"Do you think this is a wise thing to do? I mean, what are …” Steve began a little fearfully as they made their way over to the house, but Amanda shushed him.“Shut up, Steve. I didn’t peg you for a wuss. I’m almost convinced that the person who took that video used to live here. We’re going to find out information on where they could currently be. It's as simple as that. It's not as though we're doing anything illegal or dangerous.” Amanda replied in that same bossy tone that she had had since she found out about all of this.The tone failed to calm Steve down this time around though, and his heart pounded a mile a minute as they walked together towards the closed front door of the house.He had a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach ... like all was not well, and death was imminent, but that was crazy and he was just being paranoid.Soon enough, they were in front of the door, and Amanda raised her hand and rapped on the door a few times. There was silence for a while, and then
The house was nothing like Steve remembered it. The pregnant lady offered them both glasses of water each, while Logan remained in the car.Steve wasn’t sure what role Logan was supposed to be playing, and he didn’t particularly care. He just wanted to leave. He and Amanda made small talk with the pregnant lady, whose demeanor had totally changed from the surly one she had when she opened the door.She chatted away with Amanda as though they were best of friends, and Steve realized that the woman was lonely.“I’m so sorry about the loss of your father-in-law,” Steve said again, for lack of words.“Oh, I actually don’t care that much. He didn’t let us get married because he didn’t want his son and me together. I imagine that he must be throwing a fit in his grave knowing that his son got me knocked up, married me, and I'm going to have our daughter pretty soon. Don’t tell my husband I said that though. He’ll be mad. He loved his Dad very much.”“Oh, you don’t have to worry about it. I
It was actually amazing how easy all of this had turned out to be, and Steve had to admit that luck was on his side.It was clear that Steve’s disguise didn’t fool the guy, because recognition dawned in his eyes the moment he set his eyes on Steve. The eyes went wide in surprise, and maybe even a little fear, and then his expression changed to one of defiance.Amanda immediately sent a text to Logan, who was still in the car to make his way over to the house, while Steve and the other guy appraised themselves silently. The guy's wife looked between all of them, wondering what the hell was wrong, and realizing that she must have made a mistake in allowing these strangers into her home.“You … what are you doing here?” The guy, whose name was Alan, asked in a tone that was supposed to sound belligerent, but instead, came out squeaky-sounding.For someone who had been pulling the stunts that he had been pulling for the past week, he was quite the coward. If he was looking as sc
“Great! Let’s try this again then. Does anyone know about any of this? Did you tell anyone?” Amanda asked.“No, no, I didn’t. I only found out about it myself less than two weeks ago. I won't tell anyone, I promise.”“Good, good, I believe you, and how exactly did you find out about it?”“I was going through and sorting my late father’s stuff and I found the videos there, then I printed out the pictures. He must have stumbled upon the crime scene or something, but for some reason, didn’t seem it necessary to report Steve … probably because they were friends. I just wanted justice to be served. I remember poor Victoria, and I liked her a lot back then. She used to buy me ice cream and was nice to me whenever my Dad wasn’t around and she saw me waiting outside the house for him to come back home. That was why I kept asking this guy to confess, but now, I realize that I should learn to mind my business.”“It’s a good thing that you’ve learned to mind your business, Alan, dear. I trus
“What the hell?” Steve exclaimed, drawing back immediately, and staring at the body in horror.“What is the matter, pussy boy? You’ve never seen a body before, or what are you trying to say? I think those women you killed will beg to differ.” Logan growled at him.Fuck! The guy was one scary ass motherfucker. Steve didn't bother to tell the guy that he had only killed one woman because it didn’t matter. Instead, he gingerly stepped over Alan’s body.Alan had gotten what he deserved for failing to mind his business and trying to resurrect dead matters, no pun intended, and Steve actually felt a little relieved at the fact that the man wouldn’t be breathing a word of this to anyone.But then, there was the matter of Alan’s wife. Was she going to just keep her mouth shut after they murdered her husband? Steve highly doubted that.By the time they got to the living room, he saw that Amanda had ‘taken care’ of the lady. Alan’s wife was lying on the floor, and her chest was covered in
Derek and Ava had to postpone their vacation by another two weeks because Derek had to deal with some stuff at work urgently.At Harper’s request, they got permission from the parents of her new best friend in school, a little girl named Amy, to take their daughter along with them on a three-day trip to Disneyland for Harper’s birthday.Amy’s mother came with them, and she, in turn, invited Harper to Amy’s birthday party, which was going to be held a few days after they got back from vacation.Finally, the new scheduled date of their vacation arrived, and of they went for it. The novelty of the long-awaited vacation was drastically reduced for Ava because she was suddenly feeling a little under the weather.She wasn’t about to ruin the experience for her daughter, or even Derek, so she took some pills, plastered a smile on her face, and pretended like she was fine.She and Derek hadn't gone out together in public since they became cool with each other again, and so Ava had all but for
