Falling In Love With My Kidnapper

Chapter 30

I already had numerous different coffins that I liked so there'd be a selection for the guys to choose. I already had a church selected and mostly every other thing done already. All I needed to do was talk to Kyle or any of the leaders to find out if we were going to invite anyone so I'd start making calls.

As I was rummaging through a couple stuff I found a old photo album that was tucked away. Nobody had looked at it in a while since there was an immense amount of dust on it. I brought it back into the kitchen and cracked it open. Inside there was heaps of pictures of a woman with three little boys. They seemed to be having lots of fun together. In each picture they were doing different activities.

As I flipped through the pictures some more I picked up the style of dressing of the boys. It was mostly leather jackets and jeans along with converse or a black shirt with jeans. All their clothing was mostly dark colored but their clothing didn't represent their personalities at all. In each picture they seemed incredibly happy, whether it was at a pumpkin patch or putting up the Christmas tree, or even just baking cookies. I soon realized that the boys were Kyle, Andrew, and Damien when they were younger with their mom.

She was beautiful. You could tell they really loved and looked up to her a lot.

I smiled at their happiness in each picture. They seemed to have an incredible childhood.

"Andrew told me you might be here. What are you looking at?" a voice interrupted.

I looked up to see Damien standing by the kitchen doorway. His eye was a little swollen and he looked very tired but my Damien was still hanging on.

"I found a photo album. Hope you don't mind" I said, continuing to flip through it.

"No, I don't. I forgot about that thing" he said, pulling up a chair next to me. He looked at the pictures in silence with me before sighing "Man, those were the days"

I looked at him and smiled before looking back at the photo album "You guys seemed to have a lot of fun during your childhood" I said.

"Yeah we did" he paused "It wasn't always like that though. When my real mom died, all three of us were sent to the orphanage. Our first childhood years were hell. Having boring meals and boring days, but once mom adopted all three of us, our life was completely changed. It went from dark and boring to bright and full of light" he told me.

"I didn't know you were adopted" I told him.

"I don't like to tell people because then they assume that mom never completely loved us because we weren't completely her children but man, that woman loved us like her own. I could see it in her eyes. Nobody could break our bond" he explained.

I listened to him speak.

"Our childhood was so much fun. She always wanted to go out and explore with us, expose us to new things. And then Richard came along. We never knew mom had a husband. He came back from the military when we were about 13 and then things went downhill from there. He got jealous of us, how much momma loved us. He made her sad a lot but somehow she still loved him as much as she loved us. Then Richard told us about this whole kidnapping business. It was originally his. It was some kind of twisted legacy. Pass it down to your children or something. Richard didn't have children with mom. Richard had us. His adopted children. I like to think he almost... brainwashed us from the start. I never wanted this. I was never like this. He made me like this" Damien shook his head "But what can I do now? We've already grown habits and the man promised us to keep the mansion going when he died and how are we to dissapoint a dead man?" Damien said and sighed. "Especially a man that mom admired and adored so much".

Damien cleared his throat.

"He taught all three of us how to fight and control a gun and all the other shit. Andrew would always cry like a little baby. Out of all of us, he was the one who really didn't want to do this but Richard insisted and just kept brainwashing us in a sick twisted way. I guess, I was his favorite or something because he made me in charge and gave me the keys to the mansion a couple days before his death. He always told me I was more skilled than Andrew and Kyle. I picked up on everything he taught us faster. He had cleared up all the rooms so it'd be ready for us to move in. Already came with a couple maids and everything. It was prepared" Damien explained.

Curious, I looked at him and asked "Did your mom agree to all this?"

"Hell no. We were her babies. She didn't but Richard had control over her. From all the years handling woman and making them do all his dirty work he knew how to manipulate mom. He just pushed her away further and further from us" Damien said and kept flipping through the photo album.

"I'm sorry, I know this isn't the lifestyle you wanted" I told him, sympathetic.

He shrugged "I was exposed to it from a young age. It was what I was born for, to run this house and control women how I wanted, as Richard always said. It's what I do. Can't let him down now"

"You dont have to do this. It's not too late to turn back" I told him.

"Yes, it is Nova. Andrew finally got used to this lifestyle after fighting it with Richard for many years and we're all basically used to killing and kidnapping and maids and everything.. this is what we're used to now. What we do for a fucking living" He said, sounding almost disappointed in himself.

"I'm just saying, if you're not happy-"

"Are you happy?" He interrupted. "With me? Here?"

I looked down at the photo album and closed it before looking back up at Damien.

"Of course I am. If I wasn't I would've escaped a long time ago. You've grown on me, Damien. What makes you ask that?" I asked him.

"Earlier, you said that you never asked to be kidnapped and you said you never wanted it. It made it sound like you weren't happy with me"

"I am happy with you. I never asked to be kidnapped, yeah, but-" I shrugged "I'm happy now. We were both angry and-" I shook my head "I'm happy, okay?"

"Do you want to go home?" he asked.

"I am home..."

He took my hands "Nova, your home." he repeated "With your parents"

I thought about it. Home?

Home was here. I haven't thought about my actual home with mom and dad for a while. Did I want to go home? Back to working at the coffee shop? Away from Damien?

Life wasn't that bad before Damien but now that I think about it I realize how miserable I was. I wasn't exposed to anything but home, the shop and school. I had no fun and here with Damien I was open to a lot of different things, some dangerous, but I was living life. I loved my parents but the person I was before wasn't the person I am now. I've changed, and the person that I am now doesn't want to be bottled up in a boring schedule for the rest of her life.

"No" I replied, finally.

Damien studied me for a while "Are you okay?"

"Just shaken up from earlier. Are you?"

He nodded "Yeah"

I looked back down at the photo album. "I'm happy with you" I told Damien. "I'm glad you opened up to me"

He smiled softly "Im happy you're here, baby"

I let a small yawn escape from my lips. Damien stretched. "C'mon lets go to bed. It's been a long day."

Damien stood up and lead the way upstairs where we'd fall asleep in each others arms.

Happier than ever.