"So when was the last visit?"
"Tuesday," Harry replied as he started his car to follow Ruhi and the others.
'Oh shit!' Rafael realized she wanted him to go with her to the gynecologist's office when she asked him to free his 3 PM on Friday. 'For a surprise.'
A rush of excitement surged through him instantly. Running to the elevator and pushing three employees out of there, he used the master key to go straight to the basement leading to his private garage and was out on the road in a few minutes. It was already 2.40 PM and Ruhi chose a gynecologist quite far from his downtown office.
By the time he veered through the heavy, bumper to bumper traffic and got out of the city center, it was 3 PM. For the first time, he felt his fastest car wasn't fast enough. Pulling into the parking lot ten minutes later, he called Ruhi.
'She must be with the doctor.' He dropped the idea of calling Harry and dashed through the buildi
"Ruhi, your mom's been calling you while we were asleep." Rafael checked the time and woke her up. He couldn't believe he fell asleep in the middle of a busy Friday afternoon without notifying his PA.With half-opened eyes, Ruhireached for her phone and switched it off."Your mommust be worried. Don't ignore her calls. Didshe already know you were going for the checkup today?"Ruhi didn't care to answer him. She wasn't prepared to relay the bad news to her mom and cry some more.Rafael knew he would do anything to have his mom call him, even if only for thirty seconds. He didn't have her around for long enough to take her existence for granted. A tight feeling grew in his chest as he watchedRuhi turn her face away and look out of the window at the setting sun.It wasn't too long ago when she was in his room wearing this same whiteshirt, giggling and wrestling with him when he got mad at her for sleeping in his room. Th
Ruhi went down to the home gym in the basement. What she expected was a single room with lots of fancy equipment. She was taken by surprise when she saw that it was bigger than the most popular gym she used to go to in Florida. There were several rooms and every one of them was occupied by the bodyguards who were training hard.Harry greeted her and offered his sympathieswhen he saw her looking around."Most of these are for heavy exercise. It may not be a good time for you to exert so much right now.""Oh, I'm just looking for Rafael. But there are so many rooms here. I feel lost."The number of different basements the house came with never ceased to amaze her. There was space to park Rafael'sdozen cars and another half a dozen of the bodyguard vehicles, hold people as hostages with dangerous men guarding and torturing them, and still have enough space to build such a sophisticated gym. She wondered what else lay buried and which part of the
"So, where are we going?" Ruhi buckled up and put her sunglasses on as Rafael chose his Rolls Royce Dawn to take her for a ride in.He watched her in amusement whileshe applied sunscreen and checked her face in the mirror. She had tucked all her dyed hair inside a colorful silk wrap."Does it look soo bad?" He commented, pointing to her head and laughing.She threw the lotion cap at him. "Oh, shut up! It looks awesome. I don't want the sun to bleach it or the wind to ruin it and grow split ends. You men never think about our hair when you drive fast in your fancy convertibles.""Right! When you said, 'away from people and traffic,'Ithought you wanted open skies and the sea views. How else will you see them if not from a convertible?""Normal people roll their windows down and drive slo--- Oh my! What is that?!" She was excited to look at Harry pass on a bag to him that smelled mouthwatering."You wanted this, didn't y
FLASHBACK| SEVEN YEARS AGO"What the hell is this piece of shit?!" Rafael was baffled when he saw that his dad tookaway his fancy Lamborghini Spider and replaced it with a Subaru Forester.Antonio had just finished signing a hefty check as a donation to Rafael's college while Rafael stormed into his dad's study. Every time Rafael messed something up, his dadwrote checks to shut people up. The scholarship amount he offered every year in his wife's name for the last fifteen years is also the largest among all contributors and patrons."You don't need a 400,000 dollar car for gallivanting all over the town.""Yes, I do... Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to drive an SUV as if I have a child in the back seat? I need my supercar back! Else, I'm dropping out of college right now.""There's no need. It's the third time this year the Dean warned me he will kick you out. Go talk to him and explain what happened. Give an officia
Rafael saw her falling down, but he didn't bother stopping her. The Dean talked for over twenty minutes, telling him how he should be ashamed of himself and that he should do everyone a favor and drop out ofcollege.He was ready to take out his anger on the stupid girl who dared to touch him without his permission. She tried to hold on to him to keep from falling."Can't you fucking see?" He asked her even though it was him who suddenly appeared in the hallway out of the Dean's office.He took the papers fromher hand and threw them down the stairs when she started crying."Shut the fuck up! What's wrong with you?" He hated anyone who didn't have the guts to make eye contact or started crying instantly."Hey, Rafael!" Aaron came out of the elevator just then and saw Kimberley's lowered head. He wason his way to the Dean's office. His dad found out he had been sleeping with a college of medicineprofessor, a woman n
