AERAH’S POV“Aaaaaaaa! Fuck you, Serena! Fuck you! Why do you keep getting all men in Texas?! Damn!”No matter how many times I refresh Serena Ambers’ comment section, Landon Mitchell’s name would still appear at the top. I had been doing it since yesterday, hoping that something would change and the man of my dreams’ name would disappear. Still, it wasn’t gone. His name and his comment stayed the same as if telling me that I really stood no chance against Serena when it came to Landon’s type.“Minimize your voice, girl. People are staring at you,” Kelsey stated as she rested her face on her palm, almost rolling her eyes at me. Just like me, we were both in a bad mood. I thought I ruined her day, as she would not feel the same way I did if I did not call her to be with me. Kelsey had other plans and I only forced her to listen to my rants that was why she was here.“Do you agree that I am prettier than Serena? That girl didn’t even have my curves! How can Landon call her beautiful wh
SERENA’S POVWhat? Mr. Moore? Did I hear her right? I could see Miranda trying so hard to block the gate just so the people outside would not see us. Damn, what the hell is he doing here? Kaihly said that it was just Gray’s secretary outside! “She is resting right now, Sir. I don’t think Ms. Ambers would like it if you would go inside without her permission…”What the hell?Irritated, I took a deep breath and cleared my throat, making Miranda look at her back—specifically in my direction. Her eyes immediately widened, seemingly troubled that she saw me here right now.“M-Ms. Ambers…” Miranda called, stuttering. The commotion outside halted. Slowly, I walked toward the gate and stood beside Miranda—where I could see who were the people outside. Gray, standing like a gentleman revealed himself. He was with someone, probably his newly hired secretary. My brow instantly raised. Where did he get the audacity to be here? When did I tell him that he’s allowed to step foot in front of my p
GRAY’S POVI could feel my blood rushing in my veins as I looked straight at the road. We just fucking left Serena’s residence, and only I could tell how fucking embarrassed I was because of what happened just a while ago.What were you fucking thinking, Gray? You really thought it was a good idea to visit the woman who clearly showed you that she doesn’t like you around? Your mother fucking told you that Serena did not give you a single fuck!“She is only like that when she’s not feeling well, though. We are okay whenever she feels fine,” I talked to myself. I caught my secretary taking a glimpse of me through the rearview mirror. He was probably thinking that I was losing my mind here. Damn, Serena. What the hell are you doing to me?Speaking of her, she still did not look fine. Her bruises were still visible. Actually, that was the first time I got a closer look at those because she always wore blazers and sleeves at the office. I wasn’t aware that Hazel could fucking scratch her
SERENA’S POVMy brows were almost meeting each other as I went back inside the house. Landon and Miranda were behind my back, and none of them seemed to have the energy to state a word.My heart was still drumming hard. The anxiety and anger were mixing within my chest, unable to tell which one came before everything I felt.That was so freaking close! Gray was not a stupid person to trespass on someone else’s property, but he was also a powerful one to get away with it if he decided to trespass on my house. He was an influential man. If he fucking went inside because Miranda failed to stop him, he would freaking see Kaihly and that would be the end of this freaking revenge. They would know everything with only one glimpse of my sister!“What the hell, Miranda?! How did that man know where we live? Did you freaking tell him? He almost got us! Kaihly, I thought it was only Gray’s secretary that was inside the house? Goddamit!” I exclaimed, my hands slamming the table. Miranda swallowe
GRAY’S POV“Ms. Ambers is here, Mr. Moore…” Hearing that woman’s surname, my hand automatically stopped signing the paper that I had been reviewing for the past hour. The mention of anything about her reminded me of what happened yesterday, filling me with embarrassment on the inside.“Does she have someone with her? Landon Mitchell?” I inquired curiously, trying my best not to sound interested. The man seemed to have a problem with every time that I would go near Serena. That convinced me that he was still in love with her.“Ms. Serena Ambers entered the building alone, Sir. She rode a personal vehicle and didn’t also have someone to drive her here. I don’t think Mr. Landon Mitchell even knows that she went to work today…”Why is she here? I saw her yesterday, and I could say that she wasn’t anything good. She looked pale and weak, minus the part where she stared at me with pure anger. Damn, woman. Why the hell are you here when you should have been resting at home?“What is she doi
SERENA’S POVI could feel Gray’s stare at me as I looked down on the floor. I faked my embarrassment and made my fingertips play with each other, seemingly could not face his gaze.Sorry for what? It sounded funny in my mind while I said it. It actually embarrassed me that I was doing this. My pride could not take this fake-ass acting while this bastard watched me.Would this even work on him? Gray disliked females who acted cute… or maybe not? I was not sure! I did not even have an idea what his type was. I used to be so soft when it came to him and he never liked me that way.“That is not what I am trying to say, Ms. Ambers. I’m not saying that I don’t want you here. I am just following the rules…” he explained, his tone remaining cold as if he didn’t want me here. What the hell is going on with him? I thought he was starting to become too fond of me. What’s with his tone now?“I think I’ll believe you more if only you didn’t sound so mad. You seem to not like me here, Mr. Moore,” I
