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Common ground
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
An undeserved second chance Visitor
Toby, Becca’s younger brother arrived at her house in the evening the following day. He took one look at her and whopped in equal parts of surprise and excitement, staring at her large, round stomach with wide eyes as he got out of the taxi to meet her where she was standing in her driveway to welcome him.“What? You’ve never seen a pregnant woman before? Are you not going to grab your luggage, or do you want the taxi driver to have it as a Christmas present?” Becca asked him playfully, although she couldn’t exactly say that she blamed him for his surprise. After all, she saw herself in the mirror every day and was only getting used to the big, tired-looking woman that she saw every day. It was all going to be so worth it in the end, though.“Ah, right!” Toby said and went back to pick up his small luggage, before coming back to hug her gently, taking care to avoid her stomach. Becca rolled her eyes and hugged him back tightly. She had missed him so much, and the last time that she ha
An undeserved second chance A slip of the tongue
Becca and Toby arrived at Dan’s house at exactly ten minutes past eight. Dan opened the door to let them in, looking like a million bucks. From the looks of him, he had just freshly showered and smelled so good that Becca fought the urge to lean into him. She was keenly aware of her brother, who was looking between her and Dan, though, so she smiled at Dan and tried her best to act normal. “Hey, you. What’s up? Why are you dressed up? Oh, this is my brother Toby, whom I told you was coming to spend Christmas and New Year holidays with me. Toby, this is Dan, Sandra’s brother.” Becca introduced them. They both shook hands. “Nice to meet you, Toby. Becca here can hardly stop talking about you.” “It’s nice to meet you too, Dan. My sister says that you’re a doctor.” Toby said to Dan. Becca rolled her eyes good-naturedly. Her brother was very passionate about becoming a doctor someday. It was a good thing that Ryan had made provision to help him through med school, if he ever got in, whi
An undeserved second chance The start of something new
The snow began to fall on Christmas eve, lightly at first, and then more seriously later on, just as Sandra had predicted. By the time it was morning, everywhere was white with snow, and so beautiful that it was breathtaking. Becca got up late, feeling particularly sluggish this morning, despite the fact that she had gone to bed quite early. Her lower back was hurting more than usual, and she kept reaching behind her unconsciously to rub at it.By the time she took her bath and padded to the living room, Toby had already prepared breakfast and was sipping a cup of hot coffee while talking to what she assumed will be one of his friends on the phone. He hung up some minutes after she came to sit down opposite him.“Good morning, big sis. You look like crap.” He told her matter of factly.“Gee, thanks Toby for your kind words. You sure know how to raise a woman’s self-esteem a million notches. However, you're right, but I guess I not only look like crap. I feel like it too.”“Well, I jus
An undeserved second chance Accusations
“Uh … what the hell is that, Becca?” Dan asked incredulously, staring at Becca as though she had somehow, managed to grow two heads right in front of him.“I believe that you can clearly see what it is, Dan, or have you suddenly become blind?” Becca asked jokingly, laughing a little and enjoying his reaction far more than she had thought that she would.“It’s a freaking motorcycle … a machine … a beast … a beauty … oh, my God!”“Stop drooling, Dan. Drooling doesn’t look good on you. Don’t worry, it’s all yours.” She finished, raising an eyebrow at him, but suddenly, she realized that he was not pleased, at least not in the way she had thought that he would be.“It’s a freaking sports bike. A brand new sports bike. How on earth and when did you have this delivered that we didn’t notice?” Dan exclaimed, in equal parts of wonder and dismay, as he moved around the bike, and inspected every inch of it. He seemed to like it but was clearly not happy that she got it for him.“Well, I have my
An undeserved second chance A gloomy Christmas
Christmas Day in Ryan’s residence was spent in a gloomy mood and atmosphere. Everyone in the house, not just Ryan, moved about as solemnly and somberly as though someone had died again, or was about to. Even the twins seemed to know that something was wrong, and did not babble as much as they usually did, neither did they offer their happy smiles as Ryan came into their nursery to see them that morning. For the past two and a half weeks since Craig’s burial, Ryan had been living in perpetual fear that the twin's grandparents would act on their threat to fight for custody of them. However, a few days ago, he had begun to relax, and think that all was well, especially when Craig’s mother had texted him, asking how the twins were and if he could send pictures of them in the clothes that she sent them for Christmas. Ryan had happily obliged and had begun to think that everything was now okay between them, and she had accepted that the twins should live with him, only for him to be served
An undeserved second chance Reward at last
The next seven hours after the first mild contraction that Becca felt, were ones that drove away her fear and anxiety about the so-called labor pains. The contractions she was feeling were not bad at all, and even though she knew that it was only early labor, the pain was still not as bad as she had feared.“You know, this is not as difficult as I had always thought that it would be.” She said to Sandra, who had not left since that afternoon after Becca had given her and Dan their gifts. Dan had had to go to the hospital again about an hour ago.“I know, right? Anyway, let’s see if you’ll still be saying that in some hours to come.” Sandra replied, laughing with a knowing expression on her face.“No, I know it’s going to get worse, but then, I feel that with this start, it is not going to be as bad as I imagined.” Becca insisted, taking a sip of water from a bottle and biting into a biscuit. Once she finished eating the biscuit, she got up and began to go into her room.“Where are you
