Amber stepped out of the shower and towelled herself dry. A little smile played on her lips as she remembered her conversation with Margaret as they were clearing the plates. Fabian had stepped aside to answer a phone call.
“When do you plan on telling him?” Amber had asked as she rinsed the plate in the dishwasher. Margaret’s kitchen was a humble one, it had no automatic dishwashers, unlike Fabian’s residence.
Margaret almost dropped her sponge. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her lips trembled as she answered with a question, “When did you find out?”
Amber looked behind her shoulder, Fabian had walked out of the kitchen with the phone still glued to his ear.
“Just recently. He misses you.”
The older woman teared up upon hearing this and swallowed a lump that formed in her throat, “Thank you for today Amber….I’ve never been happier.” The two women shared an embrace in the kitchen with Amber patting Margaret’s back, and Margaret ch
Fabian stood facing the panoramic glass window in his bedroom. Rain splattered against his window, rapping against the glass in fury. Outside streaks of lightning flashed across the darkened sky as thunder boomed in fury. He shook his head, clenching his fists.She’s gone. He could not believe that the woman he let into his house, who gave her body with him, who looked after him when he grieved and who had just celebrated his birthday had betrayed him.You had it coming.He had shared his heart, body and soul with her! He had opened up his darkest secrets to her and this was what she gave him in return? She had slain him. She had gorged out his heart and thrown it away. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.He should have seen it coming. There were just too many red flags.The auction that came out of nowhere. Amber and Liam alone in the ballroom. The wine. The repositioned canvas in his study. Amber and Liam m
It was late. The bus had moved at a snail’s pace due to poor visibility from the thunderstorm and by the time Anson disembarked from the bus, dinner time had already come and gone. To top it off, he was the last to be dropped off. As the bus drove off into the almost deserted street, he glanced at his phone. Margaret had left him a message, telling him of leftovers in the kitchen. That made him smile, he loved Margaret's cooking. Thunder rolled overhead and the storm thickened. He had to walk a little further to reach Ma’s Bakery and decided to take a shortcut instead. He was cold and hungry and didn’t want to walk under the pelting rain anymore. The shortcut was not exactly the most savoury of areas. It was a lonely street with abandoned buildings and broken windows that seemed to stare at him with hollow eyes. The flickering street lights ahead whispered for him to run out of there as fast as possible. Splish splash splish splash he quickened his pace, keep
Amber and Margaret were sucked into a world of chaos as they entered through the double doors of the emergency ward. Flashing red and blue lights accompanied by an alarming siren rang overhead. There were doctors, nurses and medical staff tending to patients of all forms.Anxiously, Amber scanned the ER for her brother, her heart pounding louder than the blaring siren. Her imagination started running wild.Did you hear about the poor young man?A pregnant woman in a wheelchair held onto her ballooning belly, her face contorted in a ball of pain. “Help me!” she screamed. “Oh, it hurts!”In another corner, a family of three stood around a hospital bed, wailing and beating their chests as they tried to rouse a loved one who had passed on. Their cries mingled with various sounds of beeping machines and doctors yelling.Amber tried to stop a passing nurse in light blue scrubs, “Can you help me look for Anson Banks?
The Aston Martin screeched to a halt in front of Ma’s Bakery but the shop was as dark as the midnight sky. There was no one there.Fabian frowned, reaching for his phone to call Amber again only to be directed to her voicemail. Ten seconds passed, twenty seconds passed and still, he failed to reach her. Damnit! Where is she? He should have gotten Margaret’s phone number when he had the chance.Fabian would have reached Ma’s Bakery earlier had he not taken a wrong turn. He had stubbornly refused to use the navigational system as well as the auto drive, preferring to search for Amber on his own; and was just about to reverse his car out of a godforsaken street when he saw a young man lying on his back at the side of the road. He probably would have missed the young man had a dark blue Toyota not caught his attention. It was obviously a hit and run case as the car sped off with a demonic speed into the night. And though there were only a few working
Fabian sat in his car which was parked at the hospital’s basement, and in his hand lay Amber’s old phone. In a way, Margaret had done him a favor. When he had offered to bring Amber's belongings to the hospital, Margaret readily passed them to him without a second thought, not knowing what was in the phone.He had betrayed the old woman's trust. He was a bastard.He closed his eyes and sighed, “V?”“Yes, Mr Williams?”“Run through all the files in Amber Banks’ phone.” He counted his lucky stars to have synced her phone to V’s system earlier that day.“Look for anything that concerns Liam Smith. Messages, phone calls, transactions….I want to know everything.”What does the son of a bitch have over Redd?“Yes, Mr Williams. It will take a few hours. Is that alright?”“That is fine. Send the information to my computer back home.”“Yes sir.”And with that, Fabian stepped out of his car and headed
There was pain. At first, it was everywhere, heavy and unbearable and she struggled to return to consciousness. But when she finally managed to open her eyes, she was greeted by a magnificent dark blue skyline outside a rectangular window. It was breaking dawn.Slowly she turned her head and found herself in a strange and alien surrounding. The room was sparse but clean, and the lights had been switched off, with only blue and yellowish hues of the peeking sunlight illuminating the room. The place smelled strange too. There was a metallic tang from stainless steel in the open air and bleach wafting from the bed where she lay.She did not remember closing her eyes. Her last conscious thought was of the nurse delivering Anson’s news.Anson! I need to find him!She sat up, pushing back a light blue crocheted blanket and gingerly touched her neck only to feel a tug at her wrist.Oh.Looking down, she found a tiny IV tube poking
The door to Fabian’s car slammed shut, sending a minor shockwave to the car. Such was the magnitude of Fabian's rage at that very moment. He rammed his fists against the steering wheel, swearing and cursing at no one in particular. The dull throbbing pain that came from the harsh contact on the wheel was nothing compared to Fabian’s wounded pride.Oh for fuck’s sake, why is she so stubborn?!Couldn’t she see he was on her side? Did she not know that he had pushed aside the ballooning ego of his and came all the way to the hospital just for her? He’d never done that for anyone before! Ever!“I told you,” his devil jeered, its little red tail swooshing back and forth like a pendulum. “The redhead’s nothing but trouble.”“Oh puh-lease! Fabian was practically smothering her with his presence. Jeez, give the redhead some space!” the angel shot back.“Who’s angel
Amber sat in a plastic chair next to the hospital bed where her brother laid. He was awake but remained in a catatonic state, staring emotionlessly at the white ceiling boards above them. Her heart shattered into a million pieces at the sight of him. His face was bruised black and blue, lips cut and stitched and his body mummified in bandages. “Anson? Anson, can you hear me?” Amber called out softly in a quivering voice, gently cradling her brother’s left hand. It was the only body part that was left unscathed. “He’s lucky to be alive,” an elderly cleaner with a friendly smile said as she mopped the floor in Anson’s room. “I heard from the nurses that he would have died had it not been for the kind gentleman who saved him. What was his name again? Ah, that Williams guy from the tech company! Very famous.” She was a chatty lady, but Amber found no solace in her words. In fact, they felt like a double-edged sword, reminding her of her unending debt towards Fabi