DAHILA'S POV

I was in pain, my eyes red and my body shaking violently.

“R…Ryan, please, hospital” I managed to squeeze out but Amanda kissed him to grab his attention.

“Ryan...”

“Get out!” Amanda barked when she took a pause from kissing him. “Mum and Dad said you could leave! You're not even his wife yet”

I pressed my inhalers, perhaps I'd get a little gas to prolong my life longer from the asthma, but none came out.

Amanda laughed again. “Nothing is left in the inhaler, sis. I left the lid open yesterday to exhaust the gas”

My chest tightened. “You…” I couldn't continue, but my teary eyes were locked into hers.

She shrugged. “You can't survive without your inhaler. I just want to see the kind of survival game you'd play”

“Ryan….” I faced him through the pain. “She threw my…in...inhaler away”

I was merely breathing, watching them kiss again in delight and today! Of all days, our anniversary!

He scoffed. “Amanda rules this house now. Anything she says, is my command”

I nodded. “F...Fine”

Moving unsteadily, I advanced toward the door.

Only if I knew Amanda would bring the monster in Ryan out.

Amanda returned a week sndmdm

“Sis, I'd love to go use your bathroom” she'd said on her first day and of course I was against it.

But Ryan had yelled at me. “Who gives you the right to make any decisions in this house!?”

Since then things have been like this. She would flirt with Ryan in front of me, walk in on us being romantic, and now she took him completely.

My chest was burning as I fondled the door handle. I was an asthma patient that survived only on inhalers which finished this morning.

The night sky was dark, no one in sight, except for me and my shadow.

Fifteen years ago when I lost my father to an untimely cancer, mum married Amanda's father in a small wedding ceremony.

I’d thought it would be a good change, but instead, I was introduced to Amanda, my new stepsister.

She completely stole my mother's love and her father — cold as ever.

She got the best education in journalism at the biggest mass communication school.

While I was enrolled at some public school, with just a little fee.

Mum would always tell me to be grateful. “Blame your useless father for dying poor and not leaving you with anything”

Just like she initiated, I blatantly blamed my father for being the cause of my life problems.

But on my 20th birthday, when I went back to our family house for celebration.

I found Dad's wills. On which he mentioned his 10 million dollar asset abroad.

I'd been happy, thinking life would finally be good but unfortunately my mother had claimed it instead, and with the money, Amanda was sent abroad.

“Amanda has the potential of making it faster, wait for her to come back” mum had said when i complained.

Before Amanda left, Ryan became the only bright spot in my life. We met at Amanda's birthday, he'd come with his friends who were Amanda's boyfriend.

I hastened him to make our engagement fast, so I could move out if the hell I called a house.

He was the most supportive boyfriend ever, always there to make me smile through hard times, and made me fall head in love with him.

And here we are…. Since two years ago, acting like husband and wife, trying to ignore the subtle signs of betrayal before me because of my blind love.

“Please help” I kept whispering, even though no one was in sight. “H…Help me” I cried, tiptoeing aimlessly.

And then. “Splash”

A car passed by me in a jiffy, splashing the roadside water on me.

My strength couldn't contain it, I fell before I'd see if the driver waited or not.

While lying down there in the pain, my mind did a recap video of my life before my eyes closed.

‘Amanda stole everything from me. My mother, my husband, and now… my life’

~

“Doctor, is she fine?”

“Don’t worry president Cohen, she would be up soon”

I cou;dnt see anything, he'd felt as if it was getting hammered, and my body was like a stone I couldn't lift.

The sound of a door closing seemed to awaken my instincts, and i felt a hand on my head. “Dahila Williams, you’re still alive?”

That voice…. It sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn't place who the owner was.

I felt his hand on my head, pulling hair off my face. “You were just as beautiful as ever. My delicate Dahila”

Something struck my chest. Only one person dares to call me that - Geoffery Cohen.

I wanted to open my eyes and see if he was the one, but I couldn't, I wanted to lift hand and feel his body, it was impossible.

Tears choked my throat. Even in my vegetative state, I felt embarrassed that I could meet Geoffrey like this again after so many years.

His father was dad’s employee and the first time I accompanied my dad to their house when I was ten years old, we met and became friends.

“When we grow up, I would love to make you my wife” he would say as a joke to me.

But when dad died and we moved to Amanda’s home, we lost contact and reconnected again when I was in university. Then, I rejected him. “All those wishes were our childhood exuberance, Geoffrey, I don’t love you”

I heard a soft cackle above my head. “Wake up soon, we have a lot to catch up on”

Then his footsteps retreated, replaced by the vibration of his phone which I guessed he must have picked.

“Yes?” he asked the latter. After a while he sighed. “So the investors wouldn't treat my proposal unless I have a wife?”

A wife? So he’s not yet married?

