Sixty Two
“Oh, they are here,” Morris said and Nicholas looked up. He could see a woman who looked a bit like Astra’s sister, Charise, and a small boy, he looked around three years old, he looked exactly the way Nicholas did when he was three. By his calculations, his son should be four years old, but then Nicholas remembered that Astra said he was sick. He did look a bit sick and frail.
“Nicholas, I am Yvonne. It is nice to meet you,” Yvonne said, stretching her hand for a handshake. Nicholas managed to stretch his hand to Yvonne.
“I am guessing you are Astra’s cousin. You look a lot like Charise,” Nicholas said. He did not have anything better to say. He was scared even.
“Yes, people say that a lot. This is your son, Brian. He is a bit shy,” Yvonne said, smiling. She seemed okay with everything. It was shocking. Nicholas was not sure he could do that.
“My son. Please can I hold him?’ Nicholas asked.
“Of course,” Yvonne said and stretched the child to him. Nicholas held the child with care. Brian opened his eyes and looked at Nicholas. The child was studying him.
“You look like me,” Brian said. His voice was stronger than how he looked, Nicholas was surprised.
“Yes I do. My name is Nicholas, but you can call me daddy,” he told the little boy. Brian’s eyes widened.
“Really? That is so cool. Mommy tells me that I am named after my granddad. Is he Brian too?” Brian asked and Nicholas was surprised. He had almost forgotten. Astra named their son after his father.
“Yes, he is heaven now though,” Nicholas said.
“Mommy told me that too. Where is Mommy? Aunt Yvonne told me that we are coming to see her,” Brian said. His voice still had a baby tone to it, but he sure had a lot to say.
“Your Mommy is coming soon, Brian,” Yvonne said with a laugh.
“He is quite a handful,” Yvonne said.
“Thank you, for everything,” Nicholas said, this woman had taken care of his son.
“Astra would have done the same for me,” Yvonne said with a smile.
“We need to talk to you,” a detective said to Yvonne and Nicholas nodded. He talked more with Brian, and the little boy told him all about his school, his friends at home, and how he was really sick before and how all his hair fell off.
“But I am all better now,” Brian said, and Nicholas felt so terrible. His child was battling cancer and all he cared about was getting revenge. It never even occurred to him that Astra had a child.
“Of course, you look really good,” Nicholas said. After a while, Yvonne came out of the interrogating room, Brian was asleep then.
“The policemen told me that Astra was kidnapped,” Yvonne said. She looked so ferocious that Nicholas was almost scared.
“I will tell you all about it on our way home,” Nicholas said and ushered Yvonne to his car. He held a sleeping Brian.NôvelDrama.Org © 2024.
“Do you know Ray?” Nicholas asked Yvonne. Yvonne nodded.
“He is obsessed with Astra and had been stalking her for a while now. He is even the reason why my marriage with Astra broke, he orchestrated it,” Nicholas said and Yvonne raised an eyebrow. She clearly thought he was making excuses.
“I will explain later, but he is after Brian now, and that is why Astra left the note. We really need to find her as soon as possible. Ray may be mentally unstable and Astra may be in danger. The police is trying their best but I am very close to taking laws into my hands,” Nicholas said.
“I am so confused now, I don’t even know how to process all this,” Yvonne said.
“Well you can think about it later. Astra said that Brian was sick. What is wrong with him?” Nicholas asked. He already knew it was cancer, but he needed to be sure.
“Brian has leukaemia,” Yvonne said. Nicholas only just found out that he had a son and he was already about to lose him.
Astra felt hungry, tired and weak. Ray had driven her to his hideout that day and the emotional and physical torture had begun. Astra felt like she wanted to die. Like she had to die. She could not continue anymore. It felt like she was going crazy. Like she was becoming just like Ray. She was becoming unhinged and mad like him.
She had learnt more than a few things since she got to his hideout. The first was that Ray was more obsessed than she thought, there was a room, the place he first took her to, it was like a shrine, it was filled with her pictures from top to bottom.
All the time that she had felt like someone was following her, Ray was actually stalking her. He had pictures of he right from high school. Astra remembered vaguely that he had a camera back then, and he was always taking a pictures of her. She liked it at a point as it made her feel pretty, but after a while, she was annoyed. That did not make him stop though, he kept on taking pictures of her and it seemed like he took pictures of her then when she was not aware.
Even when she thought that Ray was not aware of her location, she saw pictures. They were pictures of her while on honeymoon with Nicholas, then she hadn’t told Ray that had gotten married. She saw pictures of when she was pregnant. Then she was pretty sure that Ray did not know her location. She ran away from everyone. She was alone, or so she thought.
She saw a picture when she just delivered the twins, she was so happy then, finally a mother. Astra was still terribly mad at their father but she loved her children. Brian and Brianna were very close to heart. Astra saw another picture, it was Brianna died. She was so sad and it was easy to sink into depression. Her children were her only hope before then. She did not have anyone other than them. She was using up her savings before she could get another job, and then her baby girl was gone. Astra faced drinking then. She drank so much that she would be able to forget. So that she would forget all the hurt and pain she had gone through.
Astra saw a picture of the fire. She was shocked then, for someone to have that shot, that means he was there when the fire occurred. It scared her to the bone that Ray was around her during the fire. Her mind began to fly. Her baby was with her in the room, and no one knew who started the fire. She was not smoking cigarette had been found at the scene. By the time Astra woke up from coma, her baby was already with Yvonne. Yvonne fought for the right of her child, Astra had listed her as a relative. Yvonne was the one that brought Astra back to life.
“Were you the one that started the fire?” Astra asked Ray then. She was angry, and she was hurt, and it was the first day she got to Ray’s home.
Ray laughed at her question, it was the maniacal laugh that she was growing to expect. “I was so angry when you didn’t come to me. Even angrier when I found out you were pregnant. Your babies were so hard go get rid of. I was only able to get rid of one and it was after three months,” Ray said and Astra fell down in tears. Not her daughter, not her child!