Amber awoke to the sight of a frustrated Fabian Williams. He was fidgeting with his tie in front of the walk-in wardrobe’s full-length mirror.
How long have I been asleep? she jolted up from Fabian’s bed only to realize that she was still stark naked. Horrified, she quickly pulled the blanket up to her neck with both hands, taking a peek at the man who had claimed her the night before.
Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. Funny how she hadn’t noticed it before, but even when he frowned, his chiseled face was still very attractive. He was fully dressed in a tailored grey suit with a black vest and a matching white shirt underneath.
“Fuck!” he cursed, pulling off his tie in agitation and throwing it on the floor. The roughness in his voice caught Amber by surprise.
Whoa, someone must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, she thought to herself and cleared her throat.
“Hi…”
Fabian’s head turned at her greeting and th
Fabian’s company looked like it had stepped out of a sci-fi movie. It was a smart factory with a high level of artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber-physical systems. There were AI robots on the floor performing tasks that Amber had never even dreamt possible. One came up to them as soon as she and Fabian stepped into the lobby. It didn’t look humanoid though; the structure of the robot was fairly simple. It was basically a shiny silver shaft with a spherical camera at the top and long mechanical limbs. The thing moved on two wheels.“Good morning Mr Williams.” The AI wheeled itself over to them, the mini screen atop its sphere lit bright blue as it spoke. Its pronunciation was flawless, but unlike V, the robot’s voice was more mechanical and lacked emotions.Another robot of the same model zipped past them, effortlessly balancing stacks of boxes.Fabian pointed at Amber, “Send Redd to my office. I’ll go to her once the meeting is over.” He peeled off his blazer a
Fabian had woken up that morning feeling great. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the management had just sent him a message about another contract Virtuex had successfully acquired.He smiled as placed his phone back on the nightstand next to him, making sure to mute V so it wouldn’t wake a sleeping Amber. She was curled up next to him, sleeping soundly – but for some reason, her eyebrows were creased as if she was having a nightmare. But she wasn’t fidgeting so he figured he would just let her rest.As quiet as he could, he climbed down the bed, making sure to cover her bare shoulders with the blanket. He decided to skip work and make her breakfast instead. Quickly, he pulled up his PJ pants, they hung low on his hips and he was just about to step out of the room when his phone rang.Shit! He practically leapt up and flew to the phone, glancing at Amber to make sure she was still asleep. She remained deep in her slumber.But one look
What the fuck?!The touch of her tears woke him up from his trance. He blinked, suddenly realizing what he was doing and immediately unmounted her. As soon as she was set free, Amber quickly scrambled away, creating a distance between them and curled into a defensive ball near the bookshelves, pulling up her torn office blouse and tugging at the hem of her skirt. It was the outfit he had gifted her a few days prior. She wiped her tears in vain.What have I done?! Fabian looked down at his hands, mortified at how he had lost control. That had never happened before. He looked at Amber, she was quivering from head to toe.“Redd…” he called out and she flinched at his name.But she answered him nonetheless, her breath hitching, “I…I’m sorry Fabian. You startled me is all. I’m yours to have, I know. It…it won’t happen again.” Her hair was all over the place and she tried to soothe
Their steps echoed through the foyer of Fabian’s house as both man and woman walked in, mirroring the hollowness in Fabian's heart. Amber followed him quietly from behind, careful not to make any noise and watched as Fabian ignored V’s greeting to make his way up the staircase like a man under a spell.Fabian had driven like a madman to his father’s mansion just in time to hold his old man’s thin frail hand before he breathed his last. Amber remembered how happy the sickly man looked when he finally saw his son. He was deathly pale with a sunken face, with only skin clinging to his body. It was obvious he was in extreme pain, but even through the many different tubes and needles that pierced the old man’s body, he still managed to smile at them.The image of Williams senior struggling to lift his frail trembling hand just so he could touch Fabian’s face left a deep impression in Amber’s mind.“Father,” Fabian had whispered, clasping the elderly man’s hand in his ow
Fabian sat at the foot of the bed with his elbows propped up on both knees. In his hand was a faded paper crane. He looked at it, studying the folds and structure of the origami as he twirled it slowly between his fingers. He’s gone, and know I’ll never know where she went, he closed his eyes and lifted his head up towards the ceiling. All his life he had hated his old man, but seeing him suffering brought no joy to Fabian. He went to his father’s deathbed intending to demand for his mother’s whereabouts, but upon seeing his father’s pain-stricken face, he lost the ability to ask. And now that his father was truly gone, Fabian realized that he missed him. It hurt – it hurt in places he never knew existed. A knock came at the door. He did not answer, but it creaked to an open anyway. “Fabian?” a gentle voice called out as Amber peeked in, her red hair spilling over her shoulders. He looked at her and for once, he was glad