Rafael watched Ruhi and Eva as they ate ice cream, ignoring his existence. Ruhi introduced her new friend to everyone in the house, including the goldfish and angelfish.Oreo was overjoyed to meet Eva, while Chunky Monkey raised his nonexistent brow to scrutinize thestranger, just as he did when Ruhi first met him."He doesn't like me much either. He just looks scary but actually, he's just a big lazy boy. I took away many of his resting spots by placingmy ceramic plant pots which he can't move.""Oh!" Eva got up to take her plush toy from where Chunky Monkey was standing so that he could lie down."Aren't you a sweetie pie!" Ruhi couldn't say why, but she loved Eva already.Every word that came out of the little girl's mouth was very cute and she wanted to pull her into her lap and kiss her. She wondered why she never liked kids until that point.'Maybe because she's Rafael's?' She felt a tightening in her chest at the mer
FLASHBACK"Dude! What the hell? You told Kimberley you will pick her up at seven. Didn't you?" Aaronfound Rafael playing basketball with Dylan. He almost forgot about Kimberley and what he said to her."Are you kidding me? I just wanted to get rid of that, what's her face?" He asked Dylan who was now dating his dumped three month long girlfriend. He already forgot her name."Samantha... no wait, Savannah.""Yeah, she was acting a little too possessive.""But Kimberley has been waiting for you since 6.30, getting all excited.""Is she stupid or what? I didn't tell her where I will pick her up from, so she should obviously know I didn't mean it.""No, she doesn't. I have seen her wear only faded jeans and free t-shirts that she collected at the Med school events. But today, she put on a nice dress and came to the library to ask me if you were okay because you never asked for her number or texted her.""Exactly! I'm not goin
"Have you seen enough?" Rafael hissed at Aaron when he caught him staring at Ruhi."Your possessive ass needs to calm the---""What's happening here? Oh...Aaron, hi." Ruhi caught them talking near her door and pushed her notes away once she ended the call with Lisa."Hey..." Aaron was flooded with guilt when he saw how pale and stressed she looked. "Everything will be all right, Ruhi. You have to trust Rafael on this one. Listen to what he has to say and don't assume anything.""He's too scared to talk to me. Ever since his Kimmie returned, he's maintaining some ten feet distance, as if I will pounce on him or something.""What? I thought you wanted some space.""Did I tell you so? Aaron, you told me not to assume things. Why don't you tell your friend the same? He brings his ex here without asking me if I wouldbe okay. He thought I'll stay at my apartment while he can have some quality time with his sweetheart and Eva. When I as
SEVEN YEARS LATER It was a quiet Sunday afternoon with some cooling summer showers pouringdown outside the window whileRafael spent a good amount of time in his study. He was lagging behind quite a bit because he spent all day at the water park yesterday and left work early even on Friday afternoon to attend his daughter's ballet performance. He got up from his seat and stretched before stepping out to see what Ruhi and his little Snookums were up to. Even though he wanted to finish all the piled up stuff, he had gone two hours without seeing them and it felt like too much on a Sunday. He walked down to the kitchen to see what all the excitement was about. Ruhi was watching something very seriously on her daughter'spink laptop while the little girl was busy whisking butter and molten chocolate. She got chocolate mousse on both her chubby cheeks while Ruhi got a good amount on her nose. "Papa! You were not supposed to come out until w
Rafael had always imagined death to start with some blinding light where all the best moments of his life wouldflash by him and then follow with an abyss of darkness. At least that's what he heard people say it would be like.The gunshots were still ringing in his ears long after the darkness, but the blinding light never came. The pain and the hopelessness sure felt like death.Among the many regrets he had, he regretted not being able to say a proper goodbye. Ruhi had never believed how unconditionally he loved her. He knew he did a poor job showing his feelings toher, except that he could prove that he would die for her, willing to do so over and over.He wanted to hear Ruhi's voice one last time before falling unconscious. His body was going numb, but a shooting painunfurled in the deepest pit of his stomach when he thought about the image of Ruhi lying on the floor.Was she conscious? He couldn't remember. Everything happened too quic
"Oh, I seriously loved what you fed me. I don't know what this is.""Well, let me fix something light so that you don't go hungry. The doctor will be on his way if you throw up again." His voice trailed off as he walked back into the kitchen.Pushing the stray locks of her hair out of her sweaty forehead, she looked at the time on her phone and groaned, her head still slightly spinning. She slept for almost ten hours last night after getting rid of her dinner and felt exhausted at barely ninein the morning.Rafael stepped into the bedroom with a bowl full of chicken soup forty minutes later, and she was in for another surprise. She wished she knew how to cook a soup withthat perfect consistency and flavor he achieved seemingly effortlessly. Watching the heavy raindrops hit the window panes persistently, she stared out at the dark sky while sipping on the warm liquid."Huh, so no sightseeing today?" She asked Rafael, who was looking at her with
