Chapter 15
Aliza played with her fingers looking down at the floor in anxiousness as Charles walked towards her in slow tormenting steps. "I'm not a gay as you think. I'm as much attracted to you as you are to me if that is the doubt you have." Aliza looked at Charles bolted out of blue. How did he know her inner feelings? Charles ignored Aliza's facial expressions and answered the unasked question of her. "You blurted everything to me yesterday night in the intoxication." Walking to his dressing mirror, he pulled out a cigarette from the pack and lit it. Puffing out the smoke facing the window he explains to Aliza everything about the veracity of his emotions locked up so long in his kernel. "I never abused women and sex but I had my physical desires." He cleared his throat in an unspoken guilt. "I am not a virgin." Charles declared blinking his eyes to clear the shade of dampness. He never felt so vulnerable towards any woman till date except his mother and sister. But Aliza was an exemption to his almost three decades worth long resolutions. "I was attracted to you in the first glimpse of the interview itself.....the way you conducted yourself....you were different from the usual. As the days passed I learnt more about you in our association. The self pride and strong mind, the determination you hold to stand by yourself irrespective of the circumstances entranced me immensely towards you." He pushed out the cigarette and aloud out the cloud of smoke from the window. "I did not wish to involve you in my sexual congress and diverted my private matters to Charla for the high esteem you hold in my looks but alas. You misunderstood me as a gay." There was a twinkle in his eyes as he said the words slightly in a teasing snigger to her. "But as luck would have its way, with the passing time I understood you were alluring to me as much as I was for you and to learn the fact I was on cloud nine." He walked to the drawer and threw a bunch of pictures of her on the bed. She was biting her nails deep in thought, some eating the tip of the pencil while staring at something on her phone. Some photos were taken when she was chewing her lip while reading something on the laptop. "I was a secret admirer of you to mystically capture all these clips." There was a slight spread of his lips as he recollected the past period. "I reformed myself to suit you because I felt I wasn't worthy of you to be blessed as your husband." Aliza gulped an ache existing in her throat with the ooze of Charles' intense feelings for her. "Though there is always a fire of yearn, a fire to touch you I refrained my carnal intentions to celibacy." He nips the cigarette into the ashtray and turns back to Aliza ready to face the challenge. "I kept myself away from touching you because I respected your virginity. You struggled very hard to protect your innocence from the attempts of Fredrick even when it went to cost your life. I admired the strong woman in you and wanted to consummate our relationship on the day of our marriage. But I was wrong in my opinion about you." There felt a sharp tick in his jaw with ire. "You are as cheap as any other girl who came on that day for the interview." Words went stuck in Aliza's throat without coming out as Charles dropped his statement like a bombshell accusing her. "If you try to invoke the wrong side, you will see the beast inside of me which you wouldn't wish to know." He held her face tight between his fingers and muttered menacingly low. "What did you plan on drinking like a cow in that bar? You wanted to gain courage for asking me about my dates? Here goes your answers but at what cost Ms Aliza Stelwart?" It was just her name but when it fell out of Charles' lips so formally she was caught unaware of the disaster she had invited out of her stupidity. "I carry a reputation as a renowned businessman in this society. I'm not some Tom, Dick and Harry that you can behave in public the way you feel like." He released her face with a jerk. "You're going to be my wife, the better half of the richest billionaire of this country. Shouldn't you think twice before you act such foolishness? Charles ran his eyes in disgust from top to toe on her and Aliza felt it was better to lose her life than gain such humiliation from the man who respected her so much till a fortnight ago. "I keep my personal life away from my profession. You were the first exemption I allowed myself." He shook his head in misery running his hands in tight fists gazing outside the room. "I was fortunate the bartender handled you without a third eye noticing and called me directly." Charles suddenly walks up to the bed in front of Aliza and forces her head up to look into his eyes. "Mark these words of mine forever. My empire was not built in a day. I struggled for six years to make it happen what you see today and I give no right to anyone to destroy what I hold. You do shit like this I will not think twice to manhandle you." Aliza gazed at Charles with a shock at the man about who she thought treated the woman next to God. "You want sex, right? You wanted to know if I was a complete man. Come on, let me show you my manliness. Strip" He ordered fierce like the roar of a lion in the forest. Aliza trembled under his perilous gaze in fear. She couldn't believe her ears. Was he the same Charles Rodriguez, a seraph of every woman's fantasy, who treated every woman like a God mother? The next minutes in the room were filled by moans and kisses, unfortunately which didn't give any pleasure to Aliza like she imagined in her dreams. Half an hour later she walked out of the room smelling dirty sex with a searing pain between her legs and trembling arms. The incident which happened to her today couldn't be imagined even in the next thousand births of her to come. "From today forward the relationship we will have will only be professional. Get out of my house." Charles snarled on her face pointing to the door. Aliza felt someone snatched away her breath in a miniscule of a second. The thing that she wouldn't even imagine in her dream just happened and the world stopped around her. That wasn't a mistake. It was a blunder she had committed that couldn't ever be corrected. She destroyed women not only physically but mentally too.Chapter 16Three months laterIt was six in the morning during the peak winters of California. The sun hadn't yet arrived in the east and the sky was still dark. The office of Richmond Industries was completely empty. Because of the extreme winter the office hours have been reduced from morning ten to evening five instead of nine to six. Every one of the staff was raining praises to the kind hearted CEO a week ago when the change of timing was announced. It was very much before the working time. Pulling her long coat more together Aliza sprinted towards the entrance of the stylish superstructure. The security at the entrance greeted her with a salute. "Mam, Good Morning! So early?" The forty year old Buffy bodyguard Samuel greeted and asked Aliza with curiosity. "It is the year end time Samuel, some last bit of errands are still left over to run." Aliza replied to him in a clipped tone.Samuel nods to Aliza with a pleasant smile. Nobody doubted her in the office. She had been worki
