Chapter 37 - Monster

"Let them be." Shane said to one of his boys who reported that Alex is presently at his wife's mall.

To him; Alex lost. He have Stella, they now live under the same roof, what's there to stop, actually; it will be fun to watch Alex's broken expression, his defeated face, but he had to deal with the only ties that still linked them together. Also, he had Nathan to worry about. He could sense that he had a grudge against him, but no matter how much he tried to find out about him, know who he was and how he has managed to get on his bad side, he just couldn't find a single thing on him, not even his real name, except the name he's known for as the boss of the organization; 'maniac'

But he couldn't just sit still, he will get at him for attacking his men and taking his hostage away, but he need to plan it well.

...

Stella was about to get emotional when he noticed some people had started looking at them intensely, she already knew who they were and immediately she maintains a straight face, what's there to be emotional about? What's the use when the deed has been done, she needs to stop herself from her attachment to him. If she let her feelings take over her thinking, the end result will be more people getting hurt.

To her, she believed she didn't sell herself out and Shane has taken his mind off his assumption over Diana being her daughter. She's glad with her acting the previous night and wouldn't let her so called feeling ruin the peace in the life of the people she cares about. There is no guarantee that Alex won't get attacked again.

She realizes the kind of monster Shane is after marrying him, which made her fear him, not for herself, but for others, course she realized what he's capable of.

There are nights he will sit in front of his laptop, watching his men torture people who crossed him with a pleasing smile on his face, as if he's deriving pleasure from it, those cries of pain from those people always broke her heart even though she didn't know who they were. She's sure they are someone's precious child, someone's precious father, brother and most importantly someone's beloved, yet this man derived pleasure in watching them get tortured and some breathing their last breath in the process.

Those sudden fear when the victims stopped crying in pain, those cruel words uttered by Shane, asking if the person died so quickly are nightmarish for her.

There was a time she couldn't take it and tried to kill him, she wanted to be with her child badly and decided to give it a try, to be at ease and let everything ends once and for all. She recalled waiting till he slept and tried to stab his heart with a kitchen knife. To her surprise; he held her wrist without opening his eyes and took the knife from her.

She was scared he will hurt her, but instead, he kept the knife away and pulled her into his embrace and slept off. She couldn't attempt poisoning him as well, as they don't eat together and also, where can she get the poison undetected when she's being monitored 24 hours a day.

This obsession is beyond ordinary, but who will believe she attempted those. Who will believe she didn't want all this. It hurts when women look at her with jealous filled eyes for being lucky to marry such a man. She's not even taking anything from him, her mall is her inheritance, yet they see her as a lucky woman.

When she came across Alex's sisters who are so nice to her when they were together, that look in their eyes hurts, she didn't do anything, yet it seems like she's the devil herself.

….

"Hi!"

'Hi?' Alex asked in his head. "Let's talk." He said to her.

"Let's go to my office." Stella said.

"I don't have much to say, let's take a stroll outside the mall." Alex replied, in a low tone. His body hasn't healed completely yet, he couldn't talk much without getting exhausted.

Stella felt her heart hurt, she knew he's trying to point out that he didn't want to be alone with her. She let out a deep sigh and nodded her head in agreement.

They headed out of the mall. Getting outside, Alex stopped in front of his car, and looked back at Stella who was following along. They were in this position once, him standing beside his car and Stella looking breathtaking in her blue A shape tube gown, blushing hard and ready to go on their first date.

Alex brushed off the nostalgic feeling, before it could stir him up too much, he's standing in front of another man's wife right now. Stella tried to hold back the feeling bubbling up inside her, being in this same position bring back old feelings for her as well.

"Where is my child?" He asked.

"She's dead." Stella replied, regaining her composure, 'this is for the best Alex, it will only bring more trouble if you know she's alive, he will try to hurt both of you.' Stella cried in her head.

"What!" Alex exclaimed, his calm facade broke immediately, his face suddenly lost the tiny colour left on it. He staggered back and held his left hand to his chest, resting the other on his car to keep his balance.

Seeing him in pain, Stella subconsciously reach out to help, but Alex stopped her, "don't." He said and tried to control himself, his body is failing him.

"Alex!" Someone scream from afar and rushed toward them. Stella slowly dropped her hands besides her and stare at Alex's two sisters with few bodyguards running toward them and two good looking young men who are Alex's sisters respective child, which he woke up from his coma to know about.

"Tell me this is a lie, tell me I heard wrong, t-tell m-me," he gripped his chest again, "ha!" He exclaimed as he felt the pain in his heart worsened.

"Alex!" Stella tried to hold him again, but he still held his hand out to stop her.

"Uncle!" Both his cousin called and held him.

"What do you want now?" Lana asked as the others helped Alex away from there after she took his car key.

Stella stood frozen on the spot, her tears falling as she stared at Alexander's sister who once took her shopping and treated her like a sister, not just her brother's girlfriend.

Lana bit her lower lip and look up at her, "please Stella, I don't hold anything against you, your life is yours and you're free to do whatever you want with it, but please stop messing with Alex, he's my brother and I don't want him to get hurt, please stay away." She said politely and entered Alex's car, and went after the rest.