Emily felt paralyzed. She blinked repeatedly at the sight before her,wishing it was all a figment of her imagination.
It wasn't. “Sophie” She managed to whisper. Her sister stared back at her with no remorse or shame. None of the cheaters looked shocked to have been discovered. Emily's mind was in a whirlwind of thoughts, trying to process everything. Never in a million did she imagine that Wesley could cheat on her and with no other person than her blood sister. She felt her heart ache from the betrayal. “How….how could you?” She mumbled,the words feeling heavy in her mouth. “Ermm….Emily,would you excuse us?We need to get dressed.” Wesley blurted out. Emily felt her mouth drop open in another wave of shock. “What?” Wesley repeated himself “Emily, don't make this harder than it needs to be. Go downstairs,we'll come meet you after dressing up.” Emily couldn't believe her ears. She caught them in bed and that was all he had to say. “Emily, please go downstairs. We'll talk about this when we come down.” Sophie added. Again, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. The cheaters were calm. Like they had done nothing wrong. Their relaxed expressions made it look like Emily was the outsider who had walked in on the couple's private time. Her body began to burn with rage. If she didn't leave, she was going to launch at both of them and plug out their eyes. Emily casted them one last look before quietly walking out of the room. Her world was spinning as she descended the stairs. The house that was once a safe haven to her suddenly became too stuffy. Afraid she was going to lose conscience if she stayed, Emily grabbed the car keys and bolted out of the house. Her hands trembled as she opened the car door. She needed to run as far away as she could from the betrayal. After everything they had gone through together, she couldn't fathom why he would do that to her. They had a good life, they were happy. Why would he throw that away? And with no other person than her sister. Her mind swirled with questions. How long had their affair been going on? Weeks,months, years? It all felt like a dream. She drove aimlessly for what felt like hours before she finally pulled up in front of her parents’ house. She broke down in tears. Years of love and commitment was down the drain. She gave up her dreams to make him happy. She built his career and this was how he chose to pay her back. After hours of crying, Emily finally left the comfort of the car and made her way inside. Immediately she saw her parents, she felt like breaking down again. Both of them had a curious look on seeing her swollen face. “Emily, what's wrong?” her mother asked in confusion. “I caught them.” the words slipped out of her lips. “Who?” John Park asked his daughter in confusion. She blurted out the heavy words. “Wesley is cheating on me with Sophie.” Instead of looking shocked, John and Susan Park gave each other a knowing look. At the same time, the doorbell rang. Susan went to get it while John asked Emily to sit down. Just when she began to wonder if her parents didn't believe her, Susan returned with Wesley, Sophie and Jane. Emily jumped to her feet as soon as she saw them. “What are they doing here?” She asked in a fit of rage. “Quit acting like a child and sit down.” her father commanded. She stared back at him in disbelief. “I'm acting like a child? I found my husband and sister together in bed. How should I act?” Susan snapped at her “Don't talk to your father that way. Sit down, let's talk about this like a family.” Emily was stunned by her parents’ words. Almost immediately, something seemed to click in her head. “You knew?” The reactions from her parents, sister, husband and mother-in-law was all the answer she needed. She fell back on the Sofa in shock. Her whole family knew about this affair. She had been betrayed by everyone. Susan shamelessly said; “Your sister and Wealey have fallen in love. Who are we to stop them? Love is natural and no one can choose who they fall in love with. The best thing you can do as a good sister is to support them.” If she wasn't still in shock from the multiple betrayals, she would have scoffed at her mother's words. Emily wondered why she was the only one who had to be a good sister. Her parents had always favored Sophie, but she couldn't believe they would in the situation. Emily let out a chuckle. What had she expected? Of course they would side with their favorite child. After all, they had Emily to save Sophie from cancer. She was their princess, the one they would do anything for while Emily was nothing but a spare part