“She slapped me, Thomas,” Kimberly whines like a child. Melina looks at her, astonished she’s going to play that card right now.
“You did what?” Thomas shouts, arching his eyebrows at Melina.
Fear grips Melina as she realizes that slapping Kimberly back might not have been the best idea.
“She slapped me first,” Melina tries to defend herself. She knows it won’t help, but she’s still willing to try.
“And that makes you think you have the fucking right to hit her back?”
As his words register in Melina’s brain, a stray bullet enters her heart. Melina has never felt more betrayed by Thomas than she does right now. Melina knows she shouldn’t expect him to take her side, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.
“No, it doesn’t.” Tear fill her eyes.
“Apologize to her.”
“What?” Melina knows he won’t take her side, but this is too much. Her heart breaks a million times more. She couldn’t believe he’d do this to her.
“Fucking apologize to her.” The tears escape her eyes, flinching as he yells.
“I’m sorry.”
“Repeat it bitch.” She grabs Melina’s hair, pulling it hard. Melina’s scalp burns, but she doesn’t feel it. Her heart was in too much pain for her to feel any physical pain.
“I’m sorry.”
“Kneel and beg forgiveness,” Kimberly snarls at her. Melina’s eyes widen. She looks at Thomas, wondering if he would actually make her do that. “I said to fucking Kneel.” She pushes Melina to the ground, causing her knees to buckle.
Melina doesn’t take her gaze away from Thomas; she keeps staring at him. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Apologize and beg me for my forgiveness,” Kimberly says, but Melina doesn’t acknowledge her. “I am fucking talking to you,” Kimberly says, grabbing her face and forcing her to look at her.
“I’m…” Melina is cut short as Thomas does something unexpected.
“Oh, vaffanculo,” oh fuck it. Thomas bends down and picks Melina off the ground.
“Thomas,” both women say, taken aback by what he has just done. Melina looks at Kimberley, whose face mirrors hers but only for a few seconds before reddening with anger. Kimberly turns to face Thomas and ignores Melina at the moment.
THOMAS
“La stai proteggendo di nuovo,” You’re protecting her again, Kimberly says, gritting her teeth.
“No non sono,” I’m not, Thomas growls.
“So, what do you call what you’re doing?” They continue to talk in Italian.
“I’m saving you from embarrassing yourself further.”
“Embarrass myself? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, you keep embarrassing yourself with your obsession with her beauty.”
Kimberly’s face pales at Thomas’ words. She moves closer to him with tears filling her eyes and shoves her finger into his chest as she says the following words. “If anyone is obsessed with her beauty, it’s you. The man who is still in love with her even though she broke his heart.”
“Kimberly,” Thomas growls, balling his hands into tight fists.
“What? Am I fucking lying. You’re still in love with her. Why else isn’t she dead?”
“Shut your fucking mouth, or I’ll shut it for you.”
“Now you want to shut me up because I’m telling the truth,” Kimberly says, faking a laugh. “If you shut me up, it will just make what I’m saying more true, Thomas.”
“Get out,” Thomas yells.
“What?”
“Go back to Italy. I don’t need you here anymore.”
“You can’t be serious,” Kimberly says, looking at him with disbelief.
“Leo,” Thomas calls, and he walks into the room.
“Inform the driver to get the car ready. He’s taking Kim to the airport in an hour.”
“Okay, sir,” Leo says as he walks back out of the room.
“In an hour, are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, I suggest you go back to your room and start packing.” Thomas turns, takes Melina’s hand in his, and begins to walk away from Kim.
“Wow, all because of this bitch,” exclaims Kimberly.
“Goodbye, Kimberly,” Thomas says as he walks into his room.
MELINA
“Sit,” Thomas points his bed to Melina.
“Can you tell me what you guys were saying?” Melina inquires. She’s curious because she knows they were talking about her.
“No,” Thomas says, bending down in front of her. “Does it hurt?” he asks, staring at her bruised cheek. This is the second time Thomas has done this, and it still surprises her. She looks at him, wondering why he cares if he still hates her.
“No,” she says.
“That’s good to hear, but I’ll get you something for it,” he says, standing up.
“Thank you.”
“If you’re truly grateful, stay the fuck away from Kimberly.” He walks to the door to leave.
