DAHLIA'S POV My hands are visibly trembling on the steering wheel. I take a turn on Edison Street, careful not to hit the garbage cans set too close to the road. All through the ride, flashbacks of my last visit to the house keep replaying in my head. This is a huge step and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. How can I pretend to like six people all at once, it's already a lot of work doing it with Carlton alone. I take in deep breaths trying to steady myself as I pull up to the house. The sight of the house alone makes me nauseated, and I pop a menthol gum ball into my mouth. Inhaling the sharp and strong scent of the gum in my mouth, I let go of all disturbing thoughts pertaining to this house and my past. I step out of the car, with my bag at hand, and then I begin taking slow and short strides towards the house. Holding my head and shoulders high, I ring the doorbell and wait for a response. The camera comes and the bright smile of Carlton's mother appears on the screen. “Co
DAHLIA'S POV After the awkward situation I put everyone in with my response, the silence that looms in the air lasts for almost the entirety of our meal. Mr. Stewart tries to make small talk by asking me about business and all our plans even though I had clearly stated it during the conference meeting and every other interview I have had which I'm pretty sure he has watched. But I am happy to reply to him, as long as I see Marigold fuming at how well we are getting along. For the first, she isn't the subject of discussion at the table and I wonder how infuriated that makes her feel. I fill up my glass with water again, and drink the whole thing because the meal feels too heavy in my throat. But I shouldn't have done that because now I feel pressed. “Ummm…excuse me for a moment. I need to use the restroom,” I set down the fork in my hand and pushed my seat backward before getting up. I can feel all six pairs of eyes following me as I walk out of the dining hall. Just like earl
DAHLIA'S POV I quickly withdraw my hands, avoiding his piercing gaze. I hope nobody noticed whatever that was, because the last thing I want is for rumours to start going around. Not yet. I resume piping and show the bakers how to do the multiple designs. They applauded my work after I'm done, making side comments of how amazing my technique is. Some of them even walk up to me to tell me. I enjoy when people give you the credit you deserve for your work, it is an amazing thing for people to acknowledge how good you are. One more reason as to why Carlton, his family and mine have to suffer, they never did that. I wrap up in the kitchen and begin pulling off my apron when Carlton walks up to me. “You did exceptionally great. I never knew you could bake so well,” he says in sincerity but all I get from that is a journey to the past. He never knew I could bake when we were together, that is what he is trying to say. For some reason that infuriates me and I just feign a smile as
CHAPTER 31DAHLIA'S POV This little boy is Carlton's son? I had no idea he had a son. Then again, I never bothered to ask about his life. I have been so strict on everything being professional. A million things are going through my head right now but for the life of me I can't say a word. I just stare at Carlton in shock, my gaze switching between him and his son. Carlton on the other hand is staring past me. I have been so caught up in the fact that he has a son, that I didn't notice the bigger problem here. My kids. This can't be happening. Carlton opens his mouth to speak but I beat him to it.“So you're his father?” I am asking the obvious, but I need to steer the conversation away from me and my four clones behind me. “Andre, yes,” he says, shifting his gaze back to me. “How…ummm…why are you with him,” he seems like he's trying to align his thoughts together as he keeps stealing glances at my kids. Well I'm equally shocked that he has a kid. But the difference is that k
DAHLIA'S POV “Sunny, did you hear?” I look at her skeptically. It's obvious that she heard everything, still I want to be sure, I need to know how much she heard, and what exactly she makes of it. Who knows she might think Tristan is just joking. “I heard everything Dahlia,” the anger in her tone is undismissable and I shut my eyes so tight, I am afraid they won't open again. “Did you hear me Dahlia,” she repeats, when my eyes are still shut but her tone is higher. “Yes Sunny, I heard you, you heard everything, I know,” I blurt out in frustration. Tristan just said only him and I knew, we'll add Sunny to that list. The more people know, the more the chances of Carlton finding out. “Are you serious? How can you still talk to me like this after I just heard what I heard? You're living under my roof, we've been friends since high school, I've only been on your side since you got back and I see your kids as mine too. Yet you didn't bother to tell me that Carlton is their father? Is t
CARLTON'S POV The sound of the espresso machine brewing knocks me off my train of thoughts. I didn't even realize my eyes were closed until the person at the machine apologized for waking me up. I just nod and turn away, sitting up on the couch. I had come into the lounge for a cup of coffee but somehow I ended up sitting on the couch without the coffee, in deep thought. I haven't been able to stop thinking about Dahlias kids. They have been on my mind since the day at the cafe. And recognizing her daughter as the child from the store in LA makes everything so awkward. To think Dahlia had possibly been in L.A all those years and in that store at the same I was. So she had been living there with them, with her husband, the father of her kids. I haven't seen him at all. Could it be that he is still in L.A, is he even still in the picture? Is she married to him? Then it hit me. Tristan Martinez. They say they are business partners but what if it's more than that. What if they are
