Ethan's POV Layla held Aria's hand as they walked through the toys section of the mall, happily grabbing everything that caught Aria's eyes. It was good to be free again, to not be watching over our backs. It had been two months since Sedar was finally caught and even know it still felt unreal. He was such a nuisance for so long it was weird with him gone. All the drama we went through because of him. I remember Layla suggesting we go to Nicole out of desperation and frustration and to be honest I was about to give in but I knew good would come of exchanging oke devil for another. We decided to not go that far and I was grateful we didn't, unfortunately even if we wanted to it was too late. Layla got a call from a family about two weeks later that Nicole had ended her own life. The warden said she was constantly screaming to be let out and that someone should call me or Layla but they didn't because that was unreasonable. A while after she hung herself. Layla was frozen to t
(Layla's Pov)The soft morning light slipped through my window. I blinked my eyes, stretching my arms as I sat up. “Ugh… It's time to wake up, Layla.” I put on a smile while I got out of the bed.“It's going to be another hectic day,” I sighed, looking at my reflection in the mirror before I went to clean up.“Miss Layla, the breakfast is ready,” the servant claimed, knocking on my door.“I'm going!” I replied, and hurried to dress myself.However, as soon as I opened the door, and walked out of the room, Nicole brushed against my shoulders knowingly.Not again. I sighed inwardly, turning around to escape the situation when she pulled my sleeves, and smirked sarcastically.“You look as pale as a ghost.” She sneered, looking up and down at me when I shook my head. “Did you just wake up?” She gasped, enlarging her eyes when I pouted my lips. “Yeah, you don't have any work to do unlike me so, you don't care about when you wake up.”I smiled, matching her eye to eye, “It's just that I pre
Three seconds. No, no, no. I think five seconds was all I needed to realize what this jerk in front of me was doing. As I managed to pull back and recreate the separation distance, I collapsed onto the cold marble floor.I haven't had time to scream for help and he's already pulled my arm roughly, slamming my body onto the bed before laying back down on me.The scream that came out of my mouth was so loud that the man covered one ear. He repeatedly cursed me with harsh words to tell me to be quiet. Even so, I kept trying to escape. Until I kicked his side. The man whimpered in pain as he collapsed on the floor. Not forgetting the swearing and eyes glaring right at me.When I saw an opportunity to escape, I quickly got out of bed despite my unsteady state. I fell because the man's hand managed to grab my ankle, but I pushed him so hard that I managed to reach the door and get out of that horrible room!I gasped, not knowing where to go. The hotel hallway felt so deserted and long as if
It felt like there was a big hammer hitting my head repeatedly making the pain more and more uncontrollable in all parts of my head. The situation around me seemed to be spinning around making it difficult for me to just wake up my body. I repeatedly blinked my eyes hoping that the pain in my head would decrease. When I felt my surroundings return to silence, I realized that the ceiling above my head felt unfamiliar. Then another reality struck me, this was not my bedroom!As I sat up, I realized that underneath the blanket I was wearing, only a tattered shirt was still clinging to my body. What happened last night?Even more shocking, it made me clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming out loud. I saw a shirtless man sleeping beside me. He was lying on his stomach without me being able to see his face clearly because he was facing sideways.Who is he? Why am I here without clothes with a strange man?I whimpered as the pain in my head returned. Although the pain still ruled
I continued to grip my hands which were already sweating from nerves. We had just entered the hotel lobby and my father was talking to the security there. He asked if we could look at the CCTV footage from last night to find the culprit who had drugged me.I didn't know what to do to stop my father while Nicole kept inciting my father to look at the CCTV and catch the culprit.Not long after, security came back and told us that we could see the CCTV footage but only with him present. We then went to the surveillance room area. Two officers were monitoring the monitor.The security guard who escorted us explained what happened. They were trying to find the CCTV footage of when the incident happened.I didn't dare say anything when a recording showed me being carried by a man. The man who had slept with me last night. But how shocked I was when my father didn't feel angry at all. It was Nicole who turned angry."Dad?" I asked with concern."So you were with Ethan last night?" my father
After dinner that day, all the days I'd gone through seemed so heavy. When my father kept urging me to take care of choosing the wedding ring and the dress I would wear later. Meanwhile, every time I sent a message to Ethan, he always argued that he was busy and couldn't accompany me. In the end, he only sent me a few sample photos of wedding rings, asking me to choose one of them. I even went to the boutique to try on my wedding dress without him.Like a fool. Forcing myself to smile when I was so hurt inside. Just like me, I'm sure Ethan didn't like the idea of this wedding either.One month passed quickly. I was in the hotel room alone. Our wedding was being held in a five-star luxury hotel. Inviting every important colleague from each side of the bride and groom.I wanted so badly to escape from this one-sided marriage. I couldn't imagine living with a man I didn't love at all. How would our married life be, how would he treat me? Would I be happy married to him?All these questio
Layla’s PovI threw the bouquet of flowers into the air, watching the young girls catch it. How could they want this thing called marriage? Right now, I was probably the most miserable person in the world. Notwithstanding, I maintained the plastered smile on my face and curtseyed ever so often as big shots from various 5-star companies came to congratulate us. I glanced up at Ethan. His firm jaw and well carved out features looked as stunning as they did in the pictures. His arms were linked through mine, as we got into the limousine, portraying the image of a loving husband. If he was planning on fooling those people, then I had to give it to him, he made a fine actor. I on the other hand had gotten a glimpse of the real devil that he was. I could even feel him glaring at me from the corner of his eyes. Once we got into the car, he let go of me and leaned against the window. The look in his eyes were quite readable. As far as he was concerned, I didn't exist anymore. I frowned.
LAYLA’S POV“Mistress,”My eyes fluttered open. I sat up on the king sized bed. Sunlight streamed in from the open window casting a warm glow on my face. Rubbing my eyes, I wondered where I was. One thing was certain, I had woken up from a terrible dream. But wait... It wasn't a dream. Last I remembered, I was sobbing on the ground, the footsteps of that terrible man sounding in my head. It was settled then, I was the legal wife of the Ethan Crawford, the fucking CEO of some company. “Mistress,” I heard again. Standing at the door was a young lady, not much older than I, with short auburn hair and a plain white dress with black polkadots. She must be a maid. “It's alright, you can come in.” “You were in a bad state yesterday. We took you to this room to recuperate. But your things aren't here yet, you can still choose any of the rooms to stay in.” She said keeping her head low. “I'm your lady in waiting, America.” She said with a curtsey. “Is he always like that?” I asked sudd