Lily’s POV
I was surprised when Derek called me and asked about my whereabouts. I’d been home all day. After he left angrily this morning, I went up to bed and refused to attend college or even leave the room, some of his words hurt me and they brought back dark and horrible memories. Instead of crying, I slept throughout the day, hoping by the time I woke up the next morning, I would’ve forgotten everything that happened the previous day. I didn’t expect it’ll be Derek’s call that’ll wake me up.
The door of my room was suddenly opened and I sat up on the bed, shocked at the intrusion and wondering who could’ve entered without knocking. I didn’t get to wonder for too long before the sailor started his favorite occupation.
“Why the fuck is this place dark?” Derek spat. I put on the flashlight so he could put on the light.
“You didn’t
Lily’s POVThroughout the rest of the week, Derek dropped me off at school in the morning, while I find my way home together with Scarlet in the afternoon and sometimes in the evening. It was peaceful that way since I would be asleep before Derek gets back from work and the ride was usually occupied with a business conversation between Derek and someone on the phone or Q. I and Scarlet usually stay behind sometime after classes to tour around the college or get Lunch at a fancy restaurant a few meters away from college.Bad enough, I was still living off the Millers’ credit card.The best part was, Scarlet lived on the same street as I did. She had invited me over to her place on Friday but I lied that I had something to do. I felt it was too early for such an invitation, we’ve barely known each other for three days.I didn’t have any classes on Friday so I d
LILYS POVAfter I woke up the next morning, I did some laundry, made myself some toasted bread and a cup of coffee. As I sat on the dining table, eating, Derek walked out of his room, shirtless again with black loose pants.I quickly looked away from him and focused on my phone as I absentmindedly read through the banter going on in the class study group that was created. Someone had called the other a dummy and they were busy assessing how stupid they were in their respective families. He walked past me into the kitchen and a few minutes later, came back with his own cup of coffee. I was surprised to see him sit opposite me.I quickly stood up, washed my plate in the kitchen, and took my mug of coffee to the living room. I still had some assignments to fix. So I sat in front of the center table and opened my laptop. The mug was beside me while I searched through my bag for a pen and paper.
Derek’s POV Caster is my younger brother, the middle child of the family, my parent’s favorite son, and our last-child favorite sibling. I mean, he’s an embodiment of perfection and it has always been like that from the start. We were particularly close at some point until I discovered that our parents were trying to stop the budding friendship between us because they thought I would badly influence him. I didn’t wait for them to say it to my face, I changed college since we attended the same college just to let him live his life the way they wanted. He’s a top lawyer at one of the biggest firms in the state and also one of dad’s legal representatives. My parents wouldn’t stop singing his praises every day and I haven’t been to my parents’ home in years because of that shit. Now, I’m surprised why he left their home for mine. “What the hell are you doing in my house, Caster?” I asked him, turning away from Lily.
LILY’s POVI’ve always seen Derek as a handsome devil but seeing his brother, Caster almost made me change my perception of Derek. He was a better version of his brother in terms of looks and I hope it was the same in terms of attitude. A family doesn’t deserve to have two sons with the same attitude as Derek. One cursing sailor is enough!Avoiding Derek and his brother for the rest of Sunday was easy since they both mostly stayed in their rooms while I stayed in mine. I could only hear the doors being closed and opened at intervals. I only sneaked down at midnight to get some snacks when hunger almost crippled me.Monday mornings were the worst, not totally my best day but it’s a reminder that I have to get up and sma
“Derek Miller!”I almost melted as I turned to see Derek leaning against a car, wearing a casual outfit and a sunshade in front of my department building. He was busy doing something on his phone. A thousand questions ran through my head as I tried to reason why Derek will show up in my department without notifying me. Did something happen? Did someone die? I know Derek wasn’t nice enough to pick me up at school.Some girls were waving at him but he ignored them. I never knew Derek was that popular until today, even Scarlet had stood rooted at a spot as she continued staring at Derek with her mouth hanging open.As soon as his eyes landed on me, he signaled. I swallowed hard as beads of sweat appeared on my face. I w
We ended up going to the restaurant that he had mentioned and true to his words, it was close to the roadside but I haven’t seen any sane person taking a deserted road just because he wanted to mess up with me. I agree he hates my guts but at the expense of our lives is unbelievable.“Come on, get out of the car,” He instructed, opening the door on his side. I looked at him, with a question dancing at the tip of my tongue.“I thought you said you were picking up something. Would it be necessary for me to go with you?” I asked, hoping he’ll say no and I would happily wait behind.He clicked his tongue. “Did I say that? When did I say that?” he squeezed his eyes. I blinked as I took in his lies and deceit.“You said so just now, Derek. You said…” He interrupted me.“Get down and let’s have lunch. I don’t want mom on my case asking me why I d
