“Damon?”

Groan

“Damon, wake up”

Exaggerated groan

“What?”, he mumbled softly, his voice sounding sleepier than usual, and I turned the bedside lamp on

“I can't sleep”

“Do you have any idea what time it is?”, he turned so that his back faced me. “It's even still dark outside”

“I'm aware it's 2am, I just can't sleep

“You can watch me sleep then”, he turned to face me. “Can you please switch that light off? It's irritating my eyes”, he asked with his eyes forcibly shut, and I did as I was asked. He then wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to him.

“What are you thinking about?”, he whispered to my ear

“Scarlett”, I breathed out, and he sighed heavily

“I thought I told you she isn't going a problem anymore. She's out of our lives, for good”.

“Why did she change her mind in the first place? She didn't want anything to do with Dylan the moment he was born, and now she thinks we're not fit enough to be his parents? What game is she playing?”

“She was just under a lot of pressure, that's all”, he said as he rubbed his eyes open, and I turned to look at him

“What pressure?”, I asked, and he kept quiet. “Why do I feel like there's more to this than what you're actually leading on?”, I asked again, and he sat up straight, turning his bed side lamp on.

“Damon?”

He sighed. “I wasn't going to tell you this until morning”

I pushed myself up to look at him

“Ella was the one who put Scarlett up to this”

“What?!”

I told Layla everything and I didn't leave any detail out, when I was done, she just sat there in disbelief and shook her head

“Why is she like this?”

“I don't know”, I shrugged, and she laid on her back on the bed again, with both her hands on her head

“So to help me figure out what's happening, I asked Troy to come today”

“What?”, she blurted out alarmed, and I rose my eyebrow at her

“Is there a problem?”, I asked, and she composed herself before shaking her head no

“Okay, so he'll be here for a couple of days and leave just before Christmas, maybe on Christmas Eve”, I said and saw her tensing up a little

“That's great”, she smiled weakly and covered herself with the covers. “I'm finally sleepy now”, she forced her eyes shut. “Mind switching off your lamp? It's irritating my eyes”.

Mom dragged me to the shops for some last minute shopping, since we'll be accommodating Troy for a couple of days. We managed to squeeze in some time to ourselves as she booked us into a spa for massages, manicures, pedicures and some facials. I wasn't a manicure girl, so I sticked to the other pampers and relaxed.

After we were done, I felt so rejuvenated and new, feeling comfortable in my skin and my body felt great. Even though my masseuse pressed down on my back so hard it felt like she broke a couple of my bones, I felt wonderful though.

“That was out of this world Mom, thank you”, I said as we got out of the car and walked to the house, Maxwell, the chauffeur helped us carry the grocery bags to the kitchen. On your way, Dylan nearly bumped into us as Quinton chased him around the house.

“Dylan, what did I say about running in the house?”, I also threw Quinton a glare

“I'm sorry Momma”, he looked up at me and smiled a little. Quinton grabbed him from behind, picked him up and put him on his shoulders.

“Uncle Quinton is taking me out for ice cream, is that okay Momma?”, he asked, and I hesitated for a second. Anything sweet for Dylan at this time of day meant only one thing, he's going to be super hyperactive and cause me a headache.

“Only one ice cream Lay, I promise”, Quinton chipped in and they both pouted

“Okay, just one ice cream”, I warned, and they cheered happily as they sprinted out the door

“As I was telling you-”, Damon was talking to someone as I walked out of the kitchen and I stopped in my tracks when his eyes met mine. A smile played on his lips as he walked up to me and engulfed me in a quick hug.

“Hi Lay”

“Hey Troy”, I said awkwardly as I broke our contact. “I thought you're only arriving later on this evening”

“Change of plans I guess”, he gave a little shrug. “I figured its best we arrive early so that Damon and I can start on our investigation”, he said, and I blinked as he said we and I was about to ask who did he come with.

“This house is so beautiful, thanks for showing us around Damon”, a feminine voice announced behind them, and they turned to reveal a petite figured red head. She wrapped her arm around Troy's waist and then her gaze met mine.

“Who's this lovely lady here?”, Mom side hugged me as we both looked at this unfamiliar face. “Oh Troy, I thought you're only arriving later on this evening”, she said smitten as she gestured for a hug and Troy walked up to her, and they shared a hug.

“It's always a pleasure seeing you Mrs Kingsley”, he said as they broke contact and Mom fixed her eyes on the woman again, so did I

“Oh”, Troy said in remembrance and pulled the redhead closer to him.“This is Adriana, my girlfriend”.

Adriana extended her arm out for a handshake, but mom pulled her in for a hug instead.

