Chapter Fourty
Nathan
I glanced up at Alyssa, hearing a groan coming from her. I didn't hesitate to rush to her side as she stirred, her eyes squinting as they adjusted to the lights. It wasn't long before her hazel eyes fluttered open, filling with confusion.
"Hey." I said to get her attention. "How're you feeling?"
"Like someone used my brain as a battering ram." Was her raspy reply.
I would've laughed if I wasn't still very concerned for her. It's been hours since she fainted and I've been worried sick. After the episode in my office, I cancelled all my meets and rushed her home, calling Dr. Richardson on the way.
After I explained what happened, he concluded she must've had an anxiety attack and because of her history with them, prescribed some Xanax for her.
"How did I get home?" She asked, taking the aspirin I offered her with a bottle of water.
"I brought you."
"Oh." She looked down at her hands, her face cold and unreadable.
I placed a hand on her shoulder as I dropped beside her. "What's the matter, Love?"
Her lips pursed as a tear fell out of her eye. She shut her eyes and a sob made its way past her lips. I silently hugged her close as she let out heartbreaking cries into my chest.
"What did I ever to to them? What did I do to deserve all this?" She sobbed loudly.
"This isn't your fault, none of it is." I tried to soothe her but it only made things worse.
She started yelling, pulling away from me sharply. "He wanted to sell me, Nathan! Like a worn out piece of furniture. I didn't do anything to him, I wasn't even supposed to live with him. Why did he do that to me?! He wanted to kill my parents! He tortured me for years! He and his fucked up family are the reason I'm scarred for life! I never had friends because of them, I spent my teenage years in anguish because of them! I tried to kill myself so escape but they didn't let me die because they'd lose everything. I hate them! I hate them so much!!"
"Don't worry, Love. They are going to pay for everything they've done to you." I promised.
"I want them to suffer, the way I've suffered. I want the to feel the pain that they've caused me. I want them to have the scars I have, I want them to go to sleep every night in pain and wake up praying for death. They should pay with their lives for all I've faced."
I was terrified. Her eyes flared with more anger than I've ever seen on her and her voice was cold and menacing. I hate Christopher even more, he damaged her, made her feel inferior, never let her truly express herself.
I understood her anger. It was all her pent up emotions coming as one, all her pain, frustration over everything that had happened to her over the past. I was happy she expressed everything the way she did because I knew after all this, she'd be better than ever and I couldn't wait for Christopher to see the girl he thought he broke.
"I'll take care of it, Love, they'll get what they deserve." I assured as she let me pull her into the hug again.
She was back to crying in a few seconds. "I'm sorry for all this, Nathan. I-I've been a burden, y..."
I interrupted her. "You are not a burden."
"B-but I keep putting my problems on you and making you worry and..."
"If I didn't worry about you I wouldn't be a good husband, same if I don't help you with your problems." I placed a hand on her back and rubbed slowly. "Remember, I vowed to be with you for better or worse, till death do us part and that's exactly what I'm planning to do. And if you ever call yourself a burden again, I'll cancel our Netflix subscription."
She let out a small airy chuckle and buried her face in my neck. I held her for a few minutes till her breaths became even and she went limp. I laid her on the bed, making sure the covers were on her before I kissed her cheek, deciding to order dinner since it was an hour away and I'd wake her before then.
An hour later, I walked back into the room and was surprised to see her already awake. She sat facing the window with her head bent, staring at her phone, tensed.
"What's wrong?"
She jumped slightly before she relaxed, seeing that it was me. She pressed her finger to her lips rapidly, telling me to stay quiet for some reason.
But, I didn't. "What's going on?"
She rushed over and placed a hand over my mouth, silencing me. My attention was brought to her phone. She had a message open, a message from Christopher.
Tell Nathan you lied.
About what?
Don't play games with me. I know you told him. Tell him you lied about everything. If you don't, Oliver won't be such a happy child or a breathing one.
I was enraged and confused. I haven't taken any legal action against him yet neither have we mentioned anything about it in his presence, so how did he know she told me about what he's done to her?
He wouldn't if he didn't have an informant. But he couldn't, we barely have any workers that come into the house, even my housekeeper only comes three times a week and doesn't know anything about it.
The only other thing I can think of is if he had planted a listening device the time he was here.
I could see the wheels turning in in Alyssa's head as she thought. I grabbed the hand that she had put on my mouth and dragged her out of the house.
Realizing the listening device could be in her phone, I took it from her and practically threw it on a couch as we passed the living room. I pulled her to the garage and opened a car that I knew Christopher hadn't even seen me use, pushing her into the back seat before getting in and shutting the door.
"What the hell are you doing, Nathan?" Alyssa asked with a questioning glare.
"I think there's a bug in the house."
She scoffed. "A bug? Seriously? You're worried about a bug and not how Christopher knows you know the truth."
I rolled my eyes at her lack of technological knowledge. "A bug is how some people call a listening device. I think your uncle planted one in our house or maybe there's one in your phone."
Her eyes widened in alarm. "So what're we gonna do now? Where could it be? If it's so small, he could've put it anywhere."
"We'll have to check your phone first but that'll mean me dismantling it while you check under all the surfaces and behind the couches."
"Wait, you want to destroy my phone?"
"Not 'destroy', 'dismantle'. I know how to do it and put it back together without damaging anything."
"Oh. Okay. What would the 'bug' look like?"
I shrugged. "If you find anything weird, bring it to me to identify but things like this are usually black and barely the size of a button." She nodded. "We can't talk when we get in until we find it and get rid of it."
"Okay."