An undeserved second chance Depression
The worry that Ryan had been feeling since Christmas day intensified as the days passed and the New Year approached. If not that he had the twins to look after now, he would have turned to the only way he dealt with stressful and painful situations … which was drinking himself into a stupor. However, he had the twins to think about now, and could not afford to be near them perpetually drunk. It said a lot about the type of person that he had become, and he realized that it wasn’t only Angela who had grown, but also him.However, he began to have sleepless and restless nights, no matter how hard he tried to exercise so that he could be tired enough to sleep. The only thing that consumed his mind was the fear of losing the kids to their grandparents. If he was being truthful to himself, that wasn’t the only thing troubling him. As much as he did not like to think of her, thoughts of Becca came unbidden into his mind, and he caught himself wondering how she was faring and if she ever tho
An undeserved second chance Argument
“I didn’t know you had such an outdated phone. What on earth are you keeping it for, when you could buy as many of the latest phones as you want?” Angela asked him, eyeing the phone on the bed with distaste, and coming to sit beside him.“It’s not so outdated, Angela.”“Nonsense. So long as there is a new model, it is outdated, and there are up to four or more newer models. You’re stinkingly rich, so you should have only the best and latest of everything. That’s what fits your status. I’ll just get rid of this.” She stated, picking the phone and making to get up, but Ryan snatched the phone from her immediately.“You will do no such thing.” He blurted out, getting up himself and putting the phone in his pocket.“Oh.” A surprised and offended Angela breathed. “You didn’t have to be so harsh. Look, you nicked me all because of an outdated phone.” She complained, raising her hand to examine it better in the light.“I’m sorry, Angela. I didn’t mean to. I just keep the phone for sentimenta
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An undeserved second chance Promises
It felt as though large bags of cement were holding down Ryan’s eyelids, and try as he might, he could not force them open. He could hear his daughters’ voices as they talked over themselves about something that he did not have the energy to follow. Then he heard Becca’s low voice asking them to keep it down so as not to wake daddy.“But daddy won’t wake up. He never does. I want him to wake up.” Taylor said, banging on the table and chanting ‘wake up, daddy’ several times. Within seconds, Emma took up the chanting too, while Becca tried in vain to get them to quieten.“Your dad is unconscious, but we have to hope that he will wake up soon. If you don’t behave yourselves, I won’t let you come visit him again. The doctors think that he might be able to hear you. He wouldn’t like it if you both were being stubborn and disturbing him, would he?” Becca asked.“No. I just miss him so much. I’m glad that those bad men are gone.” Emma’s voice said, and then Ryan felt a small hand patting his
An undeserved second chance A broken heart
Becca watched in horror as Sam and Ryan collapsed to the ground, almost as though in slow motion. They fell gracefully, as though they were doing a dance, and then both remained unmoving. By the time all this happened, Ben had gotten to the car and opened the door to the backseat in which the children were, the remaining cash from the ten thousand that Ryan brought firmly clutched in his hand. He opened the car door, produced a knife from seemingly nowhere, and although it took great effort because of his busted shoulder, he managed to cut off the ropes binding them and told them to make a run for it. Then as the shots rang out, he somehow managed to get himself into the driver's seat and drove recklessly away from the scene. The children ran towards Becca, crying and shivering, and after hugging them all briefly, she ordered them not to move from where they were. Ryan’s head of security was combing the bushes, trying to find a sign of any other person there, after he called for help
An undeserved second chance Confusion
“He’s clean.” The man who was watching Ryan and who had searched him said at last after he was satisfied that there was nothing incriminating on him.“Where’s the other car?”“Travis is bringing it.”“Good. He'll leave with this one.” The man said. Ryan’s heart sank further. There was yet another of them, making them four, and those were the ones he knew about. Ryan wondered which of them was Sandra’s ex-husband.“I’ve fulfilled my own end of the bargain. Release my children.” Ryan said.“The man in the car will take them back to town, where they’ll easily be found.” The man who had been giving commands told him, staring at him in a way that made him extremely uncomfortable. Ryan had already dubbed him ‘commander’ in his mind.They stood there waiting for the person called Travis to bring the car that they were waiting for. Ryan was on edge the whole time, wondering if at any moment now, all hell was going to break loose. If only the children were already out of there. The Travis guy
An undeserved second chance The meeting