Derek’s POVThe terrible beeping of my phone woke me up and grudgingly, I removed the phone from the table stand beside the bed and picked up the call without checking it twice.“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Henry sang into my ear. I removed the phone to see that he was actually calling with Sebastian’s phone.“What the fuck do you want?” I snapped.He laughed. “He’s awake. The demon is awake,” I could hear Sebastian saying something to him on the other end of the line.“Yeah, that’s what happens when you wake people up so early in the morning,” I nagged. I sat up on the bed and became transfixed at a spot when I saw who was beside me. I closed my eyes in utter embarrassment when I remembered I’d brought her to my bed last night. I had wanted to avoid a situation where she would hurt her neck and my mom will have to come dow
LILY’S POV My eyes widened as I realized where I was. Derek was not in sight and I was grateful for that one thing. I stood up from the bed as if it was on fire and walked towards the door. On a second note, I turned back to where Derek’s laptop was and I was surprised to still find it there. I quickly ran towards the desk and took a seat, tried logging into the laptop but then, I remembered I didn’t know the password.How was I supposed to submit the assignment if I didn’t even know his password? I ran my hand through my hair, scattering it in the process. My head was in a mess. I stood up, ready to run into my room, get my phone and call Derek. Just as I turned, the wall clock, glared at me. I almost dropped to the floor out of shock. It was almost past eleven in the morning, classes start by ten and the assignment was supposed to be submitted by 12.I turned back, picked up the laptop, and
LILY’S POV ONE YEAR LATER “Love, can you please check up on the baby? I need to pee,” I called out to Derek before rushing into the bathroom. I heard him saying something that sounded like yes but I didn’t bother to listen. I was so pressed that if I didn’t rush into the toilet like that, I would’ve messed myself up. Once I was done, I took my time before coming out. I knew Derek got her, he’s been by her side the moment she was born and never left mine either. He has proved to me that he was a good dad and I’m so proud of him. Three months into my pregnancy, I told him I got a job but he was not comfortable with it and I had to convince him that it wasn’t anything strenuous. I’d learned how to program as a starter and I got an internship program that helped developed me into a junior developer. I know it's stressful when combined with college and the baby but I took a gap year to focus on my career and my child. Once I’m ready, I’ll get back it college and maybe change my degre
DEREK'S POV “Would that have made you feel so much better about yourself? Would you have felt accepted by the family? Would that have been enough to erase the fact that you’re nothing but a bastard?” I gritted my teeth.He started growling like a wild dog, repeatedly.“You shouldn’t have messed with Lily. She wasn’t a part of the family from the start, she shouldn’t have had to pay for the sins of our parents, she had enough already on her plate. Q wouldn’t have died and the family wouldn’t be in so much pain,” I told him.“She chose you and that was her offense. I had my eyes on her since she was at mom’s agency. I’ve always wanted to have a taste of her but mom took her to you and even when I moved into your house, all she wanted was you and not me, why? I would rather kill her than listen to that answer,” Inodded, realizing he was an unapologetic, unrepentant and crazy bastard.“I’m not disappointed in you, Caster because I knew just who you are, I could see through you when othe
DEREK’S POVI banged my hand on the table, controlling the anger that was already boiling inside of me. I was at the police station with my parents, Alex and Arianna. Lily had refused to come to see Caster on the excuse that she had a class but I knew it was because she didn’t want to see him or she wasn’t ready.I don’t know how Arianna summoned the courage to come with us but if I was her, I wouldn’t have been able to. Alex, on the other hand, had tried talking to Arianna but she wasn’t bulging. I was the only person she was talking to, the rest were being ignored and I mean my parents.“You’re telling me that someone knew Caster messed up with Lily’s car but you had to wait till the accident before you did something, right?” I asked my dad again for the third time because I didn’t want to believe the answer he was giving me every damn time.“I’m sorry, Derek, the guy I hired said the only way they could lure him out was to wait for the accident to happen. There’s no way Caster woul
