Chapter Thirty-SixRaphael’s POV“Mummy, look. Daddy got a necklace for me.” Aurora said as soon as Camilla came out of the kitchen.I scanned her face and from her expression, I could tell something was wrong.“Really? Let me see.” She said and took the necklace from her. She looked at it for a good minute.“It’s really pretty, mommy.” Aurora said.“Yes, it is baby.” She replied and handed it back to her. “Thank you.” She said to me.“It’s nothing. She’s my daughter after all.”“I want to put it on.” Aurora said.“Come here. Let me help you.” I said and she ran to me.“You guys are having fun without me.” The chairman said coming into the living room.“Pops. How are you?” Aurora said going to hug him. “You’ve been sleeping.”“I’m fine, Rory. I was tired. How are you? How was school?” “School was fine. Look at the necklace my daddy got me.” She said and showed him the pendant.“It’s really beautiful.” He said.“I know right.” She replied and ran off.“How are you doing?” The chairman
Chapter Thirty-Seven Camilla's POV After Raphael left, I wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody so I went and locked myself up in my room. Skye got Rory ready for bed and they all stayed up watching TV till 8:30 and went to bed. After they went to bed I came out for a glass of water. I spent a little time in the kitchen and when I was about to leave, I saw Skye coming out of the room. “I thought you were already asleep?” I asked. “I came for a glass of water. But I'm glad I ran into you.” “Why?” “I wanted to talk to you about Raphael.” She said and sat on a chair. “What about him?” “Look at the way you treat him, Camilla. You act like he's going to take Rory and sell her off. Give him some grace. I know you're hurt but for Rory’s sake please.” “But.” She interrupted me. “I know he hurt you. He's trying to make amends. If you would just let him.” “I’m trying to forgive him but I just can’t. Every time I think to be nice I just remember that morning he came hom
Chapter Thirty-EightRaphael’s POVIt was the day of the dance and Aurora and I had spent all of last night practicing our dance moves. The dance started at 2:00 pm and it was currently 11:02 am. I was on my way to their house.When I arrived, Camilla was doing Rory’s hair while Skye was steaming her dress. The chairman wasn’t at home.“Hey daddy.” Aurora said.“Hi, baby. Your hair is looking beautiful.”“Thank you.” She laughed. “I’m going to be the prettiest girl at the dance.”“You sure are.”“Hey.” Camilla said.“How are you?” I asked.“I’m good.” She replied. I went to drop my suit in the living room and came back to the dining.I sat on one of the chairs and after a few minutes, Skye was done with the dress and Camilla was done with Aurora's hair. “It looks really pretty.” I said.“Thank you, daddy.”We still had about two hours before the dance started. “What are we going to do for the next couple of hours before the dance starts?” I asked.“I guess we could watch a movie or
Chapter Thirty-NineCamilla's POVAfter Raphael and Rory left, I and Skye went to do some shopping. She and my Grandpa will be going back to New York tomorrow.We first went to the mall to get some clothes and random things that Skye wanted to take back to New York. We also got some things for my Grandpa and Rory. I knew Raphael was going to leave today. I was thinking of getting him something but I didn’t want to do too much.After we were done shopping, we went to get food. We just ordered regular burgers and went to find a place to sit.We were on our phones while waiting for our order to arrive me Skye let out a gasp.“What is it?” I asked. She didn’t reply to me immediately but kept scrolling on her phone and her mouth opened in shock. “Skye, what is it?”“It’s about Tori.”“What about her?”“You won’t believe this. She was caught stealing.”“Stealing? That’s a lie. From where?”“From a mall. She got caught with a dress in her bag.”“Oh my God. That’s awful.” I said and Skye gav
Chapter FortyRaphael's POVAfter six hours, we finally landed in New York and I went to pick up my luggage and waited for the driver to arrive.After a few minutes, he arrived and I got in the car. My assistant was there too.“How are you doing?” I asked.“I'm good, sir.” He replied. “There's a problem.”“What is it?”“Tori is in police custody.”“What? Why?”“She was caught stealing from a mall. She called me and asked me to relay the message to you.”I sighed. “Take me to where she is.”He instructed the driver to take us to the station. I couldn't believe that she was arrested. What a disappointment. I turned on my phone and of course, it was all over the news.Everybody was making mention of Jason, our son, and how they felt sorry for him. After I left her, she became more of a mess than she already was. She started using and got addicted. I've tried to get her help but she doesn't want it.We reached the station and we were led inside. We talked to the policemen and then bailed
Chapter Forty-One Camilla's POV The night Raphael left was pretty rough. After he was gone, Rory resumed crying. We managed to calm her down, get her ready for bed, and put her to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night crying for him. I couldn’t understand how she had gotten attached in such a short time. I put her back to sleep and stayed with her the rest of the night. The next morning we woke up and prepared for Skye and my Grandpa to leave. I had to tell her that they were going to leave and she started crying again. She went for a walk with my Grandpa while Skye and I were making some last-minute arrangements. “Rory’s pretty devastated.” Skye said while we were packing her suitcase. “I know. And I can’t understand it. I understand her crying cause you guys are leaving but I didn’t expect her to cry for Raphael. She got so attached to him in a short amount of time.” “She’s never felt how it was to have a dad and she finally got it. She’s a little girl but she’s als
