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CHAPTER 22
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A vow of hate CHAPTER 23
CHRISTIANI had decided to take the day after the fundraising event off, much to the surprise of everyone at the office since I barely took any time off. And I should have known that was a mistake. I had decided to disconnect from the world and just relax in the house with Valerie, and somehow, two hours passed without me checking my phone. That single act came back to bite me in the ass.‘This is what happens when you take breaks’ I thought to myself.Someone had leaked a story to gossip magazines claiming that my marriage to Hazel was staged, and immediately, I knew it was the work of my father. It wasn’t rocket science, anyone could see that he was responsible for this damage.I had to give him credit. He was thorough, making sure to include a set of fake documents showing the agreement of a contract marriage, complete with forged signatures of Hazel and I. The whole thing was stupid, we weren’t even in a contract marriage, it didn’t make any sense. It portrayed me as the exact mon
A vow of hate CHAPTER 24
CHRISTIAN“You’re handing over the company to me?” I asked in bewilderment, taking the phone off my ear for a second to cross check the number again. But everything was as it should be. I really was talking to my grandfather and not an imposter.“I am.” “But why?” I asked again, still confused. “And in the midst of all this drama too. I expected you to pull everything out from under me.”“Exactly.” Grandfather’s gruff voice responded. “I’ve been disappointed one too many times. And if your father was the least bit dependable, the company might have been his ages ago. I’m getting too old to do this for much longer. This is your last chance, you're under probation. Fix this mess and make it disappear and you'll be inaugurated as chairman at the next board meeting.” “Aren’t you going to ask if any of it is true?” I asked him.There was a slight pause before he spoke, “does it matter? The only thing that matters is that you have a wife and a daughter now, and from what I’ve seen and hea
A vow of hate CHAPTER 25
HAZELI could feel my nerves grow stronger as we neared the hospital. I kept bouncing my knees up and down the whole way until Christian literally snapped at me to stop. I knew that he hated the fact that he had to do this with me, he never stopped reminding me that he’d rather do anything else in the world than have to endure my presence. I had half expected him to react a certain way when I punched his father, but he had done the exact opposite, and even though he obviously hated the fact that he was stuck here with me right now, at least he was doing it. That was all that mattered. When we got to the hospital, a nurse handed me a clipboard that needed to be filled with all my information, but I was struggling to hold the pen with my injured hand.“Give it here, I'll do it,” Christian offered, looking a bit annoyed.“No, it's fine. I’ve got it.” I protested.“This really isn’t the time to be stubborn, Hazel.” he grabbed both the pen and clipboard out of my hands. “Just tell me the a
A vow of hate CHAPTER 26
It was officially day one of our ‘rebrand’ mission, as I had so graciously named it. Christian and I were getting ready for our first real date, and just to put it out there, there was nothing normal about this. Aside from the obvious elephant in the room being that I was going on a date with a man that would waste no time lodging a knife in my neck if given the opportunity, I was also going on a date with a man who was super meticulous and obsessed over every tiny little detail. Which is why I was currently getting ready with the help of a team of hairstylists, makeup artists and a wardrobe stylist. I’d been on dates before, and I usually just picked out whatever decent looking dress I could find in my stuffy wardrobe, applied lipgloss and mascara, and I would be on my way. I wasn’t used to such insanity. But when I tried to protest, I was reminded that I was a Walker now, and nothing about being a Walker was ordinary. That shut me right up.They were finally done now, and I had to a
A vow of hate CHAPTER 27
Christian led me into the restaurant with his hand on the small of my back. My back which was completely bare by the way! The restaurant was Italian, it was over the top, and everyone was dressed like they had some high end fashion show to be at after dinner. The hostess ushered us in without checking for our names on their computer, and I had to admit, the restaurant was beautiful. It had tall arched windows adorned with flowing curtains which she knew would look absolutely gorgeous in the daytime with the sunlight streaming through. The ceiling soared overhead with intricate frescoes depicting scenes from Italian history and mythology, while chandeliers hung like jewels, casting a soft ambient light throughout the room. And the tables were draped in crisp white linens and set with gleaming silverware and sparkling crystal glassware. You just knew it was the kind of place that served miniature portions of food for thousands of dollars. We were led to the back of the room, which meant
A vow of hate CHAPTER 28
I stared at the phone in my hands, rereading the line of text like the words would miraculously morph into something else. My anxiety was getting worse by the second and I was this close to hyperventilating. It was a text from Mark, and it simply said ‘have brunch with me. 1pm, The Lark cafe. Be there.’ Of course I could simply ignore it, but if I knew Mark very well, which I did, I knew that the text message wasn’t an invitation, there was a threat embedded somewhere in those words, between the lines. Mark was good at doing that— manipulating and gaslighting you into thinking you had a choice, but in reality, you didn’t. I knew there was no getting out of this brunch with him.“Haze?” I jumped at the sound of Valerie’s voice, and dropped my phone, which only made me jump again when it made a clattering sound as it fell on the counter. Christian stopped chewing his food and looked at me, expressionless. I’d been so focused on the text message that I had completely forgotten where I w
A vow of hate CHAPTER 29
The drive to the car was probably the most stressful activity I had done all week. On one hand, I was overthinking every possible outcome from meeting with my ex boyfriend in such an open place. And on the other hand, I couldn't stop my mind from drifting back to Christian. I was worried that he knew something. Way more than he was letting on. I just couldn’t quite place my finger on it. And then there was the issue of the car too. The man had just given me a Bentley! And all I could do was worry and be paranoid about whether or not there was a hidden tracking device or a camera of some sort somewhere in the car. What if Christian was sitting in his living room, comfortably watching me on his enormous TV and laughing at how stupid I was? I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. I was just paranoid and I had way bigger fish to fry right now. I would worry about Christian later. At exactly 1:05pm, I parked across the street from The Lark and walked over to the other side. I could se
A vow of hate CHAPTER 30
“I want you to kill Christian Walker.”I burst into laughter. I laughed so hard that I was clutching my sides in pain and a couple heads turned to look at me with irritation written all over their features. I was pulling too much attention to myself. And for someone who wanted to be incognito, I wasn't doing a very good job at it. One look at Mark's face told me that he didn’t find my sense of humor amusing. “Mark, that’s crazy, even for you. That was really funny though, you really had me there with that one.”A loud noise reverberated around the whole cafe as Mark slammed his hand on the table, causing me to jump in surprise. More heads turned towards us now, and I gave them what I hoped was an apologetic smile. “I’m dead serious, Hazel. Dead serious.”I still didn’t believe him. Murder? He couldn’t be serious, right? But one look at his face told me that he was. I let out an inaudible gasp and leaned back in my seat like that would somehow take me away from here, away from the mo
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