"David I said I'm...I'm sorry." She apologized but he said nothing, focusing with all seriousness, at the screen before him.

Annabelle sighed. This husband of hers was so hard headed.

"Are you listening to me at all?" She asked wearily but he acted as if she wasn't even in the room. "Hello, a human being's actually talking."

Silence.

She rolled her eyes.

"Please say something."

Silence.

"David I'm sorry."

Silence.

She sighed deeply.

"I know. I know I was wrong David and I know I made a big mistake but please...just find it in that stony heart of yours to forgive me."

Silence.

She frowned. What the heck was wrong with him?

Her phone started to ring and she glanced at the caller and saw that it was her mother.

She decided to return the woman's call later, before an idea clicked.

She smiled evilly.

"Dominic? Why is he calling?" She pretended, stood up to leave the room and acted like she wanted to pick the call when she felt Dominic's hard glare on her.

"God help you if you dare pick that call!" He boomed.

She smiled inwardly.

"What? Why?" She asked, feigning innocence.

"Don't you dare me, Annabelle."

She grinned this time. "Oh, so someone has been hearing and listening to what I've been saying."

"You have the nerve," he gritted. "To take his call in my presence."

"Was just a ploy to see if you've really lost your hearing or not."

He glared.

"And it worked." She smiled. "It was my mum that was on the line."

He just glared.

She rolled her eyes. "Will you stop glaring at me like you want to cut me up and eat me for dinner?"

His eyes darkened.

"That's exactly what's on my mind now, to do." He said huskily. "Apart from the cutting up, of course."

She stood silent, getting his meaning and her cheeks warmed.

"Y-you...you..."

"Me what?"

"Nothing!" She exclaimed.

He smirked, then closed the laptop and stood up, towering over her.

"You want my forgiveness, don't you?"

He drawled huskily taking a step towards her and she took a step backwards.

"Well, that's why I've been apologizing." She said breathlessly, taking more steps backward as he kept coming closer to her.

"Well then," he said, his tone dangerously low. "You have to earn it."

Her back hit the wall while he stared at her as a predator would a prey.

"H-how?" She half whispered, wondering if that voice was really hers.

Cornering her in between himself and the wall, he brought his lips down to her neck without warning and she gasped at the sweet shock.

Her toes tingled.

"Tell me," he said huskily, his lips doing things to the sweet spots on her neck and shoulder and his hands sliding seductively over her body. "Does he make you feel the way you're feeling right now?"

No! She wanted to scream.

"No." She whispered as he continued his assault.

"Does he make you shiver in pleasure whenever he touches you, does he make you scream his name?"

"No."

"Then why?" He asked, his voice dropping to a whisper. "What is it about him that make you run back to him at every chance you get?"

The question threw her off guard and she pondered. What was special about Dominic that made her go to him when she was hurt?

Nothing.

Apart from the fact that he was the one she could trust for the meantime, what else had made her gone to him the times she had?

Nothing.

But David mistook her silence for something else and sharply lifted himself off the wall, away from her.

Annabelle looked up at him and found that the scowl had returned to his face.

She involuntarily took a step back pressing herself the more into the wall.

He noticed this and turned away, his back to her and she could see how rigid he was.

She let out her hand to touch him, then hesitated. She didn't know what his reaction would be but she was sure he wasn't going to welcome her touch at the moment.

Then he suddenly turned to face her again.

He moved closer to her and roughly took her in his arms again inhaling her clean heady feminine scent.

He brought his lips to her ears.

"I do not care that you were once his, Belle." He said in a low rough tone. "But know this, the day I got married to you was the day the ties between you and that man was severed."

The effects of his tone, words and touch already had her frozen, that she couldn't utter a word.

"You are mine, Annabelle Maxwell. Mine!" He declared and a sweet sensation ran through her at his declaration of her being his.

He didn't say it in a way that implied that she was just a commodity he bought.

He said it in a way that showed she belonged with him, her husband and no other man.

She was supposed to be annoyed at that, but the declaration of his possession of her felt like the hottest thing ever.

"Say it Belle," he said huskily. "Tell me that you're mine."

"I...I..."

"Say it."

"I'm yours, David." She replied and he smiled.

"As am I."

But before she could comment on that, he brought his lips down on hers.

💖💖💖

"Mum, I know you want me to become president of Maxwell Inc but I do not like the manner at which you're going about it."

Annabelle snapped into the phone.

"That's your business, Annabelle." Monalisa snapped back from the other side of the phone. "Since you're been so slow and sluggish, I will take matters into my hands."

