I stared at detective Spencer for almost a full minute before I could gather enough strength to speak. It was one thing for his family to not approve of the relationship I had with Damien, but a whole detective who barely knew the happenings inside of Damien’s life telling me that was something I had to be cautious about. “I don’t understand. If there’s something you think I should know before going through with this marriage, you need to tell me. You’re a cop, so it would be on you if you hid something that could possibly be a danger to me,” I reminded him, glaring as if that would intimidate him into vomiting every answer I needed. “Let me ask you one thing, and I need you to be honest with me,” he said, and I nodded. I wasn’t even sure that I would be able to lie to a detective without getting caught out. “Do you love him? Are you here because you’re in love with him, or is there something else involved that you both don’t want anyone to know?” he asked.
“You’re going to bring the money to me, but you won’t tell a single soul,” the man on the other end of the phone commanded me, causing me to swallow a lump in my throat. If I told Damien, he wouldn’t know about it, right? “That includes the man you have been going around town with, Lauren.” I stopped dead in my tracks when he said this, but I refused to ask him how he knew about Damien. There was nobody else that he could be talking about. “I don’t understand,” I attempted to play dumb, but this only made him laugh darkly and send a chill down my back. “You think I wouldn’t catch up with you and figure out what you were doing? You know, I paid a little visit to that apartment where you used to live. It turns out you moved out with the help of a man that seems to have a lot of money,” he said, confirming to me that he was referring to Damien and had been asking around. His braveness was surprising, and the relief I felt was heavy after finding out tha
“What are you doing with that?!” I exclaimed, attempting to make my way towards the door and run for my life if it came down to it. “Relax, Lauren. I’m not going to hurt you if that’s what you think,” he chuckled lightly, pointing the gun away from my direction but still scaring me with it anyway. I didn’t even get to ask why he would have a gun before figuring the answer out by myself – he had the money to get something like that, legally or illegally. “You’re not going to attempt to shoot those people, are you? You do know that it’s not just one person, right?” I asked, starting to regret letting him know that this was about my mother. His getting a gun prepared was a recipe for disaster that I didn’t want to know the taste of. “I’m going to drive you all the way and pretend to be a taxi driver. I’ll drive away, but I’ll scope out the area and find somewhere close enough but not too close,” he suggested. “You can’t do that,” I disagreed with a shak
“Did you not hear me?” The man asked, standing and towering over me with his gun now aimed straight at my head, touching my forehead. “Pick up the damn phone and put it on speaker before I blow your brains out and pick it up myself to tell him where to pick up your body.” The phone stopped ringing before I could pick it up, and this frustrated the man enough to use his right hand to swipe through the air and straight at my face. I gasped as I immediately placed my hand against my cheek in shock and hurt. “The next time you are called by that old man of yours, I want you to pick it up and do as I said, do you understand me?” he asked, and I immediately nodded without hesitation as my cheek stung. Not long after, my phone started to ring again, and his gun returned to my forehead. “Pick it up fast, Lauren. I have no time for this nonsense you’re trying to pull with me,” he said as impatiently as he could, and I didn’t hesitate to pick the phone up and
“Katarina? What are you… Who told you about my mother?” I frowned, the shock of it all settling in my bones at the one person who knew about it – Damien. I wasn’t sure about Damien picking up the phone and calling Katarina to tell her about my mother and my struggles. “Why does it matter who I heard it from? I just called to make sure you’re doing okay. If you want, I can come over to keep you company until you’re doing fine. Would that be okay?” She asked, and I only realized just how annoyed I was by her voice at that very moment. “I’m doing pretty fine, thank you for the offer. I don’t want you coming just yet. I have some things to sort out with myself before I can see or talk to anyone again,” I said and hung up to have the last word. I sighed, placing my hands against my hips and looking at the ceiling as I thought about how I would approach and confront Damien about it. Just because he had been of big help didn’t mean he had the right to go around an
“Why aren’t you answering me? Is your mother a drug addict or not?” Darla pressed as I stood in front of her, my mouth opening and closing for lack of words forming in my head as I tried to explain but had no idea what there was to explain to her. “Enough, Darla. Stop harassing her. This isn’t what you should be saying to her at a time like this,” Damien said, taking her hand and pulling her away from me so that I could have enough space to turn to the table and place the plate on the table as my appetite eluded me. “What do you mean by that? I just found out that her mother stole drugs worth over two million dollars, Damien. By your reaction, I can tell that you know all about this. Why doesn’t this bother you?!” She grabbed his shoulders and shook him as if shaking some sense into him. “Stop acting like this, Darla. Remember that you are under my roof and I have no problems with getting you out if I want to,” he said to her, forcing her to take a seat.
As soon as I saw the text on my phone, I didn’t hesitate to dial the number that had sent it to me, my nerves going every which way as I heard it ring until someone finally picked up the phone. “Hello? Who is this? Are you sure I can just come get her? Please just tell me this is real. I’ll be there right now,” I rambled into the phone, not knowing if it was going to annoy the person on the other side or if I was speaking to one of the people who had taken her in the first place. “I already gave you the address and everything else. Be here before she leaves,” a masculine voice on the other side of the phone came through, and I picked up my purse and burst out of the room. I paused in front of Damien’s door, not sure whether to tell him about it or not, but I figured that he must have fallen asleep after claiming to be tired. I sent a quick text to him from my phone to let him know that I was going to pick my mother up and was sure about it. When I di
“Miss Lauren Walter, we’re calling to inform you that your father has officially gone over two weeks without providing the payment for your father’s treatments. He’ll be taken off treatment in the next five days if the payment isn’t made.”“No, please. I—”The loud beep came, signalling that the woman on the other side of the phone had hung up.“Oh, God. No, no, no,” I muttered to myself, wiping my stray tears. “Fuck!”I walked back through the backdoor and into the kitchen of the restaurant where I worked as a waitress.I took shaky breaths, wiping the cold sweat off my forehead as I walked towards the manager’s office.“Come on in,” his gruff voice responded right after I knocked on the door.The door creaked open, revealing the man with his salt-and-pepper hair and matching moustache sitting behind his desk. There was a toothpick in his mouth and he sat almost lazily. The customized, illuminated nameplate on his table, which a lot of the staff laughed at behind his back, drew my at