"Where do you know me from?" he exclaimed, harshly.
He took a step towards me, looking so intimidating and threatening that I instinctively took another step back. Suddenly I remembered all the evil he had committed, displacing the families of the farm.
If this pregnancy had happened, when I discovered that I had been the victim of a scam, a hit-and-run would be insignificant compared to what that man would do to me.
The thought gave me another shudder, and suddenly I saw the buildings along the street dancing around me, becoming a jumble of ghostly, meaningless images.
As if my legs were no longer able to support me on my feet, I slowly fell, falling to the ground, while my vision went dark.
I was about to crash against the asphalt once more when strong arms held me firmly, supporting me, giving me a sense of security so reassuring that I stopped fighting and surrendered to the deep darkness that swallowed me.
**
When I regained consciousness, I felt the world rocking around me. As soon as I opened my eyes, I realized that I was lying in the backseat of a moving car, traveling through the streets of SaintClair City. I immediately remembered what happened and sat up with a movement so quick it made me slightly dizzy.
"Are you feeling better?" asked the deep, harsh voice.
I lifted my gaze to the rearview mirror and met Adriel Beaumont's icy eyes, glaring at me so intently that I suddenly had the feeling he could see right through me, know that maybe I was carrying his child on me.
My first impulse was to open the car door, escape that demon before he did me any harm, but I refrained. There was no way he could know anything. Maybe I was not even pregnant.
“I am fine,” I replied. "Where are you taking me?"
"To the hospital. You know where it is?"
Damn! He had been in town for almost two months, and he did not know where the hospital was?
“I do not need to go to the hospital. You can leave me right here."
I just wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. I was terrified. If he did not find a way to terminate this possible pregnancy, he would never believe that I was forced to participate in this scam, and then I would be pretty screwed.
Through his eyes, I could tell he was not the kind of man anyone could mess with.
“I can't leave you here in the middle of nowhere. If you do not want to go to the hospital, tell me where you live, and I'll take you home."
"Where is my bicycle?"
"In the trunk."
"You can leave me here," I asked. — The town is small. I'll do the rest of the journey by pedaling.
He watched me intently through the rearview mirror.
"Are you scared of me?"
Shit! All he had to do was guess the reason.
“Of course not. I just want you to leave me right here.
"I already told you I am not going to leave you lying around after almost running you over!" he snarled sharply, and I shrank back in my seat, overcome with the certainty that it would be pointless to argue.
Not only was this man intimidating, he was also a bundle of arrogance, and the sooner he agreed to drop me off somewhere, the sooner I would be rid of him.
"Leave me to my work then." It is on the highway. Alvorada Cafeteria.
Without another word, he made a U-turn further on and led us in the opposite direction, towards the highway. He was driving at low speed, through sunny, uncrowded streets.
The silence that settled inside the vehicle was tense, almost tangible. Every time I glanced in the rearview mirror, I was met with his cold stare, watching me intently, as if probing me, as if he knew what I had done, which impelled me to look in any other direction to avoid his scrutiny.
"How old are you?" he asked after the long silence.
"That's none of your business."
“You have a very sharp tongue for a girl your age."
"And you are too arrogant for an old man."
"I know how to be kind when it suits me"
I looked into his eyes through the mirror on the dashboard, and suddenly I felt a strange, throbbing heat coursing through my body, not exactly because of his words, but because of the insinuating, naughty tone with which they were pronounced.
I knew that tone well; it was the way a man spoke when he was excited.
