The guys walked back with me to my room. "So, what will you guys be doing now?" I asked when I arrived in my room. They looked at each other silently. "What?" I chuckled. "Well, I am pretty sure Nate is going to spend his days here. We settled stuff with the authorities already." Aaron said without a doubt. "For me, I have some loose ends to tie off." He nodded as he finished talking. "Loose ends?" I asked, giving him a curious look. "Yes, Leila. Loose ends." He smirked. This man; one day I'm going to discover everything he does. "Okay." It was better to just agree than to get answers. "How about you A?" I looked at Anthony. "I have a date." He exhaled, waiting for us to respond but we were too taken off guard to. He laughed, satisfied that he caught us off guard. "With a client." That didn't make things better. My mouth fell open. "You're going on a date, with your client...isn't that like, against company policy or something?" I asked. He smiled at me, looked at Nate and Aaron then back at me. "My dear, I own the company, but let me clarify. It's a business meeting with a client. We're looking to close a deal." He laughed and shook his head. "See, you should have said that before." I smiled at him and he shrugged playfully. "Well then, we are going to leave you two lovebirds." Aaron said as he and Anthony shook Nathaniel and left. When the door closed I took in a deep breath and looked at Nathaniel. He was already looking at me. "What?" I huffed at his stare. "Nothing." He gave me a lopsided smile but the smile didn't last long. His look turned serious as he came closer, took my hand gently and lead me to sit on the couch with him. He looked at my hand that was in his and I followed his gaze. He was staring at the marks on my arm. He gulped and then his muscles got tensed. I noticed because he clenched his jaw, all while still staring down at my hand. "Leila." He called so softly. "Mm?" I responded. He looked at me and looked away. "Do you want to talk to me about what you went through?" So that's why he looked away. Even though I was staring at the side of his face, I could hear the guilt, the regret and the self-accusation in his voice.
I took a deep breath and tried to remove my hand from his but he wouldn't allow it. "Please..." He whispered so softly, you wouldn't have heard if you weren't paying attention. I know we had all the time and he isn't going to rush me so I gathered myself, preparing to talk. Where am I going to start from? I asked myself. Asking him not to blame himself for what happened to me will be useless but I'm still going to ask. "Promise me, that you won't blame yourself for any of this. You won't feel guilty or distance yourself after you hear everything." He huffed and shook his head as soon as I was done talking. "Nathaniel..." He clenched his jaw again and gulped then he nodded. "No. I want to hear you say it." I pushed further. That caused him to lift his head and look at me. This was hard for him but I needed to hear him say it. "I promise." I nodded. Now it was my turn to look away. "The first day," I started. "When I woke up and found myself in that place, I didn't know what to think." I chuckled as I remembered that day. "A guy was already in the room when I woke up. I was confused and his responses to my questions annoyed me so he hit me because I spoke back at him. He left and I tried to escape but I got caught. For that I got slammed against the wall and deprived food and or water. He ended up hurt my wrist and my shoulder." I felt his gaze on me. It was clear he thought my cheek and arm were the only places I had bruises. I ignored his stare and continued. "From then, you start to lose track of time. On another occasion, he attacked me, practically threw me around." I huffed thinking of how easy it was for him to use me like a ragdoll. "He threw me against the wall and hit me again, across my face. The pain and everything induced an asthmatic attack." Okay now I was getting emotional. I had to take a deep breath. "I thought I was going to die honestly but that was the time they brought Pete. He gave some reassurance but he could only do so by word of mouth. He was in the other room but he helped, however he can." I blew out air, trying to suppress the tears. "Leila..." He whispered. I looked at him, my eyes beginning to fill up with tears, and gave a small smile. "The day you guys came, a different guy entered the room I was being held." I frowned at the memory. "He had his face covered." "Wait, so the one who hurt you at first was different from this guy?" Nate asked. "I guess so." I looked away as I continued. "He...he harassed me. I fought back, with every strength I had left...I tried to fight back. He was...he was about to rape me but...you guys came and..." There was this bitter taste in my mouth. The back of my throat began to sing. I didn't notice that I had already started crying. He quickly pulled me to his side the silenced me. "Shhh...it's okay..." He rubbed my arm, consoling me. "They are all going to pay." He said as an afterthought.
