Chapter 190: Where Is Mariah

Rachel's POV

The doctor checked the IV bag again beside her bed for the last time, and he withdrew from the bed completely, ambling back to us, Logan, Draco, and me. He wore his professional look of nonchalance with every ounce of his being, even with the way he walked.

“She'll wake up soon,” the doctor threw a fake smile at all our faces, bowed his little aged head gently to Draco and Logan, and turned for the door.

Draco's muscles quivered as he drew closer to the doctor, blocking his path to the door. “Can't you pump her with something, doc? Something that'll make her wake up immediately and be able to talk to us now.”

The doctor shook his little head grimly. “I am afraid I can't do that, Mr. Biancardi. It will be unprofessional of me, and it could have an adverse effect on her.”

“It could kill her for all I damn care. Some adverse effect on her is the least of what she deserves,” Draco challenged.

“Still I can't do that, Mr. Biancardi,” the doctor said. He leaned back, throwing his arm under the full reach of his gaze, consulting his wristwatch. “In an hour or two, she’ll come around,” the doctor assured. He bowed again and made to leave.

Draco snatched his arm, pulling him back. Logan strode towards them then. “Let the doctor go,” he pulled Draco's arm gently from the doctor. “You have waited for years. An hour or two is nothing.”

Draco grunted, dropping the doctor’s arm with a force that made the doctor tremble on his feet. He strode back into the room, following Logan's lead.

The doctor bowed again to him and Logan and then scampered fast from the room. I turned to the baby in the shawl in my hands as he stirred, bumping his legs and arms around the shawl while licking his tiny lips.

He stared straight at me, with his icy blue eyes, just like Logan's. He reached up to me with his tiny and chubby little hands. I smiled at him. I thrust a finger to poke his chubby cheeks, but he caught it with both of his small hands, his tiny tender fingers folding around my relatively bigger finger.

I couldn't really say about the facial resemblance. I believed it was too early to tell, but the eyes—it was enough proof that he was Logan's son.

Suddenly, as if spurred by something in him, his chubby little face tightened, and a loud cry blared out of his tiny lips, tearing through the fragile silence in the room like a whip.

Draco and Logan turned sharply to me and the baby. Their gazes pinning me to the armchair, like it was my fault the baby cried.

I thrust the baby in the air to them, for either of them to take, if they’ll have any luck with him more than I do.

Draco just grunted, looking away. Logan chuckled. “Hold on to him, Rachel. He’ll cry more if he has to stare at either Draco's face or mine,” he said, over the baby's loud cries.

Then suddenly, she stirred on the bed, her eyes opening carefully to the room.

There was a flurry of movements as Draco and Logan rushed to her bed. As if the baby could sense the activity in the room, or was perhaps overpowered by the louder noise, he quieted, his tiny crying voice dying slowly to a murmur.

Draco lunged to the bed to grab her by her dress, but Logan pushed his hands away. “She is bad, yeah. But she is still a woman. Get a grip on yourself, Draco.”

“Okay,” Draco grunted reluctantly, his voice tainted with a bit of grudge. While Logan sat on the bed beside her. Draco stood by the bedside. Intimidating her with his build and presence.

She raised her dank, sleepy eyes to Draco beside her as she sat up gently on the bed—those eyes, she’d always hidden beneath her glasses, those innocent eyes that buried the evil in her heart.

She stared at him for a moment, her look almost emotionless. She had always acted scared of Draco, but now, she just carried her gaze away from him to Logan, as if he meant nothing. Her fear of Draco was either always an act or she had grown past that fear.

When she stared at Logan now, her lips stretched gently for a smile. But Logan wasn't staring back. “What happened to you, Briella? I thought you and Luca were pals.” He asked, his eyes sweeping her torn and dirty dress and her unkempt hair.

She collapsed on the bed’s frame gently, then her eyes drifted to me slowly. The look she gave me was just like the one she gave Draco—dank, emotionless, as if she had forgotten who I was—forgotten she had almost killed me thrice.

She turned fully to Logan now, and her dry, weak lips parted for words. “I am sorry, Logan, for everything I did. I didn't mean—”

“Just answer my question: what happened between you and Luca? Why are you like this? Weren't you his friend’s daughter?”

She wanted to say something, but hesitated, and then she opened her mouth to speak again. “I don't know, Luca. Dylan was the one I knew, and he was never my father. We were just associates.” She bowed her head away. “He was a con man, and I was like his accomplice. He went to hide in Sumpter County when the police were after him. One day, I got a call from him that he had a big job he wanted me on. Then he brought me to this city to pose as the mayor's adopted daughter while he impersonates the mayor. We were barely a month on the job when I realized he wasn't the one pulling the strings for the operation, but someone named Luca. But at that time, it was too late to back out, and I’d already fallen in love with you, Logan. I truly loved you, Logan.” She paused, staring fully at him again. She reached for his hands. He slapped her hands off before she could reach him.