CHAPTER 34 CARLTON'S POV I am not surprised by what I'm seeing. Andre always indulges in fights everyday with his classmates. But the person he is fighting is what baffles me. One of Dahlia's children, Gianna. Just when I was getting on her good side. The last thing I want is for there to be some sort of feud between our kids. That will not bode well for our relationship moving forward, business or private. I run to where the kids are pulling each other's uniforms and try to separate them. “Stop this, both of you.” “He started it,” Gianna says pointing at Andre with so much spite in her eyes. Great, just great. “It doesn't matter who started it, you know you shouldn't be engaging in fights, Gianna,” Dahlia scolds her, “and you boys are just watching them. I am disappointed,” she turns to her three sons who have their heads down. “But Gianna was just trying to become friends with Andre. And then he hit her,” Gavin says, pointing an accusing finger at Andre. But Dahlia
CARLTON'S POV The loud sound of the alarm almost destroys my eardrum and I hastily turn it off before more damage can be done. I forgot to charge my normal alarm clock last night, so I had to use the manual one with changeable batteries. Now I remember why I stuffed it in the cupboard years ago. The stupid thing is too damn loud. I get up from the bed, do my regular morning stretches, before taking the alarm and stuffing it back into the cupboard. I turn to leave the room but I don't make it to the door before I change my mind. I take out the alarm clock and throw it into the trash can instead. I walk into the bathroom and brush my teeth, before heading downstairs to the kitchen. I start brewing some coffee and open my phone to check my emails while I wait. “What is this?”Marigold walks into the kitchen holding her phone up to my face. “What is what?”“This,” she points to the screen and glares at me, her nose flaring up. I squint my eyes to look at what she is showing me t
Tristian POV, Standing at the top of my penthouse, I’m skimming through the blog post of Carlton finally divorcing his wife. Took the bastard long enough to get his brain cells working. Now he just pave way for dahlia to finally achieve her revenge. Tired of skimming, I shove the phone in my pocket and lit up my cigarette. While I observe the large city of LA from the top, I relaxes my nerves with the cigarette. The past few days been like shit for me. Aside from my suden health challenge, I hate the impression I’m giving dahlia. I’m pretty sure she must be thinking the worst of me now because of that bitch Cassandra and even Benjamin. Yesterday morning when my heart attack set in, I had called Benjamin to help me through to the hospital but the idiot was having an emergency with his family. And instead of him to best leave me to die, the idiot decided to call Cassandra to my Aid. Cassandra is starting to be a real leech that I need to get rid of and soon. Already working towards t
Dahlia pov I walk away from Carlton and when at a safe distance, I answers Tristian’s call. Carlton’s eyes follows me, his eyes not peeling away from me for a single moment. “”Dahlia.” Tristian baritone protrudes from the other end of the line. Completely turning away from Carlton, I speaks into the phone. “Yeah, Tristian. How are you doing?” Tristian probably reads meanings to my dull tone of voice and he begin to apologize about what happened this morning. Somehow, I had honestly forgotten about it if not that he brought it up. “But what’s going Tristian? Who is that girl with you?” I blurts out the minute he’s done apologizing. And the way his breath stiffen proves that the topic is sort of sensitive to him. “She’s…” he sighs, and his voice becomes firm. “She’s no one dahlia.” “No one?” I can’t help the annoyance that courses through me. “Tristian? What do you mean no one? She’s all over your calls. Do you really have to be so hideous about her?” Excerpt that Tristian is up
Chapter 3Its 4pm and everyone has gotten settled in their different lodges then those who decided to come out for the evening tour, are all scampering all over the extra spacious arena. Camping up in different spots. Some couples throwing kites up with their kids at the beach area. Some just walking about. Some feeding animals at the zoo area and some trying out grilled foods at the Carter’s area. Everywhere super lively and bubbling. Then some like me, Carlton and the kids are touring through the landscape. It’s spacious enough to have different families at different spots. Like most of the parents are doing, i and Carlton has been educating the kids on everything we comes across. Our hands pointing all directions like some tour guards. The kids keeps marveling at everything and squealing happily, making me and Carlton to laugh together. The kids manages to make the touring so lively that I and Carlton keeps laughing at intervals, I have been so engrossed in the moment that I l
