Chapter 5 (Seth's POV)In my life and my line of work, I had to learn how to read people the moment I saw them. Learning to read people was actually an easy task to master when you grew up in a home where everyone was walking on tiptoes and no one dared speak. That is the reason why I noticed Anabelle's nervousness the moment she opened the door.She was pulling down her sleeves and her smile did not reach her eyes. Well, that is until I made a joke about us having a welcome party in the evening, and I received the most beautiful sound in the world as a reward. She laughed. And it was like music to my ears.One thing about Anabelle though that never made sense to me. She always wore long-sleeved shirts no matter how hot it was outside. But she was still the most beautiful woman I have met in my life. I mean what was there not to like? She was a bit on the shorter side, reaching only to my shoulders, but it was as if two-thirds of her body were just legs. She was on the healthy slim si
Chapter 6 (Anabelle's POV)What is wrong with me? If I continue to act like this someone will eventually find out my secret and how am I supposed to explain everything to Valentina then? There is no way she would forgive me for lying to her for so long and in the end not even telling her myself.Somehow this whole living with Sean thing was getting out of hand on our first day.And it was time for me to get ready so I did not even have time to find a believable excuse for my reactions.Even though the reaction from when he yelled at me would be easier to explain than all the reactions before. After all, he knew what my childhood looked like and I guess any sane person would understand why I reacted the way I did to yelling. Unfortunately yelling at me still meant someone was about to hit me because that is what life taught me to expect in foster care.If someone yelled at you, it meant you did something wrong and you did not get a chance to defend yourself before a slap or punch lande
Chapter 7 (Seth's POV)Am I stupid? Yes, I am. Do I give a shit? Let me think…no, not really.You might be wondering what I am talking about. I will explain things to you in a moment.First of all,l was an idiot when I questioned her choice of clothes. The first rule to stay alive as a man in a world where women were independent was to never ever doubt their choices and if you dare question it, do it subtly, not just blurt out what comes to your mind as I did. So you see that is the first proof that I indeed am stupid. But do not worry I have many more to support and prove my theory of stupidity.Next was the moment when she exited the house and I went to my room with no intention of leaving the house or following her but a moment later I did just that. I threw my jacket on and practically sprinted out of the door so I could follow her. The only good thing was that she listened to my advice at least halfway. She did not use a taxi or Uber and she did not sit in her car. No, the stubbo
Chapter 8 (Anabelle's POV)Tonight was pretty much the same as every other night. But surprisingly I received an anonymous tip worth two thousand funds. That never happened before. Tonight they also went overboard on the theme of my name. Yes, my stage name was Belle but that did not mean I should look like the woman from Beauty and the beast. But that is exactly what happened. Now that I think about it I must say the night was different from previous nights on so many levels. But at least it was over. For tonight. So I just had to get home now, take a nice hot shower to wash away the stench of cigarettes and alcohol then crash for tonight. And tomorrow I can do it all over again. My life is turning into a boring routine and I did not like it one bit. Especially the hidden night part of my life. As much as I wanted to quit my current job I could not. Bills were about to arrive any day now and sadly I was not even sure if Devin was completely out of the picture. Each time I tried to as
Chapter 9 (Seth's POV)Why am I doing this to myself?Sure I wanted to confront her but not attack her or judge her let alone insult her! But I did just that, all of the above options. And now I was seriously starting to believe I was stupid.Right now though I will not be able to save anything, so I decided to sleep on the couch. Why? So I would hear Anabelle when she comes out of her room in the morning and I can apologize.But I guess my guardian angel was sleeping or my luck ran out, whichever option it was, once I woke up Anabelle was not at home anymore.So I busied myself for the whole day, now if you read between the lines, I was moping around the house.I suspected when Anabelle was gone for the whole day that she went straight to work from wherever she was and I stayed up all night, but at six in the morning sleep won the battle. And once again when I woke up the house was empty, but there was a note on the fridge telling me that I had some food in the fridge if I wanted it.
