When I regain consciousness, my head is spinning. I cannot comprehend where I am or even open my eyes. All I could think of was beany. I try to move my hand but it is restricted by something. I find the strength to open my eyes and I find myself in a lowly lit room, tied to the arms and legs of a chair. What the hell? Panic surges through me and I try to jerk myself free.
"Don't bother." A voice comes from the corner of the room. It is then I notice a tall, dark figure walk towards me. A face appears close to mine with an evil smirk of his face, "Hello Mrs Walsh." He says calmly, "How are you doing?"
"Who...?" I try to form a sentence but my head is so heavy I can barely maintain consciousness.
"I am Dan and I'm your worst nightmare." Dan's hand traces my face and jerk my head away, "Such a pretty face." I keep jerking myself to loosen the rope's grip but it is no use. Dan's fingers traces my neck and suddenly he is strangling me. I gasp as he cuts off the airway and I struggle to breath. Tears falls from my eyes as he completely cuts off my air passage and I begin to see darkness. I feel so helpless, unable to protect myself from his torture. Slowly my vision starts to fade and I am sure I will not survive this. I continue to struggle for air when he let's go. I continuously cough for air, unable to recover my vision.
"Don't worry, I will not kill just yet. Not when we have little Nathan on the way." I hear his voice echo in my ears and I am unable to believe how much he knows about my life. I feel a splash of water on my face and it helps me regain my composure. Dan holds a bottle of water near my lips. "Drink!" He instructs. I do not move. Fear is paralysing my body. He wants to kill my child. I would never eat or drink anything he offers.
"Drink!" He shouts, causing me to pull my head away. Why is he so angry? Who is he? I have never seen this man in my life. What does he want from me? What have I gotten myself into? Beany please stay with me. I will not let anything happen to you. I mentally communicate to my child.
"Listen to me woman, my hate for you knows no bound. But one person I hate more is your husband and I will only kill in front of his eyes. I will make him feel as helpless as me when he sees the life drain from you. So if you think I will poison you, no, not yet. You will die a slow agonizing death in front of him." He grits through his teeth, "So drink the damn water!" He screams in my face. When he holds the bottle near my mouth again I oblige. The cold water helps me get my mind right.
"Who are you? What do you want from me?" I question immediately after I regain my voice.
"Of course you don't know me. You are April Grey. Sweet and naive April Grey who has no idea about her husband's dark dealings." He scoffs.
"My husband has no dark dealings." I retort. Nathan is not involved in that kind of business otherwise my Dad would never merge with his company.
"Maybe he doesn't but someone else does." He smirks, "Do you remember Max?" There's a name I never thought I will hear again, "He and I had a well run business going on. Your husband caught wind of that and call the cops on us. He had my brother killed in police encounter." He greets his teeth at me. "Your husband snatched everything from me - my business and my family. Now he will meet the same fate. I will break him emotionally, financially and mentally."
"So you are punishing him for doing the right thing?"
He laughs out loud at my comment, "I am not different from you, am I?" He winks at me.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Why? You are punishing him too. You believed the bullshit story planted by Alyssa on my behalf." I stare at him with my mouth agape for a long time. His laughter echoes in the room as he points at the look on my face, "Look...look...look at that. You believed all that bullshit she made up. It was so fun to watch him beg you to believe him." He says between his laughter, "So much for doing the right thing and helping your birth mother escape her dark world."
My eyes widen in shock as I learn the complete truth about Nathan. My mind is all over the place. I am not able to believe how naive I was. How could I not trust him? I start crying frantically not able to believe the amount of hurt I have caused Nathan.
"Aww poor baby." Dan mocks me, "Speaking of babies, how is this one doing?" He keeps a hand on my stomach.
"Please leave me!" I beg him, "Please leave my child alone." I cry.
"Don't worry Mrs Walsh. I mean no harm to this little cutie." He rubs my stomach, "I mean don't get me wrong, you are so sexy. Any other day and you'd be in my bed instead of being tied to this chair. But unfortunately today is not that day." He sighs. I continue to cry after hearing his words. What is he going to do to me? "Come on, let us be friends." He removes his hands from my stomach and offers me shake it. I am disgusted by him. Without thinking I use the only weapon I have and spit in his hand.
