Clara stepped into the hotel lobby and took out her phone to call Victoria. “Hello, who is it?” Victoria drawled when she picked up the call. “I’m a busy person so make it quick.” Victoria’s voice was gratingly familiar. Clara proceeded calmly with the conversation. She wasn’t going to let her past bad memories involving Victoria bother her. “I’m Clarissa from St. Clair. I’ve arrived downstairs for our meeting,” she replied. “Have I come at a bad time? We arranged to meet at this time yesterday.” “No, it’s fine. I just get a lot of nuisance calls,” Victoria said quickly. “I will come downstairs now.” “I will be in the restaurant,” Clara said and ended the call. She walked into the hotel restaurant. This hotel was not quite the Savoy, but it was still very expensive to stay at and had been Victoria's choice. St. Clair was footing the bill for the hotel stay to compensate Victoria for her travel expenses. The other influencers had selected considerably less expensive hotels. Clara
Victoria’s face flushed red with anger. “I thought you would understand me because you grew up rich and influential,” she pouted. Clara resisted the urge to say something very rude to Victoria. She needed to come out of this conversation as the sophisticated winner. “I never did anything like that during my time in school,” Clara said calmly. “Not all rich people think they are above people who are not as fortunate as them. You could have not bullied that girl to the point of suicide and you would be a better person for it. There’s blood on your hands.” Victoria slammed her coffee cup onto the table and Clara knew she had successfully put pressure on her. “You’re such a goody two shoes,” Victoria said. “I was a bully in high school and I’m not happy that Clara killed herself because of anything that I did. I just don’t see why it should haunt me.” That was the closest thing to remorse Clara had seen from Victoria so far. The difference between talking to Xavier and Victoria abou
Clara woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. She groaned after seeing the early time and then she remembered that she had something to look forward to. She silenced her alarm and reached for her phone. The email account that was connected to all her fake social media accounts was jammed with notifications for new comments on her posts. Clara flicked through the comments to see that people were angry with Victoria and wanted her cancelled. Clara was pleased with that and checked the news sites to see if her posts had received sufficient traction to warrant new articles. The top post on the first news site was about the downfall of Victoria Hayes courtesy of a leaked video. Clara nodded in satisfaction and moved onto another new website. She found the same results there. She had been asleep for seven hours and this much had already happened. She was expecting other things to occur over the course of the day as more people became aware of the scandal.Clara took note of the time. S
Clara waited for Victoria’s reply. There was no way that Victoria would turn down an opportunity to revitalise her career. “I’ll meet with you,” was the eventual reply. “It would have to be somewhere private. Our last meeting was a disaster.” Victoria’s normally confident tone was gone and she sounded considerably more subdued and miserable. “What’s your room number?” Clara asked. Victoria willingly gave out her room number and Clara entered the hotel. Caiden appeared at her side when she walked through the hotel lobby. “Don’t worry about her getting violent, that won’t happen. You are in the superior position,” Caiden reassured her. Clara hadn’t been too concerned about Victoria trying to attack her, but she appreciated that Caiden had thought she might be worried about it.“Thank you,” she said. “Are you staying to watch?” “I think I will,” Caiden said. “You can ask me to leave if it gets too personal.” Clara smiled at him. “I will do that.” She had preferred to speak to X
Caiden ruffled her hair with an affectionate smile.“I’m glad to hear that you’re satisfied. You planned this one without any help and I wasn’t really needed this time.” “You were emotional support,” Clara replied. “That’s still an important job.” Caiden didn’t reply and looked at her expectantly. Clara stared back and then she realised that he was waiting for a reply to his confession from all that time ago. “I haven’t forgotten that I now need to give you an honest reply to your confession,” she said. The demon nodded eagerly. Clara wanted to smile at his cuteness, but she needed to look unaffected. “That’s right. I’ve been patiently waiting for a long time now,” Caiden said. “Are you ready to give me a reply now?” Clara took a deep breath. She had spent a lot of time over the past planning how she was going to word her reply in between working on her revenge plan.“I am ready to reply. If I dated you, there would be several hurdles to overcome. Firstly, you are the one who wi
Clara woke up and was disappointed to see that she was alone in her bed. Caiden had been next to her when she went to sleep. She reminded herself that he was a demon and the human realm wasn’t his home. She sat up and thought about what had transpired the previous day. Her revenge against Victoria had been completed with the bully’s apology and now she was in a romantic relationship with demon she was bonded to.They had kissed a lot and Clara had gone to sleep with a smile on her face. She had felt like she had no worries. Now she remembered that there was a time limit on their relationship and Caiden was going to be the one who would end her life. Clara shook her head to banish her dark thoughts, she was just going to have to do her best to forget about the true facts of their relationship. Clara got out of bed and went downstairs for breakfast. James was sitting at the table with his full English breakfast as he did every Sunday. “Good morning, Clarissa,” he said. “Is there any
Caiden smiled at her tenderly. “The story of how I developed romantic feelings for you is a very complicated story,” he said. “Start at the beginning then,” Clara stated simply. She wasn’t going to let him worm out of explaining his feelings to her. Things like that were important in a relationship. She really had no idea what part of her he had fallen in love with. “Your unshakeable personality is one of the factors,” the demon replied. “You strive for what you believe in and that is something to fall in love with. You don’t like injustice and you have turned into a confident woman despite what happened in your past.” Clara nodded. Caiden had picked out her good aspects. She hadn’t felt like a confident person when she had first been reborn into Clarissa’s body, she had been terrified of Beryl and upset by Clarissa’s memories. After getting revenge against Beryl, she had felt more self-assured about herself. She had suffered with her insecurities when she had encountered
“Is there anything you wanted to do with me?” Caiden asked once they wound down their kissing session and moved to the couch. Clara looked at him in confusion. It sounded like a dirty question, but from his face she could tell it was innocently meant. “In what way?” she asked. “Well, I can’t shower you with gifts so I want to know if there are any activities we could do that would make us feel like a real couple,” Caiden explained. “Since you’re the human here, I thought you might have some ideas.” Clara considered the question. She hadn’t thought they would be able to have normal dates that other couples could go on. They certainly couldn’t have a romantic meal at a restaurant as she would be the only person eating and she would look strange having a candlelit dinner by herself.They couldn’t go to an amusement park on a date either. Caiden wouldn’t be able to go on any rides or eat snacks. Physical activities were out of the question as well. Perhaps they could look around some