Having talked to Cyan about the plan and deciding on how to manage the dates, I had been happy enough to finally take Zoey out to the park. Even when the happy memories in this place included my father, they still were good, and I want to share them with Zoey.
The summer sun had already indorsed the sky with its blazing presence, the beautiful summer flowers as beautiful as ever. It reminds me of my 12th birthday, a picnic birthday party. Even though no one dared to come celebrate with me, that man and my mother were there. And I was the happiest.
“I will find you a good father figure, one who will never run away.” I glance at the smiling angel in the strollers. She had inherited mother’s green eyes, precious emerald globes, which is mother used to call them since I myself have the same emerald globes.
“I will protect you okay. I will protect you.”
A precious young soul with no sins yet, her lips haven’t said a word of Malice, yet to step on the dirt of the world.
“Huh, I thought I was dreaming, Leah, is that you?”
An annoying voice interrupts my time with my angel, James Rett the man supposedly married to his cousin. How can a person hate someone they have loved for so long this easily? Well, they broke up with you during mourning your mother’s funeral to marry their cousin.
“Ah, Kaleah, it is a while.”
His alleged cousin and wife Lola chimes in enthusiastically. Why is she waving her hand like that? “James bought me an expensive ring can you see?” Who wouldn’t see the ring that is being waved around like a flag during Olympics opening ceremonies?
“How lovely, so how do your parents feel about cousins marrying? Isn’t considered incest?”
I speak in the loudest voice possible if they are going to ruin my day with my angel I must as well ruin theirs. James’ face frowns along with Lola’s immediate gasps, I hear people in the park look and gossip. The country frowns heavily on these types of relationships.
“We are not cousins” Lola defends, “we were just lying to you, he was cheating on you with me.”
She loudly defends but this only gets more gasps and snickers from the forming crowd. If there was one thing people hated it was infidelity and she had just proudly admitted to it.
“Lola” James scolds her, but he is already too late.
“Thank you for telling me, I am happy I broke away from you.”
“Oh, shut up you wrench you are just jealous. Hmph” she pouts, “oh, please RSVP for our wedding, we pushed it forward due to the lack of RSVPs.”
I feel amused by this, they did not get enough RSVPs, they had said this would be a wedding of the century almost three weeks ago. And now they are complaining about the lack of guests.
“Sorry, I am planning a wedding myself so I will not be coming to yours.” I lie through my teeth.
“You are what?” Lola growls angrily as James looks at me sadly.
“You are moving on already” this wrench wants me to wallow in pity until when.
“James, you moved on first what is preventing me from moving on?”
“Well, you were sad and depressed, do you think you need to take care of your metal health first.” He reasoned, with his brainless fiancé supporting him, “besides what right man would marry a woman with a child? even if she is your sister, she is still too much.” She spoke.
In my imagination I had already punched both of them and damaged their already distorted face. But I am a law-abiding citizen, and I am not to get a criminal record before Zoey even learns to walk.
“Sorry James but my life doesn’t revolve around you I am allowed to move on.” I gaze at the smirking Lola, “and not everyone has close minded beliefs like you, my fiancé is quite very fond of Zoey, he loves me so much. I am so happy we broke up; I wouldn’t have met him if we didn’t break up.”
“Huh, lies, you think I will feel remorse and come back to you.” James snorts, “dream on, that imaginary man you talk about so much will never be. Just RSVP to our wedding.”
They both storm off, and even though I hate him I cannot help but agree with him. I haven’t even found a suitable partner yet and I am fully boasting of how he loves me.
Cyan had come to stay with me for the duration of fiancé searching, though Zoey was a shy child, she had already accustomed to having Cyan as an aunt and babysitter sometimes.
“So?” she asked, “Which of these would you like to go on a date with first?”
I wouldn’t say it was a bad roster, Cyan did know Kaleah’s type in men. Looks were important, don’t call me superficial. Well, I wasn’t much of a looker, my mother and Cyan disagree, but they are my loves, of course they would find me attractive, I didn’t want my bad genes to be the one that holds my daughter or son back. They will have to inherit their father’s great genes, and I stand here I am confronted with six potential fathers.
“Him, he sounds good.”
I pick the modest one out of the three, shooting too high might get my heart broken yet again. He was just above my ex’s looks but not as handsome as Cyan’s brother. Because I know Clayton Becket was the bar for gorgeousness in this country.
“Oh, Archie, I don’t know, I tried doing a video call for the interview, but he said he was busy.”
“You did an interview?”
Of course, Cyan would be crazy enough to do an interview. By the way she touts me to be this amazing girl she went all the way to do a background check on everyone.
“I did not do a background check, at least not yet. I still need to coax Clay into letting me use his secretary into doing that for me.”
“Let us contact him, if he is busy, we will move on to another date.”
“Good idea. I will be here to babysit Zoey, but I told Aaron to give me Taylor a heads up that we might need a babysitter.”
“When did you go to Aaron’s bookstore? And why did you go without me?”
Aaron was a bookstore/ library owner who was also in the same class as Cyan in college. He was a friend of ours, he had supported me and Cyan at our very worst and he had introduced us to spicy books. His career as a business man and artist had taken off quicker than ours.
