Sorry this has been FOREVER, but I'm back guys.
Some of you might not like this so we'll have to see from reviews how this goes.
I've also updated some of my other fanfictions if anyone wants to take a look at them
Thanks for staying with me
Enjoy x
It wasn't as long a flight to South Africa as Daniel had assumed it would be, but it felt like an eternity, and he spent the entire time staring pointedly out of the windows, radiating anger as if it was the air hostess's fault that he was flying to another continent after his fiancée and baby twins.
When they landed, Daniel quickly made his way off the private plane and was met by both blistering heat, and a man in a light grey suit and sunglasses standing with his arms crossed beside a sleek black car. And the curt nod he received made it clear to Daniel that he was waiting for him, and he slipped into the back seat, grateful for the air conditioning on at full blast as the driver slipped into the drivers seat, and spoke in a thick South African accent, pulling down the private airstrip and out into traffic.
"So, good flight?"
"Fine"
"Miss Van Rensberg is waiting for you at the house"
Daniel's jaw tightened and his eyes only briefly flickered away from the window "She had bloody well better be"
Daniel had no idea where they were going, and frankly didn't care anymore, calling his Uncle Barney on the way over, and quickly filling him in on the details.
"So wait, wait, you're in South Africa now?"
"Moving through Cape Town traffic as we speak"
He leant forward to speak to the driver
"Where are we going?"
"Camps Bay sir, it's not much further"
Daniel muttered the information back to Barney who made a non committal noise "Right, well, how long has she been over there now?"
"Uh, 24 hours, maybe more I don't know, my brain isn't working right now"
"Okay, okay, you know that the twins are safe don't you? Ivy wouldn't have let anything happen to them"
"Well, I didn't really think she'd do this either so we'll have to wait and see won't we"
The house in Camps Bay was down a private, gated road and Daniel inhaled sharply as the car pulled up in front of the house at the end of the street, which was by far the largest. It was an enormous white stone building with several floors, stone pillars and a fountain in the middle of the driveway, which was surrounded by expensive cars, three Mercedes, five Range Rovers and Jeeps, a Tesla, a jaguar and a Porsche all parked up around the front of the house.
The building itself was breathtaking, not only in size, but also in the appearance, and as he stepped out of the car again into the sweltering heat and felt the humidity hit him, and he quickly realised from a picture he had seen before that this was the old Van Rensberg family home.
This was where Christian and Ivy's father had grown up, where Ivy's Grandfather had lived for year until he'd written the will that had left a vast majority of his wealth to his only Grandchild, leaving Ivy a millionaire many times over in one night.
Behind him Daniel heard a noise and saw the driver getting out of the car, taking off his sunglasses
"If you go around the side, follow the gravel path, you'll find Ivy, she'll still be there I'd assume. I'll park the car"
Daniel managed a weak smile of thanks and unbuttoned his shirt cuffs and folded them back up to his elbow as he walked around the side of the house, finding the white gravel path that led down the side of the enormous building and onto the large, meticulously maintained garden. Despite the heat the grass was surprisingly healthy, and there were large shady trees, beautiful, intricate rows of bright flowers, and an enormous swimming pool at the bottom of the garden, double sun loungers dotted around it.
Whilst there was noise and music coming from the house behind him, but the only sounds from the outside were two people talking from around the pool, and Ivy was one of them.
As Daniel made his way down towards them, the other woman sat with her glanced around. She was Ivy's age with long blonde hair and was wearing a red bikini, looking like she had walked off a Victoria's Secret catalogue, picking up her glass of wine and quickly saying something to Ivy before she walked back up towards the house.
Daniel hurried over the grass to where his twins were sat playing on a blanket on the grass under a patch of shade a foot away from where Ivy was sat, wearing a black bikini with a pair of denim shorts, her tattoos on display and sunglasses on her head.
Daniel practically ignored her and knelt down with the twins and hugged Avery and Isaac quickly, kissing them both as they grinned, glad their father was there but probably unaware that he'd even left, far more interested in their toy blocks.
After a few seconds Daniel turned around to Ivy, his voice dark "You- you need to explain now what the hell is going on"
Ivy nodded, looking wary as she picked up Avery onto her hip and Daniel Isaac, and he followed her in stony silence back up towards the house, walking in through the large open doors.
The blonde woman from before was standing talking to Ivy's uncle Jacob and her father Lewis, who were all speaking quickly in what Daniel assumed was Afrikaans, though they stopped when Ivy spoke.
"April, will you Dad and Jacob look after the twins whilst I speak with Daniel"
The three of them all looked a little startled but April and Lewis quickly took the twins and muttered something awkwardly before disappearing through the house, clearly wanting to get well out of the way.
It was just the two of them standing in the stone kitchen and Ivy paled a little under Daniel's intense gaze "Look, I can explain what happened"
"Oh you'd better, and it had better be bloody good as well. You realise I came home to find that you were gone, and my twins had just disappeared as well? You're lucky I didn't call the police"
"I'm sorry, I had to"
"Oh you had to, did you? I have just been shoved on a plane for several hours to come after my children and my perpetual screw up of a fiancé who thought it was okay to take them from me. I have work to do Ivy, I have a proper job, I have come to this fucking country for you – so go ahead, spit it out, tell me what this brilliant excuse is then?"