“This is Damon's mother”, he added as they broke contact

“Nice to meet you Mrs Kingsley, you have a lovely home”, they smiled at each other and Mom thanked her

“And this is-”, Troy turned to me and Damon walked to my side, pulling me onto him and chipped in

“This is my wife, Layla”, he said as Adriana's eyes lit up instantly as she embraced me in a hug politely

“I've heard so much about you, it's nice to finally meet you”, she said, and I smiled nervously at her

“Pleasure to meet you too, Adriana”

“Why don't you ladies use this time to get to know each other? Troy and I need to discuss some business in the study”, Damon said as he patted Troy on the shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts as his eyes were fixed on me.

“Yeah”, he moved to give Adriana a kiss on the cheek before following Damon behind. “You ladies enjoy yourself”

“So Adrianna, would you like some tea?”, mom said as she got between Adriana and I and pushed us into the kitchen

“So, how long have you and Troy been seeing each other?”, Mother asked and Adriana giggled as she took a sip of her tea. Why was I not surprised? Mother had these tendencies of asking such a question, she loved hearing other people's love stories. She was a helpless romantic.

“Almost a year and a half”, she placed her cup on the saucer and blushed. Mother and I exchanged looks and I secretly rolled my eyes. Why didn't I just go with Quinton and Dylan for ice cream than to sit around here for this nonsense.

“I know that look”, mother said and Adriana looked at her

“What look?”, Adriana and I asked in union

“That one you're doing now”, she referred to Adriana.” That's the look of a woman who's in love”.

“I don't want to say much and bore you two with the details”, she said trying to hide a blush

Thank Goodness

“Nonsense, we're all women here, I'm sure we can tolerate a bit of gossip”, mother said, and they laughed

“Troy is an amazing man, he's romantic, sweet, a gentleman, and he's so good to me”, she said as it seemed she dozed off, thinking about him

“Troy does seem like a sweet boy”, mother said and Adriana nodded in agreement. They carried on talking about other things and I took out my phone to text Lelo.

Me: Please call me😩

L : Why?😌. You miss me?

Me: It's a long story, I need a reason to excuse myself from this certain dilemma here😞

L: So, if I call you, you'll tell me all about it?😋

Me: Are you going to call me or do I have to fake a call by ringing my ringtone? 😒

L: Ring it😎 and I'll call the exact minute you're faking that call and humiliate your lying ass😄

Me: Lelo Julia Martins!!!😡I demand you call me this instant

L: Geez, fine fine. There's no need to call me by my full name😕.

“Right Layla?”, Adriana voice made my eyes snap her direction

“Yeah?”, I said in a huh tone, and she laughed.

“I was just telling Mrs Kingsley Troy used to be the captain of the football team. He told me you were in high school together”, she said, and I agreed along with her adding a nervous laugh to it, she paused as she studied me for a second. “Are we boring you?”

“No. It's just that I'm expecting a very important call....from work”, I lied and mother looked at me in disapproval.

“It's the festive season, surely you deserve a break from work”, she said, and I shrugged

“It's not always like that”, and as if on cue, my phone ringed, and I excused myself to take the call and walked out to the garden

“It's about time too”, I sneered, and she laughed out loud as I sat on the swing near the flower petals.

“Yeah, so on your end of the bargain”, she said, and I took a heavy sigh and told her everything that happened between Troy and I before the shooting incident

“What?!”, she exclaimed as I assumed she probably stood up if she was sitting down. “Not only did Troy Roberts kiss you but he also confessed his feelings for you?”

“Actually, I kissed him”, I facepalmed, replaying the kiss in my head, with him on top of me and having his soft lips between mine

“And you didn't tell me this?”

“It wasn't a big deal”, I shrugged and if she was next to me, she probably would have strangled me to death because she was throwing a fit on the other line

“Wasn't a big deal? You had a crush on that dude for like two if not three years”, she cried out, and I rolled my eyes. “You were in love with him”

“Yeah well, things changed”

“And now he's there? With his girlfriend?”

“Yep”

“How's the tension?”

“H for Hectic. I mean she's a nice girl, and she's beautiful, I can't even look her in the eyes. And she also can't stop talking about how Troy and how good he is to her. It's exhausting”, I breathed out and rose my eyes to catch Troy looking down at me via the large windows in the study that give a great view of the garden. He was just standing there, with his hands in his pockets, looking at me. We locked eyes until he looked over his shoulder, probably saying something to Damon and turned to look at me again. I saw him pull out his phone out of his pockets and focused on it for bout a few seconds and put it back into his pockets again.

A message notification came through my phone and I dropped eyes from him and continued talking to Lelo

“What are you going to do?”

“Nothing. I'm just going to act like nothing happened between us”.

We were on the call for about half and an hour before we both hanged up. Then I looked up to the window again, but he wasn't there any more then I remember a message notification coming in and to my disappointment, it was indeed from him.

Troy: This is going to be harder than I thought