The hospital was sparsely populated, which made it even spookier during the late-night storms.
I had no way of falling asleep, so I thought to sit up for a bit. I attempted to pull myself into an upright position.
I must have swung overly hard and had knocked the bottle of saline solution to the floor with a loud crash.
The doors swung open at the sound of the disturbance, and Danny entered the ward.
He frowned at the mess on the floor and turned to leave.
Soon after, he returned with a nurse who promptly cleaned it up. She relayed some instructions in broken English and departed.
Danny glanced at me and turned to leave.
“Mr. Danny!” I called out suddenly.
“Yes, Ms. Stanhope?” he spun around and answered politely.
“I’d like to know what is going on between Anthony and Abe.”
Danny frowned with reluctance. “Ms. Stanhope, you need to rest,” he said after a moment’s pause.
He turned again to leave. In a moment of panic, I flung the glass of water onto the floor to get his attention. “If you are going to threaten Anthony with my life, you should at least do me the courtesy of telling me why. I just want to understand what my death is for.”
Danny was unhappy. “Ms. Stanhope, you should treasure life!” he said, with his eye on the broken shards of glass on the floor.
“Mr. Danny, I know you are not a native Venrian,” I said after a deep breath. “For whatever reason that landed you to be Abe’s associate, you must understand that after all the illegal things that you’ve done, you have your punishment awaiting you.”
He looked at me with amusement like I was a simpleton. Meanwhile, the nurse returned and cleaned up the shards.
Danny took a seat under the lamp. His dark skin glinted maliciously under the bright fluorescent as he looked at me. I suppressed my shudder at the sight of him.
“I’m not a religious man,” he said after a pause. “I don’t believe in retribution or punishment; you can take your piousness someplace else away from us. Mr. Abe and Mr. Featherstone share a grudge that is personal in nature. Your appearance was part of the plan. When you were in the car with Dante, the plan was already formalized by Mr. Abe.”
“We thought you were a Murphy, when the Murphys came looking for you. But when you said that the Featherstones, the Stanhopes, and the Moores from K City will protect you, it was a clue that sparked our interest for further investigation. There wasn’t much news of you back in Chanaea, but the fact that we were all able to pull this off with no casualties demonstrated that luck was on our side.”
“What conflict did Abe and Anthony have in the past?” I asked, trembling. I did not expect to be used as a pawn that early on.
Danny leaned back on his chair. “’Conflict’ is an understatement,” he drawled. “Old Mr. Featherstone and Mr. Abe’s father were comrades during the war. One of whom returned to Chanaea to retire, the other remained in Venria to defend its borders. The Featherstones capitalized on their wartime glory to flourish and prosper, but Mr. Abe’s father didn’t fare too well out at the border. For the sake of his wife, he was forced to make an honest but meager living. He did not expect that George Featherstone and his grandson would one day come back and visit him, much less bring up his old indiscretions.”
I frowned. I did hear of Grandpa Featherstone visiting his old comrade along with Anthony at the border. On the way back they were assaulted and have met the Lorraines.
Parker Lorraine had entrusted his sister to Anthony’s care before he died. They remained married for many years. It was because of Rylee that things happened between Anthony and me.
Little did I realize that I was dragged into the middle of this again.
“Did something happen to Mr. Abe’s father?” I asked.
Danny nodded. “He was a hero on the battlefield. Forced to live a life of increasingly conflicting choices, his punishment was more severe than other men. To spare his wife and child the burden which he bore, he killed himself.”
I was shocked with pity. My mind turned to the night I saw Anthony. He had spent a lot of money on that necklace. “What is up with that necklace?”
“By the time old Mr. Featherstone and Anthony returned to their country, they’d offended many illegal businessmen in the region, and the plot to assassinate the Featherstones came into being. While they were being hunted, they were forced to pawn everything they owned just to make it back. That necklace belonged to Anthony’s grandmother. George Featherstone kept it with him all these years. Mr. Abe learned of this and used the high sentimental value of the necklace to lure Anthony to Venria.”
I was able to venture a pretty good guess as to how the rest of the story went.
Abe used the necklace as bait to get Anthony to his territory.
The appearance of me and my value to Anthony was a stroke of dumb luck.
Anthony would never have guessed that I was here, and Abe would never have guessed the relationship between Anthony and me.
Danny rose to his feet when I did not speak. “What else would you like to know?” he asked lightly.
“What is the relationship between Armond and Mr. Abe?”
“They’re business partners.”
“Kyanine?” I asked, suddenly frightened.
“Our product is mostly exported to Western Europe,” Danny smiled coldly. “Not much to Chanaea.”
“What are they partners on, then?”
“Jades.”
I nearly forgot. Venria exported an astounding variety of gemstones.
We relapsed back into silence. At his readiness to leave, I didn’t feel like asking any more questions. As he was about to exit the room, I said, “I would like to see Mr. Abe.”
Danny nodded and left the room.
True to his word, Abe appeared the following morning.
His tall frame cast a long shadow over my bed. “You wanted to see me?” he asked, looking at me in an odd manner. It was calculating but cold at the same time.
I nodded and sat up. “You promised me once, that if I did as you said, you would let my friends go.”
Abe raised his eyebrows in derision. “Your friends?” he repeated with a laugh. “You still think your life is worth four of theirs?”
“Yes, because Anthony cares about me!” I answered, my eyes fixed upon his.
Abe grunted and absentmindedly tore up a leaf from the potted plant. “Are you his wife?” Abe asked, squinting at me. “Under these circumstances, shouldn’t you be more concerned for his life over the lives of others?”
He paused. “Unless you’re so confident in his abilities that you think he will get out of this alive.”
“No matter which it is, you can’t go back on your word,” I said fiercely.
Abe laughed madly for an instant. “You have yourself a deal.”
“Take care of the ladies,” Abe instructed Dante. “When she’s healed, send them back unharmed.”
“Yes, Sir!” Dante answered.
I was away from K City for several months without being in touch with Anthony. I had wanted to leave, but I knew deep down that I was unable to bear a child with him.
I chose to leave and held on to the hope that with time, he would meet a girl worthy of him to bear his children.
But I have never expected to have run into him amidst my soul-searching trips.
It was an accident, but a coincidental one.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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