Chapter three

"If that was meant to be a joke, then it's not funny at all"

She felt the sincerity in his voice.

 He meant it. 

But how can she just get pregnant overnight? She was not ready for it. 

They agreed to practice purity before marriage, now he is indirectly asking her to make love with him.

No!

That was a capital 'NO' for her.

"It was never meant to be a joke, I mean every word I just said"

He does not want it either, but to save their love, that was the only solution.

 There was an awkward moment for a few minutes. 

"Since you just made me jobless, what will I be doing at home all day?" 

Crystal clacked the ice between them. 

It was obvious she was no longer interested in their previous conversation and Mervin decided to let her breath. 

Of Course, he already knew that it would take him millions of years to convince Crystal. But as of now, he better follow her lead.

He followed Crystal to the kitchen and hugged her from behind while laying his head on her shoulder. 

A smile beams on her lips.

" Why stress about job hunting when you already have an eternity job?" He whispered into her ear.

"And what's that?"

"You are the co-founder and CEO of happiness in my life. Is that job not enough for you?" He added. 

"You will never be serious in your life" she chuckled before reaching for the food warmer and dish out the potatoes from the pot.

"Ouch!"

She winced in pain while holding her little finger. She just burned her finger as she mistakenly touched the hot pot without gloves.

" Dummy you. Does it hurt?"  He said, staring into Crystal's red eyes.

 It was obvious she was in pain.

He held the finger that was already as red as a pepper before dragging Crystal to the sink and letting running water from the tap touch the finger before applying some ointment.

"Go to the living room. I will do the rest"  

He picked an apron and tied it around him.

"But…"

Mervin did not give Crystal a chance to complain. 

He pushed her out of the kitchen to the living room. Crystal was out of words thus she gave in.

In a trice, Mervin was done arranging the food on the dining table. 

Cullen and Camilla showed up just at the right time. And they all had dinner together.

 After chit-chatting a bit, Mervin excused himself and went back home. 

His parents' house precisely.

…

Insomnia has completely become a usual part of Crystal's day-to-day life. 

With every day bestowing a new change to her life, she could not sleep a dim. Adding to her headache, was what she discussed with Mervin the previous day.

 She was so deep in thought as she cuddled her pillow tight on the bed, lost staring into space.

*Ring, Ring*

Her phone brought her back from the land of brainstormers. She reached out for the phone which was on the sideboard of her bed.

"Crystal Blues speaking"

That has become her usual word when she gets a new unidentified number. 

Of course, this call she is on is a private number. 

Unlike her peeps who always get alarmed and hesitate when they get a private number on their phone screen, Crystal never had a second thought before picking up such calls. 

She has worked and dealt with private numbers so this was never new to her. That was her life as a secretary.

 "Save me Crystal!"

A deafening scream enough to Pierce the eardrum, was heard from the other end of the call.

 Yet that voice sent chills down Crystal's spine.

She quickly sprang up from her bed and sat straight. 

She thought her ears were deceiving her.

 Surely, that was Camilla's voice. Her sisters left for school early in the morning, and nothing seemed odd upon their departure.

 Why all of a sudden is Camilla asking for help?

Was it a prank? 

No, this seemed to be true for a prank, her facial hair was out in a wink. Her blood vessels had already begun to oversupply blood towards her heart and the air conditioning in her room seemed to have been broken for she felt unusually hot.

"Crystal, I give you two days to leave this country for good"

That was a simple and brief message from another familiar voice.

 As soon as the voice analysis was done in Crystal's brain, she jumped out of her bed and ran towards her sister's room. 

Camilla and Cullen share a room. 

She burst open the door and her legs succumbed to the ground when it finally hit her that she was not dreaming. 

Her sisters were in the hands of Teddy Griffin. Miranda was also a partner in this. 

" Teddy, you beast!"

She spat venomously in between sobs. 

"Two days, or you will never see your beautiful sisters again"

He warned in a Stern voice.

 A resounding slap and sharp scream followed, Teddy had just slapped Cullen. 

The scream was a dagger that pierced Crystal's already bleeding heart.  

The phone slipped from her hand as she stared at the plain wall like a lost sheep. She was reminded of how her parents died.

Her late parents were murdered by the Griffins, and the thought that her only reason to breathe was also captive of the same beasts, made her eyes blur ... .blur till everything went completely dark.

…

Crystal's eyes slowly opened.

 With the smell of drugs filling her nose, she needed no one to tell her that she was in the hospital. Despite being unconscious for like 2 hours, as soon as her eyes opened, her brain shifted back to what happened earlier.

" Cullen, Camilla"

She whispered as she tried to step down the bed but a hand held her back. 

It was until then that she realized that she was not alone in the room.

" Mervin?... Mervin my sis…"

He could not let her finish, so he pulled her into a warm hug. 

" Everything is under control. Our undercover agents are involved" he said.

 But that did not sit well with Crystal. She was warned, warned not to involve the police or her sisters will die for real. Now that the title 'Agent" has just been mentioned, the small intestines in her tummy twisted, threatening to give her the urge to use the bathroom.

The agents sounded more like the police to her.

"That's dangerous, Mervin. You should not have involved them" she cried bitterly.

"It's our special agent Crystal. Have trust in them" he stroked her hair gently.

Knowing how dangerous the Griffins are. He secretly hired a shadow bodyguard for both Crystal and her sisters. 

He was on his way to the office when he got an urgent call from Cullen and Camilla's shadow guard informing him about the kidnapping of his two sisters-in-law.

 His blood pressure level shot up and the first thing that came to mind after commanding the guard to tail the kidnappers was Crystal. 

He quickly got into his car and drove off to Crystal's house. 

Knocking on the door for a few minutes did not help, thus, he resolved to punch in the door password. 

Of course, there is nothing Mervin does not know about Crystal and her sisters.

 The door was unlocked and he ran inside like a mad dog, searching room by room till his heart skipped when his eyes landed on the lifeless body in one of the rooms. 

That was how Crystal ended up in the hospital. 

Whilst she was unconscious, Mervin had been making and receiving calls to and from Brooklyn's security team whom he informed to patronize the situation.

Crystal blinked back her tears as her lips twitched. 

"It's all my fault" She blamed herself.

 In her mind, only if she had never crossed paths with Mervin, she would have lived a low-key life with her sisters. But damn, damn to the fate that brought the two together.

"It's not your fault angel" he patted her shoulder staring into her dazzling eyes which were twinkling. 

"I will protect you, Crystal. You are in safe hands" he added with a cute smile.

The door to the room burst open, and one of his guards made an appearance. 

"How is the situation?" Mervin asked impatiently.

"Mission successful" 

The guard said with a bow. Then a fly appeared on his face. 

"But, one is in the next room receiving treatment, she was unconscious at the time we arrived "

He added making Mervin feel hot all of a sudden. 

Crystal gave Mervin a questioning look for she did not understand what the two were discussing. Mervin explained the situation to Crystal.

His security team had managed to rescue her sisters, but one of them had been rushed into the same hospital because she was unconscious. 

"What?!" Her legs had already touched the ground by then.

"Cullen, Camilla"

Her head spun more as she ran out of the room to the next room. Her little brain was exhausted debating on who could be the one unconscious. 

Was it Cullen the second of the sisters or could it be Camilla, the little princess of the house?