《Doted On By The Mafia Boss》 Chapter 1- LITTLE BEE Chapter 1- LITTLE BEE ¡°I fell in love twice, both for a different version of yours!¡± ¨C Asmitha (Doted on by the Mafia Boss) ____________________________________________ The lights of the night club were put out and what remained on were few red neon lights; the whole room was chaotic as if it had just braved a thunderstorm. With snacks and empty ss bottles scattered aimlessly on the floor the club room was lifeless as if there was no party going on a few hours ago. Suddenly the doors of the room were pushed open and a lean little silhouette came into sight; the mysterious face was hidden in the shadows and thus it was unable for anyone to make out who it really was. The silhouette took a step in and it was when that sweet smiling face was revealed. Her figure was frail and instead of being womanly it was more like that of a teenager. Her dark brown hairs were tied into two pigtails which unted her little face with clean and pure features. She donned a white shirt and pink skirt and a little belt around her waist, with a pair of white sneakers guarding her fragile feet she entered into the lifeless hall. Everything about her was pure and tiny; it was as if she was the muse when men invented the word ¡®cute¡¯. She was quite simple but what remained attractive about her was the little mole below the corner of her left eye. She had unusually perfect features but instead of being ¡®tempting¡¯ she looked quite naive and innocent, someone who was worth to be showered with love and care. To put it straight she looked more like a reincarnation of amb soul- sweet, tiny and innocent. She waved the package in her arms to the void as her childish voice resounded in the empty room, ¡°Arthur, I bought the thing you asked for!¡± Her voice managed to attract a pair of young ears who raised his head from the wine cer. The man had breathtakingly clean features, cing his captivating eyes at the little girl he shed her a friendly smile, ¡°Bee, you are here!¡± ¡°Ah huh, and see what I have bought along.¡± Little Bee shoved her hands into her pocket and pulled out a bunch of lollipops; waving it at him she continued, ¡°We can enjoy it after doing our chores.¡± Arthur could only smile thinking how easy it was to satisfy this little girl, nodding his head helplessly he giggled, ¡°As you wish, my little princess.¡± ¡°Where are the others?¡± Little Bee asked finding the room empty; Arthur jumped across the serving desk and rolling up his sleeves exined, ¡°Everyone is booked!¡± ¡°Everyone?¡± The girl was astonished. ¡°Yep, the party was held by a big shot in the city so he easily afforded to take everyone out to y.¡± Arthur exined as he leaned on his knees of match her height. Even though the girl was happy that her sisters would bring back more money she unhappily pursed her lips. Arthur raised an eyebrow as he asked, ¡°What is it?¡± Little Bee looked up at him with puppy eyes and said like a poor thing, ¡°I too want to get dressed up and go out to y like other girls.¡± Arthur chuckled to himself, this little fool had no idea what was the reality of the world she was dwelling in. To her eyes the ce where she serves is no more than an ordinary jazz bar but the truth was much more horrifying. ¡®Seductress Night¡¯ was a prostitute centre and rented some of the best woman in Italy. Every girl who worked under this roof had this special identity except for the naive Little Bee. She was the youngest off all and was just too innocent to be engaged in these activities. Little Bee was only twelve years old when Arthur first joined the crew as a Bartender. His first impression of her was that of a little girl in two braids, sitting idly at a corner, sucking on her candies and watching the party unfold silently as if she had no knowledge or sense what was going on around her. He would have been convinced that she was a little statue if not for her assional chewing or smiling at the people who noticed her. Dressed in a white worn out gown she looked like a little fairy amidst the racks of liquor and neon lights. This sight of a girl with such a pure aura was something one can not always see at ces like this. To be honest, Arthur found her presence in the club a bit ''disturbing''. She was clearly a kid, was it even legal for her parents or guardians to bring her to such ces? Where were herpanions, she was sitting there alone the whole time with not even a single soul initiating a conversation with her. Obvious innocence and confusion was written on her little face which Content ? N?velDrama.Org. remained stale to the heated up atmosphere around her. Seductress was an infamous club with really notorious personalities frequenting it. It was a lion''s den for innocent creatures like her; wasn''t she afraid of the danger lurking around her? His interest piqued in her when he found her sitting at the same ce, with sheer obedience and consistency, every subsequent day. This was literally very strange for him to see a young girl all by herself. Just how irresponsible were her guardians who not only bought her but also abandoned her at such ces. His curiosity grew and he started to ask around about her. His investigation didn''t lead him to the identity of her parents or about people who brought her here but something rather unusual and sad. CHAPTER 2- HER TRUE IDENTITY CHAPTER 2- HER TRUE IDENTITY Asking around he was informed that she was not a customer but one of the female workers of the club. Arthur was stupefied; how can it be, she was just a little kid. His co worker sighed, slowly narrating the whole thing. ''The girl'', the name through which she was addressed in the starting days, was sold to the club a week ago by an anonymous man with a Spanish ent. It was when he learnt that Little Bee was not even a native American but from Spain. Arthur felt bad for the little girl, at such a tender age she was pushed down to such a ce from where she cannot escape till she inhales herst breath. Little Bee always stayed mum, maybe because she had no knowledge of English or maybe because she was not familiar with the faces she was seeing and will see for the rest of her life. She was just a kid, the smell of wine and the red lights will surely be alien for her. Little Bee, at that time, had no idea about how things work. She was just an innocent soul; the higher ups tried to train her for the bed so that she can start her service but maybe her poor little face cracked their hearts that they allowed her to stay and get familiar with the atmosphere in here. It was said that she was sold for mere 100 dors to the club, the higher ups didn''t spend a fortune on her and thus were not in a hurry to get back the interest of the spent sum. Also, if she is sent to someone with raw knowledge and she provides a bad service she could ruin the whole business and contacts. Thus, Little Bee was allowed to stay in the club as a cleaner and it was decided that she will be professionally trained once she turns 16, when her body will be ample and mature to please the customers. Within a month, the girl managed to get familiar with everyone. Sh e was assigned the cleaning works which she did with utmost sincerity. It was her small frail figure but abundance of working capability that earned her the title of Little Bee, no one cared about her real name or identity and neither did she care to introduce herself as that. It was one night when Arthur had to stay back to clean up his personal mess when he saw the small girl clean the whole club alone, the broom was slightly taller than her yet she was stubbornly cleaning the room to shine. That night was when the two spoke for the first time, became friends instantly and even shared portion of their work. During the clubbing hours Little Bee would help him arrange the sses and after party they both with the help of others would clean the club room. This happened for four long years, they became best of friends and partners for life. After cleaning the whole room the two sat down at the corner, admiring the empty room they had just cleaned. Little Bee was sipping on her apple juice when she suddenly asked, "Arthur, my birthday is up in two months. Do you remember?" Arthurughed to himself, it was not her birthday to be precise. No one knew when she was born, it was the date when the club bought her for 100s of dor. He nodded silently, "I remember, how can I forget your birthday." "Great, what have you prepared for me?" She asked enthusiastically, giving him a clear view of her 32 teethplied in a smile. Arthur fell silent, she was going to be 16 this year, the age in which her training was decided to be started from. The age in which her freedom, her happiness, her free spirit and will will be taken away from her for life. He looked at her smiling little face in silence. ''Bee, will you be still be smiling like this if I tell you what the higher ups have arranged for you on your 16th birthday.'' ''Will you still be smiling like this if I tell you on your forting birthday we are gonna give you a dress and will be pushing you into a bedroom with a man whom you don''t even know.'' ''Will you still be smiling like this if I tell you this year my present for you is a goodbye as we may never meet like this again.'' Arthur held back his thoughts to himself, he had already applied for leave at the time of her birthday as he may never be able to see her like that. Bee was his friend and more than that he respected her as his own sister, she was just six years younger than him. He did once think about buying her freedom but the club ceased his demand asking for a sum which he may never pay even if he work for seven lives. Arthur felt like he was betraying her but he was hand tied... He can never make himself say her the truth or steal her from the truth. All he could do was smile and change the topic, "I have an examination day after tomorrow, I need to prepare for it." Little Bee sat up straight, totally forgetting about her birthday and started to solemnly wish him luck. She urged, "Arthur must study well and get ced in the college of his dream, all the best!" The two smiled, sharedst few words before the boy packed up his stuffs and walked out of his working ce. Little Bee finished off her drink and looked at the two garbage disposal bags kept at the corner. Lifting them up she pushed the door open and walked to the dustbin station which was two buildings away from the club, at the streets end. She lifted the lid and dumped the two bags in; pping the dust off her hands she heaved a sigh of relief, "It''s done for today, now it''s time to.... Aaaahhh!" Before she could even finish her sentence she felt a heavy weight falling on her back. Bee couldn''t turn to see what it was but given to it''s heavy weight she stumbled on her feet and fell down with the thing on top of her. All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. For a second Little Bee was scared, who it was who was trying to kill her by attacking her from the back. "Who is it trying to kill me, who is it... It is so heavy, lift it up or I will bite you to death!" Whatever it was it was just too heavy for her to bear, her frail body was imposed by the overbearing weight as she struggled off the clutch. Immediately standing up Bee turned around to find who it was who was trying to kill her by squashing her to death. But her anger turned into immediate panic when she saw the thing which hit her from the back. Her mind went into a swirl of confusion and fear when she found a heavily injured man lying on the ground, likely unconscious. CHAPTER 3- SAVING THE STRANGER CHAPTER 3- SAVING THE STRANGER Bee looked at the man lying on the floor with his face on the ground, she held her heart which was thumping audibly to her. She was scared, for a moment she really felt as if she would copse out of fear; well, who won¡¯t be if you get attacked by someone at this hour of the night and that too when you are alone. Maintaining her safe distance of three steps away from the man who was lying lifeless on the floor she scanned him from carefully. It was dark and the street lights were too pale for her to scan his face, all she could make out was that he was a bulky man. She observed him for some more time but he showed no reaction, it was as if he was a statue which fell off the pedastal waiting for someone to pick him up. ¡°Are you drunk, mister?¡± Bee managed to squeal out these words after she finally managed to m herself down. The girl waited for some more time but her concerned question met with a wall of silence. Strange, she thought to herslef. Was really this man this drunk that he hadpletly lost his sense but there was no pungent smell of the alcohol which she was ustomed to. Bee gathered her courage, looking around she found a stick. Lifting it up she carefully poked his shoulders, ¡°Mister... Are you okay? Can you hear me? Hello...¡± Like before the man remained still, Bee panicked. After making sure that he really won¡¯t cause her any arm she crawled upto him and poked him harder. Same as before, no reaction! ¡°Is he unconcious?¡± Bee just entered her world of fantasies when the man suddenly moved. ¡°Aaaaahhhhh....¡± Bee screamed but was quitened by the man; he weakely covered his lips indicating her to be silent. Bee quietened down and observed his face again which was not possible by the faint light. ¡°Who are you, mister?¡± Bee whispered, the man remained silent to himself or to be precise looked too weak to utter a word. He silently reached for his lower abdomen, after feeling around his left abdomen he removed back and observed his palm. Even though there was no lighting Bee could still make out the red liquid, which was stained all over his palm, reflecting the faint light of the street. ¡°B... Blood?¡± Bee felt herself swooning to numbness; a million question popped in her meddled head. Who was this man? Why is he bleeding? What on Earth is happening with her? The man could feel his energy and consciousness draining out, with what remained within him he managed to spell out few words to her, ¡°T... They are after me. R... Run away or they will k... kill you too.¡± Saying his fainted words he copsed back on her. Bee held the man and questioned impatiently, ¡°W... Who will kill, who ising. I... Call the cops?¡± The man murmured, ¡°No enough time... Don¡¯t worry about me, save... yourself.¡± Bee looked at his face from the close proximaty; his face rendered his speechless. She stared at his face, she was unable to believe what she was seeing. "You... You..." Before Bee could finsih her sentence the man let out a painful groan which instantly reminded her that he was injured; she pushed away all her second thoughts and keeping her shocking discovery to herself she stammered, she couldn¡¯t let a man die in front of her eyes. ¡°I... I am not letting you die...¡± Saying this she started to look around for shelter. Panicked and afraid, her mind went on a short circuit for some time. ¡°What should I do? What should I do?¡± Bee muttered to herself before she remembered a safe ce for them. ¡°Cooperate with me, I will save you!¡± Saying this she removed her shirt and tied it on his wound to prevent the blood from flowing out, draping his arm around her shoulder she stood up with all her might with him. She was lean and thin while the man had a perfectly maintained body; it was a hard chore for her to even take a step supporting him. Lurching and falling, she somehow managed to pull him to the other end of the street. Opposite, on the other end of the road was an abandoned park which had a old warehouse, she believed that they would be safe there. Her energy was drained off; the man had long fainted on her shoulders. Her own clothes were starting to get wet by his blood. She was even sweating and heaving like crazy, her vision started to blur away but stubborn and determined she managed to drag him and herself into the park. Afar she could even hear the sound of men chattering and yelling for some ¡®Ryan¡¯. Their presence was inching closer, scared bee hurried her steps and jumped into the park. The park was dark with tall and old oak trees leaned over the path. Standing in front of the warehouse Bee looked at it; the warehouse or to be precise a pile of old woods had now became too old; she pushed open the door silently lest she makes and noise and kept the man on the ground. She hurriedly covered him with a few branches and leaves; even if someone were toe it was too dark for someone to spot him among this pile. ¡°Stay here! I will save you...¡± Bee whispered to the man before running out of the warehouse. The warehouse was already in a corner and had a tree grown up on it but still Bee tried to adjusting the branches here and there. After doing that she picked up a wood and hid at the corner. The man inside was dying and she had to work fast and call for the ambnce but she was too afraid to run out lest the bad guys catch her. She sat and looked at the warehouse not too far away and the main gate of the park restlessly. The footsteps inched closer; Bee held her breath as she could hear the voices of impatient men talking to themselves. ¡°F*ck this b*stard, he still managed to escape.¡± A man with a really frightening voice groaned in anger. ¡°You are on fool1¡± another voice scolded, ¡°You could have shot him with a gun but you chose to stab him with a knife and that too the cut wasn¡¯t deep enough.¡± The first voice yelled, ¡°You couldn¡¯t even hold tightly a twenty year old mother*cker, you let him slip.¡± The men were using each other and hiding inside the park Bee understood that they were talking about the man she had just hid. She heaved a sigh of relief, judging by their words it seemed that the it was failed murder attempt. A third voice yelled, ¡°Can you both stop with this bulls*it and try to find him.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t know, we beat him up yet he managed to vanish! Just where on Earth are you hiding, Ryan?¡± ¡°Hey, there is something over there; let¡¯s go in a check.¡± ¡°No... No... No...¡± Bee got tensed, what if they find them. She couldn¡¯t let them reach here, it could be dangerous. Bee kept her eyes locked at the door, she was running out of time and the men seemed to be entering. All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. As expected, she saw their shadows converging in. Bee squeezed her very cell of her brain, she was at the verge of crying when she remembered an incident. That day she and two of her elder sisters sneaked out of the club to roam; by the abandoned areas which was not too far away from the club the three noticed some bushes dancing and weird sounds wereing out from there. The two blushed whereas Bee fell into confusion. She was 13 back then and couldn¡¯t guess why the bushes were shivering and what that weird sound was. She could understand that it was a voice of a woman. She took a step towards it out of curiosity but was stopped by her sisters, she protested, ¡°Sis, there is a girl who is being killed by someone, we should save her. She seems to be in pain...¡± For this the two girlsughed and exined, ¡°No one is killing anyone. Bee, you should never go to any ce which is both shaking and emitting such noises. You are young; you will understand when you grow up.¡± It¡¯s been three years but Bee still couldn¡¯t know what that phenomenon was or bothered to know what it was. It was only imprinted in her mind that no one wille to that ce from where those voices she squeezed her voice and tried to imitate the noise she heard back then. A little unprofessional moan escaped her lips and as expected the men stopped; Bee was highly motivated with this and started to shake the bushes making such noises again. She started to moan loudly with all her might, imitating carefully the noises she heard that day. ¡°Oh, babe... Yes Yes!¡± ¡°G... Go ahead... Aaaah...¡± ¡°You are killing me... Oh my God.¡± From the corner she observed the men¡¯s reaction; they were clearly hesitating to go in and were furious. A man who was cussing before said in an embarrassed tone, ¡°Where the f*ck did you bring us, there is something else going on in here...¡± Anothermented, ¡°Y... Yes, he won¡¯t be here. I won¡¯t go in.. You both can go ahead.¡± Hearing this Bee was panicked, she amplified her moaning, this made the men both blush and embarrassed. The three were deciding whether to go in or not when they heard a gunshot; Bee involuntarily screamed but the men themselves were tensed. ¡°F*ck, his men are here. We should leave.¡± Saying this the three ran out without even caring about anything. Bee ran back to the warehouse and removed the leaves and piles off the man. She lightly pped him, ¡°Hey, wake up... I sessfully saved you. Your men are here it seems, wake up...¡± The man groaned in pain, Bee was just about to help him stand up when something hard hit her head. The sharp pain surfaced all over her head; her world became dark as she fainted above the man. CHAPTER 4- DEATH CHAPTER 4- DEATH It was dark and horrifyingly silent, nothing could he heard else than the muffled breathing of a little girl. Bee was running around to hide from someone; it was lonely and to her eyes nothing was visible than endless darkness. She tried to call out and seek help but her voice was too parched to call for help, neither was there a soul to help her out even if she managed to make a noise or two. Her legs were cramping as her breathing fastened; her body was running out of energy and she seemed to be at the verge of copsing. She wanted to stop andy down but her fear and yearning to live was not allowing her to slow down. Who was chasing her? What she was running for? She had no idea, everything that roamed in her mind was that if she slows down she would die. Bee ran along the lonely road chasing after a source of light but the more she ran the farther the light went. Bee couldn¡¯t run any longer and atst broke down on her knees; involuntarily she covered her tired face with her palm and started to cry. Her sobbing intensified when she heard a voice calling for her, terrified she looked around to find no Content ? N?velDrama.Org. one there. Bee looked up to find the darkness growing towards her; the source of light which she was chasing was engulfed and the darkness crept towards her. Bee found herself so scared and helpless that all she could do was cry and close her eyes to avoid witnessing anything more horrid. After a moment there was dead silence; Bee couldn¡¯t feel anything moving or creeping around her. ¡°Is... Is it over?¡± Bee slowly opened her eyes, those beautiful curled upshes were stick wet of tears. The crawling darkness came into a halt right ahead of her; nothing else was visible. It was as if she was locked inside a box with a little bulb suspended upon her. Bee was unable to judge what was going on around her but she could feel a really disturbing presence around her; Bee looked up and void slowly calming herself down. ¡°Who is it? Is... Is anyone there.¡± Bee stammered, asking slowly at the void. Bee waited not for too long before she heard the noise of iron being scrapped on the floor; chills ran down her spine as he shrunk back to herself. She spoke again, asking for the identity of the person. The scraping was stopped and she was crashed with a wall of silence. It was when a voice as creepy as old rusted chains asking, ¡°Me?¡± Bee could only nod as she was unable to spell out a word n fright. The unknown voice was mum for a period of second before spelling out an answer which doomed on Bee¡¯s ears, ¡°Your death...¡± Before Bee could fully understand what it meant she saw a iron weapon flung on her face. ¡°Aaahhhhh....¡± Bee tore open her eyes and attempted to run but only to find herself on her knees, chained to the wall. She looked around, she was dressed in her slips and skirt, the same outfit which was worn by her before fainting. Her breathings were heavy and sweat trickled all over her face and neck; such a dreadful nightmare it was. Bee closed her eyes and calmed herself down; nightmares weren¡¯t anything new for her. There have been a series of episode where she would witness herself being killed; what strange about those dreams were the fact that the identity of the person was unknown and every time she would be hit on head by an iron weapon. Bee was pissed off by herself, ¡°Such a scaredy cat I am!¡± Bee mumbled to herself and it was when she was trying to get up she realized that her hands were chained. ¡°What... Why... I...¡± She struggled herself to get rid of the chains which had her clutched tight. Bee was confused how she ended up here; looking around she scanned the room... or to be precise the dungeon. The room which was notrger than 24 square feet had cemented floor; the faintly lit room had nothing much except for a washing machine and few clothes. Few steps away from her were a set of stairs which led upstairs. It didn¡¯t take long for her to realise that she was locked in some basement. Terrified Bee tried her best to jog her memory and recall what all happened when her senses were still alert. The memeories of that night started to sh in her memory like a movie. Last night... After cleaning the club she walked up to the bins to dump it like everyday. That was when she met that wounded man and tried to save him. She slowly recalled everything, to the point where she was bashed to unconsciousness when she was checking on him. Is he safe now? Bee started to worry, thinking not about herself but of the man she metst night. Is he safe and sound? Where is he now? What about her, where was she? Bee eyed her chained arms and slowly collected herself; with all her might she started to hell for help hoping that there would be some good soul who will hear her ps and mighte to help her. "Help... Please.... Help me! I am down here, help... Please.... Help!" Bee screamed on top of her lungs, her energy drained off and her voice started to crack resulting for her to cough. There was no sound, it was as if the building was inhabited by none. Bee bit hars on her lower lips and looked up at the ceiling helpless. She didn''t want to die out of starvation at such a young age; she has not even driven a car yet. Bee was mourning to herself when she heard the wooden door crack open and a series of footsteps descending down. Bee looked at the direction of the noise with eyes which had a bit of shimmer with a hint of fear. Coming down from the stairs were three figures. The first one was tall and bulky man who seemed to be in his mid twenties. He donned a leather jacked and ripped jeans. His face was partially bearded; his hairs were slightly long for a man which he had held high into half pony. In his arm was a gun which was enough to scar the hell out of Bee. Second guy looked a bit harmless; he had an average height and wore a simple ck long sleeved shirt and pants. His hairs were neatly done and upon his nose sat a spectacle. The man looked calm and collected. The third one was a woman in biker''s gear. Her hairs were pulled up into a messy bun as she walked on her boots unting her perfect curves. There was a little box in one and a bottle of water in her another hand. Bee stared at the three faces as her world of fantasies started to act up. These three stood out from the crowd, they were not like normal Americans you will bump into the streets. Bee has seen many movies and she immediately recalled seeing such people in Mafia themed movies. People from the gangs were the one who had such notorious fashion. Bee chuckled to herself; she must be over thinking... There is no way she will be taken prisoner by some gang. There is no way she is kidnapped... Who and why will they kidnap a cute little girl like her... Right? ____________________________________________ AUTHOR''S NOTE- Hey readers, this is the Author! I hope you are enjoying this novel... Do tell me what you think about it, suggestions and honestments are weed with open arms. Enjoying the plot? Do add it to the library... Your words are the encouragement which will help me do better! Happy reading...!!!! CHAPTER 5- CONFRONTED CHAPTER 5- CONFRONTED Bee stared at the three for a while as they started back at her; she looked like a drenched kitten seeking for shelter. The woman let out a chuckle, turning towards herpanions she said something which was understandable to Little Bee. The woman said something chuckling to herself to which the tall guy replied with affirmative response. The woman again spoke, they seemed to be arguing on something. Bee was totally sure that it must be something about her, since she couldn''t understand what they were saying Bee chose to stay mum and gasped at them. While the two were busy arguing the simple man in ck shirt was watching her with his hawk like eyes. Bee felt a little ufortable under his watchful gaze; still on her knees she tried to shift here and there ufortably. The two didn''t stop talking until the spectacled man spoke; he just said a single word in a low tone yet it managed to calm those two restless souls. The man said few more words and they received a firm nod by the woman; she walked up to the Bee and sat on her knees. Pulling up she started to undo Bee''s shackles; from this close proximity Bee finally saw her face and she was spellbound. That woman in biker gear was a real beauty. Bee in her life hade across many beautiful woman; the ce where she worked had some of the really gorgeous woman on Earth. But she had never seen anything like this woman whose beauty was ethereal even without any makeup. Her features and looks were breathtakingly alluring, either it was her dove eyes or pouty lips... She was a rare definition of beautiful. The woman undid Bee''s hands and started at her, passing her the bottle of water shemanded, "Drink!" Bee whose throat was already yearning for moisture ignored every other thought and epted the water bottle without any protest. Twisting the cap open she chugged half of the content in the bottle within a blink of an eye. After she was done drinking she kept the bottle aside and silently observed the people. It wasn''t that she was afraid or anything, it was just that she had no idea what she was supposed to say. There were million questions in her head. She really wanted to ask about their identity and their purpose of bringing her here. But... Will it be polite for her to ask these questions all of a sudden. The woman had a stone face, nothing moved in her face except for her eyes which used to blink every now and then. She opened the little box she had with her and took out a bottle of medicine. She carefully opened the bottle, pour a few drops on the cotton and started to aid the scratches and cuts on Bee''s arm and forehead. The gel was a bit too hard as it started to burn on the wounds, Bee hissed in pain. The women warned in a t tone, "Don''t move or I will make a few more cuts in tour body and pour the whole medicine on you!" Bee immediately stopped moving but her harsh tone and warning pricked In her heart; she was a little girl and wasn''t used to anyin5 talki5 to her like this. She folded her fists and tried her best to push down her urge to cry. A dull pain surfaced in her throat as she unsessfully tried not to let a single tear drop off her eyes. Bee''s tender eyes filled with tears as she shivered slightly. The woman noticed this and looked up at her; maybe it was her stare that made her more terrified. Her eyes gave up as tears started to rain off This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org. them like pearls off a broken string. Her crying intensified as her soft sobs and sniffs echoed in the room. The tall man let out a frustrated grunt before saying something angrily to the man with ck spectacles. The man didn''t give him any notice as he signaled the woman to continue with her work. The woman didn''t pay any attention to Bee''s sobbing as she continued her aid. Within two minutes she managed to clean off Bee''s wounds and put band-aids on major cuts. The woman backed off and again the three started at the girl sitting helplessly on the floor, satiating her cries. The woman asked, "Do you speak Spanish?" Bee silently stared at them terrified; she was just too scared to speak out a word. The woman seemed to be loosing her patience on her as she hiked up her voice, "I asked if you speak Spanish!" Bee trembled and like before broke into tears, she was really not enjoying what was happening with her. Too afraid to stay mum she nodded with a no replying her question. The woman then asked, "What is your name?" Bee sniffed, controlling her hups she managed to speak out, "B... Be... Bee... Bee!" "Bee?" The girl rubbed her nose and nodded in agreement. The woman asked about her address and Bee somehow managed to say out the club where she was working. With the mention of Seductress the expression of the woman changed... Was she that kind of woman. Who cares?- She said to herself and asked the main question, "Which gang do you belong to?" "Huh?" Bee was puzzled! Gang? Seriously... What kind of gang? Why will be she in some gang? She muttered, "I am not in any gang!" "Then how much did theyy you for the assassination?" Bee felt as if her world slip off when she heard the word assassination. Why will she kill anyone, she never even hurt a fly purposely! Bee retaliated, "I didn''t assassinate anyone, you have got the... W... Wrong person. Little Bee is an angel, she is good..." The woman who had seemingly lost her patience pulled out her gun out of nowhere and triggered it; the sound of the metal cackling thundered something within Bee. She was scared, she really really was scared. The woman was no more beautiful but looked vicious and hellish to her. The woman warned, "Don''t you dare lie; admit everything and we will let you go!" "I am not lying..." Bee cried, "I really didn''t kill anyone." The woman looked at the spectacled man and asked her again, "Then how did you find our bossst night?" "B... Boss?" Bee asked, confused! CHAPTER 6- DEVIL IN DISGUISE CHAPTER 6- DEVIL IN DISGUISE Bee was confused whom they were talking about. Boss? She had no knowledge of any Boss... The woman confronted, ¡°You were spotted next to our Bossst night in that abandoned park when we came for rescue. Can you exin what you were doing in there?¡± Bee finally understood who they This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org. were talking about; it must be the wounded guy whom she savedst night. Did they just say that he was their Boss? Does it mean he is safe and sound? Bee shook her head and asked again to confirm it for once an all, ¡°Is... Is Ryan your Boss? As if something was fishy the woman looked at the spectacled man for a few seconds before pulling out a gun and cing it on her side neck. The nozzle was right on her skin, Bee could feel the coldness of the metal seeping through it. It took her a while to analyze what her position was and when she finally felt the gun nozzle pressing hard on her neck Bee was terrified. It was normal for people in America to have gun but Bee had a very bad experience with it; she once saw a man getting shot to death by a gun right in front of her back in club. Since then guns too added to some of the things which gave her nightmares. Bee froze on her spot as if her slightest moment would trigger the gun; she was breaking down inside. The sensation of the gun gave her panic; goose bumps rose all over her body as she saw the furious woman pointing the gun at her. She clutched Bee¡¯s hairs and pulled them; the pain and panic caused Bee to weep all over again. The woman seemed to not care as she confronted Bee with absolute fury in her voice, ¡°How do you know our master¡¯s name? Which group do you belong to?¡± ¡°I... I don¡¯t b... belong... ¡° Bee tried to pull out a sane sentence off her lips but she was shivering and weeping so badly that it was literally impossible for her to do so. She pushed the gun hard on her neck, Bee wriggled to free herself from her clutch which grew tighter with time. She twisted her hands and held the gun tight, ¡°Speak the truth or see my bullet piercing inside your neck!¡± Bee couldn¡¯t stop her tears; she saved their Boss yet she was being used for trying to assassinate him. She had no proof with her nor the sanity to exin her innocence to the devil trio. Bee choked to herself; huping up and crying till she turned into a mess. ¡°Speak!¡± The woman pressured her and shook the little girl¡¯s head heavily ¡°Waaa....¡± Bee yelped, she felt her head swoon because of the violent jerking. She tried to remove the woman¡¯s clutch off her hairs but s, she was too weak to push off her. Her beautiful eyes were doomed red as endless tears ran out of it. The only thing that shed in her mind was that she had to exin herself; controlling her tears she coughed up, ¡°I... I saved him from the men... who... who were trying to k... kill him.. S... saved him... I... Aaah...¡± The woman pulled her hairs and forced Bee to look at her, she hissed, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare lie; we will find out the truth... Your death will be a little painful if you confess it on your own!