Chapter One
Chapter One
Dimitri
''Just buy her what she wants!'' I exclaim on the phone, eyes wandering around to find that a few
people have turned to look at me which causes me to smile at them; muttering an apology under my
breath before walking down the aisle, ''She's pregnant. What do you expect? Just buy her whatever
she wants. Put your lazy ass aside,'' I add, quietly.
Aidan sighs deeply on the other line, ''Don't get me wrong, man. She can eat whatever she wants and I
can buy her whatever she needs but I just got back from work, she wouldn't even let me change, for
god's sake—she was literally dragging me out the front door before I accidentally got pissed off and
now she's locking herself in our room.'' He replies.
''Just . . . just, knock on the door and say that if she steps out, you'll take her out to buy whatever she
wants.'' I mutter, looking down the aisle for Brody's favourite cereals. ''You have got to understand that
pregnant women tend to get pretty sensitive and you have to deal with that for the upcoming months.
Just—''
He cuts me off, ''—shut up, you're nagging. I hate it when you're nagging,''
''Well, you asked for it!''
''Whatever, I'll just text or call you tomorrow on whatever happens later. You're right, I need to give in
and just understand her more especially when she's going through a lot of changes with her body.
Thanks, man.'' He continues to speak as I hear him walking, letting me nod my head and mutter 'thank
God' under my breath for cutting off the conversation.
''Later,'' I hang up the call before turning around to see an old woman staring at me with her lips curved
up into a smile, causing me to smile back at her as I awkwardly grab onto my son's favourite cereal.
''Have a nice day,'' I nod my head as I slowly turn around to walk away, furrowing my brows in
confusion at the sudden sight of her before heading straight towards the cashier to pay. As soon as I
hand him over the total amount, I grab onto the paper bag and walk ahead towards the exit, heading
straight towards my car or more precisely, towards where my car was.
My eyes wander around the parking lot to find my spot is currently empty before finding a note with the
same exact handwriting that I've been receiving for the past couple of months with my belongings
missing, 'I like playing games. Do you?' I read, slowly crumbling it.
This whole idiotic mess has got to stop, it has been going on for months and I've never once gotten to
the stage where I find clues because every time I end up losing something, there's always this note
with different words but same handwriting which makes no sense. At the same time, why would
someone even bother to stalk me around and end up stealing my stuff?
''Great . . . just great,'' I mutter under my breath. This content belongs to Nô/velDra/ma.Org .
I unlock my phone to go through my contacts but to my surprise, my phone shuts down, signalling for
me to charge it immediately in order to continue using. Just like that, my grip around my phone starts to
tighten with my anger slowly rising up but I breathe out, trying to control myself from throwing anything
onto the ground.
Within seconds, I'm already walking down the busy streets of New York without being bothered by the
people surrounding me, only letting me walk down with my grip tightly onto the paper bag in my hand—
with one thing on my mind, head home with this cereal safe so that Brody can enjoy a nutritious
breakfast in the morning.
''Crappy day at work, ran out of cereals, best friend called to talk about other best friend, got my car
stolen, have to walk about fifteen blocks. Yeah, yeah, how bad can this day get?'' I mutter under my
breath before looking up to find the streets with less people, making me walk faster so that I can reach
home faster with another thing on my mind, 'my bed must've missed me.' which causes me to smile,
knowing that this whole crap will be worth it at the end.
My eyebrows furrow at the sound of someone muttering curses under her breath which causes me to
look around, searching for the source.
''He's going to call back, he's going to call back, he's just busy.'' I continue to walk down the road,
seeing a beautiful figure standing near one of the apartments, seeing her holding tightly onto her phone
as she run her fingers through her dark, long hair. Just as I take a few more steps ahead, I am left
mesmerised by her exotic features.
Her dark brown eyes are staring down at her phone screen as her eyebrows furrow, with her hair in a
beautiful mess as her long legs stretch down the stairs, waiting for the 'person' to return her calls while I
take my time to appreciate the beauty she holds. For some reason, she seems to be exact woman that
I've once described to Kenna, except that she has long hair and dark eyes but everything else fits.
''Where is he? Why did my calls went straight to voicemail?'' She sighs deeply, ''Come on, come on,
I've been waiting for hours—where are you, damn it? Just pick up the phone,'' She continues to speak
with her eyes almost tearing up as her fingers fidget as she brings one hand through her hair, seems to
have a habit of it.
''Trouble in paradise?'' I ask, frozen at my spot as soon as her eyes meet mine.
Both of her eyes linger longer onto my face before they start to wander down my body, seeing me
holding onto my paper bag with nothing else in my hand but my phone. ''Excuse me?'' She raises an
eyebrow, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she stands up, leaning closer towards the door.
