"Mama, Custard," Adrian said as he rushed towards me. I smiled watching him, my four years old son running to me. His face all smiley and his eyes reminding me of that one person. I could remember vividly four years ago, which seemed like yesterday when I had him wrapped in my arms. The nurse had just announced to me that it was a boy, a cute little one at that. I remember rubbing his golden curly hair he had from birth, I just couldn't control the joy I had that day.
"Custard," he said stretching out his hands for me to carry him."Mmhmm...," I hummed reaching out my hands to him. Raising him from the floor while playing with his belly, "see who wants to stress Mama now," I giggled. I don't know if he understood what I said, but he stretched out his hands to my face and started rubbing it smoothly in a way that was as though he was comforting me and reminding me that he had no plans to stress me.Smiling at his actions, "indeed Children were cute," I thought internally. I carefully put him into his baby buggy which I carried to the kitchen and kept a close eye on him as I turned on the electric kettle to get hot water. I quickly reached out for his milk since he enjoyed taking milk, mixed it with some little water and put it in his feeding bottle for him to suck. While waiting for the water to heat up, I picked up my phone and was greeted with a notification that just popped in,"Your child needs so much warmth and love, luckily he/she is fortunate to have you as the perfect Parent," excitement was all over my face. It was from the Baby's app I installed on my phone that dropped tips on how to handle a growing Child. I just didn't agree with them saying "the child is fortunate," I think I'm the fortunate one. Definitely, I'd have been so lost without Adrian, he really gave me a reason to live.The whistling from the electric kettle called me out from my reverie. I made the custard while stealing a glance at Adrian, who had already sucked almost half of the content in the feeding bottle. His concentration was so much on the bottle, it felt like he was thinking of the possibility of gulping down everything without having to suck. The custard came out perfect just the way he liked it. Over the years, well the past four years actually, I did nothing apart from working and spending time with him. It was okay to classify the working time as spending time with him also, because I did remote jobs. I pulled him out from the baby buggy, kept him on the bed and fed him because I was certain he was going to sleep soon. Just as I thought, few minutes after, he slept off and I was left alone staring at his face, that beautiful face made from the union of me and some other man whom I called the Devil's incarnate over the years.Just after I finished putting him to sleep, a ring came through my phone. It was a call from Jane, my best friend. Picking up the phone, I stepped out and answered the call."Hello," I said"Did you see the news just now," Jane muttered incoherently."What news?" I said, confusion written all over my face."Just turn on the TV, check the news...," I heard Jane say with a voice filled with panic and before I left my daze, the call was disconnected.Immediately, I rushed to the sitting room and turned on the TV which took some time to start up. In tension I turned on my phone and started searching for the latest news. Just as my eye caugt the tags on the well known billionaire, I heard the reporter say out loud,"Famous and established billionaire, Darian Woods will be relocating to Carlton, as he just commissioned a new project here. We heard from some Shareholders that the building here at Carlton is going to be his headquarters and we have no idea on why he will be moving."I couldn't believe what I heard. I switched to the next news station, it carried the same news with different headlines. Hearing all of it made me drop on the couch, I could feel the pace of my heart beat increasing and my head suddenly felt dizzy. The one person I was running from was now coming closer to me.Picking up my phone from the couch, I tapped on the tags and saw comments rushing in,"Oh my.... Darian Woods will be coming to Carlton""Good thing, it will create more employment opportunities here""Gosh, he's just so cute, I can't take my eyes off him," I rolled my eyes reading this comment."I heard he is married, I've not seen any of their couple photos in a while.""I heard his wife was once spotted in Carlton. Or is he moving over here because of her?"The shock from all of it made my phone fall of my hold, I couldn't control the wave of emotions running through me. After everything happened, I found it hard to put myself together, just when I was gradually pulling together, He was appearing, my pain was coming back to me, Darian Woods, my divorced husband.After leaving Castor city where Darian lived, I tried my best to cut off every memory with him. I successfully dropped the name I had from marrying him, "Woods", without raising public talks.Shutting my eyes, a memory with Darian rushed back to me,~~about five years ago, Castor city~~"Moriah," he said while working towards me and dropped a document on me."What's this?" I