“Rayna. Would you please have dinner with me?” Carlos had the look of a man whose patience was being tried.“No,” I replied blankly.“What the hell is wrong with you?” He was losing his cool.“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked back but didn’t wait for an answer before turning to Zade. “What’s for breakfast.”Coco left angrily, deciding to not include herself in our business but also didn’t give us food. Instead, Zade ordered us Chicken, chips, and cheese which we ate together with Zane, Carlos had disappeared to God knows where and I didn’t care.I’ve been without a phone for a very long time, so I didn’t care for a new phone, instead I wanted to go out.“Is there a cinema nearby?” I asked Zade as I swallowed my last chicken.Zane replied instead. “Yup, I intend to go to one this evening, Rainbow is going to be in the cinema for the first time.“Can I go with you?” I asked in a sweet voice.“No, you can’t.” His voice was sarcastically as sweet as mine.“I hate you.”“I don’t c
Tickets for the movie could be gotten online so I had Zade put me through and ended up purchasing 3 tickets. (It was good to hear that anything I bought with my phone was being paid for by Carlos). I didn’t know how but my phone was linked to his money in a way. The only disadvantage to that was I could not buy anything behind his knowledge.Another good thing was that I had lots of clothes that suited such outings in my closet. I’m sure the maids in charge of moving my clothes would hate me by now, I’ve had them move my clothes from one room to another more than 4 times.“How do I look?” I presented myself to Coco and did a 360-degree turn so she could get a full view of me.“Go ask your husband.” She replied curtly.“Why are you mad at me, you’ve been angry all morning.” I moved close to her; it was the first time she maintained an angry face at me. I had made her angry before, but she was never angry for long.She gave a deep sigh. “I’m not angry with you Child.”“So, what’s wrong?
Today was the worst day so far, I think I’m going to be sick, or maybe I’m already sick but for now, I just didn’t feel like getting out of bed. Sleeping alone had lost its savor but I was too proud to go back to Carlos's room, I also felt the maids were one step away from hating me with all their hearts. Especially Victoria.“Good morning. It’s time you have your bath.” She stood at the edge of the bed with her nose in the air. I could tell she didn’t like us, not like it was her fault. I had deceived her twice. One more time wouldn’t hurt.“What are you doing here?” I murmured, closing my eyes. I just didn’t feel like getting out of bed.“Coco sent me.” I could feel her rolling her eyes as she spoke. “You have to bathe now.”I let out a long yawn, opening my eyes and then closing it again. Today should be tagged a lazy day.“When did you start keeping a record of when and if I bathed.” She had ruined my sleep but I hadn’t planned to raise my voice at her, not that I was going to apo
Carlos rushed to me immediately. He laid a hand on my forehead and his eyes widened. I even felt hot, it seemed like my temperature had accelerated within a minute and my insides suddenly felt uncomfortable.“How do you feel?” He asked and at the same time, he was calling the doctor. He carried me in his arms like I was a baby and all I could think of was how good it felt, why did I have to be in a form of danger or sickness before I could get any form of pampering from Carlos? It just wasn’t fair.I took a deep breath, could feel myself getting weaker by the minute. I was fine, or I thought I was fine and suddenly I was weak.“I’m a bit weak, just dizzy, and tired. I’ll be fine.” I tried to act strong and okay. Maybe it was just the wind. Thinking about it, I had been feeling slightly dizzy for days now, but I didn’t think it was anything serious.The doctor came and Carlos helped me to a bed. The doctor checked my temperature, and it seemed like I had a fever because my temperature
CARLOS“I’d like to hear the good news first,” Rayna said immediately. I guessed at this point she would like to live in denial, the worst it would be was that Rayna had a terminal disease and she would rather not hear it because her next words were, “I don’t want to hear the bad news, you can tell him later, when I am not here, or in your office. I just don’t want to hear it.”“You have to know what’s happening in your body.” The doctor replied patiently.“Am I going to die?” She asked outrightly, I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped me when she mentioned death. It all died down to this woman not knowing what she meant to me.The doctor gave a pause before answering, “No.”“Calm down Rayna. Please don’t mention death, no one is dying.” I warned. I turned to the doctor, unsure of what to do.“Let us talk in the office.” I closed the soup and packed it away, “I’ll be back.” I said to Rayna, tucking a stray hair behind her ears. I was getting used to the look on her new hair, but she l
CARLOSHis nose took a hit but this time it was from my boots.I held him by the neck, “Guess what? She’s no longer yours to sell or do whatever you want with. Rayna is mine now.”Blueblood had the guts to burst into laughter, which I stopped by tightening my hand on his throat.“You’re not thinking of marrying her, are you?” he squeezed out. Surprise was etched all over his face like he couldn’t believe someone would marry his daughter.I stood up and cleaned my hands as Zane came. He pulled Blueblood up a chair and gave him the papers. My intentions weren’t to kill Blueblood or burst his eyes, I had better plans.“Sign it,” I ordered.The man was sure smart because he opened it and scanned through. There was a time I could beat anyone to doing anything I wanted but I had learned over time that people might be afraid of me, but they respected the law, since then I had learned to go through procedures to prevent my past from blowing up in my face.“You sure are serious about Rayna.” H
