Chapter NinetyLana looked so fierce, that both Vera and Rina were overcome with fear. They shuddered, even as Vera tried to stand firm."I won't let you get away with this, Lana!" she retorted, "I won't!""Oh right!" Lana said suddenly as she walked back to Diego, and examined his face once more. The sight of his bleeding lips made her grit her teeth in anger. She turned back to Vera and said coldly, "I won't let you get away with this too, Vera."Vera eyed her in annoyance, "What?!""This is assault." Lana said, simply, "You dared to hit a person to the extent that you left a mark on their skin." She smiled tightly, "You have to pay for that."Vera scoffed, "You must be out of your mind!" She spat out, unable to believe what she was hearing. She sniffed haughtily and looked down her nose at Lana, "I was only teaching your lowlife assistant a lesson. How dare he speak out of turn to me?!"Lana brought out her cellphone from her bag, and gave Vera a fake smile, "you can explain that t
Chapter Ninety-One"I'll reconsider suing your mother, Damien." Lana uttered, "If Rina is fired from MAGIC!"Rina gasped in outrage, while Vera struggled in the hands of the security men, "Let me go!" She struggled fiercely once more, and managed to wrench herself free from the men, who were a bit surprised by her strength. They had let her go, because it seemed like Vera would hurt herself any moment with the way she was struggling.She stood arms akimbo and faced Lana, "You bitch, what are you saying?! You want Rina fired, after everything she's done for MAGIC?!" She yelled at her, "Do you think I don't know what's going on? You're trying to throw out the rightful owner and take Rina's glory!" She then turned to face Damien, saying fiercely, "How long are you going to believe her? Can't you see how evil she is?!"Damien was silent, ignoring his mother's outburst. He tilted his head and watched Lana with a calculated, narrowed gaze. "You will reconsider, you say?""Damien!" Vera scr
Chapter Ninety-TwoRina walked into her office, and all the employees quickly stood up and bowed in unison, with respect. The fact that she had such influence to the extent that, she'd gotten Rina fired was still mindblowing.No one would dare to cross her from now on, especially now that they knew the CEO was solidly behind her. He even escorted his mother out of the premises for her.Lana sat behind her desk and only then did she ask them to sit with a curt nod of her head. The employees sat down clumsily, shifting uncomfortably under Lana's scrutinizing gaze.Claudia and the rest of Rina's minions felt the most uncomfortable. They could not even raise their heads to look at Lana. Instead, they fiddled with their keyboards or thumbs or bag straps or the pile of papers on their desks.All the while praying that Lana does not call them out. Even though they hated her, they still loved their jobs and wanted to keep it. Rina was gone, so there was no use acting up in front of Lana.L
Chapter Ninety-ThreeThe security guards escorted Madam Vera and Rina out of the premises of the company.Vera had stopped struggling and Rina was still playing a dying girl. Soon, the driver brought Vera's car round to the entrance of the lobby, and only then did the security guards let go of the women."Let go of me," Madam Vera struggled one last time, just as they let go of them. She turned to glare at the security guards who still stood behind them, waiting for the woman to get into their cars.Vera stretched back her hands and gave them both slaps across their faces. The men did not flinch and their grave expression remained the same, even with the red welt marks on their cheeks."Please, get into the car, ma'am." A body guard said, giving Vera a serious look. The other glanced at the driver, who came round to open the car door for them."Lowlife bastards," Vera swore under her breath, glaring at the security guards with hate. They gave her a look that said they did not even c
Chapter Ninety-Four"W...what?" Rina stuttered, looking at Vera with eyes wide with terror. She had gone a little pale and did not know how to reply to Vera's request.Vera looked her up and down, her brows furrowed in confusion, "Why are you so shocked?" she asked in a surprised tone.Rina let out a nervous laugh, "oh, it's nothing." She cracked, suddenly apprehensive. She swallowed hard and looked at Vera once more, "It's just that you've never asked about my family, so..."She trailed off, giving Vera a knowing look and Vera laughed lightly, "No dear. I never asked about them because I didn't want you to be uncomfortable." She replied Rina, "And besides, Damien liked you despite your family's influence, that's why I decided to just let things lie low."Rina also laughed nervously and nodded her head, "Oh ok. Well, that's okay, Mother." She said, trying to reassure the older woman, "Just continue to keep things lying low."Vera shook her head to Rina's chagrin, "No dear. Now is
Chapter Ninety-FiveWhen the car rolled to a stop in front of the main house, Vera held on to Rina, "Honey, why don't you come over to my place?," she asked, " I don't want you to be all alone here, and it will be easier for me to speak to your father."Rina gave her a tight smile, but slowly shook her head, "No, Mother." She replied, in a lowered voice, "I need some alone time. I want to be by myself for some time."Vera sighed, "Alright then, go on." She saod and Rina climbed out of the car with great relief. As she walked towards the entrance of the house, Vera lowered the window pane and called out to her, "Don't even think about getting funny ideas, dear. I'll call at the house later this evening, okay?"Rina gave her a warm smile and waved her along, "Okay Vera, I'll see you soon." She uttered softly, and as the car drove away with a cloud of dust, Rina's smile slowly faded away, and in its place, came a nasty scowl. "Ugh, she's so annoying, geez." She uttered, shuddering dram
