jaded hearts

The accident

Lexi is the sole heiress of the Harvey corporation with both her parents, Hugo and Sydney as co-CEOs of the company.

Both of Lexi's parents, no matter how tight their schedule was still ensured they make their adorable five-year-old daughter a priority by fitting her into their schedule and spending quality time with her.

Lexi is more of a socially reserved child who finds it difficult to socialize with people especially when she is not used to having them around.......Apart from her parents, another set of people she has a close relationship with is the Winston family which includes Zane Winston, Hugo's best friend a playboy billionaire who fell in love with Sydney's best friend, Freya, and their adorable four-year-old daughter Aurora.

Aurora and Lexi are best of friends in the same way their moms are, they are so close that they are almost inseparable...they are more like twin sisters that does virtually everything together.

whenever Hugo and Sydney need to go on a business trip, they drop Lexi off at Winston's house which is more like her second home.most times, they don't need to bother packing her bag because she has half of her stuff there.

whenever Hugo and Sydney returns from their trip, they make it up the two girls by spoiling them with goodies and spending quality time with them, while Freya and Zane's gets to go on a date and spend quality time with each other.

At a time like this, Freya and Zane gets to spend time without any form of interruption from the girls since Hugo and Sydney does the babysitting for the night.

like every other time, Hugo and Sydney needed to travel out of the country to strike a massive business deal, so they needed to leave for Orion urgently due to change in plans.

They were supposed to leave the following week but ever since the plans changed, they have been thinking of how to break the news to the girls.

They didn't have time for the girls throughout the previous week due to the launching of their new fashion line and now they have to travel again but they needed to tell the girls as soon as possible so that they could check that out of their priority list.

Sydney as usual, steps back on having to convince the girls while she volunteered to kick start the process by offering them appeasement items like chocolate, ice creams, and other goodies, before Hugo proceeds to do what he is good at, which is convincing the girls.

After trying to convince Sydney to break the news to the girls and it didn't work, Hugo ended up doing the convincing and at last the girls agreed to let them go but not without giving them strict instructions which includes making Hugo promise to fulfill all their demands after they return.

Two weeks after, Hugo and Sydney returned to the city from Orion and when their plane landed in silver city, Hugo called the girls through Freya's phone informing them about their arrival in silver city.

The girls were more than tripled to the point that they asked him to make his way to Zane's immediately because they could not wait to see him, but he begged them to give him about an hour to get the things he promised them and also freshen up so that they could have fun together

Hugo knew that if he didn't put a call through to them, Freya will have to doing a lot of explaining to the girls who won't stop asking questions, and no matter how adorable they are, their persistent interrogation can be frustrating sometimes.

while Hugo was busy talking to the girls, Sydney called their driver Maverick so he can locate where they are in the airport and pick them up quickly.

Maverick locates them without wasting much time, picks them up from the airport to their house so they could drop their stuff and freshen up before going over to Zane's house to meet the girls since they pre informed him of their program already

After Sydney and Hugo got home, they freshened up and changed quickly from their formal clothing to a denim jeans and top.

They were so tempted to have a nap because of how tired they were but they knew that if they did, they will get into a lot of trouble, so they made their way to the parking lot and settled for the Benz that Maverick picked them up in.

Hugo would have preferred to go out with a simpler car but he doesn't drive a car without a prior check-up, and since Maverick picked them up with the Benz he assumed that he must have Checked everything necessary.

"shall we, "Hugo said to his wife and driver who was standing outside the car but it was more like telling them to get in the car so that they can be on their way

"I don't think I should join you in your family thing, more so I know Lexi will feel more comfortable without me hanging around"Maverick a tall handsome man in his mid-thirties whom Hugo hired two months earlier replied.

The driver doesn't look like someone that has tasted suffering at all......be it the way he talks and his manner of approaching things.

just like every other person, Hugo suspected that there was something fishy going on, so he conducted a background check on him.

After series of background checks, the driver came out clean so Hugo decided to just Hire him

"you can join in the fun, we won't make you feel out of place " Hugo tried to convince him

"but if you insist you don't want to, it's okay by me" Hugo said when noticed that the driver really didn't want to join them

"I insist on not joining in the fun, more so I have other things I need to attend to"Maverick said as he handed over the keys to Hugo who in turn made his way to the driver's seat

Hugo kicked the car and zoomed out of their parking lot as he made his way down to Zane's residence. In less than thirty minutes, they got to their destination.

Sydney rang the doorbell and after the fourth time, Freya's house help opens the door, they exchange greetings while Hugo quickly makes his way to Zane's room dodging the girls because if they see him, he won't be able to escape from them and he had something important to discuss with Zane.

Sydney makes her way to the sitting room to see the girls close to Freya with all their attention focused on her listening to her explanation about something

Hey, girls" Sydney screams trying to get their attention,

Freya and the two girls screamed out of excitement on seeing Sydney they exchanged pleasantries before little aurora and Lexi started complaining about how they wasted so much time and kept them waiting for so long, Hugo comes downstairs leading to Zane's room after briefing Zane of the issue at hand they were going to discuss their plans in full after he is done with the girls

.

Hugo met them in the Middle of their complaint used his charms on the girls and they decided not to use their lateness against them, in no time they forgot about it and started rambling on and on about the different things they want to do today which includes going to the mall for ice cream

Freya cuts in"girls we have a lot of ice cream in the freezer so you can go for that instead".