"Zara called-"
"Your mother?"
"Uhuh"
"She uh…. It turns out that the sections of V.R Inc that is publicly traded, is owned by several shareholders, well that's what we thought at least. Under different names and under different trading companies, my mother had a fair stake in the company, probably slept with a few people on the way. She owned just fewer than 40% of the international exports side, I know you're not involved in the company, but you know what that means?"
"A place on the board?"
Ivy nodded "That was how my 'dear mother' decided to let me know she had a percentage of it- by lodging an application to the board. I uh, well obviously I tried to have her place pushed out and to get rid of her, but it doesn't work like that, you can't just push someone out, you have to buy them out. My mother – being the meddling, manipulative cunt that she is – said that she would only sign the documents for me to buy her out of the company… if I left you and moved back here"
"Why the fuck would she say that?"
"Because she thinks that all the whilst I'm in Cape Town and on my own I will be dependant upon her, and that I will be alone, and I'll turn to her. This is helped by the fact I'm now worth and awful lot of money that she can't get her hands on, and of her three kids, I'm the one with the money to fund her lifestyle"
"And so…"
"And so I staged it. She needed to think that I had fled Seattle under the pretext of the funeral to come and stay in South Africa. She bought it, and she's signed the documents over, I own it all now with Jacob and my father, though I have the controlling stake of course"
Daniel turned around, clearly furious "You stupid, fucking bitch - did you really think this was a good idea?"
Ivy's smile fell "I own this company now, I can afford to never work a day in my life now, someone else can do the groundwork and I don't have to work another day – I can stay at home and raise the twins"
"Isaac and Avery won't give a shit about how much money you have"
Daniel slammed his hands down on the table, startling Ivy and making her jump, fury obvious over his face "I'm – I can't do this anymore Ivy, if you want to ruin everything then be my guest, but I won't be going down with you"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
He shook his head a little "I'll be on a flight back to Seattle as soon as possible, now I know they're safe, you can keep the twins here until you get back" Daniel looked over Ivy with an expression of barely contained contempt, voice cold "You can keep the ring if you want, Avery might want it when she grows up"
His voice was unnaturally cold and he looked at Ivy with nothing short of contempt and muttered "Perhaps the drugs have done more damage than I thought"
before turning and leaving the house, leaving Ivy shaken and confused in the kitchen.
After a few minutes Ivy heard footsteps and turned around to see her father Lewis looking cautiously around the doorway, seeing Ivy with tears in her eyes and Daniel gone
"What happened?"
"Daniel left"
Lewis came into the kitchen, frowning "what do you mean left?"
"He's not coming back, and he's called our relationship off as well"
Lewis balled his hands into fists "I'll kill him"
"Dad, no, please just calm down"
"He can't just walk out on you like-"
"He can, and he has, Dad just leave it"
"No, for gods sake Ivy, does he even know the half of what your mother has done?"
"No"
"Well why haven't you told him? If Daniel knew what Zara has done to you over the years, he would understand why you had to take her off the board"
Ivy shrugged dejectedly "Daniel already knows enough about what happened before I met him, he thinks I'm a dysfunctional enough mess already, do I need him to know about Mum, how will that help anything?
"Because maybe he'll understand"
"Hmm"
Ivy had spent a few hours playing with her children to try and get over thinking about Daniel and where he may have gone, and what he might be doing.
The blonde woman April was a friend of the family, and her parents were close friends to Lewis, Jacob and the other brothers, and Ivy was incredibly grateful that she had a friend there on that day.
She wasn't under any impression that Daniel should have forgiven her immediately for taking the children away, but the threat that her mother posed by being on the board was far worse than he could probably have known. As April had said, if he'd had even half an idea of what Zara had done over the last 23 years, Daniel would have applauded her for outwitting her mother… but he hadn't. He had shouted and ranted, before storming out of the house and calling an end to their relationship, which was something that had kept her grounded over the last few years.
Her father and the rest of the family were treating Ivy very delicately, and it was annoying her. April was the only one to tell her to 'suck it up' and that they should go out for dinner together, letting family babysit the twins.
Ivy had been reluctant but had been slowly talked around, and April had taken her into the City for a quick dinner and a glass of wine, the topic of relationships completely out of bounds. They had made a quick toast to Ivy outwitting her mother, and then left to go back to their car.
Ivy was waiting out on the street outside the restaurant whilst she waited for April to bring the car around when turned around at the sound of someone calling her name and saw two very familiar faces staring back at her and blinked in surprise. It was Isabella and Karina, her younger half sisters from her mother that she rarely saw. They looked enough like Ivy and Zara and she had seen intermittent pictures over the last four ears of them that she recognized them immediately.
"What are you… what are you doing here?"
"We need to talk to you Ivy"
"This isn't really a good time if I'm honest-"
"It's about Mum"
"And it can't wait"
Ivy glanced over Isabella and Karina, who were 20 and 18, both tall, slim, lightly tanned and with long dark hair just like her own. Ivy swallowed "Fine, but this had better be important?"
"It is"
So, what do we think?
And what do we think Isabella and Karina want, and any ideas on what Zara's been up to?
And what's next for the Van Rensberg's, Sullivan's and Grey's?
Please let me know and review! x