| Chapter One |

 ☆Siren Wailing☆

 A woman in a torn silk red dress runs after the nurses moving Eric McCoy on a stretcher towards the ambulance, while being pulled back by another woman behind her. 

 “Eric! Eric please don't leave me! Eric please! You're all I have! Eric!...”

 A woman who looked so shattered and broken, drowning in her tears, as if she had lost herself.

 Her makeup was smudged, her hair was haggard wrapped in something I'd call confusion, and her body drenched in sweat.

 The woman pulling her was in a black suit, also living the heartbreak of seeing what was her brother lying almost lifeless on that stretcher.

 “Brother! Oh how I warned you... Diana you've killed my brother~ You've succeeded in ending my only brother!” Louisa cried as she was pulling Diana by the waist.

 Louisa left Diana and proceeded to board the ambulance with the other nurses. The doors shut and they drove away, leaving Diana all alone.

 ***

 ***

 “He's dead!...”

 ***

 ***

 “I'm sorry Mrs. Palms, He couldn't make it...”

 ***

 ✯Diana's POV✯

 That was what I heard the doctor say about my Eric. I couldn't believe this. The only one for me is dead. My shield, my love. The only man who was perfect for me... is gone.

 I only saw glances of his memorial before I passed out. And I only remember flashes of it as well

 ---

 Then,

 “Wade!! Where's Wade? Find him!”

 Louisa is always yelling but this time, it was way serious. My only... son, gone.

 Oh God, how much more heartbreak can one suffer in such a short period. Wade is gone and I'm sure Eric would've liked me to promise him that I'd protect his son just as he's protected me.

 Eric brought me here and gave me a home, he clothed, fed and took care of me.

 He was a fucking hunk in his 40s, and he was good with his damn dick. They would be no night with him that I wouldn't moan like a fucking whore. 

 He and Wade became the only family I had. Although Wade and I weren't best of friends but still... He mattered to my love and that's the only significant thing. So at least keeping him okay shouldn't be a problem to me.

 But now, he's missing. 

 How do I explain this to Eric? How do I tell him that the only son he left us has been kidnapped? I'm loosing my mind, I must be loosing my fucking mind.

 How do I help this? Where do I start? What to do?!

 “...this isn't fair!~”

  Not only did they assassinate the love of my life, but they've taken the only son he has. This isn't fair. Why?!

 I fell on the floor as my mind returned to the reality of how Louisa just pushed me on the floor. The bang my head made on the wall that it hit must have moved my brain.

 “You are not a part of this family, Wade's my nephew, my brother's son, my responsibility now! My family...”

 What prompted this? Oh crap! I was lost in my thoughts that I must have started thinking out loud, for it to make Louisa lash out at me like that...

 “...You're not a part of this family and he was never your son!! Never yours! We all know this was all you! So stop this forced tears, this is all your fault. You wretch with bad luck! Everywhere you're at something bad happens... Doesn't that upset you. Get this into your head, you were nothing but a whore, my brother's bed warmer!” 

 And all she said was true.

 -----

 Alarm goes Off*

 I wake with the guilt of it all in my chest. It's my fault- Eric's death, Wade's disappearance, and why the fuck I stayed.

 Tolerating Louisa and her entire madness...

 Eric took me out that night because I was insistent on him taking me out for the first time. I wanted to be seen with him, but then all he got at the end of the night was a bullet in his heart...

 All he wanted was to make me happy that night....

 I inherited everything of Eric's.

 All of it, the company, houses, and paper stacks, he gave every damn thing to me... but to manage until Wade is of age, also a way to bond more with his son, I guess.

 Yet, I am but a regent in this mighty thrown.

 ******

 “Good Morning Miss Diana!”

 Then I think back, Eric cared too much for me. 

 My eyes scanned the room, reminding me of how it's been many moons since he died. I found Anika and the other order girls standing at the end of my bed, heads lowered and hands ready to serve.

 “Mm.” I answered as I climbed off the bed, as they helped undress me.

 I remember how I had to take everything on alone, because of how Louisa dumped it on me, using her usual cunning tricks... 

 On that day of Eric's memorial, 

 I received a call from the landline... 

 All I heard through out the few seconds call was Wade's voice crying for help... 

 That was when I knew he was still alive then... All we need do is find the kidnappers, pay them off and get Wade back, but nothing seemed ever easy with Louisa around. 

 “Why would you say such a thing? Why would the adaptors keep Wade alive when they know Eric's dead?” she said to me.

 And what the hell does that mean?— was what I thought at that moment.

 That statement or question of hers prompts a lot of thinking to me since that day... Or did she just ask that to me because of how dumb she is or...?

 Well, her level of stupidity and thinking is extremely archaic, disturbing and at times juvenile, and it doesn't surprise me anymore. 

 One of the police officers asked Louisa, “Why would you think he's dead?”

 “I never thought he was dead. I'm asking Diana why she thinks Wade is alive. Is it because she has something to do with it?”

 “I would never. I answered the landline, I heard Wade...” I stammered, barely audible since my emotions was getting the better of me then.

 Louisa chuckled, almost mockingly. The policemen was interested in what I had to say, but as always, her voice was higher than mine. I was too grief stricken to handle arguing at that time, so I let her have her way again.

 I was trying to provide a damn lead but the fucking bitch turned the table on me. And as incompetent and carefree as the officers were, they barely asked me more I knew, letting Louisa's rant mislead them... 

