Samuel felt the sting of Ciara’s palm on his cheeks, but what even stung him more was the sound of her voice as she called him a monster.“How dare you?!” Ciara yelled as tears gathered in her eyes. “Is this your latest means of manipulation?” Ciara asked Samuel, looking right into his eyes.The anger and hurt in Ciara’s eyes were so glaring that Samuel did not need to look deeply before seeing it.“I am not a manipulator,” Samuel said calmly.There had been several occasions where being close to Ciara or even grabbing her had taken his mind back to that unfortunate night. Something about her just seemed to remind him so much about that night, unlike it was with Linda. Samuel had lived in regret after that night, and that was why he had refused to talk about it with anyone. By morning when he woke up, he discovered that she had already left; he did not even get to see her face, just to know who it was that he had spent an arranged night with, and few weeks later, Colt came to him and
“It has been over two hours and she is yet to arrive,” Ruby Luscious said as she paced about the living room. Something did not feel right.“Are you sure you convinced her enough?” Colt asked, equally confused.“I did, and she promised that she would come. We all know that Ciara is not someone to just say something like that and not mean it. She wants to belong to a family so badly, and to her, this was her chance,” Ruby answered.“And it was our chance to get things sorted out once and for all,” Colt said as his eyes went to the fully set dining table and the bottle of wine on it. Every damn thing had been set, and all they needed was for Ciara to show up, because Colt kept having the nagging feeling that if Ciara wasn’t handled, she could spoil everything for them. From the moment he heard that she traveled to her hometown and was digging up the past, he knew that she would be so much trouble for them.Meanwhile, Linda could not stop thinking about Samuel’s abrupt and brief appearan
Ciara stayed by Aunt Mary and cried painfully. Contrary to the agreement to always leave the door open, she shut it, so that no one would barge in on her. Ciara needed this moment to herself, and she knew that she also needed to be beside Aunt Mary.“Everything in my life is falling into shambles, Aunt Mary,” Ciara cried.She remembered that she told herself that she wouldn’t do any of the crying thing in the presence of Aunt Mary; she only required happy moments and talks filled with light and hope so that she could get better, but right now, Ciara felt like this was the only thing she could do. She needed to unburden everything, and she knew that the only person that she could do that with that would not judge her or throw stones at her was Aunt Mary. This was exactly why she needed to visit her mother’s grave so that she could unburden herself, but her search for her mother had only made everything worse than she had ever anticipated.“I feel like each day, something is always tryi
Linda dialed the number Rudger attached with the note several times, but it wasn’t connecting, and it felt as though she was going crazy. “Why did we fire him again?” Ruby asked as she rubbed her palms together; it was her way of dealing with anxiety.“After the incident, he just became nonchalant about his duties and he had to go,” Linda explained. She had instigated the whole idea of firing Rudge, because his negligence and nonchalance became overbearing; more like he kept acting as though he had an edge over Linda, simply because he was the bodyguard that aided her in carrying out the act.“Was firing him the best option?” Colt asked, beads of sweat forming around the bridge of his nose.“At that time, yes, and besides, he was handsomely paid off,” Linda said defensively. She remembered spending virtually all her savings just to lay him off with the promise that what happened never happened, and no one was ever going to know about it.“You cannot pay off a blackmailer completely!”
