Amanda was the first to see the body, and as soon as she saw it, she let out a hysterical scream that was loud enough to awaken the dead, startling the people with her. “Oh, my God! It’s a freaking corpse. It’s the corpse of one of our security men.” She shrieked, taking several steps back so that the policemen would deal with it. They were the professionals, after all. “Madam, could you be quiet, please, or better yet, it’s not too late for you to go back? This man has been shot dead and we have no idea if his shooter is somewhere around or not. The last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves. Blake here will take you back to town.” One of the officers told her, drawing his gun, as did the others. “Okay, but there's no need for Blake to take me back. I’ll drive myself back. You need all the men that you can get. Please bring back my mother alive.” Amanda begged. “We’ll try our best, ma’am.” The man promised, and off the officers went, dispersing and leaving her all by
“Please don’t shoot me. I’m just here looking for my mother.” Amanda pleaded, her voice shaking very badly because of how scared she was. “Well, good for you, because I’m looking for my brother as well.” “I don’t know where your brother is. Please let me go and I swear, I won't breathe a word of this to anyone.” “Shut the hell up, otherwise, I’ll shoot you and take my chances. Your constant yapping is giving me a headache. I’m not going to hurt you if you cooperate. I’m going to use you as bait to get my brother out of there unharmed. If you make any sound in a bid to attract attention to us, I'll blow your brains off." “Okay,” Amanda said. Her captor began to pull her forward, but just then, there came the sound of gunshots in the distance. “Shit! Shit!! Shit!!! I warned Sam. I fucking warned him.” The man swore. He continued to pull her forward, avoiding the route that the policemen had gone through. Amanda kept quiet and let him lead her through the bushes, hoping ag
The media, as well as the internet, had a field day reporting the news of Derek’s rescue less than an hour after he was brought back to town with the police and admitted to a hospital.The location of the hospital was kept a secret so that he could heal in peace. He was still in shock, and could not stop marveling at the fact that he had made it alive out of those woods after all that he went through in there.Nobody had told him anything about Jerome yet, despite the fact that he asked them about him numerous times. He could only hope that the man had also survived.Mostly, he just wanted to rest, and so he spent most of the time sleeping in the hospital bed, while doctors poked at and prodded him, trying to nurse him back to health as soon as possible.The first visitor he was allowed to see was Denise. She hurried into the room, her eyes filled with tears, and kissed his forehead ever so gently.“Derek, I was so worried! I’m so glad you’re alive and I’m sorry you went through all t
"So I was wondering, babe …” Steve began, but then paused. He had come to pick up his sister's kid from school and ran into Ava there.“Yes? What were you wondering?” Ava prodded, giving him her attention.“How would you feel about spending the night at my place? I mean, I understand if you’d rather not and …” He trailed off, his cheeks becoming a faint pink. Ava smiled in amusement. The great and renowned playboy Steve was somewhat shy to ask her to spend the night in his house. She found it rather cute and endearing.“I would absolutely love that, but today can't work because I didn’t inform Harper’s nanny beforehand and my maid is off duty today. I’ll see if I can get the nanny to come this evening, but if she can't, then it will have to be tomorrow or next.” She replied.“Alright then, that’s great. I’ll look forward to your confirmation.” He told her and gave her a kiss on the lips, much to the delight of his young nephew, who began to giggle when they kissed.Ava went to get Ha
"I … um, well … I don’t think.” She began to say worriedly, but Steve cut her off and took her face in his hands. “Hey, hey. It was only a joke, but I can see that you don’t like it, and I will stop saying stuff like that. I get that it’s way too early in our relationship to be saying such things, so I won’t any longer, okay?” “Okay. I have a question, though.” Ava told him, her relief clear in her voice. “Sure, what is it?” “Well, I mean, you did say you were joking when you talked about Harper and I moving in or you and I becoming more serious than we are now, but is marriage something that you want to do in the near future?” she asked him. “Well, I don’t know for now. I would say no, but then, I want kids of my own someday, maybe not anytime soon, but I would definitely have kids. So you can relax. I can sense marriage is the furthest thing from your mind.” “It is…” “Good, then we’re on the same page. Let’s just enjoy the moment and forget about all talk of the future and wha
“Oh, my God! That is great news. So he was kidnapped, then? That’s crazy as hell. How can that happen in a big city like this?” Ava asked, coming to sit by him to watch what was being shown on the television.“It beats me, especially because of Derek’s wealth. Makes me realize that I had better beef up security around me. We live in crazy times. There’s not much news on him or what happened to him yet, but I guess we’re going to find out everything in the coming days. Even though he’s a pain in my ass, I’m happy for him that he’s been found.”“Yeah, me too.”“It beats me what correlation or relation they have to all of this, but apparently, Derek’s mother and Amanda were somehow involved in the fiasco earlier today. Amanda is injured because she was shot, and Derek’s mother is dead. She was shot dead by the police. No one knows how they found their way over to where Derek was held hostage or what they were doing there. ”“Oh, my goodness. There must have been some mistake. How on eart
