"And in the end, I said you would love me. We're in the end and there's only one of us here."
Said once by Dominic Riccitello
At the sight of that tiny little black card, Rumina touched her belly and tears again managed to find a way through her eyes, her face flushed crimson and her vision turned shadowy and fuzzy, shock got into her and suddenly all the air in the room chattered, leaving her breathless
"Mina, what's wrong babe? What is it?" Jasper stood there all puzzled, overwhelmed with all the scenes that passed through him, he always thought himself to be a genius, but whenever it concerns his wife he is the dumpiest one alive. Her knees weakened, she fell to the cold marble ground, he put his arms around her and carried her to the large snug and comfortable king sized bed, her body lost heat, and she lost reason too, she kept shivering under his embrace, his scent managed to calm her down, she felt home and she knew that he doesn't deserve any of this, slowly her muscles relaxed dozing under his grasp .
Time flew, to her who was slowly opening her eyes gazing this man that refused to let go. Slowly she moved her fingers on his firm handsome features his eyebrows, eyelashes and his straight slim nose, his cherry pink shaded fine lips or his manly blonde beard, "Would I trust you?" she whispered to herself. Then she reclosed her eyes and slept deeper than before between his arms everything just sounded fine, felt like if it was just him and her in this world.
The next morning she woke up with him sitting on his side of the bed holding his tablet with one hand and putting another on her stomach, a beautiful sight, they looked like the happiest family, she smiled faintly, however the little black card and the marigolds brushed that slight grin away
....
Somewhere before, further in the woods, Gabriel and Ida sat on the empty wooden floor and played Ouija
"Spirit of the board am I ever going to find my missing piece? "Ida asked the spirits and put her finger along side with Gabriel's, as it started moving choosing letters 'Y E S' her eyes lightened with joy like a little girl who believed in Santa Claus
" Am I …" As she was about to speak another question Gabe jumped and caught her off
"It's my turn, wait in the line" He said shaking his head with enjoyment, and teasing he out as he moved his eyebrow, "Since this is about bloody romance, where is Ida's true love?"He asked hoping that he might find out something important, both put their fingers on the board as it moved 'H E R E' both looked at each other with surprise when Gabe added " Oh God it must be one of the ghost on the board, just give up hone, it's a dead case" laughing hard at her, when she was already teased, she never liked to lose
"My turn" She said with so much confidence, "What's the name of the one in Gabriel's heart?" She dropped a bomb not calculating its impact on the atmosphere, he felt the ache that her words brought, however he played believing that it's just rubish, their fingers again on the board as it moved 'A Y L A'
"Whose Alya ? " She asked deliberately changing the order of the letters, Gabe's eyes darkened like if he was possessed or something, he stopped for a moment before pulling his cigarette from his left pocket and put one on the edge of his lips and walked out of the big empty room, it started as a game for Ida but lately it turned to a purpose.
"Hey don't leave me here alone, I'm scared" She stood up acting innocent to her devilish little acts and followed him, she reached a big balcony where he was staring at the moon, dim features and shadowed eyes with the specter of something long gone. She liked playing people, it was always a delight that dragged her out of her desolation.
"Hey you haven't answered your question, that's cheating" Ida smirked trying to change the balance of the situation, he didn't move a bit or even bothered to look at her face, sat on the ground observing the moon hugging the velvet dark sky
"Let's play no more" He said all tranquil
"Okay, let's gaze the moon then" Ida replied to his blank comment and sat next to him, although she feared for her Gucci skirt yet there was something more important she seeks to gain, she pulled closer to him and put her head on his shoulder
"Her name was Ayla" Gabriel admitted
"I know " She replied, her hand reached for his and she pulled the long sleeve that was covering her name under tattooed, she looked into his eyes and shared a little sad grin, "She is the reason you can't sleep at night, isn't it?" She asked more like if she announced a true known fact, He pulled Ida under his embrace and hugged her tight, for once someone saw his true self instead of the joker he always pretend to be
"You know, when I was a kid I was mad at my parents, Rumina was named after a poet and love, Norah after the light, and me, my name sounded normal and plain Ida the hard worker" Said Ida so frustrated and bitter, "I was never the hard worker I was named for, I always thought that it was father who named me, but later I understood that my name was combined of two I and Ada which meant happy and noble, so that I shall forever be happy, yet happiness is the only thing that I don't find no matter what I do" She said staring at the moon hanging in the night sky with his beam full aura, "I'll help you find Ayla, maybe I could find my lost happiness in that!" She said similar to a baby who whose weeping for love, and all he could do was looking at this broken piece sitting right next to him, her smiles and little attitude, her mischievous acts and crazy persona, it actually had nothing to do with who she really was
....