SERENA’S POVI was impressed by how well Gray maintained our eye contact. He did not even blink nor look away from me as he listened to my flirty voice. I did not know how long I would do this, but the more I stayed inside his office and act like a freaking slut, the more I felt disgusted by myself.How can I even do this? Is this my hidden talent?“To be honest, Ms. Ambers, you would not be the vice president of this company if it weren’t for your abilities to run a business,” he answered, a small smile erupting on his lips. Even though I was just faking my kindness toward him, I couldn’t help but feel flattered when I heard what he said. I loved the compliment of being good, but the moment I realized that it came from this man, my fantasy would immediately disappear.I didn’t need his validation. I loved to know that I was doing good, though. That only meant my years of practice and hard work weren’t wasted. “Hmm… I guess that compliment means we are okay, then? I know that we have
GRAY’S POV I could not understand where was she coming from. Yes, I paid for her brother’s tuition for the last time and it was only because her siblings did not have any idea what she was doing while working. But the groceries, pocket money, exam fee—I did not know about that. The last time I helped his brother was when Hazel Brown was fired and he messaged me, saying how thankful he was for giving his sister a job and how he was sorry because of what Hazel did. Well, that college tuition fee was part of Hazel’s contract with the company, anyway. It only got terminated the time she did that to Serena, but I still had his brother get the benefit even if the deal was no longer effective. “I hope you can hear yourself right now, Ms. Brown. Your brother’s college tuition fee was part of the contract. Any other financial aid that you have mentioned does not involve me anymore. You can ask my mother about it. She might have been the one who did that since she is too fond of you.”“Make
SERENA’S POVI went back to my office with a knotted forehead. I had to be professional and not let my personal emotions take over me. I sat down on my swivel chair aggressively, only to stop myself from complaining about what happened in Gray’s office when I saw a gold envelope on my table. I took it without hesitation, opened it, and read what was inside.“Who put this here?” I asked, my eyes focused on what was written on the material.An invitation to attend Geraldine Moore’s 50th birthday?Oh, I did not know that the wench would like to see me on her birthday. Damn, we made the right choice of not adding me as my mother’s plus-one. Is she really the one who invited me or not? I could not bring myself to believe that she wanted my presence on her special day.“Oh, Mr. Moore’s secretary passed by here to give us that. He said that all of the board members were invited to attend the party. A plus one is even allowed, according to him.”Oh…That was what I thought. The old woman did
SERENA’S POVIt was another day to be strong again. I had to face the Moores with all these questions in my brain, and it still sucked because again, I could not remember anything. My mother and I had talked before I left the house, and we had agreed that I would not attend the party unless someone asked me that was not her. We just could not reveal that we were mother and daughters that easily. I still refused to have them investigate my mother even though I was sure that none of them knew her as my father’s wife then. Even I wasn’t aware of her existence until three years ago. “What’s the update about Mr. Garcia taking over Mr. Jordan’s share, Miranda? I haven’t talked to Mr. Moore about it. Is there any progress? Has the CEO already scheduled a meeting?” I asked as I sat on my swivel chair, watching Lucia wipe the picture frames—specifically the frames that had my picture in it. She had been doing that for a while now, but I wasn’t saying anything. I liked watching her do things
KAIHLY’S POVI would not know what exactly should I do right away if ever I was alone in this situation. Caden took the lead in instructing Landon what to do, and I just followed most of what was he saying. With the help of Caden and I, Landon got to escape the situation by misleading the direction of the people who followed him the moment he drove his car away from the coffee shop.Caden seemed to be so aware of the ins and outs in this area. He was the one who talked to the man on where to go. I felt like a display here knowing that Caden did most of the things. I was just assisting him with what he needed me to do. I had been admiring how smart he was for the whole night, and the only thing that was new to me was how disappointed I was in Landon after knowing that he did not bother sending Aerah home.I meant, I did not like the woman for what she had done to my sister but if I probably did not know who she was, I would pity her for liking a man that was not so interested in her.