“Tell them what happened recently. I lost my wife, no way i would get married so quickly” Then the door closed after he said this meaning he’d left the room.

DAHILA’S POV

The sound of distant church bells snapped me awake. It took a while to adjust to the lights in the room, and looking around for anyone to turn off the lights, I saw a particular golden head seated on the visitor’s chair, working on a laptop with all seriousness.

I reached out. “H..Hello?”

He looked up and immediately our eyes met, a big smile lit up his face .

“Hey, you're awake?”

I tried getting up, but my bones ached, and as fast as light, he was beside me, helping me up.

“Take it slowly” he whispered. “You're still very weak”

I didn't say anything, but my eyes followed his movements, my mind racing madly.

I could still meet Geoffrey Cohen like this?

He stopped moving when he realized that my gaze seemed to have lingered longer. “Why are you looking at me? Is there something on my face?”

I shook my head and didn't say more.

He resumed working. “You need to rest,” he said, while typing away.

A few minutes later, the doctor appeared with a tab saying I could have died if Geoffrey hadn't saved me.

Geoffrey thanked him and ordered food for us as he now shut his laptop to sit with me.

“How are you feeling now?” He asked gently. “You didn't say anything since you woke up”

I yawned. Say something? What would I say to the man I'd once rejected.

That I got kicked out by my stepsister and my husband or that my mother now took her stepdaughter seriously that her own daughter.

"Hun?" He asked again, reaching out to pull hair off my face. "Were you so shocked to see me again?"

"As if" slipped. I realized my mistake and looked up with a smile. "No, thanks for helping me"

Geoffrey said nothing again, but was still looking at me like a scientist would study specimens.

I felt exposed under his scrutiny. He must be humiliating me in his mind that he was later my savior.

My eyes became downcast, and felt I should say something but "I..." No words came out.

I fondled my fingers, twisting it until I could feel the pain. But the pain couldn't match my embarrassment.

His brows furrowed. "What are you trying to say? Need me to call the doctor?"

I bit my lip this time to the point that I tasted the blood.

Suddenly, he reached out and placed his hand on mine. "You don't have to be embarrassed or flustered"

I looked at him, heart racing. He continued. "We both had wandered too far and saw different things. Perhaps a world of our own is all it takes"

A world of our own? What is he saying?

His phone rang just as he was about saying something else. He took his hand and left to pick it.

Heat rose to my cheeks as blushes, my racing heart not calming down. Do I tell him I was engaged to someone?

"What!?" His voice suddenly rang out. "You mean Manager Ryan was the embezzler?"

That name rang like an alarm. Ryan?

"Get me every information you can find on Ryan Malkova. I shall make sure I crush him and his family to a paste!"

Then he ended the call, coming back to face me. I was stupefied. The nurse brought the food later but I couldn't eat again.

Ryan worked for the Co and Co company as a manager and I'd overheard a lot of calls between him and his colleagues about usurping money and all.

Ryan Malkova's name brought back memories.

Memories of my near death experience, my whole two years with him that was snatched within a blink of an eye, his support for Amanda—

"Hey, Dahila are you fine?"

Something was brewing inside of me — Hatred, anger and anything to describe it.

He touched my hand again. "Is anything wrong?"

"What do I get for giving you all the information on Ryan Malkova?"

He blinked, "Wait, what?"

"You're a worker at Co and Co, right?" I asked again to be sure before telling him anything but he snickered.

I felt like a fool. Did I overreact or the Ryan Malkova he was talking about isn't even Ryan?

"I'm the boss of Co and Co" he looked away. "Even though I might lose the position sooner"

I curiously asked why and he began to explain everything. After I rejected him, he met his ex wife whose parents are rich and they got along well.

But his wife's health wasn't so good and so, she died last month, and he'd been facing a lot of challenges.

"My step-brothers wanted to snatch everything from me" he confessed the truth about his family too. "The investors that could help me, insisted I must be married...."

I heaved a long sigh. It all makes sense now, and I wondered why his brothers are hell-bent on bringing him down.

He was about to say more, then his phone vibrated and upon checking it, he looked up slowly. "You... you're Ryan Malkova's wife?"

"Not anymore" I swallowed. "He pushed me out"

I took my time, and told him everything about Ryan and our engagement and that I was never his wife.

We're both silent for a long time. Then he looked up with a pleading gaze, "Would you help me then?"

"How?"

He heaved a sigh. "I don't know. But Ryan's embezzlement is not helping and to bring a wife for the investors..."

He looked at me, and even though he wasn't saying anything, I could smell his question through his gaze.

"What!?" I gasped. "No way..."

"This is the best way for both of us, Dahila”

DAHILA'S POV

A WEEK LATER....

It was the board meeting to decide if Geoffrey could still keep Co and Co as the CEO.

Geoffrey held my hand before I stepped out of the Rolls Royce.

