Days had turned into weeks, and life had not remained the same for Carlton, whose existence had been disrupted after the most painful truth about Marilyn's entanglement and how she succeeded in messing with his life and happiness. After she was arrested at the airport while trying to leave the airport, she was detained and investigated concerning the sudden death of the child she had claimed belonged to Carlton. “I cremated her already!” She claimed repeatedly no matter how many times she was questioned by the prosecutor in charge of her. “Why?” “There is no use in keeping a dead child and breaking my heart more,” she responded, without remorse or sense of guilt, her eyes darting uncontrollably to every corner of the room like she was looking for something. “Where are the medical reports that confirmed she died and have her bio-data?!” The prosecutor, whose patience was already wearing thin, questioned, seeing how unstable and restless she had been since she entered to question M

Carlton walked through the hallway of the hospital, his footsteps clacking against the floor in the somber silence that dwelt deeply in him. His face masked the grief that was storming heavily within him, as he struggled to keep himself from breaking down finally after coming to claim Alison's body. Seeing her lie on the cold steel in the morgue covered in a white sheet, her face white and her body cold and lifeless, pain gnawed in his heart so much that he found it hard to breathe. His heart ached so much with a swelling knot that stuck to his throat, as he watched them close her back into the drawer. ‘It was definitely his fault that she ended up this way. He should have been more kind to her. “We are sorry to inform you that Miss Alison Cooper has been an addict for a long time now. It just went wrong this time, and she overdosed,” those words, crumbled Carlton even more, with tears struggling to contain their pool in his heavy eyelids. It was also that moment he learned th

Carried away by her happy tears, Liam had to do the work of bringing her down the mountain again, with so much strength and vigor coursing through his body. After they arrived back in the afternoon, they quickly went inside to change into their swimsuits. It took Nadia a few seconds to think about the perfect swimsuit to wear because of how conscious she was of her body, but remembering Liam's affirming words brought back strength and motivation to her, “Your body is so beautiful, Naddy. It does not need to be perfect. Nothing is perfect.” Liam was sprawled on a deck chair beside the pool, his eyes half-closed while waiting for Nadia to come out. When she opened his eyes to see her approaching, he was caught in a daze and lost in a trance about how gorgeous she looked in the perfect neon-colored swimsuit, which made her oil-splattered skin glow with a sun-kissed radiance. Every step she took made his heart beat even faster like it was the first time he had seen her, and Nadia

TWO MONTHS LATER It had been the longest days of Carlton's life, and he could not even remember how long it had been because he was back to the same pathetic state Stacy met him months ago, when he had just silently lived the saddest and most pathetic life without her. He had begun working from a tiny space in a suffocating and tight space where he separated himself from the world and the world of his own mind, which haunted him with sadness and a pressing weight of depression with which he had no idea when it would end. Though the company was back on track because he had distracted himself by working restlessly to surpass his goals for the remaining half of the year in just a few weeks, he had been like a ghost, haunting the light of the deep darkness that had taken over his happiness. After Alison's cremation, he had sent a lot of emails to Hudson to talk to him, and had even journeyed to his company on several occasions to see him, but every one of his efforts to get through

It had been almost two weeks since Stacy came back into Carlton's life, and their most torrid glow of love had been rekindled countless times so that they couldn't even keep a record anymore. They could not stop snuggling into each other at every moment like young puppies. He was spending his vacation time with her as he had planned to do before, as they caught up with everything they had missed, while he had to spend time with her, and accompanied her to the hospital for her medical checkup. Stacy asked him to keep the house and not move out as he planned, since the entire estate belonged to him, because every memory that they had cherished together was made in the house. It was a beautiful moment when she talked about starting a family together with him in that same house. It was no old news anymore that he was seen spotted with a pregnant woman in a facecap at different places, as media houses blew up with headlines, wondering who the strange lady he was seen with was. It broug