“Let us get you ready for dates, I sent you Archie’s number, start a conversation and see if it pans out well.”
Cyan had spent the whole week at my apartment helping me sell my paintings while looking for a job while taking care of my young sister while conversing with Archie.
“He asked for a date.”
“Huh?”
“Archie asked if I was free this Friday.”
I said frantically; I had talked to Archie for a week, and he sounded like a decent guy. I hadn’t told him about taking care of my sister nor my plan of getting married, I thought it would be better to talk face to face.
“Great, tell him you are free.”
I texted him the confirmation of our date. The most crowded place, that is what Cyan had advised me to choose, Archie had not shown any other pictures aside from his profile pictures.
Cyan had dragged me to buy dresses along with buying Zoey some new clothes. We also dropped by Aaron’s bookstore for our dose of extremely inappropriate books.
“How dare you perverts bring a child to read perverted books?”
Aaron is seen shocked with his hands, on his beautiful hips, gapping at us reading.
“Keep your voice down.” Cyan tried to tell him, but he only just rolled his eyes before scolding us again.
“Poor Zoey has to put up with the two of you.”
He tries to hold her, but she only erupts into a cry, she was unfamiliar with strangers and had always cried when held by one. Cyan smirks at him before picking her up to soothe her.
“Guess what, Zoey likes perverts.”
“Ugh, tell me that didn’t come out right or I am calling the cops.” Aaron jokes, which Cyan agrees with, that line wasn’t her best come back.
He held me into and embrace, “how are you? Sorry I couldn’t make it to the funeral. I wanted to come supports you.” He says before giving me his usual kiss on the cheek. “I am okay Aaron; I received your condolences gift well.”
He sits at our table for our usual talks about nothings, it reminds me of our first meeting in college. I had just fought with one of my friends and I needed a new one, Cyan had just fought with her friend over her using Cyan to get close to Clayton and Aaron the introvert (you would never tell) had no friends at all.
“Ugh, I really think we need to beat someone up, either fate for being so cruel, your mother’s trash sperm donor or the ugly guy named James,”
“It is okay Aaron, I will do good, and my success will hurt them.” I reassured the agitated Aaron.
“Hmph fine, if the blind dates don’t work out, you can always marry me.”
“Hell no, you are not marrying this man.”
They had always fought like that, something I didn’t mind. It brought the spice and drama our friendship needed. We had finally left Aaron’s store a few hours later and Cyan had opted to visit the devil incarnate.
“Why are you staying in the car?”
“I am not seeing that man.” Who walks to her death willingly? He might be Cyan’s brother, but she had told me enough about him for me to not want to be in the same room as him.
“You have a crush on him, but you refuse to meet him.”
“Hey, you have a crush on that duke from the book, have you met him?”
“I will not respond to your hateful comments.”
She storms off leaving me in the car. I had decided to walk a little so Zoey doesn’t feel stuffy in the car. Beckett Tech sure was magnificent, from its structure you could only see how expensive it must have been.
I had walked a great deal before deciding to go back to the car fearing Cyan would freak out if she didn’t find me. But the idea of turning bag had been too bad for me, because I had laid my eyes on him that man.
“Father” I muttered.
He had noticed me soon, and was started by my eyes on him, he had averted his eyes on Zoey who was in my arms. But he had snorted and ignored us, moving his eyes to the bus that had just stopped in front of him. Then a little boy who looked almost 6 had run up to him calling him father before he embraced him and left. I had thought I was over him leaving us, but I was not. I felt my cheeks water for just a few seconds, I think Zoey was crying as well. But I was in a daze to comprehend what was going on, I had loved and know this man all my life until he decides to leave a few months ago. He fed me, changed dippers for me, helped me learn how to walk. He had been the epitome of a good man in my life, and I had hoped to find a man as loving as him, and I admired him for how much he loved my mother only to leave us at our worst. How dare he, how dare he embrace someone else while Zoey didn’t have the privilege of even having a real family. How dare he? (Third POV) Cyan had been in Cla
“He used his dead brother’s pictures to catfish us. How dare he?” ‘Keep it down Cyan Zoey just slept.” I had tried to hush the bewildered Cyan. “He is so creepy,” she sighed, “see this is why we should do background checks, you wouldn’t have to go out with a dead man.” She had immediately taken out her phone to call Cain to swindle him into doing background checks for the remaining potential dates. I tried to have a positive outlook of the whole thing, but the future didn’t look too bright for my dating life. “Let us just rest first Cyan, you cannot disturb Cain’s sleep.” “Ugh, fine, but I will make sure that Mule guy will never do the whole catfishing thing again.” Her frugal thoughts had not been premature. Because it only took one night before Ellen Mule had started texting me again, he would ask “are you in need of me now?” Before taunting me with vile comments of how useless I would be without him. “He is so immature” Cyan had said. “Maybe this is not our thing, we should