for her. “Do not laugh at us, Emily. We didn't mean to fall in love.” The sound of Sophie's pretentious voice ignited a flame of rage in her. “Shut up. You're nothing but a disgusting whore who slept with her sister's husband. You've always taken everything from me ,I guess you also had to have him.” Sophie began to shed crocodile tears while their parents began to scold her. “How dare you talk to your sister that way?Apologize at once.” John yelled at her. Emily stared back at him with nothing but coldness. All her life she had tried to please her parents so they could love her like they loved Sophie. She was done. All the love she had once had for them was gone. She rose to her feet. “You're disgusting parents. I don't want to ever see you again in my life.” She tried to walk away but was blocked by Sophie who grabbed her arm. “Please, Emily. Don't put your anger on Mom and Dad. Blame me instead, it is all my fault.” Emily could tell her sister was pretending. She yanked her arm free from her grip and Sophie immediately fell down. Before Emily could react, she felt a harsh sting on her cheeks. Wesley had slapped her. “How dare you be so cruel?” He yelled at her. Emily chuckled at the Irony. They had betrayed her but she was the cruel one. He rushed to join her parents who were already helping Sophie. Emily didn't know if she should laugh or cry. “You're a heartless monster. How dare you push a pregnant woman? I always knew Wesley married the wrong sister.” Jane yelled in her face. Sophie was pregnant. The words replayed in her head. “Leave, from now on you cease to be our child.” John said, his eyes burning with hatred. “Go and never come back.” All eyes were glaring at her like she was a witch. Emily ran out of the house with tears streaming down her face. She didn't know where she was going but she kept running. A bright light shone directly in her eyes. She had no time to react as the car slammed into her making fly in the air before landing hard on the ground. The last thing she saw was the silhouette of two men running towards her.“You're awake.” A strange man in white muttered to Emily with a smile. Emily frowned, wondering he was and where she was. As her vision and sense of environment became clearer, she realized she was in the hospital and the strange man was a doctor. She tried to sit up but was stopped by the doctor. “Please, you need all the rest you can get.” She frowned, looking around her and taking in the IV drip that was connected to her veins. Her memory was hazy. She sought answers from the doctor. “What happened?” “You were involved in an accident Miss. You've been unconscious for three days.” The memories came flooding back. She remembered walking in on her sister and husband. She remembered her parents disowning her and her running away before she was blinded by the car lights. Emily felt a chill down her spine as she recalled the painful accident. “I've been unconscious for three days?” “Yes,” the doctor replied,looking uncomfortable. Emily wondered. It took
Emily stared at the unknown number, wondering who the caller was. After a few minutes of hesitation, she picked up the call. “Hello,” a female voice came from the other end. Emily thought it sounded familiar as she said back an “Hello” “Is this Emily?” the voice asked. “Yes,” She answered, still wondering who her mysterious caller was. At once,the female voice that was filled with hesitation turned into a loud excited voice. “Oh my God!! Emily,it's me, Ava.” Recognition hit her at once. It really was Ava, her good friend from college who had traveled outside the country. “Ava” she whispered back in surprise. “Yes, it's me. I just flew back in yesterday. I've missed you so much. Where are you? How have you been? We have a lot of catching up to do.” Emily didn't know what to reply to the barrage of questions. How was she? With everything that had happened to her over the past few days,she didn't know how to respond to that. “I'm…Errm….I think I'm
Hasting Publishing house was one of the most successful companies in the world, known to publish only the best of the best. It had become a running joke in the book community that once they saw Hasting as the publishing house, they were immediately buying the book without knowing the name of the book or author. Many said the best thing about the company was the handsome bachelor billionaire who owned it. He was every woman's dream and even had many fan pages dedicated to him. Despite many women throwing themselves at him, Alexander remained single for unknown reasons. His rude and cold attitude was no secret to all but it didn't stop the ladies from fawning over him. Alex Hasting stepped out of the car into his company with his assistant right on his heels. He ignored all the unfortunate employees that respectfully greeted him and made his way to his private elevator. “Have you found her?” he asked his assistant, as soon as the doors close
