𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞

Chapter 27

Zehra's POV

I furiously tapped the buttons on the computer and moved the mouse harshly, so I could try and catch Alex's character in the game and kill him.

He slid a sideways glance at my computer. "Stop looking at my computer, that's called cheating," I told him. He looked at his computer and tapped some buttons as his character appeared on my screen out of nowhere, giving me a jump-scare as I shook in my seat and tried to kill him. But it was no use off, he already had killed me.

"Hah! In your face loser!" He didn't even finish his sentence when Zaidan entered the gaming room.

"Not in your face," he took the words back when he saw Zaidan glaring at him. I laughed, getting up, but then immediately sat when I spotted Kinza behind Zaidan. Why is she here now? It was not enough for her to call me names and making me feel insecure?

She came and stood inches behind Zaidan. "Looks like we have a guest," Zaidan said, and stepped aside for Kinza to step forward. Looking at her face I tried not to wince. Her makeup was all messed up; mascara running down on her cheeks like she just had cried, and her lipstick worse like someone was punching her there. She came and stood in front of me. "I'm," she started but paused and looked around. "I'm sorry Zehra for what I said to you," she said, and turned around. It took me a minute to register her words. "Can I go now?" she asked. I got up and looked at her. Is she really apologising?

"No," Zaidan said. Kinza muttered something under her breath and faced me again. "I'm–arghhh," a startled scream escaped her as she dropped to her knees in front of me. I looked at Zaidan who had just pushed the backs of her knees with his foot. He casually shrugged and said, "I didn't like her in the earlier position. This position—her dropping on her knees in front of you—is the best."

"I–I'm so sorry Zehra for saying things I shouldn't have," she said, gritting her teeth as if saying a simple apology is hurting her.

Before I could respond, Alessandro grabbed her by her arm and pulled her to her feet. "Our ma'am isn't forgiving you, so I'm going to take you somewhere interesting," he said and started dragging her outside. She looked back at me, clearly scared. "Zehra please, I'm sorry. Forgive me. I didn't mean anything I said," she said, but Alessandro already had her out of sight.

I looked around and saw the crowd that had just filled up because of us to see what was going on. John and Jake shooed them away as we left the gaming shop.

"Hand me these," Lily said, and didn't wait for my reply and took the shopping bags away from me. "It's okay, I can hold them," I said, but she ignored me.

We left the shopping mall and made our way to the parking lot. Lily put my shopping bags in the trunk of Zaidan's car and closed it. I thanked her and looked at my husband and my mouth dropped open. I grabbed Lily's arm and shook it, not tearing my eyes away from the scene in front of me. "Lily?" I called out for her.

"Yes?"

"Do they always act like that?" I asked, pointing at Zaidan and his bodyguards. Zaidan had his hand on Alex's head with a bored expression as Alex was punching Zaidan on his stomach. Jake said something to Zaidan and as he replied he started to jump up-and-down with joy. John has Max out of his wheelchair and starts wheeling around with it, leaving Max out of it.

"Um," she gave me a small smile and nodded. "Yep! They've always been like that."

I blinked, hard, not believing my eyes.