Everything else stilled under the enormity of the pain that lanced through Reyona.“Now it's time to shut you up forever, bitch” Susan sneered nastily as she rushed towards Reyona with the jagged end of the mop raised.Shock borne off unexpected betrayal paralysed Reyona.Then her survival instinct kicked in as she saw the maniac aiming for her eyes with the pointy stake.She dodged at the last minute and had Susan stumbling past her.Susan smashed her face into the wall, howled and turned in rage to finish what she had started.She yowled in pain when Reyona viciously yanked her hair and slammed her head against the wall again.“You are going to kill me, you bitch! Let go!” Susan cried pitifully as her head started bleeding.“Oh, am I? I am sorry”Reyona said as she easily dislodged the crudely fashioned stake from Susan’s weakened hand.She turned her around and threw her hard to the floor as she said, “Pardon me for giving you a taste of your own medicine.”She dragged Susan back a
The agent kept calling until Reyona picked it up.After explaining everything to him, he asked her to wait for him on the stage and Reyona agreed.She told Samantha to leave but the latter insisted on at least getting her aspirin and cold packs for her bruised hands before leaving.Reyona agreed to avoid further argument.She hardly had the breath for it anyway.She was beginning to think that the mop had done some major damage inside her after all.Not to mention the excruciating pain she was feeling from where she had hit her back against the sink.In truth, she ached from head to toe, yet she knew it was not time to fold yet.She had to see this through first.“I am really worried about you,” Samantha said as she came back from the pharmacy.She popped the aspirin for her and held the cold pack to her knuckles.“Are you sure you don’t want to go to a hospital? You look like you need it. I could call Phil if you want…”Reyona managed a pain-wracking smile as she said “Good God, no.
She couldn’t do it.Reyona couldn’t believe there would be a day when something as easy as breathing would become a problem for her.Just as she had no idea that something as second nature as driving would become impossible for her.She soon found out how much her body could work against her will after she got behind the wheel that evening.She knew she had to go to the hospital.And that was the intention as she left the restaurant and all its discoveries behind.But then every single turn of the steering wheel robbed her of her breath, and she was soon breathing heavily and sweating profusely too.The company was closer to the restaurant, so she headed towards it, hoping she wouldn’t pass out while on the highway.She managed to get to the company and thought of calling Samantha after all.She dismissed the thought even before it formed.Her employees had closed for the day, and the night lights were coming on as she drove into the parking lot.One of the security men saw her sittin
Reyona requested that she should be discharged.Though polite, the doctor denied her request.Yes, he understood the urgency of what she had to go do.Yes, he knew her and he believed that she wouldn’t endanger her health in any way.But the fact remained that she still needed to be taken care of.They were still awaiting her results too.Reyona had not wanted to use her personal doctor, who was known to Maxwell, to prevent the situation where the man might be inconvenienced by questioning later.Though she had Andrea’s number too, she had not called her for the same reason.Andrea was even closer to Maxwell than she was to her.But as she looked at the courteous yet resolute face of the doctor, she supposed she should have just called a doctor in after all.After gathering her strength and being sure that she could speak without the breathy quality that kept threading her voice as a result of tiredness, she faced the doctor.“I have something that I need to go do urgently. No, it can
She had barely settled into her chair when she heard the sound of his car downstairs.Of course, it could have been anyone passing by, but somehow she just knew that was his Mustang.It was what he had driven the day they went out with the kids.Reyona berated herself for even noticing something like that.Just as she stemmed the lancing pain that had nothing to do with the wounds on her body.She adjusted the neckline of her shirt to be certain her neck bruises were well covered.By the time he knocked at her door, her props were in place.Just as her mask.“Yes, come in,” she called calmly and managed to look surprised as he came in.“Hi, what are you doing here?” she said with a smile.He went around to her seat and Reyona lifted her cheek as he leaned forward to kiss her.He gave her a look as he changed the angle of his head and kissed her on the cheek instead of the lips he had been aiming for.She smiled at him and gestured at one of the chairs in front of her as she looked bac
Maxwell stopped in his stride and turned to her with a furrowed brow as he responded. “Susan? No, nothing at all. I know as much as you do. My men are still on it though, just as they are looking for him as well.”“Oh, okay,” Reyona answered easily.“Why are you suddenly asking that?” he asked as he approached her desk again.“Oh, you know. I just think that Allysyn’s birthday is tomorrow, and yes, we got her presents and all, but I think I know what she would have wanted the most tomorrow.”“What?”“To have her parents around to celebrate it with her, of course. She would have been so delighted. Erm, her mom just disappeared without leaving anything behind? I mean maybe she left a note, or she did something. Anything at all that we can read meaning to?”Maxwell inclined his head as he said “No, nothing at all. I heard they just couldn’t find her one morning.”“So, she did nothing? Nothing at all? Just disappeared?”“No, nothing…” he narrowed his gaze in thought as he asked, “Why do I
“You know what happens to people who lie to me. Right, Maxie?”“Uhn?” Maxwell murmured incomprehensibly as he rubbed his hands on his face and sat up in bed.The voice registered as silence greeted his incoherent mumble.The phone ring had woken him from a troubled sleep he had only fallen into a few minutes ago.Maxwell removed the phone from his ear to look at the unrecognised number again.In his subconsciousness, he had automatically picked the call thinking it was Reyona.It would teach him to look closely at caller ID before picking up calls, drowsy state or not.Why was he calling him so early in the morning?Maxwell looked at the time on the phone and saw that it was 4: 37am.“Don,” he stated more than asked. The silence on the other end made him realise that Donald-turned-Serena, Aka Don, was waiting for a response to his first question. “Yeah, I know that,” Maxwell answered, as he instantly became fully awake.“Where is your step-sister, Maxie?” Maxwell got even more confu
She couldn’t sleep.It didn’t matter how many times they tried to convince her that she needed to.“Please try to get some sleep” the doctor had said. “Consider your recovery and your condition.”Her condition! Ha!She was certain of it.Reyona was sure that there had been a mistake somewhere.There must have been a mistake with the samples, and they had handed her the wrong result.Yes, she could see her name on the result, and the doctor could sound as confident as he wanted for all she cared.They were wrong, and she was sure they would come in anytime soon to prove her right.Despite the doctor’s seeming conviction, Reyona had told them to do the blood HCG test.Everyone knew that urine tests are not so reliable, right?She turned over again on the bed and wished the damned pain in her back would ease up enough for her to get down from the bed and pace as she wanted to.But that would mean she was anxious, wouldn’t it?It would mean she actually believed what they said.But she di