Chapter 10 (Anabelle's POV)The road to forgiveness was long in my book and it would be the same for Seth. Sure he was on the right path. But we will see after I finish working in a few minutes if he is truly waiting for me and ready to talk.If he had in mind to only judge me again he can forget any kind of conversation.I would rather not speak to him in that case. Being kind and forgiving did not mean I was stupid and naive. I learned my lesson young and ever since then I made sure to not be naive and believe people blindly.But I understood where he was coming from as well. After all, when he first arrived I did not see him which meant after he saw me on the stage he did not stay long enough to see the whole picture. And then as he was sitting at home things were just brewing inside him until it all grew into unrecognizable proportions and once I arrived home he exploded. At least that is what I think happened.As the clock finally showed three am I packed my stuff and excited our
Chapter 11 (Seth's POV)Waiting for Anabelle at the club was long and too short at the same time. Long were all the moments when she was not on stage or near me, but too short were those moments of her performing and the moments she took to keep me company.But she had all my undivided attention throughout the night. She really had no idea how captivating she was. At one moment I even wanted to tell her that there would be no talk because I could see it was making her nervous. But then I reminded myself I needed those answers if I wanted to keep my sanity intact.As we kept approaching our house I was getting more and more nervous and she was getting nervous as well. What's funny though you could not really tell which one of us was more nervous. It was as if we were getting ready for a battle and not a talk.But one way or another we both needed this talk. I needed it to clear my head of all the questions that kept bugging me since yesterday and I had a feeling she needed it to feel a
Chapter 12 (Anabelle's POV)Two weeks have passed since our deep talk with Seth. I know what you must be thinking, why did I not tell him the whole truth, everything, including the fact that Devin did far worse things than just threaten me?But I just could not bring myself to tell him. He was not looking at me with judgment anymore and I wanted to keep things this way. Again, why? Because either he was off limits or not, I liked him. And not just as a friend. It was this way before he moved in with me, but now that we are living together it is all getting even harder.Let me tell you just one situation I found myself in this week ok? You can fill in the blanks after that.So it was a normal Wednesday by any means, for me that meant grocery shopping. Seth wanted to come with me but I told him to stay home and watch television. Ever since I told him parts of my story he became overprotective and wanted to follow me everywhere and I just needed some time for myself. Reluctantly he agree
Chapter 27 (Loraine’s POV) epilogue Some years later… “Andrew! The girls will be here any minute, could you get Samuel ready for me please?” Before you make any assumptions let us make something clear. Samuel is our son, and he is three years old. As weird and unthinkable as it might sound, all girls gave birth to a child in the same year. Sure, there were differences, Valentina and Nathaniel had three kids. The first one was a little girl named Daisy, who was not so little anymore since she was nine years old already. Second was a boy named Gareth, he was six years old and the last was Penelope who was three years old as well as our Samuel. Then there was Anabelle and Seth. They had two kids, twins to be exact. A boy and a girl, Samantha, and Sam, they were three years old as well. If we move forward, we have Anastasia and Benjamin, they had just one kid the same as me and Andrew, and the little three years old princesses’ name was Lory. The next in line would be Malcolm and Mandy
Chapter 26 (Andrew’s POV)We were on our way to the airport and of course, with Malcolm in the car we were driving over the speed limit and if a police officer pulled us over there would be hell to pay once he realized who the driver was, but mostly no one dared stop Malcolm, even the new guys knew his car and just waved when he passed. But in my opinion, we were still not driving fast enough. I wanted to be at the airport already, deal with the bastard and wrap my Loraine in my arms where I knew I could keep her safe.But as much as I wanted to yell and rant and be a smart ass, I knew I was thinking irrationally so I rather just sat back and kept my mouth shut. That and the fact that Malcolm threatened to throw me out of the car if I dared be loud.Thankfully we arrived at the airport just when my patience was running low. But as we stopped the car, I could not believe my eyes. There was a plane, ready to take off at any moment, but the stairs were still pulled out and firmly on the
Chapter 25 (Loraine’s POV)Either these people were stupid, or they just assumed I knew London so well that I did not need to have my eyes covered while we were driving to the airport. Or maybe it was just the fact that they were so sure I would not be going anywhere except board the plane to Washington.Too bad for them because I had every intention to run away as fast as my legs could carry me, especially now that I knew two of six guys were on my side. Two of those guys that were not on my side are going into the plane’s cabin to make sure everything is set up and two will be completely oblivious to my attempt thanks to my accomplices. I still had no idea what their moto was, but I was not about to ask them since I was just happy to have someone willing to help me get away without a need to kill someone.You see all my self defense classes and so on that I was taking while on the run were in case, I found some place I want to stay and not run anymore, but before London there was no
