Steve took a minute to see if she would move, but she didn’t, so he approached her gingerly. Her right leg was resting at an odd angle, and was clearly broken, which was perfect for the story he was going to tell everyone about what had happened to her.He had pushed her down the stairs backwards, so that the bump at the back of her head from where it collided with the table earlier, could be explained away as a bump from her head colliding with the edges of the stairs.He bent beside her and was aghast to see that she had survived this fall. How on earth was that possible? The stairs were high enough for her to have succumbed to the fall, especially considering that she already wasn’t in the best of conditions when he pushed her down them.He did not bother to wait to analyze the situation any longer, but instead, hurried over to pick up the throw pillow from earlier, and placed it over her face.Her struggles were very feeble because of the injuries she sustained from the fall. Stev
It had been ages since Derek felt this ecstatic about coming home from a business trip. In fact, this time around, coming home was all he looked forward to while he was on the trip.Although he talked to Ava and Harper every day while he was on the trip, hearing their voices on the phone wasn’t the same as seeing them and talking to them in person. Not, it wasn’t … not by a long shot.He arrived back in his city late in the evening, didn’t even eat the food that was prepared for him, but instead, headed straight to Ava’s house. She had gone back to her house against his advice after the whole brouhaha with the press died down.At least, she kept the bodyguard he assigned to her, although she kept complaining that there was no need for a bodyguard and she did not like the fact that the man followed her literally everywhere.Derek had informed her that he would be coming over to see her and Harper that evening, but he was totally unprepared for the burst of emotion and joy that filled b
She immediately felt guilty for thinking this way, because there was no reason why she should feel that way. Steve had been nothing short of nice to her … a bit overbearing, maybe, but he definitely did not deserve to be thought of as a nuisance or a subject that ruined the mood.“Yes, he calls me every day. He’s actually arriving later tonight, which is a surprise because he originally told me that he would come back in two weeks.” She replied to Derek’s question.Derek wasn’t surprised. Steve was obviously rushing to come back home so that he could sweet-talk Ava into ignoring whatever it was that he was sure Derek was going to tell her.“I ran into him on my trip,” Derek said.“Ah, yes. He informed me about it that same night. Apparently, he and some members of the crew flew in to celebrate a birthday party.” Ava explained. She did not sound particularly worried or suspicious.“Ava, I want to ask you a serious question.”“Sure, what is it?”“Now, I don’t want you to see me as a med
“Are you suggesting that Steve might become violent towards me?” Ava was asking, her tone sounding a bit worried.“He dares not! However, I’m just saying if such a thing were to happen, then you can count on me to help you.”“Oh, okay,” she said, mulling all that he had said over.Derek wouldn’t understand, but she was glad … fiercely glad to know that Steve might be cheating on her. She supposed it was weird of her to feel that way, but the fact remained that she was a coward who didn't want to have to face him and tell him that she was no longer interested in the relationship.She had a feeling that he would not like that one bit, and now, what Derek had hinted about Steve being violent worried her.She had been suspecting that he was cheating on her for a while now, because, first of all, their sex life was nothing to write home about, and frankly, she didn’t care. They hardly ever had sex, and she knew without a doubt that he was getting it elsewhere.So she was biding her time an
“You won't guess what happened some days ago,” Amanda said to Denise, smiling secretively as she waited for the other woman to guess, but Denise wasn’t in the mood for guessing games.“What is it? I’ve got a headache, and as you well know, I'm not really good at playing guessing games.”“Well, well, well, someone’s in a shitty mood today. What's it with you and the scowling and grumpiness that you’ve been doing all day?” Amanda asked, not sounding particularly offended. In fact, she was in a very good mood.Money always put her in a good mood, and a few days back, she had received money … lots of it, from her dumb brother, so yeah, she was as happy as a kid in a candy store … at least for now.“Well, if you must know, I'm not happy at all. Derek has blocked my access to the account he gave me, from which I used to be able to withdraw at any time. I mean, I still had access to that account even after he kicked me out of his house, but now, I can't access it all of a sudden. How on eart
"Anyway, you were going to tell me about something that happened some days ago,” Denise said, finally remembering that she wasn’t the one who started the conversation.“Ah, yes. Derek transferred my share of the money our father left behind to me. I’m now wealthy. I’m so happy.” Amanda divulged, her gaze far away.She was thinking about how she couldn’t wait for the luxury car she ordered immediately after receiving her money to arrive. It was also high time she went on a much-needed vacation.“Are you serious?” Denise asked, unable to hide the blatant jealousy and anger in her voice.“Yeah. I was surprised too.”“Hmm … is it just me or do you sound like now that he has paid you off, you no longer care about our plan to take all your father’s wealth for yourself?” Denise asked, watching Denise closely.“Of course, I still plan to do that. In fact, I plan to do that now more than ever. I was going to tell you, but we haven't seen each other in a few days, and I couldn't say such stuff
