by Anna Kendra
Water and shards of porcelain scattered everywhere as Sia made a dash for the door. She was close now, so very close . . . when Arthur grabbed her middle and slammed her to his chest.
“You little bitch!” Arthur’s hands came around her throat and squeezed it hard. “I was going to go easy on you, but you just made everything all that difficult! Now you’re going to pay for it!”
Sia struggled against his grip as he started to choke the air out of her. Her nails dug into his arm, hard enough to break skin and draw blood but his hands were like steel bands around her.His hands tightened on her a fraction harder and Sia sat black spots dance in her visionwhen suddenly he was yanked off of her from behind and thrown down on the other side of the room.
Sia fell to the floor in a heap, gasping for air to fill up her lungs when she felt arms engulf her. Unlike with Arthur, she didn’t struggle as she melted into those arms. “Oh, thank God!” Sia muttered against his chest, still feeling out of breath. Her throat was going to bruise, but that didn’t matter at the moment. Julian was back. He was safe.
He helped her up and wrapped his hands around her tightly. “It’s okay, I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” The second time Julian said it was more of a reminder to himself than it was to her. He’d just made it in time.
“You!” Arthur roared, pointing an accusing finger at Julian. “You should be dead! Where are my men?”
“Oh, them?” Julian smirked at him while holding Sia tight to his chest. “I think I might have knocked them out on my way here.”
“How dare you—”
“Oh, that’s not all,” Julian continued, deliberately provoking him. “Martha, Abhay, and Sia’s son are already out on their way to the hospital. In fact, if my calculation is correct, they might already be there.”
“You bastard!” Arthur yelled, fuming. “I’ll kill you for this!”
“Not if I can help it.” With that, Julian pushed Sia behind him and stepped forward for the final match.
It was now or never.
Chapter 32
Arthur dashed forward, trying to tackle Julian to the ground. But Julian skilfully moved to the side, removing Sia out of the way in the process.
“Go! Get out!” he yelled at Sia while shoving her roughly toward the front door while trying to avoid Arthur’s punches at the same time.
“No, Julia—” Sia began but was cut off when she saw Arthur landing a punch in Julian’s stomach.
Julian hunched over in pain but quickly swallowed it up and stood, just in time to block another one of Arthur’s punches. He drew back his fist and landed a solid punch on Arthur’s face and heard the satisfying crunch of his nose breaking. Arthur fell to the floor, groaning and clutching his face in his hands. Julian staggered a little. The fight and his injuries were starting to wear him out.
But Julian had to give him this much as the bastard didn’t stay down for long. He got up and ran towards Julian once again, taking advantage of his weakened state, and punched his face. Julian staggered back again as his lips split open and blood spilled down his chin.
“What’s the matter, puppy? Can’t handle a fifty-year-old?” Arthur smirked, kicking his leg out at Julian’s, trying to knock him down. “If anything else, being in jail has taught me the value of patience. I’ve had eleven long years to plan out what I’m going to do once I get out. It took a hell lot of patience.”
But Julian saw it coming and caught his leg and twisted it, throwing Arthur to the floor. “You take care of your patience, I’ll look for an opportunity,” he said as he slammed his leg down on Arthur’s stomach.
Arthur caught his leg and tripped Julian onto the floor. Julian landed with a loud thud, shattering a glass table in the process. The glass shards embedded onto his back, drawing blood instantly.
“Julian!” He heard Sia yell from somewhere in the room. Sia hadn’t left. She was still here with him. As much as Julian hated for her being in the midst of danger, a part of him was glad that Sia had stayed back for him. She had stayed for him.
“Ah! You’ve turned into such a disobedient slut, haven’t you? Well I should punish you for that too, shouldn’t I?” Arthur smirked. “How about I take you in front of him?”
That did it for Julian. He grabbed a shard of glass from around him and shoved it in Arthur’s thighs. Arthur roared in pain and Julian took that opportunity to push him down on the ground and repeatedly punch his face until it was all bloody and broken.
“Julian! Julian, stop! You’re going to kill him! Julian!”
It took him a while to realize that Sia was pulling his arm to stop him from killing Arthur.
He stopped when he saw that Arthur had nearly passed out, bleeding. He got up with a lot of difficulty with Sia’s help and stood up. He was about to fall again when Sia’s arms wrapped around his middle, holding him upright.
“Sia . . . go. Get out of here while you can,” Julian whispered to her, his voice coming out raspy. “I’ll wait here until the police arrives.”
“I won’t leave you alone in here. Not with him!” she told him, hugging him tightly to her chest.
“No . . . Come on,” Julian said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and backed away slowly, taking little steps while still facing Arthur’s form lying on the floor. He was too beaten up to move, of that Julian was sure, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Arthur had slipped out of his hands way too many times for him to not have his guard up.
They were halfway to the door when the loud blaring of police sirens reached their ears. Both of them turned towards the door, hope blooming in their hearts.
“Come on, let’s go! Let’s go!” Julian whispered urgently and turned his back to Arthur as they sped to the door. Big mistake.
