Melody keeps wiggling, trying to wiggle out of the tight belt that wrapped around her. She breathes heavily, getting frustrated with everything. Tears streaming on her cheeks. The tears of fear.
She sobs, looking around the place.
Suddenly, the bombs were activated out of the blue. Melody gasped, looking down at it. It’s starting to countdown, 20 minutes.
“Wait…” she remembered what Matthias said just now.
This bomb will be activated on its own when Damian steps into this building. Her heart pounding in excitement and relief. But, when she remembered the bomb wrapped around her, it made everything fade.
“Please…please…Oh God…I’m begging you…” she prays.
Matthew hit everyone who got in his way while Victor covered him from behind. He pulls out his blade and swings on the enemy.
“Cel! A little help here!!” Matthew yells, he dodges when someone is about to hit him.
“I can’t help you all the time! I can only shoot people who are near to my view!!” Celestia scowls.
Victor kicked the enemy to the wall and shot him on the head. He looks around and finds the gas supplier. He looks at the enemy who is about to run toward them.
“Cel, you saw the gas barrel!?” Victor asks.
Celestia slowly moves her target and finds it, “Yes!”
“Shoot it!!”
She pulled the trigger. Right on time, Victor grabs Matthew with him to take cover behind the wall. Once the bullet hit the gas barrel, the explosion happened.
Melody, who is in the other room, flinches at the loud sounds. She knows there’s a war out there. She just hoped everything—everyone is fine. She kicked the door to gain the attention of the guards outside.
“What!?” The guard opened the small window.
“I want to pee,” she bluntly said.
“Just pee. It’s not like you will be using the toilet anymore,” the guard chuckles.
“At least let me pee in the toilet for the last time,” Melody whines.
The guard grunts in annoyance. He opens the door, seeing Melody on the floor. She looks at him with her pleading doe eyes. The guard’s eyes twitch, affected by her pleading doe eyes.
“Are you not going to fulfil this woman’s last need?” She pleads.
The guard sighs, pinches the bridge of his nose. He was ordered not to bring her out of this room. He grabs his arms and hoists her up roughly. Melody hissed in pain as he did that.
“Make it quick,” he drags her along.
Melody finally gets the chance. She pushed him to the wall harshly, causing the guy to grunt in pain. He is about to fight back but Melody kicks his groin causing him to howl in pain.
“Fuck!!” He screams.
She swings her legs, hitting him right on the face. The man fell on the ground, unconscious. Melody sighs in relief. It’s not her fault this guard is stupid and easy to fall on her pleading.
The gunshots were echoed. It sounds near her. “They must be near…”
Melody ran toward the sounds.
Matthew and Victor huff in satisfaction. Matthew throws the man to the ground and pushes his wet hair backward.
“We have to hurry,” Victor speaks up.
“I know that, but we can’t just wander around without knowing where she is,” he frowns. “We shouldn’t kill all of them.”
Victor looks at the dead bodies, “Yeah, we should keep one alive to know where Melody is.”
Suddenly, the sounds of footsteps running towards them catch their attention. Matthew and Victor quickly pull out their gun and aim toward the direction. They are waiting patiently, their fingers ready on the trigger.
When the person appeared, their shoulder slumped as the tension faded. Melody standing there, catching her breath.
“Mel!!” Matthew beams. He ran toward her, eager to hug the girl.
“Oh well, looks like we don’t have to find her,” Victor shrugs his shoulder.
Matthew is about to hug but his steps stop when he sees something. The bomb wrapped around her waist and there’s only 15 minutes left. Victor went beside him, had the same expression as Matthew.
Their body is tense.
Melody notices the way they look at the bomb, “I know this is…scary. I…I don’t know…what to do…” Tears brimming in her eyes.
Victor sighs to calm himself down. He went behind her and cut the chains on her wrist. “We will stop this. Don’t worry.”
“You know how?” She looks at him with hope.
“Victor is one of our best members when it comes to bombs. You can trust him,” Matthew confronts her.
Victor holds her arms, “Let’s get to somewhere safe first,”
She hissed in pain as he held her arms. The act causing Victor to pull his hands away. He furrows his eyebrows in confusion as he doesn’t even hold her too roughly. When she looks at her again, that’s when he realises something.
Bruise on her face, fresh blood and dry blood, she looks like she has been tortured enough.
Gosh…he never felt this guilty before.
Without saying anything, Victor hugs her. Melody’s body stiffened in shock, not knowing how to react.
“We are sorry…” he whispers.
Matthew nods in agreement.
“Hey, what’s wrong? What are you guys sorry for?” She frowns.
He sighs, “We shouldn’t put you in this state. You have been in pain too much…all because of us…”
“Vic was right. Look at you…you bear the pain by yourself…” Matthew’s gaze was on the bomb, “And…we risk your life.”
“Hey, this has nothing to do with all of you. There’s no one fault, okay?” She confronts them.
“But we are the one who put you in this position. Remember the idea of you offering yourself to be the bait?” Victor explains. “The reason why our secret base is being ambushed is because of us.”
