Episode 50

When he slammed his palm against the wall behind me,I felt it. I felt the anger he radiated onto it and I shivered. I wanted the wall to open up and swallow me away from this man. Since the universe wasn't gonna grant this small little wish,I kept away, running as fast as I could. In my mind,I'd ran miles until he yanked me right back with an arm. I'd only gone an arm's length before his strong hand is yanking me back against the wall.
"Don't worry,"his lips grazed my earlobe "I don't bite. But I could give you a hickey if that's what you want"
"Get off me!" My every attempt to push his body away from mine was abortive. He was way stronger than I was.
"You can scream,that's just sexy. No one would hear you anyway"
His lips loomed closer to mine and I pushed my face away to the side.
"You want this the harder way. Great. "
In one swift movement, his hands are all over my body,all over my waist and all over my chest, pulling and tugging at my dress. He grabs a hold of the front of dress and ripped it apart,his hand travelling over my now exposed bra, quickly grabbing at them. I gasped angrily, still trying to push him away. His cold lips nipped at my neck and they trailed down to my chest.
"Stop!" I screamed.
As if my screaming had been a little bit of help, I found him stumbling back and colliding onto the table we were seated at before, knocking off the drinks and plates. I cringed at the sound of the shattering plates before looking up to find somebody's back turned to me, blocking my complete view of Drako who was starting to regain his balance,terror in his eyes.
"Pervert"
Ric. His voice gave him away. He's standing tall in front of me,his hands moulded into fists on his sides as he watched Drako. How did he get here.
"Who the fuck are you?" Drako asked, straightening his shoulder.
"Riccardo Marcello. You've heard of me"
"Sorry mate,but I haven't," I could see his face now as he came closer,his hand reaching over his lips to wipe at the trickling blood on his lower lip before turning to look back at Ric "but you are gonna have to pay for this"
I heard myself scream in horror as he lounged for Ric with a yell. Ric was fast in his movements and was beside him in one second and punching him on the stomach in the next. I watched in both amazement and horror as the two men went into a combat,Ric appearing to have the upper hand. Just when Drako finally gave up and remained on the floor,Ric walked closer,his panting loud and fierce.
"You blackmailed this woman and now you wanna sleep with her?," I could feel the anger in Ric's voice as he yelled "What kind of a man does something as disrespectful as that?!"
Drako coughs in reply, his nose bleeding all over his lips.
"This would be the last time you ever bring any harm to this woman or her father"
I quickly went in front of Ric, pointed my phone at Drako bravely before saying "I have a record of everything you said here and if you ever go after my dad, you'll be talking with the court about why we had to pay you such huge amount of money and why everyone else you've ever loaned money had to pay such amount back!"
Ric grabs my arm, causing me to turn around to find anger written all over his face. He doesn't say a word and instead started dragging me out of the room. As soon as we stepped out,he let go of my arm, causing me to stumble back a bit.
"Why don't you ever listen to anyone but yourself, Ashley?! I told you not to meet that man alone but you wouldn't stop being stubborn for once!"
"I thought I had it under control,Ric. If I. . . ."
"If you knew he was gonna try to rape you you wouldn't have come alone? Or at all?"
"What did you expect me to do? You know what I was dealing with here!"
"Do you really know what you were dealing with?! Cause if you did you wouldn't agree to meet with someone like that pervert inside there!"
"Well what was I supposed to do then?!" I yelled back " Stay and do nothing?"
"Let me handle it, that's all I told you"
"Well sorry I couldn't, okay?! Because this has nothing to do with you! It is not your concern and definitely not your business to begin with!"
"I was trying to help!"
"And you did! This was my part to play and. . . . "
"You almost got raped, Ashley! When are you gonna stop being so proud and stubborn to accept that you're simply wrong!?"
"I wasn't wrong to come here and I'll keep telling you that. You aren't in my shoes,Ric and you would not understand!"
"You honestly think I don't? Did you see him all over you?"
"He almost raped me but I had it under control. And as you can see I didn't get raped okay?! Stop worrying unnecessarily and just leave me alone already!"
He had his mouth opened for a while but shut it close after the words flew out of my mouth. His eyes watched me for what felt like minutes even though it was just for a four seconds. When he looked away to his sides, I knew I'd said far too much than necessary. I was angry and I let it have the best of me.
He pulled off his suit and placed it over my chest, reminding me that half of my breasts were on full display after Drako ripped the front of my dress open.