RAYNA“You sure you don’t have the flu too?” I asked Victoria. She looked pale and unhappy. It was the second day I got back from the hospital, something had felt fishy but in the end, all I had was flu, I was given some drugs that was all. Carlos also told me about a Doctor Cross that would be coming to check on me regularly but so far I had not seen him yet.When Victoria didn’t reply to me with a sassy tongue like she always did, I knew something was wrong. I didn’t like how she ignored me, and I always loved exchanging words with her, another maid would rather not meet my eyes.“You know you can tell me what’s wrong right?” I encouraged, them to an extent, I now saw her as a friend, she was the only female in my age range around. “C’mon, you want a vacation? Are you sick? Tell me.” She ignored me as she tucked the end of the bed and made to leave the room. I blocked the door.“You either tell me what’s up or push me out of the way.” Looks like being adamant was the only way, she w
Victoria held her breath, I released mine. I didn’t know if to be happy or not. Things were easier said than done but now I knew that it was easiest to think of things that even to say them. Actions were always the worst.“Let’s do it again,” Victoria murmured, her voice shaking with fear, uncertainty, and a little bit of hope. “I bought five strips; I’ll use everything so we can be sure.”“I don’t think that’s necessary, just try one more and that’s it,” I replied firmly. “Would you pee again, or this urine can still work?”“I’ll pay again, to be on the safe side.” She said, I stood up and went out of the bathroom. I took up the strip and stared at think single line that stood on it. The line was bold and didn’t look like a mistake. According to this strip I held in my hands, Victoria was not pregnant.I toyed with it in my hands as I waited for Victoria to call. Her voice rang in the air and the door opened.We repeated the process, again we held our breath and counted. The results
EpilogueRAYNAI smoothened my hands over my off-white dress. It had been a long and dramatic year but even through it all, this day had come.My wedding day.Because I was married once, I couldn’t wear a white gown so I decided to stay put with off-white instead of baby pink. I still wanted to feel like a bride.Planning for the wedding had been fun but I didn’t like how I didn’t get to see much of my new husband.Juan came in the door with a small smile on his face, he’s been smiling more lately, Surprisingly he was also good friends with the couple. Anna and Zane.They both had moved out after everything settled and were now staying in their own home. We tried convincing Anna to have an official wedding but she insisted the one she had was enough. She was married and satisfied.“You look pretty.” He said tentatively. I raised my brows at him, it was almost the first compliment I’d heard from him.“I just wanted to do this one more time.” He breathed, “Are you sure about this?”I sm
CARLOSIt would have been insensitive for me to ask Zane to check the car for the remains of his brother’s body so I managed to do it myself.Even as we raced down as we heard the explosion, there was nothing we could do other than to watch the car burn into crisps, they would have been dead even before we got there.We had to wait for the fire to be completely put out while Rayna was taken to the hospital, She had been given excess sleeping pills but they had been too strong for her body, and we could do nothing other than wait for her to sleep it off, it was torture watching her look so lifeless.Louis and Juan didn’t leave her side all day, I knew they would insist on taking her back to Mexico as soon as she was unconscious but at this point, I knew I would just have to live with whatever choice she made.Zade had disappeared as soon as Rayna was settled in the hospital, both of us were hesitant to return to the side, not ready to see or collect the bodies. Zade might not show his
CARLOS“None of your business, where is my money?” He barked.We stood approximately 10 feet apart. I tried to look at Coco who was behind him, she looked okay, not bruised or injured, but I had learned that wounds were beyond the physical, they were mental and emotional bruises too.I raised my hands to signal for Zade to come out of the car with the briefcase, which he did. I had a trick waiting for him in it.Zade came forth and handed the money to him, while he tried to open the box, Zade brought Coco over to us, Monday didn’t even try to stop him because he had sighted the many that had been neatly arranged in up the box, little did he know that there was a surprise awaiting him if he searched a little further.“Are you okay?” I asked, holding her face up and searching for any form of wound on her skin.Her lashes were already wet with tears as more threatened to escape. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect her. I told her to stay, but now he’d taken her away.”Even at this m