asked cluelessly while picking it up.With the rage he used to walk in, I feared the worst was going to happen. I was used to his cruelty but I felt something was not right."Darian, what's this?" my lips shook in trepidation."You should see it yourself," he curtly replied.My eyes went wide as I caught the first few words, subconsciously muttering it out,"Divorce papers," I said to myself confirming what my eyes read."You saw well, I will be traveling to Texas and you should sign those papers. I hope to not see you when I'm back," he said, " Leave the signed papers in my room," I heard him add. That was the last conversation I had with Darian. That day, I felt like my world came crashing at my feets. From the start, the relationship between us was not really smooth. I just didn't know it was going to get worse, even to the divorce.~~Present~~Slowly, I let my eyes open. Funnily, the divorce was even the mildest of the treatments I went through living with Darian.Hearing a knock on the door I stood up to check who it was."Oh Goodness..... Moriah, how are you pulling through?" Jane asked immediately she stepped into the house. At that moment, I felt she really had to be there because sincerely I was not feeling good. A tear rolled through my cheeks and dropped on my palms which caught Jane's attention,"Moriah what's it?" She said while pulling me in to a hug. I really had nothing to say anymore. Jane was the person that stayed with me all through the hurtful experience I went through. Even till the divorce, she relocated because I had to leave Castor to Carlton all in a bid to stay miles away from Darian. With the connections he had, he could get to me at anytime and frustrate me. But, he decided to ignore me and he did it pretty well in the past five years.Facts right, the Darian I know liked the city which the former headquarters was located. If he was relocating to a new place, was it an intentional act to find me or something was amiss with the company, I pondered while being wrapped up in the warmth of Jane.Jane pulled away from the hug and stared at me blankly,"What are you going to do?" She asked me with a sad grimace.Trying to not feel pity for myself, as I was really lost of solutions, "I have no idea," I shrugged while wiping off tears, "He's not yet in Carlton, maybe I'll just stay on the low while thinking of what to do."Running away was definitely not a solution and I had no plans to run anymore.Darian WoodsI stood in front of the window at my office watching the whole bustling of the city. Before then, a call came from Peter, my Media manager that the news of my relocation was everywhere on the internet and he asked me if I wanted to pull it down, I told him to leave it there as I wanted it to be known by the public. My perturbed mind took unsteady lapses as I stayed there viewing the city with my gaze on nothing in particular.Moving to Carlton was not my choice, but I had to, to maintain the fame I had built over the years that was about crashing just for one mistake. Unfortunately, the video of the terrible act happened to be with the second leading business tycoon in the country and he was on me. Being the biggest business tycoon in the whole of the country and gradually extending my forces internationally, if the video was to get out to the public, then I may lose lots of connections in the business world. My opponent was well aware of it, but he could not release it
Darian Woods"Royal Harmony hotels," I told the Driver who maneuvered his way around the busy road to avoid getting caught up in traffic. Lately, I moved around the City of Castor incognito, with security forces trailing me in disguise. I did it that way to not bring any attention to myself and still make the enemy think I was out to the open while I was being watched secretly. Driving into Royal Harmony hotels, I watched the security positioned at the entrance of the hotel hurriedly opening the gates and showing my driver the restricted parking lot area for him to park. This was one of the perks of being rich, even in my incognito mode, I was still receiving special treatments, I smirked thinking about it. Royal Harmony hotels, a large corporation that specialized mainly on Accommodations, bar, and catering services. I did not own the brand, I just had shares as much as 40% of the total company's shares in my name. Immediately I made my entrance into Royal Harmony hotels, every
I stood in front of the mirror with just a half cut on and condom pants, because I really loved the texture of the pant material on my skin, and wearing brassieres wasn't what I liked, So I had to substitute brassieres for half cuts and boob tapes. Besides, I rarely went out, as a result of it, using brassieres wasn't my issue again as I wore nothing under my shirts while at home. I went to my closet and picked up a tank top on a boyfriend jeans. After wearing it, I took a sweatshirt with a hood that lay dejectedly on a couch in my room and pulled out a low sneakers I saw on the rack then I put them on. I left my hair to fall backward, dangling up until my waist. Picking up a few pins, I pinned them on my hair to control the edges at the front, so it does not get ruffled by the wind. Moving towards the cupboard just beside my bed, I took my car keys and left for the kitchen to meet Jane who decided to spend the week at my place. "Adrian is sleeping, please watch him," I smiled gle
