OLIVIA“Enough! If you want to be a father to your son, Nick. Then I suggest you start acting like one and stop blaming people for not being there for your son. Now we will not be arguing in front of Samuel, the boy has been through enough already.” His mother reprimanded looking angry. If there was one thing I liked about his mother.It was that she did not take her son’s side when he was wrong, she told him off and didn’t have mercy while doing so. I didn’t even take the shower I was supposed to take, I just woke my son up and told him we are going home. “I am taking you home.” Marcus offered and I nodded.“I will bring you all something to eat.” Ethan offered. “I am going to be the one taking them home.” Nick said but no one paid any attention to him. his sister sneered on the side and Nick glared at her. I could tell that those two will never get along, they already didn’t trust each other.Marcus, Ethan and I walked out following each other. Nick’s mother ran and caught up with us
OLIVIAThe guys shared a look like they did not believe that Nick’s mother had good intentions. “I know it sounds strange, but it makes sense to me. Look at all the strange texts I keep getting after each incident. Someone wants to make me look bad and she said she would find out who it is and send me the information.”The guys said nothing. I understood where Marcus was coming from, Nick has not exactly been a model citizen when it came to me. The man has done a lot to hurt me, and he didn’t know his mother. So, he didn’t believe his mother would take my side in this. He might think that she wanted to trick me or something.But I had to trust someone, until his mother shows me something to make me doubt her, I will give her the benefit of the doubt. She was not her son. “I would listen to her when she said be careful. She is right, not all who smile with you are your friends. Take Sandra for instance.” He said that looking at Ethan.He frowned getting up. “I will not stand for this, a
NICK“Tell me something, mother. Am I really your son, did you give birth to me?” I was pissed, really pissed at her. How could she? “Stop being dramatic Nick and tell me what you mean?” I looked at father, but it was like he was not even there. The man had not said a word to mother and I since that incident at the hospital.“Why would you take Olivia’s side like that in front of everyone, in fact, you always take her side on everything. Why do you do that mother, is Olivia’s happiness more important to you than mine?” the woman glared at me sending a cold shiver down my spine. I had a fair amount of regret when she gave me that look.“So, in your opinion, you want me to take your side even when you are being a moron? I told you to grow and be the son I raised you to be. Maybe then I will start taking your side. Until then, do not question me about nonsense and I want you out of my house. You have your own, go back there. Your father and I need some peace and quiet.”The woman was merc
NICKShe got down from the chair and started packing everything away. “I am not jumpy, Nick. You just scared me that’s all.” I watched her every move trying to see any sign of deceit. What the hell are you and your sister up to Sandra. “You said I should not trust your sister, what has she done?”She looked so nervous. “What?” I chuckled; the woman was taking me for a fool. “I asked what has your sister done that you say she cannot be trusted?”“Oh, well. Many things. She is awful Nick.” Interesting, she could not even tell me one thing she did. “Awful, how?”“I don’t want to talk about this Nick, it hurts me to even think about it so please. Respect my privacy.” She exploded. “Wow! There is no need for that, I just want to understand. How am I supposed to protect you from her if you don’t tell me the truth? I protected you from my wife remember?”She sighed then stopped what she was doing and sat back down. I waited for her to say something. “My father was an alcoholic. An abusive alc
OLIVIA“Why do you have that look, what happened.” I lifted my head and looked at Marcus. “I just said yes to dinner with Ethan, tonight.” He paused what he was doing and just stared at me for a minute. He then places the plate he was holding into the sink then wiped his hands. “I think it’s time for me to leave so that you can get ready for your date.”“It’s not a date its just dinner.” He waved his hand going towards the front door with me following behind. “It’s okay Olivia, go and enjoy yourself. I will see you.” he walked out then closed the door before I could say more. I sighed feeling defeated. “You like him, don’t you?” I turned and Lupita was standing there.“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I walked past her going to the kitchen. “Right, then why do you look so guilty about going to dinner with Mr Lewis?”“Lupita! It’s bad to listen to other people’s conversations.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t trying to; I was coming to the kitchen to wash the dishes when I heard
OLIVIAI was drifting in and out of consciousness. The first time I was woken up by water dripping onto my forehead. At least I thought it was water. With difficulty, I opened my eyes and looked ahead. I saw shadows moving. My eyes were so heavy that I closed them again and passed out.The next time I woke up I was lucid enough to hear voices. I didn’t know who the people were, but I heard one of them say. “She better not be dead or if she dies, you follow.” Why was I going to be dead in a dream? “Who…are..you?” I mumbled. The woman must have heard me because she called someone.“She is alive, she’s talking.” She sounded so excited to hear me talk. I blacked out again. Then the dream changed. I was in a beautiful field with wildflowers everywhere. Fresh air and I felt so light and free. “Olivia?” I turned and my grandmother stood not too far away from me.I ran into her arms and held her tightly as I cried. “Am sorry grandma, for everything. I am so sorry.” She brushed my back comforti
