Raphael's Captive

Chapter 27

IT WAS almost four p.m. when Raphael's driver, Nick, pulled up to Tami's house. 

Nick had been rather quiet all the way here. The last time he saw his boss and Tami was the night Raphael left for the airport, then Nick heard all over the news that the woman was 'missing'. Poor Nick didn’t know what to do or how to approach the situation, but he surely minded his own business. 

Nobody spoke all the way here. Not Raphael, not Nick and obviously not Tami. 

They sat outside the familiar house for over ten minutes, simply because Tami wouldn't let go of Raphael. She knew she was home, but she refused to open her eyes and face reality. 

The minute she steps through that door, she knew it would all become real and she wasn’t ready. If she could, she would have Raphael take her back to his mansion for a few more days so she can cope. 

“Tami? Baby, we’re here,” Raphael mumbled as he tried to ease her away. But she growled like a puppy latched to its bone and stayed right there in his arms. 

Sighing, Raphael knew there was no way he was getting her to let go, and so he pushed the door and stepped outside. 

He drew in a deep breath. 

This was indeed dangerous, considering that many people still believed that Tami was kidnapped. Raphael gazed around, meeting the gaze of inquisitive neighbours peeping through their blinds as they ushered the rest of their family to come look. 

But he also knew that he couldn’t take her back to his hotel room. Even though she didn’t want to face it, she needed to be home. 

After counting to ten, Raphael raised his fists and gently knocked the door. Tami’s form began trembling in his arms and soon after, a short, brown woman who looked a lot like Tami answered the door. 

Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion for a moment, until her gaze fell to the woman curled in his arms. 

At first she was speechless as her body shook violently. Then her eyes watered and her hands flew over her mouth in astonishment. 

“It can't be,” she mumbled, and the very sound of her voice had Tami raising her head from Raphael’s chest. When they met each other’s teary gazes, all their composure crumbled. 

“Mama?” 

“My baby!” Tami’s mother, Sarah, cried as Tami shuffled from Raphael’s arms. The moment felt long deserved as they grabbed each other in a hug, Tami immediately breaking down in a sobbing mess. 

Raphael pulled his lips between his teeth as he watched them. It was surely an emotional moment. 

“I’m sorry,” Tami said through cries. “I’m so sorry, mama.” 

“It’s okay,” Sarah assured with her eyes still glued shut. “It wasn’t your fault.” 

‘Oh but it was’, Tami thought, but kept it to herself. All she wanted to do was appreciate this moment—the calm before the storm. Because she knew a storm was indeed coming. 

Slowly, Sarah opened her eyes which then landed on Raphael as he stood casually in the doorway. He didn’t want to intrude, but he didn’t want to leave Tami just yet either. 

“Are-are you with the police?” she asked in hopes to get this all over with and done. With a missing daughter and a dead husband, Sarah hasn’t been getting a lot of rest lately. 

“No, ma’am. I brought her home,” he simply said with guilt eating away at his very nerve. He was aware only now of the pain he put these people through, and he hated it.