She couldn’t help but notice that he was sort of ‘avoiding’ her … for lack of a better word. To put it more precisely, he was avoiding having too much physical contact with her, which was quite silly, as far as she was concerned.After all, they were going to be sharing the same bed, for crying out loud, and besides, only a few weeks ago, they were literally shoving their tongues down each other’s throats, as well as doing even more intimate things than that, so she didn’t get why he was acting all prude now.On the first night of vacation, she was too ill to do anything but take a hot shower, and go straight to sleep, so she didn’t really notice it or care that much.By the time she woke up the following morning, she felt much better and was able to convince Derek of this fact, so he stopped worrying, and they started to enjoy their vacation.The island was breathtakingly beautiful and there were tons of things to do at all times, both for kids and for adults too.Ava signed up for a
Ava stared at the woman in disbelief, sure that her ears were playing tricks on her, or that the woman was trying to pull a nasty trick on her. The word 'pregnant' sounded like such a foreign word. “Excuse me? That’s not possible.” Ava said. The woman nodded indulgently at Ava’s words, no doubt thinking that this was welcome news, judging by the smile that hadn’t left her face since she told Ava about her suspicion. “Well, you did say you’ve been sexually active recently, and you haven't seen your period in well over a month …” “Yes, I did say all that, but it's just not possible. I mean, I’m on the pill, and we used protection, and also, it’s not the first time I've missed a period, and we'll, um…” Ava trailed off helplessly, aware that she rambling and zoning out as she tried to process what the doctor was telling her. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. How on earth could it be happening? Deep down, though, she knew that the woman was right. The signs were all there, now th
He led her back to his room, walked over to a drawer by the side of his bed, opened it, and brought out something from inside it.When he turned towards her and she saw what it was that he brought out of it, Ava gasped out loud.It looked like the black box in which her engagement ring had come several years ago.Derek had always had a taste for good things, and he had the money to support his taste.Thus back then, even when he wasn’t really into her, and was only marrying her out of pity, he had gotten her a beautifully crafted and expensive engagement ring.As he opened the box in his hands now and got down on one knee, she could see that it was the same ring that was inside it.He had kept it even after all these years! Tears sprung to her eyes, filling them as he professed his love to her and asked her to marry him again, promising to treat her right this time around and make up for all the lost years.“Yes, yes, Derek. Of course, I’ll marry you! There’s nothing I want more.” She
Ava wasn’t about to take any chances though. After hugging the living daylights out of Derek, while he hugged her back just as tightly, she insisted that they had to visit the hospital right then.“But it’s already late. Besides, I don’t think there's anything they can do or will have to do. We can wait until tomorrow to go there and celebrate this night instead.” Derek suggested, his voice rife with meaning as he threw a suggestive wink Ava’s way, but she didn't allow herself to be swayed.“No way in hell. We’ve waited too long for you to regain your memory to just take it so lightly now that it has finally happened. We’re going now, and that’s that!”“As Her Royal Highness wishes.” Derek joked, making a small, formal bow that made Ava smile.Yes, he was back. She could see in his eyes that he truly recognized her, but even better, he had the same look in his eyes that he used to have before he went to the conference and everything changed.The look that told her that he was in love
She picked up the papers with the slowness of a very old woman and scanned through them, her hands shaking.She was not surprised to see her name, as well as Derek’s name on the papers because she had recognized the papers the minute they fell out of the book.It was the same ones that Derek had handed to her on that night several years ago, which she had had no choice but to reluctantly sign, while crying her eyes out and swearing never to forgive him for everything that he had done to her.Except that he hadn't really done anything in the sense of the word ... at least, not in the way that she thought.Why on earth were these papers still with him? She had signed them and left that day without giving any thought to what he was going to do with them.Her signature was there on the paper, right where she had signed it haphazardly. In fact, she thought that she could still see a tear mark or two on the papers since she was crying when she signed them, but she couldn’t be sure since th
