"Kaylee."
I stir awake. "Hmm?"
When did I fall asleep? I don't remember falling asleep. As soon as the lights went out, that was it. I fought hard to keep my eyes open but sleep won that round hands down.
"Kaylee, you awake?"
My face screws up at the soft female voice nearby.
"Kaylee, can you hear me?"
I know that voice.
"Kaylee, are you hurt?"
"A-Allison?" I groggily ask.
"Yeah, it's me." She confirms. "Are you okay?"
I try to move to get comfortable but it's no use. I'm in pain from sitting in the same position and from everything else that's happened to me. "Not really, no."
"I heard him bring you in but-"
"How long have you been here for?"
"I don't know. I remember walking into my flat two days after the accident and going to bed that night. Next thing I knew, I was waking up here." She stops speaking and I know she's looking around. "Wherever here is."
"I did call you to say I was back in London but you didn't answer," I inform.
"Greg took my phone." She grunts loudly. "He told me about your voicemail and said you returning here fell nicely into the plan they had."
"That would explain why he turned up to my office asking if I had heard from you."
"He was making sure we hadn't spoken."
"And told me that I should be very much afraid of him."
"Not just him," she adds.
Silence falls upon us until I hear Allison crying softly.
I let my head fall back against the post. "Allison, I know what you're thinking and it's not your fault."
"Kaylee, it is and I am so sorry. None of this would have happened if I didn't date Greg."
I shake my head. "It's not your fault."
"It is."
"It's not. Trust me." I take a deep breath. "It's my fault."
"It's not."
"It is. I'm the one who got back together with Luca. I'm the one who threw a spanner in Nadia's plan to walk back into Luca's life whenever she wanted. If it wasn't for me . . . none of this would have happened."
"Luca's entitled to live his life however he wishes. Nadia was expecting him to sit around and wait for her to return to him but he didn't. He went out and lived his life and took care of his daughter. He followed his heart when it came to you. He chose to pursue you. He wanted you and he got you. She's nothing but a jealous bitch who has thrown her dummy out the pram because she hasn't gotten her way."
I stifle a laugh.
"He loves you, Kaylee." She adds quietly. "He's always loved you and the voicemail he left you on your old phone states that."
I frown. "What voicemail?"
"You know the one."
"No, I don't."
If there was a voicemail on my old phone from Luca telling me that he loved me and always has then I would know about it. I've heard every voicemail on that phone, including the nasty one Nadia left me, and there's none from Luca. Not even one.
"Well, when get out of here I'll let you hear it."
"Who says you'll be getting out of here?" Terence asks, the lights coming back on. "No one is going anywhere until this plan is complete." He walks into the room with a mobile phone in his hand and stands in front of me. "Now, Kaylee, your passcode for your phone."
I glare up at him. "I don't have one."
"I beg to differ." He kneels down and shows me my phone, the screen clearly telling me to enter the passcode. "Passcode. Now."
I say nothing.
"If you think I won't lay a finger on you, I will."
Silence.
"Fine. Have it your way."
Slap.
The sting on my cheek is evident with the sound that echoes throughout the room. I flex my jaw but continue to say nothing.
"You're the only one making this hard for yourself, Kaylee. Give me the passcode and this can all be over with."
"No," I finally voice.
"Zero. nine." Allison unexpectedly calls out.
I look to my right where I hear Allison's voice come from and my eyes widen when I see her. Just like me, she's bound to a post and is looking battered and bruised, dried blood clearly visible on the side of her face. "Allison, don't."
"Kaylee, I'm sorry but none of us know how dangerous he'll get." She rests back against the post and shrugs. "Give him the passcode and have it done with."
I close my eyes and press my lips firmly together.
She's right. We don't know what Terence will do to us if we don't give him what he wants. It's better to play along with this whole thing and pray and hope we make it out of this sooner rather than later.
"Fine," I whisper. "Zero. Nine. Zero. Eight. Five. Six."
He types the passcode in and smiles. "Now, that wasn't so hard. Thank you."
He stands up and starts walking around while looking at things on my phone. He scoffs a couple of times before stopping abruptly.
"That can't be," he says.
I gaze up at him and he looks back at me with nothing but the look of rage on his face.
"How did it happen?" He asks.
"What?"
He moves swiftly and crouches down in front of me, holding my phone up to my face. "This."
I squint at the screen while trying to read what's on the screen.
From: LUCA MADDEN
We did it!! We won the case! Nadia lost. I'm so happy right now. Thank you for standing by me during this whole thing when I was close to losing the plot. I can't wait to join you in London so we can celebrate all of our happy pieces of news. I'll see you soon. I love you xxxx
My breath catches in my throat.
Luca did it.
He and his team actually did it.