It took a few seconds for my cousin to reach the scene of the crime and my aunt and uncle came right after. Scolding Clayton for having his indecent saga in the family kitchen. But then my angry grandmother who had just woken up stormed in angrily.“What is going on? Why did you scream like that you brat?” She scolds me.“Grandmother, Clayton was kissing that girl in the kitchen.” Conan explains mischievously,“I am not that girl; I am his girlfriend.” Hailee defended herself.The reaction of the rest of the family had been coordinated. Yes, we had urged Clay to marry many times, but I knew everyone agreed with me on the choice of his bride.“Sit down.”Grandmother ordered before ranting to the rest of the family on how to choose partners. She had stared at Hailee with an annoying face a few times. But Clayton had defended her, a really nice defense, Clayton wasn’t an ideal man to marry. Yes, he was a handsome rich man, but he was what many called a playboy, though many women still de
(Kaleah POV) It had been a doomed morning from the beginning, taking care of Zoey alone had taken a toll on me. I really needed to find a person to help me take care of her. The door had been locked when I slept but to my surprise it had been unlocked when I woke. ‘Paranoia would make you lose your mind’ I had thought. When I opened my phone Cyan had sent me loads of photos of her family. ‘That brat Clay wants to marry a con artist’ is the topic for the day. She had complained about how Hailee Leech was leeching of her brother and her brother was letting her. And though it is stung a lot, I still felt happy for Clayton deep-deep-deep down. ‘Bang.’ Maybe it is not paranoia, Zoey had woken up crying fanatically last night and I had felt a presence. “Hello, Cyan, is it you?” “Good morning, Miss Leah.” I heaved a sigh of relief, it was just Taylor, Cyan called her to take care of me yesterday. What a precious husband she is, note to self, make sure any future husband knows that Cya
Instead of a slap or a punch, he caresses my cheek before tilting my head with his fingers on my chin. “Open your eyes.” He orders, but I vigorously shake my head, I am not looking in this man’s eyes before he kills me. I will die like a cool lead in a movie, with pride. “I will ask one more time, open your eyes.” Okay pride is not a thing to be proud of, I slowly open my eyes to meet his brown lustful eyes. Wait a minute lustful, why is he lustful? Oh, hell no, “Is this a sadistic or masochistic trait?” Sometimes I wish my brain and lips do not connect, voicing out this is going to lead to torture before he beheads me. He is taken aback by the comment, “I didn’t mean it for you, it is this story I was reading last night that I am thinking about.” I explained dumbly. He rolls his eyes, “what is your name?” he seductively asks, okay he might have not been seductive, but no man around me had spoken in such a sexy tone to me, let me have my heroine in a novel moment. “Ka…. Kaleah.
(Third person POV) ‘Kaleah Huxley,’ to Clayton that was a woman who never means what she says. Even though they are staying at the same house, he had only seen her silhouette when she sneaks away from the kitchen every morning. He had tried to catch her making milk one morning like he did when they first met, but she was already running to her room when he had arrived. “Cain, what have you found about the girl?” Cain Dealer had just started working for Clayton only about 14 years. Yes, he had always been a lacky since childhood, but he did not mind. Aside from his bad attitude Clayton wasn’t such a bad person. “Oh, um... she is the only child of the late Ashely Huxley and the newly remarried Ore Huxley.” He lies, Cain had been threatened to limit information he tells Clayton by. And Mrs. Melisa Beckett threatened to kill him if he lists Zoey as Kaleah’s sister. Though he trusted she would never hurt him, he trusted she would hurt him at the same time. Better safe than sorry they
“Ms. Leech.” “Honey, you should call me by my name, we are going to get married soon, so we should speak intimately.” She giggles, “I told you grandmother approves yesterday, you should have seen how shocked she was when I gave her an ultimatum.” His chair seems to have thorns, he loosens up his tie, to help him breathe more. Maybe it is the pressure in his lungs that is making him feel repulsed by her. It doesn’t help, in fact her lustful eyes at his actions makes him want to commit a crime. “Ms. Leech.” “Honey?” the formality in his tone makes her frown, she had expected him to call he Hailee like he had always had. “This relationship is not working, so, I am going to end it indeterminately.” The words choke her up, he watches as her eyes become teary and he wants to curse her out of his office. He was never the one to take the moral high ground, he was a terrible person. One who should get agitated that a girl whose heart he had just broken is sad at the end of their relatio
Melisa had sat on the patio of her bedroom taking care of Zoey. She had already had her fair share of grandchildren but having a great grandchild as precious as Zoey makes her smile endlessly. “Just wait until those fools marry, I will shower you with so many gifts.” Due to Kaleah’s modesty she had to dress Zoey in Cyan’s old clothes, her beautiful fair skin covered with jumpers and jackets to protect her from the cold. Cyan had complained that she might overheat but Cyan had raised some children to tell know how sensitive babies skin was. She fondles with the precious cheek of her future greatgrandchild, “I will also have to get adoption papers ready, once you are legally a Beckett You will be my great grandchild for life.” The first Fool (Kaleah) had been refusing the courtesy and sincerity of Melisa buying Zoey gifts with the reasoning that Melisa had helped them enough. But when she marries the second fool (Clayton) no one can stop Melisa from spoiling her great grandchild. The