasn't a brawl at all. What it had been was pure and blatant humiliation. Derek had beaten him hands down, and Steve knew very well that the man didn't even put any effort into doing it at all.Despite the fact that he followed his doctor's instructions religiously and even went the extra mile by icing his face several times daily to take down the swelling, and get rid of the redness, his face was taking its sweet time healing. He had always bruised easily, and he
"Phew! That was insanely good!" Logan whistled, breathing heavily as he rolled off a naked Amanda, who was very much satisfied as well.Amanda made no moves to get up, but instead, remained spreadeagled on the bed in all her naked glory, gazing at Logan expectantly. Her meaning was clear. She wanted some more sex, which was crazy because they had just gone three rounds. What did she think he was? A freaking machine?She was quite insatiable for a fat bitch, but that was probably because she lay on the bed like a dead pig, groaning and grunting like a god-damned generator, while he did all the work.If she could get on top for a few minutes, then maybe she wouldn't be eager enough to say 'let's go again' so soon after they just did the deed.He wasn't exactly complaining though. Sex was sex, regardless of the kind or shape of female he had it with, but then, he wasn't about to let Amanda run him into an early grave with her voracious sexual appetite, either.He couldn't exactly blame
Although Derek wasn’t the type to care about people’s opinions about him, Ava’s parents weren't just ‘people.’ They were important to her, and so he cared about impressing them.This was why he did not like the fact that he hadn’t been prepared to meet them the previous night and he wasn’t looking his best when he met them.He decided to remedy that the following afternoon when he went to drop off Harper from school at Ava’s place by going home early from work, freshening up, and making sure to look as dapper as he always looked.He also came along with a gift for everyone that he hoped they would like. Sometimes, he ran into people who got offended when he tried to get them gifts because they probably felt that he was calling them poor.He hoped to high heavens that Ava’s family wouldn’t be those types of people. He simply enjoyed giving people stuff, whether they could afford it on their own or not, and he had brought gifts for Ava's family because it was the polite thing to do. It
Ava's dad, along with Ava and her sister were in the backyard. Harper was with them, already munching on some food or snack that someone gave her, while still dressed in her school clothes.Just looking at Ava was enough to cause Derek’s heart to start beating. Jeez! He needed to get a grip on himself. What was he? A high school kid with a crush on the cheerleader?He walked over to where Ava's father was by the grill, greeted him, and shook his hand firmly.Ava’s family was clearly not one to hold a grudge because just like her mother had done, her father greeted him as normally as though nothing happened the previous day.Ava also greeted him and smiled at him. However, he couldn’t help but notice that she looked strained, which was not at all the way she usually looked whenever he came around since they became friends again.In fact, after she greeted him, she avoided his gaze altogether and busied herself with doing other things … things that Derek couldn’t help noticing did not a
The rest of the afternoon went well enough, except for the fact that Derek and Ava didn't speak much throughout that afternoon, despite the fact that he had spent all afternoon at her place.He was beginning to think that she was avoiding him. Her father, however, was pleased with the pack of wine that Derek brought for him."This is my favorite wine. How did you know that? Who's been spilling my secrets?" Ava's father asked as they had dinner.Derek couldn’t believe that so much time had passed since he first arrived at the house that afternoon, yet he didn't even notice because he enjoyed being there."Oh, Ava mentioned it sometime in the past and I remembered," He replied to Ava’s Dad’s question.That was when he and Ava newly got married and were having dinner together one night. He poured them each a glass of the wine, which was a gift from a friend and Ava mentioned that it was her favorite wine.Her tone and face were nostalgic as she said it, and since then, he made sure that
“It was by sheer luck, if not, they never would have found you on time, and what would have happened then does not bear thinking about. Apparently, they managed to arrest the guy that Amanda initially hired to do all this sometime yesterday.Once the asshole realized that there was no chance in hell that he would get out of this and that he was well and truly done for, he began to sing like a canary. He led the police right to the house, and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm so thankful we got there on time.” Damien said.“Yeah, me too. It’s still hard to believe that Amanda could be filled with so much hate in her heart and that she was willing to go to such lengths to harm Derek, me, and even our child who has done nothing to her.”“I was surprised as well. I always knew that she was a mean person, but I never imagined that she was downright evil. I'm glad you followed through on your instinct.”“Me too. So is Amanda still …” Ava asked, unable to finish the question.“Unfortuna
Mother and daughter hugged each other for what felt like decades, and when they finally pulled apart, Ava's arm was hurting where she had been shot."I'm so sorry, baby. No one will ever hurt you again, I promise. Not when I'm alive." Ava said, ruffling Harper's hair, and wincing when she saw where the area on her head that had been shaved because of an injury there."The bad woman hit me with a gun. She shot Uncle Steve with the gun. Uncle Steve wanted to run away with me and Gracie, Mom." Harper explained, noting that Ava's eyes were on the wound.Ava gulped and averted her gaze immediately, unable to imagine the horror that Harper and Gracie had been through. Little children like them should never have to see someone murdered in cold blood.Seeing such a thing messed with even grownups like her, not to talk of children.The girls were going to need loads of therapy. Once again, Ava damned Amanda and Denise to hell and back in her mind. Suddenly, she realized the implications o
