CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Nicholas 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 at him. It was a small smile. It almost look fake, but it was the best that he would get from her for a long time.
'Thank God," she replied. Her voice sounded hoarse. Like she had been screaming for too long.
'Stephanie and Theo are fine," Nicholas continued talking to her. He needed to see some life in her eyes. She nodded and faced the other side.
'I met our son Astra. I am sorry," Nicholas said as she did not reply him. Astra turned to look at him, and then she nodded. There was no smile, no tears, just nothing. Nicholas hated it.
He was quiet for the rest to the ride. They finally made it to a hospital and Astra was rushed to be examined.
'She sustained a lot of injuries, a lot of bruises along her body. Because of the location of the bruises, we had cause to think that she was raped. We did an examination, and there are tears in vagina, blood and sperm," the doctor said. Nicholas closed his eyes and cried then. Astra had been through a lot. The bastard really needed to die again.
'It is a wonder that the baby is still fine," the doctor continued.
'Baby?" Nicholas asked. He was confused. Astra was pregnant. Nicholas knew that it could not be Ray, but it could very well be Jared. That would complicate a lot of things. Nicholas sighed and wondered why they had to go from one drama to the other in their lives. It occurred to him then that the child could also be his, there was a possibility that the child was his own. He had sex with Astra, without protection.
'We have treated her wounds and she has medicine to take. Physically, she will be fine. My concern is her mental health though, patients that go through things like this usually have suicidal thoughts after, and she is still pregnant. She has the life of another in her hands. We will get her a therapist and watch her for the next two days," the doctor said and left. Nicholas was still shaking when the doctor left. He still wanted to raise Ray from the dead and kill him again.
'I am sorry," Detective Morris said to him. Nicholas nodded.
'What about Thompson?" Nicholas asked. He had seen the man that was once his friend, who was accused of making his company almost die, look life less, chained to a chair.
'He is conscious now. He said he was blackmailed, and seeing the way we found him, we have reason to believe him. We might have to talk to Astra though, she is a core witness in this case," Detective Morris and Nicholas felt angry.
'Is there even still a case, Ray is already dead. Astra has been through a lot already, she doesn't need to start talking about that all over again, she was raped for Christ sake!" Nicholas shouted and walked out on Detective Morris. He walked till he got to the quiet part of the hospital and he sat down and he cried. That only happened to her because he was unable to protect her, if he could protect her then she would have never been hurt. If he had been faster, if he didn't wait for the police, then Astra would not have to go through so much pain. Ray deserved the worse part of hell, he deserved a death worse than he got. He should die again.
After a while, Nicholas wiped his tears and went back into the hospital. On getting to Astra's room, Detective Morris was there. Nicholas felt angrier. He told the man not to disturb her and yet he was doing the exact thing. Nicholas wanted to drag him out of her room when he heard Astra's voice.
'I wanted to see you. I have something to give you, it is a recording device it was in my dress," Astra said and gave him a small device. Detective Morris looked at the device and smiled.
'This will be very helpful, thank you. How did you get it though?" He asked her
'I was planning to become bait for Ray, he beat me to it though, I just took the recorder just in case," Astra said and then faced another side on her bed. She was obviously tired of talking.
'Astra, are you okay?" Nicholas asked her, and she nodded.
'Mommy!" Brian shouted. Nicholas was surprised to hear Brian's voice, he turned back to see the entire crew coming in. Their son bounded to meet his mother. Nicholas expected a smile from Astra, but she cried instead as she held her son. Nicholas figured that tears were also good, as long as they were tears of joy. He hoped that they were tears of joy and not sorrowful tears. He could not take those.
'Mommy I missed you so much and now you are not well," Brian said and pouted.
'Mommy is good," Astra said, the tears were still rolling down her eyes. Her eyes still looked as lifeless as the first time.
'Oh, Astra we were so worried," Stephanie said, coming forward to hug her. Yvonne and Jared also went in. Nicholas excused himself then. He just stood by the door watching her.
