Thirty Three

At first, it was vague, the name. I do not even recall the night she is referring to, but with in-depth thinking, I made the connection. As my hand stretched out in gesticulation, a huff of unbelief escaped my lips. “You are,” I took a step back, another huff dropping. “,Grace’s friend.”

“In the flesh.” The grand smile on her face in entirety made my entire system recoil in pure disgust. It was quite obvious that she was a psycho and that meant I had to make sure to be careful with how I talk to her.

“Why? Why are you doing this?”

“I knew I would be asked this question, but I didn’t picture you being the one.” As she took a step forward, my legs found themselves taking another one away from her. Sighing, she resumed her talk. “Why am I doing this? I am doing this because Grace…” Samantha thumped her feet on the ground, a calculating, more like debating look on her face making it seem like she was trying to form her words rightly.

“Is Grace in there? Where is Grace?” I began to ask impatiently as her melodrama was not working for me.

“Just shut up Dominic. Shut up!” Squaring my shoulders to stare her down, my mind wondered what her deal exactly was. “Can you just stop it already? Stop talking about that woman for one second. Is she the only woman in the world that you can have? Why so much fuss over her?”

Desperation suddenly taking over, she hurried towards me, saying, “Dominic, ever since that party you have been on my mind. I loved you ever since then.” She attempted to hold onto the neck of my shirt, but stopped her hand with a quick light slap. “Dominic, for two years, two years I have worked towards getting closer to you and I was so close, so, so close but…”

A look of disgust filled her face. “That Grace just had to ruin everything. After all the work I had put in to get closer to you, Dominic I couldn’t back out. When it appeared that Grace was already falling for you, I knew I had to act fast. I tried to dissuade her by painting you as a player, but that didn’t work at all.”

As I watched her whole figure clench with intense anger, I became more and more disgusted. To think that she put Ruby and Grace through hell because of some crazy stupid feeling she has. Gradually she left the realm of anger, the earlier desperation mixed with some more sentiment coming back to take charge. “Dominic, I need you to understand that I did this because I love you. We are meant to be together, I feel it every time I wake up.”

“Can I see Grace now?”

“I am not done talking Dominic.” The glare in her eyes was enough message that I should not say anything at all to prevent ruining things. In a flash, she was wearing a grin, a very creepy one . “You want to know how I worked everything out till now. Don’t you want to know how Ruby was kidnapped? I will tell you where Grace is after I am done.”

“I am listening.” Dragging the issue with her wasn’t going to get me anywhere anyway.

“After Grace had confirmed to me that you both were in a relationship just as the media rumored, I was angered. I was losing you and I did not like it at all. So while hatching a new plan, I was lucky to meet two of your former lovers who had a business or two with you and with their help, sending those anonymous messages wasn’t so hard. But you just had to take it so seriously.” Her head shook slightly.

“You moved out of the country because of my threats and because you wanted to protect Grace. I loved that move because it showed me how much you would protect me once I get into your arms. But I loved it more when you dropped Ruby with me.”

A deep frown formed on my face. If Grace was beside me right now, she would have probably sent me a glance saying, *I told you so*. And speaking of Grace, the woman in front of me was wasting too much time and I needed to ensure the woman in my life is safe. I promised my daughter I would get her back and I was not planning on failing to fulfill it.

“And… Ruby, she was not kidnapped. Nahh.” She chuckled softly. “I just found a way to sedate her, move her quietly to a secluded location, after that you know what I did?” That I was not charging at her yet was a huge surprise to me. She was saying it all like it was some regular fictional story being narrated for fun.

“I called Grace, I acted so well she fell for my lies. Next thing I knew you guys came back!”

“Where on earth is Grace, Samantha?” Her chain of laughter broke, the side of her lips slowly formed into a dome shape as her eyes narrowed at me.

“What is your problem Dominic? Don’t you love me? I did all these to get to you. You should at least love me for that.”

Gosh, this lady is crazy. “No, I do not love you. I can’t love you because I don’t know you.”

“I am here. You can know me right now. Anything you need to know, just ask about it.”

“I don’t want to deal with this. Where is Grace?”

“What is this fuss about Grace? Is she more than that whiny, over thinking fool and loser who mourned someone’s death for two straight years? Open your eyes Dom, she is…”

“The woman I love and I will not allow you speak about her that way!” Fuming with all the anger in me, I walked towards her with heavy steps. It was sort of relieving to see her react to my outburst, maybe she is still a bit sane after all. “Now,” I stared right into eyes, hard. “, tell me where Grace is.”

“Fine.” Her brows went up as she found her temporarily lost voice. “It is your funeral. At this point I don’t care what happens to you.” She resumed walking towards Grace’s room and I followed behind. “Since you have decided to take Grace’s side, just go to hell with her already.”

The smug look on her face as she opened the door got me feeling suspicious, so I hurried towards the door. As my eyes fell on an unconscious, tied up Grace and the objects all around her, my legs failed me. As I found myself struggling to gain some composure, I angrily questioned the chuckling maniac behind me, “What on earth do you want to do? Is this some sick joke?”

“Well, Dominic Powers, you are about to find out.”


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***If by any chance there is a silly grammatical error in this chapter, pardon me. Thanks for reading this simple, little story of mine. Stay safe.***