It would be two days later before Fabian finally emerged from his room. He hadn’t planned on stepping out of his man cave so soon, but a surprise invitation to attend an exclusive preview of ‘The Millennia’ changed his mind. ‘The Millennia’ was his former partner’s promotional launch of the soon to be rival product of VX2. A part of Fabian was furious, and yet another part of him was confused. How on earth did Liam come up with his own version so fast? The man had hardly left Virtuex for less than a year and he was already launching a product of his own? Not to mention a product that he claimed to be on par with the VX2? As far as Fabian could remember, the son of a bitch never set foot in the design meetings during the initial stages of VX2 and had practically zero knowledge of its design; so how on earth did he manage to make one on his own? Granted, the man was smart, but Fabian had been friends with Liam long enough to know of his limitations. Unless he somehow m
Amber was not okay.As she stepped aboard the brightly lit superyacht, worry consumed her thoughts, blinding her from the flurry of activities that were going about on the floating vehicle.What the heck is Liam Smith thinking of? Why is he throwing a launch party when he doesn’t even have the blueprint? She hadn’t even gotten her hands on the safe yet. Didn’t he know that? With Fabian around the house the past few days, she barely had time to try out the different combinations on the lock, let alone contact Anson!Damnit!But she had a feeling the shrewd man had something up his sleeve.“Amber!” a raspy voice called out from the yacht, bringing her attention back to her surroundings.Amber looked up at the open balconies above her and caught sight of two beautiful women - they were Lola and Bree and they were waving at her happily.She waved back before taking a p
“Come with me,” a voice hissed into her ear from behind, sending shivers down her spine. Liam. She knew it was him without even turning her head as he grabbed her hand roughly and pulled her into the corridors of the yacht. Like a fool, she allowed him to drag her, even though every pore of her body screamed for her to run for her life. But she couldn’t, and like a slave, she went with him – all the way to a deserted VIP suite at the far end of the yacht. “Amber my dear,” Liam smiled slyly as he closed the door behind them, finally letting go of her wrist. It hurt where he had grabbed her and she nursed it gently. She made a mental note of him not locking the door. That was a good sign. The VIP suite was much larger than the normal suites and had a built-in jacuzzi in the middle of the room. The warm bubbling water was lit up in bright blue hues by its submerged lights. His manner was arrogant as he stepped forward and he forced her t
Amber slipped in and out of unconsciousness. She could hear muffled shoutings and saw a silhouette of a man hovering over her, his eyes filled with worry. Fabian? She thought and then all became black. Her eyes opened again, this time she saw gratings of white light on the ceiling whizzing past one after another as she was wheeled into a very cold room. She shivered and tried to call out but her voice got caught in her throat. It was as if her whole body was paralysed. “Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine..now breathe!” someone said and slipped an oxygen mask over her. For some reason, the gas from the mask made her feel sleepy and her eyelids slowly slid to a close and soon she drifted back into unconsciousness. *** Margaret ran together with a group of nurses pushing the bloodied stretcher that Amber laid on only to be stopped by a nurse in light blue scrubs. “Ma’am, please wait outside, we’ll take it from here.” “M
The eyes of the public bore into Anson Banks and he fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat, feeling his face burn. But the moment had come for him to tell the truth and to shine a light on the web of secrets and lies that surrounded the murder of Liam Smith. Anson’s eyes fell on his sister who sat with her head faced down, unable to meet his eyes. He had been selfish to force her into this madness and now it was time to set things right. He cleared his throat, feeling a sudden dryness in them as his heart beat thunderously in his chest. ‘Your Honor, allow me to tell my side of the story,” his voice came out soft and uncertain at first. The elderly judge pulled off his glasses and pressed his lips into a thin hard line before nodding his head. “I was supposed to be in the hospital on the night of the murder, but I had a feeling that Amber was up to something. You see, between us two, my sister has always been the one shouldering the burden of providing for
“Order! Order!” the judge named Rodney shouted, his glasses almost falling off the bridge of his nose as he pounded his wooden gavel furiously on the sounding block. Everyone paid him no heed; all were too engrossed with the screaming, shouting and wrestling that came from the centre of the court. The place had become a circus.“ORDER!!!!!” The ultimate yell from the ageing judge finally brought an end to the chaos and a hushed silence fell across the courtroom. It became so deathly quiet one could even hear a pin drop.“Now,” the judge pushed his rimless spectacle back up, his eyes darting back and forth between Anson and Amber. “Can I have the representatives for these two come up to the bench?”Amber’s defence attorney blinked, still very much in shock over what had just happened and knocked over his chair as he clumsily made his way to the judge’s bench. “I..uh, I represent Amber Banks, your H
