Carl let go of his hand and ran after Anne.
"Anne! Anastasia, please wait!" Carl yelled chasing after Anne.
He managed to hold her hand for her to stop and she pulled her hand from him.
"so you took me to your mom so you both can humiliate me? what exactly do you really want from me? ...Please for goodness sake just leave me alone." Anne yelled at Carl.
"no that's not true, I respect you enough to do that. Forget what my mom said about you. She was only trying to cause a problem" Carl pleaded.
"just shut up! I know both of you were in it together" Anne said, wiping her eyes with her index finger.
Her eyes were red from the wine that was poured on her face.
"I swear I didn't plan to embarrass you... I'm really sorry my mom disrespected you, please don't punish me for my mother's sins. If I knew she'll be mean to you I wouldn't have introduced you to her" Carl said honestly.
"prove to me you're sorry by avoiding me. I don't want us to ever cross paths again," she said and stormed off.
Carl subconsciously clenched his fist as he watched Anne leave. He felt so pained for what his mother did. He and Anne were getting to know each other and now they're back to square one.
Meanwhile, Ms. Sarah was pleased with herself for ruining Carl and Anne's friendship.
"what were you trying to prove by making me look bad in front of Anne" Carl yelled at his mom
"wow!! that woman has hypnotized you. You have never raised your voice at me but that slut has made...''
"…don't call her that she's not a slut" Carl interrupted his mom with anger.
"I am going to call her however I want to. How long have you known her that you're speaking up for her? Carl, don't tell me you're into that baker." Carl's mom fired back
"I'm not into her, I'm only getting to know her and you ruined everything!!, she thinks you and I planned to humiliate her, and now she doesn't want to see me ever again. Happy now?" Carl said, furiously.
"yes I'm happy!!" she yelled "You're interested in that girl and I can see it in your eyes. So far as I'm alive I'll make sure you're not getting entangled with that ordinary baker," she said and left.
...…...
Carl was lying down on his king-sized bed in his room replaying the moment he and Anne spent together.
He thought of when he was staring into her bright silver eyes and holding her hands. He smiled to himself subconsciously as he thought of that.
He suddenly felt sad when he remembered how his mom poured her wine and humiliated her, and how Anne warned him not to see her again.
Carl couldn't sleep regretting why he had introduced her to his mom. He remembered he had Anne's number and he left her a text and slept off.
****At Anne's house,
She had a long bath and wore her night dress.
"Are you back already?" Dexter yawned, standing at the doorstep of Anne's room.
"where is granddad?" she asked Dexter
"he went to buy some pills and a new inhaler," he said
"what?? It's 10 pm and you let him go outside all by himself, that's really irresponsible of you" she scolded Dexter.
"you know grandpa likes going out at night and he insisted on going alone," Dexter said but Anne didn't respond.
"Anne it seems like you're in a bad mood." He said.
Anne sighed.
"I went to a birthday party and it turned out bad." She said.
"hmm… what happened?" Dexter said sitting down on Anne's bed and facing her.
"It's about a guy who always pisses me off whenever I see him… you know what, I don't want to talk about it" she said with a straight face.
"a guy? So you've finally met other people apart from your family and your boyfriend?" Dexter was surprised.
"Well, if talking about it would make you feel sad then don't. But I feel you should spend time with other people, there is so much to live for apart from baking and taking care of grandpa." Dexter added.
"I like being reserved because it saves me a lot of trouble and now if you'll excuse me, I am feeling very sleepy," she said searching for her phone on the bed.
"yeah, good night angel," Dexter said going to his room.
Anne saw a text on her phone with an unknown number.
'Hi it's me, Carl, I'm so sorry I allowed you to be insulted at Richie's birthday party. It's my fault for letting my mom disrespect you like that. Please find it in your heart to forgive me and let me make up for my actions.
She read and thought to herself "is he really sorry?"
"what am I going to reply? ....Nah, I'll just ignore it," she said to herself as she dropped her phone and slept off.
****
"don't tell me you're still mad at me for letting you rob a bank on your own without any backup," the drug lord said to Carlos.
They were both stuffing bags of cocaine inside the boot of a car.
The drug lord is scary to the core with tattoos spread all over his body. One could easily tell that he is bad news.
Meanwhile, Anne's grandfather was walking on that same street, he was on his way back to Anne's house. It was in the middle of the night yet he recognized Carlos and the drug lord from afar.
He decided to take a closer look while making sure he wasn't seen by them. He knew they were both up to something because it was late at night and he knew the drug lord was one of the dirtiest criminals.
"of course I'm mad. Do you think robbing a bank is that easy? Carlos yelled at the drug lord.
Anne's grandfather who was hiding covered his mouth with both hands in shock.
He knew Carlos was a bad guy because of how he dress and the way he behaves but not as far as dealing drugs, robbing a bank, and being friends with the drug lord.
"Carlos is a criminal? and he is an ally to the drug lord?" Anne's grandfather thought to himself.
"shh!!, what if someone hears you in this neighborhood? You better keep your voice down." the drug lord whispered to Carlos.
The drug lord exhaled sharply "sorry man, but Carlos listen to me, you always impress me and I don't want to lose you okay?"
Carlos and the drug lord got into the car and drove off without suspecting anyone had heard their conversations.
Anne's grandfather came out from his hiding spot, he shook his inhaler and inhale and exhale it to calm down his nerves.
"I'm sure my granddaughter knows nothing about this... Poor Anastasia, she's dating a criminal" he said to himself in a sad tone.
*****
It was a beautiful Monday morning and Anne was coming back from the grocery store. She had gone there to buy flour and some other things for her baking business.
She was wearing a black bodycon top with blue jeans. Her hair was let down, center-parted. She looked like a beautiful diva as she walked down the street, holding two paper bags filled with groceries, one in each hand.
Just then, she heard a car horn by her side.
beep beep
It was Carl who was driving, trying to get her attention.
Anne saw him and ignored him. She started walking fast to avoid him.
Carl parked his car and sighed.
"why is she so difficult" Carl questioned with a sad look on his face.
He still felt bad for how his mom treated Anne at Richie's birthday party.
While Anne was walking fast, she followed a shortcut to her house to avoid Carl and three street men approached her.
Two were shirtless and dirty and their body odor was as bad as a rotten fish.
The three of them formed a circle around her lusting over her. Anyone could tell they had no good intentions towards her. Either they were rapists or thieves.
Anne knew she was in trouble and the men that surrounded her could perceive her fear.
She tried to pass them when one shouted at her.
"Where do you think you're going?" he yelled, holding her arm really tight to the extent that his dirty nails were pinching her skin.
"Please …let… let me go" she stammered, pleading with her life.
"on your knees" the other man yelled at her and grabbed her by the throat.
The bad breath coming out of his mouth was enough to make her pass out.
Her two grocery bags containing her goods fell to the ground out of shock as soon as the man grabbed her throat. She immediately got to her knees and pleaded.
"Please you can take my money don't hurt me" she kept on begging.
"we're gonna take your money and also please ourselves," one of them said laughing and licking his lips.
Two of them held her tight covering her mouth while one of them tried to strip her naked.
Anne wanted to cry for help but she couldn't utter a word because of how tight the men held her mouth.
Bang!!
There was a loud gunshot that alarmed the men that tried to rape Anne.
Carl had just shot the air to stop the hoodlums from hurting Anne.