No matter how much Rafael hated to move to a different room, Ruhi was super adamant, and hehad no other option but to leave the room. He hoped the next morning to be better and planned a day full of fun things to do. He missed the good old times where all she wanted was to eat a good meal with him at a restaurant and make him watch some kids' movies.She answered his call after deliberately missing it the first two times. He assumed she was sleeping. Sleep was the last thing on her mind. Without him by her side, she tossed and turned until the stormy predawn sky gave way to some daylight outside the huge glass windows."Wake up, sleepyhead. We have reservations for breakfast at a lakeside cafe here.""What makes you think I'm still in my bed. I ate breakfast already."Rafael's face fell when he heard that. It was barely 9 AM and Ruhi was still in bed on weekends, so he didn't expect her to be out already when on vacation."Where are you
"Do I really want to talk to her? I don't think so." Ruhi crumpled the paper with Adira's number on it."Well, we can't trust anything she says, but I think we should hear her out. Also, I need to track her location. So just talk to her for a few minutes and---""I don't want to help you kill her, Rafael."Rafael entered the number into Ruhi's phone and made the call before turning the speaker on."Ruhi... I-I'm sorry. Please, please, help me. There are some half a dozen men with guns chasing me. I feel scared. Ruhi? Are you there?""How could you lie to Gus about something like that? Don't you know he still hasn't moved on?" Ruhi asked reluctantly,confused about how she felt when talking to her sister. She never wanted to talk to her again after finding outshe wanted Gus to kill her."It was... Um, it was Alisha's idea. I just told her Raina had a sister. She came up with this idea to make a deal with him
It took a lot of courage for Ruhi to utter those four words, knowing full well Rafael wasn't going to let her go that easily. If he was a person to reason with and walk away with mutual understanding, she would have never tried so hard to run away from him. As she expected, his eyes flared, smoldering with what seemed to be fury, and his body grew rigidabove her, taut with tension."What?"He rolled onto his side and forced her to meet his gaze."You heardme. I can't live like this anymore. I want out, and I mean it."He flinched slightly at the steely resolution in her eyes. His gaze was feverishly raking her up and down, with disbelief clearly written all over his face. She was equally baffled that he hadn't seen this coming. She wondered if he was being deliberately dense."Ruhi, I know you didn't deserve the treatment you got from me." He stroked her cheek back and forth with hislong thumb. "It's not fair that I make a mistake
"A honeymoon..."Ruhi quietly pushed Rafael's hand away and put her seatbelt on. He expected her to put up a fight orrun out of the car and was shocked to see her stare out of the window in resignation.Zack approached the car but was blocked by Harry. He handed Ruhi's cellphone, laptop, and money back to Harry. Rafael told him to hold on to them as he believed Ruhi wouldn't run without those things. He also wanted to make sure she didn't call her sister and ask her to run instead."Drive!" She told him in an impatient voice when he stalled inside the car, checking his work emails quickly."Ruhi, I don't mean to force you into---""What part of my intentions isnot clear to you? Doyou really think I'd run away from you to show you I want to go on a honeymoon? What kind of logic is that?"Rafael opened his mouth to defend himself but closed it when he saw the look on her face. She was royally pissed, unlike all those ot
"Are you serious?" Ruhi couldn't believe her ears.He ignored her and focused on his phone when Zack texted and then called him."No, no weapons and none of his men. He can go back if he doesn't agree."She waited for him to finish talking on the phone while peeking into the coffee mug he left on the table."Was that dark rum or black coffee? Didyou really mean it when you said I can go?""Pack your stuff before I change my mind."She darted upthe stairs but stopped when she heard Zack enter the house with a pissed off face and announce something to Gus. When did he ever look happy? She wondered and turned back to the room but stopped dead in her tracks when she thought she heard Rafael's name.Climbing back down the spiral staircase, she walked towards the door to listen to their conversation."Just one then. Check thoroughly.""Check who?" She asked Gus, who ignored her again and went to grab some stu
"Gus, she's gone." Ruhi held her breath when she heard Zack's infuriated voice. She was surprised to hear him address his boss by his name.Gus closed the bathroom door and walked over to the bed. Unlike Zack who wanted to kill Ruhi if he saw her again, Gus was relatively calm as he picked his cellphone up from the bed. Checking his messages on the locked screen and dismissing them, he opened the 'Tracker'."I'll get Nash to check the surveillance camera. She may still be on the premises if---""She's right here." Gus cut him off whileRuhi's heartbeat skyrocketed. "You can get back to work. I'll take care of this."Leaning down a bit, he grabbed Ruhi's wrist firmly and pulled her out from under the bed. She didn't dare to meet hiseyesand stared at the door Zack exited from.Gus moved a strand of her hair from her cheek while she froze.'Crap, crap, crap! He's probably twenty years older than me and wants to either kill me k