Chapter Forty-TwoRaphael's POVThe next morning, Jason and I got ready for the day and I dropped him off at my mom's house before going to work. I didn’t have much to do at work so I finished up pretty early. I then told Anthony to take me to the hotel Tori was staying at.We got there and went up to the room. I knocked on the door several times but I didn’t get an answer. I had a key but I wanted her to open the door herself.After about three minutes, I was still waiting for her to open it so I decided to use the key I had. I walked in and closed the door behind me. “Tori.” I called out. “Are you in here?” I didn’t get a reply back.It was a suite so I checked the room and the kitchen but I couldn’t find her. The receptionist said that she hadn’t checked out.I remembered that I hadn’t checked the bathroom so I went there and I saw her passed out on the floor.I bent down beside her. “Tori.” I said shaking her.I looked around and saw a bottle of pills lying on the floor. I tried
Chapter Forty-ThreeCamilla’s POVMartha had arrived the day before and we were all excited. We didn’t talk much about what had happened while she was gone. It was a Monday and she got Rory ready for school and then I dropped her off and returned to the house.I didn’t have to go to work until 10am so I had a lot of time to get ready. I finished getting ready and I had a lot of time left so I decided to chat with Martha.“So he wants to be a part of her life?” She asked.“Yes.” I answered.“How would that work? You live in different cities.”“I really don’t know but we’ll figure that out.”We chatted for a while tge I looked at tge time and realized it was time for me to leave for work. “I’ll be on my way now. See you later.” I said and left the house.For the first few hours, I was at work, and for the remains part of the day, I went to visit the site we were working on.I was about to turn into the kitchen when I got hit by someone and got coffee spilled on my shirt.“What the hel
Chapter SeventyRaphael’s POVCamilla was furious after, but Alexander managed to calm her down. She was a thin line away from causing me major bodily harm. I understood her. My personal life had interfered with hers, causing trouble for her.What I didn’t understand was why and how Emily did what she did. I was still trying to wrap my head around everything. How did she find out about Camilla and her life back here in California?We all made our way to the station to give our statements. We spent about an hour in the station. They also asked Rory some questions about the man who took her. She said he was kind to her and that he gave her ice cream and let her watch TV.By the end of the night, they had managed to track down the guy who took her and confirmed the relationship between him and Emily. She was the one who hired him to do the kidnapping.The guy immediately confessed to everything. It kind of made me wonder why a hardcore criminal would confess to his crimes that easily. He
Chapter Sixty-NineCamilla’s POV‘I didn’t want to hurt your little girl before, but now you made me mad.’ That was the next message I received from that same number.I showed the message to Rapheal who then sent it to the PI. We also called the police to let them know that the person texted again. So far, it seemed like they weren’t after ransom or anything. They just wanted to hurt me and my daughter.“We’re running out of time, Raphael.”“We’re not. Trust me, they’re not going to do anything to her. They know better.”The police now had a breakthrough. With the help of the PI, they had managed to track the phone number, but what was weird was that the location was New York. There’s no way they flew with Rory to New York. That was impossible.The NYPD got involved and took care of finding the person behind the number in New York.They still focused on finding her here.After a while, we got a call. They had an idea where she was. I picked up the keys and dashed out of the house wit
Chapter Sixty-EightRaphael's POVI rounded up my work and set to leave the office. The driver was already going to pick Jason up so I didn’t have to worry about that. Emily was having dinner with us tonight so I called her to let her know I was off work.I drove to the house and after I had freshened up, Emily had arrived. She offered to cook for the dinner so she arrived early.I let her do the cooking and went to the living room to watch TV.After a few minutes, I got a call from Camilla. It took me by suprise. We hadn’t really spoken all week. I was trying to give her the space that she deserved.“Where are you?” She asked.“What?” I was taken aback by the question.“Where did you go with my daughter?” She asked again.“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Was she drunk or?“What do you mean by you don’t know what Im talking about? The school said you came to pick Rory up.” “What? I'm in New York.”“Are you being serious?”“Yes. What happened?” I was starting to get wor