I knew that tone well; it was the way a man spoke when he was excited.Even though I would never been intimate with a man, due to the fact that no boy in town had been interested in getting serious with the daughter of the biggest slut in the area, and I was not interested in getting laid just for the sake of getting laid, I knew almost everything about men and about sex. I was used to seeing my mother enter her room with up to two men at the same time, sometimes with other women as well. Not to mention the countless times those disgusting people left her sleeping and came into the living room to harass me during the night.Although it wasn't easy, I managed to preserve myself without being molested by any of them, even though no one in town believed that I wasn't part of that whole orgy. Fortunately, I didn't care much about what people thought of me. "Oh yeah, and when is it convenient for you? When you're with the women from the Riviera Club?" I blurted out.Holy crap! Where was
By the end of the day, I was completely stressed and mentally drained. I seriously needed to go to the Riviera Club and relieve myself, but I was not going that night. There was so much on my mind, and I needed to be fully focused so that nothing went wrong. The slightest slip could disrupt the completion of my plans. Arnaldo was a cretin, but he was not a fool. Like me, he also knew how to play dirty, and he did it with mastery.As I was leaving the precarious building, heading towards the parking lot, I was approached by two women on the sidewalk, one middle-aged and the other a teenager.The same one I almost ran over some time ago..."Mr. Athos, I am Selena Anderson. I need to speak to you, and it is urgent," said the older woman, heading my way, irritating me with her unbearable insistence.She must have been the same one who had been looking for me for three days, whom I had left waiting, believing she was going to leave. But she did not. Apparently, she had spent the whole aft
Her words made me freeze. I immediately turned to the two of them and focused my attention on the girl, who seemed to be hiding behind her mother, pale and scared like the other time I saw her. "What did you say?" I asked, suspecting I had heard wrong. "This is my daughter, Ryleena," she gestured toward the teenager. "You were at the Riviera Club together. She is expecting your child." Hearing the mention of the club I frequented weekly since arriving in town, I jumped, wondering if there was any possibility that what this woman claimed was true. However, I took a good look at that girl and soon dismissed the hypothesis. I was a scoundrel of the worst kind, capable of any dirty trick to get what I wanted, and I was even proud of it, yet I wouldn't have engaged with a girl that age. "Either you are crazy, or you approached the wrong guy. I never had anything to do with this girl." "Yes, there was, two months ago, when she was at the club looking for her sister. She did not want
ATHOS Two months later... "Mr. Athos, that lady, Selena, is here again wanting to talk to you," said my secretary through the intercom. It was the third day in a row that this woman had appeared at the company's headquarters trying to talk to me. What the hell did she want? These lazy people thought I had nothing else to do! At the very least, she was there to ask for financial help, like so many others did, as if I owned some charity. "Say I am busy." I gave the same answer as the last two days. "Sir, she said it is urgent. You are insisting too much." "In that case, tell her to wait." After a few hours of waiting, surely she would give up. I turned off the intercom and turned my attention back to the file on my computer. In the document that arrived a few hours ago, there was one more of that damned man's desperate attempts to disrupt my plans. This time, he obtained a warrant from a judge in the capital ordering the interruption of the construction of the pipeline, w
Her words made me freeze. I immediately turned to the two of them and focused my attention on the girl, who seemed to be hiding behind her mother, pale and scared like the other time I saw her."What did you say?" I asked, suspecting I had heard wrong."This is my daughter, Ryleena," she gestured toward the teenager. "You were at the Riviera Club together. She is expecting your child."Hearing the mention of the club I frequented weekly since arriving in town, I jumped, wondering if there was any possibility that what this woman claimed was true.However, I took a good look at that girl and soon dismissed the hypothesis. I was a scoundrel of the worst kind, capable of any dirty trick to get what I wanted, and I was even proud of it, yet I wouldn't have engaged with a girl that age."Either you are crazy, or you approached the wrong guy. I never had anything to do with this girl.""Yes, there was, two months ago, when she was at the club looking for her sister. She did not want to; she
RYLEE I spent practically the whole night tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, or at least relax. I was terrified of what that man would do to us because of the belly slam we were giving him. I could see in his icy eyes that he was capable of anything, maybe even killing. When his paternity was confirmed, which would happen in a few hours, my mother and I would be in the arms of luck, at serious risk of losing our lives. How could she not see that? How was she capable of getting involved with a man as dangerous as that one? It was written in his expression that he had no soul, no heart. His attitudes towards the residents of the farm on which he built his oil pipeline also said so. If only I had not been a coward and had had the courage to have an abortion when Marina finally managed to get the abortive drugs, I would have been free of this situation. But I was stupid enough to cling to this life that was growing inside me. At first, I was determined to have an abortion.
After going through several streets and facing a small traffic jam, the car finally entered the parking lot of a building that housed the medical clinic, and we went up.On the floor where we left the elevator, the receptionist all but drooled over Athos and spread out a red carpet for him to pass, such was the flattery and undisguised interest.There I found out that the appointment was already scheduled, and I was relieved to learn that the gynecologist who would attend to me was a woman.We were taken directly to the doctor's office, a large and elegantly decorated room, where she was sitting behind a table, in front of which we sat down.She was a woman in her early fifties, with intelligent eyes behind her prescription glasses and a classic elegance. Something in her manner gave me a certain assurance, and I felt a little less afraid of Athos's proximity, convinced that he wouldn't harm me as long as we were in his presence."So, you're expecting your first child," said the woman
ATHOSAs I watched the girl devour her chicken in orange sauce like a starving woman who had not eaten anything in days, I suddenly felt a sinking conscience for having almost left her without lunch. Despite being a scammer, she was also almost a child, who most likely carried a part of me inside her womb. I could not be so inhuman as to starve them both.Looking at her, anyone who did not know her would never imagine the types of mess she was involved in, in complicity with her family. Since he had an air of innocence, an aura of sweetness and kindness that fooled anyone. In addition, she had a beauty that would never go unnoticed. The very clear blue of her eyes, they seemed to come out of a rare painting, her mouth was too sexy, molded into a doll's face, with porcelain skin. It was the perfect weapon to lure and deceive unsuspecting men.I would bet that that innocent, shy, quiet way of yours was nothing more than a disguise, a trap for idiots. She was most likely used to giving a