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
Ava was not surprised when Steve pulled up in front of her house less than thirty minutes after she got home from Helen's place. She was already outside the house because she went to throw out the garbage, otherwise, she wouldn’t have opened the door, and she would have ignored him until he left.He parked his car, and hurried down from it with his head bent low and his face cap covering his face to avoid recognition, even though the streets were deserted as it was late.Then he came towards her quickly, and grabbed her hands, before fixing her with the most earnest expression that he could muster.“Ava, I know how you must feel, and I can't tell you how deeply sorry I truly am. I only hope you can forgive me and we can get past this.” He told her.“What are you doing here?” Ava asked harshly, dragging away her hand from his savagely.“I came to apologize, of course. I’m sorry for hurting you, but I swear it was a one-time thing, and I don’t know what came over me. It won't happen aga
Derek was right! Derek was right!! Derek was right!!! These words refused to leave Ava’s head as she continued to stare at Steve, who looked as surprised as she was.She could clearly remember Derek telling her that if Steve ever did something remotely akin to what he had just done, she should let him know immediately, but she had thought that he was just exaggerating.Now, she realized that he knew just what he was talking about and that she did not know Steve at all. Never in her life had she been hit by a man before.“Jeez! I’m so sorry, Ava. I shouldn’t have … Christ! I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never hit a woman in my life before. Please don’t tell anyone … it will affect my career. I know you owe me nothing, but please, I’m begging. I'm truly sorry.” Steve apologized, looking furtively around to be sure that no one had noticed him hitting her.“Are you going to leave now or do you want me to get you arrested for assault?” Ava asked him quietly.The quiet tone was effect
Rage was too mild a word to describe the emotion that Derek was feeling as he took Ava in his arms and listened to her sob while he tried his best to comfort her.The thought of Steve laying his filthy hands on Ava was enough to make Derek want to break every single bone in his body and listen to him squeal in pain without showing him mercy.He had known all along that Steve hadn't and couldn't, or wouldn't change his horrid behavior. A leopard couldn’t change its spots, after all.Derek had failed Victoria, but he wasn’t about to do the same with Ava. He wasn’t about to let Steve get away with hitting Ava, even if he and Ava were no longer an item, as Ava told Derek. Thankfully, Ava wasn’t like Victoria, in the sense that she wasn't going to cover for Steve and continue to take his abuse silently while refusing every form of help.“I’m really sorry. I don’t know why I’m crying. You did try to warn me, after all.” Ava apologized, raising her head and wiping at her eyes. She was look
Derek was already anticipating such a move from Steve, so the shove did not even shake him too much.He shoved Steve back with the full force of his anger, catching him unawares so that he staggered backward comically and ended up landing on his butt.Steve sputtered in indignation, got up with the full force of his fury, and rushed at Derek. His hand was raised and he formed a fist to punch Derek, but again Derek was prepared. He had always known how to fight because his Dad used to demand that he take self-defense classes from time to time when he was younger.After he recovered from the kidnapping ordeal, he became nearly obsessed with learning every single self-defense technique there was, so taking on Steve was a walk in the park for him.He blocked off Steve’s punch as easily as an adult could take candy from a baby and delivered a solid and oh-so-satisfying punch of his own to Steve’s jaw so that the other man staggered back several paces due to the force of the punch.It too
"You know what? I've been thinking seriously about that idiot Jerome." Amanda said out of the blue to Denise.The two women were lounging in the new luxurious pool that Amanda recently added to her house that she inherited from her mother."What about him? Why will you let an almost dead man occupy your thoughts?" Denise asked, not really interested in the conversation.She was more worried about the fact that no one seemed to be interested in buying her house, which she put up for sale.She had bought the house at a very exorbitant rate because she was desperate and needed to be close to Derek's house. Besides, back then, she did not ever imagine that Derek would cut her off, or even worse, that she would find herself in the current predicament in which she was.Now, that she wanted to sell it off because she was broke, no one was willing to buy it at the price she was offering, even though she drastically reduced the price compared to the amount she bought it."Well, that's the thin
True to her word, Amanda demanded to see Logan the following day, going as far as to threaten to hire another person if he continued to avoid her.When he saw that she was serious about her threat, he grudgingly agreed that they meet, and met up with her at a park in town. As far as she was concerned, he didn’t need to know that she didn't have the slightest idea where or how to go about hiring an assassin.“I told you that I didn’t want to rush this stuff, didn’t I? Rushing the job was what got my brother killed the last time, and while I love him very much, I'm in no hurry to see him. Besides, like I think I once told you, I have to wait for one of my guys to come back to the country. With him by my side, we’ll take these people down in no time. There’s no hurry unless you want the plan to go to shit.”“I know that. Don’t you think I know that? However, it's taking too long for you to do it. That's not why I called you to come see me today though. I asked you to come because we hav