AERAH’S POVRena?Who the fuck interrupted me? With piercing stares, I turned to my side to know who owned that manly voice. My eyes widened slightly, my feet almost freezing on the ground.Fuck. Landon Mitchell?My gazes shifted from the Landon to Serena, and Serena to Landon Mitchell, the only man who dared to reject me when I made the first move on him while I was traveling in France. Landon went to Serena’s side and rested his arm on her shoulder as if they had known each other for years now. I felt the bitterness in my chest as I watched Serena’s huge smile, seemingly happy to see Landon here.How the hell did they know each other? Landon has multiple businesses including furniture and construction materials, but he was more active when it came to his bar businesses. Serena was not the type of person that would go to a bar. How did she know him? She seemed so connected to the people I knew. “Landon. What brought you here?” Serena asked with a smile, almost making my mouth sligh
SERENA’S POV I bit my lips as I watched Aerah Celine’s inconsistent reactions. How could I not be amused when she would send me dagger stares as if she wanted to kill me and would be frightened at the same time whenever Landon would add another sentence regarding her brother’s suspicious actions? Landon knew that I had a husband then, but he wasn’t aware that it was Gray Moore. He also knew that I was planning to avenge my child, but he did not have any idea that I was already in the process of doing it right now. “Still strange. No one would reject such a nice offer especially if the project is too risky. But as I was saying, I don’t have the right to judge. Mr. Moore probably had his reasons,” Landon concluded, letting go of the topic. I nodded my head, agreeing with what he said. Aerah, on the other hand, remained silent as she listened to us, her eyes now directed to the floor and her eyebrows almost meeting each other. She was probably thinking what the hell was wrong with he
AERAH’S POV I could not believe them… especially Gray! I was unaware of what happened during that negotiation, but based on Landon’s words, I knew for sure that something was going on. What the fuck is wrong with him? Does he like that bitch? Oh, come on! This was what my mom was talking about! Given that Serena Ambers had the same face as Jane, Gray could be crazy again! “We’re already here, Ms. Aerah.” I thought I was spacing out too much that I did not realize the driver had stopped the car already. I inhaled a deep breath and got out of the car, slamming its door hard as soon as I got outside. The driver flinched, but I did not give a fuck. My mom needed to know what was going on with his son as soon as possible! “What’s wrong with you, Aerah Celine? Did you get into trouble again? Oh, don’t you dare give me another problem this week! I told you not to go out!” my mom greeted me the moment I entered the house. “Oh, please! Don’t say anything, Mom! There are more important thi
SERENA’S POV I should have known that Kelly, hearing all of the things that Landon said was a bad idea. I was aware that she hated Gray—or men in particular, but I did not expect her to be so invested in what happened during the negotiation. “I can’t believe that trash would react like that. As far as I can remember, he never acted like that around women. I tried to seduce him multiple times before, but he never cared about me. Geez,” Kelly stated, sipping from her tea. We were already home, chilling hours after Kelly refused to stop bombarding me with questions I had no energy to answer. “Landon was probably exaggerating things, Kelly. Stop assuming things that are likely impossible to happen. You know Landon always thinks men worship the ground I walk on. That man found me too beautiful not to be liked by anyone,” I responded, shaking my head. Even though I witnessed what Landon was talking about earlier, I still refused to believe that Gray was really jealous. Why would he? He d
GRAY’S POV“What’s happening to you, son? I cannot believe what your sister told me. Is it true that you like Ms. Serena Ambers?”Those were the words that I heard first thing in the morning. I went to my office earlier than usual to finish something that I did not get to do last night. I was not expecting my mom to come here this early, too, just to say those nonsense things my sister told her.“Your daughter is just exaggerating things, Mom. I was not in the mood during the negotiation. They only misunderstood me.”How did Aerah even know what happened that time? As far as I could remember, Ms. Brown wasn’t there and only Serena, Landon Mitchell, and Miranda Rowans were with me in that room. It would be strange if Aerah knew it from Serena.My sister would not even want to be in the same room with her. Talking to her was beyond impossible. “Are you sure? You know what happened when you married Jane—”“Please, let me work in peace, Mom. Stop mentioning Jane in the conversation when
GRAY’S POVI had been staring at her old photos for quite some time now. I was supposed to be working during this time, yet I found myself unable to move in my seat, my gaze stuck on Serena Ambers’ photos from almost three years ago.I noticed how she was always sitting on most of her old pictures. It was always candid and half-body, too. If I wasn’t observant enough, my sight would not even make me realize that she only started posting full-body photos only recently. “She fucking looks like her,” I muttered, biting my lip. Does she really look like this before? If I happened to meet Serena Ambers almost three years ago, I was sure I would fucking lose my mind. Her smile was just the same as Jane’s. Even her posture was like my wife’s.“What’s this?” I whispered as I clicked one of her old photos, trying to be careful not to like it. Serena Ambers in these photos was like Jane with longer hair. I zoomed the post to see her face, trying to focus on what she looked like—but immediately
