Laura Julianne Knight had everything in life that a woman can wish for. Beauty, brain, wealth and a rich father that loved her the most. When she was secretly named as the heir to a large group of companies by her father, it became the beginning of the destruction of her happiness. Vincent Verdi, a devilishly handsome and arrogant CEO. He was looking for a contract wife that would obey his commands to fulfil his plan in making his ex-girlfriend, Rachel come back to him. And Julia was his perfect choice. Fate brought the two together and then let them apart. After the divorce, Vincent could not get Julia out of his mind anymore. At this moment, he encountered a woman called Laura. Who was she? Why did she have the same face with Julia? And why did she think he was the enemy of her family? There were so many questions that puzzled him, but Vincent was sure that: HE WANTED HER BACK!
View More(Julia’s POV)
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A rainy day in Emerald City would call for an invitation to rest while guiding one’s mind to relax. The current heat felt in the city for the past couple of weeks, made me almost forget how the cooling breeze felt like.
With a glass of iced chocolate on my hand, I sat near the slightly opened window feeling the cool air blowing on my face, while patiently waiting for him. I sighed looking at my handphone. There were no calls or response received from my messages sent to him.
“Where are you Vincent?” I asked myself while staring at the messages I had sent to him.
It has been six months since I had said “I do” to him. But, I am seeing less of him lately. I knew this was what was expected for a contract marriage. It was just marriage on paper. No love, no emotion.
However, there was a time where I had thought I had a chance with him. At the beginning of our marriage, he showed signs he cared. Not a perfect husband but he had made sure my needs were provided for, on financial and security. But not on fulfilling my sexual desires for him.
I’m working on that.
I needed to try. I was also hoping we could have a serious talk about something dear to me. I needed to get some information about my parent’s accident, from him. He was the clue in me finding some answers.
For the obvious reason that he was there when it happened.
My mind drifted on remembering that one night that he had come home in a cheerful mood bringing a bottle of expensive champagne to share with me. I had never seen him so happy.
But, we were too drunk to talk about serious matters.
So drunk that I woke up that day with a massive headache and pain all over my body, on my bed. A bed I was sleeping on, separate from his. He did not want me to share his room with me.
I exhaled loudly to myself while looking around the huge luxurious penthouse that he had kept me staying outside the limelight. Only close family and friends of his knew about our marriage. He did not want it to be known on that fact that he had chosen a simple and poor nurse to marry.
If only he knew who I truly was. I smiled and rested my head on the chair.
After an hour waiting for my husband, I dozed off on the comfortable lounge chair. It was a long day of cleaning the house and cooking for him. There are times I don’t understand why I placed so much effort to be a good wife.
He never did treat me as one that he loved. I was more like a maid in the house and a puppet for him to show around to his parents. ‘A pretty puppet maid I hope’ that thought made me chuckled.
It felt safe living with him in his secured home with a bodyguard and a driver who protected me all these months. Things were going on as planned.
Another hour had passed. The sound of the door to the private elevator to our penthouse woke me up. I knew it was him. His scent of mixed vanilla and a hint of citrus, were pleasing to me. It was sweet and warm, definitely a turn on for a woman like me.
“Vincent, is that you?” Why did I even bothered to ask such stupid question? He was not going to answer me. Never did. I sighed a little with my sweet smile kept on my blushed face.
So much for the silent treatment I had to endure living with him for the past few weeks, I did not understand why he had treated me differently all of a sudden. Something was going on and I had no clue what it was.
Despite the arrogance and cold treatment he gave me, I knew deep inside my heart that I was making some progress. At least, he came home to me.
“I’ll warm up the food for you. Have a seat. I cook your favourite steak” I walked towards him and helped him remove his expensive looking coat. ‘Oh, his coat smelled nice too’
He scoffed and shook his head. “My favourite steak?” he said and walked towards the dining room leaving me hanging his coat in the wardrobe.
I knew I might have oversold my cooking for a bit. But, in my defence, he had never complained about my cooking. I thought he did like them. He had always finished the dishes I had prepared for him. All the time.
I sighed realising I might be wrong. Maybe, he was just hungry.
Seeing he walked towards the dining table, I stared at his broad back. For a moment I was daydreaming and imagined he would turn around and whisk me away to make love to me in his bedroom. There it goes again. I smiled like a virgin girl meeting her crush in person, for the first time.
“Why are you still standing there, smiling like an idiot?” his deep voice brought me back to reality.
‘Urgh, this man. Why does he likes to break my moment?’ I thought with a fake smile still plastered on my face as I walked towards the kitchen to serve him his dinner.
Vincent Verdi came from a very wealthy Italian family. Their wealth could last for many generations. He could afford a dozen of helpers to maintain the house to its finest state.
