117

117
RAINA

I thought I would never see him again. 

For over a week now, I have been living in fear. It clung to me like a second skin and it was not only heavy but also suffocating and I always looked behind my back every now and then because oi was scared he would come after me again or something would go wrong. 

I didn’t know if Nathan was dead or alive. I also didn’t know if I would see my kids or if my unborn child would survive. 

But now even though Nathan was still on the loose and somewhere out there, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a very long time. 

I felt somehow at peace and it wasn’t the same type of peace that came from everything around me being perfect. It was the type of peace that settled on someone knowing that the worst had passed and that our nightmare had come to an end. 

I was happy that Nathan—the man who had not only haunted me in my dreams but also in real life, the man who had ripped my world apart and made sleeping a nightmare had finally backed off and had a new goal. 

He had a new enemy to chase and thankfully it wasn’t either me or my family. 

I was seated in the living room and Faith was right beside me with her head resting on my shoulders. Dom was sitting on the single seater across from us with his eyes fixated on the television even though I didn’t believe he was really watching it. 

Save from the sound coming from the tv, the room was silent but the silence wasn’t awkward. It was comforting, relaxing and it was like the stillness after a heavy storm that had nearly torn us apart had finally passed. 

Then out of nowhere, Dom’s phone rang, interrupting the silence and catching our attention.

I didn’t look at him nor did I pay attention at first but I caught his shoulders becoming tense from the corner of my eyes and that made me turn to face him. My heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t help but wonder who was calling him that made him get so worked up. 

A name popped up in my head and shivers ran through my body. Was it really him? If it was, why was he calling now when I had already believed we were finally getting past everything that happened with him. 

“Who is it, Dom?” Faith asked, asking the dreaded question as his phone kept on ringing. 

“It’s Nathan,” Dom replied coolly.

My heart dropped at the very sound of the name. My suspicions were right and I clenched my hands against my thighs, trying to steady myself, my fingers digging soft into the soft fabric of the blanket that was covering my legs. 

Faith straightened as a worried look appeared on her face while Dom frowned at the screen as the phone kept on ringing. 

If he was still calling after Dom not picking up, it meant something was up. So Dom picked the call and put it on loudspeaker and the room fell silent as we anticipated what he had to say. 

“Raina?” Nathan said immediately Dom kicked the call, his voice soft as it echoed through the air. 

I froze, my knuckles turning white from how hard I was gripping them. I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to speak. Especially not to him, not after everything he had done and put me through. 

He had done too much and I didn’t think I would ever relate with him. 

“She doesn’t want to talk to you right now. Or ever,” Dom replied in a low but firm voice. 

There was no response and I almost thought he had hung up, not until he let out a soft sigh like he had expected that to be the reply he would get but still wanted to try anyway.

“I get it,” he finally said, his voice breaking the awkward silence. “I wouldn’t talk to me either and just wanted to apologize… for everything. And I-I just… I needed to say something.”

My heart started pounding faster and the only thing I could hear was the ringing in my head as my stomach twisted, waiting to hear what he had to say. I kept staring at the phone, my anxiety shooting up and I clenched my jaw, trying to calm myself. 

“All my life,” he continued, his voice sounding broken and tired. “I have chased after the wrong enemy. I fought and punished the wrong people while I dined, slept and laughed with the real monster. I believed you guys were the demons and swore my life to make you pay.”

He was sounding… like he not only hated himself but hated the fact that he hated what he did to us just like he was saying. 

He sounded wiser and older, the opposite of the man who had once smiled maliciously and told me I belonged to no one else but him, the man who had hurt me and kissed me at the same time. 

“And I know an apology will not do justice to what I have done to all of you,” he said. “I put you through a lot and did more than what a normal person wouldn’t do but apologizing to you all is all I can offer. That is all I have left to give.”

Tears welled up in my eyes, burning me and I blinked quickly. I didn’t want to cry for him nor did I want to feel anything for him. But it was heart wrenching to think of all he had gone through and had recently found out. I knew it wasn’t a good enough reason for all he did to us but the way his voice sounded hollow and final like he didn’t know any better thing to do. 

“And if this makes things any better which I doubt it would, I killed Eliza because she stopped being useful to me,” he announced and I let out a small gasp as my hand flew to my mouth. “And because she did a lot of things to Raina that didn’t sit right with me. Plus she was planning to come after your family even after I told her the whole truth, I had to get rid of her so she wouldn’t be a problem to you and your family in the future.”

My mouth fell open but I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t think of the proper words, nothing I said would be able to capture how I felt in that moment. 

“Truthfully, all I wanted was revenge but in my quest for it,” Nathan started. “I fell in love with you, Raina. Maybe it was never real and maybe it was nothing but an obsession but I really cared about you and it was the only thing that I knew,” he paused, his voice thick with emotions. “And I hope you’re happy, Raina. I really do.”

There was silence again then he ended the call without waiting for any response from us. 