We walked back to the house silently. As she skimmed her hand under possible locations, I worked on taking her phone apart, careful not to damage it.
Why does she still have this piece of junk? I can get her a new phone from my company by morning.
I didn't find anything strange in her phone and by the time I finished putting it back together, she came with a paper saying she didn't find anything.
Her eyebrows creased momentarily before her face lit with realisation and she nodded. Before I could write down my question, she had run towards our room and came back shortly after with a box.
Inside was a watch. I recognised it as the one she wore the day I tricked her into coming to my meeting with Christopher. It was always in our closet, I didn't think he was the one who gave it to her.
She placed it in front of me and I took my tools to take the back off. The moment I did, we saw the small black device attached to the watch engine. My hands went to pinch the bridge of my nose as a took a breath.
All this while he's been listening in on our conversations through this and none of us had any idea. He's probably heard what Alyssa said not even two hours ago, even our conversation in the car and every other conversation we've had in our room.
Fuck.
It's a good thing I never really spoke in so much detail about it. So he doesn't know who I'm working with or when he's going to be arrested, which had to be soon.
I made quick work of connecting it to my laptop and disabling it so we could talk.
Alyssa was the first to speak after I gave the all clear. "Nathan, I am so sorry about this. I had no idea he put anything inside."
"It's okay, there's no way you would've known. But what are we going to do now?" I held my head in my hand and closed my eyes, rubbing my temple to fight the coming headache. "He knows what we're planning and if we destroy the device he'll know you told me about it, same if I leave it disabled for much longer. He threatened Oliver..."
"This isn't the first time."
I thought my neck would break because of how fast I turned my head. "What do you mean by that?"
She avoided my heated gaze and bit her bottom lip. "This isn't the first time he's threatened Oliver."
As much as I tried to hide how angry I was, I was pretty sure she knew. "When did he?".
"Nathan, I'm sorry."
I'm getting tired of her apologies. "Just tell me!"
She jumped with fear. "T-thanksgiving. H-he said if I didn't give him five million dollars he'd hurt Oliver."
In my anger, I got up and threw my seat down, the loud noise making her gasp.
I checked my teeth, trying not to yell. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't think it was important anym..."
I lost control and raised my voice. "How could you think that wasn't important?! He threatened Oliver, our son and you didn't think to tell me!"
"I'm sorry."
"Why do you keep doing this?!" I threw my hands in the air angrily with a furious growl.
Alyssa shrank away and covered her face with her hands as if protecting it, like she was afraid I'd hit her. I knew I had to calm down.
Did she really think I was going to hit her?
At that moment, my phone started beeping wildly, the alert from the heart monitor Dr. Richardson put on her while she was unconscious. I haven't even had time to explain it to her yet.
Her lip quivered as tears welled in her fear-filled eyes. I took a breath as my anger changed to care and approached her cautiously. She took a frightful step back, bracing herself on the wall as the first year rolled down her cheek.
"I'm sorry." She repeated. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
I finally got to her as she slid down to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. I crouched down beside her.
"Alyssa, darling, please calm down." I whispered softly. "I'm not going to hurt you, I would never."
I could hear her shallow breaths while I pulled her head to my chest. She relaxed against me, her body still shaking as her panic attack hit her hard.
"Can you try something for me, Love?" I felt her nod and pushed her slightly so we were looking into each other's eyes.
"I want you to close your eyes," I instructed and she obeyed. "think of your best memory, or a thought that makes you happy, have you done that?" She nodded. "Okay, breathe in."
I inhaled with her and we exhaled when I said so. After a few minutes of breathing and almost three bottles of water, my phone stopped beeping and Alyssa was calm.
I sat us on a couch, cuddled up, thankful that Dr. Richardson's methods worked. He also suggested that she go to a therapist but I don't think she's ready for that yet.
"Nathan?" She called.
"Hm?"
"Are you still mad?" Her voice was barely audible with a slight rasp from all the crying she's done and the look she gave me melted my heart.
"No, but can you promise you won't keep secrets from me anymore?"
She pursed her lips for a brief moment before answering. "I promise."
I placed a kiss on her lips and rubbed her back. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"
She didn't respond immediately. "I used part of the ten million you sent me to pay Christopher and there's something else but can I tell you another time? I think we've had enough drama for tonight."
Fighting the urged to ask what it was, I replied. "Sure."
"So what are we gonna do about the bug? I think it's been disabled long enough for him to realize we found it."
"There might still be time, maybe be hasn't noticed. If we break it, he be sure but if we leave it on and get it far from us, he'll think maybe you just threw the watch away." I didn't think destroying it was the best idea.
From Alyssa's stories, I got a good picture of how he got when he was angry and he brought Oliver into the mix. I feared he wouldn't go after Alyssa or I but Oliver'll be the one getting hurt.
"But won't he still think I we know? It's still kind of the same thing." She pointed out.
I agreed but I didn't see any other way out of this. "We'll figure something out, but for now, we can't talk about him, not in the house."
"Okay."
"I'll turn it back on for now, okay? We'll go out for dinner." I suggested.
I trailed behind her as she went to our bedroom so I could be sure she wasn't dizzy. While she did that, I assembled the watch with the bug in it and placed it where it was in our closet.
To my surprise, she put the watch on as we left and by the time we got home, she 'misplaced' it.
The day had caught up to her and she was asleep seconds after her head hit the pillow. I, on the other hand, was kept away by my fears. I had to protect my family, Alyssa and Oliver, even if it means putting myself at risk.
The only time I'd be convinced they were safe is when Christopher and his family are sent to jail. It had to be soon.
Real soon.