CARLOSMiguel Sinclair“He used to work for me, He was a big man, skilled, good with guns, knives, anything, I used to wonder where he came from but I appreciated his skills. That was why I put him to guard my daughter, she had just clocked 16, I couldn’t keep her locked in forever, she wanted to go out to make friends, so I needed someone to watch over her. He wasn’t the first I put to guard her but she hated it, she had hated them all before she met him. I could tell she liked him. It was fine with me, she was a kid, and this infatuation would die before long, but I began to feel wary when I noticed it wasn’t one-sided. It wasn’t her at all. It was him. He was obsessed with her.” He covered his face with both hands. I could feel his pain, the guilt, that It was all his fault, he brought Miguel into her life. I placed a hand on his shoulder because I knew he wasn’t alone, I had my share of faults too.“Now isn’t the time to point fingers and blame, we need to find him.” My voice came
CARLOSReinforcement wasn’t here yet, but calls had been made and strings had been pulled. I held the list of every active member of the cub for the past few years, I had gone through it twice but there was no familiar name or word, there was nothing fishy about the organization I had to admire whosoever was in charge, he did a very good job, he did well to pay necessary taxes and maintained order.The gambling club might rid people of their wealth, but it didn’t try to rob the government. If anything happened and they were taken to court, there would be nothing to use against them.I was getting frustrated, it was almost dawn, and all the leads we had led to dead ends. Blueblood was doing his best but no result seemed to be showing forth.“I’ll go through the names again, you should eat.” Zade took the papers from me, and I let him take them, I had gone through them over and over, and I could almost recite the names offhand, I stood up to brew myself a cup of coffee. Sleep wasn’t an
RAYNAMonday came in with a smug smile on his face.“I’ve decided to treat you well since I’m getting a huge sum of money after this, it wouldn’t have been possible without you.” For some reason, I had the feeling he was talking to Coco and not me, which was strange considering he had both of us.“I’m about to get dinner, What would you like to eat?” He finished.Just to test my assumption, I spoke fast. “I would like a sandwich.” It was a safe choice, sandwiches were sealed in their pack, and I wouldn’t eat them if the seal was broken.“I wasn’t talking to you.” He shot back without even looking at me, his eyes were all for Coco.I remembered when he had said earlier that one of us was for exchange, I knew at that moment that he had no plans of sending me back, no matter how this turned out. But why?“We would both like a sandwich,” Coco said, I could tell the attention he was giving her was freaking her out.He smiled at her, “If you insist.” He turned and left smiling.“Something i
CARLOSIt’s been six hours and there were no traces of Coco and Rayna’s whereabouts. It was an easy guess that this was Monday in action but he was yet to contact me, and it was not an exaggeration that I was freaking out.Monday was normally dumb but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was up to something this time around. I had expected him to give up on the whole inheritance thing a long time ago. Ordinarily, the guy lacked tenacity, but when he kept coming back, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that someone was behind him. He was getting advice and help from someone and the fact that the person was yet to show face meant there was more to come.I hated not knowing what I was dealing with, especially now that the two most important women in my life were in their care.It was also unnerving that both of them had been taken, they could have taken one and left the other, but no. he took both of them.I had a sick feeling that I could have to make a choice, that I might be able to
Monday, I collected the keys from Coco and switched seats with her while I was held down and taped in the mouth by a man I didn’t recognize.They tied both mine and Coco’s hands after collecting our phones. Coco’s mouth was left free while mine was taped.Where was he taking us? I looked at Coco, but she was still and calm, she probably trusted Carlos to come to save her, but he didn’t even know where we were. They might have not even gotten home yet.“You might be wondering why or where I’m taking you. Where I’m taking you doesn’t matter, but what matters is why I am taking you.” Monday began rattling, very dumb man. I could guess what he wanted.“I intend to make an exchange—a woman for a woman. Kavinsky gets to take one of you if he gives me Anna, I haven’t decided what to do with the second person but I’m first excited about who Carlos is going to choose. His wife or his mother.“I’m not his mother,” Coco said quietly. It was the first thing she said since the ride began.“You’re
There was no serious talk after that, we drove, we sang, we laughed, but most importantly, I called her mother, and she called me daughter.The birthday we delivered cookies for was for a very beautiful 6-year-old. Her mother seemed very nice and invited us to the party, Coco was sad she had brought no presents, but we stayed, nevertheless.It was the evening before left.The house was quiet when we got home, I didn’t see Carlos, but I couldn’t help but wonder where he was, he didn’t text me all day neither I he.“Rayna?” Coco called.“Yes?”“Can you spend the night in my room? Just tonight?” She asked in a small voice. I had been hoping to talk to Carlos tonight, but it would have to wait.“Sure.”We ate the cookie we had kept aside for Carlos together and talked. Coco had a big heart, but as much happiness she had in her, there was so much pain too and she had no one to tell.“Are you still in love with him?” I asked later that night, I wondered how she must have coped all these yea