THE BETRAYAL

Never expect too much from a person, sweetheart, or else you'll end up disappointed.

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CHAPTER LVI

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I FELT RELIEVED after my chat with Emma. It was one less thing to worry about and one less weight to carry on my shoulders. I still had to figure out what I was going to do with myself though because with a baby on the way, everything would change faster that I'd have time to prepare.

At least I would have Daniel.

As if reading my mind, the jeep that I knew Daniel left with came rolling into the gates, making my heart leap with excitement. I wanted to tell him about what Emma had told me and force him into spending more time with her.

Like a puppy, I went bounding down the stairs and towards the garage, throwing the door open just in time to catch him stepping out from the driver's seat.

His eyes met mine, but instead of sparkling with joy and excitement, his gaze hardened and a frown fell onto his lips.

“Go away.”

I didn't know if I should've been pissed or upset. Obviously he was in a bad mood, but what could I have possibly done to make it my fault.

I folded my arms over my chest and glared at him ready to fight fire with fire. “Why should I?”

I got my answer seconds later when his men had roughly tugged out an average sized man from the boot of the car. His hands were tied behind his back and a sack was over his head, making it impossible for him to see his surroundings.

Even though I didn't know who the person was, my stomach dropped with dread.

“I'm not playing. Go back inside,” he said, his voice low and full of warning.

For once, I wasn't going to argue. This was a case that I really didn't want to see through.

I glared at him one last time before turning around and making to walk back inside. That was when the captor started speaking and struggling to get out.

“You're wasting your time with me. Even if I did know anything, I wouldn't tell you. Not over my dead body.”

I halted in my tracks, feeling my heart beat faster at the familiar voice. With wide eyes, I whipped around and looked straight at the figure, trying to find any kind of assurance that it wasn't who I thought it was.

“Uncle?”

“Araceli?”

The place froze and I could feel Daniel's harsh glare on the side of my head, but I didn't care in that moment because they had my uncle Isaac and God knows what they were going to do to him in their little underground lair.

“Uncle Isaac!” I flew out the doorstowards him, but before I could reach him, Daniel's arms wrapped around my waist and kept me from going any closer. I struggled in his grasp, not fighting him but trying to twist myself out of his strong hold. “No. You have my uncle, Daniel.”

His jaw clenched and he stared straight ahead, not looking at me as he tightened his arms around my waist. “I know.”

“Then why do you have him?” I almost screamed, turning to face so he could look me right in the eye.

“Take him away.”

“No! No! Don't take him anywhere! Please.”

The men ignored my cries and carried him down the trapdoor into the basement while he struggled in their hold.

I beat at Daniel's arms, hating the way that tears were trailing down my cheeks even though I needed to be strong in the situation.

“Daniel, please don't hurt him,” I cried, looking back at him. He looked away as soon as our eyes met, but it was too late. I had already seen the pain he felt and I was going to use it against him.

I latched onto his face, trying to calm my breathing as I forced him to look me right in the eye. “Whatever he's done, Daniel, I need you to forgive him,” I sniffled, noticing how his hold on me was weakening and his cold exterior was cracking. “Please. He's the only family I have left. Please don't kill him.”

The sound of footsteps filled my ears and before I could force him to continue looking at me, he had already snapped his gaze to his men.

“He's ready for you, boss,” one of them said.

My breath hitched in my throat and a scream ripped through me the second I realised that I had lost him. He looked back to me, his eyes cold again and I knew then that I wasn't going to break through to him. I had him and then I had lost him.

“Daniel, no!”

He hoisted me up and slung me over his shoulders like a bag of potatoes, ignoring my pleads for mercy as he carried me through the house.

“He's innocent, Daniel. Please! I know him! Please, just let me talk to him at least!”

He ignored my cries although I knew it had some affect on him because he tensed up whenever I opened my mouth again. Still, it was like they were falling on deaf ears.

He climbed up the stairs as my begging became incomprehensible from how much choking over my own tears I was doing. I could feel the confused stares of the maids we passed on our backs, but I could only focus on pounding my fists against his back and hoping he would have a change of heart.

Oh, what I would've given to be stronger than he was in that moment.

“Sir,” a bold maid said, coming up to us as he briskly walked down the hallway. “Do you need any help or—”

“Fuck off,” Daniel replied harshly, making her cringe back and stop while we continued forward.

“Daniel, please,” I cried, giving it one last shot. “Please, just let me talk to him first. Let me talk to him.”

The door to his room came into view and I realised that there was no getting through to him. Daniel had his mind set on killing my uncle and I could do nothing about it.

He closed the door behind him before placing me on my feet. Before I could think up a plan and go running down the hallway to save Isaac, he swiftly pushed me down onto my knees in front of the bathroom door.

He grabbed the both of my hands and I watched in stunned shock as he took of his tie and tied them both together around the doorknob, not letting me move from my spot.

I didn't have it in me to comment. I fell onto my butt and stared down at the floor beneath me as the tears trailed silently down my cheeks. There was silence, only being broken by my occasional sniffle.

Daniel took a step back, but I didn't look up. I didn't want to look at him, because I knew if I did, I would think about what he was about to do. His memory in my head would be tainted with the blood of my uncle.

I felt him take my chin in his hand, forcing my head up and he leaned down to place a kiss on my cheek, but I leaned away, refusing to look at him even when I felt the weight of his stare on me.

With a low exhale, he turned around and walked towards the door. “I'll be back in an hour.”

I didn't respond; I didn't act like I heard him. I hoped he felt just as much pain from that action as I did, but I knew he didn't because he didn't care.

Daniel never cared.

