I tapped briefly on my phone's screen, making it light up with a wallpaper picture of Achilles and Liam squatting side by side of each other in the garden with dirt littered all over themselves. I smiled at the picture, but what I was more curious about was the time. 11:53 AM. 7 more minutes before Achilles arrives with Liam at my office to have lunch together. He sent me a text half way through the morning, telling me about how Liam was doing on his first day at his office and asking to try out a new café down the street for lunch. And even though I was swamped at work with meetings, I didn't have the heart to tell them no after I saw how happy Liam looked sitting in Achilles's ginormous office chair in the picture that Achilles attached to his message. Thus, I ended up rushing through my morning meetings and pushed off a few of my afternoon meetings to make room for an hour long break for my boys. But, I was still running a bit late despite cutting my morning meetings short and I

"Mom, why aren't you going to work today?""Um... Mr. Serman said that I should take a few extra days off this week for my wedding, but uh...." "Dad forced him to not let you go to office, right?"I nervously diverted my eyes with a silent prayer for a change in subject. Liam was honestly much to perceptive for me to handle sometimes. But he paid no mind to my awkward demeanor and simply continued to hop along the sidewalk, happily swinging our intertwined hands back and forth. "Dad made a good decision. I like spending time with mom." My heart practically melted at his innocent confession. "I like spending time with you too."He beamed with delight as we rounded the corner and finally arrived at a little shop tucked away in the middle of downtown.The bell rang as we opened up the door to Achilles's personal tailor's workshop. The wall were lined with all sorts of luxurious fabrics and several half-made suits hanging on mannequins all around the floor.An elderly man immediately h

"On file, she is currently married to Arnold Albedo and has only son named Ivan— age 24 and in the process of taking over the family business. She does not seem to come from any major family and was simply married into the Albedo family." I glanced briefly over the pictures as Joseph gave his report.Margarett Albedo...I didn't recognize her from any of the events involving the families, but she also didn't have any features that particularly stood out. She had simple short dark hair and brown eyes. Not too tall and not too short. Not very large nor too thin. Even down to her name, she seemed average. Her husband wasn't anything particularly interesting either—dirty blonde hair with dull eyes. A lean stature without much confidence. Even their son looked just as plain, being a simple mix between the two.I thumbed passed the first page and asked, "What about off the paper?" Joseph shuffled nervously for a moment before handing me a packet of headshots. "It's not for certain, but t

I rolled over to the left side of the bed as the rays of morning sunshine fired through the window, but it was completely cold and empty, notifying me of the lack of my lovely girl's presence. I groaned unhappily as I buried my face into her pillow, taking in a deep breath of her comforting scent of warm spices and tart fruits to ease my nerves. My mother insisted on making Jane and I sleep separately the night before the wedding for some sort of wedding tradition and ended up whisking my girl away to my parent's house last night before I could even protest. To make it worse, she also wasn't allowing me to see Jane at all today until Jane walked down the aisle because apparently, it is "bad luck" to see the bride before the wedding. I sighed at the memory of her words, knowing that I wouldn't be able to see Jane until noon. I just wanted to spend all day with Jane. I didn't see why we had to follow such absurd rules. They were just superstitions after all. In the midst of my mela

"A-Achilles, n-not t-there... P-people are g-going to see..." I panted heavily as he continued his assault on the sweet spot right above my neckline along my jaw. But he paid no mind as he continued to trail hot, open-mouthed kisses up along my neck until he finally captured my lips. We had just gotten in the car taking us from the ceremony to the reception site. I knew that Achilles had gotten a bit restless with how many pictures his friends and family wanted to take at the chapel. He was quite happy with taking the first few photos with me and then with Liam in the frame too, but he started getting a bit fidgety when his mother started making him pose for different pictures with his family and friends. I just didn't realize how antsy he felt until now, now that we were finally alone. His hand slid smoothly under the edge of my dress, slowly hiking it up my leg as he continued to distract me with his kisses. It was almost as if he was trying to devour me. By the time he pulled