“Oh, my God! That is great news. So he was kidnapped, then? That’s crazy as hell. How can that happen in a big city like this?” Ava asked, coming to sit by him to watch what was being shown on the television.“It beats me, especially because of Derek’s wealth. Makes me realize that I had better beef up security around me. We live in crazy times. There’s not much news on him or what happened to him yet, but I guess we’re going to find out everything in the coming days. Even though he’s a pain in my ass, I’m happy for him that he’s been found.”“Yeah, me too.”“It beats me what correlation or relation they have to all of this, but apparently, Derek’s mother and Amanda were somehow involved in the fiasco earlier today. Amanda is injured because she was shot, and Derek’s mother is dead. She was shot dead by the police. No one knows how they found their way over to where Derek was held hostage or what they were doing there. ”“Oh, my goodness. There must have been some mistake. How on eart
To Derek’s surprise, Denise came to see him every day at the hospital until he was discharged. She was the last person that he wanted to see, and he would have very much preferred that it was Ava who came to see him, but of course, that was not going to happen.He had just had his afternoon meal when she came into the room yet again, with a bunch of flowers in her hands. Derek nearly groaned. He had asked her to stop coming, and instead, stay with Barry, but she obviously wasn’t about to listen to his instructions.“How are you feeling today, babe?” She asked him as she sailed into the room, dropping the flowers on the table in the room and coming to give him a kiss on the cheek. She seemed to be in great spirits today, which was surprising because she was always in a foul mood.“I feel fine, thank you for asking. I would prefer it if you stopped calling me babe, Denise. Have you heard anything about Jerome?” Derek asked her, his heart in his throat.He did not want to believe that J
“You did what?!” Derek thundered, unable to believe his ears. “Calm down, okay? It was the best thing to do. I mean, it would be easy to see Barry often, and if you were busy and maybe his nanny was busy too or something, I could easily pop in and watch him.” Denise defended herself. “Oh, come off it. You’ve never shown even the slightest interest in caring for that child right from when he was born.” “That’s part of the change I was talking about. The whole events of the past month had me realizing how fickle life is and how one needs to let go of every bitterness, enjoy the little things in life and all that because it can all be taken away in an instant.” “I didn’t peg you for a motivational speaker,” Derek told her sardonically. “I’m not one. Anyway, I want to be as involved in Barry’s upbringing as possible. The fact that you’re even willing to accept him despite everything … makes me realize what a horrible person I’ve been.” Denise said, casting her eyes downward and r
“Hmmm. I’m not surprised. I’ve tried my best to get her help, but she doesn’t want any help, and I can't force her until she decides that she wants to be helped on her own. That doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen anytime soon.” Derek was saying.“Yeah, I don’t think so too.” Denise agreed.Before either of them could say anything else, there came the sound of a wheelchair approaching Derek’s room. A few seconds later, the door, which was already ajar was pushed open, and Amanda’s maid wheeled her into the room.The maid looked flustered as hell, as though she would rather be anywhere else but there, but she dutifully greeted Derek and Denise, and then stood aside, looking extremely uncomfortable.Amanda’s foot, where she had been shot, was heavily bandaged, and she looked really terrible. In fact, she looked far worse than Derek, who had been through hell in those woods long before she surfaced there.“You asshole!” She screamed at him the minute she entered the room fully.“It’s
After Derek had spent two weeks in the hospital, Barry was finally well enough to see him. Denise and Barry’s nanny brought the child, who was discharged from the hospital the week before, to visit Derek. They did not tell Derek that they were going to bring Barry over, so it was a pleasant surprise when the door opened and all three came in, bearing identical smiles that showed how happy they were to have been able to surprise Derek. “Daddy!” Barry yelled happily as soon as he sighted his father, struggling to come down from his nanny’s arms. One glance at the boy, and Derek knew that it didn’t matter that Denise had confessed to him that he wasn’t Barry’s biological father. He did not care to know who Barry’s biological father was because there was no point in knowing. As far as he was concerned, Barry was his son and it was going to be that way until the very end. The nanny helped Barry up into the hospital bed, where he hugged his father for a long time, refusing to let g
Derek did not want to go to college. As a matter of fact, he did not see any reason why he had to. All he wanted was to work in his Dad’s company, which his Dad had promised to leave to him someday. He already knew nearly everything there was to know about the company.However, his Dad was hell-bent on him furthering his education. Derek loved his Dad very much and loved to make his Dad proud of him, and so, here he was in one of the most prestigious colleges in the country.Gaining admission into the college had been very easy because Derek was something of a genius and once he put his mind to something, he always achieved it.On the first day of college, he did not make any friends, and then on the second day of college, his roommate arrived. One look at the guy and Derek knew that he was serious trouble.The guy looked Derek up and down and sneered without offering a greeting, and neither did he reply to Derek’s greeting. He was dressed in worn and faded clothes and his luggage loo
BACK IN THE DAYIt turned out that Steve was very much interested in being friends, but just afraid to show it because he was afraid of being rejected.“No, I was fine. I just had some shifts to cover before I resumed school fully. If I don’t complete them, I won't get paid, you know?” Steve replied to Derek’s question.No, Derek didn’t know, as he had never had to work in his life, and neither had Damien, but of course, neither of them told Steve that.They struck up a conversation, and before Derek knew it, they were all laughing and conversing with each other as though they had known themselves for a very long time.Derek was relieved, because he did not want a belligerent person for a roommate, and he had every plan of staying in the dorm during his first year in college, at least.The three fast became good friends, with Derek and Steve being even closer to themselves than Damien was to them since they were roommates.Derek found out that Steve and his twin, Dave, had both run aw
Ava was nervous as hell. She sat stoically beside Steve as he drove the two of them to Derek’s house, neither of them talking much to each other as they were both lost in thought.Derek had finally been released from the hospital, and some of the more important people who had worked on the last project had been selected to go pay him a courtesy visit.Needless to say, Steve and Ava were among those who were selected. She was both the producer and screenwriter of the just concluded movie, while Steve was the lead actor in it, plus they both used to have a relationship with him, so it was common sense that they go.Ava supposed that the both of them could have refused to go, but that would have been in bad taste. Besides, she had decided to tell him about the daughter that they had together.This visit presented the perfect opportunity for her to tell him since she had no wish to have such a conversation with him in an intimate setting with no one around them.“Are you alright?” Steve a