by J. A. Delese
She had never seen him bring a girl into the house, so when she saw Catherine, she was surprised and excited at the same time. She expected him to get married and finally start a family. Whenever she saw him alone in this big house, he looked lonely, so Susan wished he could be with somebody he loved.
Their relationship, however, was very different from what she thought. Catherine obviously didn’t want to stay here, and he obviously didn’t want her to leave. Catherine had been telling her that she was kidnapped, but honestly, it was very difficult for Susan to believe it. She could not imagine a gentleman like Tom kidnapping a woman. She refused to believe it until she saw Catherine come back from the hospital.
Catherine wasn’t talkative in the beginning, but she talked to Susan sometimes. She had a cheerful smile, and Susan could tell that she was kind hearted. Now, she had become extremely quiet and didn’t really do anything. Literally, she didn’t do anything. She was either looking outside through the windows or lying on the bed with her eyes open. Susan could feel that she was in a depression, so she told Tom about this, but it seemed that he also had no way out.
Susan thought it would be good for Catherine to read some books during the day, and that’s why she asked Tom about it. He had said okay in that moment, but for some reason he took his books away from her and told her not to touch his books. She felt so sorry for Catherine, but she just smiled and told her “it’s fine.”
All this girl did was hide, basically. Whenever Susan started to cook breakfast, she could see Catherine sneak out of the room and move quietly to the guest bedroom. Initially, she thought Tom kicked her out or something, but she soon found that Catherine was just hiding from him. After Catherine moved to the guest bedroom, Susan could hear Tom taking a shower. After he left for work, Susan prepared breakfast for Catherine, but she rarely touched it. She could tell that Catherine had lost a lot of weight since she came to this house. Susan didn’t really know why, but she genuinely cared about her and regardless of her duty of reporting to Tom, she tried to take a look at Catherine as often as she could.
This poor young lady spent most of her time in the guest bedroom, looking outside through the window. Susan thought it would be good for her if she watched TV or movies, but she was not interested in them at all.
Susan didn’t like to admit it, but she knew that there was not much she could do for Catherine.
Tom
It’d been quite a while since he’d had dinner with her. He’d been extremely busy lately, so he usually had dinner at the office. It was good that he came back home for dinner, and it was also good that he could see her face under the light, but it was not good that he couldn’t hear her voice. She still didn’t talk. There was only the sound of forks against their plates on the dining table. Tom felt awkward, but he didn’t mind it. Like it or not, she needed to talk to him, because she had to answer to his questions.
No, not a question. It’s a request, he said in his head as he saw her eating her fish fillet.
“I need to visit New York for business,” he said and took a careful look at her face, but he couldn’t read anything from her. She looked at his eyes once and returned to her eating. He didn’t expect her to be like this, so he felt a bit surprised and embarrassed.
Is this her strategy?
He wanted to ask her directly, but he was aware that she would not give him an honest answer anyway, so he gave up. Instead, he jumped to his request right away.
“I was thinking of letting you stay here at first, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen while I’m away. So I’ve decided to bring you with me.”
As soon as he finished talking, he glanced at her face to see if any emotions registered there, but she had no reaction again. He was half-surprised and half-relieved at that. He thought she would definitely cry if she heard ‘New York,’ but she didn’t express any feelings about it.
Thank God, he breathed out quietly. Maybe it was he who carried more emotions. He was honestly quite scared to see her tears and also scared to yell at her. He was glad that he didn’t need to yell to stop her crying—though it was still sad that he needed to warn her.
“Bringing you to New York doesn’t mean anything. You won’t go anywhere alone. You will stay in the hotel while I’m away,” he said a bit fiercely, but she still didn’t react. Honestly, he started to feel scared of her blank face, but he decided to talk more fiercely to hide his fear.
“Don’t try to do anything stupid. There will be many people who will watch over you. You must remember. I won’t let you go!” When he finished speaking, he felt remorse at what he said. He obviously spoke fiercer than he needed to. He didn’t know why, but it was so difficult to control his words whenever he talked with her. It seemed like he always crossed the line whenever he was with her. He tried to look in her eyes, but she lowered hers.
Damn it.
He didn’t mean to hurt her feelings. He really didn’t like this kind of situation, but it seemed like to repeat itself over and over again. Could this be stopped?
But I can’t apologize.
He couldn’t and he wouldn’t. His pride would never allow him to say sorry to her again. So, instead of an apology, he told her what he truly wanted to say.
“If you don’t do anything stupid, I’ll give you a reward,” he said as he looked in her eyes; as a return she just nodded her head.
I should have said this first.
He regretted not saying this first. It would be much easier for him and for her if this conversation started with this sentence. He breathed out heavily again and started to eat. It seemed she had already finished her meal, but he didn’t even eat half of his. He hated to admit, but he knew he was too nervous to say this to her.
Anyway, it’s good that she didn’t get emotional about this.
