The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

4 6 | J U L I A

I watched him through the corner of my eye and he had a small smile playing on his lips. "Yeah, Imani is good at making cakes along with Darius. They made such a big cake! I could keep eating it for days."

Looking at him happily eating made me smile subconsciously. When we were done, he insisted on taking the plates and after much resistance I finally had to give up. He left to dispose it off in the kitchen sink while I watched up in the inky black sky, replaying the events over and over again until he was again sat next to me.

"So can we reschedule or have I scared you off and you won't sing to me ever again?" He asked, sitting a little close to me than before.

"You will give me a second chance?!" I asked in disbelief. "After how I just froze up on the stage tonight?"

He chuckled, his deep laugh contagious and causing me to let out a few short laughs. "I was worse in high school when I had to give an audition for some singing reality television show before AstronomicalBeats happened," he confessed.

"Really? What happened?" I asked, eagerly leaning in to hear his story.

"I was very nervous. This was during that period of time where I was very low on self confidence and although I knew I was good at singing, I was just very mindful of what people would think of me. So during the audition when I saw a lot of people just waiting for me to do something, I straight up just started crying and I kid you not I just ran out of there."

"Really?" I asked, finding it hard to believe.

"Yes! I was so scared. My mom had worked hard to get me this audition and I just blew it off by running away. I never came back. I bet I was a laughing stock of the day." He shook his head, looking down and fiddling with his fingers as he cringed into the corner.

"It's a little funny," I admitted, not able to control my short bursts of laughter. "I'm sorry," I said sheepishly, feeling bad for laughing at his expense.

"Don't be. You should do that more. I don't think I've seen you laugh before," he grinned at me.

"I don't think I've laughed genuinely for quite some time now," I murmured, not meaning for him to hear which he thankfully didn't.

"What?"

I shook my head. "It's nothing. Thank you for sharing that. I think I'll be better next time if I'm ever put into that scary spotlight again. And do you think we can reschedule? I would love that. I had prepared for this moment for so long but it all went down the drain because I was so careless. I should've protected myself better," I said, saying it in a different context, one Braxton was not aware of.

"As I said, it takes time to get used to it and don't worry we'll reschedule to a day you're comfortable with. Just tell me beforehand so I can clear my schedule. I promise it will just me the next time, not even Ajax. He's moving out tomorrow after his meeting."

I nodded, relieved that at least he would be gone...along with all of my work with him claiming it as his own but I tried not to dwell into that much. I would avenge this one day, for sure. Instead of feeling bad, I reassured myself that this was only going to make me stronger. That if Ajax hadn't done what he had done tonight, I would've still remained naive and it might've been possible that someone would've done exactly as Ajax but more damaging.

Learn from this experience, I told myself.

It was not to say that I was justifying Ajax's actions but merely learning my lesson from this and promising myself to be more cautious in the future and return him his favour when the time is right. It was only a matter of waiting for that time now.