NICKI budged into the hospital doors and ran to the reception. “My wife, where is she!” the woman behind the desk looked scared by my outburst. “Olivia Jones, I was called and told she was in an accident. Now tell me where the hell she is?” her eyes widened. “Oh, Mr Jones, she is in the intensive care unit on the third floor.”I rushed to the elevator, and I got there just as it closes. I didn’t have time to wait for another one and so. I took the stairs taking them two at a time. “Am coming Olivia, hang in there.” I said in my head scared out of my mind that she was not going to make it.By the time I got to the third floor I was sweating like a pig with my shirt drenched in sweat and sticking to my body. I didn’t care about that. “Someone tell me where my wife is!” I yelled as soon as I busted through those doors from the staircase.A nurse came over to me. “Sir, are you all right? “I flung her arm away from me. who the hell did she think she was to touch me. “I am Nick Jones, and I
ELODIEI was called by the doctor and told to get to the hospital immediately. I thought something happened to Olivia. On the way I was praying for good news but the way the doctor spoke made me think of the worst. It would be a shame for her son to grow up with out her, Olivia had a lot of love to give, and her son deserved to get that love.‘Please Lord, let her be okay. For her son’s sake, I beg you.’ I used to think people who begged the Lord for things like these were stupid. Back home we have a slogan, some people die, and some people live. Back then, death was part of my life but now. I could not fantom the idea of not having Olivia around.When I got to the hospital, I ran inside going to the elevator wanting to get to her ward as soon as I could. Getting there the doctor was already waiting. “Tell me, what happened to her?” he looked back at Olivia’s room then at me. “Nothing happened to her mam, and it is not I who needs to talk to you. it’s the cardiologist.”That was a hear
MARCUS“Boss, we’ve arrived,” Steve said, his voice cutting through the thick fog of sleep that had settled over me. I blinked a few times, disoriented, before slowly coming to. My body ached from the constant movement, the long days of traveling across continents, jumping from one city to another, chasing dead ends and half-truths. I hadn’t gotten a decent night’s sleep in days. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was the face of my wife, Olivia, fading from my thoughts like a distant dream.I rubbed my face with both hands, trying to shake off the fatigue. The exhaustion was getting to me, but there was no time for rest. Not now. Not until I had her back. My mind was a blur, constantly circling back to the same thoughts: Where is she? Why won’t anyone tell me? The people who had information were all cowards, and none of them would speak up. It was maddening. The jet had become my only sanctuary, a
OLIVIAIt had been two days since Xander left, two days without food or water. My body had grown weaker with each passing hour, and I could feel every ache in my bones, every crack in my spirit. But there was a small sliver of hope amidst the physical torment: the sedative he had used to paralyze me was finally starting to wear off. I could feel a slight tingle in my legs when I pinched them hard, nothing much, but enough to give me the faintest glimmer of relief. Soon, I would be able to move again.That is, if I didn’t collapse from thirst and hunger first.The worst part of being in that hellhole wasn't the paralysis. It was the silence. The uncertainty. I had no way of knowing if it was day or night. Time had ceased to exist in that dark, suffocating tomb, and with each passing moment, I felt like I was slipping further from reality. I was literally buried alive, a prisoner in a catacomb of stone, with no one to help me, no one to hear
NICKLuke’s face changed from shocked to anger very quickly. “Tell him, tell the moron where we are!” he bellowed throwing his hands in the air. “How could this moron do something like this? I am the only one who is supposed to do things like these. You boys are supposed to keep your hands clean!” he paced the room.He was frustrated. “Since when did Marcus become worse than me in things like these, just what the hell is wrong with him?” he said to no one in particular. I didn’t know if he was just frustrated or a little impressed by his son in law. He turned to me with a glare. “What the hell are you waiting for? Do you want him to bomb more cities before you tell him where the hell we are?”I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Just moments ago, Luke had been telling me to keep everything from Marcus, and now, here I was, being blamed for not telling him where we were fast enough. It felt like I had no place to stand, caught between a rock and a hard place. But it wasn’t the time t