“Get on with your story,” he said, his voice cold.

Her face lost color for a moment, and I watched a strand of tear drop down her dirty cheeks. But it could all be an act—she was a con woman anyway. So no one paid her tears any attention, not even Logan.

“Continue,” Logan snapped now.

She hiccuped, then she continued, letting more tears flow down her cheeks. “I wanted to back out of the job and warn you about Luca, but he threatened to kill me. So I had no choice but to follow through with the job. But I couldn't anymore when you and Draco were abducted. I knew I had to do something then. That was why I revealed the location of where Dylan kept you and Draco to Rachel, using a letter I slipped secretly into her room. That and the fact that I tried to kill Rachel made Luca angry. When Dylan died, he abducted me before I could escape and swore to use me and our child for his revenge. I tried to escape many times, but I couldn't. I finally got the opportunity when his men took me to a hospital to deliver our son. I ran away right from the labor room, escaped Luca's men in the hospital, and boarded a cab to here."

“You don't fool me with your sob story. You have always had a choice. Your story doesn't stop me from making you pay for all that you have done.” Draco snapped at her. “The only thing keeping me from your neck is the fact that you are a woman, and trust me, I also know how to deal with women like you.”

She drew closer to Logan, as if to seek his protection. Logan pushed her away just as before. “Stay back, Briella. I also feel the same as Draco. The only reason why I am this lenient with you is because, should I like it or not, you will always be the mother of my son.”

She dropped back to the bed now. She threw a glance at me, her eyes tight on me, intense—quivering with hate. Blaming me as always for Logan's rejection of her.

She returned her gaze back to Logan and Draco, her eyes sharpening. She had on a look that scared me for a moment. “What if I tell you where Mariah is being kept? She was the one tending to me all through my pregnancy. We were being held in the same place.”

Draco snatched her by her dress now, heaving her up, forgetting that she was a woman. “Where is Mariah being kept?”

“Promise me you’ll let me stay here in this mansion, and I’ll tell you,” She forced a grin.

“I don't need to when I can torture the answer out of you.”

“Then I’ll kill myself, and there'll be no one to take care of your nephew.” Her grin widened again, a crazy glint lighting up her eyes.

Draco grunted, tightening his grip on her collar, pulling her up further, and her IV pipe was strained taut in the air. She winced, biting her lips hard in pain. He didn't care. “Tell me where Mariah is, or I’ll forget that you are a woman and treat you as I would treat a man.” He yelled into her face.

“Logan would stop you before you do,” she returned fiercely.

“Okay, okay,” Logan screamed, just before Draco could be tempted to use his fist, which kept quivering over her dress, which he still grabbed onto. “You get to stay. Just tell us where Mariah is being kept.”

Still being almost strangled by Draco, she turned to smile at Logan. She searched his face with her eyes, like she could tell his sincerity from his face.

“Get on with the answer already,” Logan snapped when she remained silent.

Her lips dissolved into a smile at him again, and she read them an address of a place in Sumpter County. “If you want to find Mariah, I suggest you leave immediately, because once Luca realizes I have escaped from his men, he will be moving her out from there.”

Draco threw her onto the bed, turning fast for the door.

She groaned in pain as she hit the bed roughly. She sat up quickly when she saw Logan strolling fast out of the room behind Draco. “Since I’ll be staying, I am going to need some clothes and things, Logan,”

Logan scoffed, “You will be needing nothing, Briella. Because you will only be staying for just two days.” He said over his shoulders.

“But you promised,” Briella yelled after him. She started from the bed, forgetting her arm was connected to an IV bag, hanging on a stand beside her bed.

“Yeah. I promised that you’d stay, but I didn't say for how long. And just two days is enough to endure the sight of you. By the third day, you should have found another place just for yourself, as you won't be taking my son away with you.” He said over his shoulders again, disappearing gradually from the room.

“Logan! Logan!!” Briella yelled after him, but he didn't respond.

I could tell they were heading to get Mariah—my mother. I couldn't let them leave me behind. I dropped the baby on the bed beside Briella, earning a rather hostile glare from her. I shrugged my shoulders, thinking nothing of it. At least now, she wasn’t pretending to be kind. I raced out of the room after Logan and Draco, catching up with them in the garage.