Elisabeth
Present time....
I groaned as the music I was listening to suddenly stopped playing and the ringtone I set for he-who-shall-not-be-named began to echo in my car making me more irritated.
It's been... a year since the fool fucked up and despite me calling him all sorts of derogatory names that I'd never heard of, he was relentless. He wanted me back but I wanted him to back the fuck off.
I put on my bluetooth earbud and tapped it to answer his call but silence filled my ear.
"What?". I snapped. "Is it until I block your number or change my sim that you'll get the memo?".
"It's been a year El. Don't tell me you're still mad." He's shocked.
"Are you for real right now Ben?". I almost screamed. "I have every right to be mad for the next millennium you motherfucker."
"I was drugged! I didn't..."
"Save that for the whore you were seen coming out of El Dorado with last night Ben." I cut him off harshly. "You must think I'm stupid. Well, newsflash... I'm not!".
Ben sighed. "She wasn't mine. Ephraim wanted me to..."
"Goodbye Ben." I yanked the earbud out of my ear then proceeded to block his number but I should have known better than to drive angry so when I hit the car in front of me with such force that I lurched forward in my seat only to slam back against the seat knocking the breath out of me, I was irritated before but I was now pissed off. "Damn it."
I watched as the owner of the car alighted from the car, came around to check the damage then looked over at me. He was wearing very sexy aviator sunglasses so I couldn't exactly tell if he was angry or not.
"Get out and apologize dum dum." My subconscious mind scolded me.
I sat still in my car wondering why I wasn't making any move but I needn't have bothered as the guy walked up to my car and tapped on my window with a knuckle and I pressed the button for the window to roll down but just a little. I was speechless when I saw him up close and personal but thankfully I still had my wits with me so I probably wasn't drooling over his gorgeousness.
You'd think hating all men would stop me from admiring this beauty but no! I looked, checked him out and possibly even undressed him with my eyes until he opened his mouth and said,
"If I wanted to shoot you, I wouldn't need your window rolled down." The guy's voice was sexy and had this American accent but it was heavily laced with sarcasm.
"If this is about your car..." I began shooting him a saccharine smile. He was still beautiful but not to me. Not after what he just said.
"Why else would I be standing here Duchess Rowena?". He snapped. "To chat you up and ask for your number?".
I blew out my breath to calm myself. I didn't want to rain on this man's parade just because I thought all men were complete idiots who thought with the head between their legs and not the one on their fucking necks. I'd hit him and all I could do was apologize and send him on his merry way with some cash to repair his car.
"It's not like you wouldn't if I wanted you to." I scoffed.
"You're not my type duchess." He snorted derisively.
That would have hurt if I wasn't already so angry but I held my tongue so as not to aggravate him further. For all I know, he could be a put together beautiful psychopath. They never had those written on their foreheads.
"You're causing unwanted traffic here sir." A police woman appeared beside the man. "What's going on here?".
"Duchess Rowena here hit my car and would've gotten away with it if I'd not stepped out and confronted her." He said.
"Excuse me?!". I unfastened my seatbelt, opened the door and got out of the car. "I wouldn't have gotten away with it because I was about to..." I let my voice trail off.
"About to?". He arched his brow.
I pursed my lips and glared at him. "How much do I owe you?". I spat.
"You don't have enough to pay me." He said looking nonchalant.
I balled my fists when I heard that. "Who do you think you are? Do you know who I am?". I fumed.
He eyed me over through his stupid but sexy sunglasses and he smirked at me. "Someone who still doesn't have enough to pay me." He replied glibly.
"My name is..."
"Forget it. I have more important things to attend to than to argue with you all day." He waved me off. "Be careful next time." He turned and walked back to his car, got in and drove off.
"You really destroyed that car." The police woman told me. "I should have you arrested and fined for reckless driving. Were you texting while driving?".
"No. I didn't see the stop sign on time so when I applied the brakes, it was too late." I mumbled.
"I'll let you go because of who you are but don't let this happen again." She warned me.
"Of course." I mumbled. "Thank you." I got into my car, yanked my phone from the wheel and dumped it on the passenger seat then I put the car in drive and continued on my way cursing all men - except my dad -for all they were worth.
~~~~
"Hey girl, what's up?". Jules greeted me when I walked into the living room. "Why do you look like someone who's trying desperately not to go back out and punch someone's throat?".
"Because I am." I hurled my clutch purse at the wall. "Men are so... Grrrr!".
"Did 'you know who' do something again?". She arched her brow.
"He called me! Then he had the nerve to ask me why I'm still mad after a year!".
"What? Is he cray cray?." Jules questioned. "I thought you'd blocked him already?".