He felt truly relieved by that. She would not know how much he hated to see her cry. He really didn’t know what to do whenever she shed tears.
But strange. She didn’t even ask what kind of reward it is.
Patrick
He was walking fast. It was almost like running. He was not sure he could meet this bastard, but he wanted to at least try. There were many people in the lobby, but he squeezed in. He was supposed to tap a card to pass the security, but of course, he didn’t have one. He approached the desk.
“How can I help you?”
“I need a visitor’s pass.”
“May I ask which department you need to visit?”
Just the V.P. who killed my girlfriend.
He almost said it unconsciously. He hadn’t prepared what to say, so he hesitated for a second. He could feel this lady watching him with suspicion.
“Sir, may I ask why you want to visit our bank?”
“I—”
He was about to say that he needed to meet the V.P. for legal matters, but then he saw a tall man with blonde hair passing by with some other people.
It’s him.
Patrick jumped over the security bar and ran at him at top speed. He heard the security guards yelling at him, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to punch this fucking bastard’s face. So he ran and ran, but when he had almost reached Tom, some guards blocked him. Patrick tried to fight them, but they held his arms firmly and one of them even put a gun in his face.
Fuck! I should have approached differently.
He was too hasty. He should have acted normal and asked him to talk quietly, but as soon as he saw that murderer’s face, all he had planned was removed from his head.
Patrick could see him. He was just looking at Patrick, but Patrick could read the shock in his face.
Motherfucking bastard!
“Did you KILL HER?” Patrick shouted at him. His voice was so loud, it sounded almost like a roar. People who were passing by stopped walking and looked at them, but Patrick didn’t care. He’d been trying his best to find her, but he couldn’t. There was no evidence, and people were afraid to help, since this bastard’s name was Sharpe. Initially he thou
ght Tom had kidnapped her, but it’d been almost a year and no one had seen her. Now he came to the conclusion that she was dead.
“YOU KILLED HER! YOU KIDNAPPED HER AND KILLED HER!” he cried out. Patrick looked him in the eye, but Tom didn’t say anything in return. He was just looking at Patrick without movement. Soon a woman who looked like his secretary approached him and whispered something in his ear, and he started to walk away. Patrick felt so frustrated. He wanted to punch this bastard. So he ran at Tom but was blocked by his guards again.
“YOU KILLED CATHERINE!” he cried out. He cried her name out loudly, and it made the fucking bastard paused. Tom stopped walking and turned his head to look in Patrick’s eyes. Her name must have made him feel guilty for a second, but it couldn’t make him stay. Tom turned away. Patrick became surer that he had already killed her. Security guards dragged him out of the building and kicked him away, but he couldn’t leave the place. He felt it was his fault. From the first time she talked about this guy, there were danger signs. She often said this man was a pervert or psycho. She also said he was a billionaire stalker, but whenever Patrick heard of these comments, he had just laughed. He thought she was overthinking it. Even the night that he encountered this crazy man in her house, he didn’t think this man could be dangerous like this. He thought it was just an accident.
Maybe I should have run away with her.
He knew it was ridiculous to think about this now, but he couldn’t help it. This psycho had been hitting on her and asking her out, but she refused it all and in the end he kidnapped her and killed her. She probably tried to escape several times, and she almost made it to Korea, but he took her again, and this time had done away with her for good.
It started to rain, so he started to walk, but he couldn’t walk or run any faster, so it poured on him.
Cathy…, he called her name in his head and began to cry. Thanks to the rain, people couldn’t see his tears, but he was pretty sure that he looked pathetic now. A man in a suit walking slowly in the rain. How pathetic was that? When he arrived at home, he saw Rebecca waiting in the lobby of the apartment.
“OH MY GOD! ARE YOU CRAZY?” She came out of the lobby and covered him with her umbrella. “Have you decided to take medical leaves this time?”
He knew she was joking, but he wasn’t in the mood to talk back, so he just walked into the lobby.
Rebecca followed him inside, asking, “Where have you been? Did you really go to visit him? Did you?”
Patrick, however, didn’t answer her questions and kept walking toward the elevators. The doorman frowned after seeing the water droplets falling from his coat, but he didn’t apologize. He wasn’t sorry for anyone, but her.
“I’m so sorry, Cathy….” he said it unconsciously while he waited for an elevator.
“For what?” Rebecca asked.
He forgot that she was there, so he looked at her with his eyes wide open.
“What are you so sorry for? Huh? What have you done?”
“I’ve done nothing for her. That’s why I’m sorry,” he said as he walked into the elevator. Rebecca followed him into the elevator and continued to talk.
“It’s not your fault! Stop blaming yourself! How long are you going to do this? You even hired PI for this case and they found nothing! You even flew to London to find her, but what have you found there? Nothing! You have done enough! How much money did you spend on this? Seriously, you have done enough! Possibly, she’s in her country now! You said she visited her mom, right? Then, this is not a missing case! Maybe she just left you like this! You should refocus on your life, Patrick! You should not live like this!”
