CHAPTER THREE

ZAYNE 

Fuck. She shut her eyes. 

I reached for her neck, trying to feel a pulse but nothing was forthcoming. 

My hands on the steering wheel tightened as I increased the speed. 

I couldn't let her die. She was the only one on earth right now that could help me get what I wanted. The only one who would understand what needed to be done when broken enough. 

I reached for her neck again. A pulse, one so faint that it was fleeting. 

“ Follow my voice, listen to me” i tried to communicate. 

I was terrible at this. Terrible at coaxing. All I ever knew was control, dominate and win. Nothing else. 

I stopped at the private hospital, one I had immediately prepared the moment her husband signed off her death with a pretentious tear in his eyes. I had seen the satisfaction beneath the facade…the excitement.

I was going to take it all away. Slam his head to his failure before finishing him off.

I walked faster than I had ever walked my entire life. Ian sighted me and his expression darkened.

“ I had warned you, she was not in any condition to leave the hospital but you insisted” he said, breathing heavily while walking after me. 

“ Save her” 

“ young master…I'm not some..” 

“ Save her.” I said bluntly and he hissed as I calmly placed her on the bed. 

She jerked, her hands clenching and unclenching. It was the kind of jerks she had immediately the innocence in her belly was soaked away with mere materials. 

It was the scene that made her husband smile too confidently, the one that made him sign a DNR, saying he didn't want his wife to suffer. The same voice I had heard in the audio recording while investigating my father's death. 

She still had life in her. Looking all frail and pale like she was about to sink into the eternal abyss of darkness.  I planned it, I replaced the body and moved hers in minutes. 

Her body jerked countlessly begging for attention, begging to be saved from the trauma. I could have let her die, the way I watch my shareholders whine under me, the way I watch my enemies scream in the pain and do nothing but she was my hope. 

She was a strategist, the one that had built my strongest enemy and the one that would slowly dismantle him. She was an asset and I needed to get her to my side. 

An hour later, Ian came out of the ward, his lips pale, beads of sweat on his forehead with shoulders won thin by pressure. 

“How is she?” I asked and he exhaled, pulling off his gloves weakly. 

“ Looking like she could die any moment from now”

There were very few people who didn't fear me as much as I wanted. Ian was one of them. He wasn't just a doctor, he was the only one I trusted. 

“Fine. Make sure to dig your grave beside hers then” 

“ She's fine” he gritted out and slumped onto the bench behind him.

I sighed and leaned on the wall. But, I didn't just want her alive or fine, I wanted her ready. 

“ Is two days enough?” 

Ian pressed his lips together, his fist and jaws clenched. 

“ Can you be any less cruel? She just lost her child!” 

I pinched the space between my nose then stood erect. “ Wrong answer. Yes or no” 

“ She needs weeks. Her body is still under shock and whatever she saw at ‘her’ funeral made it worse” 

“ A week at most then” 

Ian swallowed then stood up, “ what she needs now is not to be part of your scheme but to meet a therapist. She needs times to grief” 

I exhaled sharply. The election was in two months time, the votes are already in Samuel’s favour, further delay meant his powers and influence were going to be grounded. 

Defeating him was impossible by then.

“ She has to be fine,” I said, turning away.

Samuel was smart but he lacked the skills to cover his tracks. He committed regicide and left a mess behind. 

Fool. 

Also betrayed the only person that could have strategised his way out of the mess..

Stupid. Major mistake.

“She has nothing to do with your schemes” Ian said calmly …weakly. 

“ no, she doesn't but she would be” I said and walked away. “ Call when she awakes”. 

My phone buzzed. A message. 

“ Boss, the vice president has been spotted at the airport” 

My hands tightened around my phone. “ Lock down the border. Make sure he doesn't escape. He knows something.” I typed. 

Ian sighed behind me. 

“ No need. She's awake” he said.

I turned. Good. Let's get started..