Emily's eyes widened at the time on her phone. She quickly threw the sheets aside and jumped out of bed. She dashed straight for the bathroom, not believing she had overslept on her first day of work. She dialed Ava's number before grabbing the toothbrush. Ava picked up on the first ring. “Ava, please promise you didn't leave without me.” Emily said in a panicked tone. Ava chuckled. “Relax Cupcake, I couldn't bring myself to wake you up. You looked so peaceful in your sleep.” Emily paused the hard scrubs against her teeth. “Ava!! It's my first day at work. How can I be so late? I could get fired.” She could already imagine Ava rolling her eyes. “Ummh, did you wake up with partial amnesia? I'm your boss, who's gonna fire you?” Ava didn't give her the chance to utter a word before adding, “Just take your time and get to work when you can. I left you some cash for a cab-fare on the kitchen counter. Gotta go, Love you.” Without giving Emily the time to protes
“Such a jerk!!” Ava murmured with a scoff. Emily could do nothing but bite her lips in guilt. She had conveniently omitted the identity of the arrogant traffic man during her narration. Unaware of her brother's involvement, Ava continued. “He's lucky it wasn't me. I would have yelled back and showed his arrogant ass how bad a road rage can be.” Emily swallowed hard in guilt. She wondered how her friend would react if she knew her pompous brother was the asshole. “I'm just glad I'm finally here.” She said, hoping it would put an end to the conversation. It worked. Ava's brows dramatically tweaked up, “Ready for your first day huh?” she asked with a wide grin. Emily took in a shaky breath. “Yeah” Ava had her assistant take Emily to her new office. The open office had low-walled glass cubicles that demarcated working spaces. She scanned the faces who were all glued to her figure while the assistant made the introduction. It was brief
“Good evening Miss Byrce, I'm Branson Clark.” Emily took a step back while scanning the stranger before her with great alarm. He noticed her uneasiness right away and offered a slight smile. “I'm sorry for just barging on you. Like I said, I'm Brason Clark and I'm a lawyer.” He pulled out his business card and ID, stretching to her for confirmation. Emily's eyes scanned both cards, yet it did little to settle the uneasiness or questions in her mind. “I represent the man who was involved in your accident.” Before she could muster up a reaction, he quickly added. “Can we sit and discuss? There's a coffee shop round the corner.” The way he spoke and gazed at her made her feel he expected her to not object.Emily took in the short man again. His confident gaze, well-tailored suit and expensive Rolex gave away his high-end lawyer identity. A part of her wanted to walk away but the curious cat in her won the battle. Branson dove into business as soon as they
“She What?” Alex thundered at Chris. It was the same reaction Chris had anticipated which was why he took his sweet time in relaying the news. “She declined the settlement.” he reiterated. Alex's face crumbled into a deeper frown. “How much did you offer her?” he asked, not believing the greed of this woman. “It was a blank check.” For the first ever, Chris watched an expression other than a frown fall on his boss’s face. Alex was genuinely surprised. “Why?” the word slipped out before he realized it.. “She said she wants the whole matter to be forgotten and left in the past.” The answer only left him feeling more intrigued. From what Ava had told him, he knew she was freshly divorced and living with Ava. Why would someone so broke decline a life changing offer? His suspicion about Emily increased. “Did you dig into her background?” An alarm bell went off in Chris’ head. “No,” Alex shot him a dirty glare. “I want every inch of her background