Rebecca was talking passionately, but he wasn’t really listening to her. When the elevator reached his level, he came out of it and just walked toward his door.
“Patrick, listen to me.” Rebecca held his arm and made him stop walking. “I understand how you feel now, but you should really get over this. What happened to Catherine was a terrible thing, but we don’t know it’s really him. You should be more careful, Patrick. You do know those people are dangerous.”
He didn’t mean to speak to her at all, but what she said triggered him to talk.
“It’s him. I know it’s him.”
“How do you know? Even if you know it, how are you going to prove it? You don’t even have any evidence! We couldn’t find anything!” she said.
“Exactly! There is no evidence! It’s been more than six months, and I couldn’t find a single clue! Even PI said it’s strange! Why do you think it’s like this? How come the security cameras didn’t work only on that day? How come she has disappeared the day I didn’t go back home with her? It means someone had been watching her for a long time. Someone did this with plans, and who do you think could do this?” He demanded,
Rebecca sighed deeply and answered. “Someone who was bearing a grudge against her!”
He shook his head. He felt so frustrated talking with her, so he faced her to say good-bye. “I’d better get some rest, Rebecca.”
He went into his condo and closed the door behind him.
Tom
He returned to the hotel right away. He slammed the door behind him and roughly loosened his tie.
How dare.
He felt so angry at this situation. How dare that kid come to him and yell at him like he was something to her? Tom really felt like punching that kid’s face, but his secretaries asked him to leave the place since there were too many people watching this, so he did as he was told.
“Did you kill her?”
What the hell…. What made this kid think that he would kill her?
“YOU KIDNAPPED HER AND KILLED HER!”
The anger in that kid’s voice was still echoing in his head.
Yes, I kidnapped her, but it’s to keep her with ME! So that you won’t touch her anymore! So that you won’t fuck her anymore!
If she had given him a single chance, he wouldn’t have done this. If she had accepted what he had offered, it wouldn’t have ended up this way. She should have given him a chance. He would have treated her much better, if she had allowed him. He also didn’t want her to live like this, always staying in the room and—
And where is she?
He looked around the living room but couldn’t find her. Nervous, he opened the bedroom door and walked inside. He looked around the room but still couldn’t find her.
She escaped!
“Fuck!” He took his phone and called Mr. Macson. “She ran away! SHE’S NOT HERE! I TOLD YOU TO WATCH OVER HER! WHAT WERE YOUR GUYS DOING? GO AND FIND—”
He was still shouting when suddenly he saw someone come out of the bedroom. It was her. It looked like she had just woken up. She was staring at him with a blank face.
“I found her.” He hung up the phone and looked back at her.
“Where were you?” he asked, but she didn’t answer right away. She tried to say something, but stopped. It seemed like she didn’t know how to explain.
“Where were you? I didn’t see you just now,” he asked again, taking several steps towards her.
“I was lying on the floor,” she answered weakly.
He didn’t know what to say. For a second, he really thought she had run away. He really thought that kid had taken her away from him. He didn’t say a word but was just looking at her. She also looked at him for a while, but neither of them spoke. He could tell she was feeling awkward. In the end, she turned to go back into the bedroom, but then, he abruptly walked toward her and gripped her arm to turn her body. She seemed frightened, but he didn’t care. He grabbed her arms with his hands and kissed her. His lips pressed against hers and he held her tighter in his arms. He thought she would refuse him as usual, but she didn’t. She didn’t really kiss him back, but she accepted him. That already made him feel excited enough, so he kissed her deeper. His fingers caressed the back of her neck as he kissed her and slowly started to caress her body. It felt strange that she wasn’t resisting, but he didn’t want to s
top. He kissed her neck and shoulder and unbuttoned her shirt. He kissed and caressed her breasts with his lips. He felt her nipples get hard. So, he carried her to the room and laid her down on the bed. It wasn’t the first time they had sex, but he felt a bit nervous. He took the rest of her clothes off until she was completely naked. He realized how beautiful she was as he looked at her naked body.
He started to caress her body with his lips. He wanted to kiss her all over her body, even down to her most private places. When he kissed her there, he heard her moan. He couldn’t stand it and pushed into her right away. Every time he moved his body inside her, she moaned more and more. For the first time, he felt she was wet. She was so wet, and he was too excited. He pushed himself inside of her as far as he could. He kissed on her neck and bit it as though he wanted to show the world she belonged to him.
Rebecca
“I know it sounds crazy and I do think he’s crazy. I mean, what he’s thinking now is crazy. I already told him many times, but he’s just NOT listening to me at all! I don’t know what to tell him. Maybe I’d better give up like everyone else has,” she poured all the words out to her previous boyfriend, Nate. Their relationship had lasted for only for three months, but they still remained friends. She felt sad when Nate had asked to just be friends, so she had gotten drunk and called him about a hundred times, but she had matured enough to understand and accept other people’s decisions.