The two women stared at him in surprise as he slowly made his way into the restaurant.His eyes were obscured by shades that were meant to conceal his identity, but they certainly did not conceal his identity from Amanda and Denise though since they knew him like the back of their palm.“Isn’t that Steve? Why on earth is he looking like that?” Denise asked Amanda, who shrugged and wondered what on earth she saw in him in the first place.He must have seen them where they were sitting and staring at him because he came straight to their table and sat down opposite them.“Hey ladies,” He said, taking off his glasses, at which point Amanda and Denise both gasped.Steve’s eyes were bloodshot like he hadn't been getting enough sleep, his face was red and swollen and to sum it all up, he looked like shit.“What on earth happened to you?” Denise asked him in surprise.“Derek, our mutual enemy, happened to me. I swear that man thinks he's invincible.” Steve spat, his eyes showing the depth of
Not long after their lengthy man-to-man conversation, Derek and Mr Jones went back into the house because Derek had to prepare to leave.Emily looked at him inquiringly when he came back inside, and he smiled at her to assure her that all was well. He said goodbye to everybody, and finally, Ava got up to see him off to his car."Do you mind if we take a little walk down the street, Ava?" He asked her."Of course not. I don't mind. In fact, a walk will be just great after all that tension." She replied."You thought that there was tension in the house today? In my opinion, it was much better than yesterday.""I guess you're right about that. I hope my dad wasn’t too harsh on you when you guys went to discuss.""No, he wasn't. In fact, he bestowed the privilege of being part of the family upon me, and I feel very honored because your family seems to be really interesting, at least compared to mine, or rather the one I used to have.""That's a good sign then.""He did tell me that he pre
It seemed as though Steve turned over a new leaf overnight. Whereas before, he couldn’t hide his disgust for Amanda, now, he waited on her hands and foot, called her day and night, and generally acted like a man who was in love."I still don't know what you want from me, Steve," Amanda told him one afternoon when he took her out for lunch yet again. She wasn’t complaining, though.As far as she was concerned, she was living her best life. Steve could be quite charming when he decided to be and he was really putting his mind to being charming these days, but still, she knew that she had to be on her guard.She had been burned by him once before, and she didn't want that to happen to her again.It was a good thing that Steve was acting the way he was now and was giving her all the attention that she craved because Logan had all but disappeared into thin air after taking the fifty grand for killing Jerome.She knew that he would be back in no time though ... Perhaps when the money was fi
“I thought I already told you that I would have nothing to do with the kid. The only person I'm going to go after is your brother, and maybe I can be persuaded to go after his ex-wife too, but I'm not going to unalive an innocent child." Logan told her, scowling when she mentioned Harper."No one said you had to do anything to her yourself. You can surely hire someone to kill her or something, or if you don't want to do that, you can kidnap her and leave the rest to me. I don't mind doing it myself. You've got another thing coming if you think that Derek won't leave his wealth to her if anything happens to him or that bitch he's so obsessed with. If they're all out of the way, then naturally, since I'm the closest living and only relative, for that matter, I'll get everything." She told him. It was simple common sense.He seemed more grumpy than he usually was, and she wondered what an earth his problem was, but she did not care enough to ask him."Were you fucking that actor guy?" He
After their talk the other night, Derek began to court Ava. According to her, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get back together, so he made it his mission to show her reasons why getting back together was a good thing for the both of them.Her family remained in her house for a few more days after he talked with her Dad. During those days, he stayed away from her house so as to give her family some time and privacy to visit with her, but he still made sure to call her every day.Ava had never before seen this very attentive side of him, not even when he wasn’t avoiding her after they just got married. He had always been caring, so his caring nature wasn’t a surprise.However, now, he showered her with so much attention that it was becoming increasingly difficult to continue to keep her feelings for him at bay.The sexual tension between them had gotten to an all-time high, and Ava had never felt as attracted to him as she did now, not even when they were married. They both kept their
They were silent for a few minutes. Harper was already fast asleep because it was past her bedtime already and Derek realized that he should probably leave so that Ava could get some sleep as well."I should probably be leaving now," Derek said, getting up and stretching luxuriously. One day, in the near future, he hoped he wouldn’t have to leave Ava and Harper at the end of the day anymore, but for now, he would do whatever it was that made Ava comfortable and happy.Ava stared at his rippling muscles as he stretched, remembering all too vividly how hard and silky they used to feel under her hands. Damn! This was becoming even more difficult to bear.Shaking herself, she got up with him, so that she could walk him to the door, even though he had come here so many times that there was no need for that anymore and he could see himself out.With each day that passed, she fell more and more in love with Derek. As for him, she couldn’t tell how he felt because he acted the way he normall
Derek’s lips were just as delicious as Ava remembered them to be all those years ago when she last kissed him. She didn’t think she could ever get enough of them.At first, only their lips were touching, and Derek kept his hands to himself, still trying to give her the option of pulling away if that was what she wanted, but when Ava moaned into his mouth, he lost all control.He grabbed her suddenly by the waist, causing her to gasp into his mouth in surprise, and pulled her hard against his body. It was the hottest thing that Ava had ever encountered, and it caused her nether regions to throb almost unbearably.The kiss began to get more and more intense, until Derek groaned into her mouth, pushed her away, and looked at her with desire-filled eyes. She could tell he was about to apologize for kissing her, so she raised a finger to his lips to shush him. She had to stand on tiptoe to do that."Don't apologize, Derek ... unless you didn't want to kiss me.""Are you kidding, Ava? Kissi
Finally, he decided to have mercy on her and took the nipple in his mouth, sucking it gently, until she was writhing in his arms. Then he did the same for the other nipple.He alternated between the both of them, bringing her immense pleasure in a way that no other man had ever brought her.He did that for a while, and then he moved with her toward the closest wall in the room and made her lean against it. Then he squatted in front of her, and went to town with his head between her legs, working wonders with his oh-so-talented tongue.At this point, Ava was certain that she was going to go crazy. Never in her life had she been this turned on, and she had to cum right at that moment, no matter what.It seemed that Derek knew exactly what she wanted, because he began to expertly lap up her clit in that way he knew she loved, as though it was the last food on earth and he was a starving man.Ava moaned through it all, chanting his name over and over, and grabbing onto his head and shoulde
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