Chapter Sixty-SevenCamilla’s POVThe past week was just a rush of things. We moved out of our old house into a much safer house. We also hired private security just in case. I was thinking of changing schools for Rory but I just decided to let her continue going there. It’d be hard for her to adapt to a new environment.I spent almost all my time at work. I put in all the hours I’d taken off before. I met with Alexander one time and vented to him. He was a good friend, he reassured me and gave me words of encouragement to keep going. It was finally Friday and I was happy to spend the weekend in bed. I dropped Rory off at school and then went to work. I went to my office and got started on work. During my lunch break, I got a call from Alexander. “Hey. How are you doing?”“I’m fine. How are you?”“Good, good. How’s the new place?”“It’s alright. It’s a lot different than our old house and Rory’s a bit scared to sleep in her new room but she’ll come around.”“I know she will. Any ne
Chapter Sixty-SixRaphael's POVI sat down on the couch in defeat. I’d mange’s to make Camilla angry at me again. Every time we wanted to talk, I somehow always said the wrong thing and pushed her further away from me.It wasn’t my intent to shame her for her decisions when she was younger or make her think Aurora was something to be hidden. I’d fucked up, once again.The chairman who had followed behind her returned to the living room.“She’s leaving, tonight. She’s packing already.”“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say all those things to her.”“But you did. You can’t seem to let go of the past, can’t you? You always bring that up in every conversation you guys have. She’s already apologized for that countless times. Why do you have to keep punishing her? She’s already going through enough.”“I know. I'm sorry but she took those years of my life. I can never get that back. You had a hand in that too.”“You know, you could have refused the marriage. But you didn’t, because of your father
Chapter Sixty-FiveCamilla’s POVI stormed out of the living room after I slapped Raphael. Normally I wouldn’t resort to violence but he riled me up so fast I didn’t know when I walked up to him and slapped him.How dare he? Shame me for being in love. And I thought we were already past that but if seemed we still had a lot to talk about.I went to my room and started packing up my things. I also went to Rory’s room to pack her bags. Whether he liked it or not, we were going to leave tonight.I didn’t know if I was angry with what he said because it was true or not. I wasn’t ashamed of my daughter, I could never be. I was only trying to protect her from the things I was exposed to. No child deserves to grow up under the limelight and scrutiny of the media. I was crying and I didn’t even know it. My eyes were clouded with tears and I could barely see. I sat down on the bed trying to calm myself down.I heard a knock on the door and I looked up to see a figure of my grandpa.“Are you o
Chapter Sixty-FourRaphael's POV“Did you see the news about Camilla?” Sam asked as I came out of the meeting room.“What news?”“They leaked her address, her job back in California, and her phone number. Everything about the life she’s been living these last few years is on the internet.”“What the hell? Did they say anything about Aurora?”“No. They didn’t. But I’m sure they know about her too. They’re just kind enough not to put that out.”“She must be devastated.”“I know right? Have you talked to her? When was she thinking about going back?”“I don’t know. She hasn’t said anything. I’ll call her right now.” I said.“Ok, bro. I’ll get back to work. See you later.” He said and left. I went back to my office and picked up my phone to call her. It seemed her phone was switched off. Of course it would, it would be blowing up by now with messages and calls from random people.I went online to check for the news Sam talked about. It was kind of nasty. The comments said mean things abou
Chapter Sixty-ThreeCamilla’s POVAfter spending the whole night trying to figure out what my next decision would be, I finally made uo my mind to go back to California. I wanted to spend the rest of the week here before returning though.I got up and got ready for the day. I went to check up on my grandpa and took him out for a walk around the compound.“I’ll be leaving next week.” I announced.“That’s good. You’ve spent a long time here anyway. It’s time to return to your normal life.”“But this was my life though. Here in New York.”“And it’s not anymore. You started a new one that you can’t leave behind.”We continued the walk in silence. After circling the compound, we returned to the house. Rory was already up by this time. My grandpa was to return to work in a few weeks after the doctor cleared him. For now, he was taking a break and letting Jeremy handle the company.We had breakfast and then my grandpa headed to his study. He was invested in reading nowadays. Rory kept beggin
Chapter Sixty-TwoRaphael's POVI worked from home today so I could spend a little bit of time with Aurora. Camilla still hadn’t made up her mind about when to leave for California. To be honest, it was making me kind of nervous that I didn’t know when my daughter would be leaving me.Aurora was in the middle of the room playing with her toys while I worked away on my computer. “Daddy, when will Jason be back?” She asked.“He won’t be back for long, honey. He’s at school, remember.”“Why didn't I go to school? I miss my friends.” She said.“You’ll be back to school in a bit. When you guys return home.”“Are you going to come with us?”“Uhm. I don’t know yet.”“Well, I do want you to come. And Jason too.”“We’ll think about it.”“Okay.” She said going back to her toys.After an hour or two, I went to make her something to eat.“Daddy, can we go to the park and then go get ice cream? I don’t want to stay inside all day.” She complained.“I’ll have to ask your mummy first. We can’t go o