To Derek’s surprise, Denise came to see him every day at the hospital until he was discharged. She was the last person that he wanted to see, and he would have very much preferred that it was Ava who came to see him, but of course, that was not going to happen.He had just had his afternoon meal when she came into the room yet again, with a bunch of flowers in her hands. Derek nearly groaned. He had asked her to stop coming, and instead, stay with Barry, but she obviously wasn’t about to listen to his instructions.“How are you feeling today, babe?” She asked him as she sailed into the room, dropping the flowers on the table in the room and coming to give him a kiss on the cheek. She seemed to be in great spirits today, which was surprising because she was always in a foul mood.“I feel fine, thank you for asking. I would prefer it if you stopped calling me babe, Denise. Have you heard anything about Jerome?” Derek asked her, his heart in his throat.He did not want to believe that J
“You did what?!” Derek thundered, unable to believe his ears. “Calm down, okay? It was the best thing to do. I mean, it would be easy to see Barry often, and if you were busy and maybe his nanny was busy too or something, I could easily pop in and watch him.” Denise defended herself. “Oh, come off it. You’ve never shown even the slightest interest in caring for that child right from when he was born.” “That’s part of the change I was talking about. The whole events of the past month had me realizing how fickle life is and how one needs to let go of every bitterness, enjoy the little things in life and all that because it can all be taken away in an instant.” “I didn’t peg you for a motivational speaker,” Derek told her sardonically. “I’m not one. Anyway, I want to be as involved in Barry’s upbringing as possible. The fact that you’re even willing to accept him despite everything … makes me realize what a horrible person I’ve been.” Denise said, casting her eyes downward and r
“It was by sheer luck, if not, they never would have found you on time, and what would have happened then does not bear thinking about. Apparently, they managed to arrest the guy that Amanda initially hired to do all this sometime yesterday.Once the asshole realized that there was no chance in hell that he would get out of this and that he was well and truly done for, he began to sing like a canary. He led the police right to the house, and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm so thankful we got there on time.” Damien said.“Yeah, me too. It’s still hard to believe that Amanda could be filled with so much hate in her heart and that she was willing to go to such lengths to harm Derek, me, and even our child who has done nothing to her.”“I was surprised as well. I always knew that she was a mean person, but I never imagined that she was downright evil. I'm glad you followed through on your instinct.”“Me too. So is Amanda still …” Ava asked, unable to finish the question.“Unfortuna
Mother and daughter hugged each other for what felt like decades, and when they finally pulled apart, Ava's arm was hurting where she had been shot."I'm so sorry, baby. No one will ever hurt you again, I promise. Not when I'm alive." Ava said, ruffling Harper's hair, and wincing when she saw where the area on her head that had been shaved because of an injury there."The bad woman hit me with a gun. She shot Uncle Steve with the gun. Uncle Steve wanted to run away with me and Gracie, Mom." Harper explained, noting that Ava's eyes were on the wound.Ava gulped and averted her gaze immediately, unable to imagine the horror that Harper and Gracie had been through. Little children like them should never have to see someone murdered in cold blood.Seeing such a thing messed with even grownups like her, not to talk of children.The girls were going to need loads of therapy. Once again, Ava damned Amanda and Denise to hell and back in her mind. Suddenly, she realized the implications o
Ava had grabbed Denise because she wanted to use her as a human shield, and her plan worked pretty well, as it was all that saved her from what would have been certain death.The bullets that Amanda had just fired hit Denise point blank and in rapid succession. She died quickly, although the other two women didn’t know it yet.Ava felt Denise’s body jerk with the force of the shots at the same time that she saw Amanda crumple to the ground as though in slow motion.That was confusing, and Ava stared at her in surprise, unable to fathom what had just happened.She glanced down at Denise, whom she still held, and who was clearly very dead, and let go of her body immediately, feeling extremely sickened.She needed to focus on not getting killed, which was what Amanda was bent on doing to her.Amanda was trying to get back up, but before she could manage to do that, someone tackled her, and hit the gun out of her hand,Within moments, policemen swarmed the room, and Ava collapsed in relie