Steve was avoiding Ava, and she had a good suspicion as to why this was so. He no doubt knew that Derek had told her about his escapades and he probably thought that she was mad at him and was waiting her out until he felt that she was no longer angry.She wasn’t mad at him, though. She was just done with him and she had realized that the longer she waited for evidence of his cheating before breaking up with him, the longer she was going to be stuck with him and that wasn't something she wanted.Besides, what if he decided to turn a new leaf and change his ways so that she wouldn't end things with him? It was highly unlikely, but still. Each time she requested to see him so they could talk because she didn’t want to break up with him over the phone, he gave excuses as to why they could not see yet.On the day he finally came to see her in the house, he arrived with a truckload of gifts for her and Harper and acted as though everything was perfect, and then as soon as she mentioned the
Ava and Helen became close really quickly after the event she attended Helen. In fact, they were so close that they both visited each other’s houses frequently now, attended events together, and even went shopping together at times.The day before, Helen had come over to Ava’s house and had forgotten some of her stuff there. The two women had originally planned to go shopping together that evening, but Helen canceled at the last minute, saying that something had come up urgently.At first, Ava thought of postponing the shopping until the next day when Helen would be free because she hated shopping alone and always did it with Harper, but Harper was spending that weekend with Derek.In the end, though, she decided to go alone because several of her groceries were finished and she needed to stock up, plus she wanted to get some new clothes for Harper, so she went shopping by herself.While doing that, she saw a dress that Helen had once mentioned that she wanted to get, so she decided t
The day was bright, sunny, and cheerful, as were the people who were present at Derek's house to celebrate with him and Ava as they got married for the second time.The large garden at their house had been decorated beautifully and had served as their wedding venue. The two were the stars of the show, and they had eyes for no one but each other.They had just exchanged their vows again, to the thunderous cheers of their friends, family, and well-wishers.To put it more precisely Derek was the one with the friends, while Ava was the one with her family members present.Derek didn’t have any extended family members left, and neither did he want any. The family that he had built and was still building was more than enough for him.He had Ava, who was the best and most supportive partner that anyone could have, and with whom he was madly in love, and vice versa.He also had his beautiful daughter, Harper, who was growing up so fast and was so smart and well-behaved that she melted hearts
He led her back to his room, walked over to a drawer by the side of his bed, opened it, and brought out something from inside it.When he turned towards her and she saw what it was that he brought out of it, Ava gasped out loud.It looked like the black box in which her engagement ring had come several years ago.Derek had always had a taste for good things, and he had the money to support his taste.Thus back then, even when he wasn’t really into her, and was only marrying her out of pity, he had gotten her a beautifully crafted and expensive engagement ring.As he opened the box in his hands now and got down on one knee, she could see that it was the same ring that was inside it.He had kept it even after all these years! Tears sprung to her eyes, filling them as he professed his love to her and asked her to marry him again, promising to treat her right this time around and make up for all the lost years.“Yes, yes, Derek. Of course, I’ll marry you! There’s nothing I want more.” She
Ava wasn’t about to take any chances though. After hugging the living daylights out of Derek, while he hugged her back just as tightly, she insisted that they had to visit the hospital right then.“But it’s already late. Besides, I don’t think there's anything they can do or will have to do. We can wait until tomorrow to go there and celebrate this night instead.” Derek suggested, his voice rife with meaning as he threw a suggestive wink Ava’s way, but she didn't allow herself to be swayed.“No way in hell. We’ve waited too long for you to regain your memory to just take it so lightly now that it has finally happened. We’re going now, and that’s that!”“As Her Royal Highness wishes.” Derek joked, making a small, formal bow that made Ava smile.Yes, he was back. She could see in his eyes that he truly recognized her, but even better, he had the same look in his eyes that he used to have before he went to the conference and everything changed.The look that told her that he was in love
