Chapter 101

Clara's POV

It's been two days, at least I think it has. My only way of telling time was by how dark it got and the occasional meals they gave me.

My hands were tied behind my back to a pole.

I tried loosening the rope by wiggling my hands, but it was too tight.

The place was dusty, with nothing but sand and concrete around me. I wasn't conscious when they brought me here. If it wasn't some abandoned warehouse, it was most likely some unfinished building. We were definitely on a higher floor. I knew this because of the concrete staircase on the left. The foundation also ended further down, with bricks piled up on the edge.

The two guys who kidnapped me had their backs turned on me and were busy wiping the blades of their knives. If I was going to devise an escape plan, now was the time.

I noticed a broken glass piece on the floor. I tried stretching my leg out to kick it towards me, but I had no luck. It was too far, and my legs were too short.

I sighed in frustration. How else was I going to get out of here? I still don't know why they tied me up here.

"Are you going to let me go?" I yelled, getting the two guys' attention.

"You better keep quiet unless you want us to gag you again," the guy threatened, whom I named Moustache.

Since we arrived, they haven't bothered to conceal their identities. Either they were incredibly stupid, or they weren't planning on letting me out alive.

The one guy had an angry face with a contrasting thick black moustache to his bald head. I named him Moustache. The other had a scar across the left side of his face. I called him Scar. He looked even more frightening than the one in The Lion King.

Scar walked down to the window. The window was just one big open rectangle. The glass hadn't been installed yet. Scar looked down as he smiled at himself.

"She is here," Scar announced as he returned to Moustache.

"Great," Moustache answered. "That means we'll be rid of this one very soon. I'm tired of babysitting." He added.

Is she here? Who was she? That meant I was about to meet the person holding me hostage. Hopefully, this was all a misunderstanding, and they kidnapped the wrong girl. I feel sorry for whoever that girl is supposed to be.

It wasn't until five minutes had passed by that we started hearing footsteps echoing through the back. Hopefully, she was nicer than these two and would let me go.

In full alert, I watched the stairs as a woman walked towards us. She wore a black sheath dress with matching black heels and sunglasses. True villain fashion. Her heels had been making all of that noise against the concrete. It took me nearly a minute to recognize her as Madison's mother. She did this?

I hadn't even realised I had stopped breathing.

"We've been expecting you, Amelia," Scar said with a smile.

"I had to make sure everything was clear." She answered, removing her sunglasses. She slipped them into her handbag. "Our guest looks a bit more comfortable than I would have preferred." She commented, looking in my direction.

This was not a mistake. She wanted me to be here. But why? What have I ever done to her to deserve this?

She walked towards me before stopping in front of me.

She was not planning on letting me go. I could still remember the bitter and nonchalant tone she had when she advised her daughter to lie about being pregnant. She was worse than I thought.

"Why would you do this to me?" I asked, my voice hoarse as tears fell down my cheeks.

"Why wouldn't I?" She laughed. "You are the girl who ruined my life and tried to do the same to my daughter." She answered. She picked up one of the knives the two guys had been cleaning up and started pacing the floor. "You know, I was willing to forget about your miserable existence. I told myself you were completely insignificant. But then, I found out that my ex-husband was changing his will, and guess who he was planning on leaving most of his money to?" She continued.

This whole thing was about money? I was fine with being broke but alive.

"If this is about money, I don't want any. You can take all of it." I pleaded.

"You've been a nuisance since before you were born. The only way is to eliminate you since it didn't work the first time. I tried to be gentle and had someone run you over. But you couldn't die, so now I have to do this." She smiled.

"You don't have to do this. I could disappear, and no one would ever see me again. I won't tell anyone about any of this." I continued. Maybe what I needed to do was to buy myself some more time. Hopefully, someone finds me here before she decides to slit my throat.

"You don't understand how far I've come, all the moves I had to make to get here. I won't let you be the reason my daughter ends up with nothing." She paused.

"I know you must think I am so cruel, but think about all the favours I've done for you. I allowed you to live as long as you did. Do you know how many secrets I've had to bury, the number of people I had to keep quiet?" She continued.

Suddenly, everything made sense, how my father never knew that my mother was pregnant. With her influence, I understood why my mother never wanted me to know who my father was.

The thought of finding out everything she had done somehow frightened me. Who knows how many bodies she has buried in her backyard? But I needed to know, and I think I knew what she was hinting at.

"Is Madison even his?" I managed to ask.

"I don't know." She answered calmly. "She could be his or the gardens. No one cares, and you won't be alive to say anything." She paused. "Do you finally understand why I have to kill you? I can't just throw all that effort away. You are going to die anyway; that's why I'm telling you all of this." She added.

She walked away from me towards Moustache, who was looking out the window. She took a knife from his back pocket before turning back towards me.

My body went into a panic. She was planning to kill me in the most painful way possible. I tried to wiggle my hands again but had no luck. There was no way out for me.

She stood in front of me before bending down to my level.

"I wonder if your parents will recognize your corpse if I mess up that pretty little face of yours." She spoke. She fiddled with the knife to prove her point. She then ran the side of the blade against my cheek. She wanted me to be afraid.

To my surprise, she got back up on her feet. She returned the knife to Moustache before picking up her handbag. For just a moment, I thought I was safe. I would be spared from whatever fate she had in store for me. But she had only returned the knife so that she could pull a gun out of her bag.

She returned to me before pointing the gun at my temple. "As fun as our little talk has been, I must eliminate you now. I want you to die knowing that absolutely no one came to your rescue or even cared that you were gone." She said,