Chapter 24 (Andrew’s POV)“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE IS FUCKING GONE?! YOU STUPID BUNCH OF IMBECILS! HOW COULD YOU LET HER SLIP OUT OF THE CLUB WITHOUT ANY OF YOU NOTICING!?” As you can see, saying I was pissed would be a huge understatement, because I was livid! Somehow, while we were celebrating our win in the office with Malcolm and the girls, and a few minutes later with their boyfriends as well, Loraine managed to slip out of the club and disappeared into thin air.If you would tell me a week ago, she disappeared I would probably believe she ran away like she did every time in the past eight years when something or someone got too close to her and her heart, but today I was sure she did not run away. She promised me that she would not run away, and she would stay with me for as long as I wanted her and on the other hand, the fact that Rodriguez was just leaving my club when Loraine mysteriously disappeared just did not stop nagging me. So, I had my suspicion that he had something to d
Chapter 23 (Loraine’s POV)Today was the first time in my whole life that I remember standing up to myself for as long as I can remember. Not once when I was married was, I willing to do so. I just swallowed everything that was thrown my way. I never yelled at the man or talked back, I never told him my opinion, never objected to his decisions about my life, nothing.And the feeling was kind of refreshing and new. It felt amazing.Now, you see I stopped smoking years ago, it was bad for my health and all that and honestly it was just an expensive habit. But at this moment I felt like I was on top of the world and decided to treat myself to one cigarette you could say for old times’ sake, so I can finally close the door on every bad decision I made in the past.I was at the back entrance when I heard steps approaching but I thought it was sure one of the girls or maybe Andrew, so I stayed put and did not even turn around to see who it was, a big mistake.Next thing I know someone was h
Chapter 22 (Andrew’s POV)The thought of pinching myself and seeing if I was even awake crossed my mind, but nothing felt as good even in dreams as Loraine felt in my arms. She said it. Those fears I had for the past few weeks since I realized I fell for this woman melted away like ice cream on a hot sunny day.Now the only thing left was for us to deal with Rodriguez once and for all. But that was not mine decision, I stopped kissing her and moved a bit away but still kept our foreheads pressed close together, “Are you ready to deal with the demons of the past?”She gave me a nod which was a bit hesitant, but honestly if I was in her shoes and had to deal with someone like Rodriguez, I would be hesitant as well. I took one of her hands in mine and gave her a squeeze to show her that she was not alone.As we rounded the corner, I could not help it but look around and once again it surprised me how self-assured the man really was. He took only five men with him and all of them were in
Chapter 21 (Loraine’s POV)How could he do that? If I had to guess, from what I saw in the office I would say Andrew knew about my past and he knew it well. So first of all, he was hiding the fact that he knows about everything from me, or maybe I can find an excuse for him and say he just found out, but I doubt that since he has been a bit weird for the past few weeks and especially today. But I am willing to tell myself anything to feel a bit better, and right now I needed to believe Andrew did not betray me like everyone else in my life did.At the moment I was sitting by the river that was right next to the club, and yes, I know I did not go far from everything, but it was far enough that Rodriguez would not think I came here, he probably thought that I ran away already like I always do when he finds me, but this time was different. I had friends, I had a job that I liked, and I hope they cared for me as well. I had a good life, and I was actually looking forward to the future. I
Chapter 20 (Andrew’s POV)The moment Loraine barged into my office I knew something was going to go awfully wrong and as usual I was proven right when the asshole opened his mouth.Thankfully me and Malcolm seem to be on the same page because when Loraine ran out of my office as if she was on fire, we both jumped to our feet, but since I was in my usual seat and Malcolm was right next to Rodriguez, he was the one that landed a solid punch to his face and probably broke his nose in the process judging by the crunching sound that could be heard, “You idiot! You just broke my nose! What in the ever-loving hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? I can have you erased from the surface of the earth in a moment!” technically, if we were not who we are, he would be right, but since we were one of the strongest mafia organizations in the world, well, sadly for him, he was wrong. Sure, we were operating on legal grounds, but that was actually a plus on our side, b
Chapter 19 (Loraine’s POV) Something did not feel right. I could not put my finger on it, but my gut was telling me to go back to the club. Why? I had no idea but the opportunity to do so presented itself when Mandy asked me to put the car keys into my purse, because I was the only one that remembered to take a big enough purse to put in my wallet, phone and all the girly necessities but still had some space to put in the keys as well. Now I just had to come up with a plan to get away from them with a believable excuse, ran to the parking lot and drive back to the club so this awful feeling would go away. Even if I drove for nothing, I would still feel better if I followed my instincts and honestly, I doubted my gut was warning me for nothing. I know to some people it might sound stupid to follow your gut or your instincts, but those two things saved me more than once in the past years while I was being on the run. So, there was no way I would ignore it. As we walked around the sho