"Norah, stop waiting for him, it's been 15 years already, you are beautiful and young, but you won't stay like that forever" Norah's dearest friend said trying to change her mind, trying to pull her out of the maze she was misplaced in
"Yes, you are right I can't do this anymore, for the sake of what's ever left of me" Norah told her friend, every word grazed her from inside it felt like if she was suffocating, "Tell your cousin to pick me up at nine from the hotel, I have a very important meeting tomorrow morning I have to sleep now okay" Norah added sitting in front of her mirror watching her face recalling those sleepless night that he made her go through the butterflies and the blushing everything that she have ever felt around him all by herself alone.
On the other suite just down the corridor, just few steps away from hers, there he was laying right next to another, making love to another, touching another, when it must have been her
Norah was never a part of her father's plans, she was his little princess, the most innocent and pure of them all who would have known that this one, suffered a bitter life from this perplexed dilemma, she loved the wrong guy, yet she cried in hide and smiled to the public out side
....
Rumina felt at ease with Jasper's hand on her belly their warmth made her feel cherished and secured, for once she forgot the world, and there was only them three
Jasper had realized that she woke up, he took off his hand off her body and kept concentrating on his tablet, his small gesture brought her back to reality
"Good morning" She opened her mouth and said, with the fear that he is still not convinced with any of what she said
"Good morning" He sigh before replying back at her , the cheerful Jasper has gone, and he's been replaced by this cold person
"When are you going out?" She asked trying to understand what's under his head, now that he speaks less
"I don't know, today my schedule is free" He answered while wearing his shirt covering his muscular chest and well built body, avoiding eye contact he said "I appointed some body guards for you, very trusted some were trained by me, they are waiting at the lobby"
"You didn't have too" She replied to his statement, "But thank you anyway" She knew that something in their relation has been fractured yet she tried to act all normal with the guilt that has been eating her inside
"Sometimes we do forget that we belongs to some strong Mafias, who dares to lay hands on my wife " He said eyes piercing, blank and blurry, his voice sounded deep and dim, she heard the horns of a war coming
"You don't know what you are talking about" She replied warning him from the danger he is about to enter, looking all pale though she preserved her poker face not showing her true fear
"HHH really, I didn't judge the life you had, cause I had one of my own too, but this concerns me and my unborn child, you better alert your little boyfriend or else blood would be spelled" Eye lit with flames, feeling stormed over their heads, jealousy, fear, love and hate, obscurity and darkness
During all of that the door suddenly knocked, when she was about to open it, Jasper held her hand and pulled her closer, stopping her from going further, he pulled a gun from under his pillow and slowly approached the wide wooden door
"Shush" He put his finger on his mouth commanding her to not speak a word, when the door knocked again; he slightly opened the door to realize that it was Norah
Swiftly placed the gun behind his back and covered it with his black t-shirt
"Hi Norah, come in" Norah felt a bit of an intruder, so she stopped at the door to notify Mina with the changement
"Can you tell Rumi that I won't be enjoying the after meeting party I have plans of my own, I tried to call her yet she didn't answer" her face flushed thinking that she interfered in a romantic moment or something judging by the way he was holding the door
"Are you sure you won't come in" He asked with a smile, funny how he can change his mood so fast
"No, just inform her that the meeting will be in this same exact hotel this afternoon" she smiled awkwardly and left
He closed the door and pulled a small gun from his night stand and handed it to Rumi,
"Here keep this with you, it's authorized and everything" She stopped for a moment and looked at his in the eyes trying to understand him, "Take it, at least until we return to England" He added, still she didn't reach for it and kept looking at him
"What, I don't think you did your homework well" He smirked at her shocked face
"What do you mean? Who are you?" She asked
"Don't be fooled by the looks hone, I'm not just a tech guy, I'm a Blackwater have you forgotten" He simplified it to her reaching slowly for her hand before putting the icy gun in it, "Take it, I know that you are familiarwith it, you know how to use it!" He smirked at her, after a while he was alarmed with the sound of the shot when she pulled the trigger and shot the flower vase put on the table
"I never loved red roses" She looked at him, as if she was mocking him and said casting the tiny gun that she found very offensive for her and entered the bath room
...….
