“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
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
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
The rain beat down the roof of the Harris’s mansion in its fury this night, as it had done for the past three nights, as though it intended to pull off the roof of the house. The occupants of the grand living room paid the weather elements no mind though as they faced each other, one angry and unmoving with an impassive face, and the other tearful and pleading, but still trying to maintain an air of nonchalance, even though she knew that she was failing dismally. The dull weather mirrored exactly how Becca Harris was feeling. She was feeling dull, sad and most of all, the feeling of despair and pain refused to leave her. Pain that a man whom she loved with all her heart, had planned to spend the rest of her life with, and would gladly die for, was standing right in front of her and staring at her in utter disdain. But even worse than the look on his face were the words that he had uttered not more than a minute or two ago. “I want a divorce.” The worst thing about this whole thing ha
“I’m not signing anything. You must be drunk or out of your mind to think that I’ll sign those without an explanation. Whatever happened to you? You’re acting so strangely.” Becca ground out through clenched teeth, anger finally overcoming the pain that had been ravaging her and pushing it to the background. It was a welcome emotion, for Becca was sure that if she continued to feel the pain, she will faint from the force of it.“Oh, but you would sign them, Becca. You’re going to sign them whether you like it or not, or I’m going to make your life really miserable. You know I can do that.”Becca did not doubt that he could do that, but at that moment, she did not give a damn. “Do whatever the fuck you want, but the fact remains that I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of signing those papers since you can’t be bothered to act civil in such a matter as delicate as this.” She finished and flounced out of the room, heading straight for the room that she shared with him. She got a
At this announcement, Becca could no longer hold herself back or control her emotions. She rushed towards Ryan and grabbed both his hands in hers, staring up at him with tear-filled eyes as she pleaded with him one last time. Her head only came up to his shoulders because of how tall he was. “Ryan please, what you’re doing is not fair in the least. At least give me a clue as to why you’re doing this. We were fine when you went on your business trip less than a week ago. What has changed from then till now and why are you treating me with such condescension?” Becca asked, refusing to let him go when he would have dragged his hands away from hers and walked away. He stared down at her for some moments, and she could have sworn that she saw the tenderness that she used to see in his eyes towards her before, but it was gone in a split second, as though it had never been there in the first place. “Everything has changed. Everything, Becca. The sooner you realize that, the better for you.
Becca stared at the woman in surprise, but did not say anything. She still believed that Ryan would come around and stop this inexcusable behavior. In the meantime, he could do whatever he wanted, and when he came back to his senses, she would be right here waiting for him to come and apologize for all this rubbish that he was doing now.“That’s okay, Margie. You don’t have to worry about me. I can stay alone. It’s no big deal, actually.” She informed the woman, but this was a big, fat lie. How on earth was she going to stay alone in this huge house all by herself? Was she going to be the one to lock the gates and tend the garden and other stuff too? Supposing it was only cooking and maintaining the house, she could have done those without any stress, but she could not very well do everything in the house, and most importantly, she could not live there all alone… or maybe she could in the meantime. She had no doubt that Ryan was going to come to his senses soon and see how much of a j
The next few days were pure torture for Becca. Determined to save her marriage and ignore her husband’s appalling behavior, she sat down and tried very hard to wrack her brain to try to guess what was causing him to act this way, but drew a blank. There was nothing she could think of that would make him behave this way, but she was beginning to be hopeful. At least she had not heard anything from her brother regarding Ryan’s threat to stop sponsoring him. So Ryan was probably just trying to bully her into accepting the divorce quietly like a sheep. Well, she was not about to be bullied. As though on cue, her phone rang and she sprang for it, hoping that it was Ryan who was calling her. He had been ignoring her calls ever since he left and the only time she had heard from him was three nights ago when he had called to complain that she hadn’t signed the papers, and had threatened her some more. To her greatest disappointment, however, it wasn’t Ryan who was calling, but it was her brot