LOGINIVYA plate of chopped vegetables landed in front of me. With the way Jack threw it, everything almost spilled out of the plate.I stared at it in horror.“What the heck is this?” I asked him.“Lunch,” he responded stiffly.Since I got here, the only thing I had taken was water and I was surprised that he had chosen to serve me with this.“I can’t eat these!” I said with utter dissatisfaction. “They are not even well cooked,” I added.He turned and glared at me.“Well, that’s all you can get here, Ivy,” he said with a sneer.“Don’t you have anything else like a real food?” I asked him with horror.There was no way I could feed on these and be satisfied. They didn’t even look enticing.They almost reminded me of the poor food that was being served at the mental home, only that these were vegetables and not real food.My stomach was already rumbling with hunger.I hadn’t had anything good to eat the entire day and I was beginning to feel it in my stomach. If I was still in Gloria’s apar
ALEXALora served Noelle and me lunch and we both ate in silence. I noticed that Noelle had been sober and dull.Since the last conversation we had, she hadn’t said much. It just seemed like she was walking around the house carrying a badge of sadness.I appreciated the fact that she was here, but then again, I preferred it when Noelle was her lively and bubbly self.“Have you heard anything from Nelson?” I asked Noelle, breaking the long silence between us.We were almost done eating anyway.Noelle shook her head sadly.“Have you tried to call him?” I asked her further.“Several times, but it keeps going to voicemail,” Noelle responded.I could feel the deep sadness in the sound of her voice and I felt for her. It was obvious that she really loved Nelson and was looking forward to ending up with him.For the first time, I was seeing Noelle broken by a love that seemed to be going through its own challenges.Noelle never understood what it had felt like to be in a situation like this.
MARKThe first thing I did when I woke up was to check the time; it was almost mid-morning.“Shit!” I muttered in exasperation.I hadn’t realized that I had slept this late.My cell phone was still switched off because I couldn’t get a charger for it last night. I couldn’t sleep until the early hours of this morning. I stayed awake thinking about Alexa, and all that Gina had told me, and of course, my child.I didn’t know when I dozed off.“The blizzard!” I said as realization dawned on me.I scrambled out of the bed and hurried to the window, and to my greatest relief, the weather seemed clear enough. It was very different from yesterday, and that meant that the blizzard was gone.“Thank goodness!” I said to myself.Without bothering to freshen up, I hurried to the front door, wondering why in heaven’s name no one thought to wake me up.I should have been in Paris by now.Anyway, as I got to the door and yanked it open, there was Gina with my breakfast.“Good morning, Mr. Mark,” she
IVY“What are you talking about?” I asked him.And he sighed heavily.“The Mafia gang came back to hunt me, Ivy. They thought that now that I was no longer a member, I wasn’t useful to them and they didn’t want me to betray them,” he answered mournfully.“Were you ever going to betray them?” I asked him and he shook his head slowly.“It’s just how they operate, Ivy,” he said. “I would have protected you with my life, Ivy, and I was doing everything possible to ensure that you had everything you wanted, but when danger came, I didn’t have a choice. To keep you, I needed to go away,” he continued. “Clara didn’t make it easy for me. I could have kept in touch, but she refused. She knew that I had to make the sacrifice, but as soon as I left, she made it impossible to keep in touch and know how you were faring. I couldn’t send money for your upkeep. It was about four years later that I realized that all the birthday cards I was sending weren’t being delivered,” he added extensively.His w
IVYI thought that he wouldn’t want to say anything about it, and we sat in silence for a while, but eventually, he began to narrate, and I just sat there, listening deeply to him as though my life depended on it.“Your mum and I had a one-nightstand that resulted in her being pregnant with you,” he started, much to my shock.“A one-nightstand?” I asked, barely able to believe what I just heard.Being a product of a one-nightstand wasn’t how I ever envisioned I was made. I had thought that it was a love story that blossomed into something special until one person left, and that person being my dad.Just like the story between Alexa’s parents.I did hear about it.Mr. Silver and Alexa’s mother had fallen in love. He had proposed to her and they had gotten married. Then they started the company before they even birthed Alexa.Alexa was a product of genuine love between two people, and until her mum passed, she experienced being raised by parents who loved her and would do anything for h
IVY“No, that’s not true,” I said, but it was more like I was trying to make myself believe otherwise.Deep down, I began to worry again because truly, Gloria didn’t say anything about how I would get back, and I wasn’t wise enough to ask her about it or even take the number of the cab driver so that when I was ready to leave, he would be here to pick me up.My dad scoffed and took his seat. Then he began to sip from whatever what in his cup.I would have called Gloria, but since I was dragged into the mental home, I lost access to a phone. For over a year now, I hadn’t been able to make use of a phone.And Gloria knew.The mere thought of being truly stuck made me deeply worried.I certainly couldn’t live here with this man who was still very much a stranger to me!“I need to get in touch with her,” I told him.“Go ahead,” he said indifferently.I glared at him for acting this way.“Help me get in touch with her, Jack,” I demanded.He must have known that if I could, I would have don
MARKMy conversation with Brent was disturbing, and as much as I was still finding it hard to believe, I knew that I would have to follow his lead.“Good morning, Mr. Mark,” my secretary said.“Good morning,” I responded. “Is Mr. Devon here yet?” I asked her.“Yes, he is,” she responded.“Ask him t
MARKSydney Bowman.I remembered the name almost immediately!He was one of my dad’s senior staff members that handled finance and logistics in the company, but when I got back from business school in Toronto, he said that he had fired Sydney.“What happened, dad?” I had asked him. “I thought he wa
MARK“I knew Donald could never mean well when I saw him seated at their table that damn evening,” I said.The memory returned to me like a flash, and my teeth crushed each other in fury.“After the dinner, Clara acquainted herself with Donald Shell without Alexa and Mr. Silver’s knowledge,” Vector
MARK“Have you seen what you have caused?” Alexa accused me bitterly, and I couldn’t hold back my tongue.“No, Alexa, this is all your doing,” I told her.I had been trying really hard to get away from Alexa because seeing her and knowing that she had gone back to Donald Shell was torture to me. Wo







