Hiiiiii my lovely peoples! Here is a looong chapter, I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading always! I see all of you liking the chapters and the reading numbers going up and my heart is full so thank you thank you!!!

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Chapter 13:

Katherine POV:

As to not give our game away and be extra careful, even though they should know by now that Mr Lopez's men had helped Rosa escape, we put on the act of not having a witness and seeming as though the case was going downhill for us, even having Mr Lopez come in and make a big scene, shouting and pointing his gun at Apollo in the office, in front of everyone. I know it was a risk, but we were willing to take it to keep Rosa as safe as possible and to stop Stacey from divulging any more of our moves to the opposition. I had to really fight the anger that boiled up in me every time I looked at Stacey. I just remember that night so clearly...

Lying in Apollo's arms, with a light sweat on our bodies, we chat about nothing and everything when his phone beeps and a No caller ID number pops up. He opens the message and sits up "That fucking bitch is going to pay!". I look at him in confusion as he turns the phone to me "Apo, forgot to warn you about this before I left..." I scroll down to the picture attached and low and behold, it is a photo of Stacey seen going into the opposition law firm, and another of her and...Justin holding hands?! What the fuck? "That fucking assholes..."

Apollo and I had discussed that we should keep this between us and Mr Lopez until the trial was completed, after which both Justin and Stacey would get what was coming to them.

It was a few days before the trial and luckily our plan seemed to work as they came to check Mr Lopez's house, but obviously, Rosa was not there, and because we hid her so well, she was never seen coming in or going out of the apartment here as well. Stacey still kept flirting with Apollo and if she wasn't fucking Justin.

The day of the trial, I stayed at the apartment with Rosa the whole morning until someone would call and come collect us from the apartment and drive us to the courthouse. Rosa and I were both getting nervous as we've become quite good friends over these past few days, me often being her only source of company and so I worried for her safety and her mental state, but I also learnt that she was a strong woman and would do anything for those ladies who were still being held captive. Just as Rosa comes back from the bathroom, my phone rings and I'm given the secret code and word. Looking at Rosa "It's time", I grab her hand and hold it all the way up until we reach the courthouse.

Mr Lopez really made sure we were protected as there were about ten men surrounding us at all times and as we wait in front of the courthouse door, hands interlocked, when the signal is given, as promised, I walk with Rosa up until the little gate before the witness stand as I was not allowed to go further and from the corner of my eye, I see Stacey start to fidget and Justin turning around to look at her. The opposition's boss then very angrily looks at Justin and the tension between the opposition is palpable. Apollo looks at me to make sure I'm fine and I smile at him, taking my seat behind him, right where Rosa can see me at all times. Now, Apollo just has to bring us home and Rosa needs to be brave in her testimony and then hopefully all these assholes will rot in jail.

A gruelling two hours later, and the worst testimony of abuse, rape and assault I've ever heard in court is finally coming to an end. I don't think my heart can take any of this anymore as my tears started falling twenty minutes into Rosa's testimony as did hers and there was not a single dry eye in the courtroom, even the judge had to pause for a brief minute to gather herself. Through all of this, Rosa still managed to deliver her testimony successfully and every time she would look at me, I'd give her my best smile and tell her or rather, mouth to her that she was doing great. After the trial ends, Rosa is immediately moved to another location where I will stay with her until the verdict is reached tomorrow morning. Even with all the security around and Apollo himself there, we couldn't get much sleep because she didn't really want to see that man's face, understandably so, we watched on the news.

Holding each other as we watch the judge take the podium and the guard hands her a piece of paper with the jury's verdict. As she proceeds with the procedures of the court, she finally opens the paper and starts reading:

"In accordance with the law and the opinion of the jury who have sat through all testimony, evidence and arguments made by both sides, the jury finds the plaintiff...guilty on all charges. On the charge of trafficking alone, the plaintiff has been charged for life without the possibility of bail. Thank you, the court is adjourned."

