Chapter 22 - Part II

"You disgust him." I said harshly, getting annoyed by the way she was looking so nonchalant about this...like she had everything sorted out.

"No wonder he never liked me. But I don't know what you did to him. How come he is so taken with you that he now believes every word you say. I tried so much to turn him against you, but he never heard a word of mine." She sighed.

I rocked the twins in my arms as they slowly fell asleep, and for a moment I wondered if they had eaten anything. I chose not to say anything to Larissa and started walking back to the direction of the entrance of the park. I didn't want the twins to stay around her anymore. She had come here to taunt me, and now she would be going back home empty handed.

"Where are you going?" She asked when she noticed I was moving.

"Back to my house, where Raine and Ryan would be safe, and definitely not somewhere near you."

She smirked again at my words and I had this sudden urge to smack her and change the entire topography of her face. She had my blood boiling like no other, but with Ryan and Raine in my hold, I had to hold in my fury.

"That's where you're wrong, sweetie. Terrence might be firm, but Vincent has already been swayed against you. A few tears and motherly acts were enough to convince him how much I wanted these...whatever. Take another step away with them and I'll have you sued for kidnapping."

I reluctantly turned around to face her, my arms holding my babies tightly to me. Larissa wasn't joking - she would really do something like that and even Terrence would be helpless against her.

With my heart beating a furious staccato, protesting in my chest, I reluctant placed the twins back in the stroller. They were still sleeping and squirmed just a little on loosing contact.

I couldn't back down without one last fight. Maybe I could beg.

Losing all my shreds of dignity to her, I resorted to begging. Maybe overdramatic, but I knelt down in front of her and clasped my hands, my tears rolling down my cheeks.

"If they are such an inconvenience to you, let me take them with me, let me leave and I swear I'll never come back," *even if it means never seeing Terrence again,*"Just leave them out of this. Please, Larissa! I beg you! They are innocent and they don't deserve this!"

Smirking, she knelt on one knee and looked at me in the eye, "I know they don't deserve this, but you know what? I just love watching you suffer and cry."

And with that, she grabbed the stroller forcefully and pushed it until they were out of the park. I kept kneeling down on the grass until they were out of sight, cursing myself for being so weak, pathetic and helpless.

*How did Terrence leave the twins alone with her?

**********

Once I had reached Allie's place, I scrambled to find my phone. My hands were shaking, my heart was pound my lips were quivering and I felt cold, so cold that I couldn't even register what was happening to me. I never reacted to fear this way, but maybe it was this way, this time, because I was afraid for myself.

Allie wasn't back home yet, even though she had said she won't be long. It meant that no one was here to calm me down.

I finally found my phone under the pillow I had used to sleep.

It was switched off.

I let out a frustrated scream.

I connected it to the charging cord and waited impatiently for it to come back to life. I didn't care if it was harmful to simultaneously charge and call, but I wasn't going to wait. I quickly speed dialled Terrence and waited for the call to connect.

It rang and rang. But he wasn't picking at all.

*What the fuck is he doing and why is it so important?

Just like yesterday evening, he wasn't picking up my calls again. I grew more and more anxious as I heard the ringing time and again.

Why wasn't he picking up?

"Terrence. Terrence. Terrence. Terrence." I muttered his name like a chant, as if his name itself was enough to chase all my anxiety away.

I switched to calling Aaron. Maybe he had an idea what he was doing.

"Lisa? Is anything wrong? You should have called me." Allie's concerned voice sifted through the phone. For a moment not even a word could come out of my mouth.

"Alyssa are you there?"

"Yes." My voice croaked, "Yes, I am here. I'm fine. I just wanted to know if Aaron knew where Terrence was. He's not picking up my calls."

"He will call you back, Lisa. I'll still ask Aaron."

I heard her call out to him and ask him, but the answer seemed to be in negative. I sighed, feeling clueless about anything and everything and the insecurity returned back to me in full force.

No, no, no. Perhaps even Terrence had no idea about all of it. Maybe Larissa had sneaked out the twins just to rile me up.

