It is just a moment as a car emerges from the side and hits us with tremendous force. It appears out of nowhere, like a specter. A monstrous noise reverberates in my head, making my ears start ringing. Next comes a daze.
At first, I can't move. With semi-conscious eyes, I look around the car, and the first person I worry about is Luke. I glance at him, noticing that he is unconscious.
Cursing under the pain, I unbuckle my seat belt and poke the boy in the hope that he will regain consciousness. He, however, does not respond.
- Luke? - I ask in a weak voice, feeling like crying. And I don't know if it's from shock or more from fear.
No answer.
With my hand, I touched his face, feeling the blood. I am overwhelmed with horror. With my fingers, I search for his pulse and breathe a sigh of relief when I feel it.
He is alive.
I struggle against the door for a long moment, wanting to go outside. When I succeed, I drunkenly head forward. Luke's father is unconscious. Blood is pouring from his forehead. Fortunately, he is alive, although I can't say the same for the driver. Francisco has no pulse.
I find a cell phone in the man's pocket and immediately call an ambulance. I don't know exactly where we are, the headache is getting worse, but eventually, I manage to describe to the woman the location of the accident and find the name of the street on one of the buildings.
Putting my hand to my forehead, only now I realize that there is no other car in the area. So what happened to the car that drove into us? Did the man flee the scene of the accident?
I look over my shoulder when I hear a door opening. Luke, who has regained consciousness, steps outside.
- What the fuck happened? - The boy leans against the car with his hand. - Are you all right, Solar? What about my dad?
- He's alive, although he's unconscious. I have already called an ambulance - I reply, walking up to him. - He will be fine.
The boy takes me in his arms, although he himself does not have the strength to stand on his feet.
- I have a bad feeling, Solar - he says in a whisper.
- You don't have to tell me this.
Being in such a state, we don't even have the strength to run away, when like demons black cars appear and line up around us. It's night, there's not a living soul on the street, and we still can't hear the ambulance.
- Luke, don't let me go, I beg - I say in a crying voice, hugging my face to his chest. - I am so scared.
- It will be okay, little one, you will see. I won't let you get hurt.
- What a gripping performance. - Alexander's voice makes my whole body cover goosebumps. - Dramatic lovers who deceived me and ran away like cowards.
We are both silent. We are unable to say anything. I feel Luke's heart beating hard. He, too, is afraid of the man.
Alexander stands in front of the car containing Francisco and the man he has so far considered dead.
- Three people I trusted implicitly stabbed me in the back. - He smirks with displeasure, crossing his arms over his chest. I hug Luke tighter, not intending to take a step away from him. - Like father like son. Sad.
The headache is so monstrous that I don't even have the strength to scream when one of the men forcibly takes me from the boy's embrace and carries me to the car. I see two others do the same to Luke, who doesn't even defend himself. He knows he is without a chance.
- Boss, Francisco is dead! - One of the men shouts to Alexander, while the other pulls Luke's unconscious father out of the car.
- So he's already called in hell - he says, heading to his car. - We gather. - In the distance, we hear an ambulance approaching.
Alexander sits down next to me, and I tighten my lips, unable to control my tears. I am terrified of the future that awaits me.
The man grabs my chin and forcibly forces me to look into his eyes.
- You have failed me, Solar - he turns to me in a frigid voice. - You betrayed me just like your mother, but she at least regretted it and came back to me herself. You still look at me with contempt.
- My mother loved you. I don't love you - I reply, and my lips tremble. - You forced me to do everything, so I ran away so I could be happy, at least for a while.
The mafioso looks at me with angry eyes.
- I may have played games with you, sometimes I got too carried away, but I would never hurt you in my life. I hid you for over eighteen years, as my wife you were supposed to be safe, but you screwed everything up. - He lets go of my chin, and I continue to look at him with weeping eyes.
- Hurting me like this was no protection at all. You just wanted to take revenge on my father.
Alexander twists his lips in a tart smile.
- Think what you want. You may think I'm the monster, but you never met your father. There is a reason why your mother begged me to give you proper protection.
- And you think that marrying me was adequate protection!
- This is how I wanted to leave everything to you when I die. - His answer makes me gasp. I look at him, unable to say anything. Like an idiot, I blinked my eyelids, remaining silent. - That's the only reason I married you. I wanted to keep my word to your mother.
I start to feel nauseous as the headache intensifies. I get faint and suspect I have a concussion.
- So why have you been hurting me all this time? Did you cause the accident? - I ask in a whisper.
- Ever since I found out I was sick, there were times when I couldn't control my emotions, that's why I got carried away occasionally. Causing the accident was the only way to stop you from reaching your father.
