Chapter 49

Ana stared at Tasha for a while. She was going on and on about utter nonsense that honestly, Ana had no desire to hear.

Yes, everyone knew that Tasha was much more desirable, much more pretty, much more smart than Ana. It was no secret.

Yes, Ana didn't deserve someone as attractive, rich and worldly like Jack. He deserved someone better. Someone who wouldn't embarrass him. Someone who would fit into his world. Someone who could match him.

Yes. Ana was aware of all of this. And yes, she knew the perfect person for this was no one other than Tasha, who was the poster child for billionaire girlfriend

In spite of the fact that Ana knew all this, the other girl took a maudlin pleasure in reminding her. She had left for a while then come back. It was actually really pathetic.

After a while, she removed Ana's gag from her mouth. Ana was quick to ask. "Who told you to do all this? Who's behind this plan?"

But the questions backfired. Tasha frowned. "Do you think I'm not capable of thinking up something like this? I'm not intelligent enough, I'm not brilliant enough?" she asked.

"I didn't say–" Ana started but Tasha cut her off with a slap.

"Shut up. You think I don't know what you're implying? You walk around with you little air, thinking you're better than everyone else. But newsflash you're not. You just a poor ugly girl that Jack Knight pitied," Tasha said. The words were not supposed to sting but in the light of all that had happened between her and Jack, Ana almost felt like the words were cutting her chest open.

"I know you're pregnant. It was obvious. You look like a hippo. And Jack will soon abandon you and come to someone like me. My body is still intact while yours is stretched out and gross," Tasha said. Her words were childish and stupid but that didn't mean they didn't hurt Ana

Ana had been wondering whether Jack still even wanted her. And after his cold reaction of the other day, she was extremely confused as to where she stood with him.

"Can you just stop please?" Ana asked, not wanting to meet Tasha's eyes. She knew begging her to stop was a weakness and the other girl, no matter how stupid she seemed, could take advantage of that. But Ana didn't care at that point. The words were hurting her. She needed them to stop.

"Aw are you going to cry?" Tasha asked, laughing. Ana turned her head so as not to give her that satisfaction.

Her eyes were misty though and if the bitch continued, she was actually going to cry. And Ana couldn't imagine a worse thing than crying in front of Tasha.

Tasha laughed again and walked away from Ana. "Don't worry. I'll be back," she said with a wink.

Ana let out a sigh of relief at Tasha's departure. She knew all the words to use to hurt Ana, all the jabs that would place some kind of mark on her.

Tasha gone, Ana took the advantage to look around the room. It was dingy. It was small and it was dirty. Whoever had kidnapped Ana had been courteous enough to put a blanket on the floor for her.

Ana looked down at her feet which were bound. She guessed it was the same rope that had been used to bind her hands together, which were starting chafe by the way.

Ana sighed and looked down at her lap. She had no doubts about who was behind this now. Dorothy Knight. It was so suspicious that a day after she had gone to see the woman, she had been kidnapped.

How had she been so stupid though? How had she not realized that Tasha was baiting her deliberately the day before? How had she not noticed that her presence was very fishy? How had she been so dumb? Why hadn't she just stayed in work till everyone else was leaving?

**Flashback**

Ana stared at the ceiling in the

bathroom. She had gotten into the bathroom more than half an hour. Instead of showering, she had been thinking maudlin stuff.

It was like the baby sensed her mood. He kept on kicking agitatedly. It wasn't painful or anything, but it was a reminder that she should stop being so morose.

Besides, getting so sad was dumb. Technically, Jack hadn't done anything.

Okay fine. He had fucked up. But it wasn't the end of the world. Yes she loved him. But she had a baby to take of. She couldn't afford to be getting "heartbroken".

She had been heartbroken before. She was no stranger to it. Her first heartbreak was discovering that her mother never really loved her. Throughout her teenage years, it had been made obvious by all that she was plain, and that was them just being nice. Then Farouk and the whole issue of the nudes.

She didn't know if she was cursed or something. Why did you she keep getting paired up with people who were undoubtedly the worst for her?

Okay maybe Jack wasn't the worst. But the fact was he had hurt her. He kept on coming to conclusions she knew nothing about then he started being cold and condescending. Like at least talk to her first.

She sighed and held her tummy and stroked her hand over it. "It's okay baby," she whispered, "Mommy's just going through a rough patch right now."

She turned off the water flow from the shower and slid the glass partition door open slowly. Ana hated feeling this way.

She wasn't the most cheerful person yes. But she hated when she was just down, morose, sad and you have it. Then she got sad about the fact that she was sad and it made her even sadder.

