Mila “Are you sure?” Jasper asked for the third time.I nodded my head. “Yes. And I have a debt to pay.” I squeezed his hand. “And I am sure you will be back quickly.”The door opened, and my eyes met a familiar set of kind eyes. “Mila?” Jaha questioned, his surprise clear on his face.“Oh, Jaha!” I hugged him tightly.“I thought— What happened?” He fell into russian as his voice grew scared as he asked, “Ty v poryadke? Ty v opasnosti?” Are you alright? Are you in danger?I grabbed his old age wrinkled hands and said, “No, I am fine for the moment. I need to stay here for just an hour. If you will—”“Of course.” He pulled me inside but as he made to shut the doo

Mila  I turned to Jasper as Jonathan stepped out of the car, making my stomach squeeze painfully in dread. “What is he doing?” Instead of answering me, Jasper pulled the car from the curb and started to drive, his jaw clenching and unclenching as his fingers tightened on the steering wheel.“Oh... No...”I turned around at the horrified gasp from Sia. With my knees on the passenger seat I put my hand on the leather seat and turned around to look out through the rear window just in time to see how a group of men holding assault rifles circled around my husband and one of them punched him hard in the stomach.“Stop the fucking car!” I yelled at Jasper and tried to pull at his arm. My heart was screaming to get my husband back by my side.He easily shrugged

Jeremiah  I stood at the threshold of the room that was kept as a souvenir where I lost a part of me. A part that makes me hate my own reflection and a part that made me fill with deep seated bitterness that refused to leave me. Because of which now I could no longer look at my own reflection without feeling rage and disgust at what I see and when I see it only feel the need to cause mayhem.From what I had heard, my father kept it as a reminder to get revenge from the man who was responsible for his loss of a wife and his heir.But me... seeing this, all I wanted to do was to alight it once again so that I wouldn’t have to recall the heat I had felt, the blow to my head, the sender of betrayal that had consumed me, the blood that had seeped out of my mother from the bullet between her chest. Like me, she hadn’t expected that.

Jonathan  When I reached upstairs I found my brother standing in his bedroom. He asked without facing me, “Why did you keep all of this?”Emotions clogged my throat as I thought about all the years I spent cursing our fate. Wishing that it had been me instead of him. Praying that he would come back. And now looking at him, I couldn’t form words. Without saying anything, I closed the distance between us and hugged him from behind.There was a moment where he stood still and I doubted that he even breathed, before he turned around and hugged me properly. “I couldn’t seal it all away. I missed you every single day for twelve years, Jeremy. And I can’t explain it in words how happy I am that you are here.”He patted my back and when we parted I watched him blinking away his tears

  Epilogue       Seven months later…   Capetown       Mila       I slid out of the bed, my hand going to my protruding belly where our son was currently playing football with my bladder. I patted softly as I muttered, “Stop it, little cub, mama is awake.”   I looked across the room at the small digital clock and realized that it was four in the morning. Even before I woke up I knew Jonathan wasn't in the bed with me. In the last few months he had focused on me and in expanding his wine business as much as h