Rosa and I drop to the floor, crying and hugging each other with happy tears as they cuff the mafia boss and he is taken away. The news then shows how their warehouse was being raided by the authorities and all of his men were being arrested, while the women were being freed. We drove back to the apartment and everyone was there to just be with each other, Chris, Dmitri, Apollo, Mr Lopez and his wife and Rosa. I noticed someone there that I did not know and Mr Lopez walks with this ma towards me

"Katherine, meet my son, Philip" his son, who is very handsome might I add, takes my hands and places a light kiss on top "I've heard much about you Miss Ellis" I blush slightly simply because wow he's handsome okay but I've got my man already thank you and speak of the devil. Apollo walks over to me and wraps his arm around my waist, and stretches his hand out to Philip "Apollo, a pleasure to meet you, you must be Philip?" I notice his handshake is a bit tighter than usual and I lightly tap his arm so that he could let go of the poor man's hand. Mr Lopez also picks this up and laughs "Apollo, relax, I've made it sadly clear that the wonderful Katherine here already has her heart taken by you" I laugh as well and having enough of this piss battle, as the song changes Mr Lopez asks me to dance and I gladly accept, wanting to leave these two to sort out their vibes, I was having none of that...

Surprisingly, about an hour later, as Mr Lope and his wife retreated back home, I found Apollo and Philip in deep conversation as they were laughing with each other and then the conversation would get serious again. I went looking for Rosa and she was sitting in the kitchen, drinking a glass of water. "Rosa!" feeling slightly tipsy, I head over to her and hug her "you did it, you did so amazingly" I kiss her forehead and she chuckles at me "Kat, are you drunk?" I frown at her "Nope" popping the p extra loud to get my point across.

I see her eyes wandering to where Philip and Apollo are sitting and I look at her. When she notices that I'm staring at her she looks down. "You know, Rosa, we could just go over there and I could introduce-"

"No, no!" she suddenly stands and places the glass down, but I stop her "I know everything is still too new and too soon but I'm not saying marry the man, all I'm saying is, now you've got a second chance and now YOU make the choices, you have a say and if he dare do anything, Apollo and I will make him regret it" she smiles lightly at me as a tear rolls down her cheek. I wipe the stray tear and grab her hand, heading over to Apollo and Philip

"Philip, I'd like you to meet my friend, Rosa..."

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The next day at work, Stacey was fired very publicly and obviously, she put up a fight but Apollo had security escort her out. We had also heard that Justin was fired from his firm and was blacklisted for involving himself in the disgusting business of his client while essentially lying in court.

All the women who were held captive were placed into a beach resort-type facility, with doctors and experts to help them heal and get back to life. Apollo and I, along with Rosa who they knew, personally flew over for a few days to speak with the women and find out what they wanted to do next. Apollo would help those who wanted to continue studying or help those who wanted to find work, find work. Rosa really impressed Apollo and so he offered her a job at the firm, starting off as a secretary and seeing how she felt from there. She accepted as she also wanted to study law further to help those women who are in similar situations as she was.

Apollo and I spent an amazing week at the beach, relaxing, sightseeing around town and of course, not sleeping much... We returned to work a week later and everything had gone back to normal. We could finally move on and of course, by now everyone in the workplace knew Apollo and I were dating.

Another week passed, and Apollo's birthday was getting closer, so I enlisted Rosa and Chris's help to help me plan a birthday bash for him at an exclusive club. Chris would obviously design a suit for Apollo and everyone would dress up all fancy and get hella drunk and party all night long. We spent most of Saturday planning his birthday while having a girls' weekend. I sent everyone the invite for the birthday via message to really try and keep the surprise party under wraps and as the day got closer, I got more and more excited. It was so difficult to keep this a surprise from Apollo as he kept asking Chris why he needed measurements but he just said he had a client who was overseas but had the same build so Apollo was supposedly helping him out.

