It was Daisy who came running to Ivan’s rescue. Rescue Ivan? Why? It was Ivan who had the upper hand there so why would Daisy come running to his rescue?
Daisy knew that if Ivan went ahead to torture Ash, it would jeopardize his image in the city. It was going to jeopardize the family’s name and Easton Lander will be so furious at Ivan if that ever happened. So Daisy came to save Ivan from his own hot headedness and foolish anger which was about to bring him doom.
“What are you doing here, Daisy?” Ivan asked in surprise. How did Daisy know he was going to Ash’s?
Daisy pulled Ivan away from his bodyguards and Ash:
“What do you think you are doing, Ivan? Have you lost it or are you always this blinded by anger and hate?”
“If you just let me, I promise that he’ll sing like a bird and we’ll know where Nelly is. Just let me take care of this!”
Ivan was about to surge on but Daisy pulled him back. She unlocked her hand held device and showed him the topic making headlines on the internet –
“Ivan Lander goes to a commoner’s house to torture him!”
What? Ivan was awestruck. He wondered how that got to the media. He was also secretive with all his moves. Who could have leaked that? Ivan’s face was puzzled, he could not grasp or understand anything.
“You see why I came running to stop you? You are going to ruin yourself one day, Ivan. You definitely will if you don’t slow down and curb this anger of yours!”
Ash could see that Daisy was trying to dissuade Ivan from carrying on with the punishment he wanted to give to him. Daisy was probably the most decent, if not the only decent Landers Ash had ever seen.
“You want me to just walk out of here without extracting any information from him?” Ivan asked.
“Is this worth your reputation and the reputation the family and grandfather had struggled to build and keep for years?”
Ivan listened to Daisy. He ordered his men to withdraw from Ash’s house. But he promised Ash that this was not the last he would hear from him. He threatened Ash that whenever they meet again, it wouldn’t be this breezy for Ash.
As soon as Ivan and Daisy left, Ash got a text message. It was from Katty, it was only a smiling emoji. He wondered what it meant.
Nelly returned to her apartment to meet Amanda doing the laundry. Amanda was looking so distressed. In fact, she heard tears dropping from her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. Her cheeks were all red.
“Amanda? Why are you looking so troubled?” Nelly asked upon noticing the mood Amanda was in.
“I do not want to speak to anyone! Not even you Nelly. I feel so lost, I feel so tender and useless!” Amanda said while sobbing. Most of her words were unclear because of how clouded her voice had become because of her tearing eyes.
Nelly hugged Amanda. “You do not have to keep it all to yourself, you don’t have to be strong always.”
If anyone could understand Amanda, it definitely was Nelly. She had been in worse situations, she thought. Maybe Nelly was wrong, maybe she could not understand Amanda.
“I was doing the laundry like I’d always do for the company and that was when he walked in on me. He had been making advances towards me but I always refused. This time around, we were alone in the company and it was already past 10:00 PM in the evening. He had his boys hold me down. I felt disgust and hate as he ruthlessly tore my clothes into shreds before inserting his… his…his…”
Amanda could not finish her statement. The experience was extremely traumatizing and painful. She burst into tears.
Nelly understood that Amanda was raped. It broke Nelly’s heart to have assumed she could relate to whatever Amanda was going through. Nelly tried to calm her but Amanda could not stop crying, she wailed.
“Why didn’t you report this to the authorities?” Nelly asked Amanda.
“Those bloodsucking cops! I despise them with all my heart!” Amanda cursed in pain.
“Why? What did they do?”
“I reported the case of my abuse to them but what did they do? They invited the bastard to the precinct and had him rape me in front of them. I cried and pleaded with them but they refused. After he was done, they took turns on me. Seven of them, one by one.
Amanda’s experience was so horrible, it left Nelly shivering in fear. How could people be so horrible? How could they enjoy the pain of another human being?
Nelly immediately recalled Ivan’s experience but she was glad that he wasn’t that bad as the people Amanda encountered.
“After all that, he threatened to kill me if I ever spoke of what happened to anyone. I have lived in anxiety and fear for a very long time, I could only breathe when I came to Munich, Germany.”
Nelly felt pity for Amanda. She was so vulnerable. Nelly assured her that nothing would happen to her as long as she was there.
“I promise you that no one will ever hurt you as long as I’m here with you. I’ll take you as a sister!”
Nelly’s reassuring words made Amanda calm down. Nelly saw where she abandoned her food. It was evident that Amanda had been struggling with the emotions the moment Nelly left the house earlier during the day.
“How did your job hunt go?” It was now Amanda remembered to ask, when she was calm. She was so happy and excited when Nelly told her that it was very successful.
Amidst their jubilation, there was a knock at the door which brought it to a temporary halt.
Who could that be by this time of the night?
Neither of them were expecting any visitors. They didn’t even know anyone in Munich, Germany.