“You are a really great actress, Serena. Name your price” Ryan told her. “Excuse me?” Serena responded, amused. “Tony sent you here to probably ‘win me over’, didn't he? Now name your price so I can give it to you and you drop the act. I don't need any false pity Serena” Ryan spat. “You are totally misunderstood, Mr. Roberts. I despise Tony as much as you do right now and I just want to help…”.“I never asked for your help, neither did I tell you I wasn't capable of handling my own problems” Ryan cut in, coldly. His clenched jaw and distant gaze made Serena’s heart sink. But she was determined, even if she didn't have much time. “Why don't we have a meeting again, Ryan Roberts? Same time tomorrow, and I'll bring with me every possible proof that I'm not in any kind of alliance with Tony. Will that be enough for you?” Serena suggested. Ryan remained mute. He was not interested in meeting with her again, even if a small part of him wanted as much information as he could get from

Ryan woke up with a throbbing headache the next day. He had barely shut his eyes until sunrise and his conversation with Tony still felt like a dream. A bad dream he kept reliving in his mind. “Hey!” Bethany shrieked as she bumped into Ryan. “Good Morning” Ryan mumbled, rubbing his forehead with his hand. He felt slightly dizzy and the fact that he was going to be downstairs before getting any aid was not going to help. “A head ache? I've got something for that, follow me” Bethany smiled. How did she know? Probably mother's instinct, Ryan guessed. Or the fact that he had been massaging his forehead consistently for the past minute. He followed after her to get room where she offered him some pain relief tablets and watched him swallow them. “Mom? Mom?” Ryan waved his hand in front of her face, snapping her out of her thoughts. “I'm sorry, Ryan. I just…I thought about how unfair it is that I only get to see you for a few more years and as a full adult. I was never around to

Ryan opened his eyes as the stench from the adjoining toilet was the first smell that hit his nostrils. He rushed to the toilet, vomiting from the intense nausea.“Ha! Always these rich ones…you'll get used to the stench sooner or later, boy” an older man sitting at a corner laughed. Ryan shot an angry look at him and sat down, pushing himself against the walls of the cell.“Why’d you end up here, boy?!” The old man snickered. Ryan remained silent, fixing his gaze on the scribblings on the wall and trying not to concentrate on the oozing stench from the toilet. He was sure the old man had messed the toilet up while he was asleep. He hadn't said a word to the man since the previous day when he'd been brought to the cell. He was not in the mood to mingle. He was not built for this life, and he wanted to return to his life before meeting Tony.Most importantly, he wanted to know if Serena was safe.The hard brick he had laid on for most of the night had made his back sore.He didn

“Lupita Nell, do you swear to say the truth and nothing but the truth?” Serena asked, standing right in front of the witness stand. “Yes” Lupita answered, her eyes boring into the jury.Ryan gulped hard. What kind of evidence would Lupita have that would make Serena late to the most important thing in his life currently, and even more confident than she had being the last time he saw her?Moving forward, Serena engaged Lupita in a series of questions that didn't make much sense at first but gradually began to lean towards the ‘grand evidence’. However, the prosecution began to chip in, asking controversial questions about Lupita’s past relationships.“Objection my lord! Such questions have nothing to do with the current matter and are only to lure the witness into a sense of cowardice!” Serena charged. “Objection sustained!” The judge’s voice rang. The prosecuting lawyer returned to his space with a fuming expression and Serena resumed with the questions. By the end of the inter