Just as Xavier had thought, Lucas was doing this to protect him. A part of that reason made him furious. He didn't like being seen as vulnerable, so much to be protected.
"If it was me, you would do the same," Lucas said in his defense.
"That's not the point," Xavier said
"Then what is?"
"You should have told me"
"What would you have done from the hospital bed? Even if you want to get him now. Bad news, he is missing"
"What?" Xavier let out.
"You heard me. I tried to take him back after he escaped from Amelia, but he is missing"
"Where the fuck did he go?"
"Another state, town or even another country. We should only pray he is far enough from us"
Xavier sighed in frustration as he leaned back on his seat. "I don't understand how someone can be so relentless."
"You did kill his boyfriend."
"He tried to kill my wife"
"And you think he cares about that?".
"What the fuck does he want?"
"You know he wants you dead"
"A reasonable person would have given up a long time ago"
"Martin is not reasonable, especially when he wants something. He acts mentally deranged sometimes"
"He doesn't act, he is mentally deranged"
Xavier said nothing for a while before speaking again."I need to find him before he finds me and Amelia. I don't know why the fuck she got into this mess in the first place"
"Act fast, so she won't regret saving your ass. If Martin finds her, she will surely regret"
******
It was the first day of his chemo and Peter couldn't help but feel nervous. He had already shaved his hair because he didn't want the embarrassment of them falling off by itself.
He was the only one who knew what he had and he wanted to keep it that way. He didn't want to be a burden to anybody. To Amelia, to Wendy, to nobody.
"You should smile more often. Cancer fights your life. The only weapon you have is your smile.". A young lady by his side said.
"What's the point?" Peter asked
"To tell the world that you are okay"
"And die on the inside?" Peter asked in disbelief.
"more sessions with me and you will understand smiling doesn't mean dying on the inside"
"What do you mean by more sessions?" He asked and she smiled.
She held up her card. "I am your nurse, Sandra"
"Oh," Peter let out in realization. He should have noticed.
Her brown eyes shone as she looked at her. They were beautiful, but Peter considered them as annoying. He hated how they saw him as vulnerable. He didn't want to be pitied. He just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
"Well, I hope you bring good luck. To survive cancer, you need luck and I don't have a lot of that"
"I once considered myself unlucky until I survived leukemia"
"My father had the same cancer. He believed in luck, but he died"
"I have a good feeling about you. And don't be so negative"
"Great, I need all the prayers I can get," he said in sarcasm as he rolled his eyes at her.
******
"Has he said anything about the marriage and renewing it?" Wendy asked Amelia who sat on a couch opposite hers.
"No, he hasn't"
"So he is just going to let you go when it's over? "
"I don't know Wendy. He is very hard to read these days. He even rubbed the contract marriage in my face yesterday"
"Oh my, what did he say?"
"He told me I am nothing but a fake wife"
"He said that?" Wendy asked. She was taken aback by how offensive it was
"He is right. I am nothing but a fake wife, but he shouldn't have hurt me like that"
"Did he apologize?"
Yes he did, but it still hurt as much"
"I think he loves you. He didn't go ahead with the divorce even after finding out about everything"
"Xavier is hard to read. I can't tell for sure if he feels the same way I feel. He once said he cared about me, but not love. He said he loved me, but that was before the accident"
"Why don't you ask him and watch the way he behaves? Ask him about the marriage also"
"Then boom! he tells me. "Looks like we have 2 weeks to go. I can't wait to get rid of you" I can't do it Wendy" Amelia groaned in frustration
"I don't think he will say that. Yes you can be a pain in the ass, but you are not so bad" She joked and Amelia chuckled.
"Have you heard from Peter recently?" Amelia asked.
"He has recently been keeping his distance. He hardly opens the pub. I don't know what is wrong with him"
"That's so unlike him. He has been ignoring my calls and text lately"
"I don't know what's wrong with him. The last time I visited him, he looked sick and depressed. He Hardly even gave talks properly"
"I have to meet him and ask him what the problem is?"
"yeah maybe he will act less cranky to you"
*****
"Why don't you leave all this alone and start a new life," Stella said as she massaged Martin's shoulder. She was dressed in nothing but lingerie. She was one of the girls he had met and the only use he had for her was to satisfy his sexual urge.
Martin scoffed. "How long have you known me?"
"What do you mean? " She was taken aback by that question.
"Answer the question"
"Last week" she replied.
"Where did we meet?"
"At a club" she replied casually, not knowing where he was going with all the questions he was asking.
"I picked a whore at a club last week and now she thinks she has a say in my life"
"That the fuck do you mean?" Stella stopped rubbing his shoulder and stood in front of him.
"Am I wrong?"
"did you just call me a whore?"
"You are not my girlfriend are you?"
"You have no right to call me that"
Martin sighed in frustration. "I'm sorry," he said but didn't mean it.
Stella went back to his back and continued massaging it. This time she did it harder to teach him a lesson.
"Hey, easy! I said I was sorry"
"I didn't say you were forgiven"
"I didn't mean it," he said once again. To make her feel better.
"But why are you so relentless? Why do you want him dead so bad"
"He killed someone I loved"
"Why can't you just forget about it? "
"You don't know Xavier. He is as evil as I am. I am sure he has succeeded in manipulating his family to make it look like he is the good one. He can lie to all of them, but not to me"
"So what do you plan on doing?"
"I don't know," he sighed. "But I'll figure it out. Every member of his family is going down"
She scoffed. "You can't take down the whole Garcia family. They are too powerful"
"You underestimate me. I will not take down every single one of them. Just Xavier and his pesky little side kick Lucas." He paused "And i don't understand that man"
" Who?"
"Lucas. He is always so protective of his brother. I don't think he knows how heartless Xavier is"
"He is Xavier's brother and he will surely see his brother from another angle"
"He sees Xavier from the angle Xavier wants him to see"
"I don't know about that. What do you plan on doing after this?"
"I don't know. I and Hardin had plans to get married" he sighed. "I treated him like trash. Like he didn't matter. I loved him, but I made him feel like I hated him. He was even scared of me. I never liked him being scared of me. At the same time, I loved the fact that I had him where I wanted. I was going to stop treating him like that, but Xavier ruined everything"
"Why did Xavier kill him?"
"He tried to kill Amelia"
"Why?"
"He loved her and they got into a fight where he almost killed her"
"Why would he want to kill someone he loves?"
Martin stood up from where he sat and started walking away without giving her a response.
"Where are you going?" Stella asked, but that didn't make him come back
She sat down in frustration. She hated the way he acted. He was always uptight. It was only a miracle that he managed to give her the answers to the numerous questions she had.
She knew a lot about his plans because he got drunk one night and blurted out almost all his secrets. How he killed Nathan and he was planning on killing Xavier. As he spoke about Xavier, she could see the rage in his eyes. She couldn't understand why someone would harbor such hatred for anyone.