The Supreme Court of Justice was hushed as everyone waited for the judge to arrive. Amber Banks sat next to her attorney with her head held high at the Counsel’s table. Her emerald green eyes stared straight at the wooden panelled walls opposite from where she sat, not making eye contact with anyone. She was dressed in an oversized orange prisoner jumpsuit which was much too big for her petite body and her normally soft and fiery red curls were tied back in a loose ponytail.Behind her, a soft glow of warm sunlight streamed into the otherwise stuffy room filled with people, highlighting the dust particles that danced and twirled in the air.To the untrained eye, Amber came off as aloof, emanating a sense of emotional detachment from her surroundings, inwardly, however, she was breaking down. None of the jury sitting behind the bulletproof glass wall could see, but beneath the wooden table where her cuffed hands lay, she was trembling. Her hands were shaking
Amber washed her face and dried it with the back of her sleeves before looking down and pressing her stomach with both hands. Her eyebrows knitted together as she thought back to what the tattooed inmate said earlier.Pregnant? She shook her head at the absurdity; her ponytail swinging along as she did. She was sure her bouts of nausea and vomiting were due to some kind of food poisoning.But didn’t you miss taking the morning pills after consummating with Fabian? A little voice whispered in her mind.And not just once. You missed the pill twice! The voice grew stronger, eating away her earlier assumption about food poisoning. Gently, her hand cradled her stomach as the possibility of carrying a life within her own body tugged at her heart. It was a strange feeling.“Sweetheart, it’s time. If you want, we can have a doctor take a look at you after the trial,” the police officer hurried her, snapping Amber
Anson Banks sat at the edge of the bed looking at a photo on his mobile. It was a selfie of both Amber and himself taken during his high school graduation. His graduation hat was lopsided and she had on a goofy grin; how happy they had been then. It was a picture worth a thousand words. “There you go,” Kirk the policeman stood back up, taking the cuffs from Anson’s ankles. “You’re a free man now.” A free man….the words danced around his mind like gipsies around a bonfire. Only the fire was too bright and too hot. He winced at the words knowing that his freedom came at a price - a price that his sister was paying for with her own freedom. Anson sighed and slipped the phone into the back pocket of his loose khaki slacks. The bandages had come off but his skin was still raw and extremely sensitive. Part of the skin on his thigh had been scraped off when he hit the asphalt in the accident and because of that, the doctor had advised him to wear loose and
It was Amber’s third day in the detention centre and to her surprise, she found herself adapting quite well to the place. In fact, she had been sleeping a lot in her holding cell, often waking up only for meals or to answer nature’s call. All requests for visitations from Margaret and Fabian had been denied. She did not want to talk to them.It’s better this way, she thought to herself as she sat huddled on her makeshift bed and staring up at the lone window to her cell. A warm stream of sunlight shone on her bed, and she gently waved her hands through the sunbeam, playing with the dust particles.“Lunchtime!” a police officer called out as she slid a tray of pepperoni pizza, wobbly strawberry gelatin and bottled water into Amber’s cell. In the next cell, a young inmate with about a million piercings stood up from her bed and cheered, “Pizza! My favourite!”Amber took one look at her lunch tray and a nause
Fabian walked to the nurse’s station and frowned, rapping his knuckles against the surface of the desk. “Fabian Williams!” A lanky young man in a janitor’s jumper shot straight up at the sight of him from a chair at the nurse’s station. He had been slouching off, ogling at the busty nurse who was also too engrossed with the man’s busy hands to notice Fabian’s arrival. “I’m here to see Anson Banks.” “Oh, but we have orders to restrict the number of visitors…” the same nurse from the day before got up from her chair, soothing her crumpled uniform. It seemed to Fabian that the man in the janitor’s jumper did more than just ogle at the nurse. But it was non of his business and Fabian was not used to taking ‘no’ for an answer, “Where’s the official notice? I don’t see any.” The man in the jumper scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and stammered, “Well..uh…Detective Grant said –“ Fabian’s eyes narrowed with disapproval as he lo
The detention centre was a simple one. It held two barred cells, each with a makeshift bed with a thin woolly blanket and a standalone sink. The walls were all painted a depressing dull grey with only a little square window at the top of each cell. Amber gulped as she stepped forward towards a desk where an intimidating female police officer sat, going through her files.“Name?” the officer asked, not looking up.“Amber Banks,” Amber answered, her bright green eyes darting back and forth taking in her grim surrounding. The officer nodded as she pressed a stamp onto Amber’s file.Fabian was outside the detention centre with his attorney, trying to get Amber out on bail but she had a feeling that chances were slim. After all, who would let a murder suspect out on bail?“Age?”“Twenty-one.”“Hun, you gotta speak louder. You’re as soft as a mouse!”Amber jumped a litt