Chapter 45"He thought you were cheating on him?" Jared asked. Astra had even forgotten that it was not just her and Sarah at the table.Astra turned to him and sat down."It was one of Ray's tricks. He had this video and pictures. I saw them. I thought they were me. I was naked, with five men, five different locations. He also did something on fraud to make people leave Nicholas' company. Ray can be very ruthless," Astra said and Jared looked shocked."Why would he go that far? I cannot even imagine how much hurt he caused just by that. That man would hurt you Astra. He already did, and he would hurt you even more," Jared said and Astra felt even more scared."He won't hurt me, he believes he loves me," Astra said even if she wasn't convinced by her own words."You surely don't believe that Astra. Talk to her Sarah," Jared said. Astra shrugged."We will be very careful, the fact that he is dangerous makes it more obvious that we cannot leave a child and a pregnant woman with him. I w
Chapter 46"I am willing to do anything, as far as you promise to let them go," Astra said and took a deep breath. She hoped she was not making a wrong decision. She knew that it was a but reckless to make a decision at all without telling anyone in the first place, but it was an emergency and everyone would understand. Besides, she already made up her mind to set herself up as bait."Anything?" Ray asked from the other end of the phone. Astra took in a deep breath. She was grateful that she had called Yvonne earlier and asked of her baby. "Yes, anything. You have to assure me that Theo and Steph will be safe though," Astra said. She was hoping that her voice sounded as confident as she needed it to be. She was already scared. She did not need him to add to her fear."Well, in that case, you have to meet me up at the cafe in front of your house in thirty minutes. You will be one the phone the entire time, no funny business. I will let Theo and Stephanie go and I will show the video e
Nicholas was seated in his living room, going through some documents when his bodyguard burst into the house. Because of the general unrest that day, his heartbeat seemed to stop for a moment."What is wrong?" He asked his bodyguard. He knew that panic could be heard in his voice, at that moment, he really didn't care."There is somebody at the door," the man said. Nicholas did not stop the analyze the statement as he rushed outside."Is something wrong?" He could hear Sarah ask."Come outside," he simply said and rushed outside with the body guard."There were cars before, they are gone," the body guard said. He was looking confused at the almost empty balcony."Theo!" Sarah shouted and raced outside. Nicholas followed her line of view and saw that Stephanie was holding Theo in her arms. She was just standing at one point. The both of them looked tattered.Sarah rushed to her and carried Theo in her arms. His nephew started crying immediately. Even his tears did not sound like they u
As Astra sat in the car that drove both her and Ray, she wondered why she had not seen the signs. Well, there was also the fact that she might have seen the signs but had ignored them. At first when they were in high school, it was taken as just a crush and it was even looked upon as cute back then. It had made Astra feel a bit good that someone liked her that much. Over time, Astra saw that it was posing as a problem, but she did not take it seriously. It was when she got into college and realized that he was trying to sabotage her relationships that she even took a little seriously, just a little though. Astra had actually thought that if he met someone else that he would leave her alone.Astra did not want that person to be Stephanie at first but her friend had been so hooked on Ray that Astra could have not dissuaded her if she tried, and Astra tried. She did a lot to make Stephanie leave him, but it did not work. After a while, it seemed like Ray's attention shifted from her to S
CHAPTER 49 ASTRAAstra had been missing for two days and Nicholas was sure that he would go crazy. There had been no hints from the police. Nicholas was regretting not letting Astra become bait for Ray. It would have been much easier to track down Ray. The police had tried to track the vehicles that brought Stephanie and Theo back home but the plate numbers were fake. The only thing that gave him a bit of joy was the fact that both Theo and Stephanie were well. Steph was discharged from the hospital that day, thankfully she did not lose the baby. Nicholas was sure that she would be having conflicting feelings, she was carrying the child of a man that had threatened to kill her and was obsessed with her friend.Nicholas was hoping to get some information about Ray’s hideout from Stephanie. She was better than she was before and so it will be easier to talk to her. Sarah, Jared and Nicholas together with Steph were seated in Nicholas’ living room. Jared started living in his house te
Chapter 50Astra felt hungry, tired and weak. Ray had driven her to his hideout that day and the emotional and physical torture had begun. Astra felt like she wanted to die. Like she had to die. She could not continue anymore. It felt like she was going crazy. Like she was becoming just like Ray. She was becoming unhinged and mad like him.She had learnt more than a few things since she got to his hideout. The first was that Ray was more obsessed than she thought, there was a room, the place he first took her to, it was like a shrine, it was filled with her pictures from top to bottom.All the time that she had felt like someone was following her, Ray was actually stalking her. He had pictures of he right from high school. Astra remembered vaguely that he had a camera back then, and he was always taking a pictures of her. She liked it at a point as it made her feel pretty, but after a while, she was annoyed. That did not make him stop though, he kept on taking pictures of her and it s
“Brian has leukemia,” Yvonne said. Nicholas looked at her with shock with his eyes. He did not know what to think, what was he supposed to do? The woman that he loved was kidnapped and he did not know what she was going through in the hands of her kidnapper, and now the son that he did not know existed was sick with cancer. Nicholas just stared ahead and held Brian in his arms, he could not say anything to Yvonne. The car drove them to his house in quiet. Nicholas did not say anything anymore. The words died on his tongue, and for a while it felt like all he could do for Astra was to pray.“Why was Brian with you? Why not Astra’s parents?” Nicholas asked. It seemed like a safe topic. Nicholas figured that Astra’s parents would have told him about the child. They had been so sympathetic during the divorce. “Did you not know?’ Yvonne asked. She looked shocked.“What?” Nicholas replied. He was curious as to what she meant.“Astra’s parents had disowned her because of the divorce.
Chapter 52Nicholas looked at Ray as he pushed the men holding him and brought out a gun. It seemed like something was holding him as he was transfixed to the spot. He stood there as Ray dashed out the gun and shot himself in the head. Nicholas moved then, he did not want the bastard to die. He did not deserve to end his life himself, he did not deserve not to be tried or even acquitted for all his crimes. Before Nicholas could get to Ray, policemen pushed him away and covered the bleeding man. What happened after that was confusing. Medics came from the ambulance and they declared Ray dead. It was all over. Nicholas went then to find Astra, he was angry at how easy Ray's death was, but at least he was gone. When Ray managed to find Astra, she was lying down and she looked like life had left her eyes. She was opening her eyes but Nicholas could see that she had seen hell. Nicholas wanted to raise Ray from the dead and kill him again."He is dead Astra," Nicholas told her. She smiled