ETHANThe moment Nick hung up the phone, his face shifted, his expression unreadable. It was as if all the colour drained from him in an instant, his skin paling in a way that I had never seen before. I had been around Nick long enough to know that he was no stranger to bad news, but this? This was different. It was as if something beyond our worst fears had just been set in motion.We had already been living through the chaos, Luke, Xander, Olivia’s disappearance, and now, the kids were safe with us. That much, at least, had been a small mercy in the storm. But Nick looked like he had just been hit with the weight of something even worse, something that none of us could prepare for. My mind raced, trying to figure out what could possibly be so bad. And then it hit me. Could it be…? No, it couldn’t be.Before I could make sense of it, I moved closer to Nick, my concern deepening. I needed to make sure that whatever was going through his mind wasn’t as bad as I feared. Leaning in, I wh
NICKI had been holding onto the hope that once Xander showed up, everything would fall into place. That the mess would be cleaned up, and we could put an end to the nightmare that had been plaguing us.Luke and Xander reached some sort of agreement, at least, that’s what I gathered, but the specifics were still hazy in my mind. Luke had told Xander to bring Olivia, or he would destroy his father’s remains.What exactly that meant, I wasn’t sure. It felt like a vague threat, but the tension in the air told me it wasn’t just idle talk. Xander responded with some sort of counter-deal, loaded with things I couldn't follow. Honestly, I was drained. I didn’t care about the details anymore. I just wanted this whole nightmare to be over. But Xander wasn’t backing down, and neither was Luke.Luke had his men tail Xander. And, as expected, Xander went straight to the hotel. He wasn’t trying to outsmart anyone or go off the grid. He was playing by his own set of rules, one that I didn’t fully u
XANDERI was about to take the biggest gamble of my life, and I knew it. Luke was offering me a choice, an impossible one. It was a trap, a setup where only he could win. The terms of his proposition were clear: there would be no chance for me to exact my revenge on him, and there was a very real possibility that I would lose my life in the process. But I wasn’t ready to die, not yet. Not when I had a son waiting for me, hoping I would make it back.I had to think fast. Luke had me cornered, but I couldn’t show him how much fear his words stirred inside me. I had to put on a face, act like I was in control, even if I wasn’t. It wasn’t just about surviving this moment; it was about finding a way out. I wasn’t going to let him win that easily.I stood tall, trying to exude confidence, even though inside I felt like a bundle of nerves. My heart hammered in my chest; my hands clenched into fists at my sides. I could feel the sweat starting to bead on my forehead. If I didn’t hold it toget
XANDERFor the past few days, I had watched them stumble around in their futile attempts to track me down. Every morning, they would set out at dawn, and every night they would return empty-handed, their efforts wasted. It was amusing to me.They had no idea where to look, no real understanding of how to hunt someone like me. It was almost laughable. I had thought they were dangerous, but I quickly realized how wrong I was. There was nothing good about them, nothing that made them worthy of fear.Perhaps they just hadn’t met their match yet. Until now.Now, they had encountered me, and they knew they were nothing compared to what I was capable of. They were amateurs, playing a game they couldn’t win. But Olivia... she was another story. She surprised me. I had expected more resistance from her, some fight, some fire. But instead, she complied. She ate the food I gave her, barely muttering a word of protest. The silence was almost worse than anything. I could tell that the trauma from
NICKThe island was still, too still. No one slept that night. Luke had kept busy with his men, the sound of his voice drifting through the halls, low and intense. I couldn’t make out the words, but I could tell they weren’t discussing anything good.Ethan had joined them; he was more involved than I would have liked. I had asked him to keep an eye on Luke, to make sure things didn’t escalate further. I didn’t trust Luke, not when he was like this, wild, unpredictable, the kind of man you couldn’t reason with once his mind was made up. He was like a caged animal finally set free, and I was terrified of what he might do to the people on this island. They were innocent; they didn’t deserve to be dragged into whatever madness Luke was planning.As for me, I was stuck dealing with the kids. I tried to keep my mind occupied, tried to push away the dread gnawing at me. But before anything, I knew I had to prepare. I organized money, lots of it. It felt like I was bracing for something big.
NICKIt had been three days since Olivia disappeared, the longest, most agonizing three days of our lives. Every day felt like a never-ending loop of despair. We woke up, checked the rooms, scoured the island, hoping to find some trace of her. But no matter how much we searched, it was as if she had vanished into thin air. There was no sign of a struggle, no indication that she had left the room, and absolutely no lead to follow. It was like she was swallowed up by the earth itself.The island wasn’t that large, and it seemed impossible that someone could just disappear like that. But here we were, endlessly combing through every corner, every inch of the place, but we kept coming up empty. It felt like we were chasing ghosts. The stress, the exhaustion, the hunger, none of it was helping our situation. It wasn’t that we didn’t have food. We had plenty of food. But none of us could bring ourselves to eat.The nanny we had hired to take care of the kids, a kind woman, had been cooking