GRAY’S POV“I was never in love with my wife, Lucia. Maybe I was interested in her before everything changed—”“You are just in denial. You are in love with Jane, Gray. You have always been in love with her. Even after she passed, you have been in denial. You kept telling yourself that you were not in love with her because your untamed anger was still there. You are mad at her for what she did, and you became angrier when she passed…”Lucia’s words started sinking into my mind slowly, highlighting everything that she was saying. I closed my eyes as I started recalling the times that Jane was still alive.I admitted that I was not a good husband. I was merely a stranger to her, as I was not always at home. My office actually became my house because of too much work that my father was giving me. Those were my preparations once the company would be given to me. Jane would talk to me whenever we had the chance to do so, but I would always answer her like how I answered most people that I
GRAY’S POV I did have an idea of what should I do, but I did not think I would be able to trust myself.“I don’t think we should talk about this over the phone, Serena. I just called to apologize, but I would like to talk about us in person,” I responded, regretting that I called tonight and disturbed her. I wanted to apologize, but the original plan was to do it in person. I just called because I happened to miss her voice. “Tsk. Whatever. Let’s talk in person like what you want, Mr. Moore. I am gonna end this call now. Bye.” She ended the call without letting me bid her goodbye. I inhaled a deep breath, turning off my phone. My feelings had been confusing me since then, and now that I had to decide, it seemed like I could not bring myself to decide what should I do, too. I could fucking feel that I wanted Serena to be mine. I liked her as Serena Ambers, but I also could not help but remember how I used to act around my wife. It was fucking confusing me. Did I only like Serena be
SERENA’S POV “Yeah, she did. I received an email from one of her friends. I declined because what am I gonna with them? Listen to them talking nonsense about other people?” My shoulders fell. She was invited to one of Geraldine’s private gatherings. I was sure a tea party would not be huge, so only a few people were invited there. One of them was my mother, and that was already a chance to have a connection with her. “You know I don’t have many friends because I don’t wanna waste my time talking about other people’s business, right? It’s not my cup of tea. I would rather spend time with my children and talk about something that would make sense to me,” my mother added, almost rolling her eyes at me. I bit my lip and refrained from talking about how much information we could get from that woman alone. That tea party would not only be about the tea that they would drink. I was sure it was a tea about someone’s life, too. Hopefully my life. It was okay if she talked shit about me as
SERENA’S POVI could feel Miranda’s intent stare as we listened to what was Lucia saying. We had been investigating what truly happened in the past, and we had never encountered someone who said that my husband used to be interested in me. Did that really happen? Because I could not remember a single thing regarding that. I had never felt Gray’s interest in me.“He’s interested? I heard from a few employees here that they are only under an arranged marriage. And if he’s interested, he would not flirt with the woman you were talking about…”Is Lucia even telling me the truth right now? How come Gray liked me when I was always a ghost to him? He rarely went home and never knew anything about me. He was always too busy with the company. He was always with his father.“Oh, I don’t know what happened to that man. They were indeed only under an arranged marriage for the sake of business, but I knew that Gray truly liked his wife. He never told me anything but his actions told me so. He migh
SERENA’S POVI was so confused. I could not name what I was feeling right now, honestly. But no matter what it was, it was against my better judgment to freaking feel this way.We were already on our way to my office, and I still could not comprehend these emotions.Should I be freaking glad that Gray said that he missed the old me or be confused because what the fuck? How could he miss someone he used to hate? How could he miss someone that he kicked out years ago?I should be pissed off. That was right. There was no right answer between those two. I should be mad and cussing the hell out of him because even after all these years, even if he wasn’t aware that I was Jane that he said he was missing right now, he was still stressing me out. So, what was gonna happen now? Is this the end of our useless relationship? Is this the end of my pretend flirting with him? This could not be happening at all. I had not even asked him about so many things.If he wanted to be away from me starting
GRAY’S POV I would bury myself to the ground. What the fuck is wrong with me? Serena’s eyebrows squished together. She was just as confused as me, but the difference was I knew where those words came from. I knew why did I say that, but I had no idea why I had to fucking say it out loud. My chin tilted up as I swallowed hard. I ran out of excuses to tell her, but I had to think through it. I should not have said that if it wasn’t meant for her completely. I was damn well aware that it wasn’t just Serena who I missed. I fucking missed my wife, too. “What do you mean? We’re always seeing each other in the company. What’s wrong?” she asked, giggling at me. I cleared my throat, straightening my back. I looked away from her and pretended to look at my employees instead.“It’s nothing. I just remembered something. Forget it.”“Forget what you said? That you missed me? Oh, Gray. No one can hear us talking here. Look, they are all busy. You don’t have to hide how much you want me, my darl