"Kylian?" His mother's voice came with an unexplainable pain in his temple. He was too tired to tell her to stop calling his name that loudly. It took him a while to realize that he was lying in a hospital bed. His mother's face was a bit blurry at first before he could see every detail clearly."Mom?" He barely got out a whisper. He slowly recalled all the events that had led to him being there at that time. Slowly and painfully, he recalled his shameful trip and fall, in front of all of New York. "How'd I get here?""Some girl at the scene of the fall was able to call the ambulance to come get you. The fall was really severe, you had a concussion, Kylian."Maya...he thought if she could have been the one that had called the ambulance to come get him. Or had she left him for dead? No...he doubted that."How are you feeling?" His mother asked with concern and worry."My head hurts, real bad..." And my heart too. He wished he could say that out loud, but was just too weak. He didn't k
The news of Francis being alive had kept Emma on her toes ever since. Just when she had been relieved that he was out of the picture for good, he resiliently popped back into it. He just wouldn't be cropped out that easily."I'm here to see Detective Francis Burke," she said to the nurse at the receptionist, clutching the bouquet of flowers dearly as she put up the demeanor of a compassionate visitor."And you are?" The aged nurse looked up from her desk through her round-rimmed spectacles with a rather prolonged suspicious gaze."Emma..." She said, "his girlfriend." She knew they wouldn't let just anybody see a detective. "I have waited long enough to see him, could you please let me?" She felt disgusted by the extent to which she had to abase herself.The nurse looked at her for some seconds, analyzing her and the situation, scanning for any hints of falsehood. Then a mischievous smile suddenly came on her face."Room sixty-two," she said, giving her a card, "don't try anything too
"Chloe, just hear me out," Max could feel himself trembling inside out as the moment had come sooner and more unexpectedly than he had expected it to come."I'm listening," she clearly didn't look like one who was. She looked like one who was waiting to catch him by his words, and that fierce look on her face made him even more tense."It happened over the weekend—""Oh... I see why you were so keen on having me go before you. So you can have all the room to have your little weekend squabble.""You know that's so not true. Something really did come up at work." Max said trying to hold her hand in a bid to give her some level of assurance which she wasn't willing to take as she pulled her hand away from him."What is true? I don't even know anymore," she raised her hands in a confused feat of rage. "Who's she?" Max exhaled heavy pressure-filled air as he was about to drop the bombshell, "She's Debby...my ex." He bowed his head low in regret. That moment was bound to come, and all he c
“Hey,” Maya said. There was something about her gaze through those glasses that Kylian just found somewhat amazing.“Hey,” Kylian replied, his eyes sought for his mother so he could see her facial expression. He knew it was an odd moment, him meeting with the woman who had put him at the risk of losing half his possessions to Emma.“I guess I will have to leave you both to yourselves for a while.” Mrs. Kincaid said as she was about to slip out of the room. “I’d like to go get something to eat.” She gave Kylian a cognitive wink as she left. He felt some relief at that.“How are you doing, Kylian?” Maya said, taking the seat where his mother had sat.“Well…I couldn’t sit up and talk two days ago,” he said, “look at me now— sitting and talking.”“That’s great to hear,” Maya said putting her hand on his, “I’m really sorry that you had to go through all this at once. Must be really hard on you.”“You don’t have to be sorry. I owe you an apology, for not letting you know the truth about who
“Damn it, Chloe!” Three tedious weeks had gone by and Max hadn’t been able to get through to Chloe. She wasn’t willing to hear anything he had to say, he felt totally excommunicated— a sentence which he believed that he had completely deserved. He had expected her to at least pick up the phone this time to give him some glimmer of hope.Nothing else made sense in his days and nights anymore since she’d thrown that ring at him. It felt like he had his entire world thrown at him with it. He had nothing else to look forward to after dreadfully long hours at work. All his plans of marital bliss were about going down the drain, but he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He would prove it somehow to Chloe, but for the time being he had to take care of business.“Mr. West,” Mr. Singh’s smile was wide and brilliant. “Thank you for coming over on such short notice.”Max had to put on his best smile as he reached out for a handshake. He remembered that he also still kept the secret of his
“That slut…” Mrs. Kincaid was cut short as her seething emotions wouldn’t let her complete her words. “That slut…has really got the nerve, pulling off this one on us. Is there anything that can be done, Harry?”“We might still have a chance with the case if we can get anything more incriminating that can be used against her,” Harry said, turning slowly in his chair, with a slightly worried look on his face. “Of which I believe we are yet to find.”Kylian was silent throughout the meeting in the attorney’s office. All the talking made his bandaged temple hurt. It dawned on him how desperate Emma was to ruin him and how unprepared he was for the battle. He constantly weighed what he had to gain and what he stood to lose and questioned if all the wear and tear was worth it.“She has us right where she wants us,” he hated watching his mother tear herself apart because of the entire case. He wished she could buy into his idea of just letting go, but then, he thought it better to stay quiet
“I’ll have to call you back, Chloe.” Ollie had hung up before she knew it.“Oh…” Chloe said. She hadn’t expected to hear such a thrilling story of what had gone down the day before.Chloe put her phone on the kitchen table and glanced up at the ceiling and down. What the heck am I doing? She was clueless about what to do with the long weekend— an awfully long weekend without Max.She had been too pained for the past couple of weeks to realize that she missed him. The feelings of hurt had subsided and now she felt the all-too-familiar feeling of loneliness and boredom haunting her in her house— which Max had helped her get. Everything around her just seemed to remind her lonely broken heart of him.Repeatedly, all through the past two weeks, she had told herself that she would consider moving out but had been too caught up in work to even make a phone call. Besides that, the thought of moving for the third time in a year deterred her. The excuses kept going on and on till she’d wake up
Chloe looked on, watching the video expectantly. She was already wishing that could salvage the situation and probably save their relationship.“What do you want?” Max said in a serious, angry tone she had never seen him display towards her.The brunette lady he was seated with in the video had such a deceptive beauty which made her feel almost intimidated. Her lecherous-looking lips glowed with her lipstick. She could understand why Max had been tempted in the first place, although it was inexcusable. She disliked the fact that her face was all she would be seeing throughout the footage.“I just wanted to see you, Maxy,” she said. Chloe felt like shoving those words back down her throat. She appeared like she was trying to allure with every single move she made. And it was irritating.“Could you just cut the bullshit out, and tell me what you really want?” Max sounded impatient and a bit uneasy.“I’ve told you already,” she said, “all I want is you, Max. Nothing else.” She put her ha