They walked in companionable silence to Derek’s room. Once they were inside the room, he led her to his walk-in closet where he had stored the journals, making sure to keep a respectable distance between them.Ava knew that it was because she had complained about the scent of his cologne, and now, she wished that she had kept her wide mouth shut.“It’s all in there. Here, let me look for the specific one you asked about.” Derek said, picking it out and handing it to her.“Oh, thank you. Are you sure that you don’t mind me reading it?”“Not in the least bit. I feel like I’d be doing the guy who wrote all that stuff a huge solid by letting you see for yourself all the things that he wanted to say to you for so long but was too chicken to say. He might want to kill me for doing it, but I think he’ll be better for it in the long run.” Derek replied, shrugging.“Okay then,” Ava said happily.Derek, for his part, suddenly became self-conscious. What if she thought that he was a sappy fool a
Several seconds passed, and then Derek rushed in the direction that she had gone.He found her in the restroom adjoining the living room. She was throwing up violently into the toilet bowl.Derek went over to her and moved her hair away from her face, providing support until there was nothing for her to throw up anymore.Once she was done, she slowly turned to face him. It was clear that she was reluctant to turn, andDerek remained immobile for a few more seconds before rushing after Ava.He found her in the restroom adjoining the living room, throwing up violently into the toilet bowl, and rushed towards her.He held her and moved her hair away from her face until there was nothing for her to throw up anymore.Then she slowly and reluctantly turned to face him, a fact that wasn't lost on him. In fact, she seemed to be inching awayfrom him so that there was a little space between them.He figured that it was because she had just finished throwing up the contents of her bowel and did
The next day, Derek arrived home from work with a huge bouquet of flowers for Ava and a smaller one for Harper. The two of them were in the living room, watching Harper’s favorite cartoon and looking all comfy and cozy. Their eyes lit up the moment Derek stepped into the living room, and this filled him with warmth. Harper in her usual fashion, bounded up to run over to him to give him a big hug. Her hugs were one of his favorite things nowadays, and he could never get tired of receiving them for as long as he lived. Ava, on the other hand, was more reserved in her welcome towards him, but she did smile at him in welcome. Her eyes were always cautious around him, which kind of made him sad because that emotion was definitely different from the one he wrote about in his journals after she warmed up to him. “Welcome home. Derek. What have you got there behind you?” Ava asked him. “Thank you. I got you both some flowers.” He replied, and brought forward the hand that was holding th
As the days passed and Derek's memory didn't return, he got more and more frustrated because it felt like things were at a standstill due to the memory loss.On the bright side, catching up with work wasn't difficult for him at all. In fact, it was one of the easiest things he had to deal with and he spent several hours a day at it while Harper was at school and Ava was trying to get back to work.Catching up with the rest of his life was what was difficult though. Nothing made sense, and so he had to go through all of his stuff, trying to find out more about his current than he already knew.He managed to find out a lot just by doing this. He had always been very organized and used to keep journals that documented his daily life.Apparently, he still kept these journals and they were all arranged neatly on a shelf in his library.He went through each and every one of them, trying to catch a glimpse of the man he now was. Going through them made him realize just how different he was f
She smiled at him and slowly came out from behind the chair. Derek had no idea for how long she had been hiding there, but it seemed that it had been quite a while.“Daddy…” She said and without warning, rushed at him and embraced him tightly with more strength than he would have expected a child to have.Derek awkwardly patted her back and embraced her too, not sure if he should pick her up, kiss her cheek, ruffle her hair, or anything like that.“How are you?” He asked her, wincing as soon as the words left his mouth. He sounded like he was having a formal meeting with some board of directors or something like that, not talking to a child.However, Harper didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she made his decision for him by raising her arms, indicating that he should pick her up.“I’m fine, daddy. The bad woman told me that you died, but I didn’t believe her.” Harper told him.Derek immediately did as she wanted and she rested her head on his shoulder in the sweetest gesture ever. To his
A few days later, Derek was set to be discharged from the hospital. Everything felt so strange to him, and he felt a tad lonely.He had spent the last days of his hospital stay catching up on his present life or what it was supposed to be like.Nothing made sense to him, and he tried not to dwell too much on the grief that plagued him anytime he thought about his dad or the fact that the other remaining members of his family had turned out the way they had.Reading and watching all the pieces of news that he could gather about the whole incident, as well as asking tons of questions, made him not hurt as much as he would have at Denise's or Blair's death and Amanda's incarceration.He could not wrap his head around anyone doing what they had done, especially the fact that they kidnapped and tortured two innocent children, one of whom was his own daughter.He still had yet to meet his little girl, but he was going to see her that day when he got home.He was nervous as hell, about the m