My Ruthless Kidnapper

Childhood

Cheryl POV

"Are you okay?" Worried was thick in his tone.

"Yes." That was all I could think of.

'Yes' was the only word in my head at that moment. Yes! Everything was true.

"You don't look like it. Do you need Peter?" Finn insisted. I could feel his eyes on me.

We were on our way back to his house. And just like we came, there were escorts everywhere.

I shook my head as I responded, I was weak, I was hopeless and disappointed.

"Is it Sharon?" He asked again.

I wanted to tell him I needed space, my head was preoccupied with different things going on, but then again-it was Finn, the victim.

I kept quiet and watched nothing specific through the window. I was lost in my thought that I couldn't care if Finn was talking or not. I think that was how we got back to the house.

Without assist-I headed up the staircase to the room considered mine.

I needed to breathe; I needed space.

I took off the mask and all accessories along with the black heels and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to steady my racing heart and fast breathing.

I tried to process the reason why my parents could do something so inhuman like that and kept it from me. I tried to process I shot-still the wounded person who repaid me with love and protection. I tried to process my reality and everything that comes with it, and it was hard to breathe. I began to suffocate.

Earlier at the charity event, the time pace seemed to travel slow, but right afterward, it felt like all the events that took place that night had occurred in a rapid heartbeat.

I couldn't control how to feel. I felt like the walls were closing with me, whereby I was strangling in reality.

And of course, as usual, I was reminded I didn't have my freedom. There was a shadow approaching, and I stared at him until he sat on the armchair opposite me. I didn't hear when he came in because I was preoccupied with the truth.

Finn looked pretty nervous-somehow afraid. I saw it in his complexion as his eyes bore into mine.

He had no idea.

"Cheryl." He started.

"Can I have some time alone?" With every courage I had-even though my voice was strained, I asked something for the first time ever I was kidnapped.

"Cheryl..."

"Please, Finn." I cut him off. I just needed to be alone, I needed to calm myself, and it was hard doing that around him.

Finn swallowed and dropped his gaze down. "Don't give up on me." His voice was low, yet the pleading in his tone was intense that it went straight into my heart and pierced through me.

Tears escaped from my eyes no matter how much I thought I could control them. "I'm sorry." I had to let those words out in the open, and they came along with tears in my shuddering stage. "I'm so sorry."

How can I change everything? How can I rewind back time? I wished things happened in different ways.

Finn stood up from the armchair and approached me. "I'm sorry," I repeated again to the man my parents took away his life when he had no voice.

He didn't say anything when he stopped in front of me and brought my head to his hard stomach-wrapping his arms around me.

He was stroking my hair and my exposed skin in a very soothing way that felt comforting but also painful at the same time because it was Finn Hayes, the son of Eric Hayes.