¡± ¡°No... Please... Please believe me... Please! I came across him w... when he was wo.. wounded; I helped him to h... hide and tied cloth around his wound... "Let go of her!" The spectacled man said slowly, obeying his orders the woman too loosened her grip. Chugging her gun back into its case she backed off. "Drink the water!" The man coldlymanded; Bee was still shivering and trembling, her senses were literally shut down causing her to react slow. Maybe she was taking forever but herck of reaction drained the tall main off his patience. He charged his foot at her, "Drink or..." Seeing his gigantic footing at her to squash her Bee wailed covering her face. The man stopped right few inches away from her face leaving a terrified Bee begging for mercy. She took the ss with her trembling hands and engulfed the whole content in. "Speak!" The spectacled man ordered again. The water helped her to calm herself down but her hands and voice was visibly trembling. She started narrating, "Last... Last night I was dumping gar... garbage when he came and fell on me. I found him wounded... Blood oozing out from his left abdomen! He... He told me that s... some men were after him and asked me to leave... But... but I tied my shirt around the wound and helped him walk up to the park." "I wanted to call the ambnce but the men... men after him reached the park and were trying to find him. I stayed back and stalled them... And there was a firing... They ran away. I went to look... look at him to make sure if he is fine when... when someone hit me and I fell unconscious. The woman stood up and walked up to the men; they discussed amongst each other in angauge un- understanable by Bee. "Do yo think she is saying the truth?" The woman asked. "I don''t know, she looks innocent but we can''t trust her..." Said the armed man. "She is speaking the truth!" The spectacled man evaluated, "It is not possible for her to single handedly harm Boss and he is not a fool to follow her to the abandoned park. The shirt which was wrapped around his wound testify to her words." "So, what do we do with her?" "Let the Boss wake up and tell us what happened..." The man threw a nce at her and continued, "Her fate will be decided by Boss. Till he wakes up let her stay locked in the room. Arrange for someone to supply her with food..." The trio retreated leaving the Bee alone to herself; as they watched them abandoning her again Bee tried to make them stop but else than ''Wait..." she couldn''t say another word. After they banged the door shut behind them Bee curled up on the floor and wept; her boy was severely paining and exhausted. She just tried to save a life but look, her own peaceful life was messed up. These people were cruel and she couldn''t even start to think if they will leave her alive once she encounters them again. And their Boss... what about him! He must be much bore brutal and ruthless. But those snippets and dreams... Those showed him as a whole different person. He was nothing like how she imagined him to be all these time... Were all the expectations of her dear ''Prince Charming'' a lie... Was she fancying not an angel but a devil in disguise all these times??? _______________ Hey, lovely readers! Hope you are enjoying the novel. Please add it to your library if you are enjoying it; doment and tell me what are you thoughts. Your words, opinions and suggestions not only mean a lot to me but also motivates me to do better. Do follow me on Instagram- the_jangling_journals (Illicit Virtu) it is! Lots of love, Keep Supporting CHAPTER 7- BRINING BACK THE DEAD TO LIFE CHAPTER 7- BRINING BACK THE DEAD TO LIFE Ryan''s eyes broke open as he sat up straight, looking around he found himself in his bedroom. The wound was already band aid, he was put on head. Due to being unconscious for too long his visions and memories were still blur and slowly regaining their stability. It was 14th of February, the Valentine''s day when every soul out there would be cherishing their memories with their loved ones but for Ryan it was the day of utmost pain and heartbreak. It was that one day of the year when he would be the saddest; with this day approaching he would be more silent and finally would hide away from everyone. He would most probably be drunk, passed out somewhere on the street or sobbing in solitude. Sadly, it has been like this for the past three years. At the initial days everyone in his n tried to talk to him but what he lost was something more precious than his own life, there was no word which could heal or make him feel better. Every other day of the year he would be loaded with arms and his bodyguards will be everywhere. It was that one day when he will be all alone and this time some rival found this opportunity to strike at him. He was in an abandoned parking lot, drinking his heart out when two men came and assaulted him. He was both sad and intoxicated yet he tried to fight his life. He did manage to dodge but the men were stronger than his current state and managed to stab him. Wounded Ryan found it not wise to fight, left with no other way he abandoned dodging and escaped from them. He was already unstable and with the tear on his body oozing out with his life Ryan stumbled on the streets before seeing a slim figure hoping her way to the garbage can. Ryan had no idea what he was thinking when he went up to her and fell on her unable to stabilize himself. At first he wanted to ask her to help him but when she saw her scared white face Ryan was rendered speechless. She... She reminded him of her! The snippets of that day came back to his mind... A girl with a yet to mature sweet voice was sitting on her knees next to him, crying. "R... Ryan... Wake up... I... I am scared! They areing at us, wake up... Please..." Her pitiful cries echoed in his ears as he looked at Bee. Hanging between dream and reality Ryan was confused where he was at; it was like a Deja Vu... It was same as that day. Ryan was scared and for a second believed that he was pulled back to that damned day. Believing that the girl in front of him was her he urged her to leave like he did that day. He couldn''t afford to loose her again. Thest thing he remembers was the sight of her panicked and confused. W... What happened after that? Now thinking calmly he was able to make out that she was not her but a whole different girl. Her features, hairs and looks were totally different from hers. Ryan looked outside the window with his eyes clouding with agony and nostalgia. He had already epted the fact that she was no more but his foolish heart was still trying to find her. When he was lying on the floor seemingly taking hisst breath how badly he hoped that the girl he stumbled upon was her; he in his daze foolishly believed that she had came back to him... But s, there was no way dead could be brought back to life, right! Neither was she her nor was she Ryan closed his eyes and pushed away all his thoughts aside. "She is f*cling dead, Ryan! Stop hoping for her toe back..." He screamed in his mind. Within seconds he opened his eyes, there was no speck of sadness in them. They were lifeless as his face, detached of human emotions and de-voided of feelings. The door was pushed open and entered the same spectacled man from basement. He had his right hand shoved in his pocket, standing beside the bed he asked, "You are up?" Ryan silently nodded and pulled out the IV drip. The man stopped him, "Stay... The doctor wille and check up on you!" "I am fine, there is no need of a check up." Ryan spat, coldly. The spectacled man moved away allowing Ryan to get off the bed, from the way he spoke it was easy for him to say that he was in a really bad mood. The man was called Jake, he was Ryan''s right hand guy, more like a super personal assistant. He had been with him since the time Ryan took charge of the n four years ago. Due to Ryan''s special identity it was dangerous for him to go on public exposure so it was always Jake who used to represent him. Ryan walked down the hallway with Jake, he asked, "What happenedst night..." Jake reported, "You were found wounded and unconscious in an old park in Brooklyn street when we came for rescue. When we came there the ce was empty indicating that the assassins had ran away." "But we looked into the identity of the men who were arranged for the assassination, they are Gomez''s men..."This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org. Ryan grunted as they reached the end of the hallway, before them was a wooden door. Pushing it open the two men went in the dark room; Ryan''s lifted his gaze to meet with the terrified eyes of those three assassins who were beaten up to pulp and we''re hanging upside down. Ryan showed no expression to the men and observed them for a good few seconds. Even though the man was young and silent the dangerous and terrifying aura he emitted was undeniable. The temperature of the whole room dropped by a good few temperatures and all of a sudden it started to suffocate. Ignoring the three men''s pleas to be let free Ryan open his mouth to spat his verdict for which Jake has been waiting the whole day. "Kill all three of them..." Eyeing the guy who stabbed him he said, "Cut away his arms!" Eyeing the one who kicked him, "Cut his legs!" And the one who cussed him, "Cut his tongue... And gift wrap them to Gomez!" He looked up at the ceiling unhearing the begging of the three men. He announced in his usual cold tone, "This should be done by today. At the day break I want the whole Gomez n to be removed from the face of Earth..." CHAPTER 8- RYANS RAGE CHAPTER 8- RYAN''S RAGE The man spat his vicious words with a nd emotion, his handsome face had no once of guilt or remorse. The system in which he was part worked on Jungle rule- kill or get killed! Bloodshed and violence, he was long used to it... Ryan deep down knew that if he spared their lives they wille back at him again and who knows, he was lucky that he stumbled on that girl or else he would have been killed without mercy. Ryan''s face finally changed as he remembered the girl, after that night she was nowhere to be seen. What happened to her, was she alright? Without giving the pleading men another ce Ryan turned towards the door to walk away, Jack signaled for his men to carry out the Boss''s orders before following closely behind. Ryan spoke, "Was there some girl when you found me?" Jack understood who he was referring to, he rubbed his nose and answered, "A girl named Bee was indeed found at the location..." "Bring her to me, she saved me from those men!" Ryan spoke nonchntly, he didn''t knew why but he wanted to meet her again. Jack''s eyes dimmed, that girl was indeed saying the truth. He spoke, "Boss, she... she is in our custody..." Ryan''s footsteps halted when he heard his words; he turned to look at him, seemingly asking for a Jack exined, "She was taken hold by our men, suspected for assassination. She was unconscious and only regained her sense in the morning." He paused there and started again, "Me, Coal and Agent 7 went for interrogation; it looks like she indeed was saying the truth..." "Since the matter was unclear and you were yet to wake up we didn''t allow her to go... She... She is still in the basement!" Ryan was standing motionlessly for a couple of seconds processing his assistants word but all of a sudden, as if he was pped to reality, he jolted up and hurried in the direction of the basement. Jack ran behind him; prisoners were never treated politely in custody, they will be kept in rhe worst possible situation. If they are proven innocent then the person will be let free but if found guilty there won''t be N?velDrama.Org (C) content. anypromise, the culprit will be given the most brutal punishment or at worst, death. It was how it worked in underground. Luckily, Bee wasn¡¯t in the wrong ce, her innocence was proved an she will be set free but... Ryan tookrge strides and directly kicked open the door just to hear a weeping little voice pleading for mercy. He descended down the stairs and witnessed Little Bee on her knees with her dress ripped and smeared. There were two men with herughing to themselves, one was holding her weak frail body while the other held an injection and was about to inject it in her forearm. The girl was trembling and was almost about to copse, her face was pale like a ghost. His face turned colder as he demanded angrily, ¡°What¡¯s going on in here?¡± The two men stopped as his familiar voice fell, dropping the girl in their hold they stood up instantly. Ryan¡¯s eyes trailed down the girl who was copsed on the floor. She looked weak and pitiful, her beautiful brown hairs were a ball of mess while bruises were all over her silky smooth skin. Little Bee lifted her head too stare into the man¡¯s eyes. ¡®P... Prince Charming!¡¯ Her eyes welled up with tears, she don¡¯t know why but his arrival filled her miserable with a glee of hope. She wanted to plead for his mercy but her throat was burning; neither could she smile or stand up, all she could do was look at him with a pool of tears stagnant in her eyes. A burst of rage rushed through his veins as he shot a deadly stare at the two men. ¡°What were you doing to her?¡± The two men trembled in fear- they came here not too long ago with the motive of having their way with her. Rumoured had it that the new prisoner was a real beauty, how could they miss a chance with her. When they reached the basement the girl naively looked at them and asked innocently if they were here to let her go. An innocent little girl! This was the type men preferred most; they couldn¡¯t stop themselves from ying around with her. Realising that their intentions were not pure she started to yell which they enjoyed, they viciously tore her fabric and tickled her. They weren¡¯t in a hurry; one of them suggested that they could use the new drug on her which would kick in her sexual desire and make her desperate to have it with them. They were just about to imnt the drug in her against all her sobbing and pleas when Ryan came and hindered them. Well, Ryan was their leader and the most feared personality. Challenging him or pissing him off was certainly not healthy for one¡¯s life. Obvious wraith was all over his face, the two men were confused what di they do to make him mad. Was... Wasn¡¯t it normal for them to treat the prisoners like this? Ryan inched closer and sat on his knees; he gingerly helped Bee sat up straight. From the close proximity he was able to see her face clearly, she was staring at him like a kitten newly seeing the wonders of the world, unblinking. He traced his thumb tenderly on the corner of her lips which was not bleeding due to harsh ps and assaults. ¡°Aaahhh....¡± She yelped in pain, Ryan¡¯s hands trembled. He stared into her eyes for a fraction of seconds, he was able to see his own face in her tear filled eyes. She was tormented and was force to bear all this because of him, normally he wouldn¡¯t have felt anything- he was one heartless man but she... She was stirring something peculiar within him. Ryan ced his eyes on the two men an asked coldly, ¡°Who did this to her?¡± The men shivered violently, ¡°Young Master... We... We...¡± Ryan didn¡¯t know why but more he saw her in pain the angrier he got. Without giving it a second thought he pulled out his gun and shot the two men on their head, taking their lives without regret. It was the first time for Bee to see two lives dying right in front of her; she was paralyzed with fear. Just... Just few minutes ago they were treating her inhumanly but n... now. All she heard was two gunshots and now they were lying dead in the pool of their own blood. Goosebumps rose all over her body as she screamed in fright before copsing on his chest. Jack was watching the whole scene unfold with a hint of astonishment on his face. Well, this was the first time he saw his Boss being this aggressive and that too for a girl. He didn¡¯t hesitate to kill them just because he treated her cruelly. Jack looked at the girl copsed on Ryan with her eyes closed; the man didn¡¯t push her away or showed any kind of expression. Jack was patiently waiting because he knew he will get to witness something new but what Ryan did made him have a jaw drop. The Mafia slowly lifted his arms to pat her head, standing up he gently lifted her in his arms and made his way upstairs. Before leaving he stopped on his tracks, without looking back he instructed, ¡°Let these two be the example- whoever will try to cause any harm to her will be given the same fate...¡± Jack replied with a faint ¡®hmmm...¡¯ as he watched the man walk upstairs with the girl. Jack was lost in his own thoughts! He had known this ruthless Young Master since his young years and was well about the history he had. After that incident he kept himself away from woman or romantic rtionships; all of them believed that he would end up alone. But, today... He was letting another woman close to him. This was no less than a miracle for the people around him. Jack arranged for some men to clean the basement before heading to that corner room where no one was allowed. As expected... the room which was kept locked all this time was finally opened. He stepped in and looked all over the room; it was locked five years ago, not to be opened even once after that day. Jack was unable to believe that it was finally opened, the room looked both familiar and unfamiliar to him. The memories of that day came back to his mind. A 17 year old Ryan was the one who decorated this room for her; he handpicked every single thing in this room. There was a luxurious bed with baby pink and white mattress; there were racks where hundreds of stuff toys were arranged beautifully. The room was painted white and beautiful flower creepers were grown in the windows. The ceiling were designed with radium stars an moons. There was a wardrobe with so many beautiful dresses. One look at the room and anyone could say that Ryan did put a lot of efforts into it. That day after setting up the whole room Ryan smiled and asked for Jack¡¯s opinion. His reply was short, ¡°Looks too girly... Perfect for her!¡± Ryan eyes shone as he adored the whole room, he replied, ¡°This is where she will live once she turns 18! I will bring her here and treat her like a princess.¡± Jack chuckled, ¡°There are six more years for her to turn 18, what if her preference changes in the meantime.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t...¡± He replied with confidence, ¡°Even if she turns 80 or something she will always be a little kid to me.¡± Ryan had nned so much for her but none of those were fulfilled! All his dreams and fantasies were buried a long time ago. In that dusty room Ryan was currently treating the girl¡¯s wounds who was lying unconscious on the bed. He dabbed the cotton on her wounds with great care and love. Jack stood beside her and asked slowly, ¡°You gonna treat her as Cathy¡¯s substitute?¡± CHAPTER 9- SHE SAVED ME, I SAVED HER CHAPTER 9- SHE SAVED ME, I SAVED HER Ryan''s hand stopped mid air, he looked at Jack and then at the girl lying on the bed. She looked nothing like her but for a moment managed to deceive him who had her impression still afresh in his mind. Substitute? Can he ever find another one like her? Ryan always believed that there was only one her in the whole world; no one could ever rece her, atleast not the ce she held in his heart. But today, not only did this prisoner stir something long lost within him but also managed to give him an illusion that it was her. The man silently recalled everything he did in that spur of moment, he took the life of two of his own men just becua5 they had I''ll intentions for her. This was strange because he never cared for anyone and no one was that important for him to take away lives in anger. This was not the first time he had some woman in his custody, there were many female assassins who once tried their luck but we''re brutally caught and imprisoned. He had seen the mistreatment with his own eyes without batting an eyelid, he never felt any kind of emotion towards this. But she... He had to admit that he lost his sense when he saw her being mistreated, her tear filled eyes that were pleading for his help were still stabbing deep into his heart. Ryan, since his childhood, cared only for one person and it was her. She was the only one capable of triggering every kind ofplicated emotion in him. After she left it was as if his heart had stopped beating and had hardened into a rock. His hands trembled, he never once thought that else than her there would be someone who will be All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. capable of influencing his mind. This little prisoner was the one who made him feel something in the This thing didn''te in his mind untill Jack reminded him. This little girl looked nothing like the person hiding in his memories, she looked as if she belonged from a whole different descent but Ryan couldn''t deny that he felt the same butterflies he had at those days while touching her. Did... Did he just really find a substitute for himself! How can he deny, he even gave her the room which he had been preserving for her. He was even treating her wounds himself. For some reason absolute anger sprout in his heart, he wanted to yell at Jack but what could he even say. He was kinda right and his actions indicated at the things which he just mentioned. Unable to say another word Ryanpletely denied it, "She saved me, I saved her. Nothing else!" Jack quitened down and looked at the man without saying a word- how long was he gonna deny, let''s see. Ryan tossed the cotton out of the window and walked out of the room. After he left Jack stood mum, staring down at the girl lying on the bed. He said, "Hope you don''t break him in the way she did!" The girlid unmoving on the bed as if she were a corpse. Jack knew she couldn''t hear anything he said or what Ryan did to her, with his usual solemn mask stered on his face Jack walked out of the room closing the room behind. Even though Ryan used to sneakily clean that room at every now and then he found it still dirty, he arranged for the maids and housekeepers to do it without disturbing her. Another housekeeper was ordered to buy clothes and necessities for the sleeping beauty upstairs. Gangs like his stayed away from the limelight and stayed detatched from the whole world, the only thing which joined them and the outer world is the business they were in. So, if tragedy broke out and someone got wounded like yesterday they were forbidden from going to hospitals. To tackle this a group of skilled men were always with them and that group had everything- from a doctor to awyer to fight their cases. The doctor of this gang was called Jule Charles. She was extremely dedicated and experienced to medicine, their family had been serving the Neguyan n for ages and it was their family profession. Ryan and Jule knew eachother since childhood as her father served as the chief doctor of Ryan''s father. The doctor was young and sweet, being a medical genius she talked less and had a soft crush on the Boss. She would happily wait for him to get attacked so the he coulde to her and be with him. There were really few women in the group- one was her and the other was an agent called Lily. Thus, she was surprised to know that she was called to treat a girl this time. A girl? Howe a girl is there in Master Ryan''s mansion. Without thinking too much she packed her stuffs and walked into the car that was sent to pick her up. Making sure that no one was tailing them Imthe driver professionally rolled the car off the city to an abandoned mountain range where stood the mansion. Ryan was smoking a cigarette at his balcony shirtless when she entered, her eyes glued to his perfectly fit body. Last night when he was bought to her she treated his wounds and saw that carefully chiseled body of his closely. She drooled to trace her hands on them but couldn''t as Jack was right there and it was a known fact that Ryan never let even a strand of women brush across his body. She walked slowly admiring but was shunned in her tracks when Ryan gazed back at her piercingly. The Young Master was well aware of her intentions and had always smacked down every approach she attempted. He had rejected her brave confessions more than thrice on face- first when he was in middle school, second when he was in junior high and third was few months ago. Jule was a bit demotivated about being rejected three times in a row but was shameless enough to run behind him even though he gave her a cold shoulder. Ryan was not very tolerent and ordered for Jule to be removed from her post but using her family alliance and convincing Old master Neguyen Jule made herself stay. She smiled at him but Ryan turned away, treating her as a speck of dust. She immediately removed her eye''s off him and walked into the house, greeting everyone she walked upstairs to the room where she was said that the patient was kept. Jule pushed open the door to see Little Bee sleeping peacefully on the bed with a silk quilt covering her body. The doctor stopped on her tracks and stared at the young girl''s face, a mixed emotion of disbelief and anger shed on her face for a fraction of seconds before it disguised back into her professional straight face. Keeping her bag down she checked on Bee''s pulses and wounds, it was not a major injury. Weeks of rest and special ointments will plunge her back to normal. Jule exined everything to the keeper before turning around to leave but before she went out she turned to take ast nce at the sleeping girl. With no particr emotion visible on her face and as if Bee was noting more than a low life to her Jule tip toed on her heels down the mansion. After she was dropped off the car and was sent back to her house Jule called her father with gritting teeths, "Hello, dad... We have a problem in here..." CHAPTER 10- MEETING HIM CHAPTER 10- MEETING HIM Bee''s eyes tore open to the zing sun shining through the window, due to the long sleep her eyes were still sensitive and involuntarily snapped die to the rays. It was already afternoon of the next day, for a few minutes Little Bee sat upstraight on the bed trying to figure out where she was actually. Jogging her memories she realized that two men broke open the door and were harassing her, pping and pinching her wildly. They were about to sting a syringe in her hand when a tall guy came and made them let go of her. Yes, it was him... Prince Charming! Little Bee''s eyes red open as she looked around. Neither was she curled up on the cold floor nore was she in pain. She was wearing a silk pajama and her wounds were already treated, she was cozy in thatrge bed which could easily amodate two. How did she end up here, this ce looked foreign! It didn''t long for her to recollect everything, she was fainted when Prince Charming killed those bad bad men with his gun without mercy. The scene shed in her mind and Bee couldn''t help but tremble. P... Prince Charming was not the one who she thought was! Bee''s eyes fell on the tightly shut pale purple door, while she was still trying to make a guess why and how she ended up here her dove eyes trailed to the stuff toy racks standing mightily by the wall. She was rendered speechless for a moment. These¡­ These many stuffies! Bee couldn¡¯t hold in her excitement as squealing she yanked away her sheets and jumped off the bed. Like a little kid who was first time seeing a stuff toy she excitedly picked up every toy in her reach. Either it was the pink hello kitty or the furry panda, she took every one of them and hugged them. Holding a armful of toys she couldn¡¯t help but giggle; Little Bee loved stuff toys. They were soft and adorable, she had a little teddy bear back at home which she used to y with. To her if fantasy world were real then it would be a room full of stuff toys. Standing there her previous worries were engulfed by her tremendous joy; Little Bee took time and finally looked around where she was. What she saw was the best thing she ever saw in her lifetime. That room wasrge with pink and white wall, that huge silky bed was kept against the wall to the right of the wall, right in the center. Two small semi wooden tables were kept beside it against the wall, one up holding a nightmp and a fresh flower bouquet while the other was left empty. At the corners there were two pots of beautiful creepers climbing the wall with the support of a stick. The right side of the wall, where she was currently standing, was those of wonders; four racks were installed and were full of stuff toys. Right to it or at the wall opposite to the bed was an open window with pink floral curtains; a wall below the window was extended, upon it was a fluffy mattress with many beautiful pillows arranged on it. Little Bee walked up to the windows, she climbed up on the resting area and peeped outside the window. There was no sign of any city as long as her sight extended, spread was a denseyer of green. From there she could see armed men guarding here and there around the house. Without any further thoughts she jumped off the tform and headed towards her bed; there was an open cupboard there with numerous books. Little Bee¡¯s cheeky hands pulled out a book from there; it was an encyclopedia. She pulled a long face, shoving it back she started to look at the other books kept there. Romantic novels, Shakespeare, on the door beside it. ¡°What¡¯s in there?¡± Her curious legs pushed open that mysterious door just to get amazed. It was a walk in closet! She had never seen anything like that all her life; back at home all she had were four sets of clothes which she wore in rotation. The elder sister¡¯s had clothes but they didn¡¯t have a wardrobe this luxurious. There was a cupboard right in front of the door; Bee walked to it and opened it carefully. It was empty! Same was for the other cupboards in the room; all were empty. Little Bee shrugged and walked to another door which was inside it. As much as she guessed¡­ It was an luxurious modern bathroom with bathtub and shower. Bee was astonished for a brief moment; just how big was this one room. It was even bigger than the whole dorm back at club. Little Bee had a little wash up, while she walked out of the bathroom closing the door behind she heard the presence of someone out there. Could it be bad bad men? She had a torturous impression in here, no soul was gentle to her so it was natural for her to develop a fear towards the people she was entrapped with. For a second she thought it was better to hide inside the closet and pretend she was not there but soon realized it was a super idiotic idea. With trembling hands she twisted the door knob open; peeping out she saw a tall figure by the window with his back against her. Little Bee tried not to make any sound but the man still heard her shutting the door. He slowly turned around to show his angelic face to her. It was really him! The two stared at each other, while one¡¯s eyes were full of surprise other¡¯s were dull like a graveyard. His face was poker like a statue while he stared down at her with his piercing eyes. After a moment of silence it was him who broke the silence with a question, ¡°Feeling better?¡± It was her first time hearing his deep husky voice, that night he was talking in bits and pieces with a hoarse voice. Little Bee conservatively nodded into a slight yes. ¡°Good.¡± The man replied in a monotone; and once again the room drowned into an awkward silence. Again it was him who spoke up, ¡°Thank you for saving my life¡­¡± Bee politely nodded; there was no emotion in his voice. It was as if he didn¡¯t even know how to be thankful, it was just a nk string of words. Seeing her being silent and conservative Ryan furrowed his eyebrows; she wasn¡¯t mute, she was being very brave that night when she saved him from those assassins. He interrogated, ¡°What is your name?¡± ¡°Bee.¡± She replied slowly. Her meek voice looked down and distant. Ryan realized a hint of fright in her voice. Was she afraid of him? Well, anyone would be- he just killed two men right in front of her. She must think he is cruel and wicked; moreover she had a wave of traumatic experiences in here. For some reason Ryan was not happy with it. He exined, ¡°You don¡¯t have to be scared of me, I won¡¯t treat you like that.¡± Bee rose her eyes to look at him with bewilderment, maybe his response was a bit abrupt for her to process. He borated, ¡°I won¡¯t harm you, Bee. You are safe with me. Don¡¯t be afraid.¡± A string of blunt words yet they were too soothing for her; Little Bee naturally had a trust on him, he was a known face to her after all. She slowly said, ¡°I¡­ It¡¯s really sweet of you¡­ Mr¡­ Mr¡­¡± ¡°Ryan Nguyen.¡± He cut his own introduction. Bee immediately caught up, ¡°Yes¡­ Yes, Mr. Neguyan! You don¡¯t have to trouble yourself. Just tell me the way back to city, I will walk my way there.¡± Bee immediately felt the atmosphere of the room change as soon as she finished her statement; her eyes lingered on his face which has visibly turned cold. Fury emerged in his eyes as he pulled his lip straight. Ryan had no intentions of letting her go; he didn¡¯t knew why but he just couldn¡¯t afford to even imagine her leaving. He wanted to keep her to himself and when she mentioned her will to leave he was angered. Afraid that he would lose control over himself the man turned away and spouted, ¡°You are not going anywhere.¡± ¡°W¡­ What.¡± Bee was astonished to hear his words; not going anywhere? What was that? He spoke again with a hint of impatience in his tone, ¡°Isn¡¯t it clear enough to you? You will be with me. I won¡¯t allow you to leave.¡± Bee stood there dumbfound, still trying to process his words. The dominant man looked at her, those two clear eyes were staring at him. Ryan¡¯s heart shook, it had been a long time since he had seen such pure eyes. He couldn¡¯t stop himself from inching close to her; the girl backed off by a few steps but was trapped between him and the wall. Even though Ryan maintained his distance from her they were still awfully close; the man stared into her eyes. His eyes trailed down to the features of her face; her little nose, blushy cheeks, pink plum lips and that damned mole below her left eye. She was beautiful but¡­ Nothing like her! Nothing, not even her skin tone, resembled her. The image of that girl smiling at him came back to his mind; her sweet young voice echoed, ¡°Ryan, is there any girl who can rece me in you heart?¡± Back then he pinched her cheeks and replied that there were none who are as special to him as her- there wasn¡¯t, isn¡¯t and wouldn¡¯t be any girl who can rece her. She smiled sweetly at him back then and it spread warmth all over his heart. His blurry senses stabilized as he blinked himself back to reality and looked again at the timid girl in front of her. He immediately backed off and headed towards the door, telling himself to stay away from her. She won¡¯t be happy if she was looking at his deeds from the Heavens. But before leaving he did stop at the door, without turning away he said, ¡°Abandon every thoughts of leaving. You will be here with me till you die.¡± CHAPTER 11- NO QUESTION MARK BUT A FULL STOP CHAPTER 11- NO QUESTION MARK BUT A FULL STOP The door was mmed behind him with a loud thud which sent shivers down Bee''s spines. She flopped on her bed recalling what all he said just before getting out of the room. "Forget about leaving?" What was he referring to? Did he mean that there was no way she was leaving this ce? Bee''s eyes red open with confusion and agony- oh, please tell me he was kidding! Spending the rest of my life with these inhumane people who had no idea how to be nice or grateful? Hell no, there was no way she was living here for another minute. But... How was she gonna escape back home? She neither had the knowledge of route nor money to afford a fare. And moreover armed men were everywhere, she dared not to think what all can happen to her if she tried to leave, it could be fatal as she had already experienced the treatment served by these people. Little Bee couldn''t start to think about how she was gonna lead the life of a prisoner in this troublesome ce. While she was lost in her own fantasies staring at the ceiling two soft knocks hindered her chain of thoughts. She hurriedly sat up straight and watched the door being pushed open by two young women in maids uniform, holding a tray each. "Miss Bee!" Both of them greeted her with utmost sincerity. Bee, on the other hand, chose to stay silent as she was too afraid to speak out a word. The maids didn''t seem to mind it as they continued to address her, "Miss, your food is here." Saying this both of them kept their respective trays in the bed and opened the lids for her. The warm gust of aroma hit her senses as she looked down at the scrumptious meal in front of her. Served to her today was roasted meat spaghetti with crispy waffles, butter omelette, french fries, two pieces of chocte pastry and a reallyrge scoop of strawberry ice cream. Bee licked the corner of her lips and looked at the maids innocently, "Is this food for me?" The women nodded, one of them exining, "Young Master appointed a chef especially for you; we were not aware about your food preferences and this made a little something for today. I hope Miss Bee can forgive us if the food is not close to your preference." Bee was too hungry and stupid to think too much about it, she directly set herself and started wolfing down the food. Maybe it was because so much hungry but she found the food really tasty; Little Bee had to admit that she had never eaten anything this delicious her entire life. All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. It didn''t take long for her to lick off every single te; Bee looked at the two women and smiled, "The food was really delicious..." Both of the parties thanked each other before they retreated with the empty tes. Bee flopped back on her bed and started wondering about the meal she just had. The maids mentioned that a chef was specifically appointed for her to take care of her meal. Her heart skipped a beat; it seemed like Prince Charming was not kidding when he said she was gonna live with him forever and had been thinking about it for a long time to make such preparations for her. She had to admit that she was really moved by what he did; back in Seductress no one gave her this special treatment, not even half of the efforts he put into her. This made her think about what else he had prepared for her. Just as she was lost in her fantasies two knocks were heard before the door flung open and peeped in a familiar face. It was the women from the basement but unlike that time she didn''t mask a poker face but an apologetic yet awkward smile was stered on her face as she asked, "Hey, how are you doing?" Bee''s impression of her was that of fear and fright and thus seeing her she shrunk a bit to herself. Seeing her acting timid the woman got her spirits lowered, closing the door behind her she walked up to Bee and sat next to her. She scanned the skinny girl nuzzled like a kitten on the bed, her wounds were yet to recover which made her heart heavy. In a really guilty tone she spoke, "I didn''t mean to cause harm to you, I was just following the orders that was to make you spill the truth! Please don''t hold any grudge against me, it was purely coz to profession and I sincerely apologies to you for my reckless actions in the basement." Bee blinked twice before radiating a beautiful smile, "It''s okay, sister. Mistakes happen, you were carrying out your orders. See, I am doing alright! There is no way I am gonna me you for this mishap." "Huh?" Rose was the name of the woman who was currently staring down at the girl with bewilderment painted a over her face. She let her go this easily? She and her partner Coal were out on a mission which was the uproot the roots of Gomez n from the cities of America. She just returned back to the base to be informed that the Boss had killed two of their men because they were harassing the new prisoner, that was Bee. This news sent chills down her spines, Ryan was someone who hardly ever reacted to any human out there. No one was particrly capable of triggering his emotions, Bee was one of the very few. She was also informed that the forbidden room was also opened and cleaned for the young woman to reside. Rose couldn''t hold herself back froming upstairs to apologies to her; this woman seemed extremely important to their Boss and if he gets to know that she too had treated her poorly it could be fatal for her. On her way to the room she had been telling herself to be extremely patient to her as she was an important figure and may refuse to forgive her but this girl let her go and was even justifying her actions. This... She was really pure and innocent! Rose''s eyes dimmed as she looked at her gently, no wonder the Boss treated 5his girl differently. She smiled and thanked her for understanding her situations. The women were chit chatting a bit about random topics when the door flew open and Jack came in with a poker face. "Are youfortable in here?" He asked to the perplexed Bee, many people have been dropping by to check on her. She nodded lightly to his question. The man grunted before saying, "Boss has bought something for you.." looking at the door he raised his voice, "Bring them in!" Bee stared at the door to find men carryingrge boxes into her room and taking them to the wardrobe room. Bee''s eyes red open, she lost her counting about how many boxes were taken in. After the life. The previously empty room was now getting filled with luxurious clothing and essories. It took a while for the skilled men to arrange everything and once it was done Bee was asked to take a look, both Rose and Jack apanied her. She, like some little girl, bounced here and there checking out every single thing kept inside it. She could tell them everything in this room was expensive, even the pajamas were of silk. Bee''s eyes shone, she couldn''t hide her excitement as she squealed, "All these for me?'' Jack remembered Ryan''s words, he flung the credit card at the table and asked him to buy everything that matched her size and he did it. Jack nodded, Bee covered her mouth to down her scream. She jumped around a few times in the room like a kid before asking, "Is it possible for me to meet your Boss?" The two agents looked at each other before the man nodded a yes. "Let me take you to him." With this the three of them walked out of the room to another room in that wing, Bee looked around to realize that the rest of the house was decorated in a dull manner and had an air of eeriness to it. They finally paced down before a room which was guarded by two men with guns. They didn''t stop as Jack pushed open the door and took them in. Ryan, who was seated on a chair with a pile of documents on his table was not working but looking outside the window seemingly lost. Without even turning his head he asked, "Did she like the clothes?" Jack''s answer caught his attention and made him turn at them, "Ask it yourself." The man swiftly turned to meet his eyes with the small figure looking nervously at him. "Y... Young master..." "Ryan is fine!" The mat cut through her and corrected her. The girl was a bit nervous facing him, his eyes were too heavy and piercing for her. She somehow collected her spirits and replied, "Thank you for the clothes and foods. I really liked them..." The man''s response was a mere ''mmm'', she then finally said what she was here for, "My answer is yes." The man raised an eyebrow not understand what she was saying. Little Bee saw through his expressions and exined, "I am willing to stay with you forever if you treat me good." Little Bee was not staying here for food or clothing, she could get it anywhere. The reason she was willing to stay was Ryan himself. The man spoke, "You are staying with me had a full stop at its end, no question mark!" Bee''s heart skipped a few beats, gosh... This man was freaking dominant. She stammered and blushed, trying her best to stay calm. She asked him, "Don''t you wanna know why I want to stay with you?" Ryan was not a least bit interested, all that mattered to him was that she was staying with him yet he nodded a yes to her question to keep her heart. Jack and Rose looked at each other, this man is a whole different person when facing her. But what made them more surprised was Bee''s counter question. "What if I tell you I have seen you in my dreams for the past few years continuously?" ________________________ Hey, my beautiful readers... I hope you are doing well! Thank you for your massive love and support? Doment and tell me what you think about it, honest reviews are appreciated and will help me rectify myself. Enjoying the story? Add it to Library. To get notified about the update and drop a review... You all mean a lot to me! Xoxo CHAPTER 12- PRINCE CHARMING CHAPTER 12- PRINCE CHARMING The room was engulfed in an awkward silence as the man shot her a piercing nce; Rose and Jack looked at each other, a bit perplexed to be precise. Ryan stared nkly at her trying to piece her words and make something logical for his human brain to understand. His eyes were as silent as some stream lost in the woods. While the two were getting stressed out back there this girl was casting him an angelic smile. Everyone knew that Ryan hated to be kid around with; if this idiot was to piss him the one who would be getting punished would be the two who brought her here. What they could say, the girl was ordered to be left unscratched even if she was skinning someone alive. The man calmly asked, ¡°What are you trying to say?