Her face lit up with excitement. They say opportunity comes but once and she had every intention of making use of her opportunity. As she got into the elevator with Alex, she couldn't help but take peeks at his cold hard face. He was perfect in every aspect. A baby from him would be her ticket out of hard life and she was going for that ticket. The elevator door stopped at a small hallway with no one in sight. It was at the top of the building and had two exclusive bedrooms the club had reserved for him and Ezra. Although Ezra made use of his every night, it was the first time Alex was going to use his. He walked quietly while her heels noisily lagged behind him. He placed his hand on a pad beside the door. It scanned his fingerprints and the door automatically opened up. The room was dimly lit, spacious and consciously decorated in a way that was meant to stimulate sexual drive. She took in the luxurious room, smiling to herself at the feeling of the soft bed
~EMILY~“Wooh! Happy birthday bitch” Ava yelled above the deafening music.She screeched in excitement as the popped champagne cascaded down.While the server poured us our glasses, she wrapped her hands around me and violently gave me a shake. “Isn’t this so fun?” I couldn’t agree less. From the ear wrenching music to the crowd of people, this was hardly my idea of fun. But staring at her adorable large blue eyes, I found myself saying “yeah” while fake nodding to the music. She chuckled, “You’re a terrible liar.”I laughed, “Alright, alright. You got me.” Also wrapping my hand around her, I said “But lucky for you, I’m so in love with you that I can endure a few gruesome hours of deafening sounds.”She giggled, pinched my cheeks “I love you too, my bumble bee” finishing it off with a kiss on my lips.Ezra whistled, “Geez, save it for when you’re drunk.” he added with a grin just as the server passed us our glasses.“Gross” Alex said his first word of the night with his usual
Emily's POV“Emily Byrce, you're needed in Mr Hasting’s office. Now.” A cold shudder engulfed me, causing me to freeze with the telephone still on my ear, even as the other line went dead. My legs felt heavy as I tried to drag them from my desk. Numerous thoughts egged my mind. Was he going to fire me? What would he do? The questions replayed in my head till I found myself standing before his secretary. The young lady placed the telephone on her ear while silently tapping her polished desk. I could tell Alex had picked up when her body suddenly went tense. “Mr Hasting, Emily Byrce is here.” Her tone was calm and careful. The next second she put down the phone and returned her stare to me. “You can go in.” she murmured with a pitiful gaze. It sounded like an invitation to hell and for one minute, I considered running in the opposite direction. Yet my wobbly legs took me to the door of his office. With great hesitation, I made a tap that sounded as silent as a
The room was in silence for a minute before the commotion ensued again. “M..Mr Hasting. Yo…you can't just buy the restaurant.” The manager let out a nervous laugh. “It's not something that can be….” His words trailed off when Alex’s cold gaze met him. “I..I’ll..I” the manager was at a loss. His eyes flickered from Alex to Jace, unsure of what to do. Chris was already gone, already making calls to whoever. Jace scoffed, “I’m going to finish my evening with my date, so I suggest you take this elsewhere.” Sensing things were about to escalate, I jumped to my feet. Jace's eyes took in my sudden movements with a hint of confusion. I reached for his arm, “It's okay Jace, we can leave.” “W…” he tried to protest but I cut him off. “It's not worth it.” His gaze softened and his whole body seemed to relax. “Alright, let's go.”he said with a subtle nod. He gently grabbed my hand and led the way. All eyes were on us in a perfect silence yet I seemed to feel
Emily's POV“Who’s got you all red like a tomato?” Ava asked from nowhere.. Startled, I jerked and immediately kept my phone face down.“No one.” I answered, a little too hurried. She chuckled. “Really?” Her eyebrows rose dramatically and lips held a mocking smirk. Giving in, I let out a sigh “Fine, it's Jace.” She smiled in triumph. “Jace…Our hero guy?” “Yup” “Do you like him?”she asked with a teasing smile. Before I could respond, she immediately added, “Of course you do. Look at you, you're all red. You should go out with him.Has he asked you out yet.” Trust Ava to say so many things at once! “No, I don't like him.” She gave me a glare “Alright, maybe a little.” Her face settled into satisfaction. “And yes, he's asked me out. Quite a number of times to be frank. I said no.” She spat out the drink she was sipping. “Say what?” When I didn't respond quickly enough, she added, “Why?” I wasn't sure of the answer myself. Shrugging, I said