'She is different," Sarah said. His cousin did not go with the crowd.
'She doesn't even look happy to be back," Sarah continued. Nicholas carried Theo from her and held him on his hip.
'She has been through a lot Sarah. She has been through too much. I just really hope that she bounces back," Nicholas said. The people in the room started leaving one by one and Brian was crying when he left.
'Mommy doesn't want to hold me," Brian said. Nicholas looked at Astra but she was facing another direction, she probably wanted to be alone.
'Come on Brian, let's go get some ice cream," Nicholas said to Brian and his son took his hand. They both went on to hold his father's hand as they went out of the hospital.
~~~~~
Two days after Ray died and Astra was taken to the hospital, she made it obvious that she did not want visits. She only allowed a handful of people to see her and Brian was the first In that list. It was clear that Ray had did a number on Astra. She was different from before and even when Nicholas had the chance to tell her what the doctor said about her being pregnant she began to cry.
'That is not possible. It has just been a few days," she said. It took Nicholas a while go understand what she was talking about. She thought that the child was Ray's.
'You are already two months gone," Nicholas clarified. He looked at her in hopes that she would say something about the father of the child, but she didn't. She just sighed and looked the other way. It was her new sign of saying that she wanted to be alone.
'Is Jared the father?" Nicholas asked her, and she turned to him and shook her head.
'I have only had sex with one man willingly in the last seven years and it was you," Astra said and Nicholas breathed a sigh of relief, it was his child. Nicholas knew that it was a bit too early, but he was thinking about what everything meant for him and Astra. He hoped they would become a family with Brian, the fact that the baby was his made it seem smoother and easier.
Nicholas was unable to celebrate or be happy because of the way she said the words. Astra turned back again and faced the wall. She was not in the mood to talk again. Nicholas was leaving her hospital room when he received a call, it was detective Morris.
'Hello," Nicholas said.
'Hello, Nicholas. We have been able to get the information from the recording device. There are some things I will like you to know," Detective Morris said. The recording device had been damaged and they had been fixing it before then, now it was finally playing.
'I am on my way," Nicholas said before getting into his car and driving to the police station. Nicholas decided that he had been in there too many times for someone who did not commit a crime.
'We think that Astra needs some therapy. Over the course of the kidnap, Ray, as you can hear, was rationalizing his feelings to her, he was making how he was, seem like it was Astra's fault," another detective told Nicholas and he nodded. For the umpteenth time Nicholas felt like bringing him back to life and killing him again.
'Just give Jared a bit of time and he will become like me. Because that is what people like you do, you break me like me, by teasing and making them hang on. It makes you feel powerful. Do you think I ever wanted to be like this? Unable to love someone other than you? I don't Astra, but you made me this way, it is all your fault," Nicholas heard Ray's voice. He was clearly a master at manipulation. It was so sickening to listen to and Astra was probably still hearing his voice in her head.
'It was in the same way that had was manipulating Astra that he was able to manipulate Thompson to do all those things to do. He was just a pawn," Detective Morris said and then scrolled to a part and played.
'So you asked a question, Thompson, he was a pawn in all of these. I know a secret of his you see, and I managed to convince him that I was helping him, to keep his daughter and her mother away from the world," Nicholas heard Ray's voice again. He knew that was another story, he did not know that Thompson had a child, but for him to want to hide her so badly, something must have been wrong.
'He also confessed to a variety of crimes. Too many to be honest, I kind of wish he was not dead, but then he would have been treated for his mental disorder and not thrown into prison. He confessed to drugging you and your wife while you were still married and then taking you both to an orgy, that was where he took the pictures that he sent to you. We recovered the numerous pictures that he took of Astra, and then he confessed to poisoning your daughter when she was a child and starting the fire that almost killed Astra. He did all these to someone he claimed he loved," the detective said. Nicholas was not sure what to do with all the information that he had. Tears began to roll from his eyes again, it will take a long time before their family would be able to heal.