Barry was beside himself with excitement when he learned that Harper was coming over to the house for a sleepover. As a matter of fact, Derek was also beside himself with excitement.It was time to start making up for lost time, and he couldn’t wait to be a proper father to his daughter. He had purchased a bunch of toys that he hoped Harper would like since he didn’t know what she liked yet.Around seven that evening, Ava arrived at his mansion with Harper, who like Barry, couldn’t stop jumping up and down in excitement. For all her exuberance on the phone, Harper was a little shy at first when she saw Derek, but that did not last for long. “Dad said you’re my sister, Harper,” Barry told Harper who nodded and assured him that she was also aware of that fact. Then he led her away eagerly so he could show her the toys that Derek had bought for her.Thus, the two adults were left alone in a somewhat uncomfortable silence, or maybe it was uncomfortable only for Ava. There was a reason why
Ava got home to meet Steve waiting for her in her living room, a none-too-pleased expression on his face. She pretended not to notice his expression and greeted him normally, wondering what his problem was now. “Where are you coming from, Ava?” He asked her after responding to her greeting, his tone implying that he knew exactly where she was coming from. “I went to drop Harper off at Derek’s place. She’s having a sleepover there with him and his son.” She replied, determined not to get into a fight tonight because it seemed that that was all they ever did lately. Prior to dating him, she had had no idea that Steve could be so jealous. “I thought I made it clear that I don’t want you having any dealings with Derek.” “Excuse me?” “I’m a guy, Ava and I know how my fellow guys think and behave when they like someone. Derek likes you and you spending so much time with him is only going to make him think that you like him too.” Steve told her, softening his tone when he realized t
Watching his two children play with each other was the best thing that had happened to Derek in a long while. His heart was full to bursting point, or it would be if he and Ava got back together, but that wasn’t going to happen and he had to respect her wishes. It was almost time for Barry’s bedtime, but the little guy showed no signs of feeling sleepy anytime soon. It wasn’t every day he got to have another kid, least of all his best friend come to his house and sleepover, so his excitement was understandable. Derek supposed that since the next day was a Sunday, and he wasn’t going anywhere, he could let the children stay up late and then everyone could sleep in the following morning. As he was thinking this, he heard the sound of footsteps which were headed towards the living room where they were. He thought nothing of it, thinking to himself that it was probably one of the maids or Barry’s nanny who was coming. It turned out that it wasn’t any of those people, but rath
It had been ages since Derek visited the family of Tim, his late personal assistant who had died in the car accident that had almost claimed Derek’s life too. Spending time with Harper and Barry made him realize just how long it had been since he last saw Tim's children and the thought of this made him feel extremely guilty. He had been sending them their monthly allowance without fail, but then, money wasn't all that mattered. Showing up to show that he cared also mattered. Thus, he put a call through to Tim's widow and asked her if she would be at home with the children the following evening, which was a Sunday evening. She was delighted to hear from him, as were her children and she assured him that they would be home. So Derek spent Sunday afternoon doing a bunch of shopping with Harper for company, under the very watchful eyes of his new bodyguards. Barry didn't come along with them because he wasn't feeling too well and even if he was feeling well, the stress of shopp
“Uncle Derek! Uncle Derek!” Tim’s children exclaimed happily when Derek arrived at their house, flinging themselves into his arms and hugging him tightly.The children were twelve, ten, and nine years old. The youngest was just one year old when their father died in the accident.Derek hugged each of them back as tightly as they hugged him and asked them how they were doing. By this time, Tim’s widow, Vanessa, had come into the living room. Apparently, she had heard all the ruckus and came to see what was going on.She was a young woman, who was a little younger than Ava was and in the years after Tim’s death, she had become a shadow of herself and had become so lean that Derek was worried for her health.He was glad to see that she was doing fine now and was looking robust with health. She came over to him and hugged him tightly the way the children had done, and he let her.She had once told him that he was the closest thing she had to keeping the memory of her late husband alive, a
“I’m afraid you have to prepare yourself for the inevitable this time around, Derek. I'm even surprised that the young lad has managed to fight this illness for this long, but unfortunately, we’re nearing the end. It’s best you and his mother prepare yourselves.” The doctor told Derek, his gaze sympathetic.Apparently, Barry’s condition had taken a turn for the worse after Derek left to go home the previous night. In fact, according to the doctor, if Derek had brought him in an hour or so later than when he did, he may not have made it.“No, no, that isn't possible. That was what you said nearly ten months ago, but he’s still here. You could be wrong this time around as well.” Derek said, shaking his head several times as though that was going to negate what the doctor just said.He knew he was being unreasonable, but he just couldn’t help himself.“I know, but sometimes people get lucky. I’m certain this time around though, and I don’t want you to be caught unawares.” The doctor told
