~ HAMES ~
"My baby," Imogen dropped to the floor, breaking into tears. "Nothing must happen to my Tristan."
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to our son." I crouched beside her.
"If anything terrible happens to him, I swear I'll kill myself." She cried.
"Stop saying nonsense! Nothing will happen to him and you're not going to kill yourself."
"I will," she buried her head in her palm. "Do you know how hard it was to survive through those months to have him?"
"Daisy, please take her to her room. I'll try to find Tristan."
"Don't you dare touch me," She pointed her index finger at Daisy. How was it even Daisy's fault? But I understood she wasn't in her right state of mind at the moment so I ignored that.
"Jeez, Imogen." I rose to my feet and effortlessly pulled her up by her arm and led her to the chair.
I reached for my phone in my pocket and dialed Nikita's phone. Since Lila wasn't here to be with her and Mom and Mia had arranged to travel out of the country tonight as well and would've left, she was the only one left.
After a few rings, she answered the call. "Hi, Hames." She sounded very happy.
"I'm sorry to disturb you or anything but it's really urgent."
"What's wrong? Is there any problem?" Her happy voice was replaced with worry.
"Yeah… we returned home but Tristan and the nanny aren't here anymore."
"Tristan?! Oh no, what happened?"
"Someone said the nanny had said she was bringing him to us but she didn't."
"This is so terrible."
"If it won't disturb you, I need you to be with Imogen while I go in search of Tristan, so she doesn't hurt herself."
"I'll be there right away!" She ended the call without another word.
I cupped Imogen's face. "Don't worry, I promise to find Tristan. Nothing would happen to our child."
"He has to return." Her chest was rising and falling rapidly with her eyes widened and leaking so much tears.
"He will."
"I know this has something to do with Sam." She held my hands that were still cupping her face. "Yes… yes, those people are crazy. They could have contacted Stella to harm our Tristan." Her body was vibrating as she spoke. "I'm coming with you."
She tried to stand but I pushed her back to sit. "You're not. Stop saying nonsense. You know Sam can't contact anyone anymore. Just sit here, I'll make sure Tristan is found."
She broke into another round of tears. "My poor Tristan… the environment wouldn't be so good for him. He has to be found."
"He will be." I pecked her forehead. "Daisy, make sure she doesn't do anything crazy, make sure she's safe." I said then scurried out of the house.
I ran to the only security guard by the gate who was smiling while drinking coffee and watching a movie from his phone; sitting comfortably after failing at his job. My fists clenched and I stopped myself from grabbing him by his collar and hitting him.
"You've failed terribly!" I barked, making him flinch with his cup of coffee flying above his head and his coffee spilled to the floor.
"Wh-what?" He asked, startled.
"A crazy nanny was here to babysit my son, but she left with him. As the security by the gate, why didn't you stop her? What's the point of you being here when you fail at your job?"
"I'm very dedicated to the work I do here. Yes, I saw the woman."
My jaw clenched this time. "And why didn't you stop her?"
"She had said that she was taking the baby to a hotel as you ordered."
"How could you believe her?!"
"She had your pass card. Her words were very convincing and she had such an innocent face. She also showed me the message your wife sent to her to take you to the hotel."
I growled, palming my forehead.
"I still didn't believe her so I stealthily followed behind her." He said and my eyes widened.
"You what?"
"Yes, I followed her. I followed her till she entered the hotel like a normal person so I was able to trust her words."
"What hotel is it?"
"I don't exactly remember but I think… RICK?" He shrugged.
"Rick hotel? Beside a really fancy restaurant?"
"Yes, I think that's the one."
"Do you know which room she entered?"
"No, but I heard her tell the receptionist that she was here to give a couple their baby. I didn't listen to the room number but left since a junior staff member was watching the mansion instead of me."
"Thank you so much for this." I smiled at him and quickly ran into my car. 'Rick hotel' was one of Kade's hotels and I was very well known there so I could have access to whatever I wanted to in the building.