She walked briskly to her bedroom, a direct contrast with how sluggish she had been when she was in the bathroom. Ana dressed pretty quickly and went to the kitchen.

She rarely left home without breakfast and today was going to be no different. She spent long hours at work so she tried as much as possible to eat and healthily. The last thing she wanted to do was to make her baby sick. Or get a baby with a disability.

Not that she would love that baby less. But she didn't want to take any risks. She wanted a healthy baby.

The drive to work looked especially long. But it was always that way with Ana. When she had a lot on her mind, she always tended to think everything was much longer than it actually was.

After a while, she did something completely uncharacteristic of her. Ana hit the steering wheel in anger. It had been so long that she had done something like that.

Actually, she had never done something like that. She had been sad. But right now? She was fucking angry. She was pissed. Extremely mad at Jack. Who the hell did he think he was?

Ana didn't know what the hell was wrong with Jack. She didn't know why he kept on switching up on her. They had been okay about two days before. But then the day before, he switched up on her.

She didn't know what the hell had happened, but judging from the self satisfied smile on Dorothy Knight's face when she had gone to see the woman, Jack's mother had something to do with it.

Ana sighed and shook her head. It was supposed to be her and Jack in the relationship. Not her, Landon, Dorothy and Jack. That was why she tried as much as possible not to run to Landon every time she and Jack had an issue.

And also, she didn't let Landon's dislike for Jack influence her. She loved Jack. She was completely in love with him. And she wasn't ashamed to say she trusted him. If she heard anything about him, she would try to know what happened, not to come to a conclusion like he always did.

She reached work and parked carefully. Since her promotion, she had been assigned a special place in the parking and most probably, if Tasha saw her, she was going to throw stupid jabs.

As Ana got into the building, she saw Tasha. She ignored her. The last thing she needed was someone coming to annoy her after she was so stressed out.

"Ana," Tasha called out, a stupid smile on her face. That should have been the first clue that something was very wrong. Tasha never smiled at her, stupid smile or not.

But Ana was too pissed to notice the things that weren't quite right. Her anger had quite literally blinded her.

"What do you want Tasha?" Ana asked briskly, making Tasha raise a brow at her. Ana was never this brittle. Surely something had happened.

"I–" Tasha started but an impatient Ana cut her off.

"You know what? I don't really want to know. I'm almost late and I have a huge workload for today. Now you can kindly go on with whatever it is you were doing before I arrived. Good day," Ana said, then walked to the elevator.

She looked away and missed the actually terrifying look Tasha sent in her direction. If looks could harm, Ana would have been a like of bones. But the switch up was dumb fast. In no time, Tasha had a smile on her face. But it was not a jovial smile. It was the smile of someone that still had one trick up her sleeves.

Ana let out a sigh. That was the first time she had stood up to Tasha like that. She didn't know whether that was a good thing. Tasha was volatile. You never knew just what she had up her sleeve.

But at that moment, Ana couldn't bring herself to care enough. Tasha was frankly the least of her problems. She was trying not be cranky but Tasha just brought out the worst in her.

She walked into her office and as soon as she settled in, Landon called her. She smiled a little at the contact name then picked up the phone.

"Baby?" Ana called. Sometimes, when she really needed reassurance, she called Landon like that. Ana was honestly quite confused as to whether that was leading Landon on.

"Mel. Are you okay?" he asked and it was like some part of Ana was instantly comforted. Ana sighed.

Why couldn't she just fall in love with Landon? Why did she have to see him like a damn brother? He was basically everything she wanted but her dumb ass was in love with a fucking asshole.

"I'm okay, M. I'm just a little tired. I kind of slept late last night," she confided. She knew he was going to be a little pissed and more than a little worried, but at this point, she couldn't filter her thoughts, much less her words.

"What time is late?" Landon asked with a suspicious note in his tone. Ana was stubborn and she was going to keep hurting herself like this.

"I– um– 2 am," she confessed sheepishly, scratching her arm.

"Mel you know well enough that that is not good for neither you nor the baby. Can you fucking think sometimes!" he exclaimed and Ana was silent

"Landon, later," she said and hung up.

Immediately after Landon had said the words, he had felt guilty. But he didn't get the chance to apologise. Ana had already hung up. He sighed and placed his phone on the table in his office. Everything was just fucked up.

Ana on her side was hurt. Landon had never used that kind of tone with her. He asked her to fucking think. Lawd. He had said it so fucking seriously. Like every other decision she had ever take in her life was stupid.

To her consternation, Ana felt tears welling up in her eyes. It was just too much. The two most important people in her life were just being horrible. She loved those two men. And it was like both of them took pleasure in hurting her.

