When she came out of the apartment, Clara gave a phone call to Helena to tell her that she had put Laura up in one of her family’s apartments.
“How is she doing? Is she OK?” Helena inquired eagerly.
“She’s fine. She’s now resting on the bed,” answered Clara with a emotionless face, but her tone was soft.
“Good. That’s good. OK.” Helena took a deep breath of relief and then continued to ask anxiously, “Clara, where is the apartment? She has trouble living on her own, and I can’t stop worrying about her, so I think I’d better go there and take care of her.”
“That’s not necessary. I’ve got her a help,” said Clara, “She has worked for the Hutchinsons for years and is experienced in caring, so don’t worry about it.”
“You are not doing very well. It’s not a good idea for you to rush around. When you get better, I will bring you to see her.”
Helena was very grateful to hear what Clara had said, “Clara, thank you so much. Thank you so much for helping Laura.”
“Not at all,” answered Clara with some pleasantries, “As you have said before, Laura and I should take care of each other.”
“I’m so glad that you can think like that.” Helena smiled satisfactorily on the other side of the phone. “Now that Horace has abandoned her, and as her mother, there’s nothing I can do for her. So please be there for her and help her, Clara.”
“Sure.” Clara’s voice was a little sad. “I have to go now. And don’t worry. I’ll make sure she is well taken care of.”
“OK, OK… Sure, sure,” repeated Helena.
As she hung up the phone, Clara raised her head and drew a deep breath. She was so exhausted.
She’s so tired from all the show she had put on with Laura and all the talking she had to do with Helena. She was so sick of living like that and so sick of herself being so manipulative.
But she had no choice but to go through it both for her own safety and her child’s future. She would make the evil pay her price.
After putting herself back together, Clara walked toward her car. The school should have been over. She felt better when she thought of her son’s cute little face and his baby voice.
After walking for a while, she heard the sound of some hurry and frenetic footsteps coming from behind. Out of caution, she was to turn around, but then a strong arm stopped her by strangling her neck.
The next second, an obviously man’s hand covered her nose and mouth.
Clara struggled so hard, trying to get free from his grip, but there was such a contrasting difference between their strength that her struggle didn’t help loosen the man’s grip at all.
Suddenly, everything went black and Clara realized that she had been blindfolded. She started to panic, wondering who those people were and what they were going to do to her.
Clara violently shook her head, trying to make some big noises so that the people around could hear her and came to rescue.
“Stop talking and struggling. We won’t hurt you if you behave yourself,” said a man in a thick voice.
Clara felt all the more terrified when the man’s words crawled into her ears like a snake. Afraid that they would do some horrible things to her, Clara had no choice but nodded her head dutifully.
Then she felt like she had been taken into a car, with her limbs all tied.
She forced herself to calm down and tried to figure out who was behind that. Surely the most suspicious were Laura and Sean.
But Laura had just been banished by Horace, so supposedly, she was too preoccupied to do this. Then could it be Sean? If so, what was he playing? Did he want to threaten Horace with her life again?
With the fear increasing, Clara was shivering from head to toe. She couldn’t afford to get hurt, if so, what would have become of her son? He had already never had a father around, and he couldn’t lose his mother!
As she thought of that, Clara’s brains started spinning fast, trying to figure out a way to save herself. But before she got to come up with anything, the car stopped.
Had they arrived at their destination? Where was she?
Clara was carried off the car by the two men who had been sitting on her flanks. Having no clue of where she had been taken, she was even more perplexed by the sound she then heard.
Was it an elevator? Where exactly was it? Based on all the kidnapping experiences she had gone through, wasn’t she supposed to be taken to somewhere like a warehouse? Then what’s with the elevator?
With all the confusions, Clara was let go by the kidnappers, who didn’t touch her and soon left instead.
“Is anybody here?” Clara asked with her voice shaking, but there was no response.
She wiggled her body, feeling the surroundings with her hands. It seemed to be a bedroom. Why did they bring her into a bedroom?
Her forehead sweated as she remembered how Laura had tried to make people rape her. It couldn’t be her another effort to do that to her again, could it?
No way! She would never let her get her way, and she must work out a way to get out.
Feeling the surroundings with her hands, Clara was trying to find something she could cut off the rope with, but nothing was found.
Because of her failure to find any tool, she tried to loosen the rope by rubbing the rope against something, only to find that the knot was too tight. But oddly enough, she didn’t feel any pain and it seemed to an unusual rope with soft texture.
Could the kidnapper be some pervert? Feeling creepy at the idea, she struggled her hand out of the rope harder but with little effect.
Just when she was panicking again, she heard the door open, followed by a string of footsteps, which were firm and heavy and sounded to be from a man.
There was no way she could struggle free from the rope, so Clara was so sacred that she was beginning to cry. Who was it? He was not going to do something to her, was he?
As the footstep came closer, Clara felt as if her heart was to jump out.
“Stop! Step back. Who are you?!” she summoned up the courage to yell, with her body trembling, giving away her fear.
All she could see was darkness and there was only a weak tiny light coming into her eyes from below. Clara tried to make out who was standing in front of her but to no avail.