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
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“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
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 POVMy mother, just like usual, could not help but rant to me again because of Serena Ambers and my sister’s attitude. To be honest, I would be more confused if she would not do that. That was what she did all the time—to rant and complain about almost the same thing. Aerah got her attitude from her.Good thing my mother was also a worrier because when she heard a loud honk from the other cars, she almost went under cardiac arrest and immediately scolded me for being too careless and comfortable on the road. She was not a fan of using phones while driving—or perhaps doing something while inside the car. She ended the call right away, thanks to the cars that honked so loudly. Our house was hours away from the company, and I had been driving for a long time now. I had no plans on staying at work for the whole day, anyway. I had my meetings canceled so I could take my time staying at home. The house that I bought for Jane was inside the village that my mother’s family owned, so
AERAH’S POVIt was so unusual that my brother did not go to work today. I had been trying to look for a chance to talk to him and apologize for what I did, and now that I finally got the courage to do so, his secretary would tell me that he would not work today. He even canceled all his meetings that were supposed to happen later.What the hell is wrong with him? Is he avoiding me? Did he really take my slap personally? I only did that because I was pissed off! I felt like he was disrespecting me!“Do you know when will he come back? Can you ask him why isn’t he going to work today? I need to tell him something urgent.”I had to apologize right now or I would not get a good sleep tonight again. I could not afford to be sleepless and had puffy eye bags just because of guilt. Damn it!“Mr. Moore said that he has something important to do today, too, Ms. Moore. He advised me to not call him for things that relate to work—”“But I wouldn’t talk to him just for work! Duh? We are the owner
AERAH’S POV“Dang it,” I cussed at myself as I retouched the powder I had on my face. I finally got to change and look pretty again, but there was something that was still bothering me now. “Goodness, Mom,” I groaned as I clicked the red button to turn off the call for the nth time now. She had been calling me since I received that nonsense text. Gosh, isn’t she used to me yet? I thought she would not be shocked anymore if she heard another gossip about me from her friends again. She seemed to forget that men would not stop salivating over her only daughter.Am I at fault for that?I knew I fooled around again days ago, but I made sure that there would not be any clips or pictures that those bastards would take of us while doing the deed. Well, that happened successfully, but it seemed like I would not be able to control their nosy mouths and they would start telling people about how good I was in bed.Stupid bastards.“Finally done,” I sang like I was singing in a theater. I did not
AERAH’S POVInstead of going back to work, I just decided to drive and go home. It was not the end of my shift yet, so I was already expecting another scolding from my mom.I should not have gone here after receiving that message from her, but I thought it would be better to have myself calm down in my room instead of fooling around with men to release my stress. I had a date with Landon tomorrow, and I could not show up looking like I did not have a good rest today just because my best friend decided to ruin my day. I took the chance to go straight to my room when I did not see my mother in the common room where she always spent most of her time. I could not afford to hear another sermon from anyone. Not now that I was having a bad day. I might talk back and say things that I would regret after.Tch. I thought the only good thing that happened today was when Landon spilled his coffee on me which made him ask me out. My dress was ruined, but I gained a chance to be with him.I left
SERENA’S POVFuck you, Gray. How could you fucking do this to me? Showing up with Hazel Browns, really? Damn him! Damn him and his family!“Don’t let your emotions eat you now, Serena. People are watching. You might as well save it for later.”I could feel Caden tapping me on my arm secretly, but my eyes were unable to look away from the two persons who had just gone inside the hall. I could hear a few murmurs from my surroundings, making me think that I wasn’t the only one surprised by the woman’s sudden appearance.Who the fuck wouldn’t be surprised when he showed up with the woman he cheated on me with before? He even banned Hazel because the woman beat me up so badly!I cleared my throat and turned my gaze to Caden, displaying a smile to hide my irritation. There was something inside me that made me want to ruin this celebration. I didn’t know what to feel, to be honest. But I was afraid that I would do something I might regret later. Fuck.“What’s with that look?” Caden asked me,
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