Iris opened her eyes as the sun squeezed inside the room through the small gap between the curtains. Her eyes immediately went to Luca’s side of the bed, and she sighed in disappointment when she met it empty.It had been the same thing for over a week now. After their argument, she and Luca had been living like strangers. Luca made it worse by making himself scarce. He was barely home and almost never in their bed when she went to sleep at night or woke up the next morning. And when he was home, he barely acknowledged her. He would ignore her as if she didn’t exist and Iris soon found out that was what she hated and feared the most, Luca ignoring her. All her efforts to talk to him and try to apologize once again failed since Luca wouldn’t give her even a glance. The entire staff knew they were fighting, and she had noticed the way they were so awkward when she and Luca were in the same room, especially when he treated her like they were enemies. Iris knew she shouldn’t have done
“My phone” Iris reached out but her hands were trembling, she couldn’t hold them out for too long before they dropped back to her side. There weren’t words to describe the terror she felt. She had a hard time believing that was her friend and wanted to see the pictures again to confirm that it was her friend that was tied up there.“Give me my phone” Her voice shook with every word as she reached for the phone again. This time, it was handed to her.Her head felt tight, like it was filled with barrels and barrels of water and her vision was slowly becoming blurry.“No, no, no” She chanted and she swiped through every picture. Hailey was almost unconscious and she didn’t even want to dare to think of how much she had gone through in such a short time. There were marks littering Hailey’s body.This was fear. Terror. And it was different from what she felt when she thought she was going to die at the hands of Jace. Her heart squeezed painfully as she got to the last picture. Hailey’s fac
Iris’s mind blanked out for a minute before she recovered.“Luca? You kidnapped Hailey because you wanted my husband? Are you insane?” Iris tried to swallow the bile in her throat but it wouldn’t budge.“Yes, Iris. I am insane and you can’t imagine what I would do until Luca becomes mine”Iris’s legs wobbled as she tried not to spiral again. “You are crazy. I’m not going to leave my husband because you have some weird obsession over him. You better release Hailey and stop the nonsense”“Are you still trying to prove stubborn?” Iris expected her to say something childish but she didn’t.“I guess you want to be responsible for the death of two people, one of which haven’t even gotten the opportunity to see the face of the person who sacrificed them to keep something that isn’t hers”Helen began to cackle while Iris’s spine stiffened in terror. Iris couldn’t breathe.Helen knew about Hailey’s baby. How she came to know about it was the least of her worries. Now she understood why Hailey
Iris’s hands numbly fell to her side and the phone landed on the ground. The sound of a crack was apparent but that was the last thing on Iris’s mind. Hailey was in danger because of her. She was caught in something that she had no business with just because she was close to her and it made her nauseous.There was a knock on the door but she couldn’t even bring her legs to move so she could open the door. After a few minutes, she heard keys dangling and the door was pushed open to reveal James behind the door with the bunch of keys.“Is everything okay?” Ace asked, appearing from behind James whose eyes scanned the room for potential threats before he walked away, leaving her and Ace alone. “How did you know the house was bugged? Is it related to Hailey? Have you gotten a hold of her and why is this here?”The questions that flew from Ace’s mouth bounced over her head as he bent down to pick up her phone to hand it to her. She took the phone without a word and couldn’t even stare at i
The bank was almost empty when she entered so Iris made her way straight to the withdrawal counter where a lady sat and had no customer she was attending to.“Good morning, Mrs Rutherford, how may I help you today?” The lady greeted with a genuine smile which Iris felt bad that she couldn’t return. She was surprised that the lady had recognized her immediately and even got up as a sign of respect.“I want to withdraw all the money from my account” She replied immediately, not bothering with the formalities. She wasn’t bothered about the money since it wasn’t from the account Luca had opened for her but the one in which all her royalty for her book that went viral had been paid.“What?” The lady asked with her mouth opened wide in shock and Iris didn’t blame her. The money there was over ten million dollars if she remembered correctly. She stopped checking when it hit that number and it was months ago.She suspected that she was still earning royalty for that book and it was still bein
Iris looked around to find the source of the voice and the sight she met made her blood vessels freeze in terror. There in the far end of the warehouse, almost hidden by the shadows stood Helen with a grin so wide, it felt like her face would rip in half but that wasn’t what made her feel like the room was spiralling out of control. It was the gun pointed at Hailey’s head while Helen held onto the hair as she tried to breathe properly through the cloth that had been tied over her mouth and nose. The cloth wasn’t there when Helen had sent the first set of pictures so she must have placed it when she confirmed that she was coming.Hailey was tied to a chair with ropes that Iris could see tearing into her skin from the bruises that had already formed around the area where she was tied.Iris had to hold on to herself so she would stumble from the fear. Hailey eyes met hers and she tried to say something but it was muffled by the clothes.Iris got over her shock and practically ran toward
Iris didn’t give her a reply because she knew it was a rhetorical question. Helen was practically glowing because she thought she had Iris under her thumb ready to be squashed by her.Helen gave Iris a frigid smile “Did you know that I always hated you?”Iris held back the eye roll that threatened to appear. Was that really a question Helen was hoping she didn’t already know the answer to it? That was something Iris knew her entire life. If the way they treated her was not evidence enough then she didn’t know what else counted.Helen didn’t wait for Iris to reply before she continued “I hate everything about you. Just seeing your face makes my blood boil and I just want to rip you apart. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who yearned for sympathy the way you do and I hate that you get it so easily. Everywhere you go, everyone feels bad for you when all you should be getting is the same boiling rage I have towards you”Iris brows hitched in surprise. Not at the feelings Helen felt but
Iris felt the sudden rush of air as she fell to the ground with a thud. She gulped the air greedily as fast as her now weakened body would allow her. She was wheezing like a dying card as she inhaled the air she needed to gain a hold of her surroundings.“Are you mad?” Iris heard Helen scream and it was then she looked up at what was happening. By then, she felt much better but her heart was racing a million miles per second. Adrenaline still fuelling her. “Why did you stop me” She yelled and tried to shove the man which was funny considering their size difference. The man didn’t budge with her push and she screamed again like a crazy person.It was then Iris realized that one of the men had stopped Helen from killing her and the said man had just received a slap from Helen. Iris wondered if her palms were not throbbing from the number of slaps she had dealt today.It seemed like either the man was used to Helen’s antics or he was just an extremely calm person because he didn’t react