I heard the soft click of the door before rolling my eyes at the sound of him locking it from the outside, essentially locking me in. As if I could even reach the doorknob with the way he tied me up.

Like an animal. Like a dog on a leash waiting for her master.

“Good girl.”

His voice still rung in my head even though he was gone and in that moment, I wished I could run away from everything including Daniel. But I couldn't. I was in too deep now.

***

“Are you a boy or a girl?” I asked and stared at the far wall, ignoring the dry tears on my cheek. “I'm a girl. Well... Most pregnant people are girls. Not all though. I'll explain it to you when you get older.”

I stayed silent as if waiting for a response, but not feeling dejected when I didn't get one.

“What do you want me to name you? Do you want to be a junior? Like, Araceli Junior? Or Daniel Junior?” I suddenly frowned at the mention of Daniel. “Let's not talk about Daniel. I'm angry at him.”

It had been well past an hour, but he still wasn't back. The sun was setting, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I had convinced myself that he wouldn't come back until the next day. Perhaps, he would let me starve as punishment.

I wouldn't put it past him.

It sucked that I only realised then, but the rose coloured glasses I had on were slowly slipping off, revealing to me the brutal reality of the entire situation that I had ignorantly tried to look past before.

The worst part was that it was too late. If it was just because I was madly in love with him still, it wouldn't have been an issue. But it was the fact that I was pregnant with his child. He said it himself; people like him took heirs seriously.

He wasn't going to let me go easily. I just had to pray and hope that either my situation got better or I learnt how to swallow my feelings because it was too late to back out.

I was in too deep.

“He's your dad, you know?” I said softly, as if expecting the clump of cells to be startled if I raised my voice too loud. “Are you still just a clump of cells? Or are you kind of like 'formed' now? Man, I need to go for an appointment.”

The door suddenly creaked open, and I felt my heart drop to my ass once Daniel stepped into the room. His whole demeanour was way off because he honestly looked like he was seething.

I was supposed to be the angry one right now. Not him.

He walked straight over to me, ignoring the way I flinched away from him even though I couldn't get far. His shirt had a few splatters of blood on it, but not as much as usual. Still, it irked the hell out of me because I knew it was my uncle's blood.

He untied my hands silently, letting the silk purple tie fall down before grabbing my arm and yanking me up. Ignoring my yelp of pain, he started dragging me behind him towards wherever he was going.

I knew better than to ask him any kind of question when he was like this so I kept my mouth shut and let time give me answers. He pulled me down towards the garage and, taking me by surprise, led me through the trapdoor and down the stairs until we met the hallway.

My heart started racing in my chest as I held my breath for whatever he was about to show me. For all I knew, it could've been my dead uncle. Was he going to use that against me? Maybe he wanted to show me flies eating at his corpse to punish me?

I could already see it; envision him leaning into my ear and whispering, “This is what happens when you piss me off,” as I stared at my dead uncle in complete shock. Would he force me to pull the trigger? Maybe Isaac was barely hanging onto life and Daniel was bringing me down so I could be the one to send him to his grave.

Like Vincent.

I let out a whimper, stopping in my tracks, making him turn to me with a harsh glare.

“What's wrong?” he asked, a sadistic smirk falling onto his lips as he pulled me closer to him. “This is what you wanted, right?”

I shook my head, but he didn't want an answer. He held my arm tighter and dragged me after him. The small resistance I put up doing nothing to stop him as we finally turned a corner and I met my uncle.

Face to face.

Well and alive.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, before running ahead to wrap him in my arms. “You're okay.”

He was tied to the chair with one of his eyes swollen shut. His face was bloodied and bruised from possible punches, but everything else was intact. There were no missing teeth or discarded limbs and his tongue was still in his mouth and not on the floor.

He didn't hug me back, which I understood, but even upon seeing me, his body language still remained cold. Was he angry at me? Did he blame me for being captured by Daniel?

“Touching,” Daniel commented sarcastically from behind me, but I rolled my eyes and made my way around him, ready to unty him. Surprisingly, Daniel didn't stop me. “I'm giving you an hour to talk to him,” he said, making me snap my eyes up to look at him in confusion. “After he tells you everything that he told me, I'm giving you the option to either keep him alive or kill him.”

“What's the catch?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest. I knew Daniel. I knew when he was playing games and this was a game.

He smirked and looked to the side before looking back at me. “Come here.” I didn't respond, wanting to remain defiant, but he clearly had no patience for my bullshit. “Come here.”

I jumped at his harsh tone and quickly walked over to him. Usually whenever I tried to be defiant but caved in to him, he smirked but this time it was different. This time he looked like he really didn't want to be there.

He took his gun out of the waistband of his pants and placed it in my hand. “You kill him.”

I didn't know how he was so sure that I would want my uncle dead after speaking to him, but I knew I was taking a risk. Daniel was never wrong.

He walked away, looking satisfied with the confused look on my face as Guillermo stepped in after him.

“Oh no,” I groaned, holding the gun halfhazardly. “Don't make me hate you too, Guillermo.”

He chuckled and shook his head before gesturing for one of the many guards in the cell with his to take the gun out of my hand, probably for fear of his life. The guard took my hand in his gently, as if fearing he would hurt me before he carefully pried it out of my fingers.

He probably feared Daniel. Not me.

“It's him you'll be hating,” he siad, drawing my attention back to him before looking to my uncle he stared silently at the floor. “To kick us off, how about we begin with the fact that you've known her every whereabouts ever since her mother kicked her out. And how you had staged meeting her at the casino.”

What?

*****

What do you think will happenn??????? I want to know.