Shivering, sobbing, wounded, pained...

Chloe sat in Andrew's office with a swollen, battered cheek and a bruised stomach. Her tears won't stop no matter how much she tried. Her hand was on her stomach trying to feel her child, trying to find the heartbeat, hoping that it would move, it was still too early for that but she hoped for a hint that her child was alright.

The doors opened and two bodyguards walked in. They held the door for Andrew as he walked in leisurely. He frowned as his eyes fell on Chloe and then he looked towards Maxim, standing in the corner leaning against the wall.

"Is there something I should know?" He asked Maxim.

Maxim walked towards him and told him everything that has happened since the morning.

Fury surged up inside of him. His eyes twitched and his mouth had gone hard. He walked towards Chloe and she flinched.

"Look at me!" He ordered

Trembling, she looked at him with tear-filled eyes. The swollen side of her face came into his view. He held her chin gently and assessed her face for few minutes.

"Bring her in"

Maxim nodded and gestured the guard to bring Marie in. Two huge bulky men entered holding Marie by her upper arms. They threw her in and she fell to the ground, she tried to get up but Maxim placed his polished shoe over the back of her head, squishing her face into the ground.

Her muffled cries resonated in Andrew's office. Andrew raised a finger, telling Maxim to stop.

"Get her up" he ordered and the bodyguards held her up immediately.

Andrew walked closer to her. "Marie"

Marie immediately fell to the ground and started to kiss Andrew's shoes. "Have mercy, Andrew, please" she cried. "I promise I'll never do it again, please. Have mercy" she sobbed

"You ruined her face, it's only fair if she ruins your face too," Andrew said

Chloe looked at the scene unfolding before her eyes. She could no longer control her hands; they were shaking in an odd trembling rhythm. She was beyond afraid. She cursed herself for coming here and now there was no way out. She didn't even know that this kind of place existed. Marie looked like she had been beaten a lot before being brought in. Chloe thought that she was next. Her sobs intensified as she thought about her child.

Andrew turned back and the second his eyes met with Chloe's, she looked down. Andrew took Marie's cane from one of the bodyguards and walked towards Chloe. He offered her his hand and Chloe immediately took it, she was afraid of disobeying Andrew.

She stood up and walked with Andrew until they were closer to Marie. Andrew handed her the cane and stepped back leaving her hand. He had a malicious smirk on his face as if he was enjoying all this.

"Bash it on her face just like she did to you" Andrew ordered

Hearing his words, Chloe's knees gave out. She fell to the floor but stood up immediately. She looked at Marie's bruised and bloodied face and cried even more.

"I--- I--- d-don't w-want to" she whimpered

Andrew smiled and approached her. He stepped behind Chloe. His front glued to her back. "Baby girl," he whispered in her ear. "If you won't hit her, I'll kill her. You don't want her to die, do you?"

"N-no" Chloe cried

He held her waist. "Then hit her" he whispered

Chloe raised the cane but stopped as she saw Marie's bloodied face. "I-- I can't" she cried

"Please, hit me!" Marie screamed

Chloe shook her head as tears flowed down her face like a river. "I--- can't"

"I will kill her" Andrew smiled against Chloe's neck and licked her neck sensually.

"Please, I can't" she sobbed.

"FUCKING HIT ME, YOU BITCH!" Marie screamed again as her own tears flowed down.

"I---" Chloe's voice got cut off as the gunshot rang out, momentarily deafening everyone present.

For Chloe, everything happened in slow motion. She saw the bullet spiraling through the air and piercing Marie's face. Her face exploded as blood sprayed on Chloe and Andrew's face.

She flinched, her breathing seized, her lips parted, her brain stopped working. She just saw someone getting shot for the first time in her life.

Chloe looked to her side and saw Maxim cleaning the blood that has splashed on his gun with a piece of cloth. He also had blood on his face but he acted completely indifferent to it.

Andrew chuckled in her ear but his voice seemed so far away because all Chloe could hear was her heavy breathing.

"I told you I'll kill her and I'm a man of my word" Andrew's voice echoed in Chloe's head.

The guards let go of Marie's dead body and it crumpled onto the floor like a puppet that has been released from his strings. The blood constantly sprayed out of her cracked skull.

