FLASHBACK"Thank you for doing this with me. You are the best boyfriend I could ever ask for." Kimberley hugged Rafael while her words made him feel guilty.She asked him to drive her to a sunflower field when it wasn't the peak season yet. He was preparing his breakup speech by removing all profanities and insensitive words when she called him and asked him sweetly about going there with him.It had already been over three months that he was seeing her almost every day. She was obsessed with meeting him and spending every minute with him. Her constant calls and texts made him feel suffocated, but she looked too sensitive to be told he wasn't interested in her.He loved spending time with her sometimes, but he never wanted to make any physical advances, feeling too scared of being stuck with her. Aaron constantly scolded him for being a dick or for having a phobia towards committing to a good girl. He thought of breaking up with her some seven t

Eddy called Rafael the next day with some news about Kimberley. Irene had forgiven him when he explained what had happened."Rafael, I think we need to meet. It's confidential. About Kimmie.""I'm so soo done with her. Please don't tell me anything about her. I don't care no matter what it is.""It is something very serious, Rafael. Meet me at McLeod's in thirty. Can't tell you over the phone."Rafael drove to the restaurant Eddy asked him to and ordered lunch for himself while waiting for him. He was surprised to see Irene show up with Eddy."Did Kimmie get into some legal issue?"Looking at Irene gave him a bad feeling. She was doing an internship at a famous criminal law firm, and the look on her face meant business."Kimmie has pressed charges against some five guys, two football players from your team and three baseball players. It includes your friend Dylan.""Charges for what?" He knew she did what all his exes did.

"Kimmie will be here until noon tomorrow," Rafael told Ruhi and went into his study to finish all the pending work that got disrupted because of the crazy happenings. Ruhi went and stood by his study door. He was never intimidating like this; he looked like his dad when in a bad temper and snapping at everyone.   He wasn't able to get any work done and started digging into Derek's family business and their track record for providing the best security systems on the continent. Dylan wasn't much involved in taking up responsibilities and seemed to be happy managing one of the sister companies while Derek did the bulk of the work. There wasn't a single report of someone being able to hack into the systems built by them like it happened today.  "Ruhi..." Rafael got up from his chair and walked over to her. She looked lost and sad while he expected her to be scared. "How long have you been standing here?" He couldn't believe h

FLASHBACKTHIRTY YEARS AGOPerched upon the seventh floor in the middle of San Francisco downtown, Lucifer’s office offered a perfect view of the city, with not too many skyscrapers around. He gazed out of the glass building at the club across the street: The High Dive nightclub, owned by his dad.His dad was the boss of the Rivero Mafia family, and soon he was going to take over the reins. He felt more than ready to rule the continent and add to the chaos and mayhem his dad caused over the last thirty years.He called his stepbrother again, wondering where the hell he was. Gustavo Rivero, the capo, and the most feared man among the powerful crime organizations in North America and Italy.Gus inherited all his dad’s good looks and the intimidating aura, while Lucifer only got the intelligence. He hated Gus to the core, especially when his dad ignored him and called Gus his son a lot more often; a son born to one of his wh

"I fucking hate you!" Fire blazed in Ruhi's eyes as she pushed Rafael's hand off her and slammed the door in his face.Hugging her knees to her chest, she let the tears flow down her face in abundance. The crushing pain in her heart was unexpected. Ignoring Rafael's pleas to open the door, she broke into sobs until she choked on air."Ruhi, please. We knew there was a possibility that she could be mine."She knew Eva could be Rafael's, but she was banking on the possibility that she wasn't. She didn't want to panic until the test results came. It seemed to her that the universe had conspired against her.What she never expected was the strange sort of jealousy engulfing her. She hated herself for feeling this way against a little girl she had come to love so much, so quickly. 'It's not Eva's fault.' No matter how many times she said this to herself, she couldn't help the feelings of resentment eating her up. "