Bright Like A Diamond

She was at Christian’s house the following day. A black SUV had come to pick her up.

Christian's house was a manor; the type of house a King would own. There were many beautiful gardens, a water fountain and a golf course. There was surely more but because she had just arrived, she still had time to see the rest of it.

“Sylvia,” Christian called as he entered and she got up immediately, flustered at his presence.

“Thank you for coming,” he hugged her and she was thrown off by the heartwarming gesture.

He carefully helped her to a seat and sat close to her. She could perceive his minty cologne and despite her disappointment at the whole situation, she still found him irresistible.

“Is this really how it has to be?” Sylvia tried one last time to changed Christian's mind about starting off their relationship in such an unconventional manner.

“Trust me, Love. This is the only way you and I could work,” he said, “Would you still like to do this?”

Her mind recalled the purpose of her visit. The contract! He brought out a pen and she took out the document from her bag.

She didn’t bother answering his question or reading the contract again. She just took the pen, signed on the dotted line and exhaled. She had done what she had to do; for her mother.

“You will not regret this,” he whispered and she nodded, feeling strange about the whole thing.

“I have a meeting now. There are a few pressing matters that require my attention. We’ll talk more when I get back and finalize the entire thing.”

He got up and left before she could say anything else. Part of her had wanted him to do something else, maybe try to kiss me or something of that sort… she didn't understand why she felt that way. She just did.

She stood up to look around the place, a house she would be spending a lot of time in during the duration of her relationship with Christian. They still had to discuss how often she would come see him, because she had no intention of moving in with him and nothing in the contract stated that she must.

She got to what was surely a study, and jerked in shock at the sound of books hitting the ground and before she reached the corner of the shelves, someone ran out. She gasped and rushed after the person. She got to the balcony and almost screamed when she found a young girl.

The girl picked up a poker from the fireplace and Sylvia wasn't sure what for. She looked scared and defensive. She was wearing nice looking clothes and her skin was like glass– so smooth. She had her hair tied in a ponytail with a pink bow and she had a hearing aid around both her ears.

Sylvia tried moving forward to talk to the girl, but she screamed at the top of her voice while waving the poker around, “Take one more step and I'll turn you into a human kebab.”

“It’s okay! You don't have to do that,” Sylvia said with her hands raised.

“Who are you? Are you some sort of thief?” the girl yelled.

“I'm not a thief—I’m a friend of Christian’s. He asked me to wait for him until he returned.

The young girl put the poker down and sighed in disappointment, “Are you another one of my Dad's whores?”

And that was when it hit her with the greatest shock! This was Christian's daughter.

“Did you just say Dad?” Sylvia asked, barely able to get the question out of her quivering lips.

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Christian's POV...

I was pleased that Sylvia had signed the contract and accepted my offer. I was already looking forward to seeing her later in the evening to begin my "relationship" with her, but before I could focus my attention on that, I needed to handle things with my brother first.

With the little bag of diamonds in my hand, I looked forward to giving it to Carlos so he would leave and never return. Despite having found the diamonds so many years ago, I never tried to sell them and now, I was more than willing to give them to Carlos just so I would never have to see him ever again.

My escort car and the one I was in had barely driven twenty yards after crossing the gates of my home when suddenly, my new driver held the brakes again because someone was standing in the middle of the road.

"Are we under attack?" I asked, suspecting that Carlos had lost his patience.

"No, Sir. There's a woman standing in front of us, and she won't move out of the way," Samuel, my new driver explained.

"A woman?" I wondered, before stepping out to see who it was.

I felt a wave of anger and fear wash over me once I set my eyes on her. This was a nightmare that had haunted me for the past seventeen years and now, it was standing right in front of me, ready to haunt me in real life.

"Hey, Baby! Did you miss me?" She asked me with a condescending smile.

"Monica! What the hell are you doing here? I thought you left the country," I asked roughly, watching her without an atom of trust.

"I did leave the country, but recently I started feeling nostalgic and decided that perhaps it was time to see my daughter again. What did you even name her? I never got to know.”

Hearing her say the word "daughter" angered me so much that I quickly closed the distance between us and grabbed her forcefully by the arm.

"You don't know her name because you have no right to,” I whispered.

"Yes, I do. She's mine after all," Monica whispered back.

I didn't like that we were out in the open for anyone to see, especially Caroline.

"Get in the car. Let's talk," I ordered her and she obliged.

"What have you told her about me?" Monica asked, now seated in the car.

"...that you're dead! What do you want, Monica?" I asked again.

"Can't a mother want to see her child?" She asked but she didn't mean it. I could tell.

"You lost the right to call her your child when you signed those rights away and took all that money I gave you."

"Speaking of, I'm short on cash and I need some from you," she finally admitted.

"So, all you really want is more money?" I asked angrily.

"Yes, and you're going to give it to me otherwise I will introduce myself to our daughter and the media will also find out about her. You've done a great job with shielding her from cameras and if you want her to remain hidden, you'll pay me twice the amount you paid all those years ago," she said without blinking.

"Is that a threat? You're blackmailing me?" I asked.

"Consider it a business proposal! You're a businessman after all, right? I'll be at your office tomorrow morning for my money."

She tried to leave but I grabbed her, “You can't say shit! Remember you signed an NDA all those years ago and you're still beholden to it.”

“I don't give a fuck about any stupid piece of paper. Have my money ready by tomorrow.”

And with that, she opened the door, walked a few yards away, got into her parked car and drove off.

I was fuming in anger after she left because she was threatening everything that was good in my life. I needed to deal with her quickly and I knew it. But, what made the situation suddenly worse was when I looked around within the car and noticed that the little bag of diamonds was missing.

"Monica, you fucking bitch!”