SERENA’S POVI had been on dates with Landon. Might it be as best friends or as lovers, I did not really mind. His condition wasn’t a new or even a strange event for me. I had been seen with him multiple times, too. If I wasn’t mistaken, I thought there had been a published article about us being seen leaving a hotel. Goodness. My mom even thought that I was sleeping with him after we broke up. “I didn’t know you had an issue with that woman. You don’t usually do this, Serena. What did the woman do?” Landon asked, his eyes narrowing. There was no glint of judgment on his face, but I could tell he was dying to know what was happening. I acted nice toward Aerah yesterday, so he was probably confused. “You know that I lost my baby, right? You are also aware that my ex-husband and his family were the reason why I lost my child,” I started. Landon knew everything about my past, and I was sure he would understand why was I doing this. “Of course. I know everything about that, Serena. I w
SERENA’S POV I thought I needed to breathe fresh air. We would not be able to stop my mother if she really wanted to go here. Well, it was okay, but the things she might do would surely direct our plans to another path. Our mother was kind, but she was not the type of person who would please people so that she could look like the bigger person. She liked to do things her own way… may it be good or not. “What am I gonna do, Miranda? We can’t stop my mother, and we would not be able to control Aerah and Geraldine’s mouths either. This would be chaos.” I rested my face on my palm, appearing problematic. Mom was currently in Spain right now, living her best life in one of our houses there. My mother loved to work, so she probably was working there even though we told her to take a break. She said that there was another reason why she would go here… I wonder what could that be. It was probably for work again. That reason alone would not give us the ability to let her stay in Spain. “M
SERENA’S POV“Who the hell is that man Mom was talking about?” I asked myself as I ate the salad Kelly made for us. Just like usual, all of us were in the lounge, spending our time here however we wanted. The sun was up now, but none of us seemed to have planned to leave the house. Well, I did have a plan, but I would not be so stubborn again like how I did last time. My doctor freaking scolded me when he learned how I didn’t take his advice seriously. Also, no matter how much I wanted to go out and do what I had to do, I would not take any risks again unless I really needed to do so. Geraldine almost learned what was I hiding because of my stupidity and stubbornness. I was too careless and wasn’t thinking smart enough.“Chill, girl. You don’t have to worry about it too much. Mom’s men are all reliable when it comes to technology and physical fights. You won’t be dead if someone tries to kill you again,” Kaihly answered the question that was supposed to be heard only by me. Tch. S
GRAY’S POV“Tsk. Forget about that Serena Ambers, man. It’s so fucking obvious that you’re interested in that woman, but you’ll never be at peace with her because of your family. Why don’t you try liking other women? Your former secretary—”“Shut the fuck up, Kole. I told you I am not interested in dating for now. I won’t fucking deny nor confirm anything for now, too, because everything is just so fucking confusing.”I messed up with my hair as I looked down the floor. I was not a teenager to be fucking in denial with my feelings, but I wouldn’t name whatever I felt because damn, they were not the same person, but I was afraid if ever I was falling deeply in love with Serena just because she reminded me of Jane. I had met women like Serena Ambers before. Brave and bold, and they never get too carried away with their feelings just like her, but I was never interested. Maybe as business partners, yes, as I was assured of their professionalism, but other than that, they did not interes
GRAY’S POV “Damn, that was fucking straight to the point,” Kole stated, gasping. He lightly bumped his shoulder against mine as if telling me how bad it was, that it was rude and I should not have said that. Looking at Chelsea’s embarrassed expression, I thought he was right. I should have stayed quiet.“A-Ah, it’s okay Lawrence. You don’t have to force me to Gray. This party is for Marco. It should not be for me and Gray. And duh? We just met and he barely knew me. Stop shipping me to him, guys. It’s quite embarrassing for the both of us,” Chelsea told us, stuttering and not looking where I was. She had this huge smile on her face just a while ago when Marco’s friends were teasing her to me, but now that I told them how uninterested I was, she seemed to deny it and started acting conscious. Did that embarrassment do that to her? I apologized for being blunt, but that was what I truly felt. I wasn’t hoping for an issue. I would rather look rude from their perspective than let them