That one mistake gave time for Arthur to get up and rush towards them, taking out the knife that he had hidden in the waistband of his pants. Julian and Sia were already at the front door by then and they could see two police cars outside along with Christian, getting down from their cars and rushing toward them. They were halfway out the door when suddenly Sia was ripped out from his arms.
Julian turned just in time to watch in horror as Arthur jammed the knife into her stomach and twisted it.
“You bitch! If I can’t have you, then no one can!” Arthur spat as he pulled the knife out of her and tossed her limp body at Julian.
“No!” Julian screamed and caught Sia as she fell.
“Sia! Sia, please stay with me! Stay with me, please. Sia!” he yelled at her as her eyes fluttered close.
He looked up, startled, as he heard several gunshots in the background and watched Arthur drop to the ground beside him with several bullets in his body. The bastard was finally dead. He should feel pleased but, with Sia dying in his arms, he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than agony.
“Sia please, please! Stay with me. I can’t live without you Sia, please! I love you! I love you so much!”
There, he had finally said it, but he never wanted it to be like this: her bleeding and broken in his arms. He’d wanted it to be special, because she deserved nothing but the best.
“Julian! Let’s go! We have to get both of you to the hospital, quick!” Christian said, snapping Julian out of his trance.
Julian swiftly gathered Sia into his arms and stood up, stealthily following Christian to his car and getting in the backseat with Sia in his arms. He was in no better condition than her, but he didn’t care about himself at the moment.
“Hang in there, Sia. Please,” Julian whispered, kissing her forehead lightly and cradling her to his chest as Christian started the car and drove on.
Chapter 33
Eight months later...
“Millan, are the new batches of chiffon and silk here yet?” Sia asked with the phone lodged between her cheek and shoulders, one of her hands flipping through the catalogue while the other took out the designs that the materials would be transformed into.
“Yes, Ma’am, they are being unloaded as
we speak. It’ll take another three hours or so for them set up in the store room, according to their color schemes,” Millan’s tired voice came from across the line.
Sia sighed audibly. “Millan, why don’t you take a small break? We’ll continue from here onwards half an hour later,” Sia told her and smiled at Millan’s eager reply then hung up.
Sia sat back down on her chair, stretching her arms above her head, and heard the satisfying sound of her joints popping, but when she tried to lean further back, pain shot through her stomach, making her wince. She lowered her arms onto her lap and rested her head on the back of her chair. Most of her wounds had healed, and some were still a bit tender, but she already had the doctor’s approval to get back to work.
And that was exactly what she was doing. She had gotten back to work with all her might since her discharge. Her company had suffered greatly from her absence, and they had thousands of pending orders. The good news was that her clients had stuck around and even after the news about Arthur had gone viral, she was still getting orders. If things continued the way they were, Sia would be able to expand her company and appoint several other designers to help improve the quality of her company and speed up the process of tailoring and design. She was also pleasantly surprised that Leo was also showing some wicked artistic talents and was helping her design some of their clothes. So far, from what she had seen from his suggestions, Leo could either turn out to be a great designer or a great artist. Whichever route her precious boy chose, she would be happy for him.
Overall, everything seemed to be working out well. She didn’t mind giving the company a few extra hours of her time. It made her extremely busy and kept her mind off of other things—angry and depressing things. Sia sighed and looked at the calendar hanging on the opposite wall of her office.
Eight months. Exactly eight months have passed since she was at the hospital. Exactly eight months since Arthur died. Exactly eight months since she had last seen Julian.
Sia please, please! Stay with me. I can’t live without you Sia, please! I love you! I love you so much!
Hang in there!
I love you!
Come back to me.
I love you.
I love you!
Sia remembered those words as she lay there unconscious. She remembered the warmth of his hands as they clutched hers. She had struggled to regain consciousness, to wake up and tell Julian that she had heard him, that she was right there with him, and that she’d never leave him. But when she had opened her eyes, a month had passed and Julian was no longer beside her.
He had left.
Sia gave a humorless chuckle. She’d thought that she could handle him being gone. That she wouldn’t fall for him just like the numerous other women who had. How wrong had she been, how utterly foolish. She loved him to the point that it hurt her physically not to see him. She thought that he loved her, too. She had heard his voice, heard him saying those three words that she had longed to hear from him for a long time But maybe that was just her comatose brain’s doing, concocting images and real-like dreams to soothe her aching heart. Maybe Julian had never cared for her despite claiming several times that he wasn’t playing around.
After all, he was Julian Turner. He had acquired the name Lucifer for a reason. He was indeed her cruel beloved—the one that got away. Sia sighed, rubbing her temples. Thinking about him was now giving her a headache.
When she had woken up from her month-long coma, Christian had been the one to greet her. He was also the one who had told her that Julian had submitted his report and that the case was now closed. Now that Arthur Stone was dead, Julian was also gone from her life forever. Sia had been too shocked to ask him anything. She had only signed the cheque and handed it over to Christian. And that had been the end of it. She hadn’t heard from Julian or anyone else from Turner Security ever since.
