Chapter 1 Tossed Into The Ocean

Eliana Pierce's POV:

"Oh, Asher... I want more..."

Erotic gasps came through the crack between the bathroom door and its frame, making one's heart beat faster.

I was standing outside the bathroom, feeling as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice-cold water over my head.

I recognized the voices at once. They belonged to my best friend, Erica Duffy, and my fiance, Asher Harrison.

"You are such a temptress," Asher remarked as he gasped for breath. His hoarse voice was full of lust, which I had never heard him speak in before.

Erica replied coquettishly, "Do you like it when I'm being a temptress? I'm more suitable for you than Eliana, aren't I?"

"Don't say her name!" Asher barked.

Erica panted weakly. "Don't be angry. It's all her fault. She would rather sleep with a man whore than sleep with her own fiance..."

"She's a bitch!" Asher interrupted Erica.

"Oh, that's it! Harder, Asher!" Erica kept gasping.

Outside the bathroom, I staggered backward and covered the hickeys on my neck with my trembling hands. My eyes started burning with tears.

"Will you break off your engagement to Eliana for me?"

"Of course. Eliana is not good enough to marry me. Sure enough, like mother, like daughter. Back in the day, her mother was a skittish woman who provoked a big shot and got her husband killed," Asher snorted with disdain.

"What? Didn't Eliana's father commit suicide?"

"It just looked like he committed suicide."

Bang!

As my brain buzzed with resentment and disbelief, I thrust the bathroom door open and stormed in.

"What did you say just now, Asher?"

Asher and Erica turned pale with surprise and fright.

Asher hurriedly grabbed a bath towel and covered himself up. "What are you doing here, Eliana?"

I walked over and gripped Asher's wrist. "Who killed my father?"

"Hey! Let go of him!" Erica, who was still stark naked, pushed me away.

I was caught off guard and fell backward to the floor. My head hit the bathtub hard.

After that, there was nothing but quiet blackness.

I had no idea how long I'd been unconscious. All I knew was that I woke up to the whirring sound of a machine. I was greeted by a blinding pain in my head. After blinking a few times, I realized I was in a yacht. I touched the wound on my head. It hurt so much that I almost screamed.

Before I could prop myself up, somebody grabbed me by the hair.

I cried in pain as that somebody tilted my head up.

Then, a pretty face with a sinister smile came into view. It was Erica.

"How was the escort I hired for you last night? Did he make you feel things you never thought possible?" she asked in a voice dripping with poison.

Fragments of what happened last night flashed in my mind, making my already aching head throb more. I replied through clenched teeth, "So it was you who framed me."

Then, every memory started falling into place. When I woke up this morning in a mess, I should have known what was going on. But I still didn't want to ruin our long-term friendship. I believed that there must be some misunderstanding. Erica wouldn't have done something like that to me.

I went straight to her house as soon as I got out of the hotel.

But I didn't expect to find my best friend having sex with the man I was supposed to marry.

"Yes. Yes, I was. But I didn't want you to be left alone after I'd taken your fiance away, so I hired a high-class gigolo to serve you," Erica sneered. She was grinning, but her eyes were full of hatred. "I wanted you to enjoy yourself before you die."

I looked around in panic. Beside Erica stood two hulking bodyguards, and the yacht we were on was in the middle of the sea. I had no way out.

"Throw her overboard," Erica ordered.

Then, the bodyguards picked me up and tossed me into the ocean like a discarded rag doll.

Before I could scream for help, the surging sea waves already swallowed me whole.

Five years passed.

At the airport, I pushed our luggage cart out. My son, Adrian Pierce, put his hands on the handle bars and tried to keep up with me with his short legs. "Let me help you push our cart, Mommy," he said with determination.

I lowered my head and stroked his soft hair. "Thank you, sweetie. You're so considerate."

"What about me, Mommy?" My daughter, Aileen Pierce, interjected, blinking her big, beautiful eyes. She was sitting in the luggage cart, her little legs dangling in the air. She was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen.

Adrian rolled his eyes and said to his sister, "Yes, you're helping by adding more weight to our cart. Thank you very much."

Aileen glared at her brother and stuck her tongue out at him. Then, she crossed her arms over her chest. I almost laughed out loud.

I looked at my children with a smile and felt a comforting warmth spread through my chest.

When Erica tried to drown me at sea five years ago, I thought that was really my end. But unexpectedly, someone saved my life.

I was in a coma for months after I was rescued. When I woke up, I found out that I was pregnant.

A few more months later, I gave birth to twins, one boy and one girl. I named my son Adrian and my daughter Aileen and gave them my last name, Pierce.

They were the two little angels that rekindled my life. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have powered through.

"Miss Pierce." A woman with a big smile on her face approached us and showed me her ID card. "My name is Kimora. I was sent here by Mr. Jonathan Bowman to take care of you and your children."

While I was checking Kimora's ID card, Aileen jumped down from the luggage cart and started running away.

Before I could stop her, she rushed to a strange man and hugged one of his thighs. Then, she squealed, "Daddy!"