GRAY’S POV “Fucking hell,” I cursed as I parked the car outside Marco’s house. My right cheek still felt numb even if my sister had slapped the hell out of my face hours ago. The rearview mirror showed me the remembrance of it—it was red and had the tiny mark of her ring that was on her fingers when it happened. I hoped this birthday celebration was an intimate one. I could not afford to be seen by guests looking like this. Fuck, why does it have to be Marco’s birthday today? Knowing that man, he was a social butterfly who knew almost all the people in and outside Texas. I got out of the car and went inside my friend’s million-dollar house, bringing nothing but the face my sister hit. I had no time to bring him gifts when many things had happened today when it wasn’t even 10 pm yet. I was not even in the pool area yet I could already hear the sound of the music. What do I expect? Marco was a party animal. I got where they were wearing the suit that I often wore while I worked, giv
SERENA’S POV The lounge fell silent as Miranda walked toward me. I glanced at Kelly, hoping to see the expression on her face that said, “I wanna answer it.” But no. My younger sister only gave me a signal by nodding her head, seemingly telling me that I should be the one to answer it. Usually, Kelly would be the one to communicate with our mother. I always led the plan and sometimes would do what they suggested, but when it came to talking to the one who birthed us, Kelly was always our representative. She had the most amazing communication skills among us and she could convince the one and only Valeria Ambers not to go here. I took a deep breath as I received the phone from my secretary. Mom’s name flashed on the screen, making me nervous even more. I answered the call as silence enveloped inside the lounge room, turning on the speaker button so that my sisters could hear her, too.“Mommy…” I greeted, befuddled on what tone should I use. She just heard that I passed out in the de
SERENA’S POV “Kelly, stop with the arguing, please. There’s something that we need to do first before anything…” Kaihly interrupted us, her tone worried. We all looked at her simultaneously, forgetting what we were worried about in a split second. It was so rare to see Kaihly without her tablet or laptop. She would not be able to live without those gadgets. But right now, she had nothing on her hand. She was just listening to us, seemingly assessing the situation. “What is it? Are there other things that we need to be worried about besides that our mother is coming here anytime soon? Damn, Kaihly, what is it?”Kaihly took a deep breath and stood up. She then faced us all, the look of terror was hiding behind her eyes, yet it still could be seen from our point of view. With the way she was acting right now, I felt like something bad was about to happen. Kaihly was always calm and composed. She was the only person who could be so chill in the middle of chaos. “Miranda said that they
AERAH’S POVI only realized that they had gotten away already when an intern walked in front of me. Snapping back to reality, I clenched my fist and continued walking. I could not see them anymore, but the memory still lingered in my mind.Serena just passed out. Why did she have to cling like that to Landon? Why did Landon have to guard her as if someone would do something bad? He was freaking overreacting! I had not heard anyone died from freaking mild headache! If I knew, that Serena was just faking it for fucking attention!That was what she was… like what Jane always did!With my head knotting, I headed towards the clinic where Serena was just a while ago. I heard they did some lab tests on her. Well, not here because a clinic in a company could not do that. The probably got the things that they needed from her and did it at one of the nearest hospitals here—which our family also owned. I had not even gotten inside the clinic when its door suddenly opened, revealing my brother a
SERENA’S POVMy head was lightly in pain, but it was not throbbing enough to make me look suspicious in front of Gray and Miranda. My sight was starting to get clearer as I regained consciousness. I was not in my room. This room was like a mini hospital that I had never seen before. Is this still inside the Moore Estates? I had never been in here.“Ms. Ambers… are you okay? How are you feeling? You have been asleep for hours now. Do you feel dizzy? Is something hurting?” Miranda asked one after another. I sat down on the bed, my forehead knotted.Her questions were making my mind turn upside down. I just woke up, for goodness sake. I would not be able to process any information for now.“Stop, Miranda. My head might hurt again because of your questions. Please, I don’t wanna answer anything for a while right now,” I said, trying not to give an attitude but ended up sighing so deeply.The only thing that I wanted to do right now was go home. They had no idea how much I was nervous pas
SERENA’S POV — Serena’s Dream / Memory Continuation —I walked toward the dining room silently, hoping to see nothing but the food Lucia had prepared for me. I would surely eat the leftovers from last night. I would not let the food I worked hard for go to waste just because Gray did not show up. Lucia and I put our blood, sweat, and tears for all of these.“Lucia, I am here now…” I announced as I entered the dining room—only to halt and fall silent when I saw a man sitting at the end of the table. All of the dishes that we cooked yesterday were served. His eyes went straight to where I was, but he did not say anything or even greet me good morning. He was still here? I thought he had left already. I intentionally took my time preparing for the day because I thought he would not bother waiting for me. My eyes fell on his empty plate. It seemed like he had been waiting for me to come down and join him. It was clean and shining. “Good morning,” I greeted in a low voice, smiling fain