“I will.” Thomas didn’t need to say it twice. Melina knew Kimberly was someone she shouldn’t cross paths with.
***
Melina awakens late at night due to noise from the living room. She gets out of bed and walks out of her room. Her eyes widen as she takes in the scene before her.
“Thomas,” she yells as a cop forces his hands behind him to cuff him, but he resists. “What is going on?” Melina inquires, unable to believe what is happening. This was exactly what she had feared, and she couldn’t believe it was happening.
Thomas remains silent and focuses on the cop who has moved from behind him to in front of him, trying to cuff his hands again.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do will be used against you in a court of law. If you don’t have an attorney, one would be assigned to you,” the policeman says as he cuffs Thomas.
“Stop; why are you arresting him?” Melina rushes toward them in an attempt to stop the cop from taking Thomas away, but she is blocked by another.
“He’s being charged with kidnapping,” the second cop says.
“Kidnapping!” Melina exclaims, feigning shock. She’s so dead by the time Thomas gets out because he will kill her. As far as she disagrees with the charges made against him, he will get out and kill her. You might think, why not just agree to the charges, but that will just be more stupid because men like him would still find a way to get out. “Thomas did not kidnap me. Why would you think he kidnapped me?”
“We will answer all your questions if you kindly follow us to the police station.”
“Of course.”
Melina follows the cops to the station in a separate car from the one in which Thomas was driven. All through the ride to the station, her mind can’t stop thinking about how angry Thomas must be with her right now. He didn’t even say a word to her as the policemen took him away. She bets Thomas believes she told Claire to report her missing days ago. She can’t bear the thought of what he’ll do to her once he’s free. She closes her eyes, massages the bridge of her nose, and sighs as she reopens them. Things were finally improving between them. She can’t believe this is happening.
All eyes are on Melina as she steps into the police station. Their stares question and judge her, but some look at her with pity. To shield herself from their eyes, she looks down to the ground and wraps her hands around her body.
A female cop leads her to a room she’s seen used for interrogation in movies.
“Would you like something to drink?” the cop asks once Melina takes a seat in one of the chairs in the room.
“Thomas didn’t kidnap me. Please let him go. There has to be a misunderstanding.” Melina grabs the cop’s arm, pleading with her eyes for the cop to believe her.
“Unfortunately, ma’am, there’s no misunderstanding. I understand you’re afraid of him, but you have nothing to be worried about. He won’t be able to harm you again,” she says, patting Melina’s hand and giving her an assuring smile.
Melina takes her hand away from her arm, like what she said burnt her skin. “Harm me;” she says, feigning disbelief. “What are you talking about? Thomas has never done me any harm. Why would you think he has?” That’s not true, but she doesn’t need to know.
“We have reasons to believe so.”
“Are you being serious right now? You have good reasons to believe so. Do you even have any evidence to prove that he kidnapped me? Please let him go.” These cops have no idea that they are digging her grave by keeping Thomas here.
“We can’t do that, ma’am. It would be best if you could…”
“My client isn’t going to say anything else behind my presence,” someone says, walking in and cutting the cop short.
“Leo,” Melina leaps from her seat and walks towards him by the door.
She didn’t see him when Thomas was dragged away. He must have gone to get his lawyer. She’s so glad that Thomas’ lawyer is here. He will be able to get Thomas released soon before her sister arrives. If her sister got here before that, things would become complicated, and Melina didn’t want that. She’s even surprised her sister wasn’t waiting for her at the station. Maybe they wanted to verify it was her before summoning Franky.
Leo nods at her and gives her an assuring smile. Melina closes her eyes and says a silent prayer to God to help this lawyer get Thomas released as soon as possible.
“It’s been a while since I last saw you, Mr. Roland,” the cop says, standing up from her seat and walking to them by the door.
“Likewise, Miss Jennifer. I really wish we could meet under better circumstances.”
“I doubt that would ever happen since you represent the filth that dirties the streets,” she says, with a tight-lipped smile on her face.
“I prefer to call it being good at my job.”
“Whatever makes you sleep at night. Excuse me,” she says as she steps out of the room.
“Leo, I don’t know what’s going on. I just woke up and saw the cops arresting Thomas.”
“I know, and if you wish for him to be released, you need to tell Mr. Roland everything you’ve said since you saw the cops.”
“Sure.”