Instinctively he moves away. I see anger grip him and he grabs a bunch of my hair and pulls my head, making me look at him. "Listen woman, just because I want to kill you and baby in front of him doesn't mean you have a free pass. I may change my mind and kill you right now. So do not mess with me. If you be good, then I promise we will have a great time together." He licks his lips. I gulp hard thinking he is a madman who would anything. I need to be smart about this.
"I...I'm sorry." I say in a low voice.
"No worries Mrs Walsh." He gives me a dirty smile, "I know pregnant brain makes you do uncontrollable things."
He moves away from me and walks towards the end of the room opening a door. The door connects this room to another room. "I'll be right here Mrs Walsh, keeping an eye on you. Derek!" He calls for someone. Two minutes later another man appears from behind me. "Derek keep an eye on her through the night. Do. Not. Touch. Her. If you dare, I swear to God, you will not see tomorrow's sun." He threatens Derek.
"Wait!" I call him before he can disappear into his room.
He smiles and turns around, "Would you rather be in there with me?" He nods to his bed.
"Please untie me." I request him, "I would get..."
"Oh I know, morning sickness." He reads my mind, "Don't worry, you'll be untied if necessary." He says plainly and leaves the room. I am left alone with Derek who finds himself a corner in the room, not saying a word. In the silence of the room, one could only hear my sobs as realisation hits me that I am responsible for my husband's downfall.
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Two days pass and nothing happens. Nobody finds me. No police shows up to save me. Dan has not said a word about Nathan or my parents and if they know I am here. I grunt and try to shift in the chair I have been in two days. My back has starts to give up and so is the rest of my body from being tied up. This is not good for beany. If no-one comes to rescue me, I have the threat of miscarrying.
"Dan you have to untie me." I try to reason with him, "This is not good for the baby."
"Don't care." He says casually and leaves the room. I close my eyes and think of happy thoughts. But my mind can only focus whether my baby will survive this. Even though, Dan did as he promised and untied me when I needed the washroom, it was short lived relief. As soon as his men feel I am done, they barge in and tie me up again.
I try to calm my mind again and again. I communicate all happy thoughts to beany. I tell him that he will have the best father in the world. Nathan wants this child as much as I do. We will be a family again. That is if he will take me back. I didn't even give him a chance to explain. The door opens and Derek enters with food. They only give me three meals a day with barely enough nutrition for me and the baby. I can only hope beany gets all of it.
After I am done with food, Dan enters the room again. "Hello there. Everyone get out of here." He tells the two men who were keeping an eye on me. I look at him nervously as we are left alone in the room.
"You know, I thought you were loved by everyone." He leans closer to me, "But turns out your father-in-law isn't that crazy about you." He stands in between my legs and traces a finger along my hand, "He refused to do as I said and called the police to rescue you. Must not want to see you alive." He shrugs. My face turns pale. Is he going to kill me?
"But it's good for me." He kisses my cheek and I move my face away, "Now I can have my fun with you because one thing is for sure, no-one will ever find out where you are. So I'm thinking, why don't we go finally go in that room? Huh?" A pit begins to form in my stomach as his hands untie my mine.
"Max told me about you." He continued to talk, "He told me how beautiful you were the first time he saw you at the rehearsal dinner. How pure. How innocent. It made us want you instantly."
"Dan, please..." I begin to say but he keeps a finger on my lips.
"It's okay. It's not your fault. You were a good girl. But like I said, your father-in-law doesn't love you that much. He cares more about showing his power. So be it. Now let me show my power." He kneels to untie my legs and I gather all my strength to kick him. A kick lands on his chest and he stumbles back.
It does nothing to shake the grin off his face. I quickly untie my other leg and get up from the chair. Before I know it he gets up and lifts me off the ground. I scream and don't stop screaming until I am thrown on his bed. "It's okay, you can scream all you want but they won't hear you. Nobody will ever find you here." Dan reaches for his back pocket and takes out a knife.
