“Come in,” Ms. Griswold steps aside and lets me into her presidential suite.The room is enormously large. While I’m still carefully studying the layout of the room, Ms. Griswold already walked past me to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a scotch.“So,” she takes her seat and crosses her legs, “Why do you need to see me?”Her eyes are full of distant. She doesn’t even hate me. She just thinks that I’m a dirt that doesn’t deserve her time and attention.“Well?” she urges me. “Hurry. I don’t have all day.”So I speak, straightforwardly, “Call off their marriage now.”She pauses for a short moment, and then burst into a booming laughter. She laughs so hard that her scotch spilled out.“Oh dear, oh dear,” she shakes her head still laughing. “Are you coming here to beg me? If you are, at least give me the proper attitude, like crying, pleading, dropping to your knees?”“I’m not here to beg you,” my jaw tenses.Yet she carries on as if she didn’t hear me, “Your mom was really good at i
I knew he would definitely come and confront me after listening to the recorder. But I didn’t know that he couldn’t even wait till the morning.“Have you listened to it yet?” I ask.“Of course!” he huffs. “Why did you do it? Why did you go find my mom?”I’ve expected him to be angry and confused. No one wants to be told that his fiancé is an evil person right before the engagement. But he doesn’t love Katherine, that I can be sure of, so he can take the bad news. I just need to break it down to him slowly.“Your mom asked me not to tell anyone. But you have the right to know.” I sit down by my bed, taking in a deep breath before continuing. “Your mom is dating Katherine’s father, which is why she has ganged up with them to steal your money. If you marry her, you will lose all your family wealth to them.”Yet he remains silent. He just stands there, staring at me with a set of dark eyes.I frown, frustrated. Doesn’t he trust me? The fact is so plain and simple. Why is he still doubting
When we come downstairs, there’s already a large group of people gathered in the living room. The center of the crowd is Katherine, who is bragging her diamond ring to a few well-dressed ladies. So Eason still bought the ring for her? I snap my head back glaring at him. He frowns and whispers back: “I was so caught up by our little argument that I didn’t notice she took my credit card.” That little bitch! I puff my chest up and march into the living room. The chattering group lapses into a short silence when they notice the unexpected intruder, me. The cold expression on my face immediately sets everyone on the edge of their seats. Mom stands up from the seat besides Ms. Griswold (seriously I don’t know how she can stand being in the same room with that woman) and welcomes me, “Natalia where have you been? Come and look at Katherine’s engagement ring. It’s so pretty.” I ignore her and look straight into Katherine’s eyes. “Give me the ring.” She sits there holding the ring box wit
Mr. Ramirez sits down behind the desk, his eyes fixing on my face. Now I can understand why Mr. Booth shivered like a piece of leaf earlier. This man is fucking intimidating. “Do you have anything to say?” he asks in an indifferent tone. Eason is about to say something, but I speak up before him. “Sir, I probably shouldn’t have exposed their schemes and lies in front of everyone downstairs, but I do not regret it. Eason doesn’t deserve to be treated like that. He needs someone to look over for him.” Eason’s grip on my hand suddenly tightens, as if a strong wave of emotions is surging inside of him. I lock eyes with him for a brief second and notice his eyes filled with nothing but love and gratitude. Mr. Ramirez taps the desktop with his knuckle and brings out attention back. “So you just decided to step in and take over everything without a word with me first? Natalia, from your perspective, don’t I deserve to know first?” I bite my lower lip in embarrassment. He is right. But ho
Eason’s POVI wake up in her bed the next morning.The first thing I look for is her. Luckily, she is still sleeping soundly besides me, her face bathed in the golden morning sunlight. She’s like an angel.I let out a long sign, feeling relieved. I don’t remember how many nights that I dreamed about her sleeping in my arms and woke up to find that everything was only in my head. It almost crushed me.I went through the darkest period time in my life three years ago when she left me. I couldn’t cope with the fact that the love of my life was gone, and everything was my fault. So I fled back to New York from Miami and locked myself up in the apartment. I wanted to rot in that dark room, so that I didn’t need to face the reality.I drank myself to sleep but just kept being woken up by nightmares. So I drank more, forcing myself to sleep. It’s like a vicious circle. My life had fallen into a dark, endless pit.I remember one time I drank an entire bottle of vodka and passed out on the bat
Natalia’s POVI weak up pretty late this morning.Yesterday has been a real emotional rollercoaster. So we let ourselves sleep in and stay in bed till it’s almost noon.“Did mom knock on the door?” I let out a small yawn and watch Eason get dressed, which is a scene that I can never grow bored of.“No. She is probably out with my dad. It’s Christmas season. They can be quite busy.”I frown. This doesn’t seem like mom. So many things had happened yesterday, and she must have noticed that something is going on between me and Eason at this point. The mom that I am familiar with would drag me out of my room at the middle of the night and interrogate me brutally until I give her an answer.But she stays put. Didn’t even come to check on me this morning.How weird.A peck on my forehead interrupts my line of thinking. I look up and find Eason grinning at me. Amusement is gleaming in his emerald green eyes.“Penny for your thought?” he asks.“I was thinking about—Umm!”He catches my lips with
Natalia’s POVThe rest of my Christmas holiday is amazing.Eason and I get to cuddle on the couch all day watching our favorite movie or reading books together. Now that everyone in this house knows about us, there is no need for us to hide anymore.The only people I am still worried about are Mr. Ramirez’s friends and business partners. Those upper-class people can gossip.I just gave them one huge scandal to chat with when I exposed Ms. Griswold in front of a room full of guests. If they find out that the Ramirez heir is dating his stepsister now, God knows what more vicious words will come out of their mouth.Yet my deepest fear is bound to come true.One day, Eason and I are in the living room. He was playing his guitar. And one thing led to another. We start making out on the couch.No one is around. Our parents won’t come back until after dinner. We both let our sanity slip away.None of us notice the front door opening.And when we hear a horrified cry, it is too late.I jump o
Our lives go back to normal after we return to New York.I have my school work and job hunting to do. And Eason has his company. We all have our own ways to stay busy and occupied. Yet since we already live in the same apartment now, we still get to spend plenty of time together.And living with Eason…is such a magical experience.He has lots of works to do, and yet he still manages to find time to buy me flowers, make us dinner and pick me up from school.He also sent away the cleaning lady. Because I didn’t like a stranger walking around in our apartment. And he was eager to share the duties.He broke a glass the first time he did the dishes, since—apparently—someone like him has never washed anything in his entire life.But he is a quick learner.Now every time I come back to our apartment, the laundries are done, the sheets are changed and all the dishes are nice and clean.I felt bad that he needed to find time after work to do those chores when he could easily hire someone to do