¡± Bee nodded, blushing her heart out. Whatever she said was as true as the Moon and Sun; she indeed had seen and has been seeing him in her dream for the past four years since she was in the club. Te dream was not like some usual long piece of sight but rather like a jog of snippets of events. The dreams usuallysted for an average for 15 to 20 seconds with the longest being that of 30 seconds. In this she would see this man, literally his handsome face, shing across her eyes faintly. The vision she saw was through her perspective; most of the time she saw him holding her hands, smiling at her, correcting her hairs and every warm side a man could possibly have. At first she thought it would be random piece of her wild imaginations butter when she started seeing him almost every day the girl started to panic. She stated her plight to her other colleagues, four other girls around the age of 18 and 19 who shared the room with her; the girls giggled and teased her saying that Bee was hallucinating about her ¡®Prince Charming¡¯. ¡®Prince Charming!¡¯ This particr word caught her attention; when she probed them further she was exined that Prince of the Dreams was someone who a girl admires and wishes for him to be her lover. Bee was extremely shy that she ran away from the spot back to her bunk and started to evaluate everything with her peanut sized brain. Was he really her Prince Charming? She means, she had been seeing himtely in her dreams, he was handsome and desirable, he was treating her so indulgent and warm as if she was his lover. She covered her flushing face which was tingling pink; all these years she had been terming him as her ¡®Prince Charming¡¯ and had some emotions already budded for him. She too was rendered speechless when he came out to be a real human and not just her wild imagination. She used to believe that he was just a face she sculpted herself for her fantasies about her better half. Maybe he reflected her desires of wanting a caring, good and handsome man for herself; it was purely fictional for her until that night when she saw him in flesh and blood copsed right in her arms. Her mind was electrocuted; how can this be true that the man who used to live in her dreams has mysteriously appeared alive in front of her eyes. She was unable to exin this phenomenon herself; she had no rational explication, all she knew that she had found the man of her dreams, or at least what she believed him to be, and she was not letting go of him. She was doubtful a while ahead but not anymore- she had got this thing engraved in herself that she was going to stay with him if he was willing to treat her like this forever. She had no idea if she wanted to date him or woo, she... just wanted to stay with him as his presence was already a ¡®mermaid¡¯ to her. She exined herself, ¡°Mr. Neguyan, you may not want to believe me but Little Bee is not lying. I have seen that same stone face of yours with a bit of smile like over a million times for the past four years. You are my Prince Charming!¡± Rose was a little fascinated by the girl¡¯s courage, she asked, ¡°Bee, do you know what you are saying?¡± The girl nodded, ¡°Yes, I am sane! Mr. Neguyan is my Prince Charming...¡± ¡°But you are not the one I love...¡± Ryan, who was patiently hearing to everything all this while, cut her off in a tone withyer of frost settled on it. Bee shivered a bit, she wasn¡¯t expecting his answer to be this abrupt and rude. The three fell silent, it was damn clear that the mob wasn¡¯t happy with this conversation. He closed his eyes trying to subside his grim anger erupting inside him; with the tone as frigid as the her! Your fantasy stories won¡¯t work here, give up!¡± Bee¡¯s face was almost pale by now, there were no hint of smile or excitement. She had no idea why she was being scolded like this. Fantasy stories? Did he think she was faking it all? She dared not to stay there for a while, turning at rose she clutched her sleeves and whispered in a cracking voice, ¡°He is bad... Take me back!¡± Rose raised her head to see Ryan staring at Bee, his eyes growing dark out of anger. She didn¡¯t feel it wise to stay there another minute; bowing down at Ryan she hastened the girl out. Bee was almost in tears as she walked out of the door; Rose too was not in a great mood either. She asked, ¡°Why would you say such ame lie?¡± Bee remained silent not because she had no answer but because she was trying hard to keep back her tears to herself. The two came back and Bee silently sat on her bed, ¡°I will get going.¡± The agent said and turned back to leave. She was just about to exit when she heard Little Bee¡¯s lowered voice mumbling, ¡°I was not lying...¡± Rose had nothing to say else than a ¡®mmm¡¯; she closed the door behind her and walked back to her own room. Back in the office, Ryan puffed a cigarette standing on his balcony. The ce where his mansion stood was miles away from humans and thus it was dead silent. He lived in the untouched forests of New Orleans and this neighborhood was not that popr amidst the party loving life out there. The man looked extremely good when he exhaled a beautiful smoke ring; Jack was sitting on a chair doing something on hisptop. A momentter he said, ¡°They have given us the money; we can execute the job.¡± ¡°Mmm... We are gonna assassinate a politician; don¡¯t make a mistake.¡± Ryan said calmly. ¡°We will be careful!¡± Jack reassured and continued, ¡°Ten more days, Boss! Then we will have to go back to Barcelona...¡± Ryan nodded; he will be taking on his father¡¯s business this time. This business was just a cover up; even though it was flourished the Neguyan family were not too leaned over it. Seeing the man nk Jack hesitated for a moment before asking, ¡°What about the girl?¡±Content ? N?velDrama.Org. CHAPTER 13- WHERE DID SHE GO CHAPTER 13- WHERE DID SHE GO Ryan remained silent for a while beforementing nonchntly, ¡°What¡¯s up with her?¡± Jack was rendered speechless by this young man¡¯s carefree attitude; did he not understand what he was inquiring about. The man asked, ¡°I am asking if we are taking her along with us or...¡± The man took another long drag again, with his eyes attached to bright burning cigarette between his fingers and lips parting to give way to another wicked smoke ring he replied without giving it a thought, ¡°Of course she ising with me. There is nothing important enough to ask in it.¡± Jack was disappointed but not surprised, this man was unpredictable; somewhere deep down Jack knew that he was stubborn and was not going to let go of her but he mistakenly judged that he was sane and would think out things applying logic. ¡°But how is she gonna live with us? Did you think about it once?¡± ¡°I did...¡± He puffed out the stick in his arms in a nearby ashtray and shoved his hands inside his pocket, ¡°I have a bigger house in Barcelona and I have already got everything arranged for her; that house is enough for us to live.¡± His voice was as nd as if he was not talking about taking a living human away Content ? N?velDrama.Org. with him forever but like he was introducing himself to an old man who had nothing to do with him. This man was always like this, treasured both his words and expressions like some gold. It took a great deal of patience to be with this man as he was a miser when it came to showing a reaction. Jack said, ¡°No... No! I am not talking about amodation.¡± Jack was clearly losing his patience at this point, he was angry yet was polite as he knew his mouth will be ripped apart if he dared to raise his voice in front of this man. He continued, ¡°I am talking about her. She is a living human, Ryan! We can¡¯t just take her away...¡± ¡°Till two days before she was a normal girl living and working in a club; we have literally kidnapped her. Do you think her friends and colleagues would unsee it; won¡¯t they start finding her?¡± Ryan leaned on the railings of the balcony and said with the same uninterested tone, ¡°I kill people and is still roaming freely. What can a mere crime of kidnap do to me?¡± ¡°...¡± Jack was out of ideas; Ryan was a psycho for sure- he said he won¡¯t take her yet was not willing to let go of her. He felt pity for that girl cooped in her room who did nothing to deserve this but saved his life. He tried to make Ryan understand and continued to pursue, ¡°Ryan, please look through it. She is a just a teenager; she has a heart... She deserves to be free. Do you have any idea how you are treated her back then.¡± Ryan was unmoved as he stared at Jack with his hazel eyes; the assistant continued, ¡°You have to think straight, Ryan! You can¡¯t just keep a girl with you and snatch her off her happiness. The money you spend on her to give her materialistic happiness won¡¯t matter to her if you treat her this poorly and keep on breaking her heart.¡± ¡°What else do you want me to do?¡± The man cocked an eyebrow; Jack exined, ¡°She is your prisoner; you brought her here and is taking care of her. I just wanted to remind you that... She is a human so treat her as one.¡± He decided to end his conversation right here hoping that the man was smart enough to understand what he wanted to say. Yes, he admits that the girl was too rough on courting or whatever she was trying to do. They had just met and she wasn¡¯t aware about his past. She was bound to get hurt but it was too soon and too shocking for her. One moment she was showered with all the best things and the next she was treated with animosity. After the man left Ryan did a bit of work out; he came out sweating and huffing dabbing a towel on his trickling sweat. The man possessed a youthful body which was carefully carved, a long ck locket was seen hanging on his neck which was sparkling like some serpent. Since he was injured he didn¡¯t strain his body with heavy chores and kept it light. Lazily throwing the towel on the floor he walked out of the gym andid t on his bed. The things which were said by Jack came back to his mind. Was he too harsh on her? What is she up to? Ryan threw azy nce at the clock; it was going to be midnight soon! He wondered what she was up to. Picking up his shirt he strode out of his room for a stroll; his legs moved towards her room. Without giving it a thought he pushed open the door silently. It was really quiet inside; he predicted that she was long asleep. Rxing himself he was about to turn back and leave when his eyes involuntarily fell on the bed. It was empty! He knotted his eyebrows together before walking towards the bed; he yanked off the nket to find no soul on it. Where did she go? A bit panicked he started to look around the room. When he couldn''t find her he was left with no choice but to twist open the wardrobe. The room was lit but as before there was no one in. At this point Ryan was loosing his cool, just how did she mange to escape beyond the level of security in this ce. He balled his wrist before searching for her everywhere. "Dammit!" He cursed to himself, he decided to alert the system and hunt her down. There was no way he was letting her go... He was about to turn around and leave when he heard a really minute noise from the bathroom. That was when he remembered that he had forgot to look into it. He tookrge strides at the door and twisted it open to find Bee inside the empty bathtub, sitting silently hugging her knees. CHAPTER 14- I WILL TREAT YOU BETTER CHAPTER 14- I WILL TREAT YOU BETTER The two stared at each other without moving an inch, neither did they spoke. It was as if the two were stunned by seeing each other at this hour of the day. She had locked herself in the tub since the evening, she even refused to eat and thus wasn''t aware how crazy he was driving himself off finding her missing in the room. He was at the verge of copsing due to anger when he was unable to find her. Now he realises that she was here the whole time while he was rushing rukoos out of worry. For someone reason he was more pissed off right now. A brief period of ten seconds passed away and the man stood there mum, for some reason the girl had a bad omen about it. She loosened herself from her grip and continued to stare at the man with a confused expression on her face. As she thought the man''s calm expression slowly turned into that of rage. "I am screwed!" Something inside her yelled out; without thinking another second the girl sprang up to give way to an unsessful attempt of escaping to God knows where. But the man''s reflexes were fast as he caught hold of her before she even exited the tub. Gripping on her wrist he shoved her frail body against the cold wall, holding her chin from his other hand he pushed himself on her, sessfully trapping her between him and the wall. The girl shivered and surrende9 as she was smart eno5 to know that protesting would only put oil to the fire. Ryan red into her bright teary eyes and inquired, "What were you doing here?" The girl closed her eyes to portray herself a little less scared, raining as it with not even her lips moving she looked lifeless as a puppet. She was weak, there was no way she could overpower him. Ryan forced himself on her, enunciating himself again, "I asked what were you doing here instead on being on your bed and sleeping?" She bit hard on her lips and quivered, the bathroom fell silent as neither of them dared to talk. Both of them knew why she had locked herself inside in here, it was just that Ryan wasn''t willing to admit that he had hurt her. He undeniably hates to see her like this and that fact that she was blue solely because he was harsh on her. While Ryan was fighting a battle with himself the girl involuntarily cried under the pressure of the arena- she was already in the bathtub telling herself not to cry but this man came and triggered it. Now she wasn''t sure if she was sobbing out of sadness or the fact that she was frightened. Under his watchful gaze the girl shivered as a single tear ran out from the corner of her eyes, staining that bright mole of hers wet. It came crashing down on the back side of his hand making his skin burn. "F*ck!" He swore before letting go of her, why was she crying now? Ryan''s anger meted into worry as he distanced himself from her. The girl stood there stuck to the wall as her sobbing intensified. Now Ryan was in a total dilemma, what was he supposed to do now. He was stupid to have forced himself on her and treated her with this tone. Jack was right, she won''t be willing to live with him if he treated her this poorly or even if she did she will be withered out like an old flower. The silent voice of her sobbing were making his mind go nk, he needed to stop her from crying or else he knew his mind would stop working. Ryan was a smart man but when it came to human interaction, especially woman, he would go clueless. There was this one thing that kepting back to his mind, when he was young his rtive had bought home a baby. The baby kept crying so his mother suggested the baby''s mother to put it to sleep. Young Ryan who was watching everything got this thing printed in his mind that if someone was crying they should be put to sleep. Without giving it a second thought he held her wrist and pulled her closer; bending down he picked her up in his arms in bridal style. By the time Bee could understand what just happened she was already in his arms, nuzzled in his chest. He held her tightly and started walking out of the bathroom; her heart skipped a few beats as she looked up at the Adonis who had her in his arms. Even though there were hint of years in her eyes she had stopped crying a long time ago. The pulse of his stable heartbeat was booming in her ears through his chest on which she had her head. The man looked straight at the way out serving the girl with his side profile. No matter what N?velDrama.Org (C) content. profile he gave her to see, he was handsome in everything. Ryan tookrge strides towards the door, twisting the door open he got ess to her bedroom. He kept her slowly on the bed and pulled up the sheets. "Sleep!" He ordered coldly. The girl had stopped crying by this time and kept staring at him with her big round eyes guarded by her wet eyshes. Ryan fell in a daze, it was his first time he saw a girl cry and the second time in his life he felt most helpless with. "Dinner?" He asked solemnly to which the girl replied with a no. "Wait here!" He spat before taking his phone and dialing someone who receive the call immediately. "Bring dinner for her." He ordered before hanging up. Everyone in the household knew who this ''her'' was so it didn''t take long for the maid to show up with the food. She ced the food on the table and left bowing down at him. Ryan sat down at the corner of her bed with the te in his hand; passing it at her be said, "Eat!" The girl sat up straight, she was hungry to be honest and immediately epted the food and started wolfing it down. Ryan stared at the girl, he was battling with himself whether to say it or not. He hardly knew how to talk, let alone say a sorry or satiate a woman. Working his brain hard he finally had a string of words which he found perfect to be said, with a face and tone as solemn as possible he started, "I will treat you better!" "Huh?" Chewing on her food she looked up at him; the man borated himself, "I will keep you happy and give you a life you would have never dreamt of. I will give you everything you would ever ask for but in exchange of that I will take your freedom." "I promise you this will be thest time you ever got your eyes wet, I won''t hurt you anymore. I will keep you like a princess... Just don''t ever think about leaving. Okay?" She slowly filled down her food gazing nky at him, even though his words still felt rude Bee''s heart crept up with a tender sense of warmth. She knew that he was repenting for being rude to her back then and actually thought that she was gonna leave him. Little Bee had no idea what was the rtionship they shared but she knew she didn''t want to go away from him. S she ha they shared but all she knew was that he gave her a sense of belongingness no one, even Arthur, gave her. CHAPTER 15- COULD IT BE THE GIRL HE LOVES CHAPTER 15- COULD IT BE THE GIRL HE LOVES She smiled at him, it was just too easy to move her heart. When she was in the club she used to believe the owner was her father, whenever he came to the club she would run up to him addressing him as dad and would nag him to take her back to home. The man first brushed her off but when she got troublesome he shunned her away with scoldings. Bee was hurt thinking that she had no parents; did they lost her or didn''t want her at all. She did use to talk to everyone and be merry with them but deep down she couldn''t escape from the fact that she was nothing more than a lonely soul. She had no one to tell her a bed time story, kiss her cheeks or pat her head... There was nowhere where she really belonged. Now, when this man whom she had met two days before was showing something towards her. Providing her with everything and even making her stay with him; Bee for the first time felt as if she too meant something to someone. The pain of him treating her poorly was lost somewhere amidst this feeling which had no word to be exined. She gulped down her bite and wanted to say something but was unable to find the right word. "Mr. Neguyen, you can rest assured. I won''t ever leave!" "Mmm" the man grunted before standing up, looking at her he continued, "Sleep, it''ste." The girl beamed, "Good night, Mr. Neguyen!" The man''s poker features softened as he replied, "Good night, Bee." After he left the maid followed up to clean the room for her; after changing into the pajamas the girl too went to sleep. Bee was yet to get ustomed to this alien ce and thus was twisting and turning all night on the warm bed. Staring at the ceiling she was thinking about her interaction with Ryan. He had an ever changing temperament, one that would change within the snap of a finger. She thought back of the moment when he scolded her in the room; seemed like he was not willing to believe on her. It was not his fault though, no one believed on her. While her thoughts were floating around it his words started to echo in her ears. Her eyebrows furrowed when she remembered something he said- you can never be her. Her? Who was this her he was talking about? Could it be the girl he love? She has been staying here for more than two days now and she had not yet seen any suspicious personality. Could be that they are already split and Prince Charming was still in love with her. Oh, poor him! "No... No no no no no!" She shook her head violently to shoo her crazy thoughts away; she knew she was over thinking herself. Forcing her eyes shut the girl slipped into her world of fantasies. .... The next day she was summoned to have breakfast with Ryan; she had no idea why but she stayed in her wardrobe to dress up in the best outfit possible. Settling on caramel slit knee length skirt and a butter colored over sized sweat shirt with ck and brown parallel stripes, her hairs tied into a high This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org. pony the girl ran down the floors to find Ryan already seated, eating his breakfast. Little Bee was a bit dissapointed to see that he bothered not to wait for her; it was her fault.. She shouldn''t have wasted her time in dressing up; the man who she dressed up for wasn''t even a slight bit interested in waiting for her. Her mood to eat was dampened just like that as she sat on thest end of the table upset; she would sneak a peek of that man from the corner of her eyes every now and then just to find him munching on his food or talking on his phone. Unnoticed she angrily tore her toast and started chomping it down. Jack, who came back from the study with his tablet, looked at the little human eating alone at the farthest chair. "Why are you there?" He asked grabbing both Bee''s and Ryan''s attention; the two exchanged nces for a brief moment before she averted her eyes and looked at Jack, smiling she greeted him. The man greeted back and asked her the same question again to which the girl replied, "It''s the same sitting anywhere, Mr. Jack!" "Why, you can sit and eat with Ryan!" "Oh, that''s more lonelier..." "Haha, I get your point! He is emotionless!" Jack couldn''t hold himself back frommenting. He continued, "The dress fits you perfectly, doesn''t it?" Bee was ttered, finally somebody, even though the wrong person, but somebody noticed her; she grinned merrily before saying, "Thank you, Mr. Jack." Amidst the sound of the two chattering andughter the sound of the breaking of knuckles were heard making them shut up at once. Jack looked down at Ryan who was staring down at his te, grimly cracking on his knuckles. Even though his face was not visible for him Jack could still imagine the horrifying expression of anger on the devil''s face. He eye signaled at Bee to look at the man''s expression. Ryan raised his ss to his mouth taking small sips of the water. Bee stared at him helping himself but without any prior warning he darted an icy cold stare at her. Bee took off her eyes and looked down at her te; Jack excused himself of work and ran away from the situation.Visible anger was dancing in his hazel eyes, the man kept the ss aside and walked away. Bee sat there gulping to herself; she was a dead meat today. She had no idea why but she was sure that Prince Charming was mad and this was because of her. She didn''t put efforts on her peanut brain and hurriedly finished her breakfast. She would run upstairs and lock the door and would onlye out once the coast was clear. Yes! That would be perfect. She pushed down the toast and sds down her throat and was about to spirit up to her room when a maid came to inform her that Master Ryan was looking for her and she was needed urgently. Kneading her hands she nervously walked up to the garden where he was waiting for her. Back in the yard Ryan pulled out his gun and punctured down the aims that were kept in there; his face had it''s usual solemn mask but there were sshes of anger in them. Bee walked in and witnessed him practicing his aim; now, the gun-sound no more haunted her as she was long used to them. Walking up to him she called out for him, "Mr. Neguyen, you were looking for me?" CHAPTER 16- ARE YOU JEALOUS CHAPTER 16- ARE YOU JEALOUS Ryan turned around to look at the approaching girl and shoved his gun back; Bee stood at a safety distance and waited for him to reply. Else than a wall of straight silence she got nothing. The forest was still with nothing but the sound of breeze brushing; the girl had her head down as she felt his sharp piercing gaze on herself. This was one of the most awkward positions one could be in, when you screwed up and the other person is staring at you. The man finally made a move, taking his eyes off her he walked up to the table and took a bottle in his hand. Twisting open the cap he started taking small sips of the content in it. Bee waited a bit more for him to tell her his purpose of summoning her but nothing happened. Giving up Bee spoke again, "Mr. Neguyen, what did you call me for?" The man stopped what he was doing and spoke, "I asked you to call me Ryan." Bee touched her chin and asked, "You called me to tell me to call you Ryan?" "No..." The man replied immediately and sat down on the chair. He was in a especially bad mood but his face was made in a way that he looked calm andposed all the time, he would even adorn this ice carved face of his even if he was beating up someone to pulp. He asked, "You and Jack seem pretty close!" Bee scratched her head and giggled, "I know right, he is a friend of mine. He bought me clothes." "I bought those, he simply delivered them to you." The man sneered viciously. The girl nodded, "No no... Jack told me! You only have him money, he chose dresses for me. You are stealing his credits." Ryan could only re at her out of annoyance, how badly he wished to strangle that spectacled guy for spilling things. He gritted his teethes, "So what, the money spent was mine and thus the credits belong to me!" The girl yfully giggled, "Hihi... But I like Jack more."N?velDrama.Org (C) content. Absolute anger sprout out as his heart burned in envy, standing up he furiously clutched on her cheek and forced her to look at him. "Ahh..." The girl yelped before shutting down; his handsome face were just few inches away from hers. "Say that line one more time in front of me." He spat irritated. He was jealous, he was extremely jealous right now. He noticed her the moment she descended down the stairs and was approaching the dining hall. He kept mum and waited for her to talk to him first as he had no idea how to initiate ca conversation. But not only did she ignore him she also sat the farthest from him. From the corner of his eyes he was watching over her, her expressions made him realize that she was upset of some sort. Now, what could it be- he wondered. Whenever he was angry he liked to be left alone and he foolishly believed this would work on her. Proud of his smart idea he left her stagnant, avoiding disturbing her but things took them when she happily chatted with Jack. Why was she smiling at him, she had a long face pulled all this time! What happened now? Is she more happy with Jack than him? People say that woman are more jealous but the truth was otherwise. Men too get jealous but they just hide it well. Ryan tried to keep his cool but when the two started to go deep into their conversation he couldn''t hold himself back from scaring the two away. She was his captive so all all of her belonged to him. It was dare for Ryan to be jealous and he felt pitiful of himself for being envious of his own assistant. So, he simply chose to deny it by terming that Bee was being disobedient and thus he was mad. It was unreasonable, he knew, but he was just too tough to admit his state. The girl red opened her eyes and asked, "W... Why are you getting angry? I was merely stating." He tightened his grip on her jaw making her twist in pain, "You are not allowed to like anyone. Put this thing in your mind." "Why can''t I? Isn''t it normal..." The girl naively started to exin herself but was brutally cut off by his cold voice, "You are forbidden from liking anyone. I don''t like it." Bee grinned, "You don''t like it or can''t afford it?" The man cringed before letting go of her, "What rubbish?" The girl held her sore jaw and spoke her mind, "Back then... During breakfast! You were not angry, were you? You were jealous, right." Men are born liars and would always choose denial over admition. Being exposed just like that his anger rose up to it''s height as he trembled in anger, "What the hell are you saying! I am not jealous." The girl smiled yfully, the smell of him burning was piercing through her nose yet he was denying. She hit his arm and replied in a hushed voice, "Ryan, you can tell me if you are jealous. Little Bee won''t tell it to anyone." "You are really stupid, aren''t you?" He hissed before taking out a stick and lighting it up before starting to puff it. Bee furrowed her eyebrows and eyed the packet on the table before saying, "Do you know cigarette is not good for health. Little Bee won''t rmend it!" The man shot her a careless look before taking a drag again, Bee came a bit closer and exined, "The thing you are savouring is literally poison, it is slowly killing you." "Why should I care?" Ryan asked staring straight ahead and continuing to puffing. He really saw no point in living this life anyways, if cigarettes were really as dangerous as how she was making them appear then yes, he would dly do them more. Bee took a deep breath and said firmly, "Little Bee cares about Ryan and thus, she won''t let you smoke!" "You care about me?" Two vigorous nods were the answer to his question; the corner of his lips curled up as he looked at her as if he was into challenging her, "How are you gonna stop me?" Bee didn''t say a word but worked out with action, she took the pack kept on the table and threw it away right in front of him. The man jerked off his seat and asked, "What was that about?" "Now... You won''t be able to smoke again!" Bee replied charmingly. "I will just get another one!" "I will throw that away too..." Stubborn as she was the man dropped the half burnt stick in his hands and smeared it; he sure look irritated but secretly when she wasn''t noticing his lips curled up into a smile. She said she cared for him and for some reason he felt all of his anger melt down into ecstasy. CHAPTER 17- YOU TRUT ME CHAPTER 17- YOU TRUT ME While the man was on his own thoughts Bee looked around a bit, the forest was dark and full of greenery. There were tall trees of oak and pine and many more which were not in her knowledge but she loved watching them. She started to take minute steps away from the training area; seeing that she was straying away the man got off his seat and trailed her lest she hurt herself. This was the first time when the girl had seen so many trees at one ce; in the past four years she had no memory of seeing anything so wonderful. Her world was limited within the street where her club stood and to her forest was that abandoned park on the nextne. Looking around and lost in herself her legs took her to the bushes behind the backyard. She didn¡¯t realize till she stopped on her tracks to find herself covered in woods; looking around she could not find the trace of the bungalow which moments ago was still visible to her. Her face dropped pale as she awkwardly hugged herself and murmured, ¡°I... I am sure I am not lost. I can say this!¡± The forest was dead silent and alien to her; she hugged herself gingerly and tried to keep her fading smile intact, ¡°Little Bee is brave! Little Bee can never.... Woaaaahhhhhh!¡± A bird flew past her ttering it¡¯s wings, the sound of the pping echoed in the forest haunting the lonely girl. Realizing that her ¡®brave¡¯ self got haunted out by a little bird the girl pulled a face catching up her breathe. She dusted out God knows what off her dress and innocently knead her little hands, ¡°I was not afraid, I am sure I did it to keep the bird¡¯s heart. Yes... That¡¯s it!¡± She looked up at the dark trees, finding it not healthy to stall the girl turned around and hastened her feet back. On her way back her little brain was getting upied by her wild imaginations; she clearly remembered that she didn¡¯t have to take a lot of steps to go into the forest but what was she still not able to reach back home? Now, she was getting anxious; what was she gonna do if she fails to get back home. What was she gonna eat? What was she gonna do here all alone, she won¡¯t even go to washroom alone at night! Was she gonna end up here? She vigorously nodded her head to shoo away her thoughts, ¡°I can¡¯t die young! I have yet not seen the Disney park...¡± The forest was devioded of human interaction, else than hooting of owls and rusting of the trees she couldn¡¯t hear anything. With the passing time she started to panic; she thought about yelling for help but stopped immediately, what if animal show up and eat her. No... No! Bad idea. Really bad idea. She was running out of ideas when she suddenly recalled something she saw not too long ago. There was this episode of Doremon where it was mentioned about forest spirit and she was foolish enough to believe it was true. The girl dropped on her knees and folded her hands; closing her eyes she started talking to the unknown, ¡°Dearest forest spirit, I am sorry I trespassed but Little Bee is innocent, she didn¡¯t mean to do it. Can you please send me back home... I am not even 16 yet, there are two more months to go. Please be merciful and let me go, I swear I won¡¯t evere back to mess around...¡± ¡°You are stupid, aren¡¯t you?¡± Ryan leaned on the tree not too far away and looked down at the girl. He had been following and watching over her from the very start; when she was murmuring to herself about getting lost and was doing all goofy stuffs he was right thereughing to himself. He wanted to see how lunatic this girl can be but little did he know was she was down to Earth stupid; seeing her like this the man couldn¡¯t hold himself back and came out. The girl opened her eyes and turned her head around to look at the owner of that familiar voice. ¡°Prince Charming?¡± she chirped before closing her eyes again smiling wide, ¡°Oh My God, forest goddess you are really merciful. Thank you for sending me a savior!¡± ¡°...¡± Ryan was unable to say anything; was this girl really this naive. He helplessly nodded before walking up to her, he held her right arm and forced her to stand up, ¡°Come with me, fool! I can¡¯t believe you got lost in the backyard and you were so smart that you walked on the opposite direction, moving away from the house.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t find the house.¡± The girl stretched out, it turned out she was walking away from Content ? N?velDrama.Org. the bungalow. She was getting dragged away by the poker faced man; the man looked so handsome to her, ¡°Prince Ryan, how did you find me?¡± ¡°I was there the whole time because I know you are stupid and would end up doing something utterly stupid.¡± The man replied silently while striding his way to the bungalow. The girl clutched his t shirt and pulled him slightly making him stop on his tracks. She smiled hesitant before asking, "Since you are here does it mean I can explore the trees a bit." The man asked, "Aren''t you afraid that I will leave you here alone, left to be eaten up by the snakes and creeps?" Little Bee giggled before pointing out, "Prince Charming even gets scared when I am missing from my room, let alone leaving me all by myself in some forest." "You trust me?" The man asked seriously but Little Bee hardly cared about it. She ran around this time keeping in mind not to stray off on her own. Her attention was grabbed by a white wild flower which was hidden among the shrubs; she yfully ran up to it and squinted on her knees, carefully plucking it. She replied out of the blue, "Of course I trust you!" Saying this she walked up to the man and showed him the little flower, "This is for you... For being so good to me." The man looked down at the flower and then at the girl''s face; her eyes were round and cheerful with a tint of brown in them. Ryan had no thoughts in his mind else than that he had to protect her no matter what. CHAPTER 18- YOU WONT REGRET TRUSTING ME CHAPTER 18- YOU WON''T REGRET TRUSTING ME He took the flower from her and kept mum; it¡¯s been a long time since he felt so good. After that incident he med himself for everything; if she didn¡¯t trust him that day and refused toe out with him that wouldn¡¯t have happened to her. Her trust on him caused her such a misfortune; he looked at the cheerful girl who was jumping around him happily. He himself had no idea what he was thinking when he pulled her hand; Little Bee didn¡¯t expect this sudden ambush and went crashing into his chest. ¡°Ouch, it¡¯s hard. Do you eat stones. I...¡± She was struggling at first but stopped when her ears picked on a rhythm; she halted at once and listened attentively to his heartbeat. His heart was thumping rapidly inside his chest and for some reason Little Bee developed nostalgia over it. The man held her in his arms and spoke in an especially mellow tone, ¡°I won¡¯t let anything ever hurt you; you won¡¯t regret trusting me.¡± Little Bee had no idea what got into him all of a sudden and neither was she paying attention to words; she buried her ears deeper into his chest and listened attentively to his beating heart. His heart went like ba- dump, ba- dump, ba- dump and ba- dump. She let out a giggle pulling out the lost man back to his senses; he looked down at her and pulled her away from him slowly. Why did he hug her? He had no memory of it; he darted his gaze at her to find her already staring at him. Clearing his throat he went back to his usual arrogant demeanor, ¡°What are youughing for?¡± he demanded coldly. She pointed at his heart and replied, ¡°Your heart... It still beats the same as my dream.¡± ¡°Oh, here we go again!¡± Ryan rolled his eyes as soon as she mentioned her crazy dreams; Bee nodded N?velDrama.Org (C) content. and replied, ¡°I am not lying. Why won¡¯t you believe me?¡± The man was in a pleasant mood and thus didn¡¯t confront her; he knew she was a good girl and would never mean any harm to her. Treating her words as bbers he held her hands and started making his way towards the house, against her protests and pleas. ¡°You have strolled a lot for today, let¡¯s go home.¡± ¡°Says who, I didn¡¯t even see the trees properly!¡± She protested. ¡°Is that so? Do you want me to leave you alone here for the wolves to feed on you?¡± ¡°You are so bad! Give me my flower back...¡± ¡°Shut up or I will beat you up!¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t fair.