She wiped the tears that had managed to fall and sniffed. It was hard. And she didn't think she would be able to work. She was a fucking train wreck and all she was doing was snap at people and cry at every fucking thing.

Ana stood up, determined. She went to her boss's office and knocked softly. When she heard a come in, she went in after taking a deep breath.

"Um, sir good day," she said, holding her clammy palms against each other.

"Ana good morning," he said, giving her a genuine smile. He was no fatherly figure but he was a really nice man. Strict but very kind.

Ana smiled back nervously. She was looking for a way to put whatever she wanted in words but it was proving difficult for her.

"What do you want? Is there something wrong with the baby?" he asked worriedly.

"No– I– was– feeling a little dizzy," Ana exclaimed.

"You want to take a day off?" her boss asked and Ana nodded gratefully. "Of course Ana. I know how hard working you are. I know you'll cover this tomorrow. Go and get some rest," he finished and Ana almost started crying there and then.

She walked over to him and shocked both of them by giving him a hug. "Thank you so much sir," she said and went out of the office without waiting for a response from him.

Ana went to her office and hurriedly packed her stuff. She walked out and saw a suspicious looking Tasha. She was walking up and down the hall looking nervous.

When she saw Ana, she stopped though. "Are you leaving?" she asked.

"Not that it's any of your business. Buy yes Tasha I'm leaving," Ana replied. Another flag. Tasha never cared to find out whatever was happening with her life and her dumb ass didn't notice something was seriously wrong.

She noticed Tasha type something surreptitiously on her phone then come and stand in front of her. Ana frowned.

"Get out of my way Tasha," she said. Tasha smiled, a really chilling smile

"You deserve everything that is going to happen to you," she said cryptically then walked towards the office Ana used to share with her and their other coworkers.

Ana was honestly scared and she didn't know what to believe. But she wasn't going to stay in her office like a scaredy cat either because of a few words some dumb girl thought it was funny to throw around.

Ana took a deep breath and got into the elevator. It was slow and there was something that kept telling her not to go downstairs. But she ignored it. The last person she was going to be scared of was Tasha who was not smart enough to execute a stellar plan to hurt her.

Ana got out of the building and walked towards her car slowly and sluggishly, that instinct still warning her.

Ana had never had a sense of danger this great so she turned back and started walking briskly towards the building.

But it was too late. She felt something on her back. It was cold and made Ana freeze, quite literally.

"Now what you're going to do is turn around real quick and walk in the direction my little friend wants you to walk in. Deal?" the person said, putting an emphasis on the word friend so that Ana had no doubts on which friend he was talking about.

Ana swallowed and started walking trying to avoid the violent nudging the person behind her kept doing. She turned her head to side and saw Tasha standing there.

"Tasha help!" she exclaimed and the man turned her around quickly and backhanded her. Ana fell to the floor and he picked her up like a rag doll

"Sorry sweet thing but not everybody is your friend," he said and that was when Ana realized that Tasha was making no more to help her.

Before she could think of what was going on, she felt a sharp pain in her head and then darkness.

**End of flashback**

Ana sighed. It was of no use thinking of all the what ifs and the how's. Whatever had happened had happened. All she could do now was thinking of a smart way to get out of this situation she was in.

But to be honest, at that moment, Ana couldn't think straight. Her tummy was hurting from the hunger. She hadn't eaten lunch the previous day. And now the lack of food was coming to haunt her. The sound that came from her tummy was so loud it was embarrassing, even in an empty room.

Tasha came back to the room with a tray of food in her hand. Ana watched eagerly, thinking it was for her. Her stomach was grumbling even more insistently now.

Tasha watched her with a small smile then to Ana's greatest surprise, she placed the food on a small table and started eating.

Ana watched the other woman, salivating but she could do nothing about it. If Ana hadn't been pregnant, she wouldn't have been affected as she was now. Or she would have bore it stoically. But right now, it was extremely difficult to do so.

"Are you hungry Ana?" Tasha asked cruelly with a mean smile on her face.

Ana was far gone beyond pride. She needed food. She wasn't the one demanding it. It was the baby. And she could not refuse his demands.

"Yes," Ana answered breathlessly, hoping that Tasha was at least going to take pity on her and give her even a few bites of food.

"Oh that's sad. It's a shame that the portion of food here is enough for just one person," Tasha said with a mock sad expression on her face. "I guess the right thing would be to give you the food considering your condition and all that?" she asked, tapping a thin finger on her temple.

She stood up and walked towards Ana with the tray. Then she placed the tray in front of Ana and gestured for her to eat.

