"Um, was it something I did? Is she mad at me or something? I mean, she was happy to see me when I arrived.” Steve asked after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.“No, of course not. She’s just mad that I didn’t allow her to open the gift you got for her yet. I told her that she’ll only be allowed to open it after she does her homework.” Ava lied. She knew her daughter very well, and she knew that Harper was mad because she had seen Ava kissing Steve.Derek had managed to charm Harper so fast that in the little time that she had known him, she already wanted him to be with Ava so that they could all be one big, happy family and the little girl knew that Steve was in the way of that happening.“Oh, alright. That makes sense. The gift is just a princess dress with a matching bag and shoes.” Steve said, sounding relieved.“Thank you for getting them for her, but you don’t need to do that everytime you come visiting, Steve. You’re spoiling her too much.”“I do the same for my sister’s
In the three days leading up to the competition that Tim’s children had invited Derek to attend, the children called him every evening to remind him of his promise.Short of hurting their feelings, there was no way Derek could refuse to go after promising that he would, so he had no option. Luckily enough, Barry felt much better than he had in days, so Derek decided that it was okay to attend the competition.He wouldn’t stay long, he reckoned. He would just stay long enough for the children to see that he had showed uo as promised, and then he was going to come back home.With this decision made, he had his driver drive him to their house, where he found Vanessa, the youngest child, and Tim’s parents waiting patiently for him to arrive and pick them up as arranged.“I didn’t know that you guys are still around.” He said to Tim’s parents who told him that they had decided to stay back to watch their grandson’s game before going back to their base.“Oh, okay. That’s nice.” Derek said,
Short of removing his arm from Vanessa’s, thus embarrassing her, there was nothing that Derek could do right then about the arm she had entwined with his without hurting her feelings, or even worse, drawing attention.One thing was for certain though, and that was the fact that he had to set the record straight and let Vanessa know that he wasn’t available. His heart belonged to someone else, and it always would.The little voice in his head wasted no time in reminding him that he was only deluding himself. The person he was in love with was in a relationship with another person, yet he was putting his life on hold and pining after her.Nonetheless, delusion or no delusion, the fact remained that he wasn’t ready to get into a relationship with anyone just yet, especially not with his late assistant’s wife whom he saw as nothing but a friend.They all found somewhere to sit, but Derek was distracted throughout the game. Now that Tim’s father had opened his eyes, he could not miss the o
Ava wasn’t exactly concentrating on the game and was glad when it came to an end because it meant that she could go home and stop forcing herself to try not to look in Derek’s direction again.She still hadn’t figured out who the woman with him was and she did not want to look over any more than was necessary because that would be just embarrassing.She knew that she had met the woman before though. The question was where on earth had she met her? So Derek was in a relationship?Well, that was good for him. A man as handsome, successful, and virile as he was couldn't be expected to remain single forever. She was happy for him ... She truly was."Yeah, keep deluding yourself." Her inner voice said.Ava ignored the voice and managed to convince herself that she was happy for Derek. He was a good man, and he deserved to find love and peace.It was clear as day to anyone who looked at them that that woman was helplessly and hopelessly in love with him.In fact, Ava saw a reflection of he
Now that the game had ended, Vanessa and her inlaws went in search of her son so they could celebrate with him and take pictures as well.Derek, on the other hand, decided to wait for them outside since he wasn't a part of their family and he wasn't about to impose himself on them.As he walked outside, he looked around for Ava, but because the crowd had now dispersed and people were now walking about, he could not easily find her in the crowd and he didn't want to continue to search for her like a creep.Feeling disappointed, he walked over to the parking lot with his bodyguard, where they waited for the family to come out. Derek liked this new guy.He wasn’t Jerome, but at least he was a good substitute for Jerome. Jerome was still unconscious and Derek was beginning to despair that he would ever wake up.Nonetheless, he kept clinging to the hope that sooner rather than later, Jerome was going to come out of his coma. Unlike in Derek’s case, the doctors were not sure Jerome was goin
“I was looking everywhere for you, Derek. Why didn’t you come to take pictures with us?” Vanessa asked him, leaning against him as though all the bones in her body had suddenly melted into liquid and she could not stand on her own anymore.She didn't show any sign that she saw Ava standing there only a few inches away from them. Derek gently removed her arm from his and stood aside.Enough with being a gentleman. There was no point in being one because he was going to set Vanessa straight before he went home, and after that, he wasn’t going to put himself in a position in which she would think anything was going to happen between them.“Ava, this is Vanessa. Vanessa, this is Ava … my … You remember her, don’t you? We visited you guys a few times while we were married.” Derek introduced the two women.He had been about to call Ava his ex-wife, but somehow, the words just wouldn’t leave his throat. He did not like the look on Vanessa’s face. He could sense some hostility from her, which
“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
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