Panic drenched over her like a bucket of cold water. Holding her bump with the utmost care, she whispered “My baby.” Her heart hammered loudly against her chest while her mind ran wild with different thoughts. With slow steps, she walked to the couch and sat down, still trembling with fear. She began to call Wesley again. It went straight to voicemail— a few more rings and it ceased to connect. She took the phone from her ear and stared at the screen with surprise. He blocked her! Knowing time was of the essence, she moved to the next available person–Jane. After two missed calls, Jane's grumbling voice echoed through the phone. “What?” Sophie took in a breath of relief. “Thank God, Jane! Something’s happened. Wesley hasn't come home and…” She was hastily cut off by Jane. “You called me in the middle of the night because Wesley's not home?” “It’s the mi…” she tried to speak but was shut down again.. “What is wrong with you, Sophie? And so what, if Wes
For the upteempth time, Wesley Sterling shredded another set of papers. He groaned in frustration, staring at his chaotic desk. The open google docs page on his laptop screen glared back at him. For hours, he had written and backspaced till the screen remained blank. Thinking the natural feeling of a paper and pen would spark his creativity, he had abandoned the laptop. The ruined pieces of papers proved otherwise. He was Stuck! Frustrated, he jumped out of his chair and paced around the room. He was running out of time and everything was at stake– his career, reputation and more. He needed a manuscript at whatever cost. Without a second thought, he dashed for his phone. His hands shook with nervousness while the other end rang repeatedly until a voice boomed through. “Wesley Sterling, the writing genius.” the masculine voice said with a hearty laughter. Wesley cringed at the title he used to revel in. “Hey Jeff, how are you doing?”he spoke in the most cheerf
“It's now Emily Byrce.” I said, returning her smile. My old professor’s smile widened. “You look good, Emily.” She packed up her stuff, “Come, let's go talk in my office.” “What about…?” My eyes trailed to the crowd of students who were still surrounding the silhouette of a man. She waved me off “Oh, he'll find his way to my office. He’s an old student.” We began to walk out of the lecture hall. “I always thought you deserved better than the Sterling boy.” She chuckled “ Heck, I don't know how he became a famous writer and not you.” I smiled bitterly, “I did that.” But the words never made it out of me. She gave me a glance as we walked. “Frankly, I was disappointed you didn't pursue a career in writing. You were always an excellent writer.” “Well, you’ll be pleased to know I've recently begun a career in writing.” I said , just as we stepped into her office. Elizabeth spun around to face me with an excited look. “Really?” “Yes, I'm an editor at Hasting
Emily's Pov“Emily” I took a step away from him, clutching my startled chest. “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked with a mix of anger and a rising sense of alarm. He moved closer, till I could clearly see his disgusted face. “Why are you dressed like a whore?” He continued, “Is this what you wanted? To hop from one bar to the next and let men ogle at you.” I scoffed, “Last time I checked, what I do with my life is none of your business. Now, excuse me.” I tried to walk away but he grabbed my arm. “I'm not done talking.” My patience was at its limit. “Let go of me. Now!!” He released my grip, only to block my way again. “I need your help.” “In what world do you think I would actually help you. Get out of my way, Wesley.” Ignoring my words, he said “Write a book for me.” For a minute I was silent, processing the sheer audacity of the man before me. Then I burst into a round of laughter. “Are you crazy?” His face darkened. “Name y
Emily's PovI fiddled with the short dress in hopes that it would cover more of my exposed thighs. Ava–the genesis of my predicament–laughed at my futile attempts. She grabbed my hands. “Let it go Em, you look hot.” “Who knows, you might also snag a hottie tonight.” She added with a wink. Before I could respond, she was already dragging me into the fully packed bar. Geez! I didn't know that so many people came to bars. And it was damn loud. Not from music but from half drunk people talking over one another. Ava giddly navigated our way to the barman. Just when I wondered what to do about the filled up seats, Ava released my hand and suddenly tapped two young men. “Excuse me boys, would you be willing to give up your seats for me and my cute friend.” she spoke with a soft voice, batting her lashes. “What the hell is she thinking?” I screamed inside of me. Their eyes went from her to me. I felt my cheeks lit up in embarrassment. “I promise to buy you fine