"I did. He called me with another number." I sighed. "After I ended the call, I was so mad that I hit another car in front of me." I plopped down on the sofa beside her.
"What? Are you okay?". She searched my body for injuries.
"I'm fine." I said. "The man was so rude though. Okay, maybe I didn't get down from my car when he did but I was going to apologize and pay for the damages. Can you imagine that sack of wine, told the police woman that I wanted to run away without paying for the damage I did to his car?".
"He said that?." Jules' eyes widened. "Didn't he recognize you?".
I huffed. "He told me I didn't have enough to pay him for his car."
"What an insult!". Jules exclaimed. "That guy is an idiot."
"I really wanted to throw wads of cash in his face for humiliating me like that but then he told me to forget about it and left."
"Just like that?".
"He also said I should be careful next time like I don't know how to drive." I rolled my eyes.
"What was his car like?".
"Well, it looked quite expensive." I shrugged. "But I'm sure it wouldn't have been so expensive that I couldn't pay for it." I glowered at the TV screen.
Jules rubbed my arm to pacify me and I slowly calmed down.
"It doesn't matter when I'll see him again though, I'm going to give him the money for the damages and I'm going to tell him where I think he should take his overconfident self to." I spat.
"This guy really hurt your ego." Jules looked amused.
"He called me Duchess Rowena!". I hissed. "And I know he didn't mean that in a nice way either."
Jules burst out laughing, annoying me further but since I couldn't and didn't want to get mad at her, I shot up from the sofa, grabbed my stuff and stormed upstairs.
Later that night, I was checking the pictures on my laptop when I came across the ones I'd been too emotional to delete after that wedding fiasco. In my mind, I'd wondered if I'd pushed Ben to his limit which was why he'd done what he did to us.
I'd refused to sleep with him until after marriage so I'd made him wait for seven years. Four years of university, two years for my master's degree and then the wedding preparations but then I'd wondered why he couldn't wait for just two days until I realized that maybe he'd been cheating on me behind my back so he'd been fine with my no sex until marriage rule.
"Bastard." I selected all the photos of the two of us, I clicked the delete button and when it asked me if I wanted to continue with the action, I deleted us finally without thinking twice.
My mom once told me that time heals all wounds but I wasn't sure mine would ever heal. I'd been in love with an illusion. I'd made Ben seem like the most perfect man in the world when he was the worst of the worst out there and it hurt to finally have the scales fall from my eyes but I was glad my eyes were opened now because I'd know not to make such a mistake a second time.
Once bitten, twice shy and all that.
LeonObnoxious...Spoilt...Entitled...Many years ago, I'd lived with the queen bitch of the obnoxious, spoilt and entitled rich girls club and after I severed all ties with said bitch, I vowed never to come across one, talk or even let my shadow get close to the other person's shadow until today.Maybe the world would really be a better place if everyone learned to apologize for the wrongs they did but some people's brains weren't just that developed. Like the... lady I met today.Mom told me never to be disrespectful to ladies and I tried my possible best to be polite to the undeserving ones but this lady today topped the charts.I alighted from my car and slammed the door shut as one of the young mechanics at the auto shop rushed up to me with a smile on his face."Good afternoon sir." He greeted."Hey Mike. What's up?". I shook hands with him. "Where's Victor?"."In his office." Mike replied. "Whoa! Who was the monster that did this?". His eyes widened when he saw the badly dente
LeonEleven years ago..."They want my life? They can have it." I pivoted on my heel and stormed out of the sitting room leaving them shocked in my wake.I'd had enough of the bullying and it had to stop. It wouldn't stop so I'd stopped it myself. My life had no meaning anymore so they could fucking live it for me if they wanted. I no longer gave a flying fuck about the throne, about my surname... about being part of this family in general."Leon!". Dad bellowed as I made my way upstairs to my room. "Stop!"."I don't want to!"."I command you as your King to stop." Dad ordered.I could've continued on my way. I wanted to but I stopped because no matter how pissed off I was, I had plenty of respect for my father."What the hell was that about? What you said back there?". Dad jerked his thumb towards the sitting room. "That was a joke right?".I decided to play dumb because if I didn't, we'd get into a screaming match and I'd say something I'd never be able to take back whether it was m
LeonI rolled out of bed a minute before my alarm rang by 5. I'd been awake long before that thinking about so many things but most especially the fact that today was my birthday and I was supposed to be in Mercia celebrating with my parents.They'd sent their gifts but I'd left them unopened in my home office just like I'd left their messages on read. Maybe I was just giving myself unnecessary heartache over nothing but I knew I wasn't ready to deal with anything concerning them just yet.I changed into my sweatpants, grabbed my towel and walked out of my room. I went downstairs, grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and headed straight to my gym. I'd never once missed my early morning exercises ever since I recovered from that accident eons ago and though it wasn't really mandatory anymore but I couldn't stop.I ran on the treadmill for about forty minutes, lifted weights for twenty minutes and then I used the jump rope Liese had sent me last year which belonged to her dau