“We are the ones who inform them,” Matthe continues.
Now everything makes sense. No wonder why. “Why didn’t you guys tell me…”
“We are sorry…We are stupid enough not to tell you and let you be prepared with…all of this,” Victor apologises.
Melody finally understands. No wonder they are always ambushed whenever they go. She suggested that idea, but she didn’t expect them to take it seriously and do it for her. But none of this is their fault.
“Hey, don’t say that. It’s none of your fault. Not Matthew, not Celestia, not even you or anyone else,” she smiles softly. She pats his shoulder. “I should be thanking you for doing this.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of…scary-but next time tell me so that I could be prepared,”
Victor slightly smiled, “We will.”
“Um…not wanted to interrupt this beautiful moment but we ran out of time,” Matthew points at the bomb.
They only got 13 minutes left. Melody’s eyes went wide, “Hurry!! Take this off me!!!”
Damian and Riccardo ran upstairs. They finally found the room. Damian kicks the door open and lifts the gun, ready to shoot. Matthias was leaning on the office desk, as if he was ready to welcome them.
“So, this is the best place for you to hide?” Damian arches his eyebrows.
Matthias scoffs, “Hide? Yeah, right. Why do I have to hide from you? I’m not afraid of you,”
“Did I say you are afraid of me? I’m just guessing,” he shrugs his shoulder.
“Fear of you is the last thing I would do in my life,” Matthias smirks.
“The way you denied it makes it even more obvious,” Riccardo added. His voice caught Matthew’s attention.
His eyes narrow on him, not expecting his son to be on Damian’s side in real life. He expects Riccardo would not want to be involved in this.
“Oh, look who’s here? A son of mine who working with my enemy,” he chuckles. “How surprising-which is not actually. Everyone knows my son is a traitor.”
“I’m not a traitor. I’m just done with your bullshit,” Riccardo firmly speaks.
“Really? And you are okay working with someone who still has an anger toward you?” his father smirks.
Riccardo frowns, “Whatever happened between me and Damian is none of your business.”
Matthias sighs. He grabs the gun, makes those guys’ hands twitch, ready for this old man stunt. His hand gently wipes the gun, “Anyway, I’m sure you come here with something, aren’t you?”
“Don’t act stupid. Where is my wife, Damian, straight to the point.
“Your wife? I thought she was just your…contract wife,” Matthias smiles. His words made Damian twitch but he held himself knowing this old man was taunting him.
“As long as there’s a word ‘wife’, that means she’s my wife,” he firmly speaks.
“A wife? A husband wouldn’t ruin his wife,” the old man grins. “I mean…looks at her, she lost everything because of you.”
“Why do you care? Do you think it affects him at all?” Riccardo scoffs.
“I know I made her lose everything, but no matter what happened, I will fix it,” Damian steps forward.
Matthias smirks, “Do you think you can do that?”
“I don’t need your opinion for that,” he crossed his arms on his chest. “She is my wife. I know her. You don’t know her and don’t speak like you know her.”
“I didn’t know her. But what I know is, you are going to make her lose something precious again, that for sure,” Matthias continues.
The two men furrow their eyebrows in confusion. The way Matthias says it sounds like there’s something they didn’t know.
“What do you mean by that?” Damian frowns.
“Don’t you know? Your wife…she’s pregnant,” he grins.
The words make Damian’s stunt. Melody is pregnant. Did he hear it right? Didn’t she have a miscarriage? Wait, is this a new one? When he thinks of it again, it can be possible since they had an intimate session a few times.
But why didn’t she tell him? Or even mention it?
Seeing his reaction made Matthias chuckle, “She didn’t tell you? Oh my, I shouldn’t have spoken of it.”
“You are lying,” he glares at the old man.
“I’m not. It’s up to you whether you want to believe me or not,” Matthias shrugs his shoulder.
Damian didn’t say anything. He looks down, thinking on why Melody hid this from him. Is she scared to tell him or is she traumatised about what happened before?
“From the look on your face, I believe that you are thinking of why she didn’t tell you,” Matthias smirks, “It’s easy. Of course she trying to get her baby from you. Because she lost the first one because of you.”
“You are wrong. There must be a reason why Melody didn’t tell him! You don’t have any right to say it that way when all of this happened because of you!” Riccardo yells.
“Woah, no need to be aggressive, son. I’m just telling the truth,” he bluntly said.
“If you didn’t target her, her baby would still be alive,” Riccardo snaps.
“You can’t blame me-I mean, if Damian didn’t drag her into this-” before Matthias could finish, Damian aimed his gun at him.
His expression is nothing but cold. The atmosphere was tense and silent. Riccardo looks at them. Matthias didn’t react but they could see his fingers twitch, knowing he hit Damian’s nerve.
“Yes, I drag her into this. So what? I know I make her life miserable but that doesn’t mean it will be forever,” Damian says, deadpan.
“I swear with my life that I will fix everything for her,”