Darian WoodsLaying on my bed, empty thoughts filtered through my mind as I gazed out into the sky from the skylight rooftop, the stars twinkling and illuminating the big black canvas, mapping out a pattern. The uneasiness I felt faded as I sat up silhouetted in the shadows by the dull lights in the room, pondering on life."Why did I have to go to the same city she was in?" I uttered in my reverie. I did not appreciate that I will have to stay in a city where I have to see Moriah. I had no issues with her, I just hated the way she made me feel like the same man my father was.Picking up my phone, I dialed Jack's number, "Hello, is anything wrong?" Jack questioned."I need you to find any available lady I can pass the time with," I said to Jack over the phone."What kind of lady do you want?" he inquired."Just anything to pass the time with", I said before hanging up, moving to the bathroom to dip myself in a hot tub. I had to wash away the thoughts of Moriah that were building ins
Darian WoodsThe sun had not yet risen as I hurriedly made my way downstairs. Jack had gotten a call from the security at the headquarters that they suspect an infiltration as the CCTV cameras and database connections in the building just went down all of a sudden. It was a few minutes past 4 am, and they were trying to access the company's database already, indeed my enemy was serious and it seemed as though the danger was lurking around. "What do we do, Darian?" Jack said to me as he caught up with me in the sitting room. "I don't know for now. Let's go there," I replied making my way outside."Which progress has been made", I asked him as we stepped into the car. The driver had already been alerted and he swiftly rolled the car over to us. "Every hand in the ICT dept is on deck and they're trying to break the barrier that has been created. With what the security said, no one had successfully entered inside as they have all been on alert, but there's a high chance that they won't
Darian Woods"He had been here," I whispered to myself again. As much as I tried running and going away from wherever didn't feel safe, a part of me still came searching after me. My eyebrows furrowed as I quickly scanned the environment, checking to see if he was still around or if there was another trace of him somewhere.Walking closer to the table, I picked up the red pearl brooch pin antique that had been placed on my table. "Was it me just overthinking things?" I spoke out, my voice sounding like a whisper. If I was certain, that was his signature mark as he had always loved brooch pin antiques, and pearl turned out to be his favorite jewel.Still not certain if it was him, as I did not want to conclude, I raised the brooch pin to my nose, and the smoldering scent of woody oud mixed with the scent of lavender oil wafted through my nose.Even if anything could fail me, the scent was enough proof. It was his usual fragrance, with the same type of brooch pins he wore and it was
Raising Adrian as a single mother was not totally my problem as I was financially stable and could fall back on my family who was in the middle rank in society, though I chose to not depend on them. My only fear every day was him asking for his father and the sadness he may develop if I can't show him someone as a Father figure. I picked up the remote, and switched the television over to the entertainment channel I enjoyed watching, with my hands holding on to the toasted bread, I picked from a plate.Biting on it, I giggled continuously, watching everything in front of me. It was a family reality show, with the Dad, Mom, and her triplets that intentionally disturbed her like they were devils."I'm thick skin for you, your tricks won't work," the woman from the reality show yelled out frustratedly, making me smile even further.Imagining that a time will come when Adrian will be so grown up, and causing me to raise my voice to him, freaked me out.Finally, he was in school, and I had
Darian WoodsOne year later..."You are saying that there is still no news about Brandon?" I asked Jack, with my brows raised in inquiry."There's still nothing, President Darian," he said, nodding his head to me.I did not even know if I was going to yell at him, or just bring in new sets of the workforce as I no longer understood anything that happened anymore concerning the office, and their capability to bring down my enemy, Brandon."And Gazel? You are still in touch with him?" "Yes, President Darian. It seems Brandon kept the evidence in a place so secure, that it feels difficult to access. Also, we don't know if he has any duplicates, as it seems like he is well prepared for this fight," Jack stated.I almost screamed out, "cut the crap" to him, but I decided to hold it in, as it was not worth it, shouting at Jack. I needed to vent my anger somewhere, just anywhere else, as I have never felt so frustrated at a moment.My hands went up to the corners of my ears, rubbing slowly