"Aaron has no idea, Lisa. Are you sure everything is alright?" She asked again.

"Yes. Yes. I just wanted to check up on the twins and talk to Terrence. Guess I won't be able to do that for sometime." I said nonchalantly.

She was silent for a while, "You know what? I don't trust you right now. I'm coming right over."

"Oh God, Allie! I'm alright! I'm not going crazy and I'm not going to do anything stupid! Stay there and don't come back until you've finished or done whatever you're doing." I yelled at her.

She sighed, "Alright, but I'm worried about you. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"So I am allowed to go batshit crazy?"

"*Alyssa.*" She warned, and definitely took my full name, which meant that her warning was meant to be taken seriously.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand. I'll be fine don't worry." I hoped that I sounded convincing.

"Okay. See you later."

I hung up the phone and sunk to the ground. My facade broke, and suddenly my finger fluttered crazily over my phone, dialling Terrence's number again and again until he picked up.

He didn't.

****************

I was getting restless.

Usually, I was a laid back, calm and lazy person, but in situation like this one, I was more than hyperactive, with my brain going at the speed of infinity miles per hour with it's thoughts.

Nothing was helping.

A person standing right in front of me wouldn't be able to tell what was going on in my mind - only I knew the kind of shitstorm I could cook up in my head.

And in this situation, once again, keeping faith in Terrence was proving to be difficult.

He wasn't picking up my calls, yet he wasn't rejecting them too. He just ignored them and let it ring.

For fuck's sake, he let Larissa take the twins out - all alone, with no one chaperoning her activities. That was totally unbelievable for me. What if Larissa had taken them somewhere else, maybe to —

No. No. No. No. No.

Maybe Terrence lost his phone. Yes that could be it. He was spying on Larissa and he lost his phone. Perfect. But that wasn't helping my restlessness, or my sudden loss of appetite.

So I did the best thing I could at that moment. I took my phone, and walked out of the house, hoping that a little walk would release all the pent up energy. I just hoped I wouldn't come across any other bitch I didn't want to meet.

Walking on an empty stomach - well now that was another difficulty. Yet I managed to numbly move like a zombie. I moved wherever my feet took me, and let the breeze caress my face.

It was cold. There were hardly any people around who wanted to walk around at this point of time. Apart from one or two vehicles, I was the only one walking down the street.

It was dark already, and the street lights were flickering. I looked around and was mildly surprised to find myself slowly walking down the same street where I had met the babies for the first time.

I could imagine myself stalking down the street in full steam, in a hurry to get home, talking to Allie to keep myself distracted from the creepy darkness. So much had changed that day; I was now a mother of two. I got more love than I bargained for.

And I found Terrence.

A small smile twisted my face, my first genuine smile in the last two days. Memories after memories flashed in my mind and I was proud at how far I had come ahead.

I had a family now, a family to take care of.

Not just me, even Allie was happier than she ever was since I met her. I wished our happiness would stay for long.

I wished we could brave this storm together.

But here I was, walking down the streets all alone with only the stones, lights and dumpsters providing me company. I remembered my slip in the morning, and Terrence's non existent reaction.

Was he not mad that Raine and Ryan had been dumped like garbage so that they would die and not be a part of anyone's inheritance.

Larissa should be ashamed to call herself a woman.

And then there was Terrence - the past few months that had been filled so much with love and happiness almost seemed like a dream now. He wasn't picking my calls, and at this point of time, talking to him was utmost necessary.

The more time it took for me to finally hear his voice, the more the doubts grew and I was almost worried about how pathetically I was handling this situation.

*Be strong. Be focused. Not for yourself. Not for Terrence. Only for Raine and Ryan.

I kept walking. Walking was such an easy thing to do, wasn't it, especially when everything seemed so familiar, like you were back to the day when your entire life changed.

Only this time, you could recognise the wails.

My feet froze. And then I ran. Simultaneously, my hand reached for my phone and I was very, very surprised to see that Terrence was calling me.

I picked up and spoke before he could say anything:

"Please tell me Raine and Ryan are with you!"