Chapter Ninety-SixZaire slammed his phone down on the desk in front of him, as soon as he handed the call. The screen of the phone cracked and left cuts in his hand, which soon started bleeding .Zaire gave no thoughts for the blood which was running down his palm to his desk. He did not even feel the pain. Instead, he still held the phone in a tight grip and seethed with rage. He was breathing hard and trying hard to calm down.The conversation which he just had with Rina kept replaying in his head and Zaire slammed the phone on the desk once more."Damien knows about the Carter Family."This words rang in his head once more and he gritted his teeth. He stood up from behind his desk and went to a small bar in his office.He needed a stiff drink.Taking a bottle of brandy, he poured himself a small glass and downed it in one gulp. He poured another and repeated the action three times. "How much does he know about them? Does he know anything about Lucas?" He thought worriedly as he
Chapter Ninety-seven Rina smiled happily to herself when the call ended. "That was refreshing." She thought as she turned to walk back down the stone bridge. It was really nice to make Zaire speechless for once.Rina detested how pompous he was and how he'd been treating her all along. "We have the same purpose and the same objective," she muttered to herself with a snarl on her lips, "how dare he act like he's the lord of me?"Truth be told, Zaire had not always been like that. They had been really close when they met, and had formed a bond which was only made stronger when they discovered they shared a common enemy. She had just lost Lucas then.To that stupid plague called AIDS.Lucas, her so called brother who had left the orphanage with her when she turned eighteen."I'll protect you, Rina, and I'll make sure they all pay for what they did to us."But big brother Lucas had died barely three years into their plan. Turns out, he found that the lures of the city and sex were muc
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty SevenThe men arrived at the room, breathing hard. Pushing the bed aside from the wall, Damien ran his hands all over the wall the way he had seen Lana do in the footage.He let out an erratic breath as the wall opened up in front of him and Paul. It even seemed more ominous than it had in the footage.Takong out his cellphone, he activated his flashlight, illuminating the whole of the passageway."Mother of pearls." Paul muttered in astonishment as they stared into the long dark space.It was a freaking passageway.Why had Lana walked into the wall? No matter how much Paul thought about it, he thought it was extremely brave of the young miss, especially since she did not know what was on the other side of this passageway.Without further ado, Damien bounded into the wall."Romero!" Paul called out after him but Damien did not stop. He kept running down the passageway, till he turned a corner and went out of sight.This was becoming more crazy, Paul th
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-SixDamien stood in the middle of the white little room and looked around in quiet disgust.The fact that Lana had been in this place all along had filled him with so much fury that he felt like tearing the walls down with his fists.That thought was fueled by the fact that she was nowhere to be found. They had arrived Monero a little over six hours ago. Monero was only accessible through a port and when the men had arrived there, it was already quiet late.Rina had finally revealed the locations of Zaire's villa in Moreno and even though it irked Damien to grant her anything in return, he had to fulfill her request for Lana's sake."Your little informant had better be correct, Romero." Paul had said earlier on the boat, "The Young Miss had better be in Monero when we get there or you will face Fernandez's wrath."Damien had been silent, even though impatience hummed in his blood.He knew she was in Moreno.She had to be in Monero.He wondered what he w
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-five "Let's go in, first." Anila said urgently as she walked into the corridor and pressed the button on the wall, watching with bated breath until the shelf slid back into place.She turned to Adrian then, "What about the young Miss?" She asked as she walked past him, "Is she okay?""Screw the young miss." Adrian spat out loudly in anger as they both entered the small room, "What the hell is going on? Who the hell were those men?!"Adrian was clearly frustrated. He did not mean to yell and rarely lost his cool, but he was pissed with what just happened a few moments ago in his own house.Anila sighed, "if you will only let me explain, then I will. Stop yelling at me." She reprimanded him as she walked over to Lana.Lana was huddled on the bed, cowering under the bed covers in fear. She and Adrian had stayed back in the room when Anila had gone out.She had been trembling and whimpering in fear as they heard the men ransacked the room, while Adrian pace