Ciara stood by Samuel’s door, breathing in and out to steady her nerves and struggling to convince herself that this was the absolute right thing to do. The call had unnerved her, surely, but it had triggered something inside of her.She knew that Linda had a bodyguard, but she had been serving jail term for a while, and when she came out of prison, a whole lot of things had happened in the last couple of weeks, so she did not even have the time to think about Linda’s bodyguard.If he said he had something to tell her that related to Ciara being thrown into jail, Ciara would love to hear it, because she was sure without a doubt that if there was anyone that would have an idea what happened, it might be Rudge, who worked really closely with Linda. Ciara knew that she shouldn’t be too trusting of anyone, especially someone who stopped working for Linda not too long after she was thrown into jail, but she was desperate. A lot of things in Ciara’s life were not adding up, and maybe if she
Ciara and Samuel sat in the study, facing each other. Ciara had a pale expression on her face and Samuel watched her intently, trying to figure out if she would tell him the actual truth. Samuel could not believe Ciara no matter how hard he wanted to, because she had lied to him several times, but this time around, he stared right into Ciara’s eyes, not wanting to miss any expression that her eyes would show.The paleness in her face was enough to tell him how difficult this must be to her.“Do you still want to talk about it?” Samuel asked Ciara. He was indirectly giving her an opportunity to bail out, instead of choosing to lie, because knowing Ciara Summers for weeks now, she would rather lie and manipulate her way through than telling the actual truth. Samuel knew that he was a conservative person; he preferred to keep things to himself than talk about it to people, but Ciara was an adamant secretive woman who could take secrets to the grave with her.“No, but I want the money, an
“I cannot answer that,” Ciara said mournfully, and there was no amount of questioning, or conditions, or desperation that would make her divulge that until she was certain about everything.None of what was happening was clear to her now, and for Rudge to be calling her with such demands, it means that there was something the Luscious wasn’t telling her. First of all, she still hadn’t gotten to know where her mother was buried, because even though they only told her that it was in her hometown, they did not give her a precise location.And the fact that she kept missing out of what truly transpired meant there was more to it than meet the eyes. Until then, she would not divulge this secret to Samuel. Regardless of the rough start she had with the Luscious, and their hostility over the years she stayed with them, Ciara would still hate to drag them through her shit for nothing.Besides, she did find Samuel kissing Linda, and right now, Ciara was not certain whose side Samuel was on. He
Linda paced about her bedroom, almost running insane. She could not afford for Rudge to get to Ciara before she did, otherwise everything would be in shambles, and it seemed now that her parents might not be able to handle things as fast as needed.Some minutes ago, she and Ruby had waited anxiously to hear from Colt. According to the plan, or Ruby’s plan, they had given him a very deadly portion, one that worked only hours after intake, and had said that he would go over, act all nice and friendly, and slip it into Ciara’s drink.It was the best attempt that Ruby could come up with.At first, Colt had vehemently disagreed. “You are asking me to walk into Samuel Fury’s house and poison Ciara right there? How on earth am I ever supposed to be able to carry that out?!” “Stop being a chicken,” Ruby had reprimanded him. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, remember?” Ruby had tried to make him see reasons with her and be on the same page as her.“And do you think that would work
Samuel arrived at the police station in his own car, following the cops. He was boiling with anger, but his anger was to Colt, and not the cops, because they were simply doing what they were asked to do.“What is the meaning of this?” Samuel asked the moment he got into the office he was invited into before. The head cop signaled to Samuel to sit down, and although Samuel sat, he was still upset. This was the second time in a couple of days that he was being invited to the hospital, and he was no longer finding it a joke.“Mr. Fury, we have a lot against you,” he told Samuel.“How do you mean?” Samuel asked, not bothering to mask his anger. “I was here the last time, and you asked me to go, so what is this about?” Samuel demanded gruffly.“Our interrogation the last time was inconclusive, and we informed you about this, so inviting you back here shouldn’t be strange, or even rile you up,” the head cop said, saying the last words with caution.“You do know who I am, right?” Samuel thr
Ciara waited for Samuel to return, but he seemed that was not happening any time soon. She had woken up much later after a disturbing dream, and had found the penthouse very empty. For the first time, Ciara found herself lonely in Samuel’s absence. Maybe it was because of the moment they shared together before she fell asleep, but she could not exactly tell.Then there was the deal with Rudge. Although he was yet to call her back, Ciara still did not want to take chances with him. This was her only opportunity to know about what happened, and contrary to Samuel’s belief, Ciara was certain that he truly had something to tell her. If there was anyone aside from the Luscious family who knew exactly why she went to prison, it would be an employee of theirs, especially the one that worked closely with Linda.All the years living with and knowing Linda Luscious, Ciara knew that she was full of shady and dirty things. There were always skeletons in her cupboard. So now that Rudge had called