 “Then prove it if you think so then! Find the boy! You have the money now. Eric willed it to you, plus you keep saying how you loved him and Wade meaning that looking for Wade yourself won't be an issue. Find him, Diana, and prove to me! that this wasn't your scheme to put everything on me and my family and then scram with my brother's money. Prove it!”

 My eyes grew blurry with tears and my lids ached, “Why do you keep doing this?”

 “Quit the damn tears! Officers, I'm telling you, she planned this. She's behind every misfortune that has befallen my family this past few weeks!”

 “For what reason would I do such a thing, Louisa?!”

 “For the money!! Because you're a gold digging money crazed whore~ I don't know why Eric brought such a bag of misfortune into his life”

 ----

 Anika, arranged my bath and I went in. They took care of this skin afterwards and clothed me in an expensive wear that I wouldn't have dreamt of having without Eric.

 The fucking problem with Louisa is same as every weak and frustrated woman out there— “Stupidity”.

 Louisa is married to an alcoholic that maltreats her and she still stayed in the marriage defending the bald headed good-for-nothing. In a case where the motherfucker is at fault, she'd take it upon herself to defend his pride.

 “Fool” I muttered.

  Louisa is so full of herself that she thinks she's something, when she has nothing to her name but her son, her tacky wardrobe and an old model Range Rover.

 (Chuckles)

 She always thought she would leave off her brother forever. Then after his death, she thought she'd inherit something from him since her professional and financial life is a wreck, but instead she got nothing. She put all hope in a place she had none. Invested zero to get hundred. 

 But nowadays, she'd rather make bothering me her schedule than actually going out there to find a job.

 Louisa is too proud, she can't do anything right, not even how to raise a child right.

 She quit her last job because apparently she was rushed to get a piece of work done in the office, then she yelled at her boss and quit. For enabling her laziness, I blame my dearest Eric.

 Then her son, Austen?

 Don't get me started on how pathetically useless and greedy that one is.

 He is Eric's disowned that's why, I guess, he didn't talk much if him.

 Just as they say, truly, like father like son!.

 ***

 ***

 I focused more on my responsibilities after mourning my lover

 I learned a lot from watching Eric work himself. At those times, he taught me things which I actually listened to, apart from the sex and foreplay which was always mind blowing.

 I remember times he'd use his tongue on my clit right on top of his office desk. That one time I jolted because of his touches and knocked down his desk computer. He taught me a lesson alright... I learned, I learned with my fucking vagina. I recall that he carried me from his office to the car himself, because I couldn't walk and then from the car, when we reached home, to the bedroom and then he ruined my insides.

 I miss those captivating arms around my wrists, neck and waist, his hard built body on me. I miss his dangerous gaze enough to make a woman figuratively melt, I miss his penis in me every fucking night which Preston can't seem to cure and I miss his fingers that I'd have inside my mouth most of the times.

 Damn!, I'm a fucking whore.

 With the things I learned and with a lot of assistance I got this CEO thing right, and I made a way into the business world.

 Now known, in every part of this nation and beyond. I made a name for myself. I live off the fear I generate. It's toxic but I like it. It's what I want and it's what I'm getting.

 The way people saw McCoy Companies has changed. The reputation I've given myself and this place to be carried on by Wade when I finally find him, is indestructible.

 People needs to know that they're just some people you shouldn't mess with and that is to Wade's captors. They can run and hide but not for long. I would find them and I will put their heads on a chopping block.

 The nerve! 

 I'd make their deaths quick and pitiful but to them it'd feel like forever.

 For Eric, for Wade, for Myself.

 I'd dismantle anything in my way to greatness, meaning destroying many.

 But despite all the dead ends in finding Wade, I've lost no hope. I won't stop no matter what anyone does. Years has passed, Eric's death has faded into memory but I made sure that Wade's disappearance remained in every phone using the internet inside or outside every pocket, every news channel, newspaper and magazines in this damned country and beyond.

 I owe it to Eric.

 I made sure police departments were all in the same page, having the best detectives on the job.

 But then of course, I'd also focus on growing my businesses and clearing the competitions...

 The competition?

 Goldman Establishments, my biggest opposition. A car dealership company that wishes that I do not rest with how good they're doing.

 It's pressing, statistics are rising every week.

 Yet my suspicions about the Goldmans remain—their involvement in my son's disappearance.

 Years back, Goldman Establishments launched a new car. Fast, sleek, and attractive. A model I paid a bloody amount to own. A mobile that was limited to only ten in the world and only three individuals has one of these in this country, that was sold at high prices in an exclusive auction.

 Rafael Goldman, the Chief Executive of Goldman's Establishments.

 He's the type of man you'd like to call charming, attractive, handsome but the truth is this, he couldn't be any more dirty to me which I tend to find him less attractive every time.

 Women, apparently see him as a god. Drooling over the filth as if he's worth it. He is a narcissist, a misogynistic man, who only cares for his son– Sidney Goldman. Then there's his wife—Marie Goldman. But instead the world glorifies and only shows the good parts. 

Plus the fact that he might just be the man I'm looking for...

 One of the CCTV footages, shows the car that took Wade to be that fine mobile co-produced by Goldman's Establishments.

 ****

 I have never been a friendly kind. And people did seem to dislike me because of my success and, two, because apparently Louisa has dedicated her life to bringing me down.

 (chuckles)

 —‘I'm the cause of her brother's death?’, ‘I'm not doing nothing to find her poor nephew?’, ‘I'm a whore?’ and ‘I'm a gold-digger, I'm a thief?’

 Well, I suppose that's what she can afford to do. 

 ****