"If you can't do this, tell me now" he pleaded. "I promise I wouldn't hold it against you"

My chest was thumping madly, nervousness was the next thing to my heartbeat, but this was his last chance to keep Co and Co, so I had to be braced for this.

"I'd do it. Let's go and crush the investors and embezzlers, Hubby"

He laughed at the new title and together, we stepped out of the car.

People were gasping, cameras flashing violently, reporters rushing to us for questions but his bodyguards helped.

I had to agree to his proposal not to help only him but to grind Ryan and Amanda into a paste.

My mum and stepdad are coming here today as they're part of the investors, and Ryan the embezzler will face him today!

Geoffrey and I had agreed to fake a marriage certificate and act like the most lovely couple out there.

The past days were spent preparing for that, and today was the final showdown.

Co and Co were flooded with reporters here and there, wanting to ask why Geoffrey was hiding my hand.

It was like a drum was placed in my head, but when we got into his office, I slumped into the sofa.

"Are these the people that will be witnessing the meeting?"

He bent down to help me take the show off as I was struggling with it.

"No media is allowed into the conference room" he said. "I just need you to keep this act with me even in front of your parents"

"Not my parents" I told him, the taste of calling them parent bland. "No parents favours one child over another"

He said nothing and helped get my new inhaler. "You'd need this"

I felt grateful for all he did, I stared at him for a long while, I didn't know what to say other than to whisper almost to myself. "Thank you"

Geoffrey only chuckled and got ready for the meeting.

For the next one hour, I sat with him as he worked, almost getting exhausted when the secretary entered. "Mr Cohen, one Miss Amanda from Delacuz family is here to see you"

My heart jumped, he looked at me with concern. "Shall we?"

Let Amanda in? The memory of the pain I'd felt due to her manipulation burned in my mind like branding.

I didn't want to see her again, yet something else was backing my heartbeat up — confidence.

Would I cowardly avoid Amanda forever?

My hand began to quake. Would I let her eat her cake and have it, just like that?

Geoffrey rushed off his seat. "Hey, Dahlia are you fine?"

"L..Let her in" my voice came above whispers. "I'll be fine, let her in"

I guess the secretary took the command before Geoffrey's. She moved to the door and opened it for Amanda while Geoffrey was still holding me.

Her jaw dropped in shock and surprise.

I wanted to pull away from his embrace, but he didn't leave me. Instead, he hugged me tighter, and whispered what I wasn't expecting him to whisper. "You're my wife now, remember?"

"Dahila?" Amanda finally found her voice. "How did you sleep your way to this place?"

I wanted to move again, but Geoffrey wasn't letting me go. He looked at her. "What brings you to my office, Miss Delacuz?"

Amanda was still flustered, but fetched a small envelope from her bag, her eyes still looking at me enviously and wondering why I was in Geoffrey Cohen's arms.

"I...I came to invite you to my wedding" she said in the kind of tone to mock me. "My parents and fiance would still give you an invitation, I thought I should...."

"I'd only accept if my wife thinks we should be at your wedding" Geoffrey cut into her jabs. I looked at him with shock, but he continued. "You're not allowed to be in my office initially, Miss Delacuz. But I'd let this pass"

She clenched her fists, but turned to leave. However before she could pull the door, Amanda stopped and smirked at me. "Don't think this is the end, Dahila"

Then she left, Geoffrey removed his hand immediately, his nervousness obvious now.

We didn't have the chance to say more to each other when the secretary came back to inform us that the investors are here.

He helped me with my shoe again, and hugged me before we left the office and got to the conference room to meet my mom and Amanda's dad on the seat.

My chest sank like the Titanic. The fear of mum, her eyes and her voice made me shake to my feet.

She must have guessed this and got up with a proud smile. "Hey, Dahila. Miss mama?"

"M..Mum?"

"Ohh my little girl" she pulled me into a hug and whispered her manipulation plans for today into my heart. "Don't try to act smart, I'd take you back as my daughter only if you make sure Geoffrey Cohen loose this company"

Then she pulled away with a smile. "You didn't tell me you're with Mr Cohen"

I was frozen. She could still think of manipulating me like this?

Amanda must have called her to tell me, but never!

"Why should I tell you I was with Mr Cohen?" My voice came out incredibly sharp. "You only cared about your daughter, Amanda right?"

Geoffrey looked at me with a questioning gaze and I nodded silently. I got this.

Mum was surprised. But my stepdad stepped forward to scold me. "How can you talk to your mother like that! She was..."

"You're in no position to question my relationship with my mother, Mr Delacuz" I faced him sharply, the pain of his cruelty burning. "You're not my father!"

Mum gasped. This was the first time I'd look her in the face.

She was surprised, I was surprised too.

But they brought out the cruelty in me, and I shall serve it with a tray!