Chapter 29

“Arthur.”
“Why, hello, bodyguard of my wife. Put the phone on speaker,” came his hoarse reply. Julian gritted his teeth, but did as he said.
“Sia, my love!”
Oh, how Julian badly wished he could kill him. If only he hadn’t let him escape last night. Extremely embarrassed, he couldn’t look at Sia right now.
“A-Arthur?” Sia asked hesitantly.
“Sia. Why did you have to run away from me? Now look what you made me do . . .” He trailed off gruffly before chuckling. Everything seemed funny to him. Julian had made a mistake in thinking that Arthur would lay low like usual and wait to get back to his full strength before he struck again. Either Arthur had gotten desperate or his back was up against a wall. Arthur was now in Sia’s house with Sia’s family, and something must have gone immensely wrong if Abhay hadn’t called in yet.
Dread settled in Julian’s chest. “What did you do, Arthur? Where’s Leo? I swear if you hurt him—”
“Relax, pup. I won’t hurt my own son. But if you don’t bring Sia to me within the half hour, then there is no guarantee what I’ll do.” Arthur’s voice held some amount of satisfaction as he chuckled once again. He had already done something, of that Julian was sure.
“What . . . have . . . you . . . done?” Julian gritted out. “Where is Abhay?”
“Oh! You mean that half Asian friend of yours? Well, he’s kind of busy...drowning in his own blood.”
Julian saw red. Somewhere in the room, he heard Sia gasp, but all he could think about was Abhay...dead. No. He can’t be dead! Abhay had been his best friend since forever—his only companion, his partner-in-crime, his brother. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—lose hope just yet. They’ve been through hell and back together and they always have survived. Abhay was stronger than this.
“Get Sia here as quickly as possible, or I’ll just get bored and kill the maid.”
A scream sounded from behind Arthur, followed by Sia’s horrific scream. “Martha!”
Then the line went dead.
Julian didn’t know how long he just sat there, shocked. His thoughts filled with images of Abhay may be dead. But Sia’s gentle touch brought him back to life, from the cold grip of fear that had taken a hold of his heart. When he looked up at her, he found that her eyes were already bloodshot. Tear marks were evident on her face, but her voice when she spoke was strong and firm.
“We have to go Julian, or he’ll kill Martha and possibly Leo. Arthur may say he won’t hurt Leo, but I can’t let him anywhere near him; heaven knows what he’s going to do to my son. I need your help, Julian. I can’t do this without you.”
Suddenly, the blinding rage he felt towards Arthur and his friendship towards Abhay brought him to his feet. He took Sia’s hand and lifted her from the couch and entwined his hands with hers. “Chris, call backup. This ends today.”
“On it,” Christian replied.
It was Julian needed to hear before he pulled Sia out of the house and went to his car.

* * *

Starting the car in a hurry, Julian drove at full speed to the Milton estate. Neither of them uttered a single word. While Julian thought of a strategy, Sia counted the moments ‘till her life was back to the hell that she had once escaped.
Sia was jolted out of her thoughts when the car came to a sudden halt. Looking ahead, she saw that they stood just outside the wrought iron gates to her past estate. Fear gripped her heart in an iron grip but it lessened a little as soon as she felt Julian’s hand on hers.
“Sia, I promise you. I won’t let that bastard win. I’ll make sure that all of you are safe, if it’s the last thing I do,” Julian said truthfully. Sia could see the fire in his eyes. He will find a way out of this. Sia believed in Julian even though his words left her breathless and cold. She knew he wouldn’t die. They will all make it out alive.
Sia leaned forward in her seat and Julian met her halfway in a kiss that held as much passion as desperation. It held an urgency like never before and Sia knew that even Julian, the same person who had been her rock through her most difficult time, was nervous and scared at what was to come.
“I love you,” she said once more as she rested her forehead to his. “Please come back safely.”
Julian’s grip tightened on her for just an instant before he let go. “Let’s do this,” he said and the iron gates in front of them, the one that had felt like home to Sia for the past eleven years, parted, welcoming her to a new hell.
The house looked the same from the outside, nothing out of the ordinary, but both of them could feel it in their bones. Something wasn’tright.
“Let’s go,” Julian said after he parked the car in front of her front door. Sia came and stood by his side as he got out.
The house seemed quiet. Too quiet. Julian looked around for any signs of a trap but found none. Everything seemed in place . . . wait. There! By the garage!
“Arthur!” Julian roared. “Come out of the house, you coward! I have Sia with me.”
Sia gripped his hand tightly in her own. She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want to let go of Julian, and by Julian’s tightening grip on her hand, she knew he didn’t want to let go either. But she hoped that he had already something planned to get them out of this situation.
But that hope was shattered when suddenly, out of nowhere, someone came out and hit Julian on the back of his head with a wooden pole.
Sia felt like everything happened in slow motion as the sickening sound of wood hitting bone echoed in her ears. Julian’s grip loosened on her hand. He raised his other hand to his head and touched it, bringing it in front of his face to look at it. The blood on his hands finally made Sia scream bloody murder, then Julian blacked out, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, and fell to the ground.
Sia screamed out his name once and turned around to look at the man in all black holding a wooden pole. She knelt on the ground beside Julian and took a protective stance over him, so nobody could harm him again. But the man made no move to harm her.
“Fear not, my love,” came a very satisfied, raspy voice from the front door to her house. “No one here is going to hurt you. That right belongs only to me.”
Sia tried to hold on to her brave front, but with Julian unconscious, she was failing miserably. She could only watch helplessly as Arthur strode down the steps of her front porch and approached her, a ghastly smile plastered on his face.
The dread and terror finally set in, and Sia wanted nothing more than to die right there and then. But all she could do was watch, frozen to the spot, as Satan himself stood before her.