The scene of Marie's face exploding flashed before her again and again. Her head started to spin and darkness slowly took over her eyes, switching off all her senses. She swayed for few seconds before she went limp in Andrew's arm.

"So delicate" Andrew chuckled as his eyes darkened. "I can't wait for you to turn eighteen, so, I can ruin you" he whispered to her unconscious body.

Maxim looked at Andrew and then at Chloe's unconscious body. "Let me take her to her room," he said to him.

Andrew handed her to Maxim and he picked her up. He took her straight to her bedroom and called Roxy. Roxy came to Chloe's room within a second.

"What happened?" Roxy asked watching blood all over her.

"Andrew ordered to kill Marie"

Roxy gasped. "Marie is dead?"

Maxim nodded. "Just take care of her. You don't wanna be next"

-ˋˏ ༻𐀔༺ ˎˊ-

Axel walked into his house and saw Charlotte sitting in the living room alone. She hadn't talked to him after their last conversation. He sighed and sat beside his sister.

"Hey" he smiled

"Hey" she replied with an attitude.

"Are you still mad at me?" He asked

"I thought you loved your Chloe!" She snapped

Axel frowned. "I do love her."

"Then why would you cheat on her?! And that too with two old women!" She cringed. "You looked disgusting! They looked disgusting!"

"Hey..." He held his sister's hand. "I didn't cheat on her. I just paid those women to accompany me, I was trying to get back at dad for something. It was stupid"

"So you didn't cheat?" She asked

"I kissed a girl but that's just it" he mumbled

"That's cheating," she told him.

"Hmm... I know" he smiled sadly. "I don't even know if I'll ever see her again."

"I hope you do..." She sighed. "How was everything with Devon?"

"It went well, as well as I could expect" Axel sighed

"Did he see your art pieces? They're amazing" She asked

Axel frowned. "How do you know they're amazing?"

Charlotte bit on her lips and smiled mischievously. "I snuck into your art studio. I wanted to see how Chloe looked like" she sighed dreamily. "She's so beautiful, Axel"

Axel smiled. "I know..."

"Do you want me to talk to dad? I can convince him to bring Chloe here. You know he can never say no to any of my demands" she laughed.

Axel's eyes lit up. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course! I just want to see you happy"

"Thank you, Charlie" he crushed his sister into a hug.

"Let me go!" She pushed him back. "Weirdo!"

-ˋˏ ༻𐀔༺ ˎˊ-

"Dahlia, I don't feel very confident about this..."

"Ma, it will be fine!" Dahlia said as she dyed her hair.

"He will still recognize you!" Her mother cried

"He won't! Just trust me, okay! And help me with this hair dye!" She frustratedly said.

"Dahlia, he won't stop looking for you. Today or tomorrow he'll be here and once he finds us, he's gonna make sure that we suffer a lot before we finally die"

Dahlia stopped putting on dye and faced her mother. "How? There is no way he'll ever find me again. I have a new identity now." She picked up Chloe's picture and her social security card. "From this day on, I'm Chloe Jones! The honor student and---" she picked up Chloe's file and opened it. "Wow, this girl works hard for a seventeen-year-old"

"You don't look like her... Even with the red hair"

"The fact that she doesn't have an ID yet, no one really knows what's she looks like, Ma. Stop worrying!"

The old woman fumbled with her fingers. "You think you can pass off as a teenager? You're twenty-five!"

Dahlia groaned loudly. "Ma! Stop stressing me out! We traveled across the country, I changed my identity, and still, I'm gonna lay low for few days before I go out in public again, okay!"

The old woman nodded with unease. "How did you even find this Chloe Jones? You don't have the money to buy a new identity"

Dahlia giggled. "You won't believe it but I found her in a dumpster"

"What? Bogus!"

"No! I did! I opened the lid to throw in the garbage bag when my eyes fell on these files. It was fate, Ma. It's like Chloe Jones was calling me to open that dumpster and find her" she explained dramatically.

"I call bullshit. You did something shady, didn't you?"

She gasped. "You really don't trust me, Ma!"

"No, I don't. You're a liar!"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Stop worrying about everything and stop stressing me out. I'll handle it plus I'll easily get a waitressing job with her resume"

Dahlia continued to dye her hair red. She was happy to be Chloe Jones.