Chills shake my body. A cold sweat covers me and I feel weaker and weaker. The nausea doesn't stop and when I glance at Alexander this is the last image before I lose consciousness.
*
I open my eyes, realizing that I find myself in bed. I feel as if someone chewed me up and spit me out.
In a word: nightmarish.
I raise myself up on my elbows, and then I notice that there is an IV connected to my hand. I am definitely not in the hospital, but in one of Alexander's rooms.
- Are you awake, Sleeping Beauty? - he calls back to me when he appears in the doorway. - You had a concussion, that's why you lost consciousness in the car.
I look at the man with panicked eyes, then hastily snatch the needle from his hand and get off the bed. He watches me with stoic calm, leaning with his shoulder against the door frame.
- What are you trying to do? You still haven't recovered, Solar - he says, rubbing his eyelid.
- Where is Luke and his father? What have you done to them, you bastard? - I ask, stopping in front of him. My head is still spinning, but I try to keep my balance.
- You shouldn't be interested in this. You will no longer have anything to do with them - he replies, watching my face. - They will go to hell a while before me.
I furrow my eyebrows, understanding that he alludes to the fact that he will also die soon.
- What's wrong with you?
- I understand you're asking out of curiosity? You would probably like me to score a death right now? - His lips twist in a tart smile. - No worries. I don't have much time left.
- Well, I'd rather not ask out of concern for you. - I don't mince words because I know I'm a loser anyway. He keeps me in his cage, captured the only people who could help me, so I am at a loss.
- Luke and his father are atoning for their guilt before they go to hell. - He pushes me back slightly, slams the door and forcibly forces me to sit on the bed. - And we'll talk to each other meanwhile.
I pierce him with my eyes as he crouches in front of me, his hands resting on my legs.
- If something happens to them... - I bite my tongue, and he looks amused.
- Then what will you do to me? Finish.
My combative attitude disappears in a minute and is replaced by fear. I press my lips together, strenuously restraining myself from crying.
- Please don't hurt them.
I lower my face, and Alexander grabs my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes.
- You can't ask me to do that. Luke's father was a traitor in my ranks for twenty years. He is a man of my enemy. He must suffer the appropriate punishment.
Tears flow from the corners of my eyes when I think of the boy who sacrificed so much to help me.
- I'm talking about Luke. He, too, was just a puppet in his father's hands. He is a lost boy who only wanted to help me. Besides... you hurt him by giving him drugs, and he is in such a state that he could die at any moment.
The man is serious when he doesn't take his eyes off my eyes.
- When you talk about him, you have the same look as your mother had when she begged me for forgiveness. Did you fall in love with him? - I don't answer him. I'm afraid to say anything, lest I expose him more. - Never mind. You don't have to say it.
Alexander straightens his legs and walks away a piece further, turning his back to me. I see that he is massaging his forehead.
- Eighteen years I have devoted to protect you. I may be a scoundrel and unable to behave, but I kept my word to your mother. - I clench the bedclothes in my hands, listening carefully to what he says to me. - I wouldn't do this for anyone, but it was your mother. The only woman in my life that I loved. I was able to forgive her betrayal when she left me for your father. - I don't know what he's going to reveal to me, but I'm really curious about what's hiding in his heart. - She ran away from him when he started beating her like a dog. When she managed to escape and reach me one day, she was pregnant and had a bruised, bloody face. That was the day I was about to kill your father, but she stopped me because she was worried I wouldn't come back to her. She suspected that eventually the bastard would kill her as soon as you were born, so for a long time, she begged me to prevent you from falling into his hands. I had to take care of you because you were the child of the woman I loved.
- Why didn't my mother want me to end up in my father's hands?
- I also have my own behind, and I am not one of the gentlemen, but your father is a sick bastard. - Alexander turns his face to me. - He is a sadist.
I open my eyes wider in fear.
- What are you talking about?
- She was afraid that you would suffer the same fate as her. She didn't want you to grow up suffering, beaten and humiliated. He probably wanted to make you into a machine to rule the mafia world.
- So that's why you hid me for eighteen years so that I would never end up in my father's hands?
- That's how I protected you, Solar - he replies, and I feel my stomach go up to my throat. - I came up with this wedding out of the blue so that you would take over all my possessions and secure your future when I die. I have no family, and I found out about my illness shortly before our wedding.
- What are you sick with? - I ask in a stifled voice.
- I have a brain tumor, so my days are numbered. Every day it gets worse and worse.
I am shocked to learn the truth. Only is Alexander really telling the truth? Can I trust him after all I've been through? After all, all this suffering is caused by him.
I am lost.