Denise and Ava stared warily at each other after Amanda left the room, and a few seconds later, Ava decided to try to reason with the other woman, even though she wasn’t sure that Denise was going to listen to her. “Denise, please, let us go. I promise not to press charges against you. You must know from all indications that there’s no way the both of you are going to get out of this unscathed. It doesn’t matter what Amanda says now. I can see in your eyes that you know it.” Ava tried to get to Denise. It was all she could do not to rush straight at Denise and grab Harper, who was whimpering in fear and trying not to move so that the knife would not nick her, away from the woman. She could see the fear and indecision in Denise’s face. Apparently, she was wise to realize what Amanda clearly failed to realize, which was that Ava was right and there was no way she and Amanda going to get out of this without being apprehended by the police. “Shut up!” Denise muttered. “Think abou
Ava didn’t wait to see what would happen next. She rushed straight at Amanda, faintly aware that her arm was hurting weirdly, but her adrenaline was too great for her to think anything of the pain right then. She had taken self-defense classes several times in the past, and although it had been a long time since she took them, those classes came in handy at that moment. Her life, as well as those of Harper and the other little girl, Gracie, depended on her. She couldn't let them down. She began to try to wrestle the gun away from Amanda, who struggled fiercely with her. As they struggled with the gun, it kept discharging, but by some miracle, neither of them was hit. Finally, the gun was out of bullets, and Amanda let go of it while yelling for Denise to come at the same time. Ava wasn’t done with her, though. She thought of poor Harper and her friend who were somewhere in that house, scared to death and definitely not in the best shape. She thought about Derek, who had been throug
Adrenaline pumped through Ava’s entire body, and utter rage filled her entire being. She was right! She had been right all along. These evil women were the ones who had abducted her daughter and another innocent child. She would have called for help, but there was no service on her phone, and she could only hope that Damien and the police would be somehow able to find her and soon too, before something bad happened to her or the girls. Had it been she had thought things through earlier, she would have gotten a car tracker before coming on this solo adventure. Unfortunately, never in her wildest dreams had she imagined what the night would bring, and so she had failed to take this necessary precaution. One moment, she was standing outside the house in fear, and the next moment, she found herself beside the door. Without caring what was waiting on the other side of the door, she threw herself against it as hard as she could. She thought fleetingly of the poor soul that was growing in
Ava didn’t go back home after driving away from Denise’s place. Instead, she parked her car the next block away from Denise’s house in a spot where her car would not easily be detected.Then she waited for what felt like an eternity for Denise to leave her house because she had every intention of following the woman to wherever it was that she was going.Her phone was blowing up with calls from Damien, who had left her several messages, asking her not to do anything drastic that could cause Denise to have the power to get her arrested or something.She ignored the messages and continued to wait. After a while, she saw a car, which she recognized as one of Amanda’s cars, come from the opposite direction and drive towards Denise’s house.Ava’s heart immediately began to beat really fast. Amanda was picking Denise up? Where the hell were both of them headed by that time of the night? Several minutes later, the car appeared again and drove off into the night.Ava let a few minutes pass, a
Ava sat in her idling car outside Denise’s house, her nerves failing her now that she was here.What was she thinking, sneaking out of her house like a thief in the night and coming here to the house of her sworn enemy?She just couldn't continue to sit at home, wringing her hands and crying while waiting for something positive to happen.She wasn’t sure what to do now that she was here, but she had to do something.Taking a deep breath, she took her phone and texted Damien to tell him where she was, just in case somehow, her hunch was right.If it was, then it would be incredibly dangerous and foolhardy to just walk into Denise’s waiting arms without telling anyone where she was.Even though it was only a little past eight in the evening, the streets were deserted, and there was no one around.Ava was about to open her car door and get out of the car when the lights in Denise’s house went off. Apparently, she was preparing to go to sleep.Ava sat still for a few minutes, wondering wh
It had been several days since Amanda and Denise paid their so-called courtesy call to Ava at her house … a move that Denise thought was incredibly stupid and dangerous.After all, the three women weren't friends and all of their acquaintances knew that, so it was surely going to look weird and suspicious that Denise and Amanda decided to visit Ava.Unfortunately, once Amanda put her mind to something, especially in recent times, it was practically impossible to change her mind, and so Denise had no choice but to go along with whatever she wanted, even if she thought it was foolhardy.“I’ve got a bad feeling, Amanda,” Denise said.“About what?” Amanda, who was in a terribly foul mood asked.It was now common knowledge that Derek had not only survived the gunshots but had also gone on to regain consciousness. Ever since this news broke out, Amanda had been unconsolable and had even taken out her frustration on Derek’s daughter, whom she still held captive.“I don’t know … I’ve got a ba