''This is my home,'' She adds.
''It's cold. Why aren't you getting inside?'' I ask, causing her to get caught off guard as she clears her
throat—letting me take a moment to eye down her outfit, seeing her standing in a pair of summer jeans,
dark blouse and casual brown fashionable boots; not exactly the perfect outfit for this kind of weather
which makes me wonder if she's from around here, at all especially at the sight of a luggage near her.
Her lips are slightly apart, ''Who are you? I can get inside whenever I want, excuse you. How about you
try minding your own business and walk along?'' She looks away, showing a few signs of being
uncomfortable while I stay still at my spot; finding her interesting.
''My name's Dimitri—''
''I didn't ask for your name,'' She cuts me off.
I scoff, realising that I'm actually finding this conversation between two strangers, somewhat intriguing.
''You just asked me who I am . . . so I told you my name and I can't seem to be minding my own
business when you're being too loud talking to your phone,'' I point down at the phone in her hand,
''You're disturbing others. Besides, it's cold outside and it's only going to get colder especially in that
outfit of yours, why don't you get inside or at least change into something much more . . . warm?'' My
lips curve up into a smile at the end.
Just as she's about to say something, she immediately changes her mind by going through something
in her bag. ''Oh! I completely forgot my keys, must've left it in my car. Thanks for your concern, Derrick
but I don't need it anymore. So, if you would just leave and—''
I immediately cut her off by chuckling, ''—wait, wait, a minute. Did you just call me Derrick?'' My
question seems to have caused her to raise an eyebrow.
''Isn't that your name?''
The way her dark brown eyes stare back into mine, it leaves me hanging to think that this stranger in
front of me is someone I barely even know. For instance, I don't even know her name and that's telling
me something but it's odd how she can make me feel all sorts of things just when she looks at me like
that or by how she talks back, it's awfully intriguing. For some reason, it leaves me wanting more and
more in this conversation, even if I just get to hear her voice but it's somewhat pleasing.
I let out a soft chuckle, ''First of all, Derrick is nowhere near my name. Second, are you sure you don't
know me? You've never seen my face anywhere? Somewhere? Because that's likely impossible,
especially if you live in New York, in that apartment, even if that's your apartment.'' I raise an eyebrow,
seeing her roll her eyes at me in annoyance; somehow showing how she's slightly defeated.
''Look, Derrick, I don't know you. You don't know me and that means we can just move on like how we
were doing a few minutes before you started talking to me,'' She replies.
''My name's not Derrick, for god's sake. I'm not Derrick,'' I pinch the bridge of my nose, feeling myself
pissed off by this girl who seems to have made me feel a lot of things just by the past few minutes
which is somewhat worth questioning.
Just as she's about to say something, someone else seems to have caught her attention as her eyes
wander off to a figure behind me, causing me to follow her gaze—landing on an man who has a girl
clinging onto his arm, they seem to be around the same age which causes me to turn back towards the
woman in front of me, seeing her eyes water with her fists clenched.
''Hey, this girl is completely mesmerised by—'' I say before quickly cut off by her to pull me behind the
building, causing me to frown at the sight of her hand on cupped on my mouth as she shakes her head,
trying to peek at the two people behind us previously.
As soon as she removes her hand, ''I like what you have in mind, love but I think I deserve to know
your name first before we get started.'' My lips curve up into a flirtatious smirk.
''Shut up, Derrick.'' She whispers.
I roll my eyes in annoyance, ''For the third time, for god's sake, woman. My name is not Derrick and
never will be Derrick. It's not even hard to pronounce my name, it's—''
''That son of a bitch!'' She exclaims, causing my eyes to widen in surprise before remaining silent.
''That motherfucker, that asshole, that lying freak! He—he's cheating on me. No wonder he didn't
answer my calls or reply to my damn text messages because he was with that ugly brunette! She's not
even near as pretty as me,'' She says angrily before running out, straight towards the man—I assume
is her boyfriend.
I step out from behind the building to watch the whole drama happen.
The man seems to have caught her running towards them which causes him to immediately let her
second girlfriend to step inside the house before closing the door, letting his first girlfriend A.K.A the
stranger I know, to push him to her heart's content while I watch her running her fingers through her
hair, roughly.
''Wow, wow, Sophia. Calm down, baby.'' The guy says, grabbing onto both of her arms while she tries
to extract her claws as she reaches out for his face.
So . . . the beautiful girl's name is Sophia which makes me to look down at her figure, seeing her
standing tall, probably around five foot seven or five foot eight but honestly, if I ever lay eyes on her just
like how I did earlier, I would've guessed that she's kind, sweet and probably even honest. I mean, the
honest part is correct but kind and sweet is probably not even true because she's much more on the
feisty side.