¡± The girl hung her head as she got herself pulled out of the forest by the man. ... That afternoon something important came up and Ryan along with his squad had to leave all of a sudden. Bee was reading aic by the window as she saw the group leave; even though the situation looked to be a little tensed Ryan was as calm as ever. Little Bee had her eyes stuck at the man till he disappeared behind the close doors of his ck Porsche. Else than Bee, the maids and few bodyguards there was no one left in the house. The girl read theic for sometime before involuntarily dozing off; by the time she woke up it was already evening and Ryan was yet not back. Yawning and massaging her eyes she got down the stairs to inquire if they knew anything about his whereabouts. The reply that was given to her was that they had no idea where he was and that it was normal for Ryan to be out of the house. There were even times when he would stay out overnight. Bee was a bit disappointed to learn that chances of hiing back at night was slim; there weren¡¯t even Jack or Rose to help her kill time. She went back to the room and dropped on the bed, ¡°It¡¯s so boring to be alone...¡± She looked at the clock which was ticking like some snail. Stretching a sigh she got up, determined she said, ¡°I am gonna entertain myself, yes!¡± The next second the girl was seen jumping over the bed, dancing and singing tone-deaf as always. Her ¡®entertain myself session¡¯sted for fifteen minutes before she descended down the stairs with a hung face. A maid who was listening to her singing and dancing sniggered before asking, ¡°Is singing no more fun, Miss Bee!¡± ¡°It was horrible; I tripped off the bed and dropped the n of continuing it.¡± She admitted slowly before flopping on the sofa and turning o n the TV. Learning that she fell off the bed the maid asked with concern, ¡°Miss, are you hurt! Should I call the doctor?¡± Bee thought back of the time when she fell; it was her nket that conspired against her by wrapping itself around her legs and making her stumble off the bed. She was stuck in the space between the bed and table and had to face Hell and Heaven to release herself out of it. She was badly hurt but still nodded stubbornly, ¡°Hah, I am not hurt. It was just a little ident, I am as strong as a bear.¡± ¡°Are you sure, Miss Bee?¡± The maid asked again and Bee showed her thumbs up saying that she was perfectly alright. The TV was broadcasting random news channels and she found it really uninteresting. All of a sudden she remembered Arthur and her little face got clouded with nostalgia and misery. It¡¯s been more than three days since her contact with the outer world has been cut off; she had not heard from any of her colleagues in the past few days. She turned off the TV and hugged her knees; she didn¡¯t even get to say a good bye to anyone. She was not even sure if she was gonna ever meet them again in this lifetime. Everyone must be worried about her, especially Arthur. What are they doing back there; were they too missing her in the same was she was missing them. ... That night in Seductress was normal; loud music, blinding lights and the pungent smell of alcohol made the night as alive as always. Arthur looked like a mess as he sat on his stand and remembered the things that unfolded in the past three days. CHAPTER 19- COME BACK HOME SOON CHAPTER 19- COME BACK HOME SOON The next day when he came to work he was a bit shocked to discover the usually punctual Bee was nowhere to be seen and like every day was not waiting for him. He was a bit unsettled at first but decided not to worry and started cleaning up, maybe she was sleeping a little too long today. Uneasy was when he felt when she didn¡¯t show up when the work was officially started. When the woman working in there came down in their suave self he inquired if they saw her. They replied that they failed to notice her and have not seen her sincest night. Thanking them the man ran up to the room where she stayed; the door was locked. She wasn¡¯t even home! Where could she be? Vaguely tensed he went back and started asking everyone if they have seen her; everyone¡¯s reply was the same- they had not heard from her sincest night. His eyebrows involuntarily frowned; Bee was not someone who would go out alone and even if she did she would have informed someone for sure. Her disappearing without a trace from the face of Earth was both fishy and matter of worry for him. He convinced himself to wait a bit more but as soon as evening struck and people started to brim the ce he left his station and dashed to the owner of the club to report that she was missing. Now, the news was spread that Little Bee was lost and everyone did their best to trace her but to no avail. She was to be found nowhere. Arthur even filed aint to the cops but the investigation saw no hopes either. All he was told that she might have got abducted by some mob as it was reallymon for young girls like her to be taken away just like that. It was even hard to determine if she was even alive. New Orleans was infamous for gang activities and people saw it as no big deal; the owner of the club showed no sympathy for her- he was used to such situations of missing people; the only regret he had was that his bucks were wasted on her. Her colleagues did show a little concern for the little soul but everything went back to normal the next day itself. Her room was cleaned off and her stuffs taken away by others; it felt as if there was no person called Bee living with them like three days ago. Arthur remained dull and refused to believe that she was gone; he was willing to wait for her to return as he believed she won¡¯t be gone for too long. Even after being told to give up he stubbornly held onto his hope. He looked at the corner seat where she was seated the first day they met, it was upied by some couple who were actively making out. Something pricked his eyes as he blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall. He looked up at the disco ball which was rotating mindlessly, making the room livelier and sighed, ¡°Bee, I miss you! Pleasee back soon.¡± ... Back at home, Bee dozed off again on the sofa and was plunged awaken when she heard the roaring of the motors outside the house. She rubbed her eyes and was in a daze until she heard the mild cacophony of familiar voices. She jumped down the sofa and ran up to the door in hopes of finding the man but she was greeted by everyone else than him. Rose was thest to enter the house, looking at the girl waiting at the door she removed her jacket asking, ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up?¡± Bee smiled before looking behind her, discovering that no one else was left out she was a bit disappointed. Seeing her expressions diffuse into that of disappointment Rose bent down and asked, ¡°What is it? You look sad...¡± ¡°Ryan?¡± Bee uttered a single name and Rose understood what she was up to. Rose threw her jacket aside and replied, ¡°Oh, Boss? He won¡¯t be back for some days.¡± Bee furrowed her eyebrows and asked, ¡°Why? Is he alright?¡± Rose nodded, ¡°Ahh... Our boss is alright! He just had to head to Houston due to some urgent work.¡± Houston? That was really far; why would he leave all of a sudden? Bee bit on her lips and chased after the tired woman who was making her way to her room, ¡°When will hee back?¡± ¡°Maybe in a week!¡± ¡°He would be gone for that long... He failed to mention that.¡± Bee had never been this disappointed in her life, it was more painful than buying a candy and realizing it was an empty packet. Rose smirked, ¡°Why? You are already missing him?¡± Bee flushed red as she waved her hand, ¡°No! I am just worried...¡± Rose smiled before waving the girl a good night and disappearing into her room. After dinner Bee ran back to her room and looked at the road through her window; she was foolishly waiting for him to return even though she knew that he won¡¯t be back tonight. She picked up a white bunny which was her current favourite plushie, hugging it to her neck she asked, ¡°Bunny, do you he will Days went just like that and nothing worthy of mentioning unfolded in these days. She did nothing more than eating and sleeping for the past few days. Every time anyone gets a call she would run up to them hoping that it was him calling but every time she got nothing but severe disappointments. The first time he heard from him after he went away was two dayster; Jack was reading out some instructions to the maid when Bee was passing by. Hearing the maid respectfully address the other party as ¡®sir¡¯ she assumed that it was Ryan.N?velDrama.Org (C) content. A big smile came on her face as she jumped up to her and whispered, ¡°Is it Ryan?¡± The maid nodded a no and continued talking but the Ryan, who was working on hisptop right next to Jack and had really sharp ears, caught tinge of Bee¡¯s melodious voice. He looked at Jack and asked him to hand over the phone to him with a poker face. The assistant nodded before notifying the maid and giving him the phone. ¡°Phone to Bee.¡± He said ndly; the maid obediently nodded before giving the receiver to Bee, ¡°Miss, it¡¯s Young Master.¡± The next day when he came to work he was a bit shocked to discover the usually punctual Bee was nowhere to be seen and like every day was not waiting for him. He was a bit unsettled at first but decided not to worry and started cleaning up, maybe she was sleeping a little too long today. Uneasy was when he felt when she didn¡¯t show up when the work was officially started. When the woman working in there came down in their suave self he inquired if they saw her. They replied that they failed to notice her and have not seen her sincest night. Thanking them the man ran up to the room where she stayed; the door was locked. She wasn¡¯t even home! Where could she be? Vaguely tensed he went back and started asking everyone if they have seen her; everyone¡¯s reply was the same- they had not heard from her sincest night. His eyebrows involuntarily frowned; Bee was not someone who would go out alone and even if she did she would have informed someone for sure. Her disappearing without a trace from the face of Earth was both fishy and matter of worry for him. He convinced himself to wait a bit more but as soon as evening struck and people started to brim the ce he left his station and dashed to the owner of the club to report that she was missing. Now, the news was spread that Little Bee was lost and everyone did their best to trace her but to no avail. She was to be found nowhere. Arthur even filed aint to the cops but the investigation saw no hopes either. All he was told that she might have got abducted by some mob as it was reallymon for young girls like her to be taken away just like that. It was even hard to determine if she was even alive. New Orleans was infamous for gang activities and people saw it as no big deal; the owner of the club showed no sympathy for her- he was used to such situations of missing people; the only regret he had was that his bucks were wasted on her. Her colleagues did show a little concern for the little soul but everything went back to normal the next day itself. Her room was cleaned off and her stuffs taken away by others; it felt as if there was no person called Bee living with them like three days ago. Arthur remained dull and refused to believe that she was gone; he was willing to wait for her to return as he believed she won¡¯t be gone for too long. Even after being told to give up he stubbornly held onto his hope. He looked at the corner seat where she was seated the first day they met, it was upied by some couple who were actively making out. Something pricked his eyes as he blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall. He looked up at the disco ball which was rotating mindlessly, making the room livelier and sighed, ¡°Bee, I miss you! Pleasee back soon.¡± ... Back at home, Bee dozed off again on the sofa and was plunged awaken when she heard the roaring of the motors outside the house. She rubbed her eyes and was in a daze until she heard the mild cacophony of familiar voices. She jumped down the sofa and ran up to the door in hopes of finding the man but she was greeted by everyone else than him. Rose was thest to enter the house, looking at the girl waiting at the door she removed her jacket asking, ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up?¡± Bee smiled before looking behind her, discovering that no one else was left out she was a bit disappointed. Seeing her expressions diffuse into that of disappointment Rose bent down and asked, ¡°What is it? You look sad...¡± ¡°Ryan?¡± Bee uttered a single name and Rose understood what she was up to. Rose threw her jacket aside and replied, ¡°Oh, Boss? He won¡¯t be back for some days.¡± Bee furrowed her eyebrows and asked, ¡°Why? Is he alright?¡± Rose nodded, ¡°Ahh... Our boss is alright! He just had to head to Houston due to some urgent work.¡± Houston? That was really far; why would he leave all of a sudden? Bee bit on her lips and chased after the tired woman who was making her way to her room, ¡°When will hee back?¡± ¡°Maybe in a week!¡± ¡°He would be gone for that long... He failed to mention that.¡± Bee had never been this disappointed in her life, it was more painful than buying a candy and realizing it was an empty packet. Rose smirked, ¡°Why? You are already missing him?¡± Bee flushed red as she waved her hand, ¡°No! I am just worried...¡± Rose smiled before waving the girl a good night and disappearing into her room. After dinner Bee ran back to her room and looked at the road through her window; she was foolishly waiting for him to return even though she knew that he won¡¯t be back tonight. She picked up a white bunny which was her current favourite plushie, hugging it to her neck she asked, ¡°Bunny, do you he will Days went just like that and nothing worthy of mentioning unfolded in these days. She did nothing more than eating and sleeping for the past few days. Every time anyone gets a call she would run up to them hoping that it was him calling but every time she got nothing but severe disappointments. The first time he heard from him after he went away was two dayster; Jack was reading out some instructions to the maid when Bee was passing by. Hearing the maid respectfully address the other party as ¡®sir¡¯ she assumed that it was Ryan. A big smile came on her face as she jumped up to her and whispered, ¡°Is it Ryan?¡± The maid nodded a no and continued talking but the Ryan, who was working on hisptop right next to Jack and had really sharp ears, caught tinge of Bee¡¯s melodious voice. He looked at Jack and asked him to hand over the phone to him with a poker face. The assistant nodded before notifying the maid and giving him the phone. ¡°Phone to Bee.¡± He said ndly; the maid obediently nodded before giving the receiver to Bee, ¡°Miss, it¡¯s Young Master.¡± CHAPTER 20- I WISH YOU CAME A LITTLE EARLIER CHAPTER 20- I WISH YOU CAME A LITTLE EARLIER Bee was overjoyed as she walked up to the phone and received it; keeping it on her ears she tried to hear the other side but to her surprise it was as silent as a graveyard. Bee pushed the phone closer into her ears but it was still silent; how can Prince Charming be this silent. The girl didn¡¯t mind as she cheerfully greeted, ¡°Prince Charming, how are you today.¡± This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org. Ryan stared into void without replying, he had been awfully busy for thest two days and was packed even now but there was no denying that talking to her felt more important than anything. Every night he would ask Jack and make sure she was alright there. Seeing him mum the girl said ¡®Hello¡¯ quite a few times before looking up at the maid and replying disheartened, ¡°Phone is broken!¡± The man abruptly snapped out of his fantasies when he heard her, without wasting another second he replied slowly, ¡°I am here.¡± Bee heard his charming voice over the phone, it¡¯s been only two days since she heard from him and she had to admit that she missed him. The man continued, ¡°I am fine. You?¡± ¡°I am good... You know what happened today...¡± The girl excitedly started to tell him every single thing she did today. Ryan didn¡¯t stop her and would stretch a ¡®mmm¡¯ every now and then. Jack whispered to remind him that he still had work he needed to take care of; the man threw him a nonchnt ce as he simply shut hisptop and leaned back on his seat. Jack choked on his own saliva, his action were like a silent promation that ¡®she is more important than anything¡¯. Jack could only smile helplessly; while the mob was silent in here the person on the other side wasn¡¯t. She was already excited about talking to him after a long time and had so much to tell him; without even asking if he was busy she went on bbering. The man patiently heard her out and when she was finally done she went silent out of blue. In a tone which was low and opposite to her previous self she asked, ¡°When are youing back?¡± The man¡¯s heart skipped a beat as something strange welled up in his heart; he replied, ¡°I will be back by next week.¡± He knew his answer would lower her spirits more and as he guessed she went mum after that. Is she sad? Ryan tensed up as he got up and walked out of the door; finding himself a ce in an empty balcony not too far away he asked, ¡°Why are you silent?¡± The girl breathed out, ¡°I wish you came a little earlier!¡± Ryan fell in a trance after hearing this reply; what was she indicating by saying this line. She even sounded mncholic! Ryan wasn¡¯t able to make out why was she saying that; he had a very low contact with people especially woman and thus wasn¡¯t able to figure out what was she trying to say. He abruptly hung up strode back to the Jack; after being hung up on Bee furrowed her eyebrows. Her cheeks puffed up with anger as she looked up at the maid andined, ¡°He hung up without saying a good bye.¡± The maid chuckled and pulled her cheeks, ¡°Don¡¯t be mad at Young Master, Miss Bee. He must have had some urgent work.¡± Bee was about to say something but was distracted as she picked on a scrumptious aroma from the kitchen. Drooling her heart out she jumped away into the kitchen. Back at Houston Ryan stormed back into the room startling poor Jack who was sorting out a deal for him. Heined angrily, ¡°Did you want to give me a heart attack?¡± Ryan ignored him with his own question, ¡°What does a girl mean when she says she wish if I came earlier.¡± Jack was arranging the papers which he just dropped and was looked up at the man, ¡°Bee said that to you?¡± Ryan wordlessly nodded. Jack touched his chin and acted all wise, ¡°It¡¯s easy, she is missing you!¡± ¡°Missing me?¡± He was taken aback when he heard his assistant. Jack nodded and reassured, ¡°Yes, I feel like she is missing you but I can¡¯t say for sure. Ryan red at him before hurriedly dialing back; Jack rolled his eyes, this guy was acting like a high schooler in love. The phone was picked up immediately and the maid¡¯s polite voice resounded. ¡°Bee!¡± The man dragged out. ¡°Yes, Mr. Neguyen.¡± the maid replied before throwing her nce at the direction of the kitchen and calling out for Bee. As soon as the ¡®Miss, Young master is calling you¡¯ rang in her ears the girl¡¯s ears she pushed herself away from the table like a kid and ran up to the drawing room with food stuffed in her mouth. Without even gulping it she took the receiver and kept it on her ears. She lisped, ¡°Hey, wha did ya col...¡± The man directly jumped into the question, ¡°Are you missing me?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The girl was confused about what he was talking about. He borated, ¡°Did you wish I coulde earlier because you were missing me.¡± Little Bee nodded over the phone, ¡°Yes, I miss you, Prince Charming.¡± Wasn¡¯t it obvious that she said so because she missed me, Prince Charming seemed to becing EQ. While she was nonchntly chewing her food the room in Houston was heating up. Ryan stood frozen on hi ce as his mind processed the confession she just made. That piece of news about her missing him was hard to swallow; thinking that he misheard her he asked again, ¡°Are you for real?¡± Bee was unable to estimate the value of her words neither was she able to see the expressions that were erupting inside him. She yfully answered, ¡°It is quite boring without you, if you were here I would have had someone to y around with. You even left without saying, technically I should be mad at you. Yes, I am mad at you but I am kind hearted and I will forgive you! Just because I am forgiving don¡¯t assume that I am happy with what you did... I am still mad at you in the ration of... Ratio of...¡± She thought hard to think about an suitable example but couldn¡¯te up with any. The man helped her out, ¡°Coffee and sugar?¡± She grinned, ¡°Yes.. Yes... Coffee and sugar. Miss is equal to coffee and anger is equal to sugar.¡± The man¡¯s heart crept with warmth seeing her giggle; his eyes softened as he asked, ¡°Will you be happy if Ie back soon?¡± The girl immediately replied, ¡°Yes, I will be!¡± Sitting on his eat Jack darted a look of confusion at Ryan, he asked, ¡°What are you thinking?¡± Ryan looked at him and ignored him with a faint smile; Jack finally understood what he was gonna do. He sprang up from his seat and was about to stop him but Ryan spoke first, ¡°I will be back in two days!¡± CHAPTER 21- I DONT PLAY FAIR ANYWAYS CHAPTER 21- I DON''T PLAY FAIR ANYWAYS Little Bee¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°For real?¡± Jack was blowing up with rage, he walked up to Ryan and whispered, ¡°This is a really bad idea... We will die of exhaustion by the team we reach Orleans.¡± Ryan actively ignored him, turning the other side he promised, ¡°I will be by your side the morning of day after tomorrow.¡± The girl got hysterical, ¡°Oh, Prince Charming you are the best! I will be waiting for you.¡± A grunt was This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org. dragged before the was hung up; Jack charged at him, ¡°You are crazy, what were you thinking when you made that promise?¡± Ryan¡¯s face turned cold as he looked up, ¡°Do I need to ask you before doing anything?¡± Jack immediately quietened down, he was a chameleon of a man- capable of switching his temperament within the blink of an eye. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that...¡± Jack backed off as he can never go against this devious man and continued, ¡°But the schedule is already nned.¡± Ryan went back to his seat and started flying his fingers over the keyboard, ¡°Have you heard the word prepone?¡± Jack atst gave up and nodded his head, ¡°I will make the arrangements. Man, I deserve a pay raise!¡± ¡°Negative payment for you this month.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t fair...¡± ¡°Cool, I don¡¯t y fair anyways.¡± With cheeks blushing with anger the little assistant walked out of the door to arrange the schedule. Ryan was left alone in the room; even though he was working his mind was straying elsewhere. She was such a kid who got happy over every single thing and never understood anythingplicated. Her world was small and filled with happy thoughts; she had no knowledge about pretending, manipting or holding grudges. Just a simple soul with simple thoughts, how can he not want to be good to her. Seeing her smile made him happy; it was after she came he was feeling good after a really long time. He wanted to do the same to her... Even if it meant tormenting himself. A rare smile appeared on his face as her pouty little face brimming with sunshine came before his eyes. Back at home Bee was so happy that she ran around mindlessly in the whole house. The maids were amused; this was the first time they had ever seen the cold Young Master being so good to a girl. He hated woman, Jule was one of the strongest example for his hatred for woman. They had seen how hard she tried to crawl up on his bed; she even had the heart to show up in revealing dress but not only did Ryan ignore her actively he even warned her not to show up wearing s*its. The doctor was a beauty and was so much into him yet he kept on giving her a cold shoulder. All this passive response made them doubt his sexuality until this little girl appeared. She was really cute and had never abused them on the standpoint that she had the Young Master¡¯s support. Having her around was really fun; she would give every single staff flowers every morning, praise them with all her heart and would even y with them. The house was livelier with her presence; even though the Boss¡¯s coldness was yet to melt they could see the difference of ck and white- how he treated others and he treated this bubbly personality. The house had four working staffs- Ste and Brook were the oldest staffs while Lily and Penny were newly appointed just for her. They too were just of 18; Ryan specially appointed them so that she don¡¯t feel lonely and would befortable about having people of her age group around. Bee ate dinner and went to sleep early; she was really happy before going to sleep and was soon visited by a dream- a dream featuring him. It yed out in her point of view, it seemed as if she was running to somewhere; when she finally stopped she saw a young man with fine features reading a novel sitting on a bench. It was him, Prince Charming, who seemed to be in histe teens. The view stopped there before shifting into that of dandelions floating in the sky. The visions were blurry and shifted in light speed. Bee furrowed her eyebrows in sleep shifting ufortably before jolting up. Catching up her breathe she looked around; sweat beads covered her pale forehead and her body shivered visibly. She took the ss of water before gulping down the content; her racing heart was finally calmed. Snuggling into her nket she went back to sleep again but to no avail, slumber seemed out of reach now. She processed back her mind and her thoughts struck at the part where she saw Ryan on the rock; he looked youthful and charming. Even though he had a calm aura and a poker face he still looked enchanting. Bee wasn¡¯t sleepy and thus though of an idea. She would sketch out his image and gift it to him when hee back. Little Bee had a gift of drawing and was capable of making some really beautiful portraits. Back in club when she would wake up mid night she would sketch down her visions; there was a whole sketch book dedicated to sketches of Ryan which was still hidden in her room under her bed. Bee yanked her nket and stepped down the bed; she was determined to make the sketch but just realized that she had nothing for the work- neither paper or pencil or other stationary to do make it. ¡°Ohh... What will Little Bee do now?¡± She said to herself. She ran up to the shelves to discover nothing helpful. Straying her mind a bit she finally remembered something, back then when he went to Ryan¡¯s study she did see some papers and pencil. She was sure that she would be able to help herself if she manages to get in there. ¡°Oh, Bee... You are so smart!¡± she held her head high as she ran out of the door. CHAPTER 22- SNEAKING INTO HIS ROOM CHAPTER 22- SNEAKING INTO HIS ROOM The girl carefully tip toed on her feet lest she disturbed someone, the house was pitch ck as if it has been abandoned for a very long time. All the maids had long drifted into slumber and it seemed that even the guards who were patrolling out got tired and were sleeping too. Ryan''s room was on the same floor as hers and thus it didn''t take too long for her to go there. The girl stood in front of the door and didn''t put lot of efforts in thinking as she carefully twisted open the door and entered in. She switched on the light and scanned the lifeless room with her eyes,st time when she cane her whole focus was on the owner of this room that she failed to study this room in detail. His study was totally different than Little Bee''s, the walls were in with shades of white and metallic grey, there were modern abstract paintings with dull color and pots of cactus and Venus fly traps were kept arranged on the shelves. Right beside his chair was a gigantic board with several news articles Content ? N?velDrama.Org. and pictures of men were pinned. Bee once heard that one could judge the personality of the person just by observing his taste in colors.It turned out to be true, nd Prince Charming really had a nd taste in everything. Bee didn''t think too much as she directly went to his working table and started searching. There were several papers with several codes written on them, piles of documents, pictures of various men with red cross in them were there. Bee couldn''t bother with it and continued searching for something useful for herself. "Nothing... There is nothing.. ouch!" Bee squeaked as she hit the table out of frustration hurting herself back. Her enthusiasm to draw were going downhill and she was left the study but stopped on her tracks when she saw another room at the end of the corridor. Her spirits were lifted again as she ran to it, the door was not locked and went ajar just by a simple twist on the knob. Bee turned on the lights to discover that she was in a room which looked more like his bedroom. The spacious room was majestic; even though the room had the same ponderous theme to itself yet the dominant and royal aura it emitted was undeniable. There was a king sized bed few meters away from the door. Bee was super excited to be in Ryan''s room; she ran up to the bed and touched the sheer white quilt arranged neatly on top of it. "How soft... Prince Charming lives the life of a king!" She smiled to herself; no wonder he was arrogant and possessed halo of some king. He indeed seemed to belong to a family which has been rich for generations. She had heard that Mafia people are indeed rich but this was the first time she encountered one. Bee forgot the purpose why he was here and wandered around a bit till her attentions were grabbed by the paintings on the wall. She walked up to them andughed out; they looked as if they were made by some kid. There were many such drawings carefully framed and decorated on the wall; there were drawings of mountains, houses, something that looked like elephant, flowers and apple. Bee was a brilliant artist and couldn''t stop herself from criticizing them. She said to herself, "These are so childish, why would he keep them framed?" Te quality of the drawings improvised in some, the artist had learned to color the picture within the borders without scraping them across the picture. She was going through themzily when she saw a drawing which attracted her conscious attention. This was peculiar than the rest as it featured two human like figure- a girl and a boy. Bee stood there studying the picture; the boy was taller than the girl and both held hands with a red heart floating between them. There was something scribbled above the heads of each figure. Above the boy''s head was written Ryan and above the girl''s it was Cathey and below the figures were three two words- Together For Eternity. Bee''s eyes squinted as she read the name again. Cathey? Who is this Cathey? She had never heard this name in the time being she lived here. She was stupid but had brains enough to understand what that drawing meant; she was sure that this ''Cathey'' was not some random person but shared a special rtionship with Ryan as he had this drawing hung in his wall. The smile on her face had long vanished when her eyes fell on the red heart between them; she dared not to think more ande to wild conclusions. Bee lost all her will to look at drawings and decided to return but her eyes fell at the corner of the wall. Right at the corner there was a ss showcase which looked eye catching; she couldn''t hold her curious self from walking up to it. The girl peeped through the ss shields; the case was and was attached to the wall firmly. There she again saw the same name she saw back then- CATHEY. Bee opened the door of the case to take a better look; it seemed to be a memory capsule in a ss case. There was a coffee mug which bore her name, hair clips, ribbons, little ear beads, teddy bear, handkerchief and many other things used by girls. There was a wooden box which was taken by her; she opened it to find the box brimming with many dried flowers. She slowly closed it and kept it back and wandered her eyes everywhere. These all were girly stuffs and she wondered what were they doing preserved in his room. She was naturally short and could only peep till the third rack; there were more three racks above. It was not high, the case was made in keeping Ryan''s height in mind and he was tall enough to each it. Little Bee was curious to know what was kept up there, when she sneaked a peak she found something likes photo frames standing in them. Bee looked around to see a wooden stool not too far away from her. She brought it dragging and positioned it right in front of the case. Carefully climbing up now she was able to look at the rest of the rack. As she guessed they indeed were photo frames. CHAPTER 23- CATHERINE SILVA CHAPTER 23- CATHERINE SILVA Bee stabilized herself on the chair and looked at the rack which were now easily reachable to her; many photo frames of different size and shape were arranged on the first to racks... All of the same person. She knew deep down that she wasn¡¯t supposed to be doing it but humans were born with a heart full of eagerness. Bee tried to suppress all the bitterness welling up inside her heart and picked up a frame in means to take a better look. Her eyes went widen in shock as they met with the image of one of the loveliest creature she had ever seen in her whole life. The girl looked like a young girl around 10 or 11; even though her tone was not as fair as hers but olive in nature she still looked angelic. Her eyes were almond shaped with thick dark and beautifully cured eyebrows right above them, a pair of long and curled eyebrows protected those delicate ck eyes. She was blessed with a little Roman nose and her bow shaped lips in a sweet peach colour were curled into a hearty grin revealing her perfect row of white teethes. Her ck hairs were cut into short waves, suspending loosely above and trying to reach her shoulders. The girl looked pure and chaste, her eyes had no speck of evilness and them. Bee couldn¡¯t help but admit that she was one of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen. Bee kept that picture and started to look through the other; there were more than fifty frames featuring her. Some of her in school uniform, some sitting on a chair wearing luxurious clothes, some were candid pics of her running is grass fields and eating candies, hugging a teddy bearrger than her, holding a bouquet of flowers, blowing bubbles and many more. No matter at what situation or dress she was in she looked angelic. There was something printed in one of photos; she pulled the picture closer to her face to read the minute wordings. ¡®Catherine Silva, Age 12. January 1, 20XX.'' The name was as beautiful as the girl herself. The year suggested that it was clicked four years ago in New Year. If the girl was 12 year old back then it would mean that she was as the same age as her, just four months older than thetter. Bee was still utterly confused why there were so many pictures of this girl in Ryan¡¯s room; what was All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. she to him? Thinking this she darted her eyes up to discover some more photos, this time there were two people in one frame- Ryan and the girl. Her face fell drastically as something within her shattered; Ryan looked young and handsome but this didn¡¯t make Bee fascinated as she had seen him many times like this. Little Bee skimmed through all the photos, some of them holding hands, some of them sitting together, some of them in luxurious clothes. Bee felt her eyes well up; she had never been disappointed in her life like today. She tried her best to deny it but the harder she tried the more obvious the fact looked; they were childhood sweethearts and must be really dear to him that he cherished her belongings with such care. She hung her head and blinked vigorously to fight back her tears; she adored and admired him all her life, terming him as her Prince Charming and weaving fantasies of being with him. No wonder he denied her approach and shunned her when he was budding with her stupid emotions. The ¡®her¡¯ back then must be Catherine who held a special ce in his heart. She forced her lips up and uttered to herself in a cracking voice, ¡°No wonder he asked me to give up when I wasn¡¯t even sure about my emotions. He already has someone he love!