Chapter 100: scandals
scandals.
"You wait inside, I will go check what is our there", Simon says and proceeds to exit the car, but on reflex, I stop him.
"Don't leave me Simon", I plead silently as I swap my hands around his right arm.
"Sweetheart", he calls gently as he places his hand on mine and strokes me in a soothing pattern.
"Don't go", I say again but he remains silent for a while.
"I will quickly check and be back here, we can't be too sure of what is out there", he says but my hold on him tightens as I let out a moan of pain.
The evening at the warehouse replays in my head and o remember how dark and vulnerable I felt back then.
How desperate I was to find Simon and how helpless and hopeless I felt as I fell into unconsciousness only to wake on the hospital bed and live a month in bad health.
"Don't go. Simon please don't leave me", I plead this time with tears in my eyes.
The mere reminder of that time still frightens me.
"Sweetheart, I am here for you. I am not going anywhere", he says, his voice calmer and filled with understanding as he brings me closer in a hug and continues to pat my hair.
"I am not leaving, I am here for you. So do not cry", he says continuously and then I realise I was sobbing in between my pleas.
Damn, I feel so weak yet strong at the same time.
Vulnerable yet protected at the same time.
I am.just grateful and more for Simon.
"Let us just go back inside so you can rest", he says but I shake my head in his embrace.
"No, I still want to go shopping with you, I just want to be with you either you take me with you or you stay with him", I say after regaining my strength and stopping my tears.
"Are you sure?" He asks me and I reply him with a nod.
"He's, now let us go check whatever it is", I say with a sniffle and release his hand so he can freely open the door.
"Are you sure you want us to continue further?", He asks and I nod.
"Of course, I have to be strong and able to face things like this, especially for our baby", I say as I rub my belly.
My bad mood and fear from earlier seem to have disappeared all together and what I feel right now is anticipation and gladness.
I am going to enjoy this shopping.
I just hope we did not hurt an animal.
"Oh my sweetheart", Simon coos and for the first time at that before bringing his face to my flat belly and kissing it through my dress.
I just know he will be a good father for our baby.
Until then,
"Okay then, let us go", I say afterwards and just as soon as I step out if the at after Simon, I am faced with what we hit.
A few body guard have gathered and I take a few seconds to look around the garage which currently has a number of black jeeps with their doors flung open and the passengers out.
All gathered around the bloody scene.
"We hit something", Henry says as he turns to face me.
"Is that a person?" I ask as I point ahead at the stiff figure on the floor.
"No no, look it is just a mannequin", he says and I am about to step further when Simon stops me.
"Let the guards check it, you don't know what else is in that thing", Simon says and I get the reasoning in that.
I however do not stop staring right ahead and I flinch with a gasp when one of the guards flips the mannequin over.
I am more than stunned at the sight that greets me.
At first, I thought it was a person because of the colored liquid which I mistook for blood.
But then, it is a mannequin but not 'just a mannequin' because this one has a face on which my picture is glued to.
"Simon!", I call his name as I hold tightly unto him.
My eyes is however fixed in the bloodied picture of myself.
Simon's hand comes to block my view before he turns so that his body is right in front of me, but that did nothing to clear the imagine of hatred from someone who I do not even know.
Not only was my picture glued and splashed with blood, there was also a knife stuck on it as if all that wasn't enough.
I didn't get the chance to look at every other thing, but I know that the cruelity did not end there.