“Alright, everyone. It’s time for me and this lovely lady here to go home. Thank you so much for the love. As you all know, I do not take your love for granted. However, now, I need to get this lovely lady home safely, so I’ll have to say goodbye.” Steve told the small crowd, every inch of him oozing charm and self-confidence. Ava stood nearby, wishing that she hadn’t even invited him to come in the first instance. He always managed to attract a crowd wherever they went, except he went disguised, and even sometimes when he went disguised, people still recognized him and came up to them.Ava knew that it wasn't his fault, but still, she didn’t think she would ever get used to having random people coming up to them all the time and invading their personal space. Also, she was embarrassed that he had kissed her in front of Derek, even though she had nothing to be ashamed of.She couldn’t even bring herself to look at Derek for a while, but when she finally did look at him, his face was
Tim’s father and mother herded the children out of Derek’s car immediately after the driver stopped the car in front of their house.Tim’s father gave Derek a knowing look and sceretive smile and Derek fought the urge to groan out loud. What the hell was wrong with the old man?“Listen, Vanessa. Can we talk for a bit?” Derek asked Vanessa, who smiled at him, apparently having forgotten that she was mad at him earlier.“Sure, we can. Let’s take a walk down the street,” she suggested.Derek informed his bodyguard and driver that he was just going to take a walk down the street, and so he and Vanessa left. He wasn’t surprised when he looked back and saw that the man was trailing them at a respectable distance.Before, he would have minded and would have told Jerome to beat it, but nowadays, after the ordeal he went through, he felt much better having someone watching him when he was out in public.This reminded him that he had yet to convince Ava to let him hire a bodyguard for her and H
"Miss Denise is here to see you, ma’am.” Olga, Amanda’s maid informed her, standing a safe distance away, in case Amanda’s temper got the better of her and she decided to throw something Olga’s way, as she usually did whenever she was pissed.Surprisingly however, Amanda seemed to perk up happily at this news rather than get angry. It was surprising because Olga, as well as nearly all the domestic staff at both Derek's, Amanda's, and even Denise's houses knew that the two women had had a falling out recently.In fact, the falling out was so serious that Denise was noticeably absent from Mrs. Turner’s burial, which was extremely shocking because of how close Denise was to the family. She was the mother of Mrs. Turner's first and only grandchild, after all.Denise's absence from the funeral wasn’t as shocking as Derek's absence from the burial ceremony though, especially considering the fact that the poor woman had died trying to free him from the kidnappers that captured and tortured h
It took less than twenty minutes of sweet talk from Denise to cause Amanda to change her mind about being mad and to show just how happy she was that her best friend was back to her."Oh, Denise, it hurt me so much when I thought that our friendship was over, but I'm glad we've been able to look past our issues." She gushed, getting up to pour drinks for herself and Denise."Me too. I was having a mental breakdown that day you came to my house, and to be honest, I can hardly remember anything I said that day. It's all a blur to me, but I'm sorry once again." Denise lied smoothly.Supposing her plan had worked and giving Derek some space had made him realize how much he missed the love that they used to share and how she was the one who was meant for him, there was no way she would be here."It's okay. I accept your apology because I've been there myself. Mental breakdowns are scary as hell. So how have you been?""To be honest with you, my dear friend, I haven't been fine at all. My l
Derek arrived promptly at Ava's house for his ice cream date with Harper. Ava wasn't at home, but she had left instructions with her housekeeper and Harper's nanny to release Harper to him.They had agreed that Harper was going to spend the night at his place because Barry kept asking for her and she wanted to see him as well.Father and daughter spent the entire afternoon together, and Derek realized that spending time with his daughter was fast becoming his favorite activity.It was a good thing that the feeling was mutual. After they had ice cream, he took her shopping with him because he wanted to get some new clothes for himself and he preferred to shop for clothes himself even though he had people who could do that for him.He did not miss the appreciative looks that many women threw his way, but none of that moved him in the least bit because he had gotten used to it over the years.Finally, after they had both exhausted themselves shopping, Derek took her to his favorite resta
"So how are you feeling, buddy?” Derek asked Barry when he got back to the room. Barry’s nurse was in the room checking him and preparing him to sleep and a few moments after Derek came into the room, she left.“I’m fine, Dad,” Barry replied. His voice sounded so weak and he looked so tired that just looking at him broke Derek’s heart. Maybe he was being selfish and what he needed to do was pray for Barry’s suffering to come to an end, even if it meant that he would no longer be here.“That’s good. Do you need anything?” Derek asked again, pulling a chair closer to the bed, sitting on it, and gently ruffling the child’s hair.“No.”“Okay. Listen, honey, do you remember how I told you that the doctor was going to make you all better?” Derek asked in a choked voice. This was one of the worst things that he had ever had to do.“Yes. That’s why nurse Mabel gives me injections and drugs.”“Yes, exactly. Uh, well … the drugs and injections aren't enough anymore, and …” Derek paused, not sur
At first, Derek thought that the child had simply fallen asleep again, but something about the way he was positioned seemed off to him.He didn't even get to the bed before he figured it out and the glass of water dropped from his hand and shattered on the ground, with one of the shards injuring him, but he didn't even notice it.He walked over to the bed and picked up the lifeless body of the child to check and be certain that he wasn't mistaken. There was no sign of life in the child's body, but he rang for the live-in nurse that he had hired nonetheless. She arrived in less than two minutes, examined Barry, and pronounced him dead.Despite the fact that Derek had spent the past hours saying goodbye and mentally preparing himself for this, the child's death hurt far more than he had thought it would.Derek remained there with Barry's pathetically small body for the next hour and then the nurse came back again to check up on him. She patted him on the shoulder, told him how sorry
"Barry’s body is not even yet cold, and neither has it been removed from your house and you’re already going outing with the child who killed him? What other despicable thing are you going to do? Go have sex with that ugly, obnoxious bitch that you keep panting after like a dog in heat while the boy you claim to love lies dead?” Denise raged, her voice loud enough to awaken the dead and jealousy coming off her in droves.Right on her heels came two of Derek’s security personnel who did not waste time in grabbing each of her arms and trying to bundle her out of there, but it seemed that they had underestimated just how angry or mentally unhinged Denise had become.“You tricked me, you heartless bastard. You tricked me into leaving after you wasted my time all these years and now you think I'm going to stand by and watch you leave me to go be with that woman and her daughter. I will only allow that to happen over my dead body!” She screamed, fighting the men who were holding her like a
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