Travis pov “Travis! Travis! Can't you hear that I'm talking to you? Oh, you want to be rude to me in front of your friend and Norah right” Samantha stood up and yelled at me while I walked away with Alex.Alex walked closer to me, “I think you should just respond to her. You want to avoid anything that can stress you at this time.” He whispered.I ignored his words. I wasn't going to buy into whatever she was trying to sell, nor would I let her have her way the way she has been having it for a long time. I had had enough.I got to my study and let myself in. Alex followed after me and then said, “I don't think ignoring her when she's talking to you is the right thing to do now.” He shut the door behind him and said briefly. “You know, things can…”“Look, I have had enough. I did what I could do best. Can't you see how much she has caused me? Did you know the gravity of what she had done? If I opened my mouth to say anything to her, what would proceed from me would be terrible.” I was
Travis pov “How dare you, Alex! You do not know your place at all. What do you mean by I need more medical checkups? So you think I'm mad right?” Samantha had only heard the last words Alex said and she raged at him. I wondered what she was doing by the door of my study.“Oh please! I've had enough of this. Let the young man be.” I tried to move Samantha aside so that Alex could leave. “No, Travis. You will not talk to me in such a manner.” She refused to move away from the door and stood firmly. I was upset. “Samantha! Leave the way, this moment!” I yelled. Alex was saying some words to me but I could barely eat. “Would Samantha faint if she behaved like someone sane?” I thought, inwardly.“You know what. It's fine. I wasn't insinuating that, I'm sorry If it sounded rude to you.” Alex apologized to her and I wasn't happy about that. He needed not to do so. Samantha gazed at him and hissed. Then she walked out of the room. I shook my head as Alex looked at me. We walked out of t
Annabelle pov Johnson was recovering faster than the Doctor had predicted and was being monitored closely. I had been sitting in the hospital with Henry for some days and I knew Henry was not enjoying how we spent our days sitting in the hospital.“Annabelle, I think we should go to my place so you can get rest. The nurses are watching him closely already.” Henry turned to me and said. I'm sure he had been thinking of ways to encourage me to leave. “No way. I can't leave my son here. You can go home, Henry. You've done a lot by staying here this long already.” I held his hands and smiled to show him that he was allowed to leave and I wasn't taking it against him.“No, I won't leave you here.” He said and adjusted himself properly on his seat. He looked helpless.“You know what, how about you go home now and then come back tomorrow to stay with Johnson? Then, I'd be at peace leaving because someone I trust is with him.” Henry took my hand and said, “Look, let's leave together. You n
Chapter One Hundred and FiveAnnabelle pov I sauntered into Henry's parlor. I had had long days and I was so tired to be bugged by more things. I threw myself on the sofa and sighed heavily. Henry walked in after me and stood by a wall, gazing at me from the side. ”Annabelle, let's go inside so you can rest better.” I heard him but I didn't want to be disturbed and I was already comfortable with where I sat so I did not respond.He stood silently for a while before walking over to me, “Get up, let's go.” He pulled my hand up and I was forced to follow him.“Why have you become so silent all of a sudden? Are you angry that I asked you those questions?” We got to the room and I just walked past him, pretending I didn't hear all that he said.“Annabelle! Why aren't you answering?” He held my hand and held me to a wall. “Look, Henry. I'm tired. I don't want to argue or talk about anything. I just want to rest.” I was exhausted. Henry must have figured out that I was exhausted because
Chapter One Hundred and SixAnnabelle pov I walked out of the bathroom, wrapped a fluffy pink towel around my chest and walked in the direction of my phone. It stopped ringing the moment I got out of the bathroom. I approached it to check who must have called by that time. “Unknown number?” I said and I contemplated calling the number back.My phone began to ring again, just as I made up my mind that I wasn't going to call the number back. “Hello,” I said first, wondering who it must be calling me late in the evening.“Annabelle! How come you haven't checked on me.” The person's voice was so full of life and excitement. “Who is this?” I asked because I wasn't sure it was who I had been expecting to receive a call from. “Or could this be Brooklyn?”She laughed hilariously. “Who is this?” She mimicked me. “It's Brook! Young woman. Weren't you expecting my call?”“Oh, Brook!” I was so excited to hear from her! If she had been with me I would have been able to rely so much on her hel
Travis pov It was early in the morning, I walked out of my room to get a black coffee, when I heard a whispering voice in the kitchen.“Who is there?” I approached the kitchen and asked. “The servers could not be at work by this time,” I thought.I walked into the kitchen and saw Samantha. She was engrossed in a call. She probably didn't hear me call out or realize that I had entered.“What are you doing there?” I curt her. She shivered and turned suspiciously to me. “Uhmm… nothing.” She said, then held down her phone. “Are you monitoring me, now?”“What do you mean by that? Who are you talking to, that has to be this discreet?”She walked over to me and said, “It's none of your business.” Then she walked away.I was disappointed by that but I knew Samantha was weird so I didn't put so much thought into who it must have been. I made myself coffee and went into my study room to get some major work done.***Later in the evening, a black Benz arrived at the other side of my gate. I wa