¡± Bee always believed that her emotions for him were childish as her, before a week she wasn''t even aware that this man was true. She was sure she wasn''t in love with him and only treated him as one of her stupid fantasies. Little did she know that she was making a fool out of herself; she had invested more emotions on him than she could afford to. Somewhere within her child y she started to grow feelings for him which were piercing through her heart making it bleed. She no longer wanted to stay in the room; she closed the ss case and dragged the chair back to where it was. Snorting her nose she pulled her sleeves and ran out of the room and only stopped when she was already under her bedsheet. She pulled her quilt up to her head and stayed unmoved; even though her figure looked as if she was fast asleep underneath the fabric her eyes were wide awake staring into the void. Something strong was stinging in her eyes making her want to cry so bad but she stubbornly held onto the nket and refuses to cry. She couldn''t help but think about the things she leanrt about just now. Who was this Catherine and how did she meet Ryan? If they really shared a rtionship as suggested by the things she saw back in room then where was she now? What happened next? Are they still seeing each other? Bee had no idea when she fell asleepst night, when she traces back her memory all she saw was herself fighting and calming her own emotions. She sat upzily and shooted a hooded gaze at the door which was being knocked and was the reason she woke up. It was Lily who was here to invite Bee to breakfast. Bee was not at all hungry and thus turned down the invite saying that she had no appetite. Lily was worried; Bee was someone who would kill for food and it was a matter of worry if she was refusing to est. The maid tried a few times to persuade her toe down and eat at least a little portion of the food but the girl said a firm no and dropped back on the bed to sleep. Lily gave up persuading and immediately ran down report everything to the head maid who herself fell in panic after listening to it. Ryan had strictly ordered that he should be the who would be reported if she was acting strange. The maid didn''t think twice as she walked up to the phone and started calling the Young Master. CHAPTER 24- MISS BEE IS ACTING STRANGE CHAPTER 24- MISS BEE IS ACTING STRANGE Jack dusted off his shirt clean panting as the man was seen seated on the main chair as he casually wiped blood off his dagger. He threw a nonchnt gaze at the corpse lying next to him on the floor whom he had just killed by stabbing it right through his side neck. The man was none other than another Mafia leader who had been meddling with his businesstely; even though Ryan and Jack were here to ''peace'' talk and negotiate with him the gangster, after getting some powers, became too arrogant to be disciplined. Since he was being disobedient and kept on challenging Ryan the young man didn¡¯t hesitate to take his life and show him why he was the king and not him. Ryan was the youngest heir to take over the family business, he did it when he was just 19 when he took his father¡¯s ce after the man got bed ridden after a gang sh. Big Master Neguyen¡¯s subordinates at first doubted his judgement and were opposite to Ryan reign as he was still young, some even prospected that he will bring their rule to an end. But not only thed prove them wrong but also managed to make a stronger rule; he expanded the family business to maind Asia and Australia, technically ruling the underground kingdom. He emerged as the lord and there was no country where he didn¡¯t establish himself. Climbing to such a peak was not an easy bet; he had to remove many thrones off his way to be where he was today. He wasn¡¯t afraid of going to extremes to achieve what he wanted; with a heart made of stone he was not a man of mercy. In the period of his rule he had eliminated so many rivals and everyone who he felt likely to be a troublemaker that his hands reeked of blood. He was born ruthless and this quality of his supported him in life, at least in his business. He stood up from the step and looked down at the dead man who had got himself and the floor dyed in blood. His Content ? N?velDrama.Org. lips curled up into a cold grin as he pressed his shoe on the man¡¯s face with such pressure as if he wanted to break through his skull. While Ryan was busy ying with his head Jack walked up to his Boss and asked, "What next, Ryan?" Ryan kicked the head lightly and said, "We are done with work, aren''t we?" Jack nodded, "The main works are done and the remaining are all nut jobs." "Good, let''s head back to the hotel and rest." Ryan said silently. Jack bloomed with happiness; they had been working like ox till yesterday evening sacrificing sleep and rest. The work that was scheduled for a week was pulled out by Ryan over night. He kept himself busy,cking time even to stand and breath. Along with him tormented was Jack, the both were running errands and now finally the work was done. It was already nearing afternoon and two had had nothing sincest night; they were surviving over several cups of coffee. Now that the demon king has finally let him free to go and have rest the assistant couldn''t think of anything else than scrumptious meal and sleep on his cozy bed. "Clean this up and join me to lunch." Saying this Ryan started takingrge strides out of the building. Jack made a call and soon his men were here who started doing their chore; making sure that everything was well instructed Jack too followed Ryan out. The two drove the five star hotel where they had their rooms booked and got off the car. The two took a shower in their respective room before walking out to order lunch in the restaurant. Ryan was ying with his phone while Jack was going through the menu to order something for himself, he looked at Ryan and asked, "Hey, what do you want to eat?" "Anything!" Ryan replied without looking up at him and continued to do his work with his phone. Jack called the waiter and ordered for both of them. The food was served soon; Jack was very hungry as the good started to look extra delicious to him. His stomach roared as the warm aroma hit his nose. He drooled slightly and unable to keep himself sitting anymore he arrange the tissues and picked up his fork. "Oh My Goodness, I think I will eat till I go broke." Hemented. Ryan looked at him seriously and said, "You remind me of someone!" Jack supported his chin and asked, "Really! Who does this handsome face of mine remind you about." "Pig." Ryan looked at him as he spat a single word. Jack''s face fell as he pointed his fork at him, "Can you just shut up." Ryan too was just about to lock his phone when his ringtone started to echo in the room. Seeing that the call was from home he showed his palm to Jack who stopped talking at once. Ryan answered the call and got greeted by the maid. He replied with a grunt and the woman started to speak, "Master, Miss Bee has refused to eat!" Tension started clouding between his eyebrows as he asked, "What happened to her?" The maid replied, "She woke upte and has her spirits low since morning; did you make her unhappy, Young Master." "When did you see me talking to her to make her upset?" Ryan''s tone was as cold as iceberg when he that''s not what I meant, Young Master. But Miss Bee looks really sad... I am out of clue about what should be done!" Ryan balled his fist involuntarily as he spat, "If I was supposed to tell you this then what the hell for am I paying you four fools?" Obvious anger danced across his face and sitting before him Jack too started to get worried. The maids were rendered speechless, why were they getting scolded? She stayed mum as she was just too afraid to say another word. "Let me talk to her." Ryanmanded and the maids went running upstairs to summon Bee down to talk to him. ___________________________________________________________ Hey there, readers. I am really sorry to state that I won''t be able to update for a few days as my family has been showing symptoms of Covid- 19 and I have to take care of them. I will try my best to upload but if I fail to please forgive me. Take care, people! Please stay safe and stay blessed... CHAPTER 25- I DONT LIKE YOU CHAPTER 25- I DON''T LIKE YOU When Little Bee heard that he wanted to talk to her she wanted to go hide somewhere; she had yet not recovered from the shock which was given to herst night and she was sure it won''t be good if she talked to him now. How was she supposed to avoid him now, he was connected on the phone. The banging on the door intensified and she sunk deeper into her nket. She hid under the bed and closed her eyes; yes she can just pretend to sleep. The maid knocked on the door a few more times before getting restless and pushing the door open slowly to check on her. The girl seemed to be sound asleep, draped tenderly by the nket she looked to be dead sleep. Now she had no idea what to do so she ran down and reported that Bee was fast asleep. Ryan felt as something was not right, he inquired, "Is she sick?" The maid remembered how Bee was when she met her in the morning, her face was dull with her eye bags showing up. She looked worn out and visiblycked energy; she forgot to check her temperature but all her expressions indicated that she was unwell. The maid vigorously nodded, ¡°Yes Yes! I think Miss Bee is sick. Really unwell!¡± Beep... Beep... Beep... And the phone was hung up without a warning. The maids were confused why he hung up but knew it for sure that it wasn¡¯t a good news for them. Ste kept the phone back and looked at Lily who herself was sweating standing there, ¡°Do you think we are in trouble?¡± ... Ryan shoved his phone in his pocket and darted his eyes at Jack who was looking at him already, ¡°What happened, Ryan? Who was it?¡± ¡°Bee is sick.¡± The man directly jumped to the main point. The assistant whose mind was upied by thought of food too well up with worry, his expressions turned serious as he asked, ¡°What? How?¡± The man couldn¡¯t help but feel restless, he wanted to see her right now. ¡°Get my helicopter ready, I am leaving right now.¡± Jack stood up from his seat and nodding a yes went away to make a few calls. Ryan went back to his room to pack his stuffs; the girl was the only one upied in his mind. He was away for few days and she ended up falling ill. The girl was really stupid, she didn¡¯t knew how to take care of herself. After he was done with packing his stuffs which were nothing but few clothes and ammunition; meanwhile the time he was waiting he smoked two whole sticks out of anxiety. It didn¡¯t take long for Jack to show up, ¡°The helicopter is ready, we can leave right now.¡± ... Bee was sitting on her bed flyingzily the paper nes she made; after she pretended to be sleeping no one showed up nor disturbed her. It was hitting half past twelve, her stomach was rumbling out of hunger but like before, she had no will to eat. She sat there trying her best to do things and keep herself distracted from thinking about him. Bee thought to herself that Ryan said that he will be back in two days to keep her heart, without knowing that the man was already in New Orleans and was just minutes away from home she stood up on the bed determined. ¡°No, why am I hiding out? Why am I sad?¡± She voiced out, ¡°I am not afraid of him; I... I am not ashamed. Why should I be? I wasn¡¯t in love with him. No... No no no! He is a fool and I can easily forget him.¡± ¡°Yes, Bee... You can...¡± Bee draped the nket around her and a kerchief around her forehead. She jumped off the bed and stumbled on the floor before stabilizing herself; she corrected the draped nket and started walking, imagining herself on a stage addressing people holding banners of her name. She was in the world of her own fantasies, ying to herself, ¡°Prince Charming... No no! Change the address... Change it... MR. NEGUYEN! Yes, Mr. Neguyen will be only back by the weekends and I will have plenty of time to forget him.¡± She hugged herself and ran around, picked up few paper nes and rolled them into a stick like structure. Pretending it to be a sword she swung it in the air ying to herself; with a tone as determined as a knight she said ¡°When hees I will be one dope girl who moved on. I will look at his face and say- I DON''T LIKE YOU, MR. NEGUYEN... YOU ARE ONE..." Kachak... She heard her door being pushed open; with the nket still draped around her and her ''sword'' still up in the air she threw a devil may care nce at the familiar figure which was standing at the door. She must say she felt the Earth being pulled off her feet when she discovered his handsome physique standing at her door. Ryan''s ridended just ten minutes ago and without wasting another second he drove himself as fast as possible back home. He didn''t even change his shoes as he directly headed upstairs to check on her. He was told that she was ill and thus he chose not to knock on the door and disturb her sleep but little did he know that he would witness her doing all fine. The two like the other day stopped and stared at each other; while one was calm and collected the other was having a mental breakdown. Bee felt her whole body go numb, why was he here. Wasn''t he supposed to be in Houston and even if he wasing back... Didn''t he say he will be back in two days which is tomorrow; why was he here now? Bee was unable to decide how was she supposed to react- was she to get angry, start crying or just be her happy go lucky self. She had not yet even practiced her expressions properly... While the girl was squeezing her head to find a way out the man had his eyes scanning the whole room thoroughly; she and the ce she was living both were a mess. This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org. "Why are you wearing a nket?" He asked in his usual emotionless tone. Bee looked at herself and snapped back to reality, she was making a total fool out of herself and that was the matter of her biggest concern. She dropped her sword and started pulling herself off the nket,ining, "Mr. Nguyen, don''t you know how to knock? That was... Aaah... Really rude of you toe inside without a warning." Ryan lifted an eyebrow and saw her struggling to remove her tangled sheet, he took a step to help her saying, "Let me help..." But to his surprise the girl stepped away from him. He stopped on his tracks and threw her a questioning nce. Bee avoiding to look into his eyes replied, "Np, I am fine, Mr. Neguyen." CHAPTER 26- WHY ARE YOU PRETENDING CHAPTER 26- WHY ARE YOU PRETENDING Ryan stopped on his tracks as her words fell; he stood there watching the girl picking up the paper nes and retreating to her bed. Sitting on it she took theic book which was left open and started reading it, totally disregarding Ryan and his presence. A bad feeling stirred within him as he asked, "Aren''t you sick?" The girl nodded a no and immersed herself deeper into the book. The man stood goofily on his spot watching her behave stranger than usual, didn''t she say she would be happy if he came back earlier then why was her reaction totally different to the one he had imagined. Ryan was sure that something was quite not right but how was he supposed to find out. He asked, "Is something wrong?" Bee didn''t bother to look up at him, she was feeling empty and wanted to send somewhere empty. She still needed time to repair herself and was not at all willing to have any kind of interaction with him in the meanwhile. She kept the book aside and fell back on bed, pulling the nket to her head she said, "I am sleepy. You should leave." Anger started to bubble up inside the man but he balled his fist to push down his urge to strangle her. All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. Just why can''t she say what was up with her, he was no mind reader to stop it out all by himself. He asked, "Are you not happy that I am back?" His question was like a stone thrown away in ocean with no reactioning back from the other side; she was asleep already. The man could feel himself slowly loosing his patience and this was even visible in his tone which was getting a bit irritated with the passing questions, "Bee, I am telling you... Don''t show your attitude to me." Bee, "..." "Are you testing my patience?" "..." "What the f*ck is wrong with you?" Hearing him cursing Bee threw a judging nce him through the nket. Ryan was at the verge of exploding at this point, he yelled, "What? What are you looking at?" Bee couldn''t help but get her eyes welled up; she lips started to tremble as she sank deeper into her nket. Even though she managed to hide under the nket her movements were still picked up by Ryan''s watchful eyes. Her timid actions were like a harsh p which pulled him back to reality. He immediately forgot to be angry and regretted yelling at her, "I am sorry... I am really sorry! Don''t cry..." He tried to calm her down, little did he know that the girl was not crying because he yelled at her but because of the pain which was welling up in her heart. If it was yesterday she would have felt happy seeing that he cared but now, when she knows that he was in love with someone else and was really only treating her nice because she saved his life she felt awful. All he felt for her was gratefulness and not affection. Tears started to pour down viting her eyes, her hushed sobbing made him loose his mind. He sat down beside her and asked worriedly, "Why are you crying? Tell me who made her cry, I will make them pay ten folds back." "Tell me, Bee. What happened?" He tried to make her stop crying but the girl wasn''t stopping even for a bit. Atst frustrated he started to pull her nket which she used to cover her face in attempt to see her face and satiate her more but the girl wasn''t willing to back off. Panicked she tugged on her nket, refusing to let him take it. The more she protested the more angry he got; he tried to calm her down but when she wasn''t willing to even look at him he felt daggers stab inside his chest. The pain was so unbearable that he started to hate this feeling of suffocation her tears gave him. He had to make it stop before he looses his temper and harms the reason he was feeling that way. He pulled the nket with all his strength, literally ripping it apart to see her little face soaking wet with her tears. She looked pale and helpless, crying her heart out for no reason at all. He grabbed her shoulders and picked her up; Bee closed her eyes out of fear and started to push him away. This little protest of hers was like a match stick ignited in a room full of mmable; he immediately exploded in wrath. His grip on her shoulders tightened as he started to jerk her vigorously; poor Bee couldn''t help but scream in pain and fear. She had never seen him this angry, not even that night when he busted her in bathroom. Ryan was blinded by anger, pouring all his anger on his grip on her he shouted, "Just what is wrong with you. Stop crying! I said stop crying..." Bee was choking up on her own tears but he was not at all stopping; she huped and wailed to see no scope. Her arms started to feel numb within his ghostly grip; unable to contain it anymore she started to yell, "Let me go... It hurts..." "Stop crying... " He yelled back at her. Little Bee was unable to take it anymore; she had many things welled up in her that she wanted to say but had no idea how to voice it out. But all of a sudden she too felt herself getting angry in the way he was treating her. She mumbled slowly, "Why are... You pretending?" "What?" Ryan heard her clearly but was not unable to guess what she was trying to mean by that. He stopped jerking her like a lifeless doll and looked into her eyes only to see her turn away her eyes off him. She continued controlling her tears, "You... You don''t care about me! You treat me good... Because I saved your life. You have no feelings for me. You are just putting on an act." Ryan looked at her for a brief moment before pulling her closer to him, with his face few inches away he asked grimly, "What do you mean?" Bee snorted and huped before calming herself down, "You can never love me... I can never be her, right!" Ryan''s face turned visibly pale when he heard his own words from her mouth; he looked at her nkly not letting her guess his thoughts or emotions. Bee didn''t care what he was thinking and proceeded with her words, "If you can''t feel anything for me then why are you trying to shove yourself in my life. Go... Go back to your Cathey. You have her then why are you pretending to be considerate of me?" Ryan''s face turned as pale as a ghost when he heard her words and particrly at the mention of that person. He mumbled mindlessly, telling himself that his ears were deceiving him, "What... Did you say?" CHAPTER 27- SEND HER AWAY CHAPTER 27- SEND HER AWAY She looked at him and intoned, ¡°I... I know about her. You don¡¯t have to pretend as if you are caring for me and give me false hopes.¡± Ryan felt as if thunder pped down on him; he was already having blues if he ever heard anyone mention about her. Let alone now when Bee, the girl who was as important to him as her, was pushing him away because of her. His chest started to tighten as he let go of her and sat nkly, without knowing what to do. The room fell as silent as a graveyard; the only sound which frequented was the fan spinning above them and Bee who was hupping every now and then. He spoke up, ¡°No... It¡¯s not what you think... I...¡± ¡°Cathey loves Ryan... It was a really beautiful drawing.¡± Bee spoke up, cutting through his words. This statement was enough for him to understand that she had seen everything he treasured in his room. Like a thief who was caught red handed Ryan couldn¡¯t say anything for himself. ¡°You... saw everything?¡± was the only thing he managed to pull out of his lips. Bee folded her legs and nuzzled away from him deep into her pillow, saying, ¡°Does that... even matter.¡± Ryan saw the girl pulling herself away from him as if he was a gue; he knew what all she was thinking and what she must be seeing him as. He wanted to say something but he felt a lump in his throat, forbidding him from speaking anything. The man looked away, his handsome side profile reeked of remorse and misery. His Adam¡¯s apple bogged a few times before he closed his eyes; Bee sat there silently without knowing what to do, seeing that he was silent for too long she bit down on her lips before umting courage to say, ¡°Send... Send me back home. I don¡¯t want to be here anymore.¡± Ryan felt his soul being torn into shreds hearing her words; his heart was shattering into pieces. He didn¡¯t want to let her go, it was after she came he was finally starting to be happy. It was only after she came he was seeing rainbows after rain... He wanted her to be with him but... what right did he have to do so. The things that Jack said that day started flooding his mind; his assistant was right, he couldn¡¯t keep her imprisoned and do this to her. She already knew everything and had alreadye to her own conclusion; what could he even do now. Even if he wanted to... He had no idea what to say to her. Without saying a single word the man stood up and left leaving behind a Bee who was shattering into pieces inside. She really anticipated something from him; she really wished he would have an exnation for her. Even if he lied to her once that it was not true she would have dly believed him but not only the man stuttered, he also left without saying a single word. She was a fool; she was a really big fool. Bee now knew nothing else than that she wanted to leave this ce as soon as possible. She buried her head in her knees and started crying. Back in his room, Ryan stood in front of the drawings that were seen by Bee. His eyes were piercing through the couple one; when he left her room he was not himself. He didn¡¯t know where his legs were taking him; he aimlessly let his body stride just to notice that they bought him to his room and stopped right in front to the couple drawing. He stared unwaveringly at her name without batting an eyelid; he was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn¡¯t notice Jack entering the room. One look and Jack understood that something was really not right, he asked, ¡°What happened?¡± His interruption managed to pull back the man to his senses but he was still as numb as ever; he blinked vigorously to hide the wetness of his eyes. Without turning back he slowly muttered, ¡°Send her back.¡± Jack¡¯s expressions dropped; he knew his friend, he won¡¯t give up on anything this easily. Wasn¡¯t she the only girl he cared about in the whole world hours ago, what made him say this now? Jack touched his shoulders which made Ryan drop his head down to his feet, he slowly admitted, ¡°She got to know about Cathey.¡± ¡°What are you saying?¡± Jack felt as if the blood which ran down his veins froze for a brief moment. IT was something which couldn¡¯t be kept in dark for so long and he wanted to take time to exin things to her as this was something which could be heavily misunderstood but she found out about it sooner than he expected. Jack knew that Bee felt a little too attached to Ryan; she was just a little girl and was prone to act out of impulse. This was something, if not exined properly, would hurt her to core. His friend was finally off Earth. Disappointment and mncholy clouded Jack¡¯s featured as he opened his mouth to break the silence suffocating the room, ¡°What all does she know?¡± Ryan couldn¡¯t make himself to speak anything until Jack pressured him; the man turned around to meet nces to his friends and divulge, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± Jack spoke under his breath, he couldn¡¯t ask why didn¡¯t he exin as he could imagine what kind of position he would have been in. Jack scanned Ryan with his heedful gaze; the pain was piercing through his heart yet he was trying to keep himselfposed. Just... How much more was he to suffer? He admits that his hands were not clean and reeked of blood but only a few knew how hopeless this ruthless looking boss of his was. Jack closed his eyes and sighed deeply before huffing determination, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Ryan. I will fix this... I can¡¯t see you like those years again.¡± Saying this the man strode out and didn¡¯t stop until he reached Bee¡¯s room. Standing outside he started preparing what all he had to say to her and it was the truth. She deserved to know everything and he will let her know; after that he would let her choose if she wanted to leave or All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. stay. The man knocked on the door before pushing it open to meet his eyes with the withered girl who sat nuzzled on the bed. Her eyes were bulged out with her eyes and cheeks flushed red which seemed to be the result of her relentless crying. Seeing that Jack was here Bee wiped away her tears and tried to curve her lips into a warm smile; this little action of hers made her look quite pitiful in his eyes. ¡°Jack, you are here. How was the trip?¡± She asked, trying to cheer up her voice but no matter how hard she tried she couldn¡¯t mask her heartache. ¡°I know what happened.¡± Jack said slowly and Bee¡¯s hard kept smile started to fade before finally disappearing somewhere in her destion. She dropped her gaze down and kept mum without knowing what else to say. Jack pulled a chair and sat down beside her and slowly started, ¡°How are you feeling?¡± ¡°Bad!¡± Bee¡¯s reply was a hoarse one word. Jack sighed, ¡°I know it was wrong for him to keep this from you but... He was about to tell you it soon.¡± Bee stayed mum, unmoved or to be rigorous had no idea what words she was meant to put together. Jack continued, ¡°I know you must be feeling awful but it is not how you think it is. She is not with Ryan anymore!¡± Bee¡¯s face emerged with mask of confusion and hesitation, ¡°Why? Where is she?¡± ¡°She is dead...¡± Jack looked into her eyes and said it out in a serious tone pulling colours away from Bee¡¯s face. CHAPTER 28- ELEVEN YEARS AGO CHAPTER 28- ELEVEN YEARS AGO Jack and Bee sat down on the bench by the window, the sun was close to setting and the whole forest was dusted with the golden sunlight. The evening breeze swept away Bee''s messy hairs as she sat across the assistant, anticipating for what he had to say. Clouds of nostalgia highlighted Jack''s professional features; it was Bee''s first time seeing him portraying something else than his usual coldness. Content ? N?velDrama.Org. Jack and Ryan were both stunning people, it was just that Ryan possessed a demonic charm and aura while Jack looked more of a workaholic. If both were made to stand for an auction together, most women would go for Ryan as that man looked dangerous but was naturally more charming. It was the halo that distinguishes men from each other and the aristocratic one that the Boss had was one that was rare to be found. The man looked outside the window, gazing at the never ending beauty of life. He started, "Me, Ryan and Catherine were childhood friends; we got to know each other as our fathers were friends with each other." "When we were young Ryan and I would alwaysugh about our unpredictable fate; we had this risky future and none of us could predict if we will be living or dead the next moment. But Catherine... She was different than all of us!" "We always thought that I and Ryan would be the one embracing death sooner than anyone but fate was cruel... And it was that innocent soul who bid good bye to us first." ... Eleven years ago, Barcelona. "Get ready, son. We have to go to thepany today." Richard Neguyen, Ryan''s father, was sitting on the sofa having his morning read when he saw ten year old Ryan walking into the house after his morning training session. The boy had a striking resemnce to his dad who himself was a very handsome man but unlike his father who would at least smile every now and then the boy was extremely poised and silent as if he were mum. Ryan was wearing nothing but his tracks and a vest which was now drenched off his sweat, around his waist tied was his jacket which he was too tired to hold in his arms. The boy was young and was not even a teenager yet buy years of strict military training had helped him shape his body. His body was carved perfectly at the right amount making him look too handsome for a 10 year old. Ryan threw away his jacket in theundry and shoving his hand inside his pocket looked at his father with dropped eyes. Richard folded his paper and looked at his son who was protesting silently; this kid... He was so cold and apathetic that he hardly liked to meet people. The man started, ¡°Even if you drape your face with mud I am still taking you; Mr. Silva is our business partner and is an old friend of your dad. You better get ustomed to everything lest you will have to cope with unnecessary trouble after you take over as the heir.¡± Ryan said nothing but headed upstairs and at the same time entered another figure close to Ryan¡¯s perfectness. ¡°Hello, Mr. Neguyen.¡± Jack removed his hood and wished the man; Richard greeted him back. Jack took the ss of water he was offered to by the maid and taking casual sips of it inquired, ¡°Where is he, uncle.¡± ¡°He is upstairs, just returned from training.¡± Mr. Neguyen replied the youngd but for some reason Jack frowned. Both Jack and Ryan trained together but today the trained had let the go early; that was why he got ready this early in the morning. But... Where was this guy? Jack nodded an ok to Richard before pacing up to the stairs; knocking on the door he went in to discover Ryan wrapped in nothing but a towel. His hairs were wet which indicated that he was just out of the shower. ¡°Where were you for one whole hour?¡± Jack asked while making a seat for himself in the bed. ¡°Practising gun.¡± Ryan replied as if it was a tea for him. Jack¡¯s eyes spread open as he made a sour face, in a hushed voice that was hardly audible he said, ¡°Hey... Are you crazy? Your father said we are not allowed to use gun until we are at least 12.¡± Ryan shrugged carelessly and replied, ¡°Ick patience to wait for that long.¡± He wore his jeans and ck t shirt before adding, ¡°Moreover, we are not safe. We have witnessed out fathersing back home with grave wounds at times; I don¡¯t want that to happen to myself or anyone dear to me.¡± ¡°But, Ryan... You are only 10 year old. You should take it easy, pal.¡± Jackmented hysterically seeing how serious this little guy was. Ryan corrected his hairs before the two walked down the stairs for breakfast. Even though Ryan was against going to thepany his father still took both of them to the Silva¡¯s. Sitting at the back of their private ck Porsche Ryan was listening to songs when Jack mischievously removed his ear pods; the boy did receive a cold stare from Ryan but he managed to smoothly turn his attention to something else, ¡°Hey, look... We are here.¡± Ryan turned his uninterested gaze at the Silva infrastructure; it was a tall sky kisser with handsome interface. Said to be one of the elegant business structures in Barcelona Silva¡¯s stood like a royalty in the heart of the city. ¡°Boring.¡± Ryanmented and pondered himself back in his phone; Jack threw him a judging nce and replied, ¡°You are such a bummer; we are gonna have a lot of fun here.¡± Richard and Jack¡¯s father, who was his right hand man, got off the car and lead the two kids in. The interior was as sophisticated as it looked from the outside; the group were lead in by two professional looking woman in suit. Richard took the two boys to a room which had ss walls and allowed them to look outside. The cabin had descent decoration, one look and Ryan could say that it was the waiting lounge and as expected his reply was the same, ¡°You two wait here; if you are hungry order something to eat. Saying this the men went out; Ryan turned around to look at Jack who had a really funny expression on his face. Ryan¡¯s gaze turned into that of mockery. He teased, ¡°So, you gonna have fun sleeping in here!¡± Jack was upset; not only were they gonna spend the rest of the day locked in here but he was sure he will be hunted down by Ryan¡¯s sarcasm till they reach home. He stood mum praying for some miracle to happen of else he would have to jump off the building unable to bear Ryan¡¯s humour. He huffed and tried to satiate himself, ¡°No... I still believe something good will happen.¡± ¡°Yeah... Yeah...¡± Ryan shoved his hands inside his pocket and the two walked inside the room when a little squeak caught their attention. ¡°Weeeeeeeee.....¡± The two stopped on their track, Ryan raised his head and looked at his friend, ¡°What was that?¡± Jack was about to shrug when he saw a rolling chair sliding across the room about to crash on the two. ¡°Ryan, watch out...¡± Jack yelled making Ryan turn around to see the approaching furniture. He pushed away Jack but it was toote for him to escape; the chair collided and went crashing on him. Ryan groaned in pain but to his surprise there was another voice apanying him... A melodious childlike one taking him off guard. CHAPTER 29- THE LITTLE GIRL CHAPTER 29- THE LITTLE GIRL Ryan was squashed beneath the chair but he was strong enough to survive the crash without getting injured; he creaked before feeling someone helping him stand up. Jack held up the boy and started checking him for injuries, ¡°Bro, are you okay. Are you hurt anywhere?¡± The survivor stumbled on his feet; his head was dizzy because of the impact. It took him few seconds to stabilize himself and mumble, ¡°Fine...¡± The twods were so consumed in checking each other that the two didn¡¯t notice a little frail figure in white gown reaching out to timidly pull the corner of Ryan¡¯s shirt. Feeling something disturbing him the boy dropped his eye down just to get himself stunned; it was a little girl much shorter than him. She had a round face with clear skin, her eyes were big and round with long curly eyeshes. A tiny nose and quivering pink lips like newly bloomed cherry blossom clips holding back her bangs. This was Ryan¡¯s first time seeing such a small creature; he didn¡¯t have a sister and was homeschooled since he was young and thus, he had never seen a girl with this close proximity. He stared stunned into her beautiful eyes which were pooling with tears which were about to pour down. Ryan¡¯s face had nothing but expressions of amusement and adoration; he had heard of angels but it was his first time seeing one. She was really cute that he didn¡¯t want to take his eyes off this little creature. Her quivering lips slowly parted to push out something snivelling, ¡°D... did I hurt you?¡± Ryan felt goosebumps rise all over his body hearing her voice; it was his first time listening to something his soothing and pure. Her childish voice resembled that of chirping, mellow and warm. Seeing that the boy whom she just hurt by ident wasn¡¯t replying the young girl assumed that he was mad at her and was giving her a silent treatment. ¡°Big brother, I didn¡¯t hurt you in purpose. I am good, I would never do that...¡± With a tone with was almost cracking at this point the little girl continued, ¡°Please don¡¯t hate me andin to Daddy; he will snatch away my candies.¡± Tears started to trickle down her eyes and it was the sound of her sobbing that pped Ryan back to reality. ¡°Oh God...¡± he freaked out before scanning the little girl; even her crying was as alluring as a rainbow. He looked at Jack only to find him staring back and forth at him and the mysterious little girl. Ryan¡¯s mind, which was crashed like anything all this time, finally started to act up. Jogging down his memories he managed to make a rough sketch that maybe it was this girl who was riding the chairs which crashed onto him. The boy kneeled down to match her height; the girl had her head hanging pitifully out of guilt. He gently touched her chin and slowly lifted her head; Ryan had never touched anything this tender and soft, she was so fragile that he handled her with care lest he hurt her. The girl propped up with his efforts and stared directly into his eyes which were only few meters away. Her eyes were still raining down and Ryan couldn¡¯t help but get his stone heart melt down. He smiled at her and said in aforting tone, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I am not hurt.¡± The girl stood there tugging on his t shirt and weeping and started to slow down after Ryan assured that he was neither angry nor hurt. Her lips curled up into a smile and even though her eyes were still pooled up she had stopped sobbing at this point. Ryan lived in a world where one couldn¡¯t even trust the one who im themselves the most trustworthy; all he was taught in life was to be alert, fierce and never let his guard down. This made him believe that world was everything but pure but today, after meeting this piece of Heaven, Ryan started to think otherwise- maybe there are still some good things left on Earth and this girl he held was one of them. A strange yet splendorous emotion started to well up in his heart as he looked at her, something he had never felt before. The girl¡¯s smile grew wider and wider before she started beaming her row of perfectly white teeth, ¡°Big brother, I will share my snacks and toys with you as a ¡®sorry¡¯.¡± Ryan casted his rare smile making Jack pinch himself out of disbelief; he was wondering if he had passed out of the crash and was still dreaming when he heard his friend reply, ¡°Okay!¡± The girl became so happy that she pped her hands out of joy, she held his hand and started leading him. ¡°Come with me, big brother. It¡¯s been a long time since anyone apanied me to y.¡± Ryan nced at Jack with eyes which said- follow me and behave. Jack could only huff and follow the two as the shameless uninvited guest. The little girl was a bundle of joy when she lead the boy in to the second half of the room; it had another set of sofa with the same setting- the only difference was that... Content ? N?velDrama.Org. It had a lot of toys scattered all around. The little girl looked behind at Ryan, her face brightened with a alluring smile and it was when she noticed another head following them. She was so overjoyed that she couldn¡¯t help but squeal, ¡°Dear goodness, I have two friends to y with her now.¡± Jack and Ryan looked at each other before the girl left them to getfortable. ¡°Do you have any idea who she is?¡± Ryan whispered to his friend looked at the girl who was busily finding something. Jack nodded, ¡°I have no idea who she is and where she came from.¡± ¡°I know what she is...¡± Ryan said in a mellow tone and continued, ¡°She is an angel.¡± Jack threw a piercing nce at his friend who seemed to be muddling but before he could say anything the girl bounced back to them. She had a handful of snacks in her petite hands, some even fell on the floor as she couldn¡¯t hold them. She ced them in front of the two boys and smiled, ¡°This is all for you, big brothers.¡± She tore a lollipop and passed it to Ryan, ¡°Here, have this, big brother.¡± Jack looked at the naive girl, his friend hated candies since he was a kid. He opened his mouth to say that he don¡¯t like candies, ¡°Little girl, our Ryan don¡¯t... Aaahh!¡± Jack didn¡¯t spill the rest of the sentence but groaned as he felt a sharp pain sail through his thigh. He looked down to realise it was Ryan who pinched him; the boy immediately threw a betrayed nce at his friend but what he saw next made his eyes pop out. ¡°Looks delicious!¡± Ryanmented before epting her little treat and shoving it in his mouth. The candy was too sweet that he couldn¡¯t help but furrow his eyebrows but slowly his tongue licked around and got ustomed to it. He smiled at her, ¡°It¡¯s really tasty.¡± Catherine was really happy, she excitedly too another candy and passed it to Jack. Jack paused for a moment before epting the candy; he couldn¡¯t help but admire her pureness. The girl sat down on her little chair and took her toy, slowly cing all her concentration in ying with it. Ryan looked at her and asked calmly, ¡°What is your name?¡± The little girl looked up at them before saying, ¡°Daddy says... Never say your name to strangers! But I will say... My name is Catherine.¡± ¡°Catherine...