My eyes tightened. My breath weak. My bones screamed in pain as I wriggled to break free from the zip tie. I lay on the floor, on my side, my hands bound to the back and my legs strapped together. The room was empty—too empty. It was a building that was still under construction. Breeze rushed in through the wide gap in the scaffolding at the front, the city lit up in bright lights, their radiance sipping through the cracks in the wall. It was getting late already. If I wasn't mistaken, it was night time.
Tired, my breath collided with the floor, dust scattering. What frightened me the most was the feeling that I was getting that I wasn't the only one in the room, but I couldn't even turn to look. I was completely exhausted, too exhausted to turn to see who it was that was standing at the corner behind me. Then I finally heard Stella's voice as her heels clicked towards me. She wasn't happy at all.
"No amount of force can break you out of that," she said.
When I looked up, she was standing there, over me like a bad ass chick. Her mean expression had a mix of evil and cruelty, and an unimaginable pain she wished to inflict on me. She sneered as she squated to talk to me.
"You think you can just disappear on me like that?" She said, her voice calm yet daring.
I smirked. "It's not what you think. I had to leave."
She sprang to her feet immediately, staring at me with disgust. "You have to leave," she mocked me. "You don't get to decide when you leave, I was supposed to decide when I was done with you."
Two men, tall and built to the chest stepped closer, both standing behind her. One was in a tank shirt, his muscles almost ripping apart the shirt, while the other was just dressed in a black shirt. He wasn't as jacked up as the other, but he wasn't looking any nicer than the bigger one. They both looked like someone that could end me just by holding me in the arms.
At that moment, I knew I had to apologize if I wanted to get out of here alive. But to think of it, I wasn't a poor person myself, my influence would save me. There was no way they would just kill me when I was not a random commoner that they could make disappear without a trace. For what it was worth, my home security cameras must have seen them taking me away. Even still, I had to think properly before responding to her because my life might eventually depend on it.
"Listen Stella, I had work to attend to. Me disappearing had nothing to do with you."
She suddenly scoffed loudly, smiling. "You still think you're a big shot, huh? You've got nothing. Your looks can't even save you from me. Moreover, it was a decent home you have there. Did you get that with the money I paid you? Or you already found yourself a new billionaire chic like myself to steal from?"
Steal from? Who did she think I was? That house was worth two times more than the money she paid me for our time together. What was she thinking? That I was a poor man or what? It totally surprised me that a business tycoon like herself wasn't following business news. I had made headline globally recently so much that I was expecting her to have figured out who I was, but turned out that she was that stupid. I am way richer than her father and she thinks I was put ripping people off to have a house better than hers? I wasn't planning on revealing myself anytime soon, the expression on their face when they eventually find out who I was will give me the greatest satisfaction.
"Can I call my father?" I begged pitifully.
"You still have the nerve to ask for things," she yelled, kicking me in the groin.
I crouched in agony. Pain shot through my bones like electricity surge. I couldn't probably express the discomfort she had just put me through. I just growled, gritting my teeth in pain as I waited for the pain to relieve me.
"You were supposed to divorce me before father handed over the company to me, now half my shares are in your name," she added.
I groaned. "I can have it transferred back to you."
"It won't be that easy. Only father has that power, and he has insisted you take over instead of me. My company, my destiny, and despite how well I treated you, you decided to steal everything from me. You golddigger."
How well you treated me? She didn't treat me well at all. She shouldn't get me talking about the misery I endured while married to her. The midnight sex and noise with her boyfriend, the sleeping in the couch, the times I did the house chores instead of making the workers do them. Or should I even talk about the time she made me go get condoms for her miserable partner.
"I'm sure we can settle this," I was still however calm in tone.
"Yes, of course," she replied.
My heart loosened a bit.
"There's only one way to settle this," she added, turning back to face her bodyguards. "Pick him up."
The two gentlemen roughed me to my feet but because my legs were tied, I was slightly bent around the knees until they both held my arms up and held me in the air. Stella stood afar, reaching into her purse and pulled out a pistol with a silencer on. She aimed it at my head. Directly where I would not survive. Our eyes met, mine pleading for my life, but she wasn't backing down. She took off the safety, her rage boiling hot as she stared at me in disgust.
"Bye bye, Asher," her voice dropped.
Her finger crept towards the trigger. The pin pulled slowly backwards. She was going to shoot. I was going to die. But—
Someone suddenly stepped in.