Anne “Think about it. What does he stand to lose if you’re dead? He’d get his freedom from you. He’d no longer be your puppet. He’d even get to run the business without getting threatened by a whim like you.” She shot her eyes towards me at the last statement. I simply shrugged and said, “His words, not mine.” “He wants to kill me?” she asked in a tiny, unsure voice. I let out an “mmhmm” while nodding my head and maintaining a straight face. “Not just that, Fifi fire, the first time you sent him to get rid of me, he told me a story… a dark one at that,” I said slowly for effects. “He indirectly mentioned having a hand in your father’s death.” Red, wet daggers stared straight at me, widening ever so hugely, almost threatening to jump out of their sockets. “What?!” came a low, threatening growl from the deepest part of her agonized throat. “Uh! Are you okay?” I asked ever so innocently. Just then, Joshua walked in, followed by one of the guys, who had a gun tucked in front of his
Anne The man fell with a thud to the floor. Blood gushed out of his forehead, surrounding his lifeless body in a matter of seconds. My heart pounded against my ribcage, threatening to jump out and flee. Joshua’s eyes were like saucers as he stared at the dead man. His eyes burned with fury as he looked from the guy to Fiona, who still had the gun pointed at him. “Fiona, please,” he said beneath gritted teeth. He was trying really hard to suppress his anger so that he won’t meet a similar fate as the guy on the floor. I might have made the whole story up to get Fiona against Joshua, but from the looks of things, I wasn’t far from the truth. Joshua did murder Fiona’s father. While all this was going on, I’d successfully freed one of my hands and was forcing out the other while darting my eyes towards both of them to make sure they’ve not taken notice of me. The sounds of gunshots in the distance were increasing in both tempo and nearness, but these two didn’t look that bothered.
Vincent She shoved me back and wiped furiously against her mouth, as if trying to expel the repulsive thirst of my lips. Leaning back on the wall, she kept heaving, staring at me under hooded leads. Even before she did it, I knew she couldn’t resist. If she had a hand in Anne’s disappearance, it would be because she wanted me by her side. She leaned off the wall and rushed towards me, jumped up and wrapped her fore and hind limbs around me, then pounded her lips against mine, suckling profusely and moaning loudly like someone who’d been starved of food and water for ages. I wrapped my arms around her and deepened the kiss. She moaned, leaving my lips and feasting on my face, neck, and everywhere she could get her lips on. She almost pushed me off balance with how she kept pressing into me with all her weight. To stop myself from falling over and to move to the next phase of my plan, I carried her to the long couch and gently laid her there, following immediately because I couldn’t
Anne A stone! This was my last chance to save myself. The next bullet wasn’t going to let me live. I knew that. Without wasting time, I grabbed the huge stone with my healthy hand, then with all the strength I could muster along with my last chance at life, I flung it towards her. The stone made contact with her head just as the bullet busted out of the gun and flew towards me. I yelped and bent over, shutting my eyes as I awaited another heart-wrenching piercing. Nothing came. I raised my head and looked around me, then searched my body for any more holes. I saw nothing. I looked ahead of me and saw Fiona sprawled on the floor and the gun, nowhere in sight. Mustering up strength, I held onto the floor with my healthy hand and lifted myself. When I got up, the whole ground started dancing beneath me. I staggered towards the wall and made painful contact with its rigid, rough, iciness. My cries knew no bounds. I fell to my knees and wailed profusely. My hand was hurting badly, an
Andrew After a series of confrontations by the police, we all came to an understanding, but not before I was pushed to the edge and wanted to unleash fury on those bastards. Vincent, who had always been on the unleashing end, was now the one holding me back. Those idiots didn’t want to get any case against them because Joshua was an influential billionaire. Any order from him and everyone in the police would be fired. That is what they made us see during our last clash. However, when they saw the target had changed to a not-so-influential threat, they cooperated, though they were still apprehensive. I swore to myself that I’d have all of them fired when we find Anne and get her back safely. Before Vincent went in, we had placed ourselves on different locations on the lookout for Fiona’s moves. I prayed she’d want to get things over with, now that things between her and Vincent were seemingly looking up. That is exactly what she did, because a few hours into watching Vincent enter, w
Vincent Dad had involved more people than I thought. The army and many security agencies were now part of the search, but it was made top secret. Although I was sure Joshua had Anne, I still concurred that it could be anyone. According to them, Anne and I had made public waves for a while, and the media just got to know of the companies and other investments I owned, so anyone could have taken Anne to make money. It was all bull! Joshua took Anne, and I was going to find her, my way. I wasn't going to look at Anne's mum and sister one more time and tell them I couldn't find their daughter. The Scott family had arrived the day after we told them of Anne's disappearance and since have helping out the best they could. Though most times, all Anne's mum did was cry her out. Makayla was the one rubbing minds with us . After my encounter with Fiona, I’d slept off for a while because I was really inebriated but the effects didn’t stay for long. The thoughts of Anne and her whereabouts, a
