93Lana“Nathan,” I was left open-mouthed. My mind fuzzed up, leaving me to endure a mind-numbing feeling. I was consumed by a dilemma, not knowing if it was the same Nathan who was the very first love of my life or the man my husband killed just to save me. I still remember the day Nathan was shot before our eyes, Claire was there too; but too weak to take any action. Yet this day, she had it all together. But how? How did he survive all along? I saw him stoned to death. The Nathan-like-man took a step ahead, hands in his pockets as usual, his shoulders wearing confidence proudly, leaving me gulping hard. He got closer to me, shadowing my frame, towering almost above me. I raised my eyes to meet the 6’4 without moving my head. My chest was moving continuously and the fact he was staring at it palpitated my heart. His eyes roamed up, stoning at my face. I wanted to run away, too fast, without looking behind. I felt his finger ascending just to shut my opened mouth. His finger laid
94Lana“Claire! Let me go! Open the door,” I had been slamming my fist on the door for half an hour but nothing worked in my favour. I strolled towards the room’s window and sat near it, wondering what I could do to save us. I sighed defeatedly, fisting my hair in frustration. It was my fault, I should’ve been more attentive towards the red flags. I should’ve known it was coming. How can you expect a dead to be alive? Right. How could I? His being alive was teasing me like everything. I had so many questions for him yet my heart had no courage to face him. I was sure he wouldn’t leave me unhurt. He would take revenge from Armando through me because he most probably hated me for leaving him and moving ahead with Armando. How could you live with a man who was declared dead? And out of nowhere, he came back. You had no option than to choose Armando and start a new life.But everything seemed opposite to what I was being told by my second thoughts. I kept sighing hard to empty the void
95Lana“Then, I can even make you have dozens of kids containing your blood just now,” Nathan stated fearlessly. I blinked twice as his words sank in my stomach, each word containing tons of heavy metals that felt like ripping through each ounce of my soul.Making babies appeared to be a joke to him. How could he mock something sacred so efficiently? He wasn’t like this before. I remembered him as someone gentle and considerate yet now, he was portrayed to be cold and selfish. “I don’t want to believe in my ears, speak something real, Nathan,” I replied, foggily. “Do my face tell you I'm joking to you, Lana? If children are the only reason that’s bonding you with that generational motherfucker, then I shall eliminate the root cause and set you free,” I wanted to believe that it was Nathan speaking with such a grudge but somewhere my heart denied. His awful mindset was making him loathe myself for falling for him once. Maybe God saved me from an absolute devil through a qualified de
96Two Months LaterLanaTwo months. A heck of a long time that I spent in a single gigantic room as a hostage. These fucking two months had me crying, screaming, begging for help, pleading for mercy and at last swearing at Nathan for being an asshole with me. I never thought Nathan could be like this. He raped me often. Yes, I would call it rape. He didn’t care what I said to him he only wanted to be inside me thrice a week.He provided me with clothes, food, Netflix and everything any other girl would desire but I was more interested in being able to breathe freely. Moreover, I missed my kids. Not even a single day passed by without me weeping for them. I never left them alone. I didn’t know if Sebastian reached home safe to Nancy or not.I was only stuck here for nothing and I see this situation going to nowhere good. I was hugging my knees, trying to think of a breakout for the thousandth time since two months. This time my escape wasn’t easy because I wasn’t sure if they kept Arm
97LanaNathan caught me faking my sleep. I had my eyes closed when he came near and sat beside me on the bed. He didn’t do anything for ten minutes, just quietly sat there and admired me from afar—that’s only what I could get with my eyes closed. But later, I felt his thumb striking with my cheek that ascended inside the blanket and he ended up scooping his hand inside my panties, rubbing my core and wetting me. When he slid a finger in me, I moaned and my eyes wide-opened. I gawked at him with astonished eyes. “What the heck, Nathan, leave me for God’s sake,” I huffed, disapproving his touch in between my moan and got his hand out of my pants, for a fact I hated reacting to his touch so intensely, that makes him full of himself a little more every time. He honestly knew all the perfect spots—but this time his perfection wasn’t my main focus. It was basically the fact that I had a phone and key hidden in my socks that churned my stomach for bad.“I was checking if you were still hot
98Lana“Speak,” Leone said with the second line connected. My heart palpitated but I overcame my growing anxiety. “Leone, It’s Lana…” I enlightened him. “… They imprisoned us separately for months. I had no connection to Armando even though I tried to encounter him once, Nathan had security at every step. I am not sure if he’s still in his torture cellar or they have done something to him or sent him to God knows where,” I ran my mouth like a bullet train, giving him no chance to speak. “Is everything good on your side?” The second I asked this question had me panicking inwardly. “We are drowning, my lady…” he said in a monotone but the effect his words brought was enough for sinking my heart, “…Our businesses are being sealed by the board for illegal conspiracies. Someone had cracked our shares in the underground sector and we are losing our men count. Our weapons are being stolen from the ports and many more harm’s been done. Everything is out of order. We lost three hundred me
99LanaPhew. Thank God I successfully got control of the situation before I could finally be thrown to the bed and lost my chance for a dinner outside of this room. It had been fifteen minutes since leaving the house. I was sitting on the passenger seat beside Nathan who was driving his posh Lamborghini. It was the smooth black ride up in the mountains and the view I was having all the while was completely mesmerising. The street lights and the moonlight seemed like having a competition to glorify the route for me tonight. I would’ve enjoyed this moment even more if Nathan would be in his casket like he should’ve rather than driving the car like my man. I sighed at this thought. The pleasant feeling in my chest faded away with realisation of Nathan’s presence. I couldn’t just swallow the thought that I used to die for this man once, I even prayed to see him again when I had affection for him. But the very affection died when Armando started becoming a man of my dreams. He deliberat
100LanaIf it’s true then I was gone. I was busted to live anymore. If Armando was to hear about this I would be much more than trouble. Pregnant? With some other man’s child? I did everything to avoid it. I even bribed Mary to steal birth-control pills for me, how come I got pregnant. Argh, I wanna vanish my existence. If the pregnant part was real, I would really jump off the cliff. I couldn’t prepare myself for the bloodlust of my children or this foetus. This unborn had to die or Armando would kill him and me. I knew how far he could go. He was a maniac in my case. And as far as he was possessive about me being only his. I could predict I would pay a big price for Nathan’s deed. “Good to see you, Mr. Knightley, how may I help?” Malinda’s voice rang in my ear like a driller screwing my head. Though she had a velvet voice but right now, she was the person I needed to stay away from. Her clicks of heels grew louder as she came closer to me and Nathan who had been playing with my h