She picked up the papers with the slowness of a very old woman and scanned through them, her hands shaking.She was not surprised to see her name, as well as Derek’s name on the papers because she had recognized the papers the minute they fell out of the book.It was the same ones that Derek had handed to her on that night several years ago, which she had had no choice but to reluctantly sign, while crying her eyes out and swearing never to forgive him for everything that he had done to her.Except that he hadn't really done anything in the sense of the word ... at least, not in the way that she thought.Why on earth were these papers still with him? She had signed them and left that day without giving any thought to what he was going to do with them.Her signature was there on the paper, right where she had signed it haphazardly. In fact, she thought that she could still see a tear mark or two on the papers since she was crying when she signed them, but she couldn’t be sure since th
They walked in companionable silence to Derek’s room. Once they were inside the room, he led her to his walk-in closet where he had stored the journals, making sure to keep a respectable distance between them.Ava knew that it was because she had complained about the scent of his cologne, and now, she wished that she had kept her wide mouth shut.“It’s all in there. Here, let me look for the specific one you asked about.” Derek said, picking it out and handing it to her.“Oh, thank you. Are you sure that you don’t mind me reading it?”“Not in the least bit. I feel like I’d be doing the guy who wrote all that stuff a huge solid by letting you see for yourself all the things that he wanted to say to you for so long but was too chicken to say. He might want to kill me for doing it, but I think he’ll be better for it in the long run.” Derek replied, shrugging.“Okay then,” Ava said happily.Derek, for his part, suddenly became self-conscious. What if she thought that he was a sappy fool a
Several seconds passed, and then Derek rushed in the direction that she had gone.He found her in the restroom adjoining the living room. She was throwing up violently into the toilet bowl.Derek went over to her and moved her hair away from her face, providing support until there was nothing for her to throw up anymore.Once she was done, she slowly turned to face him. It was clear that she was reluctant to turn, andDerek remained immobile for a few more seconds before rushing after Ava.He found her in the restroom adjoining the living room, throwing up violently into the toilet bowl, and rushed towards her.He held her and moved her hair away from her face until there was nothing for her to throw up anymore.Then she slowly and reluctantly turned to face him, a fact that wasn't lost on him. In fact, she seemed to be inching awayfrom him so that there was a little space between them.He figured that it was because she had just finished throwing up the contents of her bowel and did
The next day, Derek arrived home from work with a huge bouquet of flowers for Ava and a smaller one for Harper. The two of them were in the living room, watching Harper’s favorite cartoon and looking all comfy and cozy. Their eyes lit up the moment Derek stepped into the living room, and this filled him with warmth. Harper in her usual fashion, bounded up to run over to him to give him a big hug. Her hugs were one of his favorite things nowadays, and he could never get tired of receiving them for as long as he lived. Ava, on the other hand, was more reserved in her welcome towards him, but she did smile at him in welcome. Her eyes were always cautious around him, which kind of made him sad because that emotion was definitely different from the one he wrote about in his journals after she warmed up to him. “Welcome home. Derek. What have you got there behind you?” Ava asked him. “Thank you. I got you both some flowers.” He replied, and brought forward the hand that was holding th
As the days passed and Derek's memory didn't return, he got more and more frustrated because it felt like things were at a standstill due to the memory loss.On the bright side, catching up with work wasn't difficult for him at all. In fact, it was one of the easiest things he had to deal with and he spent several hours a day at it while Harper was at school and Ava was trying to get back to work.Catching up with the rest of his life was what was difficult though. Nothing made sense, and so he had to go through all of his stuff, trying to find out more about his current than he already knew.He managed to find out a lot just by doing this. He had always been very organized and used to keep journals that documented his daily life.Apparently, he still kept these journals and they were all arranged neatly on a shelf in his library.He went through each and every one of them, trying to catch a glimpse of the man he now was. Going through them made him realize just how different he was f
She smiled at him and slowly came out from behind the chair. Derek had no idea for how long she had been hiding there, but it seemed that it had been quite a while.“Daddy…” She said and without warning, rushed at him and embraced him tightly with more strength than he would have expected a child to have.Derek awkwardly patted her back and embraced her too, not sure if he should pick her up, kiss her cheek, ruffle her hair, or anything like that.“How are you?” He asked her, wincing as soon as the words left his mouth. He sounded like he was having a formal meeting with some board of directors or something like that, not talking to a child.However, Harper didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she made his decision for him by raising her arms, indicating that he should pick her up.“I’m fine, daddy. The bad woman told me that you died, but I didn’t believe her.” Harper told him.Derek immediately did as she wanted and she rested her head on his shoulder in the sweetest gesture ever. To his