Chapter 4

LAURA

I stared at him for a while contemplating taking his hands. What was he trying to do? Take me from here and kill me?

He cleared his throat “Because you are already in my black book. I would consider you to take my hands to avoid further embarrassment.” He said with a sharp tone.

I reluctantly took his hands and he immediately walked me out of the crowd. Camera clicks followed as we walked towards the Bugatti. He opened the door for me and I sheepishly entered. He turned around to the other side and sat beside me with a frown.

He glared at me for a second and focused back on his iPad. All this while my breath was sucked in as I tried to wonder where they were taking me to.

As if he read my mind he looked outside the window, as if he was disgusted by my presence.

“We are going to the Villa. And like I said, to talk.” he finally broke the silence.

I nodded in agreement, knowing fully well about the villa he was talking about. It was one of a kind, almost like a modernized castle with Italian rich interiors. It was owned by one of the Sloans. I had no idea which one of the Sloans own it but I knew the person must be the richest in his family to own that type of exquisite villa.

I turned on my phone as numerous notifications kept popping up on my phone. Checking on the first one which was from Rena. It could read.

“Are you okay?”

“Should I pick you up?”

“Tell me where you are, let me pick you up. Right now you are not safe. I think the world is against you right now”

“Why did you follow Eric outside?”

“Laura, text me if you can. I am worried”

I sucked in a deep breath and replied to Rena’s numerous messages with shaky Palms.

“I am okay for now. I will call you when I can.”

Checking on my blog page, my eyes grew watery with unshed tears at the amount of hate I got.

#Gays are human#

#Death for Laura karma#

#Help bring Laura's karma down#

The hateful comments increased my pain, my skin turned excessively pale.

**I pray she dies for putting an innocent man in this situation.**

** you should not be breathing or even living after putting such a young man in this position**

**You deserve to die!**

**Justice for the Sloans and Averys**

I awkwardly unpacked my hair and let it fall. I turned to the window side and let the tears fall uncontrollably. I quickly cleaned them before Eric noticed.

What have I gotten myself into? How come so many people now hate me? I could hear the voices of the crowd in my head. How could thousands of people want me dead?

“How does it feel being a celebrity?” Eric asked, drawing me from my thoughts.

I blinked my eyes as I tried to find the right answer. What sought of question was this? No, I can't answer him. After all, with or without the rumors, his life would continue but my own will remain this way or even get worse with the amount of hatred around me. I had suffered for years to build this blog and the audience it had. Only for everything to go down the drain.

“Well, because we are going to be working together, I suggest you start talking to me. I have a zero tolerance level. Anything can make me angry,” he warned, stressing his last words.

I sat up with a shrug “Well it's fine to be a celebrity” I replied.

Eric grinned widely “Nice. I knew you were a hardcore liar but be rest assured that the man sitting beside you will break it,” he replied, his last word screaming impending doom.

We kept mute for a while, after what felt like eternity, we arrived at the villa after a while. I sucked in a deep breath as I looked at the villa in awe. I had never seen such a beautiful sight before. Not even in the movie. I wished I could explore the place more but Eric took me by my wrist and literally dragged me to a room.

The room was painted white with a TV and a marble round table accompanied by leather chairs of the same colour. Damien and a blonde girl sat on one side, both of them shooting cold glares at me.

Eric opened a chair and ordered me to sit. “We will be waiting for the last person,” he said.

Even though he hated me, he still managed to treat me like a real woman. Like, he literally opened the door for me.

My phone pinged with a notification. It was from an unknown man. It was a picture of a knife pressed against my mother’s neck. It came with a message which read:

“Till the meeting is over and we have ascertained the outcome of the meeting this knife will be on her neck. If you expose us, we will slit your mother's throat.” I held the phone tighter as I tried to control my emotions.

“Phones should be turned off,” Damien said with his cold eyes on me. I nodded and turned the phone off.

The door suddenly opened in a few minutes' time, and the last person entered with an iPad.

“Hi I am Tyler,” he said and stretched his hands for a handshake. Finally I have met someone normal.

He opened his tab, switched on the television, and began to talk.

“From what I gathered from Miss Karma. She has a mother and a brother. The mother has not been around for a while but the brother attends Harvard University,” Tyler suddenly announced and showed them photos of my brother. “From what was gathered Mr Larry Karma is a drug addict while Miss Karma seems to sell her body to older men,” he said and turned to me with a smile.

I fisted my hands as I tried hard to control myself. So this was what they came to show me? Bunch of lies. My brother would never do drugs. He is asthmatic for crying out loud.

“It's a lie. My brother does not do drugs,” I summoned courage to blast back

“And I am not gay,” Damien replied as he lit a cigarette.

Tyler smiled at me. “Well let's see.” he said sarcastically and made a slide and it showed a photo of Larry, my brother lying on the ground with drugs scattered around him. “What do you have to say?” he asked.

I shook my head in disbelief “That's not my brother!”

Tyler smiled. “Awwn, the sister can vouch for the brother. I think I need to build this trust with my sister. So she will tell me things like this,” he said in sarcasm

“Don't blame your sister. Once she spills something out. The world will know of it.” Eric replied with a mocking tone.

Tyler shot him a mocking glare “Hey Sloan be careful,” he warned. “So back to the business. This is not your brother as you said but I made it your brother.” He said and I watched as he changed the photo to the original photo. Which was someone entirely different from my brother. “Now look at this photo and tell me if it rings a bell.”

He showed a photo of a girl tied, sucking a guy's d*ck. The girl was not me. I was sure of that but the person looked just like me.

“That's not me. I am not the one in the photo,” I countered.

“But it's true. You tend to date men older than you!” He barked.

“The least I had dated was eight years difference but I don't have anything against the age gap.” I tried to explain.

“Good,” Eric said and walked up to me. He pulled out a box from his pocket.

“That's why you will date and marry me,” he said.

“What? Marry who?” I asked him with surprise.

“Marry me. Put this ring on. Tomorrow, you are going to tell the press that Bella cheated on me and we started dating, and when Bella found out, she tried to separate us, and when she could not, she blackmailed you to upload this photo. This will make me hate you, but we have already reconciled,” he explained.

What the hell? How did I get myself into this sought of mess?

“And if I don't?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Those photos will be online. I will end your career and make sure you don't get a job anywhere. And be ready to make your brother kiss goodbye to Education.” he threatened, his last words striking a chord in my head. “Harvard does not accept drug addicts. He will be locked and I will hunt you till you die.” he warned further.

Fear crept in. The Sloans were powerful. He could ruin my life. I watched as he took my hand and slipped the diamond ring in.

“Now take a photo of it, and post on your blog!” He ordered. "Caption it; 'Soon to be Laura Sloan'."

I did as he had instructed. I Took a photo of it and captioned it ‘Soon to be Laura Sloan’