After all this time . . . the arguments . . . the uncertainty . . . the worry . . . the fear . . . the dread . . . Luca won and Nadia lost. We're free from her and all her lies. Luca gets to breathe easily at night knowing that Nadia can't make a play for Louisa again. A court has deemed her unfit to look after her own daughter and an absent mother. Most likely a liar, too, which will rub salt into the opened wounds she has.
"This will not do at all." He stands up and shoves my phone into his jeans pocket. "Luca winning that court case against my cousin has put a spanner in the works for us. But it's always good to have another plan at the ready for things like this."
He walks away as the lights go out once more.
Time seems to pass quickly after Terence found out that Nadia lost the court case. I remember being untied at some point and hauled to my feet and taken to a bathroom by some guy who could easily overpower me if I made an attempt to flee. Then before I knew it, I was back to sitting on the floor and tied up to the post once again.
All of that must have happened a good few hours ago because it's the sound of car doors closing over loudly that has my body tensing up because there's someone else here now. I keep my head and gaze low and focus more on the voices.
"I don't think he'll be too far behind me," a female states.
"I still can't believe he won," a male responds.
"I don't care about that," she brushes off. "He won't know what's hit him when he lands and he finds out his precious fiancée has gone missing."
"And what about Finn? Has he asked questions?"
"It'd be kind of hard for him to do so when he's lying drugged-out his mind in our apartment in New York."
The male scoffs. "How much did you slip him?"
"Let's just say that his sisters better be quick off the mark to find him or they'll be phoning for an undertaker."
"The plan is well and truly in full motion now, isn't it?"
"More or less. I just need to get my daughter when Luca gets here and the plan will have worked a treat."
I blink rapidly.
It's Nadia.
Nadia and Terence to be exact.
"If he brings her," Terence points out. "He might not."
"Oh, he'll bring her." Nadia defends quickly. "He always takes her wherever he goes. It's just going to be hard for us to get to her but with his mind on other things, we'll get to her easily."
My body tenses as their footsteps grow louder and the lights come back on. I can't help but screw my eyes shut at the brightness and make an attempt to push myself back further against the post. Almost like I'm trying to curl up into a ball for protection but it's useless. The tables have well and truly turned between Nadia and me.
She has the upper hand over me, power-wise, and she'll use and do everything she can to make that known to me. She may very well get her own back on me for all the things I said to her, choosing to be physically abusive rather than verbally.
"When will he find out she's gone missing?" Terence queries.
"It won't be long after he lands," she informs. They stop walking and I slowly open my eyes, sensing that they're close by but not realising that they're directly in front of me. I know they know that I'm awake but I don't make an attempt to confirm it. "Her family will have contacted him to say she wasn't where she said she'd be. They'll contact everyone who may know of her whereabouts and when it comes back to Luca, he'll go into overdrive with worry."
"He won't know where to look."
"And he'll go off his head at her bodyguard for not doing his job right."
I stare at the floor then to their shoes. Terence's clean shoes have a couple of splashes of dirt on them now. Nadia's heeled leather boots are in immaculate condition. I can faintly make out the movement of her coat as she makes a show of flapping out behind her as she crouches down in front of me and forcefully grabs my chin so I have no choice but to look at her.
"My how the tables have turned for you now," she sighs with a smirk.
I blink.
"From the ex to the fiancée and now a bargaining chip." Her grip tightens, nails digging into my skin. "Mybargaining chip and ace up the sleeve."
She throws my head back with force and I brace myself for the impact of it hitting off the post which it does. It stings and I cry out in pain. I slump back and the tears finally fall from my eyes. Tears I didn't think I needed to shed until now.
"Don't give me those tears, Kaylee. You've always been the ace I've needed to get my daughter back. You're the one I needed to come back on the scene to fill Luca's mind with something other than parenting duties and work. Everything that's happened since you two went public has worked in my favour and gotten us to the final countdown."
I gingerly look at her.
"I guess I should really be thanking you for getting me to this point." She frowns then shrugs. "But I won't until I hold my baby girl in my arms once again and we're on our way to New Zealand." She stands and smiles. A genuine smile as she thinks back to her old life. "Louisa will love my house in New Zealand. The land that surrounds it and the views. She'll even love the birthday party that's waiting for her that you helped to organise."
"You're deluded," I finally voice.
Her smile doesn't fall away when she looks back at me. It's both creepy and evil rolled into one if a smile can be like that. "Maybe, but a deluded person wouldn't be winning this plan."
She raises a foot quickly before stamping down on one of my legs full force with the heel. I scream at the snapping sound that comes from the impact. I struggle against my restraints, so badly wanting to grab my leg where it hurts to try and help ease the pain in some way.
"Just pray and hope that I get my daughter back sooner rather than later." She glances at my leg. "More for your sake than anything else."