''Calm down? Calm down? You lying bastard!'' She continues to punch onto his chest which causes him
to block her every attacks, ''You're cheating on me with some idiotic looking girl, you manipulative
asshole! How could you even consider doing that? How could you even hurt me? You told me you
loved me!'' The way her voice cracks at the end, leaves me to recall back the memories of I once go
through . . . when I was in her situation.
''Hey, hey, Sophia, and what I told you was true. I did love you and I meant every word I said but
things've changed which means that you and I are no longer a thing. I'm sorry for not answering your
calls or reply to any of your text messages for the past few weeks but I don't want you to ruin this for
me. Don't ruin my relationship with Brianna,'' He places one hand on her cheek as her mouth goes
wide.
''Even her name sounds like an idiot!'' She responds.
''I know that you're angry and you have every right to be but now that you've found out the truth about
Brianna, it's best if we end things like this, yeah?'' He continues to talk as he makes his way towards
his front door, making Sophia's eyes widen before she starts to grab onto his hair, pulling him closer
towards her as he groans in pain, trying to release himself.
''You think you can just get away from me like that, huh? Let me beat your ass first!'' She starts to push
him down onto the ground which causes him to fall before sitting on top of him with her hands attacking
him in every way possible as he continues to block her attacks but it appears that her nails are sharper
than it looks, causing a cut to appear near his right eyebrow.
''Sophia, you're hurting me!'' He says.
''What about what you did to me? You have hurt me in so many ways possible that it feels like my heart
is going to explode!'' She stops, letting the tears fall down her cheeks as people walk down the streets
to turn and look at them. ''After everything that I did to make sure that we're happy, you end up hurting
me as if you've just stabbed me behind my back. I loved you, you fucking asshole and this is what you
gave in return!'' She shouts, continuing to cry.
To my surprise, he starts to push her off which causes her to fall onto the ground as he creates a
distance between the two of them. Just like that, I walk straight towards her to help her up with him
looking down at both of us, ''Do you want to punch him? Just say the word,'' I say, looking down at her
as I watch the tears stream down her cheeks while she rubs onto her elbows that have redden slightly.
''No, just let him go. If he deserves to be punched, it'd be me doing so.'' She replies, wiping away the
tears.
''You're crazy, man.'' He says towards the damsel in distress in front of me before running straight into
his apartment, closing the door shut while she continues to cry her heart out especially after what she
heard him say.
People are walking down the streets as they continue to look at us, throwing me dirty looks as if I'm the
cause of this whole destruction which causes me to slowly place one hand on her back, not knowing
how to react as she starts to grab onto my shirt, letting her tears fall.
''Hey, hey, don't cry. He doesn't deserve you,'' I whisper near her ear, trying to soothe her down but her
cries are only getting louder. ''Just so you know, I'm not good with crying women and that explains a lot
by how I'm trying to comfort you.'' I add, causing her to look up at me.
She chuckles, ''You're terrible at it.''
''I told you. So, instead of just crying here in the streets, why not I buy you a drink and you can continue
crying then?'' I ask, one of my hand on her waist as she continues to wipe away her fallen tears while
she takes her time to think on whether going to the bar is a good choice or not.
As soon as we've arrived at one of my favourite bars in the city, we've already sit face to face as we
continue to gaze down at our drinks. I take a sip of my beer while she continues to stare at hers, not
knowing whether she should take a sip or gulp the whole thing, ''Are you hesitating on whether you
should drink it or not?'' I ask, raising an eyebrow.
''I'm not a good drinker,'' She replies, her eyes meeting mine in an instant.
''Are you saying that you get drunk easily? Is that it?''
Sophia nods her head, ''Exactly. So, if I say things that may come out as insane or stupid, please just
don't get bothered by it. It's just that . . . I get drunk easily and I have a habit of saying stupid things
when I'm drunk,'' She continues to speak, her hand reaching out for the glass before gulping the whole
thing, causing my eyes to widen.
''I think you should take it easy,'' I blink a few times as she slams the glass back onto the table.
''Another one, please!'' She says, causing the bartender to nod his head before continuing to refill her
glass beer—letting me eye her confusingly. Then, she continues to drink her beer without even
bothered to stop even though she gave me a warning earlier which leaves me to slowly drink mine,
wanting to make sure it's fair if I keep up the pace.
I glance down at my wrist watch to find it's almost ten to ten which causes me to think about Brody,
knowing that he's probably waiting for me at home. ''You shouldn't drink too much. You said so
yourself,'' I say, trying to grab her glass beer but she pulls it away from me, almost spilling it onto the
ground.