¡± Ryan muttered under his breath; even her name was as alluring as her soul. CHAPTER 30- THE PINKY PROMISE CHAPTER 30- THE PINKY PROMISE "What is your name?" Catherine''s question rang in the room in her yet to ripe childish voice. Her star like eyes stared merrily at her two guests; Jack threw the candy wrapper on the bin nearby before quenching her curiosity, "I am Jack and this is Ryan." The girl replied, "Nice to meet you, big brothers." Ryan was a born introvert and didn''t like interacting much, even though he was curious about this young girl who was sending tingles down his heart he chose to stay mum and scan her with his watchful gaze. While he was silent Jack couldn''t hold back himself from talking to this sweet kid; it didn''t take long before he started throwing questions at her. "How old are you, little one." Catherine showed him her chubby palm with five fingers. Jackughed, "You are really a kid..." She was just a five year old yet had more manners than many adults he knew. The boy couldn''t help but adore her; since he was young he always wanted a baby sister but whenever he asked his parents about buying him one they used to scold him away. Even though he never had a sister of his own he still developed a serious sis con within himself; he wondered, if he had a sibling he would have doted on her more than anything. He then asked, "What are you doing in thispany all alone?" Catherine looked up from her y and replied, "I am here with daddy." "Daddy?" Jack was quizzical. Catherine nodded seriously before pointing at a portrait which was hanging on the wall, "There that''s my daddy." The two boys looked at the picture which featured a majestic looking man in ck suits, arrogance danced between his eyebrows as he posed for the photo like a king. Ryan recognized this man, he was Mr. Silva- the owner of thispany; he had seen him once or twice when his father was having a video conference with thetter. "Your dad is Silva?" Ryan finally opened his mouth to speak after a long time. The girl replied with a happy yes; Jack and Ryan looked at each other. This simple looking girl was actually the heiress of this bugpany; he had heard his dad mention that Mr. Silva''s wife had passed away few years ago and he only had one daughter. Who knew... The sole descendant who most probably will be deciding this giganticpany''s future was actually sitting alone in a room, riding rolling chairs. Jack looked at the girl and fell back on his seat, "So... We are on the same boat!" "Boat? Where is boat?" Catherine asked, she was still a child and had no knowledge about puns and idioms. But this was something thed didn''t know, "What?" He asked back. Ryan cut him in and offered to exin things to the girl, "It means... We all are in the same situation." The girl nodded mindlessly; looking at her it was clear that she was thinking of something but no one was capable enough to peak into her wild fantasies. Before the two could say anything they heard the door being pushed open and entered the same woman who escorted them here, she greeted, "Miss, Young Master Ryan and Mr. Jack." "Hello, Miss L." Catherine was gleeful seeing her, she enthusiastically asked, "Is dad off work, will he be apanying me now?" Miss L smiled and replied politely, "No, Catherine. Mr. Silva still has some important business to tend to. I am here for the boys." While the glow on the little girl''s face washed away Ryan looked at her, "Us?" Miss L replied, "The work is done, Young Master. Your dad is waiting for you outside." Jack, who was the most enthusiastic toe here was the first to spring off his seat out of tion; he happily Hearing his words Catherine''s already sad expressions worsened into that of agony. At the verge of tears she asked attracting everyone''s attention, "Won''t you twoe back to y with me? Did I make you both unhappy... Will I be alone again?" Her sadness was genuine; she had no mother or a sibling. She was yet to go to school and thus her father used to bring her to thepany or leave her home with her nanny. No matter where she was the little girl was left alone to entertain herself, she had been all alone since she remembered. Thepany didn''t permit employees bringing their kid to the office which made her more isted and lonely; even if someone wasing the innocent little girl would end up getting bullied or fooled out by the other kid. This was the first time in past two years that someone actually treated her this good and kept her little longer with her but s, like everyone they too couldn''t wait to get out of this ce. She could only get her heart broken at this. Seeing that the girl was sad Ryan looked at Jack with a piercing faze as if he wanted to prate a hole within him; Jack too started to regret his choice of words that made her sad. "I... I didn''t mean that, Catherine. I was just..." Jack couldn''t say another word to satiate her; Miss L too had no idea what toment upon this situation. All three gazes were stuck on the little girl who had her head hung out of sadness and disappointment. The temperature of the room suddenly dropped by a few inches around Ryan who was sitting on his seat waiting for someone to mend the situation. He was getting impatient; for some reason he couldn''t bear to see her sad; he was getting angrier as seconds passed her not smiling. He shot up from his N?velDrama.Org (C) content. seat all of a sudden and threw a warning nce at Jack, he was a good for nothing and hence was signaled to keep his mouth shut. The boy slowly walked up to her, kneeling down beside her he you he''d her chin and lifted her face up. In a tone which was as sweet as her candies he promised, "Don''t be sad, Catherine. I wille to y with you everyday... You won''t be alone anymore." CHAPTER 31- CHOCOLATE BAR CHAPTER 31- CHOCOLATE BAR His words were solemn and sounded serious as if he was making a sincere promise to her. The girl was still childish, she looked up at him with her worn out depressed eyes and showed him her pinky finger, "Do you pinky promise?" Ryan couldn''t help but get his straight lips curl up into a smile, he hooked his pinky finger with her before making his promise to her. This was illogical, as a grown up boy he never believed on this childish rituals and pinky promises but seeing that this filled the girl with rays of hope and happiness he dly put up with it.the tension between his furrowed eyebrows and the room started to ease out as the girl''s sound of chuckling resounded in the room. Ryan got up and two boys left after saying goodbye to the little girl who even came down with Miss L to escort them out. Inside the car Ryan had his eyes hooked on the girl until his car moved out making her disappear from his sight. Jack said, "She is a really good girl, isn''t she?" Ryan chose to stay mum and looked out of the window, even though this question was responded with ack of reaction by the boy Jack could still say that his friend really liked this girl. Without minding him he further said, "You shouldn''t have promised her; she seemed to value that pinky thing a lot. She will be really disappointed when she will realise you were lying to her." "Who was lying to whom?" Ryan finally spoke up and looked into his friend''s eyes. It didn''t take two seconds for Jack to realise what his friend was saying, his eyes red open, "Are you serious?" Ryan''s mind shed with the events that happened hours ago- how she crashed onto him, how she apologized, how she talked and how she made him promise that he will be back. He only met her for a day and that too for a couple of hours and still the girl managed to strike a string in his young heart; she meant something to him that he himself had to figure. He, of course, was gonna find her again and find answers to his own questions. That evening Ryan had a long talk with his father seeking permission for him and Jack to go to the honestly replied that he promised Catherine that he woulde to meet her. "I am a man, dad. And you taught me that men never go back on their word, especially words they make to a woman." Mr. Neguyen didn''t find anything suspicious about it, in fact he liked the fact that his son was making good rtionships with the Silva''s. They would be meeting each other more in future and this was a All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. good way of dwelling. The Neguyen''s were one of the oldest Mafia n in Spain and were thus the most influential. Their rtionship with Silva was that of friendship and harmony; Master Neguyen and President Silva were friends and decided to corporate when they legally took over their family businesses. Society worked on unspoken rules- the one with backers took the prize. Silva Inc, which stood mighty and influential in the city, was started from scrape 15 years ago. The man could only raise up to where he was today because he had the Neguyen''s backing him. The Mafia stained his hands for the sake ofpany and in return was provided with partnership and a legitimate business identity. This was how this worked, the two families worked on a symbiotic rtionship nurturing each other. Of course, Ryan had no idea about all these serious issues; all he had in his mind was to meet his angel again. When President Silva learnt about this new friend of hers from his daughter he was really ted. After the death of his wife he engaged himself in business to f.divert his mind but it was the little girl who suffered out of loneliness. He wasn''t blind and he was told million times by his employees that he should give her more time. It was not that he wanted to keep her away from him or be such a terrible father, he just had no enough time. Knowing that his little priemc6 had finally found herself somepany he arranged for the two boys to The next day, a private chauffeur came to take the two boys home; Mr. Silva sure was a man of perfection as he sent his best car to escort the two boys. Ryan owned one of the wealthiest house in the city andpared to his the businessman''s housecked but still it was descent and noteworthy. When the car entered the gate Ryan scanned the whole house with his eyes before his eyesnded on two figures standing at the door. It was an old woman and a little figure holding arge bunny in her hands. In her simple outfit of skirt and top, and her hairs tied into two pigtails the girl stood anticipating her friends arrival. Ryan''s heart skipped several beat when he looked at her smiling face; it was only yesterday he saw her but he still missed her allure. "Big brothers!" The girl came running and hugged his waist; one sight and anyone could say she was really happy to have them over. He knealt down and smiled at her. She cupped his cheeks with her small palm; her touch, mysteriously sent a wave of electricity down his body shoving him into a daze. No body else than her ever made him feel so! She said, "You kept your promise!" "I would have came even if you didn''t make me promise." Saying this he pulled out something from his pocket, it was big bar of milk chocte that he had prepare for her. The girl happily epted it and started showing it to her nanny. Jack looked at the boy and asked, "When did you prepare that?" Ryan smiled and kept the secret to himself how he spent a long time on You Tube learning to make chocte and how many batches of undone chocte were dumped in his dustpan in the process of making this simple bar. "Little Sister, big bro missed you so much." Jack ruffled her hairs before the three went in. CHAPTER 32- I REALLY MISS MAMA CHAPTER 32- I REALLY MISS MAMA The lonely bungalow was echoing with the joyfulughter of the kids, especially the little girl who never had many visitorsing by. The Little initiative the two boys took really meant a lot to the girl. The three yed in the mini yground that was specially made for her in the garden all day long. The Little girl was awfully cheerful today, she tugged onto Ryan''s hands and kept on running here and there trying all the swings with him that she had been ying with all these years alone. While Jack and Ryan managed to go and pull stunts with the swings as they were professionally trained Catherine, with her small frail body, would fall clumsily while trying to keep up with them. Seeing her hurting herself when chasing them Ryan gave up in his y and apanied her for the rest of the day. The duo plucked flowers, chased butterflies, andughed together shaming the third wheeler to death. Ryan was extremely patient with her, every time she fell he would pick her up and dust off her knees and make sure she doesn''t trip again. The day was really merry for the girl until the nanny called them for lunch. Catherine was really obedient on the table and being happy from the bottom of her heart she ate more. "Wait here, big brother. Let me bring ice cream for you." Catherine jumped off her chair and made her way to the kitchen. Even though the nanny proposed to help her the girl smiled and still went in to organize the dessert alone. Sitting on the table with the boys the nanny got a bit nostalgic; she raised the girl since she was born and knew the loneliness she faced. Shemented, "This is the first time I am seeing Young miss this happy." Ryan knew what she was indicating at and stayed mum as he saw the girl approach them holding a tray with bowls of ice cream. The presentation of the dessert was poor as the pink vored ice cream was spilled here a d there on the tray yet it looked really delicious to the boy''s adoring eyes. After the three are Jack went to the washroom while Catherine took Ryan to her room to show him her friends. As soon as she pushed open the toys with her feeble hands his eyes were greeted by a room literally filled with stuffed toys. Ryan was surprised about seeing this many stuff toys at once in a single room; the girl, who was used to this, pulled his arms and took him in. "Here, sit down, big brother." She made him sit on the bed before running away to pull out something from her cupboard. While she was finding her certain something Ryan was busy looking at the toy g, there were notoriously many toys. He wondered if he will ever be able to count the fur stuffed toys of different sizes scattered tet perfectly arranged in the room. The Little girl came back holding a drawing book in her hands and climbed up on the bed to sit next to him. Ryan couldn''t contain his curiosity and asked, "Why do you have so many toys in your room. Do you like them?" Concentrating on opening her notebook the girl replied casually, "Yes, I love these toys." After reaching the desired page she passed him her drawing book and continued, "Here, big brother. Look at my drawings." Ryan looked at the childish drawings made on the paper; he was a grown-up and thus he found these silky but to her, these were masterpieces doodled off her hand that she was proud about. "So, you like to draw." He asked to which the girl vigorously nodded. She started at him with her earnest eyes anticipating hispliments. Ryan understood what she was looking forward to and replied, "These are really beautiful!" "Hihi... Thank you, big brother." Catherine was really happy hearing his words. She enthusiastically flipped the pages for him and got happy over hispliments. Ryan sat there admiring her expressions more than the artworks; she did something to him, something he didn''t know which was getting deeper and stronger the more he was with her. There were drawings of houses, cars, elephants, trees, and flowers. Ryan was seeing every single one before he stopped at a particr drawing; it wasn''t an abiotic thing like her previous artworks but the drawing of a woman holding a little girl. This drawing felt a little peculiar to the boy that made him stop his flipping and look at it, it was as if he was trying to decide the meaning. The girl''s eyes turned a little misty as she looked at it, she smiled weakly before pointing at the drawing of the little girl and said, "That''s me..." And signaling at the woman she confessed, "That''s mama..." Ryan fell silent not knowing what to say, he was well aware of her mother''s history. She was pronounced dead by his father but he didn''t know what actually happened. He scanned the girl''s face who was looking unwavering at the drawing. She slowly started, "I really love my mama, she is the best woman in the world. But mom atter how much I love her she won''t ever know... She is with God now." Her amateur voice with hints of gloom rang in the room as she was slowly confessing her feelings for her mother. She continued, "I never saw her; dad said God took her away the day He gave me to daddy. I have only seen mama in a photo and she is really really beautiful." "I made this on myst birthday for her; I... If she was with me today this drawing would have been a reality, I would have been able to hold her hands and go out with her." Catherine''s voice was really low at this point and was drained of all its excitement and cheerfulness. She looked like a lost puppy who thrives for shelter battling nostalgia. She continued, "I... I really miss, mama. I wish she was here with me; if she was here... I wouldn''t be this lonely." Ryan felt really pitiful for the girl; growing up without her mother''s love must have been hard for her. Her father too was really busy with work and how far would her nanny walk with her; at the end of the day, she was just one left-out child locked in her room missing her deceased mother. CatherineContent ? N?velDrama.Org. reached out to pull a doll that sat on the bed, she held it in her arms and rubbed its face and arms nostalgically. She said, "My mom bought it for me when I was still inside her; she wanted to gift it to me. This... Is the first andst thing she left behind for me to remember her. I call her Fiona, I named it after my mother." CHAPTER 33- YOU HAVE ME CHAPTER 33- YOU HAVE ME Ryan could feel something piercing down his heart, he was never an apathetic person yet for this little girl all he felt was an endless pity. She was really young, childhood was said to be the golden age of a person''s entire life- while he was drained off in learning how to survive alone this girl''s life too wasn''t much better than him. She too was learning to live alone but sadly, this left a deep scar in her. Catherine wiped her nose with her palm before looking around the room, casting a smile weaker than her she said, "You asked, right, why I have so many stuff toys in my room. They are here... To make me feel a little less lonely. At night, when they are around... I feel a little less by myself. I... During nightmares, I couldn''t call anyone to apany me; all I can do was..." Catherine hugged her Fiona doll and closed her beautiful round eyes drowned in sorrow, "hug them and try to find... Warmth in them which makes me feel... Not alone and... Insecure." A single tear made its way down her cheeks from her closed eyes as she continued to hug the doll thinking about all the nights she slept alone. Her daddy would barely be home or even if he was he would chase her out due to work and she knew the nanny was too tired tofort her. A hundred pairs of lifeless eyes somehow managed to make her feel as if she was apanied by somebody and thus, she bought so many toys that her room refused to make some space for more. Ryan had no idea what he was supposed to do, he felt as if something cruel was tugging on his heart and tearing it apart mercilessly. Ever since he had gain consciousness he hated his life, he had always had to be alert. Even though his father had everything arranged for his family''s security young Ryan was still failed to feel safe around them and this was the foremost reason he engaged himself in military training at such a young age. He knew the world was cruel but what he couldn''t ept was the fact that it was even the same to a pure-hearted girl like the one sitting next to her. At this tender age of five, she was all lonely and insecure, living by herself which was something really uneptable for him. If it was someone else he wouldn''t have batted an eyelid but this girl... She meant more than anything to him. He genuinely cares for her and selfishly wanted to keep her the happiest and flower her with all the love she deserved. He gently kept his palm on her head and caressed her, vowing to her with the same tenderness, "It''s alright... You won''t be lonely or insecure anymore, I am here now. I will protect you andy down all the happiness you deserve beneath your feet." The girl opened her eyes and looked at the boy, her eyes were red as the result of her crying. Ryan''s heartaches seeing her like this; he wiped off her tears and corrected her hairs. He smiled warmly and said, "It''s ok... I got you." He kept his palm on her small arms and clutched them in his fists; for some reason, the girl calmed down and got herself at ease. He looked straight into her eyes and replied, "You don''t have to buy dolls to keep youpany anymore... You have me! I will be here for you whenever you need me." "R... Really..." Her puppy eyes blinked innocently as she asked; who was he, she was just meeting him for the second time yet he was more caring towards her than the dances she had been seeing since she was born. All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. Warmth and peace crept inside her heart as she looked at her hand that was tightly clutched by him; he was strong and didn''t realize that he was asserting a bit too much force on her weak hands but for some reason, the girl felt the pain subsiding the pain in her heart. She smiled at him and wiped her eyes, even though he was unable to ept the fact that someone was actually vowing to mend her life but she wanted to give her all to him and exper5 how it felt to be protected. Ryan kept herpany till the girl ate and went to sleep; he even narrated her a bedtime story in his warm voice. Standing at the door Jack looked at the two and smelled something fishy; the way his friend was acting was rather strange as he was never this soft, not even made his voice this soothing, for anyone else. Seeing her sleeping sweetly he pulled up the nkets for her and turned off the light in the most silent easy possible lest he woke her up. After he shut the door he was back to his usual cold self, the aura around.d him drastically turned back to his old self indifferent and unapproachable. Jack reported, "Your dad has been calling me like crazy, Ryan." He grunted in acknowledgment before the two youngds made their way down the stairs. After bidding farewell to the nanny they were about to leave when they saw Mr. Silva walk in through the door, he was finally off work. The man was surprised to see the boys still around. "Mr. Silva." Jack greeted politely while the other stood boiling with rage inside, what kind of father he was. He was returning after she went to sleep; he understood that work was important but neglecting his family for business was way too much. Ryan''s respect for the man went beyond zero and started ranging in the negative scale. "Hello, boys. You must be Jack and you must be Ryan." The man guesses them out correctly; Ryan extended his arms to shake them firmly with the man, "Pleasure to meet you, sir." "Sir? Ahh... You are my little girl''s friend. Call me uncle, it''s fine." The businessman insisted. Ryan looked up at him with his poker face before saying, "We were here to apany Catherine. She is already sleeping and thus, we are heading back home." His tone had a hint of coldness which the man noticed, maybe he was always drained of emotions- the man said to himself before seeing off the two little guys. Jack and Ryan rode back home, the intel that they were heading back home was already passed down to his dad. Sitting in the back seat the boy looked at the night sky, the moon was shining bright illuminating the whole city of Barcelona. Jack looked at Ryan, he knew was something was churning in his mind but was unable to determine what it exactly was, one unpredictable mind he possessed. While Jack was trying to guess what he was thinking the boy broke the silence, "Jack!" "What''s up?" Jack''s curiosity finally found glee seeing that he was finally speaking up but what the boy next asked took him off the guards. "Do you think five years age difference is too much?" CHAPTER 34- IN LOVE CHAPTER 34- IN LOVE The abrupt question sent Jack into a daze; he was unable to guess why his friend was asking him about the age difference. The boy who was currently feeling the cold breeze on his face was more unpredictable than the weather itself so trying to guess his wild thoughts would be a sheer waste of time. He asked, "What do you need that for?" Ryan looked at him and said in a serious manner, "Catherine is five years younger than me." Jack''s face was still for a while as he tried to puzzle up thetter''s words but it didn''t take more than two minutes for him to realize what he was up to. He sprung up on his seat and having no control over his tone he voiced out, "Ryan, are you crazy?" Ryan sat unmoved on his seat but someone did give a response to his sudden yelling. The driver turned back and asked, "Is there a problem, Master Jack." Seeing that his words had grabbed the attention of the chauffeur the boy could estimate just how loud he was a while ago. Assuring that it was alright he turned to Ryan and repeated the question in a rather hushed tone, making sure he wasn''t stirring unnecessary trouble. People would only see age difference when ites to one thing and it was marriage; now Jack dared not toe to a conclusion without hearing what he was cooking up in his head. Ryan slipped into a trance; his thoughts slowly floated back to how ethereal she looked, how different she made him feel and how his heart used to thump inside his heart when she was around. Even though he was just a 10 year old and barely contacted the outside world he still had some idea about what was up with him. He had a passion for reading and hade across several stories where either of the protagonists would feel the same as he was doing now- when they meet the love of their life. He realized this thingst night when he was experiencing a surreal kind of anxiety and sleeplessness. Laying on the bed he stared at the ceiling with nothing but only thoughts of her wandering all over his mind. At first, he was a bit repulsive about this sudden change in him; no matter how hard he tried the girl was stubbornly clinging onto his thoughts. Unable to cope up with his muddled mind anymore he opened his phone and logged into a server that provided answers for people''s questions. He made a fake ount proiming himself as a 18-year-old to get ess to everything on the site. Even though he found it reallyme the boy still typed out his queries after a lot of hesitation, looking for an answer. He jotted a post pinpointing his issue how his heart went skipping when he saw her and how he was unable to pull her out of his mind; he was so much thinking about her that he was unable to sleep and was pretty restlesstely. He even typed out the fact that he was going to meet her tomorrow and to All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. make her happy he painstakingly prepared a bar of chocte to gift her with his own hands. After posting it out the boy only had to wait for a few minutes beforements started to flood under it. A lot of people were sleepless around the world it seemed; Ryan scrolled through thements and read them carefully before his eyes flung open in shock. "Bro, is it even something you ask? Ady in thoughts, sleepless nights, skipping heart, racing emotions... You are in love with her, buddy." "Looks like it''s your first time in love, haha. Don''t worry, I too was the same as you when I was in love for the first time." "You are so in love, pal. I totally agree with the abovements." There were several morements all chanting the same thing as the other that he was in love. Ryan logged out of the website and mmed hisptop shut; he dropped back on his mattress and started to wonder. Was he in love? He had never had this kind of feeling before; there was a time when he even doubted if he will ever fall in love or do something romantic with his life. All his life he had never had anyone he cared for, not even his own parents. He was just a stone in human form, devoided of emotions and feelings. It was her, she was the only one in the past ten years who actually made his heart function. Else than surviving and preparing himself for his uncertain future she was the first thing he thought outside the box. He closed his eyes and the images of her smiling at him were the only thing visible to his eyes. Whenever he saw her shimmering smile he used to forget that the world was a cruel ce, she was so warm that she encouraged him not to vary of her. He had no idea what she saw in him but inside her, he saw peace, that kind of happiness that nothing else in the world managed to provide him with. Ryan slowly opened his eye, his heart was yet racing again. A mixed feeling of amusement and anger welled up inside him. He didn''t know why but he was both loving and hating this sensation within him. She was just a kid, how could he fall for her in just a single day? He was apathetic, how on Earth could he ever fall in love? The boy was so confused that he yanked away his nket and stormed out of the room; pushing open his gym door he slipped into his exercise clothes and started throwing punches at the punching bag hanging to be assaulted by him. After a round of vigorous punching, Ryan sat on the bench panting and sweating. He was still not sure what he was actually up to; he was just a 10 year old with no knowledge of certain things like romance. He dared not toe to a conclusion without a proper answer to everything. He had to figure out if he just cared about her or if he was... Really in love with her as the Inte and books proim. CHAPTER 35- HE WAS WILLING TO GIVE HIMSELF TOO CHAPTER 35- HE WAS WILLING TO GIVE HIMSELF TOO The following day when he met her again he couldn''t resist her; when she touched him he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen which was both pleasant and peculiar for him. He couldn''t take his eyes off her; the more he saw her the more he feared that his emotions for her were not normal and thements were rather true. Was he... Really in love with her? When he was with her he felt like forgetting everything and just being with her, nuzzled in herpany. His young heart was blossoming with a beautiful emotion. It was hard for him to ept this and till lunch, all of these worries were churning in his heart; the worst kind of feeling in the world was the one that is left unknown. Ryan finally gave up denying everything; he liked her, he did like being with her and wanted to protect her all his love. He started to ept this fact and even if he had some doubts about it everything vanished into thin air when they had a heart-to-heart in her room. When he saw her cry and sob about being lonely was when he realized how important was she to him; his heart, which won''t even react to the sounds of gunshot and death, was aching when he saw her cry. That was the very moment he epted his emotions and vowed to himself- he was gonna be with her forever and never let her be lonely again. When he said she had him he meant it, he had already given his heart to her and was willing to give himself to herpletely. Ryan till today was only living for himself, with no dreams to achieve and no wish to fulfill he lives the life of a rock- with no purpose at all. But today, in her tear-filled eyes, he saw the true meaning of his N?velDrama.Org (C) content. breathing; he finally realized why he took form on this Earth- it was to love and cherish her. Ryan''s eyes which were lost in mellow fantasies slowly blinked to reality. Even though his face was as straight as possible his features were a little soft and tender than usual. He said firmly, "I am gonna be with her forever." Jack kept his hands on his shoulders and asked, "Ryan, do you like her?" Ryan kept mum but the corner of his lips did curl up a bit as he turned away to face the other side. Jack sat there shocked unable to swallow the intel, his bro was in love already. He pin-pointed, "But she is just a kid... She won''t even understand what you are saying to her." Ryan folded his hands and stated his mind, "I am not an idiot to confess it now and scare her away. I will be by her side and protect her silently until she gets to the age and understands it on her own. I will wait patiently for that day when she will be capable of reciprocating my feelings for her, I can''t lose her." This was the first time Jack saw Ryan speak so much, he was someone who valued his words more than gold. Judging by his answer it was sure that the boy had thought everything out and was serious with his decision. He told him he was willing to wait and keep his feelings in dark until she is old enough to understand. She was only a 5 year old now and it will take years for her to grow up; if it is just an infatuation the boy would give up halfway. But, he knew how stubborn and adamant the Young Master of Nguyen family was; if he set his eyes on something he won''t give up until he achieves it. Mr. Neguyen was on the sofa answering a phone call with his wife sitting nervously beside him when her son with a kingly aura suspended around him entered. The Mafia looked at his carefree son removing his jacket and handing it to the maid. "Honey, you are back!" His mother''s expression finally ceased of worry seeing her son back. ''Mmm'', he grunted before casually making his way upstairs; the couple stared at each other before his father called out for him. Ryan turned back asking for what it was but when the two stayed mum he understood and walked up to them. The man folded his hands before finally asking, "Why didn''t youe back early?" Even though his inflection was cold and straight making it obvious that he was hot under the cor. Even though his father''s tone didn''t make any changes to his features but his tone did be a little respectful, "She felt lonely, so I kept herpany." "Her, who? Alfred''s daughter?" Mr. Nguyen asked his son. The boy nodded in eptance; the parents couldn''t help but stare back at each other. "Honey, you can''t stay out for thiste at night! It''s really dangerous... Do you know how worried we were when you didn''te back." This time it was Mrs. Nguyen who spoke up; she was just the opposite to the ruthless Mafia she married. She was gentle, calm and as her name, Evania suggested she was really a peaceful woman who never spoke harshly even if she was at the peak of her anger. Now, how his father managed to marry such a woman of beauty and virtue remains a mystery and neither did the boy bother to know. Ryan obediently nodded before saying, "I am sorry, I made you worry but she really needed me with her." "But does this mean you stay out and risk it? You know who we are, how many rivals we have. One word, if one word were to leak out that you were straying in the streets thiste at night you would have been hunted down like a mouse. Do you understand me, you unfilial son of a...?" "Hubby!" Before the man could finish his sentence the man Evania stopped him; the man took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. The room was embraced by dead silence with the temperature heating up and turning slightly suffocating. Ryan had his head hung for a while before he lifted his eyes to meet them with his dad. He spoke out, "She is important to me, dad." "Why? Who the heck is she to you?" The man was on the verge of bursting a vein out of anger as he angrily demanded. Ryan''s eyes turned visibly soft yet determined; who was he to her, can he simply answer that he saw her as his entire life? The boy nodded his head; this wasn''t the right time and his parents won''t understand his poetic feelings either. He leaped off his seat and headed back to his bedroom before saying, "I will tell you eight yearster." CHAPTER 36- RYAN NGUYENS WOMAN CHAPTER 36- RYAN NGUYEN''S WOMAN The couple watched the little boy walk upstairs, the man was furious but his wife knew how to calm him down. Giving him a hug like a spoilt kid she looked up at him, "Hubby, please forgive him. You know your son... He is just like you. He will be safe and even if he is not my mighty hubby is there to protect him, right." The man loved his wife more than anything and seeing her acting spoilt and calling him mighty was enough to melt his iced heart. He huffed off his anger and wrapped an arm around her; pulling her closer he looked up at the young boy''s disappearing image, "I better keep an eye on thisd, he is up to something." He was his father and has lived twenty years more than the boy did; even though the boy didn''t say anything clearly at the end of the day he was his son and it was not that hard for him to guess what was going on in his mind. He too has crossed this stage and age; developing friendship and engaging in peer activities was reallymon at this age yet it was a matter of surprise for the man- was his son capable of this social interaction, wasn''t he cold and kept a safe distance from everything. Back up in the room the boy changed into his pajamas and headed to the bed; he spent the whole day with her nevertheless, he started to miss her already. Staring at the ceiling he thought about the time when she slipped into a slumber; she looked really breathtaking. Her features turned as calm as a river in summer forest; her berthings were stable and peaceful. When she was sleeping with her eyes closed the boy took notice of her eyshes, those were neither too long nor too short yet were very eye-catching. She was even beautiful and serene while sleeping; the boy couldn''t help but wonder how can someone not fall for her. She was a real beauty- both inside out. Kids like her were normed to be innocent and naive; they easily believed in everything and every single word. Maybe that is why people say never make fake promises to kids, such pure hearts don''t deserve to be disappointed. Inside the bubble of sympathy and harmony, everyone sees the beautiful side of this world as these little kids do. Cheerful and happy, life would be really good to them as long as they are protected by the people who love them. But it won''t be veryte when they will finally see the reality... The ugly side of the world. A kind of ce which knows nopassion, which has got nothing but lies and disappointments. The meaning of life would flip upside down withering away all the innocence and carelessness in people. Ryan thought back of the time when he wasst naive; he received the p of truth when he was of her age, the day when he saw his father backstabbed by one of his own men fighting for his life in the blood reeked bed of hospitals Life had been harsh on the young boy but he didn''t want her to face the kind of things he went through. She was a soul worth all the love and cherishing possible on Earth. He wanted to keep her naive and silly forever, he would make sure she only sees joy and wonder in life. He would keep her hidden in his N?velDrama.Org (C) content. arms making sure that no one has the guts to even think about hurting his woman. ''His woman''... ''My woman'' the thought shed in his mind making his cold expressions blush up without a warning. "Dear..." The boy looked at the ceiling and started, "You won''t ever regret being my, Ryan Nguyen''s, woman." Given the fact that it was Monday and the boys had their private tutorsing over to give them lessons, the two couldn''t make time to visit the girl that day. Ryan was particrly absent-minded and kept on straying off his chores thinking about her. What was she up to? Was she waiting for them? She would be really disappointed if she was expecting them; the thought of sadness clouding on her face worsened the boy''s mood. After when his lessons were finally done the Young Master hurried to his room to get dressed. It was already 4 of the evening but the boy couldn''t think about anything anymore; even though he won''t have time to y with her he would, at least, meet her. The two boys rode their low-key car to the girl''s house. When the car entered their premises Ryan''s sharp gaze didn''t take too long to spot the girl. She was in her garden, chasing the ducks. Ryan asked the chauffeur to stop at the gate and the two boys got off the car. The two stood hidden behind a post to observe what was going on. The girl was happily running around alone while the housekeeper was ying with her phone. The original housekeeper was Mrs. Jude, a woman closing herter 50. She was the one who even raised her father, but unfortunately at her ailing age, the old woman caught up with some health issues that she had to go back to the vige to cure herself and recing her came her daughter. Even though this woman who only around 20 or so resembled her mother none of her actions did. She would only cook meals and do the chores in the house; taking care of Catherine was something she didn''t bother herself with. Right in front of her Catherine tripped, seeing her fall Ryan got scared but the one who fell and the one watching her was not bothered at all. The woman kept on ying with and smiling at her phone while Catherine stood up on her own and without even dusting herself started chasing the ducks again. Ryan''s blood started to boil seeing how careless the housekeeper was about his woman, this fool will hurt herself and all she would do is yoff with her phone. The boy''s face froze like a block of ice as he made his way to the garden. "How''s everything in here?" Jack spoke out gaining everyone''s attention. The housekeeper threw a nce at them and when she recognized who it was she stood up at once and greeted them politely, "Young Master Ryan! Mr. Jack..." Catherine picked on themotion behind her and turned around, seeing that it was her best friend her face bloomed like a moon as she ced towards them. Ryan opened his arms and let the girl hug him, "Big brother, you are here. I missed you..." CHAPTER 37- HUBBY CHAPTER 37- HUBBY "I missed you too, Cathie!" Ryan caressed the girl before receiving the basket that Jack had in his hands. Giving it to her he said, "This is for you, baby girl. It has got cookies, cupcakes, and candies." Catherine took the basket and smiled, "Thank you, Big Brother." Ryan''s eyes picked on the specks of dirt that were on her elbow, he carefully dusted them off asking, "Did you fall again?" Catherine poked out her tongue, "Floor likes Catherine..." Ryan ruffled her hair spolingly and looked up at the housekeeper; his tone, which was warm as the summer breeze just now, turned cold like that of ciers all of a sudden, "You are supposed to be watching on her; why is she hurt?" The housekeeper knew that the Young Master of the Nguyen n was someone she couldn''t afford to offend. "Mr. Nguyen... I... I...." She tried to reason herself but the boy''s gaze and presence were so overbearing that she couldn''t even spill a sane word. Ryan signaled her to stop, "We are not interested in paying people for free; if you are given a job try to do it properly or find your way out of the mansion. Many can fill your ce, respect the opportunity given to you. Believe me, it won''t take me a minute to fire your face out of the household." His words, zed with ayer of frost, were too hurtful and straightforward to the woman. Maybe he was just a 10 year old but Miss Jude knew that none of his words was a bluff, rather he was capable of doing worse than just firing her. "I... I am sorry, Young Master Ryan. This won''t happen again." She sincerely apologized; Ryan grunted before turning his head at the girl. She was cracking the cookies into bits and throwing them at the ducks, possibly trying to feed them, "Come here little duckies. Eat the cookies..." The boy smiled before grabbing her hands and bringing her in. The housekeeper led the three to her bedroom and went down to bring them some snacks. Catherine brought a bag full of building blocks and poured them on the mat; passing a block to Ryan she said, "Big brother, y with me." Jack threw a mocking gaze at Ryan, even though the boy understood what he was implying at he still rebutted, "What?" The boy yful shrugged before turning at Catherine, "You shouldn''t call him big brother!" Catherine was stunned, "Is that so... But... Why? He is big... So I should call him big brother, right!" She exined but Jack nodded in refusal, "He is not your big brother!" Ryan threw him a dreadful nce warning him to be silent but Jack chose to ignore it as he was enjoying being cheeky. The girl was amused; since she was a child her father taught her to be respectful to everyone and address everyone as an elder brother or sister. What Jack was telling and teaching her waspletely new to the little girl. "W... What should I call him then?" The girl asked in a serious tone; she couldn''t wait to crack this new mystery put forward to her. Else than Dad, mom, uncle, aunty, elder brother, and sister... There was another way of address too? "Call him Hubby... Mhmmm mm....m..." Jack started but Ryan hurriedly covered his mouth and hushed him down. He grabbed his neck threateningly before whispering in his ears, "One word and you are dead..." "Cool down... I am sure she did not hear it!" Jack pulled himself away from his arms when the girl chimed sweetly, "Hubby..." The boys were stunned as they looked at the girl; While Jack started to hear final prayers ringing in his ears the other had no idea how to react. The two started at her smiling face, the girl pointed at Ryan and said, "He is my hubby... Hihi!"Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org. "I... I..." Ryan''s brain nked out listening to her addressing him as her husband. The sea of his heart was waving rmingly with unexinable sensations and emotions. Seeing that the boys were mum she cocked an eyebrow and asked, "What does hubby mean, hubby!" It was his first time in love and he admired this girl a lot; hearing her calling him Hubby, even though without knowing, he got his heartthrob. His heart was racing and beating so fast that he was afraid it may leap out of his chest any second. Gosh... How beautiful she sounded while calling him hubby; he felt butterflies flutter crazily down his stomach. His face flushed red and he felt his ears and neck burn and tickle. Her staring at him made him so shy that the usually fearless boy sprang up and ran into the bathroom to hide. Jack nodded helplessly, "This lovesick, got nervous over a simple address." The girl turned at Jack and asked the same question, "What is hubby, brother Jack?" Jack let out an awkwardugh, "It''s... It''s nothing, little one. Call him by his name... Haha! It will be fine." Inside the bathroom, Ryan grabbed his chest to calm himself down. He sshed his own face numerous times but the flush refused to subside. Her calling him hubby rang in his ears; he had a spin of feelings welling up in his heart right now. Would everyone feel the same hearing their crush calling them that or was it just him? Nevertheless, he had to admit that he really loved it when he called her. Even though she just called him that mindlessly Ryan couldn''t help but think about what he was gonna do once he grows up; he will marry her for real in her known attention and consciousness, then she will be rightfully calling him her husband. Ryan stayed hidden in the bathroom for some more time before finally taking control over his racing heart. "Ryan..." The girl called out; the boy grunted before going back to his seat. Jack didn''t waste time before he slowly exined, "She is well behaved; I told her only once and she listened to me. The boy nodded but didn''t reply... The time slipped by and the boys were called down by the chauffeur to head back home. CHAPTER 38- STAYING FOR A NIGHT CHAPTER 38- STAYING FOR A NIGHT Ryan and Jack descended the stairs and apanying them were the housekeeper and his little princess. The girl held Fiona in one and Ryan''s hands in another, even though she was all smiles her eyes still portrayed strands of sadness in them. Ryan looked down at her and said, "Be a good girl, okay? I wille back tomorrow to meet you..." The girl''s grip tightened on his hands, she asked hesitant, "Can''t... Can''t you stay with me, Ryan?" The boy signalled at the driver to hold as he bent down and cupped her left cheek, "Tell me, what is it? Am I noting back tomorrow for you?" Catherine nodded wordlessly and looked into his eyes; even though she had yet to say what it was Ryan could understand that he was ought to pay heed to it. He was older but he knew that things which are negligible to adults are capable of messing up the peace of kids like her. She clutched his sleeves tightly and replied, "I saw a bad bad dreamst night." "A bad dream?" Ryan cocked an eyebrow. The girl nodded and replied, "I couldn''t sleepst night. I... I am scared. What if I see a bad bad dream again." She paused there and looked into his eyes before continuing, "Can Ryan stay with me tonight..." "You want me to apany you?" Ryan asked; he wanted to know what was in her little heart. Whatever she answers Ryan knew that she won''t hang a tale but what she said took him off his guards. "I feel safe with you, Ryan." Her childish voice was sweet yet solemn when she said that. Ryan gawked straight at her, processing her words in his mind. She felt vindicated with him; he loved this girl and there could be nopliment bigger for a boy in love than being said that his girl felt safe around him. It was just a simple string of five words but the sway of emotions they carried was priceless for Ryan. Jack who was picking on the conversation saw his friend who was frozen; this lovesick... Why was he Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org. so dazed? He doesn''t know, he has never been smitten with anyone. Seeing that Ryan was stupefied Jack nudged him making him break out of his fantasies. "I..." Ryan didn''t know what to say as he turned to look at Ryan. Jack whispered, "Say no... Your dad will be mad if you stay out." Ryan thought, his friend was indeed true; his father had set a curfew for him which may end up dire if he breaks it. But he couldn''t leave her alone and her words made it even harder. The maid came forward, "I can keep herpany tonight, Young Master." Jack agreed but before Ryan could say anything Catherine nuzzled closer in his arms and said, "No... I want to stay with Ryan. Please... Please, Ryan... Please." Her rosy cheeks puffed up pitifully as hope lingered in her eyes; Ryan couldn''t break her heart. He said, "Jack, head back home... I am staying." "Are you crazy? You want to offend your father?" Jack pulled his arms and whispered in his ears lest the girl hears. Ryan didn''t answer him but rather pulled out his phone and walked t a corner; he dialled a familiar number which was picked up soon. "What is it, son?" Mr Nguyen''s strong voice resounded from the other end. "Something came up, dad. I am staying at Silva''s today." The boy chose not to beat around the bush and directly came to the point. In his study the man kept aside his pen and leaned back on his chairs, he meaningfully cocked an eyebrow, "Mmm... Why?" "That..." Ryan dragged a bit and directed his gaze at the girl who was anticipating a precise answer. The boy replied, "Catherine wants me to stay and I gave my words." "You like her, don''t you?" His father asked abruptly knocking him off his socks; it was only the second day of his secret crushing and his parents were already aware of his intentions. His father was a smart man, even if he reclines now he was bound to get caught. Finding it easier to admit the boy replied with his eyes still locked on the girl not too far away, "I do..." "But she is just a kid." "She won''t be one forever." "You like her for real?" "Yes." No matter what the man asked the boy was adamant; atst Mr. Nguyen only had one thing to say, "Don''t hurt her or yourself. You can stay tonight bute back early tomorrow." "Got it." The boy replied before hanging up and making his way back to the gang while his father kept aside the phone nonchntly and asked his assistant to send ten of his best men to guard the house... Permanently. "He agreed, I am staying tonight." No matter how blooming he was inside the boy still maintained a stone face when he slowly broke out the news. Catherine squeaked in happiness; Ryan held her hands as he sent off Jack. The keeper took the two kids in and sent them to the room while she prepared for the meal. Catherine eximed, "I am really happy that Ryan is staying with me tonight." The girl liked using the third person style of addressing the most; when she got to know that he was not an elder brother but ''Ryan'' to her she called him that. Ryan couldn''t help but flush, his name felt extra warm and beautiful when she weaved it in her voice. Now, his name was his second favourite name, the first being her''s. The evening was a fun one for the little girl; she took the boy on a house tour, showed him her photo albums and coloured a few drawings that the boy pencilled for her. She shared enthusiastically a lot of things with him but they were partially heard, he couldn''t concentrate as all his eyes and mind saw was her. He sat there and admired her the whole nightfall, tattooing her smile on his heart. CHAPTER 39- BEING A MAN OR THE MAN CHAPTER 39- BEING A MAN OR THE MAN The two were called down for dinner; during the whole course of dinner Catherine kept on chattering about her wild fantasies. ''Ryan, does unicorn exists?'' ''Ryan, do you think... I am a little mermaid! Did I too lose my memory and came tond?. ''Ryan, do wondend really exist? Can you take me there?'' The Young Master was extremely patient with the kid, he went on nodding and giving out the reply that she was looking forward to. If believing that unicorns existed gave her happiness, he may as well start believing that those mythical one-horned creatures were real. If she thinks that she was the little mermaid of the ocean, he would start believing that he was the Prince she left the ocean for. After the two washed their hands Ryan looked at the time and asked, "Why isn''t Mr Silva here yet?" The housekeeper, who was currently cleaning the table, replied, "Something urgent happened in an International branch, I don''t know much about it but Mr Silva said that it was important and thus, he left early in the morning. He said he won''t be back for a week or two." "A week?" Ryan eximed, it was a long period for him to leave his 5-year-old daughter alone at home. He didn''t stay back to ask anything anymore but quietly took the girl upstairs. While taking her to the room he asked her, "Were you scaredst night because your dad left for a week?" "He left for a week again?" The girl asked surprised. Ryan had no idea if he was supposed tough or cry; this girl wasn''t even aware that her only family had left for a business trip not to be returned any sooner. Her expressions were calm and rxed, it seemed that Mr Silva was barely a family man or cared about his daughter. Ryan breathed out, "Huh, never mind." Post dinner the duo nestled on the bed and watched an animated movie; Ryan was not too much interested in watching it but it was her who asked him to apany her. During the whole movie, the girl had her eye fixated on the screen,ughing and pping her hands every now and then. Every time she giggled Ryan''s lips used to mysteriously curve up into a hearty smile. Ryan had some of his personal pieces of stuff and a set of pyjamas delivered for the night stay. When the girl rushed off to take a shower Ryan strayed out of the room lest he disturbs her privacy. Walking around he found a lonely balcony with a decent inte connection. He settled there and as soon as he got the service several messages popped up, all being from Jack. Ryan casually opened his chat to kill his time by texting his friend. "What''s up? Having a good time with yourdy." Jack teased. Jack seemed to be in a really good mood as he went all the way teasing but his enthusiasm must have been brutally killed when Ryan replied with a short ''mmm''. As expected, Jack''s faced skulked; he was long used to the way he spoke. Being a soul who treasured his words as gold he was a miser when it came to expression but this topic must have interested him yet he was mum. Jack typed out, "You gonna sleep in her room tonight?" "Yep." Finally something juicy; Jack sent nothing but a smirking emoji. Not understanding what he was smirking for Ryan graced him with a question mark. Jack replied, "It''s your chance!" "Chance?" "You are a ten-year-old already, do I need to exin what I am saying?" Ryan understood what he was indicating; even though the two boys were not too much into it and have never seen single pornography but they had little knowledge of where babies came from. Jack, of course, was not talking about making a baby but his meanings were clear. Ryan replied, "What about that?" Jack sipped on his milk and asked, "Are you gonna make a move on her?" "What for?" Jack spat the milk in shock, without even wiping his lips he held the phone in two hands before dialling him. As soon as the phone was answered he yelled, "Bruh, are you crazy?" Ryan''s expression was as collected as always, he asked what it was. Jack replied, "You will be sleeping with the woman you love, don''t you wanna at least kiss her lips?" Kiss her... Lips? Ryan felt electricity wave down his body when he said it out loud in his heart. That would be a really good sensation but for some reason, the boy''s mood worsened. His tone was cold and dangerous as he asked, "Do you take me as a pervert?" "Pervert? Bro, you love her... It is ok for you to kiss her." "Without her consent?" "She will p you if you try to kiss her when she''s awake." "Yes, because it''s immoral." "No, she is not old enough to understand what it means. She will get scared." Ryan massaged his temples before asking, "What do you want?" "This your chance, buddy. Love her a bit! Don''t you know the ''a man and the man'' theory?" Content ? N?velDrama.Org. "What nonsense are you spouting now?" Ryan rolled his eyes as he leaned on the fence with his eyes straying aimlessly. His friend started, "It''s no-nonsense, bud. See... It goes like this. If someone is alone with a woman, like in your case both alone in a room, ''a'' man would make a move on her." "..." Ryan was rendered wordless after hearing this, he asked, "Who taught you all these?" "My cousin did." Jack admitted cooly. Ryan nodded his head and said in a low tone, "I knew it must be someone from your family; only your race is capable of weaving such stupid stuffs." Jack grew impatient, "That''s not the point! And... It''s not stupid, I think it''s really cool." "Is that so?" Ryan shoved his hands inside the pocket and asked, "What would ''the'' man do?" "The man? Oh, he would wait till the woman bes his to make a move." Jack exined; Ryan grunted meaningfully. "No..." Jack stopped his trail of thoughts immediately, "We are human beings and we follow the crowd. ''A'' man is ''a'' man because everyone does that; it''s... it''s like a code. You gotta be ''a'' man and make a progress on her today." ________________________________________ To everyone who is reading and supporting this book... thank you so much, people. Thank you for all the likes,ments and support you have been giving to Doted On By The Mafia Boss. It really means a lot to me. By the way, what do you think Ryan will do? Will he be ''a'' man or ''the'' man? CHAPTER 40- I WANT TO BE YOUR MAN CHAPTER 40- I WANT TO BE YOUR MAN "You are more irrational than the irrational number itself.", Ryanined. No matter how much he refused his friend still exined, "You fancy her, bro. You are gonna make her yours. You are not doing anything wrong... Be a man, Ryan. A MAN!" The boy made sure he stressed thest two words to influence his mind. Ryan grunted, his friend did have a point. He was sure he will make her his one day, there was nothing wrong in... Personalising her for himself, right. A little body contact won''t kill anybody! He massaged his temples and said that he will look into it before hanging up. When he went back to the room the girl was decorating the bed for them; she cleared all her stuffed toys to make space for him. The boy looked at her arrangements and asked, "Umm... What are you doing, Cathey?" "I am making the bed for us to sleep!" The girl straightened the irregr nkets and sat down before continuing quizzically, "Why do you call me Cathey, Ryan?" The boy pinched her cheeks lightly, her skin was as smooth as butter and seemed to be melting in his hands. He exined, "It''s short for Catherine, as a nickname. It is given to people we like..." The girl beamed, "You like me, Ryan?" He sat N?velDrama.Org (C) content. down on the bed next to her and slowly said, "More than you can ever imagine." "Hihi... I like you too, Ryan." Catherine made a little heart with her petite hands and smiled. Ryan''s heart welled up with warmth, he touched her chin and lifted her head a bit, saying softly, "Grow up quickly, ok?" Before the girl could say anything the boy blinked and turned away; picking up her storybook he waved at her, "Let''s sleep, ok?" "The beast turned back into a prince; Belle married the prince she loved and they lived happily ever after..." Ryan dragged the story to the end in his soothing voice and turned around to watch her sleeping. In the moonlight, she looked peaceful and angelic, out of any worries or regrets. The boy turned around, Jack''s words were still ringing in his head. She was asleep and she won''t know, it was a good opportunity for him to express his love secretly to her. The boy''s lips curled up into a smile; he slowly leaned forward towards her. His heart raced when he was inching closer to her but he stopped midway. He smiled at her sleepy innocent face and sincerely pulled up her nkets. Ryan''s eyes were soft and pure when he corrected her hairs; in a voice that was barely audible, he started, "I don''t want to be either of the men; I just want to be your man..." He took the stuffed toys and arranged them ordingly around her, secured two pillows lest she falls down the bed. He took ast nce at her and murmured, "Good night, sweetheart." He took a pillow and nket for himself before making an amodation for himself on the floor. The boy had a hard time sleeping on the floor as he wasn''t used to it, heid there with a nket draped with his eyes fixated on the girl''s sleeping face. He himself didn''t know when he fell asleep but when he woke up it was around two of the morning and Catherine was moving strangely on the bed. Sweat beads covered her forehead and her breathing were escted; Ryan yanked away his nket dashing towards her. "Mom... Don''t go... Please..." She mumbled in her slumber; Ryan could guess what she was dreaming about by her panting mumbles. He patted her to consciousness, "Cathey, wake up... It''s alright." The girl woke up startled and stared at him with her teary eyes before jumping into his arms, shivering. It turned out she saw her mom throwing her away and walking while she begged her to stop and not leave her. "Do you always see such nightmares?" He asked; she silently hugged her Fiona and nuzzled it close to herself. What... Could she say about it? Ryan poured her a ss of water beforeforting her and putting her to sleep; to feel safe he sat next to her and let her rest her head on hisp. He caresses her hairs, deep in thought. He was worried about her; he didn''t want to struggle with all these alone. He wanted to be there for her but... He was very sure his parents won''t let him stay with her. He wanted to be close to her no matter where he was and like her man, be there when she was scared or hurt or needed him. He took out his phone and called Jack, once he attended the call he hung up. Knowing the bro code, he immediately came online. "Bro, did you do it?" Was the first thing he sent. Ryan replied, "No, I will wait for her to be mine." Jack sighed, "You won''t change, man. It''s a shame to be your friend." "Cut the crap." Ryan texted before saying, "I am wondering something. Assist me." Jack: Sure, what is it? Ryan exined to her what she was going through and put forward his will to be with her. Jack typed, "I understand but your dad won''t let you." "I know." Ryan said before continuing, "I want to find a way... So that I can be home yet keep herpany." Jack bubbled before his reply popped out, "That''s impossible for mankind like you and me." Ryan got impatient, "You are useless!" "What you are asking is impossible, buddy." "Yeah, I don''t care. I will give you thirty minutes. I don''t know what you do but sort out a way." Ryan sent him before going offline. "Dude, what the..." Jack jumped on his bed; he knew the family legacy that after Ryan sesses the business after his father he would rece his own dad being his right-hand man. He was raised to be the second inmand and that was why he was best friends with him from a young age. He had to do what his to be Boss had to say, that was his job. He yanked away his nket, cursing Ryan under his breath million times he ran up to Google to find a way out of his work. CHAPTER 41- ADMISSION FOR SCHOOL CHAPTER 41- ADMISSION FOR SCHOOL After the ount was made he saved his number in her phone and started teaching her. He showed her the interface and exined everything to her. "If you miss me and want to see me all you will have to open the app like this, can you see my name and photo here... Yes, that is. You click on it and tap this video recording button. You see this one... Yes! Click on it and wait for me to answer." Catherine listened to everything he said and nodded that she understood it all but was a little unsure Ryan got her drawing book and drew the steps to video call. He gave the tablet to her, even though it was bigger than her hands she still held it firmly. He took out his phone and got up, "I am going out, follow the steps how I taught you and call me." She nodded an okay and watched him leave; after Ryan disappeared she opened the tablet and followed the instructions. The call was sessfully ced. Outside in the garden, Ryan saw his phone ringing, he looked at the caller ID and felt butterflies race down his stomach. He answered the call to see her face shing on the screen; he waved her a hi. The girl''s face lit up as he started tough and giggle in amusement, she was still unable to believe or guess how it was working. The two stared at each other for a while before he hung up and went back inside. "See, this way you can call me anytime. I will pick you up and keep youpany. You won''t be alone anymore." Catherine suddenly hugged him gingerly and pecked on his abdomen, Ryan froze as the ce where she pecked started to burn and tickle at the same time. Her smile was angelic, Ryan felt as if the whole world was fading away and she was the only thing he could sense. Even though he was dazed it didn''t take long for him to get back to his senses; he blinked and cleared his throat. He stood up and called out for the housekeeper; after giving her instructions to connect the tablet with their Wi-Fi and charging it regrly he prepared to leave. The two boys waved goodbye to Catherine who sent them off hugging the new device. That night, around 3 of the morning Ryan''s phone rang. He looked at the screen with his half hooded eyes to discover that it was ''Wifey''. He immediately sat up straight and answered the call; on the screen visible was Catherine in her pyjamas, looking scared and pale. "Did you have a bad dream again?" He asked in a soft tone, the girl nodded. He caresses her through the screen and pulled his phone close to his chest, "It''s ok, don''t be scared. I am here..." He pulled back and asked her to drink some water before instructing, "Keep the call connected and support it against the pillow next to you. I will keep youpany." Catherine did as he said, she ced the phone next to her andid back on the bed. "Good girl," Ryan said before asking her to pull the nkets and close her eyes. "Good night, Ryan." The girl smiled through her covers. Ryan replied, "Good night, sweetheart. Now sleep!" The girl closed her eyes and within few minutes Content ? N?velDrama.Org. her breathing became slow and regr indicating that she had slipped into a slumber. Ryan tooid down with his phone supported against the pillow next to him. Laying there he saw her sleeping face through the screen, the yellow fairy light which shined in the room illuminated her face. He kissed the camera and said slowly, "I can''t wait to grow up and finally make you mine..." Weeks passed just like that and the two used to video call each other more often. No matter how busy or packed he was Ryan would corner every single thing and keep herpany if she needed him. There were even days when he brought her home to y. The parents of the two kids were happy about the bond they shared. Even on her birthday which was on the 08th of February Ryan convinced her dad to host a party for her. Thetter never celebrated her birthday, one because he lost his wife that day and two because he hardly had time to organize one. The little girl, who was unaware that birthdays are even celebrated, was really happy being cherished and loved. Since Catherine was 6 years old now her official schooling was supposed to start from now. One evening Ryan received a call from Catherine, thetter informed him that admissions for the new academic sessions in school were starting from tomorrow and she was joining the school. Ryan, for some reason, was conflicted by this sudden news. He had heard many ounts of naive kids like her being bullied in school, he would definitely not like it if someone was causing trouble or making her cry. He tried to talk to his father to convince Mr Silva to home school her but the man refused. Atst, it was Jack who convinced him that it will be alright and she too deserved to make friends. On the day of admission, Ryan and Jack apanied the young girl and her nanny for her admission process. Even though she was admitted to the best school in Barcelona Ryan was still unsure. The nanny took the little girl in leaving the two boys alone. Ryan was still deep in thought and seeing this Jack flicked his shoulders, "You are still worrying?" Ryan stayed mum, still deep in thought. Jack sighed, "What can we do, buddy. We can''t go everywhere and protect her, right." His words fell in the empty corridor and rang a few times in Ryan''s ear before he came up with something. His eyes brightened up, lifting his head he smiled at Jack, "Man, you are a genius!" Saying this he went back to his seat and waited for the two toe back. Chapter 42 - Admission For School Chapter 42 - Admission For School After the ount was made he saved his number in her phone and started teaching her. He showed her the interface and exined everything to her. "If you miss me and want to see me all you will have to open the app like this, can you see my name and photo here... Yes, that is. You click on it and tap this video recording button. You see this one... Yes! Click on it and wait for me to answer." Catherine listened to everything he said and nodded that she understood it all but was a little unsure Ryan got her drawing book and drew the steps to video call. He gave the tablet to her, even though it was bigger than her hands she still held it firmly. He took out his phone and got up, "I am going out, follow the steps how I taught you and call me." She nodded an okay and watched him leave; after Ryan disappeared she opened the tablet and followed the instructions. The call was sessfully ced. Outside in the garden, Ryan saw his phone ringing, he looked at the caller ID and felt butterflies race down his stomach. He answered the call to see her face shing on the screen; he waved her a hi. The girl''s face lit up as he started tough and giggle in amusement, she was still unable to believe or guess how it was working. The two stared at each other for a while before he hung up and went back inside. "See, this way you can call me anytime. I will pick you up and keep youpany. You won''t be alone anymore." Catherine suddenly hugged him gingerly and pecked on his abdomen, Ryan froze as the ce where she pecked started to burn and tickle at the same time. Her smile was angelic, Ryan felt as if the whole world was fading away and she was the only thing he could sense. Even though he was dazed it didn''t take long for him to get back to his senses; he blinked and cleared his throat. He stood up and called out for the housekeeper; after giving her instructions to connect the tablet with their Wi-Fi and charging it regrly he prepared to leave. The two boys waved goodbye to Catherine who sent them off hugging the new device. That night, around 3 of the morning Ryan''s phone rang. He looked at the screen with his half hooded eyes to discover that it was ''Wifey''. He immediately sat up straight and answered the call; on the screen visible was Catherine in her pyjamas, looking scared and pale. "Did you have a bad dream again?" He asked in a soft tone, the girl nodded. He caresses her through the screen and pulled his phone close to his chest, "It''s ok, don''t be scared. I am here..." He pulled back and asked her to drink some water before instructing, "Keep the call connected and support it against the pillow next to you. I will keep youpany." Catherine did as he said, she ced the phone next to her andid back on the bed. "Good girl," Ryan said before asking her to pull the nkets and close her eyes. "Good night, Ryan." The girl smiled through her covers. Ryan replied, "Good night, sweetheart. Now sleep!" The girl closed her eyes and within few minutes her breathing became slow and regr indicating that she had slipped into a slumber. Ryan tooid down with his phone supported against the pillow next to him. Laying there he saw her sleeping face through the screen, the yellow fairy light which shined in the room illuminated her face. He kissed the camera and said slowly, "I can''t wait to grow up and finally make you mine..." Weeks passed just like that and the two used to video call each other more often. No matter how busy or packed he was Ryan would corner every single thing and keep herpany if she needed him. There were even days when he brought her home to y. The parents of the two kids were happy about the bond they shared. Even on her birthday which was on the 08th of February Ryan convinced her dad to host a party for her. Thetter never celebrated her birthday, one because he lost his wife that day and two because he hardly had time to organize one. The little girl, who was unaware that birthdays are even celebrated, was really happy being cherished and loved. Since Catherine was 6 years old now her official schooling was supposed to start from now. One evening Ryan received a call from Catherine, thetter informed him that admissions for the new academic sessions in school were starting from tomorrow and she was joining the school. Ryan, for some reason, was conflicted by this sudden news. He had heard many ounts of naive kids like her being bullied in school, he would definitely not like it if someone was causing trouble or making her cry. He tried to talk to his father to convince Mr Silva to home school her but the man refused. Atst, it was Jack who convinced him that it will be alright and she too deserved to make friends. On Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org. the day of admission, Ryan and Jack apanied the young girl and her nanny for her admission process. Even though she was admitted to the best school in Barcelona Ryan was still unsure. The nanny took the little girl in leaving the two boys alone. Ryan was still deep in thought and seeing this Jack flicked his shoulders, "You are still worrying?" Ryan stayed mum, still deep in thought. Jack sighed, "What can we do, buddy. We can''t go everywhere and protect her, right." His words fell in the empty corridor and rang a few times in Ryan''s ear before he came up with something. His eyes brightened up, lifting his head he smiled at Jack, "Man, you are a genius!" Saying this he went back to his seat and waited for the two toe back. CHAPTER 43- WE ARE GOING SCHOOL CHAPTER 43- WE ARE GOING SCHOOL Around fifteen minutester, the door of the principal''s chamber flew open. Ryan stood up from his seat seeing Catherine walk out happily, "Ryan, I got epted." The boy chuckled, "Of course, you did. Who would not take in my little Cathey." Jack looked around and asked the housekeeper, "If it''s all done we can go for shopping." "No, I have a little work." Ryan stood up straight, he looked down at Catherine and said, "Wait for me, ok?" He entered straight into the principal''s chamber leaving behind a confused Jack and housekeeper. The woman asked, "What happened to Young Master?" Jack shrugged and sat back on his seat, no one would know what he was cooking in his mind until he produced the results. A few minutester Ryan came out with two pamphlets in his hands, he looked at the gang who was waiting for him and said, "Let''s go." "What were you doing inside?" Jack inquired and then his eyes fell on the two papers he held in his hand. Pointing at those he asked, "And what are these two?" Ryan swept his gaze across the little girl who was talking to her nanny and replied. "It is the school rule book." Jack was confused why he was suddenly bringing up the school''s rulebook, did he spent 15 whole minutes inside for these? He asked quizzically, "Why did you bring two?" Ryan was calm as he carefully ced one book in his kangaroo pocket but what he replied did rob away Jack''s peace of mind, "One for you and one for me." "For me? Why for me?" Jack asked irritated, it was really hard to guess what this boy really was doing and now suspense was killing him. Ryan handed him his rulebook and finally broke the unexpected news to him, "You will need to know the rules to follow after we join the school." His words shocked everyone, including the nanny who averted her concentration from Catherine and threw her questioning gaze at the two boys. Jack looked at the book in his hand and looked up to meet eyes with him, "W.. what did you say?" "We are going to school, I got our admissions." Ryan casually informed thetter before walking away with Catherine, probably to buy her ice cream. Jack was a smart kid but this piece of information was really hard for him to process! He had been homeschooled with the Young Master since he knew, going to school suddenly was unimaginable for him. Even though he wasn''t really fond of this idea he had no say in it, Ryan was the one who called the final shots for him. The nanny looked at his depressed expressions and asked, "Why, you don''t like school?" Jack nodded negatively, "I have been homeschooled all my life, besides I have heard many horrible things about school." "Aahh... It''s not it! Schools can be really fun..." The two chatted before leaving the hallway. Outside the school premises, Ryan indeed was feeding little Cathey a big bowl of strawberry ice cream. The clique then went to bury necessary gadgets for school. Their official schooling was to start on Monday that was two dayster from today; while Catherine was enthusiastic the other two were just mum, especially Jack who had a million thoughts going on his head. He was thinking of ways to convince thetter to change his mind and give up on joining the school. He had no idea how he managed to talk to his overprotective dad into sending him to school, he was thinking hard but finally gave up when he saw Ryan looking at Catherine afar. She was buying and Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org. giggling on her own but the way Ryan looked at her, with tremendous love and affection in his eyes Jack dropped all of his ns. He decided to join the school to protect her from everything and deep inside Jack knew even if the hell raised and heavens tore there was no stopping him from protecting his woman. Two dayster when the school officially started it was finally Mr Silva who apanied the three kids to school. While Catherine sat on hisp and happily chatted with her father in the passenger seat Ryan boiled with jealousy inside, even though it was her blood father he still hated the fact that she loved her father more than she loved him. The feeling that he was sharing her with someone and she wasn''t exclusive to him was worsening his mood deep down... His face was sullen as he red at the two with his piercing nce, Mr. Silva noticed his cold gaze on him and turned around. "What, Ryan. You don''t look happy?" The handsome man in a grey suit asked him. Jack chuckled before awkwardly jumping between the two, "It''s nothing, Uncle. He just hates school!" The manughed, "I too used to loathe school when I was young but slowly I epted the fact that no matter what I do I am not getting rid of school and got used to it." Saying this the man turned around and failed to see that Ryan mumbled something under his breath. He said, "It''s not the school I wanna get rid of but you." His words were barely horrible but the boy who sat next to him heard him out clearly, he blocked his mouth with his palms to prevent him from saying anything further, he whispered, "He is your father-in- Ryan corrected his school jacket and turned away unhappy, he vowed to himself that once he marries Catherine he won''t let anyone, especially her father, near her. The car finally stopped at the premises of the school; this reputed education centre featured elementary, middle and high school all divided into different building blocks and thus Catherine was not too far away from the boy''s reach. Her father opened the doors and climbed out with his daughter who was happy beyond belief, following the tall man were the two 10-year-old bodyguards the girl had found herself. CHAPTER 44- CAMPUS PRINCESS CHAPTER 44- CAMPUS PRINCESS Since the time Catherine was taken to her ss and Ryan to his own, the boy kept on wondering if she was doing ok there. He was so worried that he couldn''t even concentrate in ss, if not for his homeschool lessons which were too advanced the the one he was learning in ss he could have been punished for not answering the questions the teacher threw at him. When a short break was given to them Ryan dashed across the corridors to her ss to make sure she was okay. When he entered in he found he missing from her seat, he looked tensed at Jack and asked where she was. The two boys went inside the ss to find Catherine standing at a corner, hugging a single notebook. "Ryan!" Her saddened face brightened up as soon as she saw those two simr faces. She ran and hugged his legs. Ryan knelt down to match her height and asked, "What is it, why are you here alone? And where are your stuff." Her grip on the book tightened as she confessed slowly, "They took away my belongings!" Ryan''s face turned grim when he heard his words, the temperature around him started to tense up as he asked with a murderous tone, "What did they do?" The girl who obviously couldn''t estimate the anger bubbling up inside him confessed, "They snatched away my books, colours and even my lunch. I could only save this notebook from being stolen away." "It''s ok, I will bring back your stuff!" Ryan cupped her cheeks before asking, "Who did this to you?" The girl