Who did you murder this time?

Ophelia had thought about it long and hard. The only way she would have any peace was if Ariel died now. 

In fact, the only reason her peace had been temporary was because she did not do a good job of killing the woman the first time.

She was close to the bitch now, it was satisfying to see how her face had gone white, and her eyes opened in shock. 

It would be impossible to jump out of the way in time to save herself.

But suddenly, practically out of nowhere, Blaine appeared beside her. 

Ophelia was so frightened that for one moment her brain froze. 

She was now dangerously close, about to crash into both of them.

She managed to just steer the car away, and drove off fast.

She glanced in the rearview mirror to see some securities chasing after her car. 

At the same time, she heard a scream and quickly turned again to look in front of her car. 

She narrowly avoided the young mom and toddler who had been crossing the road. Onlookers were screaming.

By the time Ophelia managed to catch her breath, and avoid any further accidents, the cops were hard on her tail.

She was sweating. 

She seemed to be making an even greater mess of everything. 

There was only one person close to this location that could save her now. 

She drove fast to Draco’s house. 

As soon as Draco’s guards outside his mansion recognised her in the car, they swung into action.

She jumped out of the car and ran in, knowing she was safe, knowing Draco’s men would handle the car and the cops.

A guard took her up to Draco. 

He was sitting by the lit up pool on the rooftop, quietly smoking and staring into the night.

“Put that shit out, I hate the smell of it.” She said, as the guard bowed and left them alone.

The blue and gold coloured lights from the pool cast shadows everywhere.

Draco looked up and smiled. 

He was handsome the way only an Italian could be.

“I was just thinking about you, what are the odds that you show up.” He said, put his hands on the pool’s surrounding pavement, and in one smooth swing he was up, 

“Not by choice.” Ophelia said.

His lips curled up in a slow smile. He tossed the big cigar into the pool, and started walking up to her.

“Keep your hands to yourself, Draco, I did not come here for you.” She said, recognising the glint in his eyes.

He stopped just before her, and looked down into her eyes. 

“Now, that is hard for me to believe. You suddenly show up after over one year of running away to marry your old-money simp.”

“I did not come here for you.” She repeated, as her mind raced.

She wondered if Draco’s guards had managed to send the cops away. 

It was crazy how quickly everything was going wrong since Ariel reappeared. 

It distressed her that she had not gotten rid of the woman that night. She did not know when next she would get such an opportunity again, or if she would ever get another one.

Her body trembled at the thought of this, and Draco’s arms enveloped her. 

It was tempting. 

Especially as Blaine had not been very affectionate towards her lately. Even more tempting when she thought back to her old times with Draco.

She stepped back.

She had a lot on her plate at the moment. 

Draco would be too much to handle if he got in this mix too. Draco was a handful.

He was looking at her with an amused smile. “Kiss me.”

“No.”

But he stepped up anyway, held her neck and buried his lips in hers. 

That was Draco. He was a handful. 

It was difficult to not enjoy his warm, fiery lips taking, wanting, like Blaine’s used to in the past.

She snapped out of it, and bit into Draco’s lips, drawing blood. 

He smacked her butt, hard, but let her go.

“You have not changed one bit.” He wiped the blood off his lip with the tip of his thumb, staring at her.

She knew she had to leave. The cops would be gone by now. 

It would be difficult to resist Draco if she stayed too long here.

She turned, and began to walk away. But she soon ran into a hard chest.

“My house is no hotel, you cannot just stop by, and then leave.” His eyes were amused, he always looked this way, carefully masking how dangerous he was.

“Who said I can’t?”

“Tell me what brought you here, Ophelia.”

“I needed a place to hide from the cops.”

“Who did you murder this time?”

She slapped him. 

He laughed, and wiped his face. 

“I see I can no longer trust you for protection.” She said angrily.

“Not when you are hiding things from me. Who has suddenly begun to ruin your life?”

She was tempted to give him Ariel’s name. 

It would be so easy. If anyone could kill Ariel it was Draco. It would be quick and clean.

But doing that would be admitting that her marriage to Blaine was not perfect. And if there was anything she hated more than failure, it was imperfection.

“You know I can help you.” He said, suddenly grabbing her chin. 

She stared at him angrily, “I don’t need your help.”

“You do. That is the only reason you are here. You realise only Draco can help and protect you. Your husband with all his aristocracy will always be a simp.”

She was tempted to slap him again, but she knew she would not get away with it this time. 

She pushed his hand off. 

She commended herself for being wise enough to not tell him about Ariel, as walked out.

I walked into the living room, still shaking from all that had happened in just one evening.

I did not doubt for even one minute that whoever had attempted to run me over, had been sent by Ophelia. 

But just like her past crimes, there was no way to prove it.

The cops had been unable to catch the driver. They said the car had suddenly disappeared during the chase.

“Honey.” Kan said, walking towards me as soon as he saw me.

“Why is Oliver not in bed?” I said, trying to smile at baby Oliver who was now grinning toothless at me from Kan’s arms.

“He was restless. I had to go take him from the nanny, the poor thing was burnt out.”

I glanced at Kan, thinking back to the time he would not even touch Oliver when he was just born. 

I took Oliver from him, dropping my purse on the floor.

I bounced him around as he began to get restless again.

“I saw what happened on the news. I was just speaking with the cops over the phone when you got here. They said the licence plate on the car was fake.” Kan said, watching me.

I nodded. 

I had held no hope at them getting any information from the licence number. Ophelia was smarter than that.

Oliver was shimmying down my body, restless to get down so he could crawl around everywhere.

“What exactly happened?”

“I don’t know. A car I had barely noticed suddenly began to drive towards me as I waited outside the company.”

“Outside the company? What were you doing outside?” Kan looked at me in confusion.

Avoiding Blaine I said internally as my eyes scanned the room for Oliver. 

He was crawling around the centre of the living room. 

“Come back here, Oliver.” I said. 

He stopped midway in his crawl, and grinned at me with his pink gum and began to crawl even faster.

“What were you doing outside the company, Ariel?” Kan repeated, drawing back my attention.

“Waiting for my car.”

“Why would you have to wait for your car outside?” He said carefully, now squinting at me suspiciously.

At that moment, I heard a soft plop on the floor, followed by a sound no mother wanted to hear. 

It was a painful strangled sound. 

Even before I turned towards Oliver, I knew what he was trying to do. The sound of him struggling for air tore at the inside fabric of my belly.

My son was choking.