"Ana, there the food is. Eat. If you don't take a bite in thirty seconds, I'll just assume you're not actually hungry," Tasha said maliciously, looking at Ana's bound hands with ill-concealed humor.

Ana stared at Tasha for a while, wondering how someone as pretty as her could be so cruel.

"Aw Ana, I take it you're not that hungry," she said, then picked up the tray of food and walked to the table

Tasha ate with gusto, making audible sounds to show her enjoyment. Ana turned her head away, wondering what she had ever done in her life to deserve such treatment. She knew it was not a good idea as she had to remain alert to her surroundings, but Ana fell into a restless and dreamless sleep.

***

Landon stared at the pen in his hand for a while. It had been a full day and some hours since Ana had disappeared. He had started investigations, but he could not do anything without the high tech material offered at the precinct. And using it without permission would be illegal.

So he decided to use a more traditional method. He was going to go to Ana's office and he was going to question every single employee on her whereabouts. It was so strange that not even her boss had called her home or her next of kin to ask about her.

Speaking of next of kin, Landon had no idea on how he was going to break the news to Veronica. It wasn't like Veronica was a particularly loving person. But she was the person who had given Ana life. At the minimum, she deserved to know.

Landon resolved himself to go on his break, which was particularly long; an hour and thirty minutes. He could not just up and leave like that but at least on his break, he had an excuse. And he was sure the "quest" wasn't going to take more than that amount of time. Also, the editorial grounds of the magazine were not that far from the precinct. At most seven minutes in a car.

He waited impatiently for his break, casting an eye on the clock every two minutes or so. And when finally it was one pm, he stood up so enthusiastically that some of his colleagues stared at him with wonder.

Some started snickering, misinterpreting his haste. They probably thought he had a clandestine rendezvous he wanted to keep. Which was so far from the truth he almost burst into laughter.

Landon walked out to his car in haste and got in quickly. He didn't want to waste too much time. He knew he didn't have a warrant. But he had his badge. And he was convincing enough that they would have no choice but to listen to him.

Soon enough, he had reached. Luckily, the rush hour traffic had not yet extended. He was happy for that because he knew it would have made him a little late. And Landon had a schedule he wanted to respect.

Landon walked into the building and flashed his badge to the receptionist. Along with a charming smile so she asked him what he wanted.

"I want to see Mr. Adams. It's extremely important," he said, with the same smile. The woman looked dubious for a moment, then held up a finger to him.

"One second sir," she said, then she picked up the phone and dialled what he assumed was Adams's office. "Is Mr Adams in?" Yhere was a pause. "Is he free? Yes it's really urgent... Okay thank you." She looked up at Landon. "You can go up now sir. Last floor, first office to your right."

Landon nodded thankfully then walked to the elevator. He knew his line of questioning. He was going to direct and straight to the point. He didn't want to go around the issue.

He took in a deep breath and hoped that this man, Adams, would have the answers he was looking for.

Soon, Landon was standing in front of Adams's office. He knocked after taking in a deep breath and he heard a deep voice say come in. He walked in and was surprised to see, not a young a flamboyant man as he expected, but an older gentleman with seemingly normal features.

"Good day sir. I'm Detective Geralds and I'm here concerning the disappearance of Ana Elliot," he said, flashing his badge. He knew he couldn't do anything without it.

Adams's eyes got widened. "Ana's disappearance? What do you mean by that?" he asked, worried.

"I mean sir, that for about 36 hours now, Ana has neither been home not at work nor anywhere else. So I would like to ask you a couple of questions," Landon said and Adams nodded rapidly.

Landon thanked his lucky stars that this man cared about Ana, if not he would have been here in vain

"When last did you see Ana?" Landon asked, folding his long body into the chair opposite Adams.

"Today is Thursday, so that was Tuesday. She came in here. She looked sick and she asked me for permission to go back home," the man said earnestly and Landon frowned. "I assumed she was still sick and that's why she hadn't come in yesterday and today as well."

When Landon shot him a questioning glance, Adams hurried to explain himself, "Ana is one of my best employees. And I hate seeing her stressed out. She overworks herself sometimes"

"And that's the last of her you saw, sir?" Landon asked to confirm.

"Yes. I could give you access to the surveillance cameras on the parking if you want," he offered generously.

"Thank you Adams. I'll be back to check the parking lot and I'll take a look at those tapes. Thank you for your cooperation."

"No problem Detective. All I ask is you bring Ana back to us in one piece," Adams said, his voice almost imploring.

"Oh I will," Landon said in a low tone, the he tipped his head to Adams and left the office. Come hell or high water, he was going to find Ana.