“Mummy, Uncle Steve is here to see you! Look what he got for me.” Harper exclaimed, barging into her mother’s room as Ava was dressing up to attend an event.As usual, he had brought Harper a gift which was in a box that was tied with a pink bow and now, the little girl put the box on her mother’s bed and waited eagerly for Ava to give her approval for the gift to be opened.“Harper go to your room and continue with your homework. I don’t want to have to tell you twice.” Ava told her daughter sternly.“But Mom, I have to see what Uncle Steve brought for me first.”“You’ll see it after you have obeyed me and done your homework, but if you continue to argue with me, I’ll ask Steve not to bring you gifts anymore.”“Okay, okay, Mom. I’m going to do them.” Harper said and quickly disappeared through the door without further argument.Ava had to smile. Her daughter loved gifts, as did any young child, and the thought of not getting them had to be a nightmare to her, so she was willing to do
"Um, was it something I did? Is she mad at me or something? I mean, she was happy to see me when I arrived.” Steve asked after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.“No, of course not. She’s just mad that I didn’t allow her to open the gift you got for her yet. I told her that she’ll only be allowed to open it after she does her homework.” Ava lied. She knew her daughter very well, and she knew that Harper was mad because she had seen Ava kissing Steve.Derek had managed to charm Harper so fast that in the little time that she had known him, she already wanted him to be with Ava so that they could all be one big, happy family and the little girl knew that Steve was in the way of that happening.“Oh, alright. That makes sense. The gift is just a princess dress with a matching bag and shoes.” Steve said, sounding relieved.“Thank you for getting them for her, but you don’t need to do that everytime you come visiting, Steve. You’re spoiling her too much.”“I do the same for my sister’s
A few days later, Derek was set to be discharged from the hospital. Everything felt so strange to him, and he felt a tad lonely.He had spent the last days of his hospital stay catching up on his present life or what it was supposed to be like.Nothing made sense to him, and he tried not to dwell too much on the grief that plagued him anytime he thought about his dad or the fact that the other remaining members of his family had turned out the way they had.Reading and watching all the pieces of news that he could gather about the whole incident, as well as asking tons of questions, made him not hurt as much as he would have at Denise's or Blair's death and Amanda's incarceration.He could not wrap his head around anyone doing what they had done, especially the fact that they kidnapped and tortured two innocent children, one of whom was his own daughter.He still had yet to meet his little girl, but he was going to see her that day when he got home.He was nervous as hell, about the m
Ava and Derek didn't get to continue the discussion for long after that, because Derek’s doctor came in and demanded that he needed to rest. Derek looked relieved at the doctor's words, and Ava realized that he needed some time to himself.She didn’t blame him, after all, everything she told him was enough to overwhelm even the strongest person.She was just thankful that he seemed to be handling things much better than he did after the accident.The next day when she came into the hospital room and spoke to him, he sounded all cheerful, even more cheerful than he used to sound before they had the previous day’s conversation, but Ava knew him very well and knew that he was forcing the cheeriness.Still, she gave him what he needed and pretended that everything was fine, so they talked about mundane things or just remained quiet when they ran out of things to say.Ava caught him staring at her several times, and his scrutiny made her feel a little self-conscious.She was aware that sh
However, Derek simply nodded as though he had been expecting such an answer. She could see the pain in his eyes though, but he did his best to mask it."I guess I shouldn't be asking a total stranger this, but do you know what caused me to fall out with the rest of the family?" Derek asked."It's actually a long story, and one that in my opinion, should be saved for when you're much better and out of the hospital.""Nonsense! I'm much better already. Whatever you’re going to say can't be worse than the knowledge that the man I looked up to for most of my life is gone.""Oh, trust me, Derek. It’s much worse than that.” Ava told him. His eyes looked troubled at her words, but they were also defiant.“Okay, I believe you, but I still want to know.” “I think you should focus on recovering first. You have all the time in the world to find out what's been going on in the time frame that you can't remember. You could even be lucky to regain your memory at any time now, and there'd be