Chapter 17The temperature in California had dropped to a record low this year and the clothes Aliza was putting on did little justice to her trembles accompanied with the heavy downpour. She had forgotten her long coat in her quarter while re-reaching the office in a hurry. A sleek black Lamborghini Urus rushed through the gateway but Aliza stood rooted to her feet. It was a do or die situation to her.Aliza felt humiliation and shame for her helplessness. Guarding her last ounce of courage she yelled to the passenger window at the back of the car. "Sir I am not disloyal, I did not commit the breach." The car shifted its path and went away from beside her at full speed splashing the muddy flashes of water on her already wet dress.The next moment a white van stops a few feet away from beside her and two men in blue walk towards her. "You're under arrest Miss Aliza Stelwart for committing breach of contract in divulging secret information about The Richmond Industries to foreign firm
Chapter 18Charles immediately looked up as he heard the bullet sound. One of his bodyguards fired a man who tried to aim a bullet at him. The lucky rogue escaped the shot to his heart but his leg fell injured. He ran to a white Skoda parked just two feet away which sped in a record speed as soon as he sat in it. But justice always wins in the end, one of Charles's security already recorded the vehicle number.Looking at the corpse of Aliza, Charles turned out like a lifeless soul. He felt numb gazing down at her with zero emotions but tears ran out of his eyes like a never ending rain. He simply got up from beside her and stared around blank at the people who were gazing at him with concern. The head security understood that his boss was unmanageable and tried to help him to the car to drop him at his parents house but Charles stopped him."Where are you taking me? My Aliza is lying there injured. She needs to be taken care of. I cannot just leave her and go to work." Charles pointe
Chapter 19"Are you sure about this Jack?" Charles immediately dialed Jack's number and asked him to be agitated. "Sir, as soon as I received the call from you, I directed all my men to different parts of the world. This photo was taken by one of them in Boston. As soon as I received the picture I directly sent it to you." Charles gulped the glass of water placed on his desk. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and tried to calm the eccentric beats of his heart.Charles tried to analyze the situation. The body when he was found in front of the hospital was completely covered in blood. To be truthful he hadn't seen the face of the lady but due to the shock he was already in, his eyes might have deceived and misinterpreted her to be Aliza. Among the most shocking coincidence was that the lady's physique exactly matched Aliza's. That is why probably Larry and even his bodyguards misunderstood her to be Aliza.Settling down he ran his hands on his face tiredly and took the phone back to
Chapter 20"Charles, please let me go. My son is sick." She cried praying to him. The hands that enveloped her so guarded fell to the sides as he gazed down at her in a blow. A faint nod of his head in asking her the question the most dreaded..... his eyes stare down at her in shock. Aliza replies looking down to her feet. "Yes, Asher is sick and he is my son."Charles's hands formed to fists making the knuckles turn white as he digests the heart wrecking truth revealed to him. In a numb feeling breakdown he walked to the window turning his back to her and blinked his eyes repeatedly to clear the dampness. "Leave" he shouted and Aliza sprinted out of the door without a turn back.FlashbackTwenty one months AgoAfter the morning of their love making Aliza was busy setting the file for the next meeting. The work was very busy as it was the time Richmond Industries was launching their new clothing line. Charles was continuously occupied with the meetings but he sent Aliza away so that s
Chapter 21Flashback continues.That day Aliza did not pick up any of the calls of Charles after getting to her quarter. Charles went very busy. Meetings lined up one after another so that he couldn't go and see his fiancee. He was very anxious about what happened to Aliza. She wouldn't pick up his calls or even answer his messages.At night eleven there was a knock at the door of her quarter. Aliza knew who the person was and though she had no intention to see she had no chance to avoid him. She signed the contract and couldn't quit the company, failing which she had to render a massive amount as penalty to the firm. Within a fortnight there is a huge wall built between them accompanied by immense damage in their relationship. How could she get cheated so ruinously in her life? Marrying a mafia leader....what would be the fate of her and her unborn children? How long would she survive with a constant churning in her heart of their children's lives always in danger? How could she live
Chapter 22Charles returned to California desolated. His beautiful thoughts shattered after he heard the word 'son ' come out of Aliza's lips. How could she move on this fast with already a son in her way? Was she cheating on him? Did she ever think of him after leaving? Was he the only one among them to fall in love and suffer? Why did she cheat on him (her fiance) for Larry who was just an acquaintance for her?Charles wanted to ask her about the list of all these questions that created a turmoil in his mind but as soon as the word 'son' fell out of Aliza's lips, everything shattered around him and his mind went blank after that.Outwardly he was a man with every happiness in the world and dreams fulfilled but the world did not know his heart was like a barren land with no single plant to fruit. With an empty soul and zero happiness in his life Charles diverted all his energy only on business. He worked hard night and day and the Richmond Industries which was already #1 in United S
Chapter 23Ahead was a picture of Aliza which dropped from the file. Charles's vision fortuitously fell on her digits and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Their engagement ring was still on her finger. His eyes went wide in a sweet surprise staring stock-still at her photo like a billions worth deal has just been showered upon him. He was off the space enthralled with excitement and his heart raced with a speed of thousand miles per second until Jack brought him back with his words. "Sir, what happened, are you okay? Is something wrong?"Charles couldn't control but leave his lips spread to a jubilation. His stance was filled with happiness to know Aliza was still his. He felt he was over the moon and the happiest person on earth. "Yes. I'm fine Jack. Nothing is wrong." He stressed on the word 'nothing' in blessedness. "In fact after years of continuous consternation my kernel settles happily and stable now with your file. Thank you for the help. You did a great job." He patte