"no mama I don't want the ice cream in the fridge" Lexi whined

"it's not interesting mommy we want the one at the mall"aurora pouted joining in the whining

they also wanted to go to the bouncing castle to play they wanted to buy new sets of toys, they also informed their parents about how they want to start wearing identical clothes because there were a set of triplets in auroras class that does that and when she asked they why they always wore identical clothes they told her that its because they are sisters.

"Mommy didn't you say Aurora and I are sisters.....we also want to behave as one"little Lexi whined

"Lexi darling, you and Aurora don't have to wear matching clothes before it shows that you people are behaving like sisters......but if that's what you want we will change your wardrobe"Freya spoke softly to Lexi.

Hugo tried using his charms on the girls so that they could all stay at Home watching a movie because its cold outside and they were tired

"girls why don't we stay at home today...... it's cold outside we can then order all that you want from the comfort of our homes and it will be delivered in no time"Hugo tried convincing the girls

He just wanted them all to snuggle in the comfort of their blankets but the girls won't budge, they even used Hugo's promised to do whatever they wanted against him, Hugo was still trying to find his way around the situation when Lexi started crying and one thing is for sure if they don't get Lexi to keep quiet it's just a matter of time before aurora joins in, so they gave in and asked the girls to get ready so they could go out, they were doing their happy dance till they were out of sight.

"What happened to Marianna all of a sudden claiming she has a son with you after six years??"Zane asked Hugo in a confused tone.

"am just as confused as you are, both I and Mari only had something going on before I met my lovely wife and ever since I fell in love with Sydney I broke off my engagement with her only for her to tell me that her son is asking about his father and she is tired of lying to him she demands equal right for her son since he is my heir"Hugo completes his statement and sighs

"I think it's about the money so why not just give her a blank check so that u can settle her at once........ you can't allow her to destroy your home "Zane replies seriously.

"no matter how patient and understanding your wife is, she will get to her elastic limit one day so the earlier you find a quick solution to this mess the better for you"Freya warns Hugo seriously

Sydney was just there staring at them like they were all not discussing he was already stressed out because of this whole child out of wedlock issue and she is just trying her best to look cool and okay with it when in reality she is in conversation comes to an abrupt stop when the girls screamed while coming down from the stairs

"mommy!! daddy!!! we are ready" both girls announced their arrival when they saw that nobody noticed they changed from their long-sleeved tops and trousers into a fashionable winter coat with matching socks and boots, Lexi has a red-colored coat on while that of aurora is a mustard yellow coat the French braid Freya pilled their hair in is still intact, Hugo and his wife picked up the girls making their way out of the house while Freya and Zane escorted them to the parking lot.

" what about your driver......maverick didn't he come with you??"Freya asked when she noticed Hugo moving to the driver's seat

" maverick is not here, he asked to be dismissed so that we can enjoy our time with the girls according to him, "he said he doesn't want to intrude in our family thing"Sydney replies Freya.

"you guys just came back from a journey, are you sure you are not too exhausted to drive?!"Freya questions Hugo

"it's fine.......we won't be out for long"Hugo casually replies

Freya still feels uneasy about them going out, but she pushes her uneasy feeling away and bids them goodbye while Hugo's car makes its way out of their parking lot.

Hugo drove them to the mall for ice cream they shopped for matching outfits for the girls and changed their toys. the girls insisted on wearing matching outfits to the bouncing castle so Sydney leads to the changing room before they make their way to the bouncing castle the kids their age complimented them both and they blushed every single time. they had so much fun Hugo and Sydney were so happy to see their girls so carefree enjoying themselves

"what more could I have asked for, a happy family with two loving daughters and a wonderful husband, "Sydney thought and smiled

It was getting late, so Hugo asked them all to return home he was exhausted he knew if they didn't get going soon, he will be too lazy to drive, the girls later got into the car after protesting for a while driving, Hugo dozed off for a bit and he got distracted, when he came back to his senses he saw that they were about to run into a truck he no idea was there before now, he swerved at high speed to the other part of the road that was under construction thinking they will scale through, this risky swerving made their car to somersault and it eventually stopped by crashing into a wheel loader.

The car is in really bad shape, Hugo is covered in blood, he sustained injuries on different body parts. when the whole commotion was happening, Sydney was able to pull the nearest girl to her close and protected her by shielding her from major damage before she drifts into unconsciousness.

Aurora was also lying unconscious, while Lexi could feel her mothers pressing weight on her, she felt severe pain in her bones and could smell the coppery fluid dripping from her mom, she wasn't unconscious she kept on slipping in and out of consciousnesses especially with the buzzing and annoyingly loud sound of the ambulance In her head, she has a blurry image of the paramedics pulling her away from her mom while some of them pulled out Hugo's body and auroras lifeless body from the damaged car.

Lexis head is pounding, and doesn't know what to do she couldn't even will her body to move on the stretcher, she could only watch Aurora's pale body through her blurry vision, she is in so much pain and she is feeling uncomfortable with trickling down her chubby cheeks

when they got into the hospital, she could hear the doctors talking about the girl in mustard yellow coat being dead on arrival, as a five-year-old girl their words didn't make much meaning to her as she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to wash over her, she needed a bit of relief from this bone-crushing pain