Steve listened to Amanda and Logan fight groggily, as he lay in bed in the house that they had come to after kidnapping Harper and Gracie.He had suddenly felt so tired not long after he retired to sleep and didn’t even realize when he fell asleep. He heard Logan hit Amanda and heard her sharp squeal of surprise and pain, but he didn’t bother getting up to ask what was wrong, because it wasn’t any of his business, and frankly, he didn’t care.Also, he felt so tired and sleepy and it was such a chore to keep his eyes open. Not long after that, he heard Logan drive away in a huff.Logan and Amanda’s fight was what had woken Steve up and now, he struggled to remain awake, but he found that somehow, it was difficult to do so, and this was strange, considering the fact that he was something of an insomniac.As he lay there battling sleep, he began to think about his life choices, which hadn't been very good. Yes, he was successful, and yes, he had money and he had fame, but he was a desp
It didn’t take long for Steve to find the basement door and he heaved a heavy sigh of relief when he found it. He wished that he could get some water to splash on his face so that he could be more alert and awake, but he didn’t have the luxury of time to try and find some water. The basement door was locked … no surprise there and he put his ear to it, trying to see if he could hear any noise from inside it, but there was total silence, just as there was silence inside the house. He had known that the door would be locked, but that wasn't a problem for him because he had a paper clip attached to his bunch of keys, which he usually used to remove his SIM card from his phone. All he had to do was to pick the lock as quietly as possible and hope that he would be able to do that before anyone woke up or noticed what he was doing. He had experience in picking locks right from when he was young and ran away from home with his brother, and although he hadn't used that particular skill i
By the time Steve woke up sometime later, the sun was streaming through the trees and he could hear the crunching of leaves somewhere not far away.He froze in fear and looked around, but there was nothing to see other than trees and little shrubs. Harper and Gracie were sleeping peacefully on the ground beside him. There wasn’t much cover for them to be concealed if whoever was out there in the forest came towards where they were. Although his heart was slamming against his chest very rapidly, Steve remained quiet, hoping against hope that whoever was out there would go away. It occurred to him that it could be a hunter or someone else who could help them, but he wasn't willing to take the chance of calling out. He was glad he didn't take that chance when he heard Amanda's unmistakable voice berating and insulting someone. Not long after, Amanda and the other person or people left and everything was silent again. By this time, the sun was shining through the trees and Steve rea
The days passed agonizingly slowly and Ava fell into severe depression. She was going through utter hell and was unable to believe that this was what her life had come to.While it was true that Derek didn’t die from the gunshot wound that had managed to penetrate his chest, he remained in a coma and showed no signs whatsoever of regaining consciousness anytime soon, or even ever.He had had to go through delicate surgeries to have the bullet that, by some sheer stroke of luck, didn't hit any major organs, removed. However, some complications had arisen during surgery, and he remained in a coma.The joy and hope that flooded Ava’s entire being when her mother delivered the news that Derek was still alive, but only unconscious to her, had since ebbed away as there was no improvement in his case.As soon as he was stabilized, he was moved down to a hospital in the city where they lived, and Ava sat with him every hour of every day until a nurse came to demand that she leave to rest, and
Inside the envelope were several pictures of Harper that were obviously taken by her captor. As Ava stared at the pictures, tears welled in her eyes and a lump formed in her throat. How could anyone be so callous to do this to an innocent child? Harper was held in what appeared to be a basement, and the picture was clear enough for Ava to see welts where the girl had been beaten with what must be a belt. "Oh, God! My baby! My poor baby!" Ava cried. "We shouldn't have shown it to her, Mom." Ava's sister said again, crying alongside her sister. "No, no. It's fine. At least we know that she's alive. We just need to find her faster before this sadistic demon does worse than this." Before anyone could say anything else, there was a knock on the door and Ava's mom opened it to see Gracie's mom standing there. The woman was crying as well and in her hands was an envelope that was identical to the one that Ava had received. Inside the envelope were pictures of Gracie as well, but she
“Amanda and Denise? You've got to be kidding me! What on earth do they want and why on earth are they here?" Ava asked her mother, unable to believe her ears.Her mother stared back at her helplessly, not knowing what to answer. Ava disliked her unwelcome visitors so much and never wanted to be around them because as far as she was concerned, they were always up to some mischief. "I don't know what they want, honey. They probably came to commiserate with you." Her mother answered at last. "I don't want to see them. There's no point acting as though we're friends or cool with each other when we're not." "Do you want me to tell them that you're not receiving visitors at the moment?" Ava's mother asked her. "Yes ... You know what? On second thought, I think I'll see them. They've probably come to float at my predicament, under the guise of pretending to be here to say sorry." Ava said. She took her time dressing up before heading to the living room, where the two women were seated.
To Ava’s utter surprise and relief, it wasn’t bad news that the hospital was calling to inform her about. Instead, it was good news. For the first time in almost two weeks since this whole tragedy happened, Ava heaved a huge sigh of relief. Things were starting to look up. According to what she had just been told, Derek was starting to show signs of waking up from his coma. Ava was glad that she was already ready to leave for the hospital, otherwise, she would have died from suspense during the time it would have taken for her to get ready. She rushed down to the hospital, where she met an ecstatic Damien, who was still at the hospital with Derek. "Is it true, Damien? Oh, please tell me that it's true." Ava exclaimed as soon as she saw him. "It is indeed true. Ava. I saw it myself. He hasn't opened his eyes yet, but he moved his fingers a little, and according to the doctor, responded to some stimuli. He's going to be alright, Ava. I told you so, didn't I? Despite his soft
Ava stared at him aghast, managing to get her tears under control as she tried to make sense of the question that he had just asked her."Derek?" She said again, but he only continued to stare at her inquiringly, without a trace of recognition in his eyes."You don't remember me? It's me, Ava. We used to be married, and ..." She trailed off, her confusion increasing when a small smile broke out on the corners of his mouth.It was then she noticed that this whole while, he had been struggling to keep his expression neutral and not burst out laughing, but in her panic, she hadn't noticed."Derek! Don't do that! It's not very nice." Ava chastised him, relief flooding her entire being as she peppered his face with small kisses.The last thing she needed was to have to deal with him suffering from amnesia or something. She hardly ever heard good stories about that condition. "Of course, I remember you, Ava. I don't think I could ever forget you. It's better I die than for that to happen,
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