Amanda had begun to despair that Logan was ever going to reach out to her, and she thought he had changed his mind about the whole thing, but surprisingly, she got a call from him the previous evening.Most probably, the news that was going on about Derek had caused him to remember her. He told her that he had been really busy, and that he had even been out of the country for a while, but that he hadn’t forgotten their plans to get revenge.Thus, she had his number, and all she had to do was to put across a quick call to him, and she did just that. After all, he was the one who told her to call him if she needed anything.“I have a quick and easy job for you, Logan.” She said when he answered her call.“Sure, I’m all ears.”“I’m sure you must have seen the gossip channels today.”“Actually, I haven't. I'm not the type to watch what's going on on gossip channels.”“Okay, well. There’s this guy who’s going around spreading stuff about my friend to paparazzi and gossip channels. She need
What had he been thinking coming to Ava’s house on the spur of the moment without first checking to see if she was around or not? Derek wondered as he stood foolishly outside her house, knocking for what felt like an eternity.Nobody was home. Of course, nobody was home. It was a Monday morning, after all, and Ava must have gone to work. She had mentioned fleetingly some days back that she had a new project that she was about to start, and so she was obviously going to be busy putting everything in place to kickstart the project.His coming here wasn’t going to be in vain, Derek decided. If he left now and didn’t tell Ava all that he needed to tell her, he was going to lose his nerve and postpone explaining his side of the story until heaven knows when again.So he got out his phone and put a call across to her. She answered the phone on the fourth ring, sounding out of breath. Also, the place she was in sounded very noisy.“Hello, Derek.” She said into the phone. He wondered if it wa
There were a number of paparazzi who had followed Ava home. They were all yelling out different questions as they viewed for her attention, but she had in her headset and was ignoring every single one of those questions. She looked very tired, pissed off and irritated, and Derek understood exactly how he felt. When he was in his last year in college and he, Steve, and Damien had had their falling out, he understood why most celebrities hated the paparazzi. Back then, he lost his privacy as the paparazzi followed him literally everywhere, shoving cameras in his face, and trying to force him to talk, whether he wanted to do that or not. The annoying thing was that there was nothing that he could do about them until they chose to go away on their own. After everything died down, he had made it a point of duty to disappear and remove himself from the public eye because he absolutely hated having his privacy invaded by total strangers, who would most of the time, twist the truth to suit
"Okay. I’m all ears. I hope there’s no problem though.” Ava said.“No, no. There’s no problem. Well, for starters, I wanted to tell you that everything that that guy, Andy, who has been trending on the gossip channels, said is true. I know that Denise has been giving some silly interviews trying to deny his story, but he’s telling the truth. As a matter of fact, I've been wanting to tell you everything myself, but I didn't know where to start.” Derek said.“I’m not sure I'm following you. What guy Andy are you talking about? I’m lost.”“Oh … I assumed … you haven't seen the news?” Derek asked in confusion. It was all that everybody had been talking about, so he just assumed that she had heard all about what Andy had said.“Um, no. I didn’t turn on the television throughout yesterday and I’ve been avoiding going on social media because I didn’t want to see any of all that … you know, Denise badmouthing me when in reality she’s the one who wronged me alongside you. I mean, it’s been yea
“Really? You were attracted to me when we hadn’t gotten married yet?” Ava asked him. “Of course, I was, although I did my best to keep that fact hidden. The last thing I wanted was to get sued for sexual harassment or something. You see, back then, I didn’t fully know the type of person you were yet, and for all I know, you could have been looking for a way to make yourself some good cash. No offense to you, but such thing had happened before with Steve and Damien, and I wasn’t about to let it happen to me as well, plus as I said before, I didn’t know you that well.”Anyway, to cut a long story short, as I told you one day when we got talking about love and whatnot, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of falling in love ever again, because I felt that it made one weak and vulnerable, as well as opened one to serious pain. So when we got married, and I noticed that I was beginning to look forward to seeing you smile more than normal, or was beginning to enjoy spending time with you, I got s
“So you never cheated on me with Denise.” She asked at last.“I never cheated on you with Denise or with anyone else for that matter. I was faithful to you throughout our marriage.”“Barry was fathered by another man.”“Yes, he indeed was.”“But you thought that you had cheated on me with Denise and that was why you ended our marriage,” Ava stated. Hearing her spell it out like that caused Derek to feel so much regret and he also felt a trifle foolish, but he answered anyway. He had known from the onset that this wouldn’t be a palatable discussion.“Yes.”“You valued her feelings more than mine …”“What? No … no. I didn’t want to admit what I had done … or what I thought I had done. Plus there was the fact that I felt like I was holding you back from what you really wanted, which was to have children of your own, and the fear that we were going to make each other miserable along the line since we wanted different things. That was why I served you the divorce papers. I didn’t want to d
“Um, not exactly.” He said, handing his head as his face flushed.“Hmm. What do you mean by not exactly?” Ava asked, narrowing her eyes at him.“Well, I couldn’t stand the sight of her after you disappeared. But she was carrying my child, or so I thought at the time. I couldn’t exactly cut off ties with her, because I was afraid that what happened to you could also happen to her and I would be responsible for it. So I told her to go stay at my parents's house until she gave birth so that she could be monitored at at all times.And then, she gave birth to Barry, and I fell in love with him the second I set my eyes on him. He was a wee little thing and looked so helpless. Denise on the other hand, seemed so frightened by him and did not seem to want anything to do with him, and neither did she show even the slightest sign that she was happy she was now a mother.We chalked it up to postpartum depression, but as the weeks and then months passed, I realized that she didn’t give a single d
What if he had confessed to her the fact that he thought he had had sex with Denise, and had gotten her pregnant? Ava knew the answer to that question, and that was that she would have left immediately.But what if he told her exactly how it happened … that he had blacked out and found himself in bed with Denise, but did not know how he had gotten there, and did not actually have sex with her of his own free will, but had been under the influence.She may probably have thought he was looking for a way to absolve himself of any blame, and it was highly unlikely but maybe, just maybe, she would have been persuaded to forgive him … if there was sufficient proof that what he was saying was true.What if Denise did not hatch this plan with the man who got her pregnant to blame the pregnancy on Derek? Would Ava and Derek have remained married, with Ava trying her best to get him to fall in love with her, while he, on the other hand, continued to avoid her and refuse her affection?Would she
“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