DENISE’S POVIt’s been days since Derek told me about his ex-wife’s return and since then, I have been really unsettled. The reason for this is apparent.Derek is still very much in love with his ex … it is clear as day, and that is such a pity. For all his money and charisma, it is pathetic that he is pining after someone whom he hasn’t seen in ages.That is not the only reason for my being unsettled though. There are two other reasons. The first is that I’m still very much in love with Derek and I want to get married to him.Or maybe to tell the whole truth, I'm not really in love with him … at least not in the sense of the word, but still, I want to get married to him.Getting married to someone like Derek would mean that I would not have to work for the rest of my life, and I could live like the queen that I am, with more than enough money to do whatever the hell I like without having to work.The second reason is that I am scared … scratch that, I'm terrified! Yes, I have done th
AVA’S POVMy morning hasn’t been a very great one today. First of all, my daughter decided to throw a huge tantrum today after deciding that she does not want to go to school, something that is out of character for her.Then after I got that settled, I had a flat tire on my way to the office and it cost me more time than I wanted to get that settled.But apparently, that is not the end of the inconveniences that have placed themselves in my way for the day, for no sooner had I entered the reception area where the people who had come for audition were waiting, than someone latched themselves onto my arm.I hear the voice, which I do not recognize before I see the person. Immediately I see her, I recognize her, even after all these years. How can I not recognize the woman who had given me sleepless nights back then?“Hello, dear. I don’t know if you remember me, but it’s been ages. How have you been?” Derek’s ex, or by the looks of it, his girlfriend, asks me, beaming at me as though we
DENISE’S POVThe further I get away from the office in which the audition had taken place, the angrier I am. Life can be so cruel, and I cannot believe that I have to answer to or be at the mercy of that woman.To worsen matters, Derek left me there at the office and went to heaven knows where, which means that I have to find my way back home by myself, something that pisses me off to no end.I had done perfectly well at the audition … of that, I have no doubt. So all I’m waiting for is to get a call back from them. I just hope that this movie launches me into the spotlight like I deserve.If that happens, and I become super rich, then I won't even need Derek any longer, and I can dump that burdensome child on him and have my fun, the way it was meant to be.If the movie doesn’t take off the way I expect though, I would still need Derek, which is why I'm going to keep on holding on to him by every means possible, and using Barry as a weapon against him.“Mommy!” Barry shouts in joy wh
DENISE’S POVI begin to panic immediately, and understandably so, because of the scary amount of blood that is pooling up beneath the boy. It was a mistake and I did not mean for this to happen.Barry had pissed me off and that was why I pushed him, but how was I supposed to know that there was something sharp near where he had fallen?“Oh, my God! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” The young nanny begins to chant over and over, her eyes going as wide as saucers as she stares at Barry lying there motionless in a pool of his own blood.Great! Derek just had to go and hire a Jesus freak. Luckily enough, her terror and overreaction have made me somewhat calm, and now, I take charge of the situation.“Shut your mouth and make yourself useful by calling 911 and telling them that there is an emergency, okay?” I tell her. She nods, still wide-eyed, but she scurries away, all the while chanting Jesus, and returns some minutes later with her phone.“Should’nt we call Mr. Turner?” She suggests hesitantly.“
Ava’s POVThe next few moments after I am told that my daughter has been seriously injured while on the playground are a blur to me. Somehow, I manage to maintain my calm while asking the necessary questions.“She’s been taken to the hospital, Ms. Jones. We’re really sorry about all this. We tried to reach you several times, but you weren't answering your phone.” One of the teachers tells me, wringing her hands worriedly.I take my phone out of my bag and it is then I see that there are several missed calls on it. I had put it on do not disturb mode because I was very busy and did not want anything to interfere with my work.“Alright. I’d like to go see her now, please.” I say in a voice that feels like it does not belong to me.Harper has always been a very healthy child, and she has never had any cause to stay overnight at a hospital since I gave birth to her.The thought of my baby girl being in pain causes my heart to form tight knots of worry and pain.“I don’t think you’re in th
Ava was clearly the last person that Derek and Denise expected to see at the hospital, just as she had not been expecting to see them there either. “What are you doing here, Ava? Is everything alright?” Derek asked Ava, who was surprised because his voice was so full of concern. She had never heard such concern from him directed at her. “Yes, everything is fine. I’m just visiting a sick friend.” Ava replied, hoping against hope that Steve would get the message and would not say anything that he wasn’t supposed to say. “Oh, that’s nice of you. I didn’t know that you had any friends here. Is it anyone I know?” Derek asked, as though he knew any of her friends when they were married and she used to live here. She didn’t even have any friends back then. “You don’t know a lot of things about me, Derek and there is no reason why you should as far as I'm concerned because nothing connects us to each other apart from the project. To answer your question, no. It isn't anyone you know.” “Oh
Cursing her rotten luck, Ava made her way slowly towards him. Avoiding him right then would have appeared very rude since he was obviously waiting for her. “What is it now?” She asked him warily after he walked up to meet her halfway. “I had no idea that you knew Steve.” “As I said earlier, you have no idea about many things concerning me, just as I have no idea concerning many things about you. It's not a big deal, and neither is it any of your business, so I don’t get why you’re bent on pointing it out.” “You should stay away from Steve. He's bad news.” Derek told her without mincing words, leaving her to gape at him in surprise at his audacity. “And who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do and what not to do?” “Ava, I’m serious. You don’t want to mess with that guy. I know he’s good-looking and all, but he is not at all what he seems.” “I can look after myself, thank you very much. I don’t need you to do it for me. We’re practically strangers to each other, so
EIGHT YEARS AGO“Come home now, Derek! Your father is dying! Oh, my God! I’m so scared! Please, God!” The hysterical voice of Derek’s mother came from over the phone.Derek felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach at those words. He loved his father more than life itself. That man had sacrificed a lot for Derek and his sister and hearing that he was dying was something of a rude shock.“Mom? What are you talking about? Dad is dying? He sounded very hale and hearty when he called me earlier today.” Derek asked, thinking to himself that he must have heard wrong. His mother was not listening to him and did not answer his question because she was busy talking in a frenzied tone in the background.“Mom!” He yelled into the phone, but instead of hearing his mother’s reply, the line went dead, throwing him into utter confusion and fear.He tried to call her number as he picked up his keys and rushed out of the office, so he could go to his parent’s house and find out what was really go
Luckily enough, the surgery was successful, at least, according to what the doctors told Ava.She wasn’t a professional, so she had no way of knowing if this was correct or not, as Derek had been placed in a medically induced coma by the doctors until he was better.All she knew was that he lay in the hospital bed day in, day out, looking as white and still as a corpse, with the machines breathing for him.As for her, she had made a hasty recovery, which was probably fueled by the need to be present to look after Derek herself, and her flesh wound from the gunshot had all but healed.Although all the threats to Derek's life had been eliminated, so to speak, she still had this irrational fear that some other person who had some beef with him was going to sneak into the hospital and snuff the life out of him.Unfortunately, however, since he was in the ICU, she couldn’t be with him as much as she wanted, which made the whole experience even more scary and traumatic, as she had no idea w
“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