He opened his mouth to ask her the questions he had in mind, but his burst of energy from earlier was rapidly reducing.He was suddenly beginning to feel really boneless and tired. In fact, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of the conversation.“It’s okay, Derek. You can go to sleep. We’ll talk more when you wake up.” The woman told him.Her voice was so soothing and he loved the way she ran her hands through his hair ever so gently.It occurred to him that he shouldn’t be letting another woman touch him that way, but he was too sleepy to tell her to stop.It didn’t matter though, because a moment later, he was fast asleep. He didn’t get to talk to the woman until the next few days.Still, none of his family members had come to see him in the hospital, at least not that he knew of, since he was almost always sleeping.As the days passed, he felt well and alert enough for a conversation with the woman, who was the only person that was constantly around him.His emplo
Derek’s life currently seemed like one big joke to him. The doctor had talked to him about memory loss and some shit that he barely remembered, but he had a feeling that there was way more that the doctor hadn't talked about.After the doctor left, he had stared groggily at the television, certain that what he was seeing on the news was a figment of his imagination, or perhaps, it was caused by hallucinations because of his medications.He hadn't stepped out of his hospital room yet, but just from what he saw on the television, it felt like he had somehow stepped into the future, which in a way, he supposed was the case.Try as he might, he couldn't remember anything past the time when he was lying on the road in the freezing cold, with every part of his body in serious pain, while he waited for what he was sure was certain death, and cursed himself to hell and back for not being careful and getting into the accident.Apparently, though, he was very wrong, and almost a decade had pass
After several seconds had passed, during which Derek continued to stare at Ava with a polite but blank expression on his face, Ava decided that he was joking.After all, he had done the same thing the first time after he came out of his coma when Harper was still missing. So she uttered a small laugh and chastised him.“That’s not funny, Derek. How are you feeling?” She asked him, coming closer to the bed and placing a hand over his forehead when the doctor didn’t object to it.To her surprise and growing dismay, though, Derek moved his head away, or at least, tried to do so. It was obvious that he was too weak to manage it fully, but his intent was clear and that was that he didn't want to be touched by her.“Who are you? Do we know each other?” He croaked out.She could sense fear in his voice, and when he continued to speak without giving her a chance to respond, she understood why he sounded fearful.“Madam, please. I was on my way to my parent’s place when I got into an accident.
Luckily enough, the surgery was successful, at least, according to what the doctors told Ava.She wasn’t a professional, so she had no way of knowing if this was correct or not, as Derek had been placed in a medically induced coma by the doctors until he was better.All she knew was that he lay in the hospital bed day in, day out, looking as white and still as a corpse, with the machines breathing for him.As for her, she had made a hasty recovery, which was probably fueled by the need to be present to look after Derek herself, and her flesh wound from the gunshot had all but healed.Although all the threats to Derek's life had been eliminated, so to speak, she still had this irrational fear that some other person who had some beef with him was going to sneak into the hospital and snuff the life out of him.Unfortunately, however, since he was in the ICU, she couldn’t be with him as much as she wanted, which made the whole experience even more scary and traumatic, as she had no idea w
“It was by sheer luck, if not, they never would have found you on time, and what would have happened then does not bear thinking about. Apparently, they managed to arrest the guy that Amanda initially hired to do all this sometime yesterday.Once the asshole realized that there was no chance in hell that he would get out of this and that he was well and truly done for, he began to sing like a canary. He led the police right to the house, and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm so thankful we got there on time.” Damien said.“Yeah, me too. It’s still hard to believe that Amanda could be filled with so much hate in her heart and that she was willing to go to such lengths to harm Derek, me, and even our child who has done nothing to her.”“I was surprised as well. I always knew that she was a mean person, but I never imagined that she was downright evil. I'm glad you followed through on your instinct.”“Me too. So is Amanda still …” Ava asked, unable to finish the question.“Unfortuna
Mother and daughter hugged each other for what felt like decades, and when they finally pulled apart, Ava's arm was hurting where she had been shot."I'm so sorry, baby. No one will ever hurt you again, I promise. Not when I'm alive." Ava said, ruffling Harper's hair, and wincing when she saw where the area on her head that had been shaved because of an injury there."The bad woman hit me with a gun. She shot Uncle Steve with the gun. Uncle Steve wanted to run away with me and Gracie, Mom." Harper explained, noting that Ava's eyes were on the wound.Ava gulped and averted her gaze immediately, unable to imagine the horror that Harper and Gracie had been through. Little children like them should never have to see someone murdered in cold blood.Seeing such a thing messed with even grownups like her, not to talk of children.The girls were going to need loads of therapy. Once again, Ava damned Amanda and Denise to hell and back in her mind. Suddenly, she realized the implications o