But, he wanted me to do it all by myself. I knew he wanted me to suffer. I knew he enjoyed seeing me working like a maid in his house. ‘Hey, I was not going to give up’
As long as he did not mention the word divorce, the marriage contract was still valid. With that condition set in the contract, I still had another six months left to get some answers from him.
A moment later, I sat opposite him and was watching him eat. It was pleasant. I did not mind the silence between us.
He had such good eating manners. Looking at his perfectly shaped jaw moving made me want to jump on the table and smack his lips with mine. My eyes went down from his light grey eyes to his lips that I had long wish I could taste them again one day.
The brief kiss we had was only for one second on our wedding day. It made my heart flutters remembering that special kiss from him. Of course, we did kiss several times infront of his parents to trick them of thinking we were in love.
His parents loved me. There were times, I thought they knew who I really was.
Vincent saw me staring at him which I knew made him uncomfortable. As he lifted his two fingers to his glass, I knew he wanted me to pour some wine in it.
That was my moment to ask him some important questions. He was a better person when he was a little drunk. It was like a moment when he had put down his guard on me.
I placed my silver cutleries on my plate and poured him his favourite red wine. I poured some for myself as well. We both drank in silence with him clearly avoiding to look into my blue eyes. It was as if my eyes were making the cold hearted and arrogant husband of mine, weak.
“Vincent, I need to ask you some questions. About the –“ my sentence got cut off with a call coming from his handphone. ‘Great! Another missed opportunity’ I thought and sighed in annoyance.
He was staring at his handphone for a moment before reaching for it with his slightly trembling hand.
I wondered who it was. The look of his cold face suddenly turned into a small smile showing part of his deep dimples. The call must be from someone special. ‘Who could it be?’
He got up immediately from his chair and walked towards the door as if his life depended on it.
“Vincent, what’s going on? Are you leaving?” I asked gently while standing up to walk towards him.
With no words coming from his mouth, he left me alone in the huge penthouse.. again.
I sat back on the dining chair and sighed in defeat. “Who the f*ck called him in the middle of the night?”
(Laura’s POV).Several years had gone by. I was happily married with Vincent keeping his wedding vow to love me and stay loyal to me as long as his heart was still beating.His wedding vow for me was what the press stated as something they never expected coming from a well known feared man would ever say to a woman. He poured his heart out to me in his vow. I recalled myself in tears, and of course with abundance of joy.The wedding was held at Tuscany with a garden theme filled with fresh flowers and nature. He kept to his words making it my dream wedding. I had to thank both my mother in laws who had helped me to prepare it. I loved them both and I was happy to have both of them to fill the void in my heart that was empty since my own mother passed away.Life was perfect and having three children with him made it more exciting.Three boys, who would have thought I could go through that at such a young age! This was not what I had planned in my life after the death of my parents.I
(Vincent’s POV).I was looking around. Mostly to find a way to exit the crowded little ice cream parlour filled with mostly people from Laura’s side. The look of her angry eyes at me after knowing I had read her diary was piercing my soul. Her beautiful blue eyes were on fire.I raised both of my hands in a surrender mode and said, “I can explain. You need to calm down. Not good for our babies that you are carrying. Your stress level needs to be managed”What the hell was I rambling about? It was not going to help me save myself from her wrath that was coming to me.“You did read my diary! How could you do such thing” She said before her face was turning red. She was blushing and for a moment I thought I was wrong. She was not angry, she was embarrassed.Then, I recalled on what I read in her diary. I was pretty embarrassing. She wroter things about me and how she adored me all those years. There was even a picture of my younger self kept in her pink shimmering diary.“I hate you!” L
(Laura’s POV).A month has passed. Time had moved so swiftly and my pregnant belly was starting to show.Vincent was true to his words, being by my side taking care of me and my constant need of attention. I blamed it on my pregnancy hormones. I was never like this, wanting him by my side most of the time.It had been a challenging process with me having nausea and sensitivity of things around me. I had even lost some weight as my body was rejecting some food, even those that I used to like to eat.“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Vincent said and lifted my chin to give me a brief kiss on my lips. We were walking towards the place where we first met. A little ice cream shop in Tuscany where I had first saved him from being hit by a motorcycle.The place where I fell in a nearby ditch, stuck for almost an hour until my brother, Henry came to the rescue. I smiled to that thought as he moved to caress my cheeks, smiling at me. “What’s so funny?”I laughed softly and pointed to the exa