Chapter One Hundred and EightTravis_I became so curious about what Davis had to say, knowing how versatile he is, I hoped it was something that would interest me. “I'm all ears.”“Good. Sir Benjamin wants to sell one of his tech companies. I asked him why, and he said, he was too old and he couldn't find any successor amongst his sons. I told him, I knew someone that would do a good job for his company but the person couldn't buy it. He then said, if the person is good, he can give it to the person and have 25% ownership of it. What do you think?” I was so grateful in my heart that Davis, even after not seeing me for a long time, still had me in mind to the extent of going out of his way to make requests on my behalf. “This is lovely. But you've been good to me and I don't even know how to pay you back.”“I do.” He laughed. “I trust your ability to build the company to a better standard. Presently, the company is a million-dollar company. Very close to being a billion dollars. You
Chapter One Hundred and Nine Travis pov I prepared myself to leave for the hospital where Johnson was admitted. All the messages I left for Annabelle, she had not responded to them.I tried her number a few times before I packed up my bag to leave but it went into voicemail.I walked down the stairs into the living room and placed my bag on the chair.“Dad, we are waiting for you.” Norah and Samantha were seated at the dining table. But Samantha picked up her spoon the moment she saw me. “I'm not eating today, dear.” I walked over to her and kissed her.“Good morning,” I said to Samantha before turning away to leave.“And where are you off to?” Samantha dropped her spoon. “Did you know that I made this food very early for all of us today?”I turned back to her and I couldn't even look at her face well, I kept remembering she had had sex yesterday. “What's with the pretense?” I asked inwardly. “I won't be eating.” I said firmly and exited the house. I knew she was displeased because
Epilogue Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Six Annabelle_ Months after the nightmare I had with Henry. I woke up in my new home with the perfect peace of mind I had always wanted. My life was in a better shape and even though It wasn't perfect, I was living the future I had always dreamed and hoped for. I stood in front of the large windows in the parlor, looked out of it and took a very deep breath. “Come back here! If I catch you, I will eat all your candy.” “You won't catch me then!” Johnson was running after Norah. It was not going to be my first time experiencing such as they have both been best of friends since we all moved in together. “I've told you two. No running around.” I said and shook my head. Travis was the one handling the major companies owned by my dad. He and my dad had become very close following the incident with Henry. Travis held his suitcase, walked down the stairs of our new home and said, “Anna, do you know where my car keys are? I couldn't find them
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Five Annabelle_ The tunnel led to one of the trees in the compound. I walked out of it and snuck to the back of the several police vans that were parked in the compound. I was on the lookout for Alex because I wasn't sure of who to trust. I saw Henry and hid behind the car. I couldn't afford him to see me and then come up with another lie that he wasn't the one behind my kidnap. Someone touched me from behind and I lost my breath for a while. I turned back slowly towards the person and found that it was Alex. I took a deep breath of relief and hugged him. “What happened?” He asked, concerned. I was still trying to get my breath, when he yelled, “Medics, medics.” And the whole attention drifted towards us. Immediately, I could see them putting handcuffs on his hands and leading him into the car like the criminal that he was. “Travis, Travis is badly injured. He has lost a lot of blood.” Those were the first words I said to Henry so they could go a
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Four Annabelle _Henry went out of the basement he kept us in. He went out through a different door this time. I saw him but I was not fully conscious.I didn't know what to do to get us out of his place but I knew that if we did not try to get help from the cops or whoever was around, things would get worse for us all and Travis could die.“Travis,” I called out to Travis who lay in his blood on the floor with his eyes swollen. I wasn't even sure if he was still alive. “Travis, can you hear me? Travis!” I yelled. I couldn't afford his death.“Yes, I can hear you.” He said in a very low voice. I knew he was losing a lot of blood and he was in severe pain.“Can you loosen me? I know it's hard for you to get up but if you can try, it would help us out. We can't stay here. Now is our time to get out of this house because I can hear people walking back and forth in his house. I'm sure they are looking for us.” I said to him to encourage him to get up. Travi