***
~ NIKITA ~
"Hi, babe. I have a big surprise for you." Rob walked over to me, arching his back to give me a kiss.
"Surprise?"
"Yes, wear something really classy and sexy, I'll take you somewhere special." He smirked.
"Rob, should I trust you?"
"Of course, I'm your boyfriend, you have to trust me." He stood up straight, folding his arms across his chest.
"Why are you in a tuxedo?" I only noticed that.
"It's part of the surprise."
Something about that made me feel extremely happy.
I rose to my feet. "I guess I also have a surprise for you." I smirked then left for the bedroom to hunt for a fancy dress.
After a few minutes of searching for a dress, I finally found a really fancy red dress and wore it, then I applied makeup on my face and beautiful earrings Rob had given me a month ago. Thinking about how caring and sweet he always was towards me made my cheeks burn with a blush.
My extremely hot boyfriend had converted me from the bitchy, cold, gold-digger, slut, to the sweet, jovial, responsible and committed Nikita I now was, and I loved my new self, all thanks to Rob. Now this world was worth living in for me, I was finally a happy person again.
"Nikita!" I heard him exclaim from the living room.
"I'm coming!" I shouted back, wore a beautiful pair of matching white heels and grabbed the red bag I needed then ran back to him.
"Wow, you look so gorgeous, baby." He gave me a kiss again.
"Thanks, you too."
"I love you so much, you're so perfect for me. I can't believe I was wasting my time with Jovi, a relationship that had no future."
"She extorted money for both of you." I chuckled.
"For herself. She's with another old dirty man again… jeez, let's not talk about her." He waved a hand, indicating that we dismissed the topic.
He grabbed my hand then started leading me out of our house.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
He walked out with me then locked the door, shoving his hand into his front pocket and took out a bandage from it. "Blindfold." He smirked.
"I'm starting to get more suspicious and curious to know what this is. Please tell me what's going on, you know I hate surprises."
"You'll have to be blindfolded, baby." He turned me around then covered my eyes, holding my shoulders to carefully lead me to wherever it was he was leading me to.
After a while, he stopped. Through the tiny space of the blindfold, I could notice extremely bright lights.
"Just stand and do nothing, okay?" He said, taking my handbag from me.
I heard his footsteps walking away from me then after a few minutes, I heard his footsteps towards me again.
"Craig, take it off." He chuckled. Craig? That was his best friend, why was he with us now?
I felt the blindfold leaving my eyes and I almost went blind from how bright the lights were. I tried to cover my eyes but stopped after noticing we were in our backyard. To make things more confusing, there were red, white, and lilac balloons and roses everywhere instead of the elephant shrubs that were normally here and Craig was standing in front of me, grinning like the idiot he definitely was.
"Turn around." Craig said sinisterly.
I turned around and saw grinning Rob with one knee on the ground and was holding out a very shiny ring.
I immediately felt giddy and almost lost my balance but regained it quickly.
"What's going on?" It was obvious but I still needed to ask.
"I know it's only been four months since our relationship became official but I've loved you for so many years. I was wondering, if Kade and Lila can get married after five months of being together then why can't I propose to you? I'll be travelling for the next one week and I just want to do this before leaving. Will you marry me, Nikita?" He asked.
I wanted to speak but my voice was shut and my tears started rolling down my face. Never in my life had you imagined that I'd be proposed to, at least not this soon.
I couldn't believe this. My body had frozen, my brain couldn't control me properly anymore. He was willing to get married to someone he met as a whore? What was so special about me when there were thousands of other women for him? How on Earth had I been fortunate enough to have had him come into my life? Especially when I had always been so interested in money rather than love and romance.
"Why are you crying? You can say no if you want, I was already prepared for it. I'll wait till you're ready." He rose to his feet, looking quite disappointed.
I threw myself to his chest to hug him really tight. "Thank you, thank you so much." I sniffled.
"Please stop crying." He raked my hair with his fingers.
