Short of removing his arm from Vanessa’s, thus embarrassing her, there was nothing that Derek could do right then about the arm she had entwined with his without hurting her feelings, or even worse, drawing attention.One thing was for certain though, and that was the fact that he had to set the record straight and let Vanessa know that he wasn’t available. His heart belonged to someone else, and it always would.The little voice in his head wasted no time in reminding him that he was only deluding himself. The person he was in love with was in a relationship with another person, yet he was putting his life on hold and pining after her.Nonetheless, delusion or no delusion, the fact remained that he wasn’t ready to get into a relationship with anyone just yet, especially not with his late assistant’s wife whom he saw as nothing but a friend.They all found somewhere to sit, but Derek was distracted throughout the game. Now that Tim’s father had opened his eyes, he could not miss the o
Ava wasn’t exactly concentrating on the game and was glad when it came to an end because it meant that she could go home and stop forcing herself to try not to look in Derek’s direction again.She still hadn’t figured out who the woman with him was and she did not want to look over any more than was necessary because that would be just embarrassing.She knew that she had met the woman before though. The question was where on earth had she met her? So Derek was in a relationship?Well, that was good for him. A man as handsome, successful, and virile as he was couldn't be expected to remain single forever. She was happy for him ... She truly was."Yeah, keep deluding yourself." Her inner voice said.Ava ignored the voice and managed to convince herself that she was happy for Derek. He was a good man, and he deserved to find love and peace.It was clear as day to anyone who looked at them that that woman was helplessly and hopelessly in love with him.In fact, Ava saw a reflection of he
Now that the game had ended, Vanessa and her inlaws went in search of her son so they could celebrate with him and take pictures as well.Derek, on the other hand, decided to wait for them outside since he wasn't a part of their family and he wasn't about to impose himself on them.As he walked outside, he looked around for Ava, but because the crowd had now dispersed and people were now walking about, he could not easily find her in the crowd and he didn't want to continue to search for her like a creep.Feeling disappointed, he walked over to the parking lot with his bodyguard, where they waited for the family to come out. Derek liked this new guy.He wasn’t Jerome, but at least he was a good substitute for Jerome. Jerome was still unconscious and Derek was beginning to despair that he would ever wake up.Nonetheless, he kept clinging to the hope that sooner rather than later, Jerome was going to come out of his coma. Unlike in Derek’s case, the doctors were not sure Jerome was goin
“I was looking everywhere for you, Derek. Why didn’t you come to take pictures with us?” Vanessa asked him, leaning against him as though all the bones in her body had suddenly melted into liquid and she could not stand on her own anymore.She didn't show any sign that she saw Ava standing there only a few inches away from them. Derek gently removed her arm from his and stood aside.Enough with being a gentleman. There was no point in being one because he was going to set Vanessa straight before he went home, and after that, he wasn’t going to put himself in a position in which she would think anything was going to happen between them.“Ava, this is Vanessa. Vanessa, this is Ava … my … You remember her, don’t you? We visited you guys a few times while we were married.” Derek introduced the two women.He had been about to call Ava his ex-wife, but somehow, the words just wouldn’t leave his throat. He did not like the look on Vanessa’s face. He could sense some hostility from her, which
“Alright, everyone. It’s time for me and this lovely lady here to go home. Thank you so much for the love. As you all know, I do not take your love for granted. However, now, I need to get this lovely lady home safely, so I’ll have to say goodbye.” Steve told the small crowd, every inch of him oozing charm and self-confidence. Ava stood nearby, wishing that she hadn’t even invited him to come in the first instance. He always managed to attract a crowd wherever they went, except he went disguised, and even sometimes when he went disguised, people still recognized him and came up to them.Ava knew that it wasn't his fault, but still, she didn’t think she would ever get used to having random people coming up to them all the time and invading their personal space. Also, she was embarrassed that he had kissed her in front of Derek, even though she had nothing to be ashamed of.She couldn’t even bring herself to look at Derek for a while, but when she finally did look at him, his face was
Tim’s father and mother herded the children out of Derek’s car immediately after the driver stopped the car in front of their house.Tim’s father gave Derek a knowing look and sceretive smile and Derek fought the urge to groan out loud. What the hell was wrong with the old man?“Listen, Vanessa. Can we talk for a bit?” Derek asked Vanessa, who smiled at him, apparently having forgotten that she was mad at him earlier.“Sure, we can. Let’s take a walk down the street,” she suggested.Derek informed his bodyguard and driver that he was just going to take a walk down the street, and so he and Vanessa left. He wasn’t surprised when he looked back and saw that the man was trailing them at a respectable distance.Before, he would have minded and would have told Jerome to beat it, but nowadays, after the ordeal he went through, he felt much better having someone watching him when he was out in public.This reminded him that he had yet to convince Ava to let him hire a bodyguard for her and H
"Miss Denise is here to see you, ma’am.” Olga, Amanda’s maid informed her, standing a safe distance away, in case Amanda’s temper got the better of her and she decided to throw something Olga’s way, as she usually did whenever she was pissed.Surprisingly however, Amanda seemed to perk up happily at this news rather than get angry. It was surprising because Olga, as well as nearly all the domestic staff at both Derek's, Amanda's, and even Denise's houses knew that the two women had had a falling out recently.In fact, the falling out was so serious that Denise was noticeably absent from Mrs. Turner’s burial, which was extremely shocking because of how close Denise was to the family. She was the mother of Mrs. Turner's first and only grandchild, after all.Denise's absence from the funeral wasn’t as shocking as Derek's absence from the burial ceremony though, especially considering the fact that the poor woman had died trying to free him from the kidnappers that captured and tortured h
It took less than twenty minutes of sweet talk from Denise to cause Amanda to change her mind about being mad and to show just how happy she was that her best friend was back to her."Oh, Denise, it hurt me so much when I thought that our friendship was over, but I'm glad we've been able to look past our issues." She gushed, getting up to pour drinks for herself and Denise."Me too. I was having a mental breakdown that day you came to my house, and to be honest, I can hardly remember anything I said that day. It's all a blur to me, but I'm sorry once again." Denise lied smoothly.Supposing her plan had worked and giving Derek some space had made him realize how much he missed the love that they used to share and how she was the one who was meant for him, there was no way she would be here."It's okay. I accept your apology because I've been there myself. Mental breakdowns are scary as hell. So how have you been?""To be honest with you, my dear friend, I haven't been fine at all. My l
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