So you two created a gang behind my back,” Samuel questioned Kingston after Quinton had left.He intentionally stayed in the study while Quinton sorted out her things and left. Samuel would not go back on his words; he had already fired her, and that was it. Right now, he was even angry with everyone. So while he was struggling to put things in place and make things work out for him, his own employee had been sabotaging every move by reporting to Ciara. Now he understood why he was always seeing her staring at him weirdly; she had been eavesdropping on him every minute and reporting back to Ciara, which was why she had been able to stay two steps ahead.Now he felt like a horrible fool.“What is it with Ciara that everyone just wants to protect her?” Samuel asked himself in frustration. From his mother to his own employee, who was even trying to recruit his driver into the league. For the life of him, Samuel could not understand the hold that Ciara Summers had on everyone else. His
Linda had locked herself up in the room ever since the scandal. She could not even bring herself to go anywhere as close as downstairs, because she did not even want to deal with curious stares from the employees. Not only had she been skipping meals, she had also been avoiding her parents, especially her mother, because she could not deal with any firm of judgments right now.In truth, the Luscious mansion had been somewhat gravely quiet ever since. Linda was a nervous wreck as she called Hayes. She had been calling him almost every ten minutes, but she could not bring herself to stop.“Anything else?” Linda asked the moment the call connected.“No, Linda. He has been in the main house for hours now. Maybe he has called it a day, and I think I should too,” Hayes said, sounding tired.“Don’t you dare move from there!” Linda barked. They had missed Samuel for days, unable to trail him, because he had gone to hide somewhere unknown, and Linda had quickly told Hayes where to find Samu
Samuel got into the main house and flopped on the couch, extremely tired. From what he could see outside, all his domestic staff were in good shape and doing their jobs well, so Samuel closed his eyes and tried to take in as much rest as possible. He did not want to think much about anything for now; he just wanted to rest. If he could stay here for a couple of hours, and even take a nap in the process, he would be relieved, but shutting his brain off completely was not something he could do, considering all that was going on at the moment. He would need to take extra caution dealing with Colt henceforth, but Samuel could not tell if Kingston was now strong enough to get back to work. He knew he should have called Doctor Pedro to ask about Kingston’s improvement, but he had been swamped with things. Anyway, now that he was here, he would ask him personally. Samuel opened his eyes and looked around, and everywhere seemed quiet. Samuel was now used to catching Quinton standing by the
Samuel drove home, his mind muddled up in thoughts. It was a card he played on Colt, and like a mirror, he saw right through Colt.More than ever before, and for the very first time, Samuel was certain that there was something amiss. Colt could not even answer the last question he asked him. Samuel thought of going to the penthouse, but he changed his mind last minute. He hadn’t been to the main house in days now, and since he was still in charge of the Fury house and wealth, he needed to go there and ensure that everything was okay.Changing directions now, his mind went back to Colt Luscious. Samuel knew what he hadn’t known for years now; he was also a victim of Colt and Ruby’s games, but he could not exactly put the points together. All along, he had been worrying so much about understanding what was going on in Ciara’s life and trying to piece together bits and pieces of the things he knew, and he had no idea that he might also need to piece them together. Now, Samuel was begin
Samuel and Colt stared at each other for the longest time, each refusing to break the ice, and equally refusing to be less deadly in their stares.“You are ungrateful,” Colt said angrily.“How so?” Samuel asked, refusing to back down.If it was before, he would allow Colt Luscious to guilt-trip him into feeling like he needed to set things right.“I did everything for you, Samuel Fury. I showed up for you when no one else would. I became your benefactor when there was no one to even help you. I aided you to get back the Fury name and wealth, and what did I get in return?” Colt said, his eyes spitting fire.“Say how I fucking betrayed you, Colt, and stop beating around the bush,” Samuel stated bluntly, almost cutting Colt off. Colt ground his teeth in annoyance, and was also surprised at Samuel’s disrespectful tone.“You got my daughter pregnant!” Colt barked.“Did I?” Samuel asked, looking at Colt square in the eyes challengingly. “How am I certain that your daughter was the one I ha
Samuel had been in many uncomfortable situations, ones that required deep and intense emotions, but he had never seen anything like this, and deep down, he knew that there was still more that Ciara was yet to tell him.As he stood above Ciara and watched her, her words just kept floating through his mind. And to think he had actually believed Linda when she said that Ciara had come into their home to steal. Now, things were beginning to click together, piece by piece. How on earth did someone go through all that? A woman for that matter? “Thank goodness I did not end up marrying Linda,” Samuel said quietly. When he had arrived at the venue and had walked up to the altar, and had looked at Linda in that dress, he had just known that he could not go through with the wedding. Even if it was some sort of an arrangement, and nothing based on love, he just couldn’t. Even though he had wanted to marry Linda to get to know what was really going on, he just couldn’t, and now, he was grateful
There was a deafening silence after Ciara said Linda Luscious.Samuel felt as though he was hearing differently. Yes, he knew that he suspected something was off, but he had no idea, and now, he was even more confused.“Linda Luscious?” Samuel asked, wanting to be certain he was hearing rightly.“You asked who Rudge was referring to when he said ‘she’, right?” Ciara asked.Now, they were both seated on Ciara’s bed, quietly. It was the first time they would be having a conversation in this manner. All the times they had a conversation, they had always been talking in high tones, and throwing unpleasant words to each other.“Was she the same person the previous time when Rudge had contacted you and struck a deal? Samuel asked calmly. He could not even bring himself to shout. In fact, he was even struggling to ask questions that were not silly, because while they talked and he listened to Ciara, he was still trying to clear out his confusion.“Yes,” Ciara answered soberly.“How on earth d