ElisabethI stared - more like glared at the man in front of me and grabbed my bag but I didn't make a move to get up. He couldn't be the owner of Empire High school. I'd done my research even though said research had not provided me with pictures.I just knew that a young billionaire had bought the former Fairfield international school and changed its name to Empire High. I never expected that said billionaire was this... drop dead gorgeous stronzo.His eyes were gray like the sky before it rained and his hair was jet black - silky even from the looks of it and I let my traitorous mind wonder if one or both of his parents were foreigners. His jaw was sharp with a sensual mouth and a pointed nose."Have you come to destroy my school the way you did my car Duchess?". His sarcastic voice grated on my nerves. "My name is Elisabeth. I'd appreciate it if you stopped calling me that." I said through gritted teeth."It's a compliment." He shrugged."Is it?". I spat.He let out a beleaguered
Leon"It's your birthday dude. Let up." I mentally chastised myself for the way I'd spoken to Elisabeth. I wasn't always that rude but she just knew how to push all of my buttons. Not even Ina had tried this hard or worse Philomena but she'd hit close to home when she'd mentioned that word 'girlfriend'. That word had made me think of her and I'd lost it.I took a deep deep breath and slowly exhaled removing all the bad vibes and anger from my system as I heard the clacking of heels outside the door. A part of me hoped that Barbara didn't bring her back while another part which I'd nicknamed "mom" scolded me for thinking like that. I could never win whenever that voice spoke."Come in." I called as Barbara knocked on the door.The door opened and Barbara poked her head in and smiled at me. "She almost got away sir but I found her." She announced."Thank you Barb." I said. "Send her in."Barbara nodded and disappeared then Elisabeth walked in and shut the door behind her. I glanced at
Elisabeth"Infuriating bastard." I mumbled to myself in the restroom later that day. We'd discussed my salary and several other things and I had to admit that he was a generous person but that was probably the only good thing he had going for him."Oh hello." A teacher I'd not met yet greeted me as she walked into the restroom. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Yasmin.""Nice to meet you Yasmin. I'm Elisabeth." We didn't bother shaking hands knowing where we were so we both settled for smiles. "How are you liking Empire High so far?". Yasmin asked.I chuckled. "The teachers are nice for starters and the students are well behaved." I said. "I think I'm going to like it here.""The students have to be well behaved. They have no choice when they have someone like Mr Sebastiani as their principal." Yasmin grinned."They're scared of him?"."I wouldn't call it fear. They just have a lot of respect for him. I heard from Mr Daniel that he has a temper which he doesn't like to show but when he
LeonI didn't want to be here. I'd finally replied my baby brother's text message ten hours after I received it and I'd texted him back telling him I'd like to meet up and now here I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of the hotel wondering if I should hightail it out of there.My brother was lodged in our hotel - one of the branches and I knew his room number and everything. I knew he was here with his girlfriend Noelle and he probably wanted to introduce her to me since he'd done so with the others and I was the only one left.I raked my fingers through my hair in frustration and shook my head. I thought I'd let go of the past when I left home but I'd not let go of shit.I was still mad at my brothers, sister and my father. I was still mad at myself for going after her in the first place. If I'd left her alone, she'd still be alive but no... my stupid heart had to fall in love with her and that love ended up killing her.I pressed the heel of my hands to my eyes as tears threa
Elisabeth Friday... the best day of the week and my favorite. It was also signalling the end of my first week teaching at Empire High school. I'd thankfully not had any run in with the boss and I was also thankful that my father had decided to let me be. He'd probably weighed the pros and cons of going against a man like Leonidas Sebastiani and decided that I wasn't worth the battle. "Hey Liss." One of the male teachers, Mr Daniel had also taken to calling me Liss no matter how many times I told him otherwise. My friends called me Beth, Lisa, Ellie or just plain old Elisabeth which was my fucking name. It was just my first week here so I didn't want to be rude and tell him off. "Hello." I was standing by the vending machine in the hallway trying to decide which soft drink I wanted and snacks as well. "So... I was wondering if you would be busy this weekend?". He asked me. I looked up at him. "Why?". "I would like it very much if you'd say yes to me taking you out on a date." H