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-ThreeAnnabelle_All I saw was the blood of Travis spilling on the floor like someone had made an incision on a bottle.I picked a cloth that I saw in the room and used it to tie around his arm. I was very displeased with Henry as he stood and watched me take care of Travis' hands unremorsefully.“What has gotten into you? Why are you doing all this?” I asked with so much pain in my heart. I couldn't understand how Henry became the way he was all of a sudden.“Get back to your seat and tie yourself at this moment, Annabelle.” He yelled at me. “You should not have pushed me to the wall all these years. You are the reason why I'm like this. Yes, it's all your fault.”Travis tried to help himself up from the chair I sat him on so that I could help him with his hand and reduce his bleeding. The cloth I had used to tie his hand was filled in no time and I could see that Travis was losing a lot of blood at that time.“Let's take him to the hospital. You know he
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Two Travis_I broke into the house through Henry's kitchen window after I was sure he had gone out of the kitchen.I walked to the slap where knives were kept and I picked one very sharp one.“This should do a good job,” I said and hid the knife behind my back.“What you don't understand is, I'd catch a grenade for ya!” I could hear Travis as he sang in his voice to the song he played out. I used that opportunity to search around the room for any sign of Annabelle and Johnson.“Annabelle! Annabelle!” I whispered as I entered every part of the room downstairs.Then while walking on the corridor, I walked on a part of the floor that felt like something was beneath it.I went back to look at the stairs to be sure I could still hear Travis playing his song, which he was before I went down to check what it was.“This very strange man. Heaven knows where he kept Annabelle.” I tried to open the thing but I couldn't get how it was being handled. It had a complex
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty OneTravis_I received a call from an unknown number. It was very late at night. I had thought it was probably Annabelle because I had been expecting her to call me but I did not receive any calls from her.When I saw that it was unknown, I did not take the call because I was still hurting from the fact that Henry was playing the hero when he did not help to find Johnson at all from the onset. “He's my son. She's supposed to allow me to come along irrespective of what Henry was going to say or do. Don't I deserve to see him too?” I said to myself inwardly.Norah had slept off on my leg. We sat together in the parlor watching a movie.My phone kept ringing and ringing so I became forced to pick up the call. I did not say anything after picking up the call.“Can you hear me?” The person whispered and it made me curious. I placed Norah's head properly on the chair and stood up to receive the call in a place where she would not be disturbed.“Who is this?” I
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Annabelle_ I was scared that Henry might hurt me so I began to yell at him before he got closer to me, “Henry, what is wrong with you? Do not try anything funny. I'm warning you. You know how this will end. It will surely end badly for both of us. Just let me leave peacefully.” “You are not leaving through that door. Not today and not until you sign the wedding document.” He said and got closer to me. He pulled me with force to himself and began to kiss my body against my will. “Get off me! Get off!” He disgusted me but he held me so strong. It was very hard for me to move my body away from him. It was as though he wasn't the same Henry I had known. “Stop it, now!” I continued to shout at him but he would not let me go. I stretched my hand to reach the vase that was used to decorate his parlor. I was able to reach it and I slammed it on his head with all the force I had. I didn't know what to do next and he did not give me any option. All that was
Chapter One Hundred and Fifty NineAnnabelle_Brooklyn and I got to Henry's place very late at night. We had to drive for a long time for us to get to Henry's place. “Why does it look as if Henry is not around?” We were able to get into the house because the gate was not locked. “It's very strange that Henry's gate is open. He never opens his gate.” I said to Brooklyn who was driving the car.“Just be patient. It's late already and he was expecting you. So why wouldn't he leave his gate open?” I knew Brooklyn was tired of hearing all my complaints.“I don't feel good about this honestly. Something is wrong somewhere.” I said to Brooklyn, “Don't drive to the front of the building itself. Park around here.” Henry's compound had some gardens and big trees that one would go through before one would get to his house. I just wasn't comfortable with the way I felt.She sighed but did as I said.“I'd go in by myself alone. You should stay in the car in case anything bad happens.”Brooklyn ga
Chapter One Hundred and Fifty EightAnnabelle_Travis drove us into a very nice apartment that he said belonged to Samantha. It was a more beautiful apartment than the one that he lived in. “This apartment is nice. You guys could have lived here instead of where you're presently living though.” Brooklyn said. I was surprised she said that out loud so I turned to look at her.Travis smiled and said, “Well, Samantha loves her things to be perfectly the way she likes them. She fixed it several times, that's why it looks as good as this.” We got out of the vehicle and we could tell that Johnson was not in that building because everything there was so calm but we walked into it irrespective of how the environment felt, leaving Brooklyn and Norah alone in the car.Travis unlocked the door and led me into the room. “I don't think anyone is here at the moment but we can search the apartment to see if there might be any lead in the house,” Travis said to me as he walked into the living room