On the day of the party, I was nervous but excited and because Apollo's parents didn't want Penelope at a club, we agreed that she could stay over at the apartment and we would celebrate with everyone tomorrow for supper but she also wanted to be by her big brother for his birthday, she even asked me to go with her yesterday to get her a little gift. Although that meant either very quiet or no sex at all for the weekend while she was there, that's fine, Apollo can hold on for a bit but we both love Pen too much to say no.

Everything was running smoothly, Chris let me know that he, Dmitri and Apollo were getting ready, Apollo thinking they were having a boy's night out. Rosa had to run some errands but said she'd meet us at the club a little earlier to help set up and get everything in place. Looking over my rose gold strapless sequin dress with a slit down the side, it'll be a shame that at the end of the night Apollo won't rip this bad boy right off my skin but we could always have a redo...

I grab my purse, message the girls and let them know I'm on my way. One hour later, bless his soul the man is always on time, Chris messages me that they have arrived and I along with 100 people stand in the darkness of the club ready to surprise Apollo. As the door opens and Apollo enters there is a loud band of confetti and the DJ starts blasting happy birthday from the speakers. As we finish singing, everyone cheers and he walks straight towards me "Babe...I should've known you were up to no good" he smiles that broad smile that makes my heart race and panties wet and forget about everyone around us for a moment, we kiss. People ooh and whistle at us and we laugh realizing we're not alone. He kisses me once more "Thank you, baby..." I look up at him and love our bubble for just one more second "Happy Birthday, Apollo. I love you baby" we kiss once more before I let him go so that he can make his rounds and everyone else can also wish him and he can socialize as some of his friends we invited, he hasn't seen in a long time.

As the night went on, the party was heating up and it was so much fun, but I had to use the bathroom as I'd been avoiding it this whole evening because lifting this dress is too much admin but my bladder was screaming at me and so I left Rosa and Chris on the dance floor, excusing myself to the bathroom. As I enter, I do my business and hear someone else enter as well, with what sounded like a door locking? But I ignored it, fixed my dress and exited the bathroom. Something doesn't feel right... and as I head to the door, a hand is put over my mouth and what felt like a gun was pointed at my head. I tried screaming but the hand was too tight

"Shut up, bitch!" I knew that voice and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw her face in the mirror. As I tried to bite the hand and fight my way out as no one would hear me over the music she hit my head with the gun and I felt a little dizzy, falling to the floor but still trying to crawl towards the door. She leans down and pulls my hair, causing excruciating pain

"If you don't shut up, Penelope will suffer, do you want that you fat bitch?!" I grew quiet at the mention of Penelope and she looked at me, pointing the gun to my head "We need to leave now" as she tried to drag me up by my arm I resisted and she hit me again, this time causing blood to drip from my nose.

"You don't believe me bitch?" she quickly calls a number on her phone

"The bitch doesn't believe me, put the brat on the line" and as she puts the phone on speaker I hear crying

"Kat...Kat...help me please, they-" she cuts off the line and I get up from the ground, she smirks

"We need to leave without being noticed, if one person sees us or you make a scene, the girl dies, got it?" I nod and she walks out first, telling me to clean myself up and meet her out back. I couldn't tell Apollo as he would make a scene right away and I couldn't risk Penelope's life so I stayed along the dark wall outside of the bathroom where the light was the worst in the club and as I opened the back door, I was grabbed and tied, shoved into the back of a car. I felt something being stabbed into my neck and before I could fight it, everything started getting darker and fading to black.

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Who are "they"? Damn just when we thought things would be fine... and poor Penelope, how did they even get into the apartment building? So many questions!!!!!!!

Then, I must apologize as I realize that I've used the same photo twice now int eh beginning of chapters but I've now (after 13 chapters wow...) have a system to avoid that and as an extra sorry, here's an extra little eye candy for ya'll because you know I love ya'll too much to leave just like that... I gotchu honey! Damnnnnn this man us fiooonnnnneeeee he can totally get it like wow...