Its 4pm and everyone has gotten settled in their different lodges then those who decided to come out for the evening tour, are all scampering all over the extra spacious arena. Camping up in different spots. Some couples throwing kites up with their kids at the beach area. Some just walking about. Some feeding animals at the zoo area and some trying out grilled foods at the Carteen. Everywhere super lively and bustling. Since it’s evening, electric lights is illuminating everywhere. Then some like me, Carlton and the kids are touring through the landscape. It’s spacious enough to have different families at different spots. Like most of the parents are doing, i and Carlton has been educating the kids on everything we comes across. Our hands pointing all directions like some tour guards. The kids keeps marveling at everything and squealing happily, making me and Carlton to laugh together. The kids manages to make the touring so lively that I and Carlton keeps laughing at intervals,
Dahlia “Mummy were you really married to uncle Carlton?” That question pierces through me like a newly filed sword. No, it’s just the question but the innocent eyes of my all four kids as they are bearing through me. I’m feeling different emotions all at that same time. Anger. Guilt. Fear. They were never supposed to find out about this at all. How dare that woman? Words can’t express the amount of anger I’m feeling towards her right now. Towards everything. Right now we are all in the plane as the BOOTCAMP was said to be holding in Los Angeles. Every family are occupying different rows of seat as we are all flying in the plane. Carlton and Andre are somewhere at the back and after settling in, Gavin decided to throw the cold question at me. For the very first time, I’m unable to formulate any words to say to my kids. I don’t want to lie to them but at the same time, I don’t want this discussion. Especially with them. It’ll trigger a whole lot of other questions likeWhat happened
Carlton POV, Most of the parents who came for the Bootcamp seems to know each other. When I and dahlia walked together into the hall, we long splits up as friends who knows us came to greet us. While I leave dahlia with her old friend, I walk off with a business associate of mine leaving Andre behind to mingle with his peers. But I actually regrets doing that because Andre got involved in a fight with some kids right inside the hall. Dahlia’s kids were also involved too. The table quickly turn. Me and the other parents of the kids have to separate the fight while everyone in the hall has their attention towards us. “What the hell happened?” Dahlia yells, glaring at both her kids and the all other kids. “They started it!” Gianna snap, pointing at the other kids they fought with. “They were making fun of Andre.” She divulged and I frown. A girl among the other kids retorts Gianna. “She’s lying. I and my friends just said sick kids can’t survive boot camps.” The kid said wi
Carlton’s pov, Most of the parents who came for the Bootcamp seems to know each other. After our encounter at the car park, dahlia and I proceeds into the hall along with the kids. As Expected we walks into a rowdy scene. Parents who probably knows each other are scampering around greeting each other. Kids are buzzing around mingling with their peers. Some staffs are engaging in different activities, some walking around and others prepping up speakers for the camping speech. “Dahlia!” Right at the entrance, some woman comes rushing dahlia with a smile on her face. She seems to know dahlia and at the sight of her, dahlia’s face lits up. “Omg, Carolina. Look at you!” They begin to talk when one of my business Associates Alfred hijacks me from no where. “Hey Carlton…” he acknowledges me with a warm smile on his face. “Alfred…” We begin to greet each other and I don’t realize Andre has walk off my sight. Along with Dahlia's kids. until a ruckus suddenly exudes in the hall tha
Dahlia POV, The morning has been a whole new vigor of excitement as today is their BOOTCAMP. But me? I don’t really know. I’m not so thrilled about Bootcamp due to my past traumatic experiences but that Aside, I’m also worried that Tristian isn’t here yet. It’s already 9 Am and my kids are all dressed up already, including me. In fact they are already waiting in the car while I’m just in my room packing up relevant stuffs for the camping. Sunny had really been of great help all morning. And right now, she’s still helping me. “Do you really need these much mattresses?” Sunny asks I’m stuffing several mattresses into a bag while she had been passing them to me. “Of course, I wouldn’t want my kids catching a cold.” I said and she groan then roll her eyes. “And Tristian,” she suddenly hollers. “You said he would be here this morning. What’s keeping him?” She asks with a scoff, feigning her usual annoyance over Tristian. Well, even me would like to know what’s keeping him. If he
CARLTON’s POV, After the marigold sex tape shenanigans has been eradicated, I decided to finally face my father. More he called few moments ago after I just parted ways with dahlia and I drove straight ti the mansion and I found him at the living room standing and facing the glassed wall. Even as an old man, he still bears that intimidating Aura around him and I hated the way my body reacted to him. Especially when he twirls to face me, his stern dark eyed unnerves every inch of me. I just pulls up a firm, unbothered facade as I wait for him to speak. And I’ve been waiting since like the past ten seconds. “Finally, you decided to show up.” He finally speak with a calm voice then he walks away from his position. My eyes follows him keenly and the next thing he does actually stuns me. He walks towards the wine rank. Bring out a red wine and two glasses. He fetches some quantity each glasses and pass one over to me. I hesitate for a second before collecting it then he walks back to