"Yes. Yes, Rob. I'll marry you."
"Really?!" He pulled away from me with the world's largest grin on his face. "Wow!" He held my hand and quickly slid the beautiful ring on my finger. "I love you, Nikita."
"Thank you so much. I love you too, Rob." I stared at the ring on my finger then hugged him really tight again. "Thank you."
"Thank you too."
After we hugged for a while, "Before I forget," I pulled away from him, glanced around for my bag then walked to where it was to pick it up, returning to him.
"What's going on?"
I took out the envelope from the bag, passing it to him.
"I'm still confused." He took the test reports out of the envelope and his eyes immediately went wide. "You're pregnant?! How's that possible?"
"Yes, the only unprotected sex led to a baby."
"We conducted the pregnancy test but it was negative,"
"The pregnancy sticks said you weren't pregnant, they were negative."
"Yes, I know that, but I was still feeling so weird and decided to go to the hospital for a proper test. I was shocked when the Doctor announced it. I started crying, thinking it was going to ruin our relationship or something…" I trailed off.
"Are you kidding me?!" He held my hands with tears of joy in his eyes, melting my heart in an instant.
"Rob isn't capable enough to have a baby, so this is such great news for all of us, it's a miracle from God that you're pregnant. " Criag explained.
"Thank you so much, you're the best thing that has ever happened to me." He kissed my forehead.
***
I was almost sleeping but was unable to, so I was giving Rob a head massage while he was busy on his laptop.
My phone started ringing on the table. I rose to my feet to reach for it.
"Why is Hames calling me now?" I wondered aloud.
"I clearly also don't know so you'll have to answer the call to find out." He chuckled.
I rolled my eyes at him and answered the call from Hames.
"Hi, Hames." I said with a smile.
"I'm sorry to disturb you or anything but it's really urgent."
My happiness was replaced with worry. "What's wrong? Is there any problem?"
"Yeah… we returned home but Tristan and the nanny aren't here anymore."
"Tristan?! Oh no, what happened?" That cute baby.
"Someone said the nanny had said she was bringing him to us but she didn't."
"This is so terrible."
"If it won't disturb you, I need you to be with Imogen while I go in search of Tristan, so she doesn't hurt herself."
"I'll be there right away!" I immediately ended the call.
"Where are you going?" Rob asked.
"To Imogen, her baby is missing, the nanny has taken Tristan while they were at the wedding ceremony."
"Whoa, that's crazy. Why didn't they just take the child with them and let his grandparents take care of him? Why are you going there now?"
"Imogen could be crazy when she's emotional, especially over something like this. She can't hit anyone or hurt herself."
"Hit anyone? What if she hits you?"
"She wouldn't dare. If she does, I'm not that nice, I'll beat her up to knock some sense into her head again then hug her."
"I'm coming with you."
"No, you're busy. She wouldn't be comfortable with you around, but me."
He sighed and rose to his feet to give me a kiss.
I grabbed the keys then left our house for one of our three cars.
I started driving the car and was driving quite fast to get there sooner. I could only imagine her reaction right now.
After a few minutes, I decided to give her a call to let her know she shouldn't do anything stupid, I was going to be there soon.
After I called, "Hello," that was definitely not Imogen's voice. "It's Daisy speaking." She sounded so worried.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Mrs. Hendrix saw bloodstains in Tristan's room and she assumes it's Tristan blood and he's probably dead so she went completely crazy and she almost had herself killed after falling onto a glass table and her body shattered it. She's out of control now and I'm unable to calm her down."
"Okay, I'll be there very soon." I hit the gas pedal to increase the speed of the car, my heart was beating faster in fear. Imogen needed to be sensible enough to not harm herself.
My phone started ringing again. I quickly answered it. "Yes, Daisy?"
"No, it's Rob."
"Oh, hi,"
"Uh… babe… uh… which car did you take? Did you go with the public bus or something? Please say yes."
"No, I went with the red car."
"Shit!"