***
It was nearly ten at night, and Sia was running late. Leo had called her multiple times to say that he’ll be waiting to have dinner with her. She told him not to wait but it seemed like Julian’s stubbornness had rubbed off on him.
There you go again, Sia, she thought to herself angrily. He was gone and never coming back. She just had to accept that and move on with her goddamn life just like Julian probably was doing now with some rich bimbo—Dear God, Sia! she chided herself. You had to go low and slut-shame strangers.
Finally, she shut the folder she was working on and gave it to Millan, debriefing her on what to do. The competition that she had won before the incident had made her more successful than ever and orders were piling up on every shelf. Her absence from the company for three months due to her recovery had caused delays for the orders, but her customers had been understanding and hadn’t given up on her. She almost had everything under control now, with nearly half of the orders completed, awaiting delivery, and the designs already set for the other half. It had been a productive month and she was proud of herself for having accomplished so much in such a short time.
Getting up from her seat, she went out of her office and got into her car. The drive home took another half hour since she no longer lived in the two-story house that she had built before. The garage had burned down and the memories were too harrowing for her to stay, especially that Arthur had died in that house. She decided to sell off that house to a company and rented another apartment nearby until she could find some time and buy a new one. The apartment was big enough for Leo, Martha, and herself and it had plenty of space to store her designs as well. It worked for the time being, but she had to talk with a real estate agent soon to get herself her desired house. And with the amount of progress her company was making, it wouldn’t be long for her to get the house of her dreams.
She reached home around 10:32pm and unlocked the door to her apartment. To her surprise, the house was empty. And when she called for Martha or Leo, there was no answer. She tried to switch on the lights, but they weren’t working.
“That’s weird. Why won’t the lights turn on?” Sia mused while looking around her apartment.
A sudden thought crossed her mind but she pushed it off as soon as it had formed. Arthur was dead. He was gone and not coming back...just like Julian.
She shook her head and closed the door behind her. She placed her bag on a nearby couch and went to find the candles she kept in the living room drawers, but a movement in the room made her stop.
“He isn’t here, Sia. You’re hallucinating,” she chanted to herself under her breath but stopped with a squeal when she saw the shadow was now moving towards her.
“W-Who’s there? Show y-yourself!” Sia managed to squeak out, although her legs were trembling. This is not Arthur! she reminded herself. It just can’t be.
But you didn’t see him die, her subconscious told her.
The shadow was now dangerously close to her, and she opened her mouth, ready to scream, just as all the lights in the room turned on at the same time.
“Sia.”
And her entire world came crashing down on her.
Chapter 34
The bright lights in her room momentarily blinded her, and it took a while for Sia to adjust to the brightness, but there was no mistaking the voice she had just heard. That voice was etched in her mind, in her heart, and her soul. How could she ever forget his voice?
Blinking rapidly, she squinted to see the person whose face was now partially visible in the dim lights. Not only was his sudden presence shocking but the deep scar that ran from his cheek to his chin and also the sling covering his arm were as well. Sia was dying to ask him what was wrong, why was he injured, how did he get injured, but she held herself back by sheer strength of will. He was the one who had left her and disappeared without a trace. She couldn’t give herself up now and show him just how desperate she had been to hear his voice or to even catch just a glimpse of him.
“Why are you here?” She didn’t want to sound so rude, but she couldn’t help it. With the desperation also came the pent-up a
nger for the past eight months.
“I know you’re hurt. I know you’re angry,” Julian said as he took a few steps forward and came to a stop right in front of Sia. “God, it’s been ages since I saw you. You have no idea how desperate I’d been to catch just a glimpse of you . . . but I knew I couldn’t. I had to stay away from you because I hadn’t achieved my goals yet. I wanted to come back once I had nothing holding me back.”
Sia remembered the time when Christian had told her about Julian taking over Turner Security and becoming the next CEO. But for that to happen, he’d have to have a spotless fifty successful mission count to be accepted by the board. Sia also remembered that hers had been Julian’s forty-ninth mission which meant that Julian had to go on another one right after he had dealt with Arthur. So, that was why he had to stay away from her for so long.
Julian reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair behind Sia’s ear, cupping her cheek.
“Julian,” Sia breathed out and filled her lungs with his familiar scent. She’d been deprived of him for so long but now, she felt herself coming to life under his touch. Sia thought that she could resist him—at least for a bit longer—but as soon as his lips came down on hers, she found herself succumbing to her love for him. Everything else just seemed to fade away, and Sia felt like she had finally found her oasis after wandering in the desert for so long.
The kiss wasn’t lingering or gentle. It was filled with passion and longing and love. Sia’s heart melted at the desperation of the kiss, at the feeling of yearning to keep her close that she felt from his kisses. She could die right then and there and have no regrets. When Julian finally pulled back to gasp for air, Sia pressed her cheek to his chest and found comfort in the thundering of his heart. She wasn’t dreaming, Julian had finally come for her.