The night air was cold, and the streets deserted, which was not a surprise, considering how late, or early it was. Ryan hurried through the streets, his head down, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible as he hurried through the night with the bag in his hands, even though there was nobody around. He had been warned not to take his phone along with him, so he left it in his room, along with a note for Becca in her room, explaining what he had done. Even though everything in him pushed him to look back to see if he would notice his head of security following him, he resisted the urge to look back.The kidnappers might be watching him and the last thing he needed was to look suspicious. He trusted his people's ability to do the job. The other man had once been a private investigator before coming into Ryan’s employ, so Ryan was confident in their abilities to blend in with the shadows. Finally, he got to the place where he had been told to come and saw the car that had been provide
An undeserved second chance A walk in the night
Sleep was a long time coming for Ryan, as it had been since he got the news of his children’s kidnap got to him. Tonight, he was sleeping in his room as against the previous night, when he had spent the night comforting Becca. She was sleeping in the guest room again, with Sandra this time around. Ryan was trying his best to be strong for her, but he was getting to the end of his endurance. The thought of his sick daughter and her sister holed up somewhere with some bloody kidnappers was enough to make him go insane.He got up from his bed, pacing to and fro the wide length of his room, his mind in turmoil. The money was in the process of being sent, but since it was such a large sum, it would be days before the kidnappers would get it in the account details they sent. Were the children supposed to remain with the kidnappers till then? The thought of that sickened and scared him to no end. He was operating on autopilot, having not had more up to five hours of sleep in two days, but ea
An undeserved second chance New plans
“Ben has to go.” Sam thought to himself, as he sat with the children, watching them. It wasn’t as though they had anywhere to go, or that they could escape, considering that one of them was sick. If they even managed to escape, the chances were that they would die of starvation in the dense forest, that was if some animal did not get to them first, as he had told them. None of it mattered to him anyway, because they were going to die one way or the other. What mattered was that the millions that he was expecting became his before they died. He had thought and thought of the best way to dispose of them, and he had finally come up with a smart plan to dump them in a river some distance away from here. it would be ages before they would be found, if they were ever found, that is.One thing was sure, however, and that was the fact that he was not going to let them get back to their parents and let them know that he was the one who had kidnapped them. For all his tough talk while they were
An undeserved second chance Not to be trusted
Becca awoke with a start, immediately realizing that she was not in her own bed. The events of the previous day came rushing back to her in a jiffy. Ryan was not in the room any longer and her phone was ringing. That was the sound that had woken her up. She dived for it, hoping that it was the kidnappers who were calling. They were to send the account details in which they wanted the ransom to be paid today, and also let Becca and Ryan talk to the kids today. Becca had sent the names of the drugs that Emma was supposed to be using, to the kidnappers, but she didn’t know if they received them. It wasn’t the kidnappers who were calling though, but Trevor. “Becca? Where are you? I was at your house last night, and I’m here now. I’m just coming from your school and was told you hadn’t come in today.”“I’m at Ryan’s place.” There was a short silence, which was filled with disapproval from Trevor’s end.“What are you doing there?”“Emma, Alex, and Taylor were kidnapped yesterday.” Becca in
An undeserved second chance Feverish
Sleep was a long time coming for Becca and when it finally came, it was filled with nightmares. Never in her life had she been so frightened. Her daughter and other kids whom she saw as hers were out there somewhere in the hands of a maniac and she was here lying in a very large and comfortable in one of the guest rooms in Ryan’s house. Maybe she had been wrong in asking Ryan not to involve the police. Maybe by now, the police would have found them, or at least, would be close to doing so. She sure as hell did not trust Sam to take care of three children for as long as it took them to send him the money.She tossed and turned on the bed, her mind drawing up different scenarios, none of them good. Finally, she fell into an unrestful sleep and dreamt that for some reason, Sam had gotten pissed, and had sent Emma’s two feet, and all ten of Taylor’s fingers in the mail, with a note that said Alex’s head would follow suit. In the dream, as soon as she opened the bag containing the gruesome
An undeserved second chance Captives
“Damn! I can’t believe how far we’ve come. We’re going to be bloody millionaires before long.” Ben told Sam enthusiastically, as he wolfed down a large bowl of pasta that he had prepared himself. “Yeah, me too. I hope the account into which we’re sending the money is legit.” Sam said in turn. He was also eating a plate of pasta, but he was eating his food more slowly than Ben was.“You’ve asked me this several times, and I’ve told you several times that you have nothing to fear. I’ve done stuff like this numerous times before, just not with such a large amount, and I have the right connections. Or don’t you trust me? The only thing is that we’re going to give a commission to the person helping us, but we will still have a lot of cash when we’re done. That’s for sure.”“Okay. I trust you. Are you sure they’re not dead yet or going to die? Why aren’t they awake? It’s been hours. I’m starting to get worried. That Ryan guy seems like he might pose a problem. He would not give us the money
