Dangerous Desire The CEO’s Hidden Woman

Scarlett’s fake smile was wiped right off her face as she heard those words. “I don’t know who Johnny is. I only have one brother.”

The girl was smart, and she seemed to know just how to get on Scarlett’s nerves. She had impeccable timing, too: she knew to leave right before Scarlett flew into a rage.

“Come to visit us if you have time, Scarlett. See you!” She smiled and walked away with her friend.

Bell immediately asked, “Who even was that? Wanna tell me what the fuck just happened?”

Scarlett knocked back a full glass of icy lemonade to cool herself down. “Claire Morris, of course!”

“Wait, what? Morris? Are you related to her? Wait, is she your half-sister?”

Scarlett sneered, “It’s better that she’s my half-sister.”

“Your stepsister?!” Bell immediately knew what Scarlett meant.

“Don’t call her my sister!” Scarlett was furious.

Bell wanted to comfort Scarlett, so she went over and sat by Scarlett.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, Scarlett. Don’t let her ruin your day.”

“You’re right. You know what, I’m gonna eat two plates of pork knuckles today!” Sometimes, it wasn’t such a bad idea to eat your emotions.

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Scarlett had finally cooled off. She had known Bell for three years, and they were always honest and frank to each other. Maybe Bell was the first and the only friend that she would talk about her family with and open her heart to.

“Actually, it’s really a story full of clichés. It’s not as fascinating as you might be thinking.” Scarlett looked out through the window.

“My mom, Sophie Cloud, met David Morris when she went to this academic conference-type thing in France. David was vacationing there at that time. They fell passionately in love and got married soon after they both got back to America. Mom was too blindly in love to see that David Morris was just another bastard that happened to be rich and successful in business. They did have some sweet days after they got married and even after Skyler and I were born. But everything changed when Jennifer Baldwin appeared in his life. David and Jennifer were senior management, and they often encountered each other in company meetings and excursions and stuff. David fell in love with her just as he did when he met my mom… and he initiated a divorce right away.”

“Bastard!” Bell yelled out.

“Mom was proud, she would never beg for a man to stay with her if he had been having an affair with another woman. So, she signed the divorce settlement right away and took Skyler and me to move out from David Morris’s house.”

Scarlett paused for a while to calm down for the next part of the story. The story did not, of course, just end here. There was a reason she deeply hated David Morris– her father– and all the family and relatives whom she now regarded as enemies.

“The next day after we moved out, mom died in a car accident just right outside the school.”

“Scarlett…I’m so sorry…” Bell gently patted Scarlett’s back to comfort her.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine. Mom died, and David was still desperately eager to marry that woman, Jennifer. You know, he didn’t even attend my mom’s funeral– the woman he had just divorced and had two children with! Skyler and I cried. We wanted to wait for dad until the very end of the funeral when everybody had already left, but dad just didn’t show up. He never showed up.

We were just ten years old at the time, so David paid a sum of money every year to his sister, Aunt Laura, to take care of us. Aunt Laura. Ha! She spent most of the money on her own children and didn’t care whether we lived or not. I had to borrow money from her for our living expenses. In high school, I started to get into car racing and played snooker to win money awards from those games. Last year, I paid off all my debts to Aunt Laura, and I swore to myself that I would never step into her house ever again.”

Bell was quite stunned after hearing Scarlett and her family’s past. She thought Scarlett worked so desperately to make money only because her family’s financial condition was not good. She didn’t expect that her life been so full of struggle– complicated and tragic.

“Scarlett, I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“Well, It’s okay. David Morris and his wife are doing quite well now. You just saw her daughter, Claire. What a princess– raised by a loving, affectionate family! I’ve learned a lesson. We don’t have to curse those bad people. Because bad people never reap the consequences of their sins. No, it’s the good people who get screwed no matter what. Life is unfair. That’s just the truth.” Scarlett smiled a wry smile. She felt full of bitterness.

“Scarlett, don’t lose faith in love because of your asshole, dad; you deserve the best, you just have to wait for it!” Bell held Scarlett’s hand tightly.

Scarlett’s mouth twitched slightly. Maybe in the hearts of those carefree, innocent girls like Bell, men were important and even represented a beacon of hope and support. But for Scarlett, men were not necessary at all. She didn’t care whether or not she would meet the so-called Mr. Right in her life.

Scarlett swallowed a mouthful of dark beer. Even though she wasn’t bothered about finding Mr. Right, in moments when she was burdened with stress and fear about the future, she wondered what it would be like to have someone to share life’s ups and downs with her. Scarlett looked at the crowds on the street wistfully.

Chuck called to invite Scarlett to attend his birthday party. He told her that he would send Alan, his chauffeur, to pick her up. Scarlett said there was no need to bother Alan to come to retrieve her, but Chuck kept insisting on giving her a ride.

Scarlett searched her wardrobe wildly. She was looking for a suitable dress for the party when she caught sight of a pink dress hanging in one corner of her closet.