Lost Gem (PART 1)

Chapter 39 (Feeling of the worst)

"Anastasia, if you need anything, just give me a call." Zeus states, one last time while looking at her as she exits the car. Arabella already went ahead, ignoring Matteo's kind good luck making him feel irritated early in the morning, with her attitude.

"I will. Good day." Anastasia smiles and waves at him, before ushering inside, through the grand entrance. No matter how much she smiles, she is not able to cease the panic of the first day in her chest.

Matteo grins catching his brother's eyes.

"Anastasia is so kind and innocent. She reminds me of her."

Zeus's smile falters. He sighs and takes a cigarette out.

"If Nadia was alive, she would have been of same age as her." Matteo whispers, noticing the change in his brother's mood.

"We can't fight fate, Matteo. I'm glad that I got to meet Anastasia. This time I won't hesitate. I will give my life to protect Anastasia....Everything that happened with Nadia--- he pauses to take a deep inhale of smoke--- I will make sure that Anastasia won't have to face that."

Matteo chuckles faintly.

"I second that." He starts the car and looks out the window to wave at the other SUV's filled with Romano family bodyguards. They are to stay outside the gates until the day overs.

With that, they drive out of there, barely missing a low-profile, black car standing at the end of the road, hidden near a woodland area.

At the end of the day, Zeus and Matteo were again present at the same place to bring both of the girls back home and this whole routine would continue for a whole week.

This is when Anastasia was assigned a group project with four other students. They decide to meet up at the diner nearby and Anastasia makes sure to inform Zeus. He agrees reluctantly and tells her that he will follow her there, although from a distance.

As their meetup ends, Anastasia walks out of the diner happily and finds Zeus waiting for her, near his car. A blow of cold wind hits her body making her shiver and clutch her bag to her chest.

"Zeus..." She greets him with a smile.

Her smile widens when she feels a sudden weight on her shoulders and looks up at Zeus gratefully as he drops his jacket on her.

"The weather looks bad. We should hurry." Zeus says, feeling that a storm is coming.

"Looks like it is going to rain." Anastasia shares her view too and sits in the car.

"Hmm." He drives out of the small parking lot.

"Matteo said Arabella was boasting about making couple of friends. Did you make any?" Zeus asks a random question.

"It is true. Her friend group is pretty big and there are others from our old school too. Well, I have made few friends too. Those students with whom I was working with, you can consider them as my friend." Anastasia rambles on but there is a small frown on her face and a heaviness in her tone.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. Well I think I just miss Nora a lot these days." She shrugs off and looks out of the window as heavy rain started.

Zeus goes quiet after this.

Suddenly their car jerks a little and then stops completely after a moment.

"What's wrong?" Anastasia asks with a frown on her face as the car's headlights turns off for some weird reason.

"I don't know. I will just check. Keep the doors locked and don't step out." Zeus says while instantly texting Giovanni about the situation.

As soon as he gets out, the sound of thunder bursts in their ears. Anastasia winces and covers her ears, while Zeus seems pretty unaffected of it.

*******************On the other side

Giovanni froze on spot as soon as he get a text from Zeus. The bad timing of this news is only making him more worry. Just few minutes ago, Adriano had told them that something happened to Eleanora and now this. Worst case scenarios began to run in his mind as he rushed downstairs.

"Where are you go--" Arabella's jaw clenches as Giovanni walks past her like he did not even hear her.

She could hear his yelling to the guards to gather up and then the sound of cars driving away.

"Arabella!" Anastasio's voice reaches her ears and she looks back at him.

"Where did Giovanni go?"

Arabella shrugs her shoulders in response.

"I don't know." Muttering this, she walks past him to go back to her room.

*******************

Few minutes later, Zeus comes back in the car now completely drenched due to heavy rain.

"There's no use. Help will be on way. We should wait for it."

Anastasia listens to him and tries to turn on the heater again but to no avail.

"You should take your jacket back." She starts to remove it off but he grunts, refusing the offer.

"A little rain is not something that I can't handle. I'm fine but there are more chances that you might get sick, kid." Zeus answers back plainly.

Suddenly over the rain and thunder, they hear rumbling of several cars.

"Help is here." Anastasia sighs in relief. She cannot wait to go home and take a dip in hot bath.

Zeus nods, his eyes squinting a little though he recognize that they are indeed Romano family's cars.

The door opens and few guards step outside with umbrella in their hands. One of them crouches down a little so Zeus could see that they are indeed the right person. Zeus recognizes Derek, one of the security commander.

He opens the door of his and Anastasia's sides. They both step out and immediately a force pushes and pins him down on the pavement.

"What the--"

His words are cut off as he hears Anastasia screams his name.

"Tch Zeus. I know this is all of a sudden but I have to take this girl with me." Derek utters out as he comes to stand in front of him. Four of the buff guards are restraining Zeus and they are facing quite difficulty, doing it.

"Why the fuck are you doing this?! Her family will fucking kill you if I'm not able to!" Zeus exclaims in anger but Derek ignores him.

"Finish him!"

Anastasia who is struggling to get out of the ropes, gets stun in shock as the sound of gunshots reaches her ears. Her eyes widens in horror.

"ZEUS!" A scream rips out of her throat, fearing the worst.

She does not even notice when someone injects a needle in her neck and her vision starts to get dull. At the same moment, she blacks out as a lone tear slides down her cheek.

Thanks for reading!

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I will see you again,
Davina...💞