Ava had grabbed Denise because she wanted to use her as a human shield, and her plan worked pretty well, as it was all that saved her from what would have been certain death.The bullets that Amanda had just fired hit Denise point blank and in rapid succession. She died quickly, although the other two women didn’t know it yet.Ava felt Denise’s body jerk with the force of the shots at the same time that she saw Amanda crumple to the ground as though in slow motion.That was confusing, and Ava stared at her in surprise, unable to fathom what had just happened.She glanced down at Denise, whom she still held, and who was clearly very dead, and let go of her body immediately, feeling extremely sickened.She needed to focus on not getting killed, which was what Amanda was bent on doing to her.Amanda was trying to get back up, but before she could manage to do that, someone tackled her, and hit the gun out of her hand,Within moments, policemen swarmed the room, and Ava collapsed in relie
Denise and Ava stared warily at each other after Amanda left the room, and a few seconds later, Ava decided to try to reason with the other woman, even though she wasn’t sure that Denise was going to listen to her. “Denise, please, let us go. I promise not to press charges against you. You must know from all indications that there’s no way the both of you are going to get out of this unscathed. It doesn’t matter what Amanda says now. I can see in your eyes that you know it.” Ava tried to get to Denise. It was all she could do not to rush straight at Denise and grab Harper, who was whimpering in fear and trying not to move so that the knife would not nick her, away from the woman. She could see the fear and indecision in Denise’s face. Apparently, she was wise to realize what Amanda clearly failed to realize, which was that Ava was right and there was no way she and Amanda going to get out of this without being apprehended by the police. “Shut up!” Denise muttered. “Think abou
Ava didn’t wait to see what would happen next. She rushed straight at Amanda, faintly aware that her arm was hurting weirdly, but her adrenaline was too great for her to think anything of the pain right then. She had taken self-defense classes several times in the past, and although it had been a long time since she took them, those classes came in handy at that moment. Her life, as well as those of Harper and the other little girl, Gracie, depended on her. She couldn't let them down. She began to try to wrestle the gun away from Amanda, who struggled fiercely with her. As they struggled with the gun, it kept discharging, but by some miracle, neither of them was hit. Finally, the gun was out of bullets, and Amanda let go of it while yelling for Denise to come at the same time. Ava wasn’t done with her, though. She thought of poor Harper and her friend who were somewhere in that house, scared to death and definitely not in the best shape. She thought about Derek, who had been throug
Adrenaline pumped through Ava’s entire body, and utter rage filled her entire being. She was right! She had been right all along. These evil women were the ones who had abducted her daughter and another innocent child. She would have called for help, but there was no service on her phone, and she could only hope that Damien and the police would be somehow able to find her and soon too, before something bad happened to her or the girls. Had it been she had thought things through earlier, she would have gotten a car tracker before coming on this solo adventure. Unfortunately, never in her wildest dreams had she imagined what the night would bring, and so she had failed to take this necessary precaution. One moment, she was standing outside the house in fear, and the next moment, she found herself beside the door. Without caring what was waiting on the other side of the door, she threw herself against it as hard as she could. She thought fleetingly of the poor soul that was growing in
Ava didn’t go back home after driving away from Denise’s place. Instead, she parked her car the next block away from Denise’s house in a spot where her car would not easily be detected.Then she waited for what felt like an eternity for Denise to leave her house because she had every intention of following the woman to wherever it was that she was going.Her phone was blowing up with calls from Damien, who had left her several messages, asking her not to do anything drastic that could cause Denise to have the power to get her arrested or something.She ignored the messages and continued to wait. After a while, she saw a car, which she recognized as one of Amanda’s cars, come from the opposite direction and drive towards Denise’s house.Ava’s heart immediately began to beat really fast. Amanda was picking Denise up? Where the hell were both of them headed by that time of the night? Several minutes later, the car appeared again and drove off into the night.Ava let a few minutes pass, a
Ava sat in her idling car outside Denise’s house, her nerves failing her now that she was here.What was she thinking, sneaking out of her house like a thief in the night and coming here to the house of her sworn enemy?She just couldn't continue to sit at home, wringing her hands and crying while waiting for something positive to happen.She wasn’t sure what to do now that she was here, but she had to do something.Taking a deep breath, she took her phone and texted Damien to tell him where she was, just in case somehow, her hunch was right.If it was, then it would be incredibly dangerous and foolhardy to just walk into Denise’s waiting arms without telling anyone where she was.Even though it was only a little past eight in the evening, the streets were deserted, and there was no one around.Ava was about to open her car door and get out of the car when the lights in Denise’s house went off. Apparently, she was preparing to go to sleep.Ava sat still for a few minutes, wondering wh
It had been several days since Amanda and Denise paid their so-called courtesy call to Ava at her house … a move that Denise thought was incredibly stupid and dangerous.After all, the three women weren't friends and all of their acquaintances knew that, so it was surely going to look weird and suspicious that Denise and Amanda decided to visit Ava.Unfortunately, once Amanda put her mind to something, especially in recent times, it was practically impossible to change her mind, and so Denise had no choice but to go along with whatever she wanted, even if she thought it was foolhardy.“I’ve got a bad feeling, Amanda,” Denise said.“About what?” Amanda, who was in a terribly foul mood asked.It was now common knowledge that Derek had not only survived the gunshots but had also gone on to regain consciousness. Ever since this news broke out, Amanda had been unconsolable and had even taken out her frustration on Derek’s daughter, whom she still held captive.“I don’t know … I’ve got a ba