clutched his arms before taking him to a kid who was sitting there savouring a variety of snacks he had stolen away from other kids. He looked bulkier and stronger than other kids, maybe that was the reason he was bullying others this easily. Ryan balled his fist and took a step towards the bully but was stopped by Jack, he whispered, "Do you want to get expelled on the very first day for beating up a kid?" "Do you want me to let him continue to bully her?" The boy asked and to this Jack replied, "No, just a scolding would do." The two approached the boy, Jack sat down beside him while Ryan climbed up on the desk trapping the other side with his leg. The kid stopped eating and looked up at the two, "Yo, who are you, man?" Jack replied signalling at Catherine, "I am that girl''s elder brother and he is her future husband." His words grabbed the attention of the rest of the kids who raised their heads and looked at the trio talking. The boy looked up at Ryan who was staring at him with his piercing gaze cracking his knuckles. His overbearing eyes and aura somehow lowered the boy''s bravery as he spoke with a more polite tone, "W... What is it, big brother?" Jack smiled and asked, "We heard that you stole her stuff and bullied her. Is that true?" The boy immediately refused, "No no, big brother. She is lying, I am a good boy... I..." He immediately stopped when he saw Ryan lift up a pink lunch box with the name Cathey imprinted on its lid; it was a custom made lunch box he had brought exclusively for Catherine. He swung the box in his hands and asked in N?velDrama.Org (C) content. a murderous tone, "Your name is Catherine?" "I... No... I..." The boy gulped in fear too afraid to speak anymore. Jack wrapped his arm around the boy''s shoulders and pulled his closer; smiling he whispered in his ears, "You see, that guy is overprotective about her and messing with her is equal to challenging his authority." The boy sneaked a nce at him to discover Ryan snipping a pencil into two still peering at him with his evil eyes. The little boy was on the verge of crying when he said, "I... I am sorry, big brother. I will re- return everything I took from her and won''t ever go next to her." "You sure?" "Yes! Yes! I will also make sure no one bully her." Jack ruffled his hair andmented, "Smart kid!" The two boys stood up but Ryan still had something to say, he bent down and stated, "I hope I don''t get anyints anymore because next time... I won''t be just sitting and chatting. Understood?" "Un- understand, sir!" The boy fought back his tears as he nodded positively, vowing to behave. "Good." The boy nodded before the two walked away to Catherine and said, "It''s solved. No one will trouble you anymore." "What did you do, Ryan?" Catherine chimed happily; she viewed the kid and his friends as bad guys, she wondered how Ryan manages to solve it! Jack replied cheekily, "Hihi... We just had few words with him and he understood. Isn''t it, Ryan." Thetter grunted before weaving a sentence in his deep voice, "Don''t worry, no one will bully you anymore." It was almost time so the two bade to her and left for their ss, when she went back to her seat after seeing them off Catherine realised that all her belongings were neatly arranged on her seat. She was even more surprised when the bully and his friends came forward to apologise to her. She was given the best seat under the fan, kids even offered to help her with homework and shared their snacks with them. Catherine was a warm and kind soul, when they treated her politely she too started to treat them with kindness. It was soon realised that she was a rich heiress but instead of being haughty about it she was friendly and cheerful with everyone. Her good nature and Ryan''s backing soon made her the campus princess; no matter where she went she was treated with respect and had a special treatment to herself. Ryan also spread words that she was his woman which spread across the students like wildfire and thus, no one dared to look up at her or even think about bullying her as they knew the consequences would be dire. CHAPTER 45- THE FINAL FINAL WARNING CHAPTER 45- THE FINAL FINAL WARNING Time flew past and the two weren''t kids anymore, one was seventeen while the other was twelve already. Many things changed, the way they looked and the way they were addressed in society but what didn''t change was the way they treated each other. Six yearster in the same school premises, a guy went crashing against the wall while his ssmate stood dumbstruck, too afraid to do or say anything. The boy who was sent crashing went numb with pain as he shot a fearful nce at the one who did this to him... Ryan, in the school uniform but without his jacket stood there correcting a ck band in his hands. Even though his face was calm and collected one could easily see the anger dancing on his face, he grabbed thetter''s cor and pulled him up in the air. With his handsome face just a few inches away from his Ryan spoke out, "You must have some guts to flirt with the woman I love." The students who were witnessing the fight heard what Ryan just said and started to chatter amongst themselves, the most popr opinion being that she was his bottom line and it has been challenged by this new transfer student, now nobody could save him. Ryan fist his hands before throwing another punch at his face, he sat down on him and went on bashing him until... "Ryan, this is your final- final warning! If you go around beating up people again I will have to take severe actions!" The principal said sternly looking at the two boys, while one had only dirtied his shirt the other had a wound on his forehead which was secured with bandages. Ryan simply unheard the principal''s warning and went on nodding before the head finally let him go. After the two students left there was a newly joined Asian teacher who walked in. He asked, "Sir, I have seen this fellow frequenting to your office for the bully and beating up kids. Why do you always let him go with a warning without taking any action?" "Are you crazy?" The principal worked up before hushing him down, "You are new here, right, that''s why you don''t know. His father is a famous mob, they work as drug dealers and paid assassins. They are really dangerous people and the goon who just left the office is the future boss of that n! IRS not healthy to offend them..." After the two boys came out Ryan gave him ast warning, "There are many girls on the campus and I don''t care who you fool around with but... She is mine and thus, stay away from her." Thetter was too afraid to say something and ran away nodding; Ryan walked up to the end of the corridor and reached the stairs when he saw a familiar figure sitting there. His anger melted down and affection started to cloud his face, feeling a presence behind her Catherine slowly turned her head to meet her eyes with Ryan''s. "Ryan! You came back?" She stood up and dusted off her skirt smiling at him. She had grown up so much and looked no more like a five-year-old yet had Ryan still madly in love with her. He grunted before descending down the stairs and started walking away with her. She asked, "Did the principal say anything?" "Nope! He just gave me a final warning." "Hihi... The 37th final warning!" The girl giggled joyfully and seeing her smile the boy lost even his leftover wrath. No matter how terrible he was for the outer world he had a passionate and calm side too, sadly it was exclusive only for her. The couple walked down the stairs, Catherine kept on stealing nces at him but didn''t say a thing. Her minute actions failed to escape from his watchful faze as he said, "If you have anything you can say." "No no! I don''t have anything to say... I- I just... Why did you fight with him?" Catherine finally asked what was going on inside her. Ryan knew already it was what she wanted to ask, he replied casually, "He offended me so I had to show his ce." "Oh...." The girl slipped into her thoughts but was interrupted when Ryan asked back, "Why? You know him?" The girl nodded and replied, "Yes, Ryan. He was the only one who called me pretty and asked for a coffee date yesterday." N?velDrama.Org (C) content. Ryan acted astonished as if he knew nothing about it, hemented, "Is that so? I didn''t know..." After a pause, he asked again, "What did you answer him?" The girl smiled proudly, "Obviously I turned him down, I don''t like him." She added casually, "What a coincidence, right, Ryan. He ended up having a history with both of us!" "What do you mean?" Ryan stopped in his tracks and tilted his head towards her. The girl, who only reached up to his waistmented, "He asked me out yesterday and ended up getting trashed by you today. This is so hrious!" Ryan agreed to it as if he knew nothing about what she was saying before the two went away to their separate sses. Back at the vi when Ryan finally came back home the first person toe meet him was Jack who wasn''t attending sses because of the bad cold which had hit him. He was already informed about the scene Ryan caused at school and hade to discuss the same. When he interrogated that why he picked up a fight with him Ryan casually said that he offended him by flirting with his woman and asking her out. "Your woman?" Jack raised an eyebrow before sitting down next to him, "When did she be your woman?" Ryan changed his clothes and asked, "Did you have a memory loss? I am in love with her since she was five, it''s been eight years already." "So, will that make her yours?" Jack questioned seriously. Ryan sat down on the bed and asked calmly, "What are you saying?" CHAPTER 46- HOW TO IMPRESS A GIRL CHAPTER 46- HOW TO IMPRESS A GIRL Jack adjusted his position and turned towards his friend to exin, "Ryan, the whole school knows you like her but does she know about it?" Ryan fell silent processing his words while thetter continued, "This all flirting and asking out is happening because no matter who likes her she is still single at the end of the day!" "She isn''t your woman, she is your crush! None of this will stop, no amount of beating will hold people back from eyeing her because... She isn''t officially dating anyone. You get that?" Ryan processed his thoughts and nodded, Jack''s words made sense to him but he didn''t know what he was implying. He asked, "So... What should I do?" Jack''s eyes curled up as he said, "You need to make her yours officially!" "Official?" Ryan raised an eyebrow, "She is still a kid, this is not the right time." Ryan turned down Jack''s idea. She was only 12 and in his opinion not prepared for dating andmitments. He wanted to wait till she was 18 and mature enough to understand everything and get prepared for a life with him. But Jack had other concerns, he exined, "Ryan, I understand what you are worried about, you are afraid she would say her answer in the heat of the moment and me youter. But, it is not gonna happen... You have both known each other for eight years already, you treat her the best in the whole world. She is 12, no more a kid; her friends are all in a rtionship, it is only her who is single." "No... I don''t think it''s a good idea." Ryan was still reluctant about opening up his feelings to her. Jack threw his arms around him and said, "Ryan, it''s already toote. You see, right, how many people want her to be theirs. You gotta admit it, her beauty is more powerful than your warnings! Her dad is a businessman, you think he believes in love and all? Once he finds a profitable marriage he will send off his daughter for the money and benefits of that matrimony." He paused there and said in a tone as serious as his face, "You gotta make the move and im her before it''s toote!" Ryan was conflicted, one side he wanted to give her time and wait while the other side... Jack''s words were unfortunately true. He was torn apart between the struggle of choosing the right decision, he loved her a lot to let go of her or see her sad. After thinking for a couple of hours the boy finally chose what he wanted to do, he said, "You are right, I ought to make the move before it''s toote." Jack''s emotionless face finally brightened up when Ryan finally gave him the answer, he appreciated him for making the right decision and continued, "If you make things official with her you will be able to take care of her more, this will also allow Cathey to have enough time to see what kind of spouse you are." All these reasons and the fact that she will be finally his sent butterflies tremendously fluttering within him. "Ok, what am I supposed to do now?" "It''s the 12th of February today, Valentine''s day is on the bay. Ask her out for an official date!" "Date?" Ryan stood in front of the mirror and met Jack''s eyes through thetter''s reflection. Jack nodded firmly, "Yes, the boy asks the girl for a date, he spends all he has into it, impress her and they be a couple. That''s how it works!" Jack''s words sent Ryan into a daze, when he finally broke out of his fantasies he asked, "Teach me how it is done!" "I..." Jack dragged before the two ended up watching different movies to learn the art of asking a girl out. While Ryan sat and concentrated on the movie Jack sat next to him and took notes from every scene. After watching around 30 to 40 different movies Ryan lifted his remote to switch off the television when Jack said he was done with them and asking out sketches. Ryan took the notepad from his hand, went through what he had nned and asked, "You think it is okay to do it this way?" "Yes, these were the most used methods and the girl''s immediately agreed. If you follow this n perfectly she too will agree to give it a chance with you." Seeing how confident he was with this master n Ryan finally agreed to do it and started rehearsing his lines in front of the mirror. It was a big day tomorrow, he was going to ask her out so he wanted to make sure that he manages to give his best shot from his side and don''t give her a reason to break up. The next day, Ryan was patiently waiting outside Catherine''s house in his car so that he can take her school with him. Throw the rearview mirror he saw the young girl walking towards his car waving at her nanny, Ryan''s hands started to sweat as he saw her approach. With a katchak she pulled open the car''s door and greeted him, "Hey, Ryan!" And carefully sat next to him in the backseat. "Brother Jack is still sick?" She asked seeing that thetter was still absent from school. Ryan grunted before pulling out a big bouquet of fresh red roses and giving it to her, "Here, this is for you." "A... Thank you, Ryan!" Catherine happily epted the flowers and sniffed it without giving a bizarre expression which he expected. He frowned, "Aren''t you excited upon seeing the flowers?" Catherine smiled and asked, "Why should I be surprised, you give me something every time we meet since I have known you!" "..." Ryan didn''t know whether tough or cry, she was not following the n how he had prepared himself for and this started making him nervous. The car started and Ryan kept on turning at her as if he wanted to say something but couldn''t make himself say it. The girl kept on noticing it but stayed mum until she couldn''t hold the suspense anymore, she asked, "Do you have anything to say, Ryan." "Yes!" The boy admitted. "Say it, why are you hesitating?" The girl punched his shoulders lightly and giggled encouraging him. The boy signed to himself and said in a monotonous way, "You are really beautiful." "What.." The girl''s smile dropped when she heard hisment, Ryan nodded lightly and continued, "I need a map!" "Why?" Catherine stared at him when he added, "Because I got lost in your eyes and need a map to find my way out." "..." Rendered speechless she kept on looking at him without a particr emotion on his face, for some reason Ryan was getting frustrated as she was not giving him the reaction he sought for. "F*ck it." He thought to himself and delivered the second line he had mugged up, "This morning a nightingale came Ryan tried to smile at her but seeing she was still silent and making the atmosphere awkward for him he turned around. He cursed Jack in his mind for brainwashing him and making him do this stupid thing. Content ? N?velDrama.Org. Seeing that the atmosphere had tensed up Catherine chuckled awkwardly and said, "Ryan, is everything alright?" Chapter 47: WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME Chapter 47: WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME Ryan kept mum for a while; his temper which was already in tempest hit its limit when she wasn''t getting his actions and wasn''t reacting in the way he wanted her to act. Afraid that he would embarrass himself more he decided t give up on it for now. "Nevermind!" He spat and turned away without even waiting for her to react. "I- Ok." Catherine, who was well aware of how his mood worked, decided to let it go. He had never yelled out at her, not in the past long years was once when he talked to her with the slightest irritation in his tone but she had seen how scary he could get when he was not in the right mind. The two were about to reach school, while she was ying with the bouquet he gave her Ryan was deep in thoughts. Everything he heard from Jack, the times when he warned her admirers to stay away and randompliments he heard about her were echoing as a cacophony in his ears. When the car finally stopped he stepped out of the car absent-minded; he looked at her, her lips were moving and it seemed that she was saying something to him but he couldn''t hear anything. She waved at him and was about to go to her ss when he suddenly grabbed her wrist. Catherine turned around bewildered and peered at him. Ryan''s heart was beating as fast as ever when he blurted out, "Will you go out with me." Catherine, "..." The two looked at each otherpletely silent; Ryan was nervous yet looked calm silently observing her expressions. She blinked in silence tightening his heart! Why is she silent? Is she shocked? Did she not expect this? His mind went nk, what if she never thought like that to him and he had scared her off. In the school pavement, the two stood still, the time seemed to have stopped around them. Unable to bear the awkward situation anymore Ryan called out for her, her expressions revealed that she wasn''t speechless but had slipped into a trance. "What is your answer? You can take your time and give me an answer." Ryan spoke and was about to All rights ? N?velDrama.Org. take his leave when he heard the girl''s weak voice ring up. "Yes." "What?" "I... I am willing to go out with you." The girl hung her eyes, flushing red; she looked youthful and full of love. Even though her words were as clear as ice Ryan still took a few seconds to process it in case he was misunderstanding. Words may lie but expressions won''t; her rosy cheeks were saying it all. Ryans heart skipped all of its beat as a rare grin broke out of his thin lips. She agreed to go out with him, what could be better than this! He slowly let go of her hands and the two giggled and blushed, being teenagers they couldn''t keep in their passion within themselves. "I... That''s good. I will see you after school and tell you the details." Ryan spoke after going back to his usual cold self and the two parted ways. That day Ryan was so shy that he took a bus home and didn''t apany her home. Jack, the wingman, was the happiest when he learnt that she agreed to go out with him. There was only one day left and the two friends were having a hard time deciding what all they were supposed to do. Ryan was reluctant to the idea of referring to the movies to n the date as it had flopped tragically during the asking out time but after being convinced by Jack the two sat down and watched movies. Different people had different preferences, while somedies prefer going shopping as a date Ryan knew it was out f Catherine''s league. So, after carefully nning out everything the boys finally took a sigh of relief. "I bet she will enjoy the day!", Jackmented looking at the perfect n they had made and smiled at his friend. Ryan looked at her photo frame which rested below the tablemp beside his bed, "I will treat her like a queen... My Queen." 13th went away just like that and neither of them spoke about the date. Even though the kids were lowkey about their first date attempt their parents had already found out. While Mr Silva didn''t bother with and just gave her money to spend while the Nguyen couple sat and had a long discussion about how mature their son was now. Either way three of them were happy and satisfied with this union; Ryan loved Catherine and the three knew each other for a long time thus they were sure the couple would end up together. Moreover, this marriage would also emerge as a bonus and strengthen their business rtionship. It was a win-win for everyone. As for the couple, they weren''t thinking about anything else than their date. It was soon the 14th of February, the infamous Valentine''s day and the very day of their first romantic involvement. Dressed in casual blue denim, white t-shirt and ck leather jacket paired with ck shoes Ryan gave out a royal aura; he looked handsome and crisp in this outfit. It was his first time wearing something this shy but Jack dragged him for a shopping spree as he found everything dull fr a date in his wardrobe. The boy wanted to buy something flirty like red but Ryan ended up buying his usual cold colours. After getting himself loaded with wishes Ryan drove his car to her house, even though he wanted to pick out a shy car like a Ferrari his dad handed him the cars of Audi R8 in order to not attract unnecessary attention. It was around 10 when the boy parked his car outside her gate, he had visited and taken her out over a million times but today he was strangely happy. He got off the car with a fancy heart-shaped chocte box and a bouquet of fresh lilies, which she liked more than roses, he took elegant strides to her door. After a few knocks, it was the housekeeper who took him in and offered him water while he was waiting for her to descend. After taking few sips he just ced the ss on the table when he heard her melodious voice chime. Chapter 48: THE DATE Chapter 48: THE DATE Standing on the first floor by the stairs was her small frail figure dressed in knee length denim skirt and a white off shoulder top. Shepleted her look with white sneakers and a French hat sitting above her beautiful wavey hairs. She chose pearl earrings and a simple ne topliment her beauty! She wasn''t white like him but rather had an olive tone; in that outfit she looked young and chaste- like a flower yet to be seen or touched by mankind. She never dresses up like this, maybe she put efforts on her look keeping in mind that they were going on an official date. Ryan''s heart skipped a few beats when she tucked her locks behind her ears and smiled at him shyly. She walked down the stairs and stood in front of him; Ryan, though never lost his cool, was getting his hands soaked in swear as she inches closer. He stood up and observed her charm, how can someone not fall in love with her- she was literally an angel in disguise. "Happy Valentine''s day, gorgeous." Ryan wished her with a tone oozing with love for her. She hung her eyes shyly and replied, "Happy Valentine''s day, Ryan." Ryan said, "That.. you... You look really beautiful, Cathey." She blused but said nothing; her rosey cheeks, for some reason, was sending butterflies down his stomach. He gifted her the lilies and choctes he bought for her which she dly epted and like Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org. always, tried to sniff the aroma out of those smell-less flowers. He cleared his throat and stuck out his arm, with another arm tied back he bowed and smiled at her, "Ma''am, make this the best day of my life by apanying me." "Rayn..." She giggled before grabbing his hands, she couldn''t help but blush her heart out. The housekeeper watched the two leave, they looked so much in love. Ryan led her to his car and made her sit on the passengers seat, he helped her put the seatbelt and after he himself sat on the driver''s seat he stepped on the gas pedal and drove away the car. The two were supposed to spend the whole day together and he had nned the whole day ahead. Since it was Valentine''s day the two could spot many young couple together in street. Even though the streets looked regr the love which was being shared by these couples were making these. Ryan first took her to Tibidabo, the biggest Amusement park in Barcelona. The big rides and bizarre foods made the girl really happy, despite it was crowded and Ryan hated to be in a ce stuffed with people he didn''t lose his cool as Catherine was everywhere to lighten his mood. He held her small hands in his and took her to everywhere she asked for. On her request they had lunch at a pretty stall by the Ferris wheel. By the time they left the park it was already around 4 in the evening, the girl wore big funky sses, a bunny hairband and held funny balloons and a gigantic fairy floss by the time she exited. Ryan too, to apany her wore devil hairbands. If he was to be seen by his subordinates he would be aughing stock yet he didn''t hold himself back as him wearing these made her really happy. The couple drove around the city to rest a bit before he drove to a newly opened luxury mall in the city; she bought a few things for him and her and even gifted him a new tie and belt. He, with his pockets in his hands, followed behind the girl carefully and pictured every moment they spent together. By the time they were done the sun was already about to set, the city of Barcelona was gleaming with the lights and was a sight to see. Ryan then drove her to her father''spany, the building have them nostalgia as she hadn''t visited this ce for a long time. After Ryan came in her life she either went to his house or he came to apany her, she was never left alone in that room beside her father''s cabin to y alone. She kept on staring at the building before the man helped her snap out of her fantasies. Hand in hand the two walked inside the infrastructure. Employees left a tad early today as they had ns for the evening, no one else than the security was there. Since he knew who these two kids were he didn''t stop them; the two kids walked into the empty reception before boarding the lift. "Why did you bring me here, Ryan?" She asked calmly looking at him. He replied nonchntly, "This ce holds a special meaning to me; this is where I found my life- the ce where I met you." Ryan was not this cheesy always but today he had no hold on his emotions, his sweet words sent waves of warmth in her heart. The two reached the 10th floor of the building, the highest where the ceo''s cabin and the guest room was situated. Ryan and Catherine looked at the close room with all their childhood memory rushing back into their mind, behind these closed doors was the ce where their love story bloomed. Ryan pushed the door open and made way for her to go in. The room was pitch ck and so Catherine went forward to click the lights on. As soon as the lights turned on her sight was greeted by a human sized box decorated by roses and ribbons; she covered her mouth in surprise and observed the box. "R... Ryan?" She called out for him inspecting the beautiful gift box in front of her. The boy came from behind and held her shoulder with his strong arm before saying, "Do you remember, Cathey... That was where you crashed onto me and healed every wound of loneliness and meaninglessness of my life forever." She remembered, she remembered it all! The ce where the box stood was where they met for the first time, these were really small details and the fact that he put so much consideration into it moved her into tears. She hid herself in his arms as tears overpowered her senses; Ryan wasn''t irritated or startled by her sudden burst of emotions, instead he Lovingly held her in his arms allowing her to cry as much as possible. She was the love of his life, if he never met her he had no idea what he would have became by now or if he would have even be a human. She was the reason his heart was beating and he wanted to cherish her. Chapter 49 - The End Chapter 49 - The End To my dearest readers, Since I am in college and is living in a hostel it is getting really difficult for me to write. There is no proper electricity, noptop orputer to write or proper inte to upload the chapter (even now I am uploading it using paid inte who''s hourly rate is no less than any gold.) Since I don''t want to hang the readers I am going to summarize the rest of the novel in this one chapter. If I am able to in future I will write the expanded form. Please forgive me for this, I¡­ really am helpless right now. ________________________________ Previous- Ryan and Catherine go on a date and after a day of hustle he takes her to her father''s office where they first met. He, to surprise her, keeps a massive gift box on the exact ce where she crashed onto him six years ago. Continue- Catherine is moved to tears by his efforts and words. When she opens it she finds a beautiful blue off shoulder dress which she remembered to have drawn once when she was young and showed it to him. Seeing the dress of her fantasies she is overwhelmed, Ryan exits the room and allows her to change. While waiting he himself changes into a custom made ck suit and when she finally exits, all shy and blushing, he is amazed by how beautiful she looked in that dress. The couple hold hands and drive to a beach themed restaurant. Even though it was a popr dining ce it was empty, Ryan reveals that he booked the whole restaurant for the two of them as Catherine is shy about eating in a crowded ce. The two enjoy their meal and Catherine wishes to take a walk on the beautiful street of Barcelona. It was already around night and thus there weren''t a lot of people; the couple walked hand in hand when Catherine was reminiscing about their childhood. Ryan professes his love for her and states his will to marry her and keep her like a queen. Catherine hugs him tightly and under that starry night they take away each other''s first kiss. Catherine parts her lips from his and smiles at him when suddenly someone strikes Ryan on his head from back. Catherine shivers and gets scared, she watches Ryan copse on his knees in front of her. She tries to call him and get him back to his senses but s, he could barely stand. That was when she saw an assassin standing with an iron weapon which he had used to hit Ryan. Five other mene out of their hiding. The assassin hits Ryan again which makes him copse approaching. He extends his arms to touch her but before he could she gets her hairs clutched and pulled away. Ryan tries to stand up and fight but a single wounded man couldn''t do much against four armed men. Before he was beaten away and thrown on the street till he got unconscious he saw them dragging Catherine away. Ryan wakes up six monthster after the incident in a hospital; he is told that he was in a vegetative state for the past six months and that¡­ Catherine was raped and killed. He refuses to believe it and runs away from the hospital, trying to search for her in his hospital attire. Since he was ina his body was still drained of energy yet he refuses to give up and tries to spot her like a madman for one whole year. It was after he gave up he went to visit her at her resting ce, offering white roses. He then takes over the business and hunts down every assassin who was present that day avenging his dead beloved. After that, with no purpose to live, Ryan drowned himself on alcohol and booze to survive her loss. Jack narrates the whole thing to Bee who is left in tears. Jack also states that other than Catherine it was only Bee who he let close to him. She pledges to help Ryan out of his depression and starts being nice to him. She stays with him all day and helps him out when he is sad. Ryan too treats her nicely, fulfilling all her wishes. The two stayed in the states for some time before they moved to Barcelona. Julees every now and then to visit the two and secretly threatens Bee to leave his side as being with him only brings death, giving Catherine as the example. Bee unhears her and the two continue to bond. In the course of time Bee tells Ryan about the dream she had and what he used to do in those dreams but still he doesn''t take them seriously and believes she was just being imaginative. Thenes the day of Bee''s birthday, Bee is given a dress for that day which she wears andes out. For some reason she gives out Catherine''s aura which worsens his mood and he starts boozing. He drinks a little too much and thus Bee escorts him to his bedroom. Intoxicated by the alcohol Ryan loses his control and starts kissing Bee who is scared at first but then epts it. Things get steamy between the two and he starts pulling her dress away before slowly what he was doing, he asks her to calm down but suddenly he whispers ''I know you are pure, Cathey. They were wrong about you. I love you. Please don''t leave me.'' in her ears which sends thunder down her spine. She feels ashamed when she slowly reminds him that it was Bee and not Catherine. Ryan removes himself immediately off her and without even taking a second nce of her leaves the room. Bee feels both bitter and sad that the man she loved back only because he mistook her for someone else. She cries in solitude the whole night butes out of the room as if nothing happened. She notices Ryan keeping his distance from her. She confronts him and tells him that it was ok what happened between them and tells him not to feel guilty. To make him feel better she offers to sing him a song she made herself. Ryan agrees but when she starts singing he realises that it was ''Over the moon for you'' which he had written and used to sing for Catherine when she won''t be able to sleep at night. He gets shocked and confronts her where she heard this to which she replies that she never heard it anywhere and that she knew it on her own. Ryan refuses to believe her and clutches her like a madman, jerking her violently asking her to spill the truth and in what way she knew Catherine. Bee couldn''t take the pain and starts crying when Jack and Rosee for her rescue. Ryan let''s her go and strides out of the room. He arranges people to investigate Bee''s past and for this he himself leaves for the States leaving a heartbroken Bee locked in her room. Back in States, Ryan investigate about Bee to the Bar owner, Mr. Frank, who spills the beans that she was sold to the club by a Spanish man four years ago. Ryan realises Bee has no origin or a history before she was sold to the club; her identity, even her real name, was a mystery. He also pieces that she was sold a monthter when Catherine disappeared. Even after being threatened with a gun the bar owner couldn''t say much about the mysterious Spanish man who came out of nowhere and disappeared. Else than the fact that he was tall and had a scar on his face Ryan couldn''t gather much. On his way back he stumbles across Arthur who is shocked to see Ryan. When Ryan asks why Arthur hands him over the sketches made by Bee, all featuring Ryan in his teens. Arthur tells him that she uses to talk about the man she used to see in her dreams and that if he was alive she would marry him. Ryan realises that Bee wasn''t bluffing and indeed was seeing him in her dreams. Everything mixed up, Ryan starts to investigate her background more attentively. Was she¡­ really her? But she looked nothing like her! After days of no information Ryan and Jack finally manages to spot the location of the man who sold Bee to the club. They hurry as much as possible just to be informed that he was murdered two days back. The man had no connection to any criminal gang, making this both tricky and confusing at the same time. Back at home it is around 3 of morning yet the two men couldn''t sleep; Ryan states his assumption that he feels that Bee is Catherine but how could it be possible that she had just¡­ changed the way she looks. Jack jokingly states that Ryan sounds lunatic and sounds as if he is indicating that Catherine surgeried herself to look like Bee. This clicks something in Ryan who immediately starts collecting the names of every hospital which undertake stic surgery tasks both in States and Spain. After using underground sources he manages topile a list of hospitals and he sends out his people to look for any clue regarding the scar faced man. After weeks of turmoil Ryan finally manages to identify an illegal clinic where the traces of that man had been found. After investigating the doctor it was revealed that the man dide there four years ago to collect a female patient who underwent two massive surgeries. Since it was an illegal clinic and the people who admitted her gave them a massive sum of money they didn''t bother to look into the background of the person. Ryan asks about the female patient who was admitted¡­ The doctor said that they knew nothing about her other than the fact that she was always fast asleep due to the heavy medications given to her. The patient was said to have undergone aplete facial transformation and purposeful memory loss. Ryan shows them the picture of Bee and they confirm that it was the girl whom they had treated that year. The staff tells them that they do have surveince but it will take them sometime to retrieve it. Ryan agrees to wait and spends a sleepless night; just when he was called to see the retrieved videos he gets a call. Jack goes inside the room and leaves Ryan behind on phone. On the phone it was Rose who reports him that they were ambushed and Bee was taken away. Ryan looses his cool as he runs out of the hospital; inside the surveince room Jack is both shocked and happy to realise that Bee indeed was Catherine and that she wasn''t dead. When hees out to find Ryan he finds him missing, when he calls him and reports him happily that he was right and Bee was no one else than Catherine he tells him that Bee is gone. Ryan flies back home but it was toote as Bee was nowhere to be found, he clutches her bed sheets and cries leaving Rose and his subordinates heartbroken for him. That was when he gets a call from his father''s arch nemesis, Jalen Shaw. He reveals that Bee was with him and if he wants her alive he shoulde to him alone. Ryan doesn''t thinks twice before driving away to the said address. There he finds Bee tied up on a rope above a big pool of ice cold water. Seeing Ryan Bee starts to cry, be asks Shaw to let her go as he can''t lose her twice. That was when Jalen admits that it was him who ambushed him that night and kidnapped Catherine, modified her and sold her to Brothel to avenge histe son who was killed by Ryan''s father. He wanted to take revenge on his father by making his son suffer. He states how happy he used to get when Ryan was roaming like a madman in search of her and how he was destroying himself for the lose of the love of his life. He also says that he was the one who arranged to kill him months back so that he can take over the Nguyens but s, he ended up building a chance for him to meet Catherine again. To make himself happy he makes his men drop Bee into the frozen water which tears apart Ryan''s soul. He tries to reach out to her but is captured by Shaw''s men. Ryan says that he would give up on everything just to take back Bee with him. Shaw smirks and asks if he would trade his life for her, saying this he throws his dagger gun at him and asks him to shoot himself. Bed cries and begs him to stop but Ryan looks at her and says that he lost her once and is not willing Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org. to lose her again. Shaw threatens to drop the already shivering and pale Bee into the pool again which was lethal as this time she could die out of cold. As she was about to be dropped Ryan screams at them to stop and without thinking twice shoots himself on his chest. Ryan drops on the floor leaving behind a fainted Bee. But fortunately, Jack and Rose manages to trace out the hideout and attacks everyone rescuing Bee and half dead Ryan. Both are sent to hospital and Ryan is put under a critical surgery which he manages to pass out as he had shot the fire on a safe ce below his ribs which bought him some time. The story folds up with Ryan and Bee walking down a bridge holding hands. Bee asks him some questions regarding their childhood which reveals that she has yet not regained her memory and Ryan patiently answers them. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!