Down the lobby, Norah met Ander who had already this Victoria secret model all over him, refusing to let go, all clingy and slutty
"Ander, I see you have some new company" She said with a fainting smile, this turned into a game and for once she refused to lose
"Oh yeah, This is Cara I very dear friend of mine" Ander replied to her comment, 'the man that never cared for women, at least never seen with this type before, is trying his luck with models, what on earth is happening' she thought to herself
"Oh thank God, I met you, I won't be available for the after party, do apologies on my behalf will you" She said after long scanning the girl standing beside him not giving it a single thought to present herself
"Is something wrong?" He asked
"It's something pretty much personal, anyway there is you and Rumi, you won't be needing me",' Something has changed in her' he thought, while she said with a happy face mesmerizing him like she always did, if it wasn't for his strong mentality …
As she walked away, not even looking back the way she used to do, her slim red dress and lose blond hair made all the bachelors in the lobby stare and drool, pretty in red I say she was
"Whose that little miss I don't know, walking like a bitch" Cara who was near to him couldn't control herself with jealousy said, Ander looked, his fury and rage melted in his eyes piercing her soul, she who was near
"If you ever talk about her, I swear I'll bury you alive" He said, pushing her away with disgust and hatred, only if they weren't in a public place, he would've shot her in the heart
'What's wrong with you Orah, acting up?' he thought to himself
"Matt, Orah is going out, keep an eye on her, and involve if something happens" Ander ordered one of his followers
....
Back to Ida and Gabriel
"I couldn't sleep the entire night, I'm sorry for yesterday" Ida approached Gabriel who was sitting in a corner with a cup of coffee and a book on the hand
"It's okay, I didn't sleep yesterday too if that would make you feel better" He replied with a little smirk
"Nightmares! " She said looking sad and ashamed of what she did, only if she didn't take it too far,"I heard you yesterday"
"Yes, It's not that I cannot sleep, but nightmares makes it hard to even close my eyes for a bit" Gabe said to her patting her hand that reached out to him, "it has nothing to do with you, it's just a closed loop that I can't find a way out off"
"How old are you?" She asked out of the blue, "I mean I think you are younger than me, but you never know" She added trying to brush that dark effect of yesterday
"28 last time I checked" he replied sipping his coffee
"Oh, yeah 28 you said" She bit her lips, feeling even more ashamed for treating him like a teen
"And you, with all the makeup, you look old enough to be my mother, yet I know that you are only 25" He teased, while she looked at him with sorrow, she felt his pain and heard it even, as the they have this past, yet his looked even darker and tormenting, with puppy tearful eyes she kept looking at him, like a lost little kid, his smile and pulled her to his embrace, yet it hurt him, the feeling of being weak and pathetic
"Come here you brat, let's just forget about yesterday night okay" He whispered to her ear and patted her hair, then she realized that he wasn't a game to her, but destiny played the actual joke, her heart bet faster, and her face flushed like a red rose, she fell in love
'I think I'm in love' She thought to herself while she was still in his embrace, looking at his sorrowful eyes, trying to understand what have he done to her…
...…..
The afternoon, they all went together for the board meeting, greeting everyone they knew, and creating more connections with those new faces, everyone took their seat and when it was about to start, the door opened to another member to follow, a face that Rumina wished to never see again
"May I introduce you ladies and gentlemen to one the major shareholders, Mr. Loki Abaddon" Everyone in the stood up for this new royalty, Rumina who lost her earring was down the table looking for it, once she turned back to her seat, the voice she heard frightened her, couldn't dare to look, she just froze in her state of terror…
Loki who watched her expression changes, felt the pleasure he longed for all this time, and Jasper who watched both from afar studying every move, couldn't stop but interfaring when she caught a glimpse of him as well as he did 'help me' she whispered
"Mina, hone sorry I'm late" He looked at her and slipped his hand on her waist pulling her toward him, Loki didn't quite enjoy the scene yet he smiled and approached them
" Well well, isn't this Mr. Jasper Blackwater, I really loved your researches on the late bio-tech updates" Loki Said while both were shaking hands
"Sorry, who are you exactly?" Jasper undervalued him said nothing not even bothering himself to look , "Love, let's go find you a seat after yesterday, I don't think you should overwork yourself" Jasper said while Loki stared at both of them fairly satisfied, yet his dark eyes held something more than satisfaction
"How silly of me, I forgot to introduce myself" Loki Abaddon said smiling like a joker at him, " Loki Abaddon, Manea's boyfriend, oh sorry I still didn't get used to it, ex boyfriend" Slowly pronouncing each and every word trying to make it as agonizing as possible.
"And I'm Mina's husband" before even finishing his words a punch flew toward Loki punching his face with all the power he got
"Sometimes I wish if it was just you and me in this world, with you looking all delicious, I would've prayed the Gods for eternity" With his half broken and bruised face, he managed to say that to her looking all crazy and psychotic...