DEREK’S POV We decided to keep the pregnancy news from the family. It was a mutual agreement between Lily and I. we thought it was for the best for the safety of both mother and child. The family was still dealing with Caster’s case and we didn’t want to put ourselves in danger by revealing the news.“Why did all these pregnancy symptoms decide to wait for two months before hitting me?” Lily groaned as she walked down the stairs.“Did you throw up again?” She nodded.“For the second time this morning alone,” Damn! That was bad. I was beginning to get worried about her. Even though the doctor said it was normal, I still wasn’t okay with it.“You should’ve called me, baby,” She laughed as she walked into the kitchen.“Meanwhile, what bomb have you been cooking up in here? Everywhere is a mess,” She started laughing again. I could only smile as I watch her laughing her ass off at the current state of the kitchen.“Well, I’ve been preparing pancake,”She stopped laughing, her mouth fell
LILY’S POV “You can leave now, my family will soon be here for me,” I dismissed the woman standing in front of me.“You don’t have to be so mean, Ataraxia,”I gritted my teeth as I glared at her. It took everything in me not to face her and yell like a lunatic right now.“My name is Lily, not Ataraxia, and thank you for your help, I’ll compensate you if you want,” I told her again for the tenth time and still counting.A few hours ago, I was on my way to get some groceries from the store when my car’s brake stopped working all of a sudden. I couldn’t even hold my emotions together as I saw my life flash in front of my eyes. I could only beg God to take the wheels because, at that point, death was calling. My car maneuvered out of the road and hit a street pole.Even though that stopped the car, both the car and street pole were damaged. Smoke was everywhere in the car and as I tried to open the door, I realized that I was stuck. I couldn’t find my phone to make a call and help wasn’t
DEREK’S POV “I found out that Roman returned to Italy a few weeks ago, precisely two days after Q was buried,” Sebastian informed us.Well, we were currently meeting at my office together with Luke. Someone has been messing up with things a lot around my house and the mansion. My parents don’t feel safe and my dad had to suggest for my mom leave town for a few months till we can get things back to normal.Caster is still MIA but we could all tell some of those things were his handwork. Threat notes were being sent to our homes, strange calls as well as someone messing up with the car tires while we were out. It’s like he’s stalking us all every minute.“Your Intel is fast, I’ll give him that,” Sebastian rolled his eyes at Luke’s comment.“Are you serious right now? I’m trying to help here, what have you done?” Luke scoffed.“It took you and your Intel a few weeks to realize that Roman wasn’t in town and probably not helping Caster. Stop giving yourself more credit than you should, Se
DEREK’S POV “Uh, I still want to sleep,” Lily groaned as I drove to my parents’ house that Saturday morning. I had to wake her up by eight and she grumbled for more than thirty minutes as we got dressed and left the house. “You should have some sleep before we get there,” I advised. She mumbled something incoherent before she closed her eyes and slept off. I smiled as I took in her features; her plump pink lips, those butterfly eyelashes, and her beautiful nose, I want to keep kissing them for the rest of my life. A few minutes later, we arrived at the house. She was already awake, complaining about how she still needed more sleep. “We can officially call you sleeping beauty now,” I joked. She glared at me and I smiled. “You don’t have the right to throw a joke at me right now,” I frowned. “Why?” “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that we’ll be visiting your parents this morning? We were at the club till 1 am and you still didn’t let me sleep when I got back,” I grinned. “Don’t
DEREK’S POV It took everything in me to not stand up and punch Damien when he walked into my club a few hours after the show started.The artist that was invited had already concluded his performance and left after signing and taking pictures with some of his fans. I thought Lily would love a picture with him but my girl stood back, shook her head when I mentioned it, and told me she wasn’t a fan. She was just here to support me and accompany Brandon and Scarlet.After the concert ended, about a hundred thousand fans of the guy wanted to party at the club but I had to turn down about 90,000 of them. Ten thousand people were enough, I couldn’t risk having such a large number of people in such a place. It’ll be bad for business.“Don’t do anything crazy, Derek,” Lily pulled my hand, already noticing how I was glaring at Damien. He had told me he won’t be here, so what’s with the surprise?“I promise, I’ll only hit him once,” I smirked, letting her know he was getting his ass beaten up
LILY’S POV On Friday afternoon, after my final paper, I came out to find Brandon and Scarlet waiting for me. I was surprised that Brandon would actually be here. I know I told Scarlet that I would be giving them free passes to the concert at Derek’s club but I still doubted Brandon’s presence because of what happened with Derek. That was the last time I saw him though. He’s been MIA since then around me and even though Scarlet and I met a few times after that, he never showed up.“I wasn’t expecting you to show up, Brandon. I thought you still hate me and Derek,” He snorted. I couldn’t help smiling.“I might hate Derek but I don’t hate you and who am I to say no to a free pass to that concert. So many people are trying to buy the ticker but can’t. It’s not even available anymore,” He said excitedly.The concert has been the talk of the town and for like a week now, everywhere I turn to in school, people were talking about buying the concert. I’m so proud of my man.“So, am I off your