''Live a little,'' She winks as she continues to drink.
Just like that, we never seem to realise as the time passes by quickly as we both continue to drink,
letting the waves of pleasure to accompany us with our consciousness slowly fading away. It feels good
to drink away all the sorrows and problems even though we both know that drinking won't be able to
solve our miseries but it feels great to be able to forget for a little while.
''So, your name isn't Derrick?'' She looks up at me with droopy eyes, showing that she's not even
anywhere near being sober even though she has only drank about two glasses.
''Sadly, no but my name also starts with the letter D,'' I reply, my eyes gazing straight at her as I take a
sip of my drink—wanting to slowly feel the alcohol go down my throat as I enjoy this night out with
someone I barely knew other than my two best friends without having any intention to sleep with them.
To my surprise, she starts to lean forward with her dark eyes gazing deeply into mine, causing me to
glance down at her lips for a few seconds as soon as her lips curve up into a seductive smile. ''Daddy?''
She asks, puckering her lips.
I laugh before taking another sip, ''Kinky but no, it's Dimitri.''
She leans back in her seat, ''Bummer. Thought it'd be best to call you daddy. I tried that with my stupid
ass boyfriend but he hated it . . . do you hate it, dad—I mean, Dimitri? Do you hate it if I call you
daddy?'' She pouts, showing off her already luscious and full lips.
The way her eyes are already red with tears which matches her lips, I can't help but think that this
woman in front of me is already drunk enough to begin with because before I can even utter a single
word, she has already cut me to it. ''Oh my god . . . did you see my stupid ass boyfriend, with that ugly
dark-haired? They were holding hands and just by thinking about them makes me want to rip his head
off,'' She groans, slowly placing her head on the table.
''Don't get me wrong, she was kind of hot.'' I wink, thinking back about how her dress clings onto her
body as she walked down the street.
''You're disgusting. You don't even know the definition of hot!'' Sophia replies, her eyes widening as she
points out at my chest. Within seconds, she is already stepping down from her seat to make her way
towards me, both of her hands going down to reach for her blouse before pulling it up to reveal her flat
stomach, ''This is hot. This is sexy. Not that stupid bitch,'' She says, turning around to slowly lean her
back against my lap which causes me to clench my jaw.
''What are you doing?'' I ask, frowning.
Surprisingly, she starts to wrap her arms around my neck as her face is inches away from mine,
causing me to grab onto her waist as soon as she starts to stumble near me. With both of my hands on
her waist, I can somehow feel her skin without even needing to lift her shirt up, only hearing the sound
of my heart beating fast due to this closeness.
''Do you think I'm sexy? Do you find me attractive?'' She leans forward, her face resting near the nape
of my neck.
''I think and find you a lot more than just sexy and attractive. That's me being honest,'' I answer before
awkwardly shifting my body, not knowing on whether this position is even going to make me feel any
better because having a beautiful girl in my arms as she leans close to my body, it feels like an
opportunity to make this whole night better but I'm pulling back.
''Then, why are you pulling away?'' She furrow her brows, seeming upset at the sight of me slowly
moving my hands away as I try to grow the distance between us.
''You're drunk. This is not right,'' I mutter under my breath as I try my best to not glance down at her lips
but I fail miserably as soon as I find them being close to me, feeling them meet the side of my face,
causing my body to remain frozen at my spot. ''Sophia . . . we're not supposed to do this, you don't
even know what you're doing.'' I add.
''Just let me kiss you,'' She replies.
My eyes pierce deeply into hers before blinking a few times, wanting to make sure that this is not me
dreaming about wanting this whole fantasy to be real but no, everything in front of me is real and so far
. . . so is the woman. She still has her arms wrapped around my neck with her lips slowly trailing near
mine, causing me to turn my head slightly, not wanting her to kiss me and end up slapping me
afterwards for accuse of taking advantage.
''We can't—''
She cuts me off by grabbing onto my face before landing her lips against mine, moving passionately
and roughly at the same time which causes me to remain still but it's only provoking her more. My heart
continues to beat utterly fast due to her sudden action as I try my best to resist the temptation but I fail
miserably as soon as she starts to bite onto my lower lip, causing me to grip around her waist before
pulling her close in order to deepen the kiss.
The way she moans through the kiss causes my whole body to weakens, letting me run my fingers
through her long hair as I trail kisses down her neck—letting her lean her body towards me, her hand
running down to sneak under my shirt, causing me to groan.
''Now, that's hot.'' She leans back, whispering in my ear before falling down onto the ground with a loud
thud, leaving me breathless and confused at the sight of her being unconscious.