Anne If it were just the sea in sight, it would have been less shocking. I was rooted to the sand when all around my view lay bloodied bodies. I gasped and covered my mouth as huge, electric shivers ran from the tip of my feet straight to the core of my heart where, just like the steam engines of the Titanic, it began grinding against my heart. I couldn’t breathe. It was just like in Umende, but this wasn’t a virus. These people were shot dead. There was blood everywhere. ‘Vincent!’ I gasped, darting my eyes around. I forced myself to keep moving and get to safety, wherever that was, to avoid meeting the same fate as the people laying on the sandy ground. Too late. Right in front of me stood Joshua. He had dumped the jacket he had on earlier and was wearing his white designer’s shirt, which was now ripped and bloody like every dead body here. I stared at his predator-like stance and evil smirk, then wondered if truly it was my end. “Aren’t you the little damsel in distress ever
Anne I couldn’t breathe! I couldn’t see properly! It was as if a dead weight was placed on top of me, making it impossible to get air in. ‘What the heck is going on?!’ I inhaled all the air I could gather in my lungs when I felt relief from the heaviness on my body. The light entering my eyes was harsh. I had to squint to see properly. My vision was blurry, but I could make out men in uniform surrounding me and lifting a bag of stone off of me. ‘Was there an explosion?’ I thought, feeling myself being lifted off the floor into a sitting position. I must have passed out from the explosion. “Ma’am, ma’am! Are you alright?” I heard one of the uniformed men ask me. “Yeah, I’m fine. What happened?” I asked, still squinting to see properly. “He knocked you off when he blocked you,” the man said with a glint of pity in his eyes. I creased my brows to understand what he was yapping about. ‘Who knocked who off?’ That was when it hit me. “Vincent…” I started confused, “Vincent! Vi
Anne I felt a hand slip into my PJs and began walking its magic there. A moan escaped my lips as sensual pressure built in my core. I was lying on our king-sized bed with white sheets and a duvet, in our large bedroom. I’m too sleepy or maybe lazy to describe it. Just take this though, the walls are white. The side tables holding up the bedside lamps are also white but with golden designs along the edges, matching that of the bed frame, which has extra huge golden spirals on the tall headrest just above my pillow. By the corner, a long wooden cabinet that holds several drawers is attached to the wall. On top of the cabinet are different figurines and sculptures, then close to it is a magnificent white dressing table that houses my very few beauty products, and an equally magnificent mirror with the same golden design on its edges. There are two walk-in closets on opposite sides of the room. One is for Vincent and the other, mine. A second door closer to my closet lead to the bathroo
Vincent The heavens grumbled like an old giant before I began feeling splatters of droplets on me. I glanced up at the skies and smiled. It was as if it knew how I felt inside. It was a thunderous feeling. I sped past cars on Andrew’s bike, squinting to see clearly as the rain had begun pouring with reckless abandon. How didn’t I see it? How could one be so close, yet so far away?! I felt what I felt, but I just couldn’t see what I was supposed to see, simply because of amnesia. Now it’s all coming back to me! Like a waterfall crashing against the oceans, my memories came flooding in. “I’m coming, Anne. Just wait, okay? I’m coming,” I breathed, maneuvering through the impending hold-up that the rain caused. ‘Slow down you dumb-a**’ my mind warned. I listened to it and went slower till I was off the traffic and onto the small road leading to Anny’s. My heart pounded against my chest as I neared her apartment. The gate that’d had been there when I rented the place for her was un
Vincent Arya made it sound like I had the best of times with her. She may be right because the feelings I had for her couldn’t have been created by mere moments. We must have gone through thick and thin for me to have realized what I had and cherish it. Arya made me to almost desire to stay back and savage the little I could from all we had left. I couldn’t. Because I was hurt. I lost my memory. I couldn’t remember any of my time with her, or even her face, yet I couldn’t get myself to make love to any other woman. She had all the knowledge. She knew all the bits and pieces of our trials and tribulations, but the moment I step out of the picture, she finds solace in the arms of my brother. Now, she has a baby for him. I couldn’t live with that. Her love for me didn’t nearly match the way I felt for her. I couldn’t fight when she’d already given up a year ago. Why didn’t she come after me? Why didn’t she make plans to make me remember slowly? She only comfortably devised plans