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Oh my God, uh… are… how… Please don't drive... fa–fast at all." He stuttered and I thought I could hear his heartbeat through the earbud, from how worried he sounded.
"What's wrong? I'm driving fast."
"Oh no, no, no, please don't."
"What's wrong?"I asked again. This time, I was worried.
"Craig just called to let me know that he just returned the red car and the…" he trailed off. "You know what, don't pay attention, just keep driving, don't hit the gas pedal, don't do anything, just try to park the car."
"What's going on? You're confusing me."
To focus on what he was saying, I decided to slow down to hear him properly and hit the brakes.
"Uh… R-Rob?" I said, hitting the brakes continuously. "The brakes aren't working!" I exclaimed with widened eyes, still trying to hit the brakes.
"Nikita, that's what I was trying to say but it was better if you didn't know yet as you were driving. Just act like you don't know and continue driving normally and try to park the car." He said, breathing heavily.
"I can't, the car is moving so fast, I have no control." I cried, still trying to hit the brakes but to no avail so I was driving past other cars to avoid hitting them.
"Please try to do something, please, nothing must happen to you." I could tell he was crying already.
I was trying to move past other cars but there were suddenly two trucks heading in my direction.
I had to stop this car, it had to stop, I couldn't die. My life was finally going great; I was going to get married to Rob, I was pregnant with his child, we were building our future together already, we were starting to have our dreams in life, my life was starting to have a purpose and I had a dream for myself and my family.
The loud horn of one of the trucks almost deafened me but there was nothing I could do to control this car anymore.
Luckily, I swerved really crazily to avoid being hit by the first truck but unfortunately, swerving made the car land right in front of the second truck.
"No!" I exclaimed. I felt the pressure as the truck smashed my car. The glasses shattered and got into my skin so deep.
"Nikita, please nothing must happen to you!" Rob screamed like it was going to so anything, sobbing.
I couldn't believe I was still alive as the car started to roll, I was upside down and very dizzy till another loud crash made me hit my head on a very hard object and it felt like my head burst and life drained out of me as my vision blurred.
So I was going to die this way? When everything was finally great? Why hadn't this happened five months ago when I had nothing to lose?
I could feel my tears were blood and intense pain was striking my heart, every part of my body was hurting physically and emotionally, mostly my stomach. I should've known love wasn't meant for me, I was never destined to be happy, I was never destined to have a good life, why was I even brought into this world in the first place? Why couldn't I just have lived a normal life as a normal person without all the struggles, pain, rejection, shame? Why did I ever feel like my darkness had been blessed with light again?
Why? Why? Why was this world so cruel towards me?
I sobbed weakly and it felt like a large pointed glass pierced into my heart or soul and my head fell onto something hard again, making every breath drain out of me completely and I was welcomed into total darkness.
~~~
***
~ HAMES ~
Driving really fast, I arrived at the hotel in a few minutes.
I ran into it and stopped by the receptionist table.
My presence automatically demanded respect from all the staff.
"Mr. Hendrix, what brings you here today?" The receptionist asked, quickly rising to her feet.
"Did a woman come here carrying a baby?"
"Different women came here with babies today…" She looked confused.
"She was alone, and did she say she was here to leave a baby for a couple?"
"Uh… I'm just resuming my duty so I don't know which woman you are talking about."
"Where is the CCTV for this damn place?!" I hollered, making her vibrate in fear.
"I think I'll call John, he was here before me so he might know who you're speaking of."
"Just check the damn computer for Stella if she has come in here to book a room."
"O-okay, sir." She immediately started typing on the keyboard. Shortly after, "let's see…" she said, "the only people with the name Stella who have arrived here today are two, but this one came alone and the second one, Mrs. Stella Tat came with who I assume is her husband, Mr. David Tat."
"The first one, where's her room?!"
"Room 5X, I think, she went as a visitor to a couple that were in the room, according to the data here…"
"Where is the key to the room?"