"Mother will you stop this madness?" She boomed in anger. "What has gotten into you? Why this need for power and more money than you already have? Above all, why are you being this heartless? This family has been taking care of us ever since dad's demise. Why then do you intend to pay them back with evil."

"You are just like your father." Monalisa sneered. "Weak pathetic beings."

Annabelle gasped.

"That was why your father foolishly took a bullet that wasn't meant for him in the name of doing his job and..."

"Mom!" Annabelle halted her, her eyes wide in shock at her mother's words. "What has gotten into you?"

"You are very stupid for asking me that."

Annabelle took deep breaths to control herself.

"Okay," she sighed. "But if you hurt David, don't you think his family and probably every other person would get suspicious and start pointing accusing fingers at us?"

"They won't." Monalisa replied smoothly. "It will be done in a way that wouldn't attract suspicions. I'm even thinking of a deliberate car accident that..."

Annabelle gasped in shock.

"You know what, mother?" She coldly interrupted her. "I will never allow anybody, including you, to hurt my husband. Yes. And if you want me to keep bearing the title of your daughter, stop this madness and start behaving like the reasonable mother you're supposed to be, because I will never be a part of this wicked scheme of yours."

And she hung up on her mother.

She stood up and paced around the room wondering what had gotten into the woman she called her mother.

She was taking this lust for money and power thing too far and she had to stop her before it was too late.

She would not let her hurt David. Never.

💖💖💖

It was getting dark and Annabelle didn't know what was keeping the driver.

She had asked him to pick her at the grocery store at a given time but had been waiting outside for the past fifteen minutes, still no sign of his arrival and his number wasn't going through.

She would wait for more fifteen minutes and if he wasn't here by then, she would have to take a cab home and the driver would have to face David's wrath if he found out.

She walked over to the a bench at a dark secluded corner and sat down, bringing out her iPhone to pass time with.

She was engrossed on her Instagram page that she didn't notice a figure approach until he sat beside her.

She sharply turned to look at the intruder, then rolled her eyes when she saw just who it was.

"Do you follow me around?" She asked snappishly.

Dominic smirked. "Why would you say that?"

"Well, because that's what I think." She replied. "How did you know I was here?"

He shrugged. "I sighted you when I came out of the store."

Annabelle looked at him in doubt. "But the place is dark, there's no way you would see who's here all the way from there."

"I was making a phone call when my eyes strayed to the beautiful woman sitting alone." he said. "Didn't know it was you at first until I took a closer look."

"Oh." She stood up. "I was just leaving though."

He stood up as well. "Why? Is it because of me?"

"No, not at all, it's just that I have to go home now, it's late."

He looked around.

"I don't see any car taking you." he said.

"I'm taking a cab."

"I'll take you home instead." He declared.

"What? No you can't." She took a step back. "I'm fine Dominic, really."

"I insist."

"And I persist."

She said and turned to leave but he grabbed her hand and pulled her to him making her freeze, not expecting the action.

"Ann. My love..."

"Get your rotten hands off her."

A cold familiar voice ordered.

Startled, they both turned to look at him and Annabelle quickly released herself from his hold. But she knew it was too late because the look on his face told her that he thought they were doing what they weren't really doing.

David came closer to them, a look of fury on his handsome face.

"How many times do I have to warn you before you stay away from my wife?"

But before Dominic could reply, a hard punch landed on his face making him stagger backwards and fall to the floor.

Annabelle gasped but dared not open her mouth to plead on Dominic's behalf.

"The next time I see you close to her again, I will take a serious action against you that will make you regret ever knowing her or me."

He turned his angry eyes on her.

"You. Into the car."

The car ride was a very silent one.

She looked at him several times from the corner of her eyes but there was no warmth on his face.

She didn't know where she would start to explain from.

Why, why did David always happen upon her and Dominic at the wrong moments? Why?

When they got to the house, he pulled over so she could step out before he properly parked the car.

He silently gestured for her to go in and she slowly turned and walked into the house.

As she stepped into the sitting room, she was halted in her tracks as a beautiful familiar face smiled up at her.

"Hello lovely sis, you're welcome."

"Lydia!" Annabelle acknowledged, not knowing whether to be excited at seeing her younger sister now or worried. "What are you doing here? You didn't tell me you were coming."

"Oh I thought mum did." Lydia said thoughtfully. "Anyways, mum asked me to come stay here while she's away. My things are upstairs already. "

Annabelle stared at her sister in shock wondering what the heck was happening.

💖💖😘💖💖