Raphael's Captive

Chapter 6

“I damaged myself badly, but I didn't realize it at the moment.  All my life experiences should have taught me a lot of things, but all I got out of it was a single, definitive truth. That I am, in the end, a being capable of evil. I never set out to intentionally hurt someone, but when the situation called for it, I could become totally self-centered, even cruel. I was the type of person who could impose a never-healing wound on someone I cared for by creating a convincing excuse.”

Raphael repeated the quote that he tried to remember over and over, as he sat at the edge of her bed and waited for her to wake up.

The fact that Tami only stirred and mumbled in 12 hours worried Raphael. She should've been awake by now. And the silence in his huge house, thousands of miles away from Tami's home was gnawing away at his conscience.

So, he remembered a quote he use to cite when he was a teenager, and had pushed a bully down the stairs after he picked on a new kid.

Raphael was sent to anger management afterwards, where one of his 'assignments' were for him to find a quote or saying that he believed matched how he felt most of the time.

Now ten years later, it seemed fitting. His intentions were somewhat pure, yet the lasting effect of the whole situation was scary.

It wasn't too late to send Tami back on his jet and back home. But that's where the self-centered and almost cruel part came in. He didn't want to, and he couldn't. And this led to yet another part of him using a somewhat 'convincing' excuse.

“I damaged myself badly, but I didn't realize it at the moment.  All my life experiences should have taught me a lot of things, but all I got out of it was a single, definitive truth. That I am, in the end, a being capable of evil. I never set out to intentionally hurt someone, but when the situation called for it, I could become totally self-centered, even cruel. I was the type of person who could impose a never-healing wound on someone I cared for by simply creating a convincing excuse.”

He sighed as he made a move to leave, deciding that he would take a shower and grab breakfast for both of them.

He was also very tired, since he didn't sleep last night. After Nick dropped him off at the air terminal and Raphael's pilot arrived, Raphael sent Nick on his way, making him believe that this was all a part of what he and Tami had planned--why he went to Nassau  in the first place. Nick knew something was definitely wrong, but he didn't make a fuss about it.

Raphael then realized that he needed Nick's silence once the news of her going missing goes out, so he had come up with a convincing lie that will definitely grant him as much silence needed.

After he got to his house that he own on the coast of the Grand Bahama, he rested Tami in a room he imagined would be hers, and transferred everything that Maddie had sent to that very room.

Mrs. Garcia was in her own room on the other side of the mansion when this all happened. So another contributor to Raphael's headache was the conversation he dreaded with the woman. She would, after all, have to meet Tami soon. She will have to clean her room and be her company when Raphael couldn't. And even though Mrs. Garcia didn't speak English, this was a good thing.

He ran his fingers through his short hair as he let the warm water glide over his toned muscles. It eased the tension in his body somewhat, but the tension in his chest was something different. He wanted her to wake up so badly, yet he was afraid how she would react when she indeed awakens.