"Uh… sir, I'm sorry but I can't, it'd be invasion of privacy to our—"
"Who am I?" I cut her off with clenched fists.
"I know you're Mr Hames Hendrix and Mr. Ricardo has said you have every right over everything here as much as he does but—"
"Give me the key or card to that room. That woman has my baby, my three-week-old son. He had been taken by her and who knows what she must be doing to my poor child? If you care about yourself or your job at all, you won't go against my order."
Trembling, she slipped the card out and handed it to me.
"Call the police and send them over to me right this instant," I said, taking the card and quickly ran to an elevator and got into it.
It seemed like forever till it finally reopened and I ran out of it.
I quickly slid the card into the hole of the room door and pushed the door open.
The room was totally empty of humans as my eyes scanned it. I only noticed dirty panties and men's clothes scattered on the bed and floor.
Suddenly, I heard sounds from the balcony. It sounded like cooing which drew my attention.
I scurried to the balcony and was startled to see Stella and a very slender and gothic-looking woman who was constantly rolling her eyes at Stella, but there was no Tristan.
"Stella!" I called with clenched fists, making both of them flinch.
"M— what— how are you… what's…"
"Where the fuck is my baby?!" I barked at her.
"Who is he? Don't tell me he's the—"
"—father." Stella completed.
"Are you crazy?!"
"Where is Tristan?!" I raised my voice.
Stella immediately dropped to her feet, joining her palms together. "I swear it was never my intention to do this, I only did it because of my children, my twins, they are both in the hospital and I need a lot of money for their surgery."
"By taking my son?"
"They asked me to, they'll kill my children if I hadn't done it."
"Shut the fuck up!" The Gothic woman hit her with her fists, ignoring the fact that Stella was clearly very older than her.
"Where is Tristan now?"
"Okay, I've got the baby and the paperwork to sign so we can get done with this shit to… who's the dude?"
I pivoted and my eyes landed on a very disgusting man who had Tristan in his arm, with a bunch of papers.
I immediately grabbed Tristan before he was out of arm's reach and hit the idiot with my fists.
"What's going on?" A police officer asked, walking in with other police members.
"No, no, no, this shit can't be happening." The woman muttered cuss words to herself.
"Arrest them all, they tried to abduct my baby." I said and they handcuffed them.
"Please don't arrest me, I beg you. I had no intention of hurting your baby. I didn't realize they were illegal people to sell babies, I only need my children to be treated but they used them to threaten me after I found out their motive." Stella pleaded.
"What is their motive?"
"They sell babies illegally. They only asked me to bring the child, they pretended to be you at first then they offered me a really great amount of money enough for my children's surgery." She sobbed. "It was very convincing but I decided to back out of it and they threatened to kill my children at the hospital. They said they are the competitors of Samantha and Dash so now they are gone, all Thanks to you, the wish of Samantha would've been to sell your baby and that's what they were going to do. Believe me, I'm innocent."
I wanted to believe her but I also didn't want to.
"Please. Okay, you can kill me or arrest me but please make sure my children are safe. Please don't let them die, they need money for their surgery, I beg of you, sir." She shouted, crying as she was pulled out. Her tears looked very genuine and convincing but I still didn't want to believe her.
***
"Tristan." Imogen showered kisses on Tristan's face. "Those wicked people should all die. I told you it has to do with Sam and Dash."
"No, it's not them. They just wanted Tristan because they wanted to sell him, one of the illegal businesses Sam and Dash were doing, they were their competitors."
"I'm just so happy Tristan is back. Daisy, I'm so sorry I hit you. I swear it wasn't my intention, I lost control. I'm really sorry, I feel so terrible, please forgive me."
"No, it's not a problem at all." Daisy chortled.
I hugged her and Tristan together. "I'm so glad to have my family back in my arms. I love y'all so much. I'll make sure those wicked people suffer the consequences of their actions."
"Yes, they have."
— "but we should listen to Stella's cry." I shrugged. "By the way, did Nikita leave already?"
"No, she didn't even arrive."