(Author’s POV).At the same time, seated in a rented car, Marie was looking out of the window not wanting to start any conversation with the man who was seated next to her. He was driving with his focus on the road.At times she knew, he was taking few glances at her, hoping that she would start the conversation.After a few minutes, the silence was getting weird.“Are you happy with him?” Henry wished he could take that questions back. His words slipped his tongue as they waited in the car being stuck in traffic.“It is none of your concern. Please focus on your driving” Marie said while pretending to look outside the window. There was nothing else to see except for the cars on the road stuck with them in the traffic.“Do you love him? Why.. him?” Henry exhaled his breath and gripped the sterring wheel hard while controlling his anger, “I don’t get it, Marie. At one point, you did not believe in marriage. Now, you are engaged with a man I know you are definitely not in love with”Hi
(Laura’s POV).I came out from the cold waters while pulling Vincent’s unconscious body with me. He was heavy and I struggled to pull him further.I needed to check on his breathing so I placed my ear next to Vincent’s mouth and nose. I smiled after feeling some air from his mouth warming my cheeks. “Vincent? Wake up” I said while caressing his cheeks.He did not respond to me calling him several times. I then placed my finger to check on his pulse. It was getting weaker. That made me panic for a moment.I felt his body getting cold and that frightened me further, “Vincent, please. Wake up”There was no response.I then whispered to his ears while placing my hand on his cheeks, “I know you can hear me. Please don’t leave me alone in this cold place. Please don’t leave us alone. I want our baby to grow up with a father. The father that I love very much”I then cried and rested my head on his shoulders as I let out my sadness and tiredness on his body. I was tired. I did not sleep well
(Author’s POV).Out from the busy current of Rivera river, Cherry managed to hold on to a large tree trunk and held on it with her trembling hands. She was panting out of air and was choking out water stuck in her throat.After a few minutes, she took one deep breath before climbing on the tree to get out from the cold waters. She knew if Vincent had arrived, it would mean he would have by then blocked her way out from Rivera. There would be no way out using the normal route.It was time for her to execute her contingency plan.But first, Cherry needed to locate an acquaintance who she knew could get her new identification card and passport to escape from the country. She knew Vincent was not going to make it easy for her. She knew she needed him to think that she was dead.Smiling to that thought, she was ready to fight him.As Cherry reached the shore, she walked slowly towards what looked like houses built near the river. They were local folks living in Rivera. A signage was seen
(Vincent’s POV).I was running fast leaving the rest behind. The woods were thick with many trees blocking my way.I heard her. And I knew that voice was her pleading for help. She was in trouble.Jumping over branches of trees and pushing aside any obstacle that was blocking my way, I felt no pain. All I had in mind was to save my Laura. I hope I was not going to be too late for that.I wanted to call her name and assured her everything was going to be fine. I was closeby and I knew all this drama would end soon. But, calling her name would alert the attacker. I needed to be careful.I knew who it was. The crazy woman who was obsessed with me, Cherry, was to be blamed for all that had happened to Laura. I was going to end it. Tonight, it would be over.Cherry would be placed behind bars.Standing behind a tree, I then saw her. My Laura.She was looking weak and shaken.Laura was standing too close to the edge of the cliff while Cherry was pointing a gun at her. They were arguing and
(Laura’s POV).I took steps slowly back as I saw Cherry coming closer to me. There was blood on her clothes which I thought most likely may not be hers. She looked fine, or was she pretending to look fine?I did not know her well. A deceiving woman who seemed to fight for what she believed in. And I knew all that she believed in was her being the daughter of Lucas Knight and my half-sister.“Do you realised we kind of look alike?” she said with a smile showing her perfectly shaped teeth. It was kind of scary with her eyes looking at me as if I was an object of her admiration.“We have the same eyes. Different colour though. And your hair, look” she touched her hair with one hand, “It is the same colour as mine. Do you think people would believe we are actually related?”Was she kidding me? I knew Cherry made herself look like me. She was obsessed to be me.I opened my mouth to say something but she cut me off with her words, “Laura. You want to know the truth?” Cherry smiled and sang
(Vincent’s POV).I got up from a short nap that I took without even realising it. Pieces of papers were scattered on the chair I was seated on. A large map of Rivera was spread on the table where I had marked on the potential places that Laura could be at.Something was not right. I felt a pain inside my chest. Was it Laura? Was she in trouble?I got up from my chair and walked to the drinking cabinet in my room to get a drink. A strong one I hoped to find.I hoped I could find Laura soon. Calvin and Cherry had already arrived in Rivera and I knew it would not be long until they move Laura again. I needed to be fast.My men were following Cherry and two hours ago I was informed that they had lost track of Cherry who went into the dark woods of Rivera. One thing for sure, both Cherry and Calvin were still in town. I would make sure they will never leave Rivera until I found my Laura.I rubbed my temple and walked to the bathroom to do my business. Taking a glance at the mirror in the
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