Chan felt utterly cold and scared. She was panicking. For three days now, she'd been able to hide Dave's threats and blackmails from her sisters. But soon, she knew she'd slip. Soon, it'd become too much for her to bear. But bear it she must, because she wasn't about to burden her sisters with the fear and worries that came with the threats.
Chan, my dear Chan:
How can you just up and leave like that? How could you? But no matter how far you run, I'll find you. I know where you live, sweetheart. You know you can never get away from me. You know how much I love you. I can't let you go, Chandra. I'm coming to get you. Bay View Avenue in the Gold Coast, that's where you're living. I've been there. We've been there, all of us, as a family, when your father was still alive. I'll see you soon, sweetheart.
Kiss, kiss.
Dave
Once again, she felt sick to her stomach, reading the message. He was taunting her, yet again, with his subtle, sweet words. Words used only for lovers. Oh, but Dave wasn't her lover. He was a manipulative, cunning bastard who seduced and forced himself upon an innocent fifteen-year-old girl.
She simply wanted to cry as panic once again seized her. Once again, she remembered the fear and anxiety every time she'd heard his voice. Dreaded he'd jump up behind her and force her like he had forced her before.
She'd banned him. She'd changed her previous cell phone number, which she'd known he had. Now it was her email? How the heck did he find out about her new email address? Of course, she wasn't surprised. He was an IT consultant, and hacking into people's email was a piece of cake for him. She'd seen him do it to other people—people he thought were a threat to him.
"No, you won't," she muttered under her breath as tears threatened to flood her eyes. She willed the damn things at bay with a sense of determination. "You won't find me. We're selling this place and going to live somewhere where you won't find us."
She nodded her head at that pronouncement. She'd decided since she'd received the phone call from Amie that they'd sell the house, just to get it out of the way so Amie and Lisa wouldn't cause any problems. All she needed now was for that nice Mr. Wakefield to turn up and make them another offer, which they'd gladly take.
Chan shut the laptop, rolled onto her stomach, rested her head on the soft pillow, and closed her eyes. Instantly, she saw not the hated face of Dave, but a man who was faceless. She knew who this man was. Lilly's father. The man whose voice made her weak and her heart race. The man whose warmth sent her body trembling with wonder. The man whose face she was too afraid to meet.
Her heart skipped a beat, and her body began to warm. Suddenly, she felt restless and hot and bothered.
"Huh-ho!" She sighed softly under her breath and opened her eyes. "Stop thinking about him for God's sake!"
But she knew she couldn't. What is wrong with me? How could she think about him when only moments before she was thinking about the hated Dave and how much she feared him?
She flipped her laptop open again and decided she'd continue with her children's books, the Sacred Sword series, urban fantasy stories about a brother and sister who found themselves in the Himmapan world where the heaven and earth were at war, gods and demons fought for power, and amongst them were creatures like the naga, garuda, and hanuman who aided the two children in their journey to save this world.
Once she had the Word document open, however, she found she couldn't concentrate. She sat there, staring at the screen, staring at the last few sentences which were waiting for her to continue the tales. The words didn't come. Her mind was blank. No, that was a lie. Her mind wasn't blank. Her mind just wasn't on the book. It was on something else.
"Chocolate fudge!" she swore once again. She was still thinking about Lilly's dad. Then, in the spur of the moment, which under normal circumstances she'd think she was crazy, she opened a blank page and started typing.
She was hard at work. Her fingers were tapping on the keyboard as words flowed through her mind. It all came out, and at the same time, she began to feel a little too warm and maybe a little bothered.
She was writing. Well, not exactly writing. She was typing and creating a book. But it wasn't her usual type of book. It wasn't a children's book. It was an adult book. By the time her wrists were tired from typing and she needed to give them a rest, she stared at the screen, flabbergasted.
"What the hell?" she said to herself.
She was writing a very adult book. She was writing an adult scene between a young woman and a man, who oddly enough resembled Lilly's dad, minus the face, because she didn't know what he looked like.
"Chan!" Soriya's voice echoed throughout the thin-walled house.
Chan jumped with fright. "Fudge!" She moved the mouse to the X mark at the top right-hand corner of the screen.
She couldn't possibly keep this, could she? It wasn't her. Anna Chan didn't write things like this. Anna Chan wrote children's books.
She clicked on the X. A message came up, asking her to save the document. She shook her head. "Of course not." Just before she clicked on the no, she didn't want to delete her creation, despite it being an adult book.
She clicked save. Then she created a new folder and typed in the name, and viola, she was now writing her first adult novel. A very hot one at that.
"Chan?" Soriya called again.
"Hmm?"
"Dinner!"
"Coming," Chan replied. She flipped the laptop shut and then headed out the door.
She came into the dining room where her two younger sisters were setting the table. The moment she pulled out a chair, Soriya glanced up, her eyebrows raised with suspicion. Oh no! The sister was onto something again.
"You look…" Soriya paused for a moment, as if searching for the correct word. "Hot and bothered."
Chan nearly choked on the oxygen she'd just breathed in. She, however, managed to quickly recover herself and gave her sister a good scowl. "What makes you say that?"
Dara placed a plate of beef and vegetable stir-fry on the table and said easily, "Your cheeks are red, and your eyes are bright. Come out with it. Who's the dude?"
Chan opened her mouth to deny the accusation, but found no words came out.
Soriya laughed. "My dear sister, you do know you're very bad at hiding stuff like that from us, yeah?"
They were right, of course. Chan was utterly and horribly bad at hiding her emotions. The unexpected meeting with Lilly's dad was one of them.