My shoulders relaxed and I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding until that moment. I let out a shaky, slow sigh as relief washed over me. 

I uncurled my hands and wrapped my arms around myself to steady myself. For the first time in what felt like forever, I didn’t feel like I was being hunted. I didn’t feel like I had to be careful and always having to check my back. 

He wasn’t after me anymore nor was he out to get me to somehow fall in love with him. And he was going to be staying far away from my family. Finally!

The tension in the air dispersed and we got back to watching the show we were watching earlier. 

Hours passed and everything was going normal. We were happy and things were calm. 

It was evening time and the weather was cool but the phone rang again, disrupting the silent air. 

But this time around, it was Carter who was calling. 

As always Dom put the phone on speaker but Carter wasn’t getting to exchange pleasantries because he got straight to the point why he had called, his revelation slicing through the calmness we had all started to feel.

“Nathan has been arrested,” he revealed. 

“What?” The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them as I sat up.

“You heard it right,” Carter said with a sigh. “He had come to the station earlier and had turned himself in saying he wanted to see his uncle and talk to him. We gave them a private room to talk things out and before we knew what was happening, Nathan had strangled Cale to death.”

Faith let out a sharp gasp where she was sitting beside me. I felt a strange feeling wash over me, it was like I was falling but only in slow motion and like something was breaking free inside my chest. It wasn’t fear nor anger and not even relief. 

It was something colder. But I pushed it away, not wanting to think too much about it. 

Alex had returned later that evening after traveling to bring the kids back, the weight of everything that had happened today was still sinking in and it felt like a crazy dream. 

Immediately he entered the house, Dominic pulled him aside, probably to tell him about all that happened in his presence while the kids ran into my hand. 

The sound of their laughter like music to my ears, a melody that I had thought I would never hear again. I hugged them tight and pressed kisses into their hair and all over their faces as I breathed in their scent like it would be my last time. 

“I missed you guys,” I said over and over again as the tears I had been trying to stop from falling potted down my face freely. 

They didn’t understand why I was saying that. Not fully but they also hugged me back as tight and told me how much they had missed me too. 

Alex walked over to us, kneeling beside us as he wrapped his arms around the three of us and in the moment, all the pain, chaos and heartbreak vanished into thin air like it had never existed. 

Three months quickly passed by. 

I couldn’t even count each day anymore and my belly had grown a bit, rounder and my body plumper now that I was five months pregnant. 

The baby was growing stronger with each heartbreak and the kicks were small but constant, it was comforting to know that my baby was doing fine after all it had been through and even though the world had tried to destroy us. 

Alex was massaging my legs and Dom had gone to the office. 

Dom had taken over the company as the CEO. Alex had given back to me all my assets and they were back to being under my name. Our home felt safe again. Felt whole. 

It was evening time and Alex was trying his best to make me comfortable after I complained of my body aching. I was curled up on the chair and the television was on, playing softly in the background and I started to feel sleepy due to the softness of the pillows around me and the way Alex’s fingers were working to massage the knots out of my shoulders. 

Our breathing was rhythmic and I let out a satisfied moan as a feeling of satisfaction washed over me. 

“It has been confirmed today that Nathan Price, the former COO of Graham group of companies was found dead in his prison cell this morning. From the investigation and the autopsy that had been done on him, it was revealed that he had hung himself with the sheets…”

I slowly sat up and my pulse skipped as a weird sensation washed over me. 

I got whiplash from how fast I turned my head to the television and the room blurred at the edges of my eyes. 

“He’s… dead? Just like that?” I whispered in shock. 

Alex turned the volume down before coming to sit beside me and pulling me into his arms. “It’s over. All of it is finally over and we’re safe now.”

I stared at the screen even though I couldn’t see it anymore. I thought hearing something like that about Nathan would make me feel relieved. I thought I would cry, or laugh, or feel happy or something. Anything. 

But I didn’t feel anything. 

It was like it didn’t mean anything to me. 

Yes I hated him. Hell, hate was too small to describe the feeling of contempt I had against him but more than that, I pitied him. 

Nathan wasn’t always like that, he wasn’t a born monster. The lies he had been constantly fed was what turned him into that, he was shaped by lies and molded by pain all because he was being fueled with the need to avenge his parents, he had been manipulated and misled. 

Cale had twisted him into something evil and it wasn’t Nathan’s fault that he had been misled for years. 

Alex stroked my hair as he pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. 

Few minutes later, the kids ran into the room, asking for ice cream, their voices bright and their faces full of life. They were oblivious and untouched by the darkness that had once tortured us but now it was finally gone. 

“Of course,” I replied with a smile that mirrored theirs. “We can all have ice cream.”

This was it. 

This was the life I wanted. The one I had almost lost and the one thing I would never take for granted. 

I had my kids, my family and a man who loves me like I was life itself. 

‘What better things to leave the rest of my life with?’ I thought to myself with a smile.