"I was gonna wait until I have had my fun with you but now you have pissed me off. So tell me Mrs Walsh, which finger do you like the least?" He charges at me but I climb off the bed.
"What kind of a sick psychopath are you?" I yell at him, "I have done nothing wrong to you. Why am I caught in the middle of this." I cry and move to the other end of the room.
"I agree. You have done nothing wrong. You really are a sweet person, April. Your only mistake was to get involved with him. Tell me, do you actually love him or it was for the deal like Max told me."
"I love him!" I scream and cry, "I love him so much. And now I have lost him forever because of your vicious plans." My knees finally give up and sit on the floor. Dan is walking towards me with the knife. He will kill me and our child. I was ready to accept my fate when we hear two loud gunshots. Dan is shocked by the noise.
Suddenly Derek barges in the room, "Sir, they found us!" He tells Dan.
"What? How the Fuck?" He yells.
"I don't know sir but they have already wounded two of our men. I think we should split up. I'll take the girl."
"No! I will not let her out of my sight. She's my ticket out of here."
"But sir they probably don't know what you look like. Whoever she will be with, they suspect them to be you. We can distract them from your trail this way." Derek gives a reasonable plan to Dan and to my surprise he agrees.
"Come with me." Derek grabs me harshly and makes me move towards the other room. I resist and scream which makes Dan slap me hard across my face. For a moment I lose all control of my mind and body. Derek takes advantage of this and drags me with him. As we navigate through the labyrinth, I try to scream for help several times. Suddenly, I'm pushed into the wall and Derek has his hand on my mouth.
"Shut up! I'm trying to help you." He whisper yells. I look at him with wide eyes, "Yeah, I'm the one who turned on the location on your phone." He explains, "I'm not going to let that psychopath kill your child. I know what the loss of a child is and you will not go through it." I have tears in my eyes and for a moment I let my guard down, crying in Derek's arms.
"April! Calm down! I cannot be with you throughout the escape. I don't want to go to jail for you. You need to listen to me carefully." He hold me by the shoulder and wipes my tears. I recollect myself and nod to him, "You will turn right and take the stairs to the second floor. There you will see a bathroom, take a right from there and you will see the exit. Do you understand? Here." Derek hands me two cookies, "This is all I have right now. Eat them, regain your strength and get out of here." I grab the cookies and finish them.
"Take a right, second floor, right and exit." I repeat to him and he nods. "Thank you." I get emotional again and he gives me a small smile.
I run towards right and take the stairs. I keep hearing gun shots and among the chaos I forget whether to take a right or left from the bathroom. Was it a right or a left? I debate. Fuck! What do I do? In a hurry I take a left and find myself face to face with Dan who is holding a gun in his hand.
He is surprised to see me alone. I take a few steps back and run but he catches me. "You little bitch." He slaps me again and I fall on the floor. Instinctively my hand goes to my stomach. My abdomen did not hit the ground but my knees had to take that hit. I scream in pain.
"Freeze!" I hear someone from behind me, "It's over Dan. Let go of her!" A woman warns him but he lifts me by my hair and uses me as his human shield.
"Back off or I kill her!" He yells at the officer. My body is too tired to resist anymore. My vision is going blurry and I know I am about to lose consciousness. I place a hand protectively around beany and mentally tell him to stay with me.
"Dan! Stop!" I hear a familiar voice. Nathan? Dan tugs on my hair again. "You wanted me, you got me, on my knees. Please leave my wife. I am here on my knees begging you to leave my wife."
"Oh, Nathan Walsh I have waited for this moment for so long." I hear him laugh, "Now you will see me kill the love of your life in front of your eyes."
I feel the cold metal of the gun against my throat. "No, Dan! Take me instead!" Nathan begs, "Kill me, instead." He keeps talking when I hear the gunshot go off. Dan's grip loosen on me and hear him fall behind me. My legs are unable to take my weight anymore and I fall forward. Before I could hit the ground, someone catches me in their arms. My vision is too blurry to see who. But before I lose consciousness, all I see is green.