Amber waved goodbye to Fabian as he pulled out of the lawn like how a mother would to her child. And once his dark grey ride was out of sight, Amber did a fist pump and squealed.
Yes! Showtime!
She ran back into the house, slamming the timber door and rushed at breakneck speed to clean up the kitchen. She systematically stored the leftovers in the fridge before starting to wash up, scrubbing the pots and trays squeaky clean only to have V call out when she was done.
“Ms Banks?”
Wiping away the sweat from her forehead, she turned around and answered Fabian’s little glowing assistant, “Yes V?”
“Were you washing the dishes?”
The question came out innocently enough and Amber smiled triumphantly, looking at the sparkling clean sink. She had only spent the last hour returning the kitchen to its spotlessly clean state.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I was,” she proceeded to wipe the droplets of remaining water next to the sink,
“Waiting for you,” she squeaked, but to her surprise, her voice came out husky and breathess. Was that my voice? She wondered in astonishment. She never sounded like that before. Fabian stood there, staring at her wordlessly - his eyes narrowing when he saw her positioned so provocatively on his bed. While her plain white tee had relatively full coverage of her chest, hiding her cleavage, the stretchy fabric hugged her curves, leaving little room for imagination. Her wild red hair hung in waves framing her face, serving only to amplify her flushed look. She was breathing hard as if she had been exercising. Her breasts rose and fell as she peered nervously at him through her long Bambi lashes. He scanned his room, something was definitely amiss. A few of his items were out of place. What is she doing here? She didn’t even want me near her last night and now she’s waiting for me? he had to ask himself. He suspected she did more than just a wor
A black Wrangler came to a stop in front of Fabian Williams’ apple green lawn and Amber could make out two plainclothes detectives in the jeep. Amber was joined by Fabian who stood by her side at the front timber door of his house, she in her white t-shirt and jeans which she had hurriedly put on, and Fabian still in his office suit. The detectives were in the vicinity and told her over the phone that they would just be dropping by for a little chat. But as she watched them alight the jeep, Amber had to wonder if all they wanted was to truly chat. She had to struggle to stay calm. Although it was near five in the evening, the sun felt too bright and while there was a slight breeze, the air was extremely suffocating. Amber wanted more than anything to run away from the approaching cops, but she couldn’t. Instead, she stood there helplessly, like a deer caught in headlights. If Fabian noticed her unease, he made no mention of it. The blonde detective be
Amber had never been to a formal dinner before, let alone a corporate dinner. So she was understandably nervous. After the detectives left, she had less than an hour to get ready and because she brought nothing but a kimono in her backpack, she ended up with no makeup whatsoever on her face, save for a lip balm. All her life, Amber had either tied her hair up in a bun or a ponytail but these hairstyles were a no can do for formal dinners so she wore them loose instead. She did not have a strapless bra either, so in the end, she had to go braless and was only glad that the single strapped dress she wore was dark in colour. It clung to her body like second skin and the hem of the dress swirled like the ocean waves as she stepped out of Fabian’s Aston Martin. What happened next caught her by surprise for out of nowhere, reporters came rushing in with their cameras and recorders, all clamouring to see which actress or celebrity Fabian had brought for the dinner. Amber wi
Amber and Lola rounded a corner at the hallway and once they were obscured from the view of others, they burst into laughter.“Did you see the look on their faces?” Lola held onto her stomach, trying to suppress her bubbling laughter.“Yes..yes!” Amber had to calm herself down. She didn’t want people to think there were two crazed women in the pre-function hallway.Their giggles went on for a little while more before they calmed down and both leaned against the polished white walls, looking at each other, grinning from ear to ear.After a while, Amber confessed, “I was a bitch.”“We’re bitches in their eyes anyways,” Lola replied, breaking eye contact and lowered her head to look at her white heels. She gave a little sigh.“Amber…”“Yeah?”“Tell me honestly, are you…ashamed of what we are?”The question caught Am
Fabian looked over his shoulder for Amber. He had not seen her the whole evening, granted, he had been surrounded by his staff, many of whom were eager to butter up to him save Harry who refused to be dragged down from the stage.Where is she? He wondered. He had briefly caught a glance of her earlier at the buffet table with Lola, looking radiantly beautiful in her midnight blue dress, talking and smiling at Lola with a twinkle in her eyes. But then he had been whisked away by busty Betsy, his secretary and lanky Hanks, his IT manager. He failed to locate Amber after that.Fabian was just about to ask an exasperated Lola who was trying to stop Harry from unzipping his pants for all to see for Amber's whereabouts when he overheard two of his female staff talking about her. Unbeknownst to Fabian, they were the ones Amber met at the ladies’ room. These two had been personally hired by Liam during his time with Virtuex, much to Fabian’s disdain. He ne
Fabian Williams paced restlessly in front of the presidential suite’s fireplace, his eyes never leaving the bedroom door. An in house doctor and nurse were attending to Amber behind the closed door.How dare Liam lay his hands on her? he seethed, cracking his knuckles. He had the security guards remove Liam from the hotel premises and lodged a police report for physical and sexual assault but the cops, darn those cops and their stupid laws needed Amber herself to press the charges. Liam would probably claim drunkenness and get away with everything.The sight of Amber laying unconscious in his arms hurt him in a way like no one ever did before. He had never felt like this, not even when his previous sexual partner passed out from intoxication. He had just laughed it off and continued ramming into the unconscious brunette’s body. But this was Amber. Somehow, he couldn’t bear the thought of seeing her hurt.But why did Liam come for h
Amber almost choked at his question.Quickly, she grabbed the glass of orange juice in front of her and took a huge gulp to wash down the bacon. The breakfast spread in front of her suddenly lost its appeal.Fabian looked at her, silently watching her every move.Amber feigned innocence and shrugged, “I don’t know. One minute I was standing at ballroom entrance and the next thing I knew, he pulled me to the next room.” That was true, in a way.Fabian said nothing, still looking at her, seemingly contemplating her words. Then he asked, “Did he say anything to you?”Amber shook her head in denial, “No…he…” Her words died out as she recalled his threat.“He wanted to know if I would be interested in serving him after the two months is up.” It was a big fat lie and Amber had to look down at her hands when she said it. She shuffled her feet a little, her breathing was fast and sh
Water slid down her body and dripped into the marbled floor as she froze in her spot. Fabian was fully dressed in a white polo tee and beige slacks while she stood there naked. “Come,” he motioned for her as if nothing was out of the ordinary. But Amber couldn’t move, she stood there motionless with her hands by her sides, paralyzed by surprise. Fabian uncrossed his leg and with the towel still in his hand, he strolled towards her. With every step that he took, Amber swore he oozed with sexiness. She could feel the blood rushing throughout her body even as the throbbing sensation grew stronger, overpowering her mind. What’s he doing? Fabian reached her and looked down into her polished emerald eyes, tilting her head up to meet his gaze. “Let’s dry you now shall we?” his voice sounded normal, but his eyes belied his emotion; they were blazing with desire. He threw the towel around her neck, causing her to gasp.
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