He knew that she would panic.

He knew that all this will be too taxing for her. So taking a deep exasperated breath, Raymond looked at Akira and said,

"I have made a deal with the Devil to stay away from you."

For a moment Akira simply couldn't register what she heard. She distanced herself from Raymond by an inch and then asked him with a tone filled with astonishment,

"You did what?"

Raymond closed his eyes and gasped for air. He knew that explaining all this to Akira would be difficult. But he didn't want to keep her in dark. He was done keeping any sorts of secrets from her. So he was ready to explain everything to her in the best way that he could.

"My father, Sebastian, doesn't want me to be with you."

"But why wouldn't he want me to be with you. This is absurd."

"Even I have no idea as to why he would even want it Akira. No matter how much I asked, how many times I asked, I couldn't get a logical reply from him which could make any sense to me. But I know this for sure that he is very particular about it and he can go to any extent to keep you away from me."

She looked at him all puzzled and asked,

"What extent are we talking about here?"

"I am talking about the extent of taking away your life", he spoke with all seriousness.

"You got to be kidding me !!! Why would he want to do such a thing? I am like nobody. I am such an insignificant person in his life. Why would he even bother about me?", Akira exclaimed in disbelief.

"No Akira, I am being serious right here. I have seen the snipers hired by him."

"Snipers?"

"Yeah, in London. He was pissed with the fact that I met you there. He is keeping a tab on all my activities and not to mention yours as well."

"Is that why you are dressed like this? Is that why you didn't come to pick me up at the exit gate?", she asked in one single breath.

Raymond nodded his head.

"But why? What harm will I bring to you or to him? We have hardly interacted except for once and I don't think he can hate me so much that he would intend to kill me after that once interaction."

"Except once? When did you interact with him Akira? Why I am not aware of it?"

Raymond asked and looked at her in surprise. This was changing the whole equation that he had in his mind. He didn't know that they had interacted with each other.

"Well, I went to meet your dad, the day you went missing in the Amazons. I knew you both had issues in between but I was desperate Raymond. I needed means and mediums to be able to reach you as soon as possible and I thought being your dad he will be able to provide the help to me."

"That's it? That's all the interaction you had with him? Just a request for help. That's all?"

Akira looked at him and then she started messing with the sleeves of her shirt and said,

"Well, my meeting somehow didn't go that well with him."

"Why what happened? He wasn't ready to help?"

"He was ready to help Raymond, but he wanted something in return for it. He wanted everything based on his terms."

"His terms? What terms?"

Akira heard him ask but she got lost into that scene where she was almost begging in front of him for his mercy, for his help. She was extremely vulnerable at that point of time and was ready to go to any extent to get Sebastian's help. But that monster had just one line for her.

"Then are you ready to spend the night with me?"

She shivered just remembering that incident and then looked at Raymond all worried. Raymond could clearly see that she had become all uncomfortable.

"What did he ask you in return Akira? Tell me now. Please."

She wanted to blurt it out, but she knew that it would weaken their relationship even more. She knew that their relationship was already hanging on a thin line and if she told about that incident, she was pretty sure that he would have asked the driver to turn the car to go straight to his father's place. She knew that it would kill him to know what he had asked. So somehow the words started falling short for her.

"Don't test my patience Akira. Can you please just tell me what he asked? And don't you dare lie to me by any means. I swear to God it will not impact our relationship, although we don't have any to begin with, in the first place."

Akira looked at him and held his face in her palms and said,

"Promise me that you will not do anything stupid after hearing this Raymond. Promise me that you will ignore him as an old senile man who has no control over what he speaks."

Raymond had reached the limit of his patience. So looking at Akira, he said,

"I am going to ask you this last time Akira. Tell me what happened?"

Akira looked at him and then in one single breath, she blurted,

"He asked me to spend the night with him in return for the help."

Raymond heard and registered her voice, but his mind went into denial. He couldn't believe that his dad could stoop so low. He couldn't believe that he could say such a thing to her when he knew what she meant to him and that too at a time when she was going through nothing but acute pain.

He could imagine, how painful it would have been for her, to hear such a thing when all that she needed was his help.

He closed his eyes and didn't speak anything.