Anne The knock on the door made me jerk and involuntarily drop the scissors outside the bathtub. Andrew couldn’t have been back so early, and definitely won’t be knocking gently. Pamela wouldn’t too. Who could be knocking? My dead heart arose and, like a diver, dipped into the pit of my stomach as the thought of Vincent being the one at the door entered my head. It couldn’t be, could it? He should be in the airport now if he wasn’t on the plane already. I didn’t really care to check the time since Andrew left. Is It possible that Andrew had talked Vincent out of leaving? That’ll be if he saw him on time. I didn’t want to ignite my hope only to watch it explode in my face yet again. I’d wanted to wait a bit to see if the caller would go away, but then the knocking would wake Lucia, who’d begin crying and wake my mother. That thought made me hurriedly step out of the bathtub. My legs were wobbly from all the fear and trepidation of what I’d decided to do. I gingerly put one foot i
Anne I carefully carried sleeping Lucia and placed her on the duplicate cot in my mum’s room. I slowly and noiselessly stepped back and out of a room, throwing a glance at my mum, who was snoring lightly on her bed. I then switched off the light and shut the door behind me. Finally, the time has come. I made sure I locked all the doors for the night before heading to my room. Pamela had come earlier and suggested staying with me till Andrew comes or calls. Andrew must have called her to come. Well, I refused all her persistence and almost got angry at her stubbornness. She’d grudgingly accepted to leave. In my room, I took out a pen and scribbled down a few thoughts of mine. I hadn’t time to write a full epistle because I was hurting badly. If I did have the time, I would have written long notes to every one of the people I know who would be hurt by my actions. I’d wanted to live for Lucia, but seeing her face, eyes and long hair reminded me so much of him. One would think that wo
Vincent “We need to talk, Arya,” I said, watching her enter the parlor. She stretched her mouth into a thin line, nodding her head in agreement. “We’re finally having the talk,” she said, removing her jacket and dropping it on the couch alongside her bag. “Alright, I’m ready,” she said, after sitting down on the couch opposite mine. Silence engulfed us for minutes. It was as if we both knew where all this was headed. “Arya, I’m sorry,” I began. “I thought I could do it, but I can’t. It would be a total mess marrying me in this state. You guys were right, I’ve not healed entirely, and I shouldn’t have come back here…” I had my eyes on her the entire time, gauging her reaction. She simply looked back at me without a flinch. “Arya, let’s call off the wedding,” I conferred. She didn’t respond or divulge any emotion that showed how she felt about what I said. After what felt like ages, she inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, then cleared her throat. “It’s sad. Honestly, I prayed it w
Andrew My brother has been ignoring me ever since I took him to see Anne a day ago. I don’t know what he was thinking, but for him to be acting this way, his thoughts weren’t in our favor. Anne had gone there to meet with him that same day while I’d gone straight to the studio. I was going to call Anne and ask how it transpired, but we finished so late at night and I was so exhausted that I passed out immediately my head touched my pillow back at our family house. The next day, I called Anne, but she didn’t answer. I called Vincent, but he, too, ignored my calls. So, after my recording session, I’d gone to Vincent’s but when I saw my mum’s car parked in front of the house, I made a U-turn and headed for Anne’s apartment instead. It was a sunny afternoon. I got there and met her coiled up on her bed, crying her eyes out once again. Racheal and Pam were there trying to make her eat her food. “You’ll make Rachael miss her doctor’s appointment, Anne,” Pam had warned. That was the only
Vincent Mum had threatened to take Anne’s baby away from her. She’d told me how she'd contacted her lawyers and had every paperwork done so that once Arya and I leave, the real work starts. “No, mum,” I’d refused. “Son, that our grandchild there. She cannot live in the slums,” she’d argued. “I’ve been there, mum. It’s not a slum, and Andrew is more than capable of caring for that child,” I countered. I was hurting real bad. I felt like I was drowning… it was overwhelming. Having these massive conflicting emotions, then having to stick up for what I believed was right, was slowly killing me. “Son, she has to pay for what she’d done to us! She cannot go scot-free. My husband and I, for over a year, have had no meaningful conversation because of her. He’d gone rigid around me,” she said in tears. “He’d not touched me for over a year because of that witch, Vincent,” she divulged bitterly. “She created a rift between your brother and yourself in the past, now, a much bigger one by hav
Vincent ‘Anne.’ I guess that’s her real name. It actually rang a bell. I remember pronouncing that name, and it must have meant so much to me because whenever I called it out, which I was doing often since that time with Arya in the kitchen, I felt a cacophony of emotions attack me. There was peace, followed by fear, then agitation, trepidation, fury, and what have you? It was strange. Her name held so much power, yet I couldn’t still remember. It was frustrating! “Have you booked the tickets, Vin?” mum asked from where she sat on the couch. She’d come around right after Arya left the house. Arya has been giving me the silent treatment ever since I mistakenly called her the name that tormented my subconscious, the day before. “Yes, mum,” I replied grudgingly from the dining table where I was getting some reading done. “Have you heard from dad?” I asked. “No, hun, but don’t you worry, he would be available for the wedding. I just received his clothes from his tailor. We’ll be tr