04

LILY

My hands trembled as I laid the contract on the bed along with the one that the Crofts had given me.

At least Dominic gave me time to think things through unlike the Crofts. I had demanded a six-month contract. If Maddy wasn’t found by then, I could walk away.

Dominic’s contract was harsher. If I got pregnant, I’d be forced to get rid of it.

My chest burned with the urge to rip it apart. My fingers trembled on the paper.

I stopped myself, hearing Anna’s cries in my mind. I pictured Nana, exhausted, bills piling high. I forced myself to breathe and keep reading.

He promised me money. A bank account in my name but the one thing missing was why?

This was rubbish.

I should have been breathing in relief but how could I? I wouldn’t betray Maddy but the clause about the children placed a thorn in my throat. What if he learned about Anna? Was I supposed to get rid of her too?

As I read, my eyes widened. He promised to give me a hundred million by the end of the contract. That was enough to start a new life.

Suddenly the pen weighed like a stone in my hands.  Everything could be perfect and it just had to stay till Maddy was found and even when she was found, she was my best friend…she could do this for me. After all, she didn’t want to stay with Dominic from the onset.

We could split the deal.

I bit my lip and rubbed my face. Signing both contracts meant unlimited peace, power and leverage but at what cost?

My chest prickled. Was it guilt or the agony of standing so close to Anna’s father, forbidden to tell him?

Dominic, who has expressed contractually that he didn’t want any emotional attachments, already had a five year old who asked for him everyday. It was a punch to the gut.

But I needed to do what was best for my family. My hands shook tremendously as I signed a year of my life to both parties. I took Dominic’s copy and walked out of my room.

I hadn’t noticed the rain, cold air seeping through the corridors. A brief representation of how my life felt.

I hadn’t come with any belongings but I slipped into an oversized shirt from the wardrobe, the fabric brushing my thighs, one bra strap exposed

I didn’t take my looks into consideration until I knocked at the first door I came across and Dominic answered.

His green eyes devoured me. His lips parted. I froze.

He was shirtless, his once shiny well straightened sleeked back hair was all over the place.

My eyes caught the digital clock in the room “2:13am” and instantly, shame overcame me.

I stretched my hand to give him his copy but his eyes didn’t leave mine.

“Signed?” Husky and dark with a bite of steel. I unconsciously jammed my thighs together. If he caught the movement or the blush on my cheeks then he didn’t show it.

He raised a brow and I suddenly realized that I was still holding the papers with no words.

“Yes,” I replied and he stretched his arm. His muscles ripped with the movement, I saw more than I should. The deep v cut deep into his stomach. Abs moved and arranged themselves.

My body ached with a hunger I hadn’t felt in years but betrayal and desire had knotted together in my heart.

I cleared my throat as his fingers touched mine.

His fingers grazed mine as he took the papers. A spark raced up my arm, cruel in its familiarity. Five years hadn’t dulled the way my skin recognized him. His gaze flickered to mine, one second of heat then shuttered cold.

Did he feel it too, or was I the only one haunted?

I didn’t wait for him to grasp the papers properly before I turned on my heels. My work here was done.

I was walking fast, almost close to my door when something held me back. I turned and gasped.

Dominic’s eyes bored into mine. A tensed silence sizzled as his Adam’s apple bobbed. Was he just as nervous as I was?

“Prepare yourself, tomorrow’s a big day,” he said and as though he had been in a trance, let go of me. I nodded and walked into my room closing the door abruptly.

I slid to the floor but my breathing was a mess.

What the hell was that!?

The next day was really a big day. Designers, stylists, and maids swarmed the house like an army

There was every sort of person with a certain job in the house. I didn’t see Dominic and even if he was in the house, I wouldn’t know because I was swamped.

Everyone demanded something, my size, my makeup, my preferences until I was suffocating under their attention.

By the time I had some time to breathe, it was in the evening time. I received a message from an unknown number that read > “Get dressed. I’ll pick you up by 8pm”

Somehow I knew who it was and to make my suspicion right, a car pulled up with more designers and makeup artists. They had been ordered to prepare me. It was so tasking that it was only when I entered the luxury Mercedes that I sent a text to my mother and my Anna.

I looked at the driver seat and was relieved to find that it wasn’t Dominic. I arrived at the venue and my mouth was agape.

It was a ball.

Dominic wasn’t anywhere to be found and I didn’t want to text him as though I was desperate for his attention that I had arrived. Everywhere I walked, people whispered and turned their heads.

I knew the gown screamed wealth, but all I wanted was my family. I tucked the phone in my clutch and held it against my sleek open back gown.

The gown bared skin and glittering chains; it wasn’t mine, but Dominic’s choice.

I stepped into the hall, a small announcement echoed my presence and instantly the hall went deathly quiet.

My hands went cold and sweaty from anxiety as Dominic walked towards me. His eyes held a darkness and maybe even hunger. My breathing wasn’t even as he ate me up with his eyes.

Every breath burned with a fire I thought long dead. Memories of our one night together flickered when he placed his hands against the small of my back.

A certain need developed at the spot. I wanted his hands to trail further but he was respectful. He took me to different areas in the ball and introduced me as his wife, a stark reminder that this was real.

I tried my best to show up as his wife but the stares from women were biting. They had disgust, sneer, anger, hate dancing around them. I tried to ignore them until I realized Dominic’s eyes weren’t on me anymore.

The realization cut so deep that I held my breath for a minute. Social anxiety crept in on me and some women noticed.

Before my eyes, a woman walked up to Dominic and extended her hand. He didn’t hesitate to kiss her hand with the same look he had given me.

I shuddered. So it had all been an act? Heat curdled into shame as I stumbled back, cursing my body for falling for it.

Was I that desperate? Has it really been that long or did I allow the world’s best woman’s man fool even me?

I found myself in the bathroom stalls, my reflection staring deeply at me as I mentally chastised myself.

My clutch vibrated and I was suddenly snapped back to reality. I unlocked the pouch and quickly went to one of the inner stalls.

The face of my little girl lit up my screen and I gasped as happiness flooded my body.

How had I forgotten who I had been doing all of this for?

“Mama!” Anna called, a sad pout forming on her face.

“My baby,” I breathed out. Tears dotting my eyes.

“When are you coming home,” she stressed, her own eyes an exact replica of Dominic’s filled with tears.

“Soon. I promise, mama is working. I’ll see you soon, where’s Nana?” I asked and my mother’s face came into view.

I sniffed, carefully wiping the tears from my eyes “did you get the document?” I asked codedly. I had mailed the documents of both contracts to my mother earlier today.

She nodded her head, her eyes filled with worry.

“Are you going to be ok?” She asked and I nodded.

“We love you,” she said and I blew a kiss to the screen. Anna did the same and I ended the call.

Ugly tears threatened, but I forced myself to breathe and hold them back.

It was only for a while and I could visit them anytime I wanted. Neither Dominc nor the Crofts had to know, she would always be my secret joy and nobody was allowed to take that from me.

I cleared my throat the moment I heard the front door for the bathroom creak open. I walked out of the stall to wash my hands at the basin only for me to raise my head up.

Blood drained from my face as a face I could never ever forget came into view.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” she mused. Her smile razor sharp.

The one person who could always tell Maddy and I apart stood proudly behind me.

Grace waters.

An old nemesis from high school.