"You should probably get home," he said immediately, his eyes not meeting mine as he backed away from me "you should call me when you need a flight back home"
That said, he started down the pavement and out of the restaurant's premises. I watched him leave, every feeling left inside of me twisting and threatening to strangle me dead.
Twenty minutes later,I was searching for a cab, feeling my head throb. Another twenty minutes later, the cab was pulling up in front of my house. The sun chose today of all day to shine so brightly.
When I pushed the door open and saw my dad standing close to the window,facing it,I felt a strange feeling burst inside me. I felt tears tuck at the corners of my eyes. Everything that happened with Drako and. . .Ric started coming back to me in a rush. I felt hurt and angry. Why was I doing this? Why did I just risk myself for someone who stopped caring about me because he blamed me for his wife's death?
He turns around to see me the instance I shut the door close.
"You're back" he said "how did your meeting with your friend go?"
"I almost got raped by the person I was meeting" i said truthfully. I watched as his eyes went wide with shock.
"What? Who was....."
"It's Drako, Dad"
"What? You went meeting Drako? You know he's a bad person..."
"Did I have a choice dad? He was blackmailing you and taking money from you!"
"I could handle it"
"How dad? How were you gonna handle it? You don't work anymore, you're obviously sick from the old age even though you've refused to share that with me so tell me how exactly you planned to handle it!"
By now I was breathing harshly,feeling the blood rushing through my veins. He's silent for a while before speaking again.
"You think I couldn't handle it before taking the money?"
"Things change Dad but you don't know that! I begged you not to take that money"
"What was I supposed to do? Not give you an education?!"
"You say it like you did it for my own good when actually you wanted me to go to New York to get rid of me!"
He stands dumbfounded for a second,his eyes showing so much surprise I wanted to feel bad but I knew I was right. I'd never forget how he'd told me to pack my things cause I'm leaving for school in the morning.
"What? How could you say that?"
My chest heaved with so much anger I thought it was going to burst.
"I knew you always wanted to...."
"No dad. You didn't get the loan to take me to NYU because it was my big dream. You did it because you hated seeing me around! Because you still blamed me for mom's death!" My voice trembled and my knees felt really weak. I suddenly felt faint as all the memories rushed through me.
"Is that what you think, Ashley? Why you never came back?"
"You didn't want me,dad. Mom was the only bridge between us and with her gone,it was suddenly pointless being with you. No matter how I put it or think about it,it always comes to that night that mom died," my voice broke and the tears flowed "you weren't even here,dad! You were always so busy with your business tours and when you finally came and I told you how she'd died trying to pick me up from that stupid ballet school,you couldn't disguise that disappointment and disgust and anger when you looked at me"
"I was angry because I loved your mother!"
"I know. I felt like my world fell apart too and I've never stopped blaming myself! If I hadn't gotten into the stupid class,if I hadn't caused it all maybe my father would love me"
"I do love you"
"Then why did you take that money and sent me away?"
"Sweetheart I didn't send you away. I would never do such a thing,"his voice goes down a notch now "I felt really terrible after she died, Ashley. I didn't pay much attention to the world anymore,I left everything behind....even my daughter. I was scared that I was beginning to push you away too. I lost my job and didn't even care. But when I saw all your friends,Robin,Cindy, Katie,Luc all leaving california to live their dreams,I realized I'd pushed you far away to even realized you needed to leave too. I remember how you've always wanted to go to NYU. So I made arrangements with someone and got you into it. You wouldn't talk to me about it so I thought sending you over there would be me showing you how much I cared. When I called you and you never picked or returned any of my calls,it weighed so much on me. I knew I'd failed. I'd failed your mother and you. I'm sorry I never knew how hard it was for you. I know that this loan ruined my life,it would eventually be my ruin but I was willing to face it for you. I didn't think it'd ever put you in danger's way"
"What am I supposed to do with that?"I shrugged my shoulders,wiping off the tears as they came "I. . . .I didn't mean to kill mom. . "
"Ashley, listen to me" he tried to move towards me but stopped on track.
"Don't tell me to listen dad! I. . . . ." But I was too taken away into my rantings to realize he was having a panic attack,his hands wrapped around his neck as he started to fall side ways.
"Dad!" I screamed, running over to catch him on the way. He falls over me and I tried to pull him up. His breathing is becoming rapid and haggard.
He started to cough really hard. That's when I noticed the blood running down his nose.
"Dad!"
He continued to cough,his eyes slowly shutting close.