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CELESTIA

Futile.
Useless.
For someone like me, who has no physical education or high endurance to suffer through extreme torment, it was pointless to fight two grown men, twice my size, to free myself of their hold.
What broke me, even more, was the way Kyla's cold eyes pinned over me, licking away my helplessness with great pleasure and satisfaction.
"Argh!" I cried out, flailing my legs when one of the brutes grabbed a bunch of hair and yanked me back into the chair.
There was no need for the brutality; my hands were already tapped to the wooden armrest, and the second man worked on my legs. My eyes burned with the tears as I tried to close them and gritted my teeth. No amount of screaming or yelling for help would be worth it. But even in despair, in utter helplessness, my mind was trying to crawl back into the sanctity of Raffaele.
Two of her lackeys stepped away when she clicked her fingers and sank into the chair before me. Her entire demeanour changed as if I did not know her at all for twenty one years of my existence.
Maybe I really didn't know her.
Maybe Raffaele was right all along to hate her with every ounce of him.
"What do you want you?" I snarled through clenched teeth.
"For starters, I wanted the signature but you refused," her voice snapped.
"What does the document say?" Whatever it was, it could not be good — at least for me, but I asked her nevertheless.
She lazily picked it up, flipping around the pages and told me, "It is written here that you are willingly transferring all your ownership rights in Donovan Inc. over to me."
"I don't understand."
"Of course, you don't, sweet Celestia." The way she mentioned my name, laced with sweet venom, it made me want to puke and yet I listened on. "That is why I want to handle the entire business from a position of ultimate power that your stupid father denied. Instead of putting my name in his inheritance, he put yours. Can you believe the audacity of him, making me the bloody guardian and you, his heir? All my efforts behind his death went in vain, and so were the crocodile tears."
All senses were lost on me with her words, and yet I felt an otherworldly pain. I imagined a nuclear bomb going off. One moment you are alive, and in the next, you are dead.
But in that millisecond between life and death — that is the most painful and defining moment of one's life.
I was living in that moment. Except for a millisecond of suffering, it seemed perpetual. It seemed like my entire existence was a giant mistake. I was a nobody. There was no real family, no friend…I was alone.
Breathe, Celestia, breathe.
"You…you had him killed?" I managed to whisper.
"What do you expect me to do?" Kyla was outraged. Anger seeped from every pore of her body like molten lava. "He promised me a marriage and then went on to knock up some whore from god-knows-where, and came back offering an apology?"
And it was just the beginning of her angry rant.
Apparently, my father never trusted Kyla. After my birth mother's death, he went on behind Kyla's back and changed the inheritance putting forth a clause for his heir — me. According to it, Kyla would remain an interim CEO and owner until I legally turn twenty-one and take over the business. From what my rational brain perceived, Kyla had no knowledge until she had him killed.
Rest of the story was basically my life of isolation.
Kyla never wanted a trace of me in this world because ultimately she would have me killed too. Just like she did to my birth parents.
A strangled laugh tore out of me as I shook my head. "Raffaele had always warned me about you…I should have listened to him."
"Oh, that man." By the tone, I could sense that she was well tormented by Raffaele. The hatred only tripled. She abandoned the chair and lurched to grab my face with her acrylic nails digging painfully into my cheeks. "I had to scratch and scrawl to arrange the money so that he lets you go. Celestia, you have no idea how much of a liability you are. Do me a fucking favour and sign the goddamn papers. Or God so help me, I will make you scream."
For a moment, she let my face go only to land a backhanded slap. My cheekbones blazed with pain, and I tasted blood on my tongue.
A blast of defiance blossomed as tipped up my chin. "Donovan Inc was my father's. There is no way I am giving it to you; not even over my dead body."
Kyla chuckled viciously. "Oh, darling, you are so much worth to me alive than dead. You don't kill a golden goose, you sell it. To the highest bidder." She traced a finger along my neck and over the cleavage, whispering, "Someone who would rightfully appreciate your beauty and the charm between your legs."
I shivered, repulsed.
I was gutsy enough to take a blow, brave to embrace death but not humiliation. I could not be bid and sold away like cattle and then be treated like a piece of ragdoll for someone else's pleasure.
A helpless sob rose in my throat. "Kyla, please don't do this. Please."
"Then sign the goddamn papers."
"Never," I determined.
Her heels clicked against the wooden floor as she took a few steps away from me and stood with her arms folded. My eyes flew to the same men, the brutes, ordering, "Teach her a lesson, but be careful; do not ruin the merchandise."
What entailed next was the most painful thirty minutes or so in my life. Rough hands punched my ribs, groped and touched and tormented beyond reason. The abuse was more humiliating than hurting as the men got rougher.
I must have screamed once or twice, then settled onto biting down my cheeks, because I did not want them to give me the satisfaction of pain.
"Enough," Kyla ordered them in a slacken tone and stabbed me a look. "Will you now sign the papers?"
"Fifteen million," I said hoarsely. "I can pay you back the fifteen million you had given Raffaele."
Her greedy eyes gleamed and shone. "How?"
"It's in a bank account with my name." I further went on to conjure up a story that I had made a deal with Raffaele in exchange for money and hoped that this would buy me some time for myself. "I can have it wired to you right now," I told her.
"You are lying." Kyla deadpanned.
"I am not. Bring in a computer and I will show you."
She weighed my words for a second. "I am not handing you any device. You will instruct and I will type. That is the only condition."
I readily agreed.
Once she got her laptop on, I gave her the details of the account, whatever password necessary as she clicked away. If one thing I sensed about Kyla was that—she was gluttonous for money.
And greed was one of the seven deadly sins. It would be her downfall.
Or so I hoped.
Whatever business and finance law I have read about till now, I knew that an amount like fifteen million could not be transferred so easily. Or without notifying it to the bank.
Perhaps, Kyla forgot that.

RAFFAELE

Something was off, I knew it. I knew it in my bones exactly the way I knew I loved Celestia. It was unlikely that she would not call me, unlikely the way Kyla disappeared and given her history, I would not put past that woman to harm Celestia.
There was a voice in my head. I could hear it screaming in pain, and I didn't know if it was mine or Celestia's. Or maybe I have gone completely insane.
Alec, with the help of a few illegal contacts, tracked down the driver who drove Kyla this morning, only to the point another picked up. It was not easy to make him talk, but Cesar had the talent to draw out words of dumbs.
And right now, Cesar was busy waterboarding him and burning out his lungs.
"Stop…I…please!" he wheezed, coughed and struggled against the strong hold.
"You have been driving Kyla around the city for months," I said calmly. "I want every location and every possible person that ever stepped into the car with her."
"You don't understand…" he frantically looked between Cesar and I. "She will…she is dangerous."
I chuckled. "She is dangerous only because she chose weak enemies."
"I don't…I don't know. I swear—" Before he could finish the sentence, the damp cloth was pressed over his nose and mouth and followed by the gush of water.
The moment Cesar gave him a small respite to have his breath back, the door opened with a force. Amadeo stormed in with a tablet in his hand.
"Did Celestia know about the bank account where you deposited the money for her?" he asked, almost breathless.
"Yes. Why?"
"And the details and password?"
"Yes," I answered on autopilot. "Why, what happened?"
"Five minutes ago, someone transferred the fifteen million to an offshore account."
Fuck, this has to be Celestia.
I snatched the tablet and looked over the details. "This is it." My gaze locked with Amadeo. "I can hack into the server and find out the IP address from where the transfer has been made."
This was the lead I needed.
Hang on, bambi. I am coming for you.

Hey loves, thank you for reading. Scroll down for Ch.63!