The Heartbreak Factor - Part Three

Chapter Forty-One.

Looking at my wrists, I could tell the rope that Rio had used to tie me to a metal bar on the side of the studio wall was cutting into my wrists as I tried to break free from them. I knew that it wouldn’t do anything but I couldn’t let myself give up on trying to break free. Rio would be back any minute and I just had to get away. She was obviously insane – who knew what she was planning to do?

I looked around the abandoned studio at all the broken glass and piles of bricks – whatever she was planning was obviously going to end badly. As I continued to try and pull my wrists to break free from the bar that I’d been attached to, I heard a car pulling up outside. My heart began to pound as I heard footsteps getting louder and louder towards the door to the building. I sat watching the door in terror. Why was this happening to me?

The door opened and in walked Rio, carrying a carrier bag with a huge grin on her face. “I’m glad you’re still here,” she smiled as she grabbed a few bricks from the pile in the corner. I flinched as she brought them over towards where I was tied to the metal bar. “I’m not going to hit you with them,” she cackled, placing the bricks in front of me before sitting down on them.

“Rio,” I said. “What do you even want from me?”

“I want nothing from you,” she smiled, looking at me with sympathy. “I just want you to realise that me and George.. we’re meant to be.”

“Okay,” I stuttered, trying to pull at the bar discretely so Rio wouldn’t realise what I was trying to do.

“While you’re here, you might as well help me,” Rio grinned, chucking the carrier bag that she was carrying at me.

“With what?” I asked.

“Well I’m going to need a gorgeous dress to get married in, aren’t i?”

I looked at her like she was crazy, well in fact, she was crazy – she was completely out of her mind.

“What am I thinking?” Rio laughed. “You can’t look through magazines tied up.”

I sighed a sigh of relief as she began to untie my right hand.

“That’s better,” she grinned, leaving my left hand still tied to the metal bar.

“I was thinking a long traditional dress,” she suggested. “But I don’t want a wedding dress that was going to be like yours as that would just be crazy.” I accidentally snorted, causing Rio to look at me with suspicion. “Anyway, find a wedding dress for me and I might just let you go.”

*

I flicked through the magazines, not even paying any attention to the pictures of wedding dresses that were printed on each page. “Rio,” I said, looking up at her from the magazine. “Why are you doing this? You won. You’ve got George. Why do you want me to suffer? Don't you think that I’ve suffered enough? Please just let me go.”

Rio looked at me, smirking slyly. “Why would I let you go?”

“Please,” I pleaded.

“Do you know what, Sammy? I always envied you. I’d pick up a magazine at the store and there you’d be with George, looking so happy together. Everyone called you the perfect couple and worshipped you as a couple. It broke my heart when I found out he was getting engaged to you as I knew he’d never love me like he loved you,” she explained as tears began to roll down her face from her eyes. “But what made it worse was that I knew that no matter what I did he would never love me, not even love me for the fraction that he loved you. Nobody ever would.”

Looking at her getting so upset, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her – regardless of the fact that she’d held me hostage for the past three hours. “You’ll find someone,” I said, trying to make her feel a little better so that she'd let me go. “But ruining mine and George’s relationship with your lies isn’t the way to find someone who wants to spend the rest of their life with you.”

“I don’t want anybody though – I want George.”

I sighed. “But Rio, you can’t have George.”

“I can.”

“How?”

“It’s simple,” she grinned. “I knew that if you thought George was cheating on you, you’d leave him and hate him, meaning that you wouldn’t even let him explain. That would make George heartbroken and I could be there to support him, and then one day.. one day he’d fall for me and love me just as he loved you. That’s where this comes in – you need to go away, just leave. You’ll be able to fall in love again, but me? I won’t. You’ll find someone else who will love you just like George loved you, but me? I won’t. I will never find anybody.”

“You can’t think like that,” I said.

“I’m not thinking like that,” she smiled. “George will love me one day.”

“Rio,” I sighed. “Love isn’t built on lies. Love is built of trust. If you wanted George to fall in love with you, you wouldn’t create all these lies to ruin his life. Did you think about the consequences of your lies before you even began to tell them? Did you ever consider what impact your lies would have on George’s career? If the media ever pick up on your ridiculous accusations, did you ever think of what they’d say about George? You just didn’t think at all – did you? And it wouldn’t just ruin his life, but it would ruin my life and my families lives and George’s families lives, oh and don’t forget that if people think George is a cheat and unfaithful, that would impact JJ and Josh and Jaymi’s careers too as people would question them too. By telling the lies that you told, it wouldn’t make George fall in love with you – it wouldn’t make anybody fall in love with you. Rio, did you even consider any of this?” She shook her head. “Exactly. You just didn’t think. I do feel sorry for you, I really do. You obviously have a huge obsession with George that is taking over your life and ability to make rational decisions. You need help. You need serious help and you can't get the help you need by keeping me tied up here.”

“No,” she snapped. “All I need is for you to disappear.”

I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was getting furious. As I sat looking at her, I noticed her tensing up her fist on her lap as she sat glaring at me. Using my free hand that Rio had untied earlier on, I tried to untie my wrist from the metal bar. Blood had begun to drip from my wrist as the rope was cutting deeper into my skin. Rio stood up and picked up one of the bricks that she was sat on. Holding it in her hand, she laughed at me as she looked down at me as I looked back up at her in fear.

“Rio,” I begged. “Put the brick down.”