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
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’S POV “I want a divorce.” My hands are shaking badly as I stare at the papers that my husband has just handed to me, after saying those dreaded words. Nothing could have prepared me for this … not even the fact that it is and has always been glaringly obvious that my husband is not as in love with me as I am with him. “I booked a dinner to celebrate your birthday … Your mom and sister are going to be there,” I tell him in a voice that feels like it belongs to a stranger. Maybe if I ignore those horrible words, that he just uttered, they will turn out to be a figment of my imagination. “I have to get back to the office, unfortunately. I have a very important deal to seal, so I can't come. You can still go and have dinner with my mom and Amanda. Do sign the papers and leave them on my desk. This is for the best. You’ll be well compensated.” Derek says and leaves the room abruptly, not giving me a chance to ask questions. I sink into the chair that’s nearest to me, my whole body
How can I not know the face of the woman who, as my sister-in-law has told me too many times to count, is Derek’s first and true love?Jealousy, as I have never known it before, grips me, and I feel my heart constrict as I watch the two of them laughing at something that she had said.“Oh … my God! That lying, heartless, evil, cheating bastard!” I say under my breath with blurry eyes, my chest tightening even further until it feels like I can't breathe. Finally, Derek’s strange behavior all makes sense. His ex is back after all these years and he wants to discard me like a pair of old shoes because of her. The chemistry between the two of them is as clear as day, and as I watch them, I realize that in all the years that we have been married, he has never laughed so heartily at something I said.“Oh, please! Don’t act so surprised. Did you think a handsome and rich dude like my brother was going to remain with someone like you for the rest of his life? It was only a matter of time.”
“Hello … I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself to you properly. I’m Denise, and I’m a family friend of the Turners. It’s nice to officially meet Derek’s wife. I must say that he did really well for himself. You’re a very beautiful woman.” The woman, Denise says, taking me aback. She sounds nicer than I expect.“Oh, um, well, thanks.”“It’s the truth, but you’re welcome. That aside, I have a feeling that you and I are going to be such good friends.”“Unfortunately, I’m afraid that is not going to happen. Derek served me divorce papers this evening and is hell-bent on me signing them, so I’m going to be gone soon enough.” I divulge, then immediately wish I hadn't told her that.What am I doing confiding in a total stranger about the fact that Derek wants a divorce? At my words, Denise looks shell-shocked. In the next moment though, what suspiciously looks like happiness fleets across her face for a split second, but then, it is gone as soon as it appears, leaving me to wo
Determined not to embarrass myself by losing my composure, I turn away from him and walk back to my table, my legs unsteady and my eyes swollen from unshed tears. I notice that Denise is now seated with two other men and a woman, who are all dressed in formal wear. They must be the other clients that he had talked about. Okay, so maybe he was telling the truth about the business meeting, but I still have a strong hunch that he and Denise have something going on. I can see it in the way they can't stop looking at or smiling at each other and in their general body language too.I decide to stop torturing myself and ignore them for the rest of the evening. There is no rest for me, however, because as soon as I sit down, Amanda and her mother start what they do best … which is antagonizing me in a bid to provoke and get a reaction out of me. “Barren, ugly bitch! I don’t know what my brother ever saw in you.” Amanda taunts me after several minutes have passed since I returned to th
Buzz … I receive a message on my phone. I wonder if it is going to be Derek who is checking up on me. After all, I left the restaurant crying and in shock.I dive for the phone, hoping that he has sent a reasonable explanation for what I saw. One glance at the phone screen and I see that the message is indeed from him. However, any hope that I had that he is going to explain himself dies a quick death the minute I scan the contents of the message. It reads,"Denise is pregnant. She is about to give birth to an heir for me. Our child needs a family. Sign the divorce agreement by tomorrow." A new message from Derek's phone number.If I had thought that nothing could hurt me anymore after the series of events that I have faced this day, I thought wrong. This new unwanted piece of information hits me like a ton of brick.Bile rises in my throat and I rush straight into the bathroom just in time to throw up the contents of my stomach until there's nothing left in it, at which point I beg
DEREK’S POV My entire body hurts like hell, and my head is pounding like there are a million troops in it, but I do not go home. Instead, I head straight to the office, dressed in the shirt and trousers that I wore to dinner last night, although I do not wear the suit.I don’t want to have to deal with Ava and the accusation that would no doubt be in her eyes once she sees me. Last night was quite chaotic, but I’m not ready to explain anything to anyone just yet.“Sir, your wife, um … Mrs Turner, erm, Miss Ava, left these for you.” My secretary informs me when I get back to the office, handing me the divorce papers that I gave to Ava the previous night.To my utter surprise, she has signed them. Knowing Ava, I had thought that this would be a prolonged mess and that she would refuse to sign the papers and continue to declare her love for me. “Hmm. What is that woman playing at now?” I wonder aloud.“Sir, she also refused to accept this. She said she doesn’t need it.” My secretary say
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
A few days later, Derek was set to be discharged from the hospital. Everything felt so strange to him, and he felt a tad lonely.He had spent the last days of his hospital stay catching up on his present life or what it was supposed to be like.Nothing made sense to him, and he tried not to dwell too much on the grief that plagued him anytime he thought about his dad or the fact that the other remaining members of his family had turned out the way they had.Reading and watching all the pieces of news that he could gather about the whole incident, as well as asking tons of questions, made him not hurt as much as he would have at Denise's or Blair's death and Amanda's incarceration.He could not wrap his head around anyone doing what they had done, especially the fact that they kidnapped and tortured two innocent children, one of whom was his own daughter.He still had yet to meet his little girl, but he was going to see her that day when he got home.He was nervous as hell, about the m