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-FourThe banging on the door continued and silence fell in the room.It took a while for Lana to realize that the banging was not actually on the door to the room.It sounded farther, but that did nothing to ease the trembling of her body or the loud thumps of her heart beat."I said, open up!" Another yell came and this time it was accompanied by a solid thump, like a vicious kick to the door."What the hell? Who knocks like that?" Adrian said, frowning in annoyance. He was about to walk towards the door when Anila stopped him."No Adrian! Don't go." She called out to him, holding out a hand to stop him.Adrian looked from the door to his mother, "What?" He asked, his confusion becoming more apparent. Lana exchanged a frightened glance with Anila, who was calmer actually.She patted Lana's hand then stood up and walked towards the door."I will go out and meet them" She said calmly to Adrian."Excuse me?" Adrian asked, arching an eyebrow at that state
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-ThreeThe words were hardly out of his mouth when the door to the room was pushed open and a middle-aged woman appeared.Lana turned to the door sharply, fear written all over her face as the woman walked into the room silently, and her eyes met that of Lana's. The next instant, they widened with joy and relief."You're awake! Oh thank heavens!" She said as she rushed towards Lana and took both of her hands in hers, "I knew you'd come around! Bless the heavens!"She turned to look at the red haired man, who went about his watering as calmly as before."Look Adrian, I told you she'll be fine." She said as she beamed up at Lana, because she was clearly four inches shorter than her."I know mother," The red haired guy, Adrian replied drily, "I treated her."Lana stared at him, "Treated?" She asked, eyeing the guy in surprise.He was a doctor?The middle aged woman nodded, "Adrian had found you in the forest when he went for his morning walk." She explained
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-TwoShe was in the forest, running with her hands stretched out in front of her as she stumbled over fallen tree logs. Her dress was torn and her knees were scraped. She was limping due to the cuts under the sole of her feet, which the cool damp earth of the forest did nothing to soothe.Yet, Lana ran.She was blinded by a film of tears and terrified gasps came out of her mouth as she stumbled through the dark forest."LANA!"He was close!He would get her and throw her back into that suffocating place. Taking control of her whole life."No, never..." Lana muttered breathlessly as she ran. The moon was hidden behind the huge rain clouds filling the sky now. Now, and then, lightening cracked through the sky, sending a flash of white through the forest.The rumbling of thunder will follow soon after and it made Lana shriek and shudder in terror as she ran.No! No! Stay away, please!Suddenly, a hand shot out from before her and grabbed her throat tightly,
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-One.Lana turned sharply and looked into the darkness behind her. It seemed as though she'd heard something scream. Or was it her imagination?Imagination or not, it was definitely the cue she needed to open the fucking trapdoor. Luckily, the trapdoor wasn't locked and opened up easily before her to reveal another darkness below.Lana swallowed hard as a sudden rush of cold air hit her face. She shivered uncontrollably and willed her beating heart to calm down.This was just the same as walking into the passageway, she reminded herself, Everything will be fine. There are no snakes waiting down there.The way the wind whistled from below made her wonder how far the drop was.She laid down the trapdoor, and peered down into the hole with her torchlight. The beam flashed on a slab of wood below her, then another and another all connected with a rope.A ladder!She allowed the light of the torch to travel down until she finally saw the ground.It was not ve
Chapter One Hundred And Eighty Zaire was still in his study with Aryan, who was making numerous calls.It really seemed like Romero was on his way to Moreno, due to the tip off that Rina had given them.Zaire regretted ever revealing this place to Rina. He had brought her here as well and a bitter taste filled his mouth, as he realized how her presence must have tainted his precious sanctuary."I really should have killed her a long time ago." He thought to himself as he downed the contents of his second glass of whiskey.Well, there was still time.He could still kill her and also give the same treatment to his beloved half-brother. A slight smile curved his lips as he relished the thought of Damien coming to challenge him on his own turf.He'd be able to come in easily but to go out will not be so easy.He also regretted the fact that he'd brought Lana to Moreno. He could have easily taken her to Italy or Cuba, but he figured they were too far away and he needed to still be able to
Chapter One Hundred And Seventy-NineGripping the metal torchlight to her chest, Lana hurried back into the room and climbed unto the bed once more.She glanced back at the door, her ears picking up every little sound. She expected it to open up at any moment and Zaire would walk in.She'd get caught before she even started anything and faced with more torment than she could imagine."There's no time to waste." She reminded herself as she edged closer to the wall, "Let's get out of here, Lana."Slowly, she reached out her hand to the wall and pushed it. The wall did not budge.Lana swallowed hard as her heart started beating faster once again.What the hell? Why isn't the wall opening up now?She pushed the wall again with all her might and still nothing."Okay Lana." She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, "Remain calm and think. We have to open this wall."She closed her eyes and tried to remember how she'd had managed to open the wall earlier that day.Her memory was fuzzy w