"There are people outside? Who?" Jacob asked, standing up to his feet.
All the men stood up and looked at Nesisa.
"There are many posh cars and people coming here. It seems like we have some uninvited guests."
Right at that time, the doorbell rang. Travis and Jacob walked towards the door, and without opening it, Travis called out, "who is there?"
"Open up!" a voice commanded.
"Who are you?" Travis did not open.
"Should I call 911?" Aletha fumbled in her bag for her phone.
"We don't mean to harm you, please open," the voice sounded gentler than before.
"You have to tell me who you are," Travis did not open.
"My name is Gareth. I am here to see Kiara Angela Noels."
Everyone's eyes shifted to Kiara. They all had questions in their eyes.
"Do you know any Gareth?" Jeremy asked.
"No," Kiara's voice almost refused to come, but her whisper was audible enough.
She wondered who on earth was addressing her using her full name, Kiara Angela Noels, for no-one ever did that.
Travis slowly unlocked the door and before he could gently pull it open, it was violently pushed from the outside.
Gareth marched in, followed by seven men and two ladies. Dressed in all black and wearing dark shades and caps, they all looked very scary. The gun in Gareth's hands made everyone freeze in fear.
Aletha had just managed to pull out her phone, with her hands shaking so bad that she almost dropped it. Using his gun, Gareth pointed at the phone with,
"No phones. Put it away now."
Aletha fearfully obeyed the order. Gareth looked at the team and gave another order: "wait outside!"
Eight of the people swiftly went outside, closing the door firmly behind them. Only Gareth and one bodyguard remained inside.
Jeremy immediately thought that it was about the phone; the Samsung that Kiara had dropped at work, so he asked, "did you give your workmate his Samsung?"
"What?" she shivered in fear.
"The phone that you broke. The Samsung? Did you give it back?"
"Yes," she nodded her head, remembering the lies that she had told before.
"What phone? What are you two talking about?" Jacob asked.
"It's Kiara. A while ago she damaged a workmate's new phone, and he demanded that we replace it." Jeremy explained fearfully.
"Was it replaced?" Sharon asked anxiously.
"Yes mother, we managed to buy and replace it."
"Are you here for the said phone?" Jacob asked, his eyes fixed squarely on Gareth.
Instead of answering, Gareth looked at his bodyguard and nodded his head, and the latter went on to say, "We aren't here for a phone. We don't mean to harm anyone. We have no time to fight, so please cooperate with us."
"What's the gun for?" Jacob asked.
"We carry guns wherever we go, but it doesn't mean that we will use them. Right: this is our case. We are coming from the Pinkertons. As per the rules of that family, nothing of ours stays outside of our care."
"Meaning?" Jacob asked.
"We have come to take what belongs to us." The bodyguard spoke with a lot of confidence.
"Which is?" Jacob asked again. The more he asked, the more Nesisa got scared, for she dreaded to imagine what was going to happen if the men hurt Jacob in any way.
"The one who is carrying what belongs to the Pinkertons, you know yourself. Please show yourself. We don't mean to harm you. We have come to take you home."
There was silence. The bodyguard smiled, to the shock of everyone, for who would have expected him to smile at all? He looked so scary that one would have thought he had no idea what it meant to smile.
He whispered something into Gareth's ear, and the latter, looking as scary as nothing ever seen by them all, did not move an inch. He did nothing to show that he had heard the whisper. Everyone remained rooted to their spot. The room was unbelievably quiet; and little Elvis, as if knowing what was happening, remained very silent as well.
"If you know that you have something that belongs to the Pinkertons, or rather, if you yourself know that your rightful place is in the Pinkerton mansion, please show yourself now. We will take you home with us." Gareth finally spoke.
"Young man, you are scaring us all. Who knows, you may even shoot us all right now. Just tell us what you want and leave us alone, please," Travis pleaded with Gareth.
"And you are?" the bodyguard asked Travis.
"My name is Travis Noels. Please don't hurt me or any member of my family. We are all family here, and me, as the senior member of the whole family, am pleading on behalf of them all, for you to please not hurt us."
"Oh, Mr Noels. It is sad that we get to meet under such circumstances. We value our lives; we would not hurt you for anything in the world. The Master and Lady Pinkerton themselves gave us an order to not hurt you in any way, or else we will lose our lives." The bodyguard spoke. Gareth and all the other people with him remained standing motionless.
"They did? Do they know me?" Travis was shocked.
"They might not have seen you before, but they surely respect you as the father of their bride." The bodyguard went on.
"Father of the bride? Which bride? What are you talking about?"
The bodyguard meant to say more but Gareth gave him the eye, signaling for him to be silent. He was startled and immediately zipped up his mouth. There was silence in the room. Gareth cleared his throat and said:
"I hate repeating myself but I will. I said: if you know that you have something that belongs to the Pinkertons, please show yourself now, and we will take you home with us."
"You really are scaring us all. Just say what you have to say. We're dying from the anxiety," Jacob said.
Nesisa gave him a slight nudge. She seriously feared that if Jacob spoke too much, he was going to anger the man; and that was the last thing she wanted.
As Gareth chose to ignore Jacob, there was silence once again. Everyone was silent, with Sharon closing her eyes and saying a silent prayer to the Lord.
Gareth pulled off his shades and shifted his gaze from one person to the other, staring briefly at all the faces in the room, until he landed on Kiara. He did not move; his eyes remained fixed on her, hardly ever blinking. His stare was not only scary but also piercing. The young lady felt as if the hot sun's rays were running through her flesh, stabbing her heart and exposing her to the whole world. She wondered how much Gareth knew, and she dreaded what was coming next.
She asked herself if she had the strength to flatly deny anything and everything that Gareth was going to say; but she was not too sure. Yes; she had become a very good liar of late, but it appeared to her at that moment that lying to Jeremy seemed way easier than lying to someone like Gareth. He had too much authority about him; and she dared not cross his path.
If only she was 100% sure that the child in her tummy was Jeremy's, then she would have gathered strength to deny everything that Gareth would have said. But she lacked the strength, and she hated herself for that.
Following Gareth's sight, everyone also gawked at Kiara. Feeling the heat, Kiara dropped herself into a chair and began to cry. With all eyes on her, she cried even more.
"Why are you crying? What happened? What really is going on here?" Jeremy had never been that much confused in his entire life.
"What's happening? Kiara my child, talk to us," Sharon rubbed Kiara's back.
"Are you in any kind of trouble?" Travis asked his daughter but she did not respond.
"Tell us, sweetheart," Aletha tried to convince her child to talk.
Kiara, hearing everyone begging and convincing her, became more emotional and cried out some more.
"You don't have to cry. We're here to take you home." Gareth finally spoke.
"What are you talking about?" Jacob asked Gareth, trying his best to understand what the man was talking about.
"Kiara knows exactly what we're here for; don't you, Kiara Angela Noels?"
Kiara did not respond but continued to cry.
"Kiara is carrying a Pinkerton child!" Gareth finally stated.
It took a while for people to understand what Gareth had said, and when the words finally sank in, shock was written all over every face in the room, except of course Gareth, the bodyguard and Kiara herself.
"Impossible!" Jeremy screamed out.
"Possible!" Gareth sneered. "Ask her!"
"Kiara?" Jeremy turned to look at the woman, and the woman, not crying anymore, blinked several times but did not utter a word. Guilt was written all over her face, but in the state of shock that he was, Jeremy failed to pick it.
"Talk to me Kiara!" he demanded.
Feeling the heat, Kiara stood to her feet and said in a shaky voice said,
"I…I…was…I was raped."