Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

I looked down at his fingers around my arm incredulously, then back up at his face. "Are you kidding me?"

"You're not going anywhere until I let you." He repeated.

"You must be a big joker." I retorted, then struggled to break off his grip, but he was resolute. "My mother is in the hospital, dying! I need that money!"

"Is that what you think this is? Something you can do in the space of a few minutes and scarper with the money?" He asked, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Right now you might be carrying my heir. The future of my family might be growing inside you already, and you will be under my watch for the next nine months till you deliver it. Do you understand that?"

"And in nine months my mother will be long gone, you miserable—" I gasped and stopped short as his fingers tightened around my arm.

"Do you understand?" He asked again, his eyes gleaming with warning.

"Yes." I replied, sighing. He released my arm slowly, then turned to put on some clothes. I was suddenly aware of his naked body, and my insides clenched with desire again.

As soon as his back was turned, I stared wildly around the room and my eyes fell on some dollar stacks on a shelf. Before he could react, I dashed towards the shelf and picked up a handful of stacks, then turn and ran towards the door.

I heard him give a muffled yell as I raced out of the room, but I didn't look back. I slammed the door behind me to give myself some headstart, then looked around wildly for a means of escape.

Thankfully the corridor beyond his room was empty. I sighted the staircase I'd climbed and scrambled towards it, hurrying down the stairs. I didn't dare to look back, didn't even stop to imagine what he would do to me if his guards caught up with me. All I could think of was my sick mother, and how best to leave this building and get to her.

I skidded to a stop at the front door, then kicked it open, just as the man stumbled out of his room. I turned back with a start and watched as his eyes bulged with rage, beforee he yelled. "Guards!"

As though on cue, four men poured out of a door to his left. Immediately they sighted me, they came running towards me. I stumbled out of the building, then ran to my car, slipping into the driver's seat and placing the dollar stacks on the seat beside me. As I started the ignition, the guards raced out of the building. I didn't give them the opportunity to catch up with me. I turned the steering and maneuvered the car towards the gate of the mansion, then raced towards it.

"Ciao!" I called after the guards as I passed them, wiggling my fingers.

I drove out of the compound of the large house, watching through my rearview mirror as the guards all scrambled into a car to chase after me. I knew they'd catch up to me in the end, but by then I'd have given the money to the doctor and I'd be assured of my mother's good health.

My mother was all that mattered. I was doing all of this for nobody but her.

The guards kept up the hot pursuit as I deftly steered my car through traffic, towards the hospital. They didn't back down, try as I could to lose them in the heavy traffic. Too bad my car was painted a bright red colour that could be spotted from a kilometre away: it was almost like a beacon.

"It's fine, Emily." I whispered to myself in the safety of my car, trying to calm my thundering heart. "He has a ton of money. I'm sure he could spare a few stacks. Besides, it's rightly yours anyway."

I stopped with a loud screech in the parking lot of Beth Israel hospital, where my mother was being treated. I unfastened the seatbelt, then stepped down from the car with the stack of bills in my hands. I glanced apprehensively behind me, taking a breath of relief as I saw that the guards hadn't arrived yet.

I stepped into the air-conditioned waiting room of the hospital, then frantically looked around. The doctor treating my mother was nowhere in sight, but I knew the way to his office like the back of my hand. I ignored the front desk nurse and turned towards his office, then barged into it without so much as a knock.

"—the patient in ward 17. She needs—" He was saying to a nurse. He stopped short as I stumbled in and looked at me with a frown.

"Miss Davis." He called. "I wasn't expecting you—"

"Doctor, I have the money." I interrupted him, then dumped the dollar stacks on his desk. "It might be too little or too much, but at least we have something, right? You can continue her treatment now."

"Oh, about that." He said, then and dismissed the nurse in front of him with a wave of his hand. Then he turned back to me. "Please, have a seat."

"This is not the time for sitting, doctor!" I said, my voice raised. "My mother, she's—"

"Yes, I know. But first, there's something I need to talk to you about."

I narrowed my eyes, staring at his bright blue ones. A sense of dread settled in my chest as I stared at him for long seconds, trying to deduce the truth from his gaze. I sat down slowly and frowned. "What is it, doctor?"

"Well, um..." He started, then cleared his throat and continued. "See, we tried all we could—"

I sat up, the feeling of dread spreading in my chest like a dark, hateful virus. "Doctor, what is it?!"

"Considering how long it took you to source for the money and how deteriorated your mother's health was before you brought her in—"

"Doctor, what the hell are you saying?!"

"You brought the money in too late, we're sorry." The doctor said. "Your mother is dead."