Chan felt utterly cold and scared. She was panicking. For three days now, she’d been able to hide Dave’s threats and blackmails from her sisters. But soon, she knew she’d slip. Soon, it’d become too much for her to bear. But bear it she must, because she wasn’t about to burden her sisters with the fear and worries that came with the threats.
Chan, my dear Chan:
How can you just up and leave like that? How could you? But no matter how far you run, I’ll find you. I know where you live, sweetheart. You know you can never get away from me. You know how much I love you. I can’t let you go, Chandra. I’m coming to get you. Bay View Avenue in the Gold Coast, that’s where you’re living. I’ve been there. We’ve been there, all of us, as a family, when your father was still alive. I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.
Kiss, kiss.
Dave
Once again, she felt sick to her stomach, reading the message. He was taunting her, yet again, with his subtle, sweet words. Words used only for lovers. Oh, but Dave wasn’t her lover. He was a manipulative, cunning bastard who seduced and forced himself upon an innocent fifteen-year-old girl.
She simply wanted to cry as panic once again seized her. Once again, she remembered the fear and anxiety every time she’d heard his voice. Dreaded he’d jump up behind her and forced her like he always forced her.
She’d banned him. She’d changed her previous cell phone number, which she’d known he had. Now it was her email? How the heck did he find out about her new email address? Of course, she wasn’t surprised. He was an IT consultant, and hacking into people’s email was a piece of cake for him. She’d seen him do it to a lot of other people—people he thought were a threat to him.
“No, you won’t,” she muttered under her breath as tears threatened to flood her eyes. She willed the damn things at bay with a sense of determination. “You won’t find me. We’re selling this place and going to live somewhere where you won’t find us.”
She nodded her head at that pronouncement. She’d decided since she’d received the phone call from Amie that they’d sell the house, just to get it out of the way so Amie and Lisa wouldn’t cause any problems. All she needed now was for that nice Mr. Wakefield to turn up and make them another offer, which they’d gladly take.
Chan shut the laptop, rolled onto her stomach, rested her head on the soft pillow, and closed her eyes. Instantly, she saw not the hated face of Dave, but a man who was faceless. She knew who this man was. Lilly’s father. The man whose voice made her weak and her heart race. The man whose warmth sent her body trembling with wonder. The man whose face she was too afraid to meet.
Her heart skipped a beat and her body began to warm. Suddenly, she felt restless and hot and bothered.
“Huh-ho!” She sighed softly under her breath and opened her eyes. “Stop thinking about him for God’s sake!”
But she knew she couldn’t. What is wrong with me? How could she think about him when only moments before she was thinking about the hated Dave and how much she feared him?
She flipped her laptop on again and decided she’d continue with her children’s books, the Sacred Sword series, urban fantasy stories about a brother and sister who found themselves in the Himmapan world, a world where the heaven and earth were at war, gods and demons fought for power, and amongst them were creatures like the naga, garuda, and hanuman who aided the two children in their journey to save this world.
Once she had the Word document open, however, she found she couldn’t concentrate. She sat there, staring at the bright screen, staring at the last few sentences, which was waiting for her to continue the tales. The words didn’t come. Her mind was blank. No, that was a lie. Her mind wasn’t blank. Her mind just wasn’t on the book. It was on something else.
“Chocolate fudge!” she swore once again. She was still thinking about Lilly’s dad. Then, in the spur of the moment, which under normal circumstance she’d think she was crazy, she opened a blank page and started typing.
She was hard at work. Her fingers were tapping on the keyboard as words flowed through her mind. It all came out, and at the same time, she began to feel a little too warm and maybe a little bothered.
She was writing. Well, not exactly writing. She was typing and creating a book. But it wasn’t her usual type of book. It wasn’t a children’s book. It was an adult book. By the time her wrists were tired from typing and she needed to give them a rest, she stared at the screen, flabbergasted.
“What the hell?” she said to herself.
She was writing a very adult book. She was writing an adult scene between a young woman and a man, who oddly enough resembled Lilly’s dad, minus the face, because she didn’t know what he looked like.
“Chan!” Soriya’s voice echoed throughout the thin-walled house.
Chan jumped with fright. “Fudge!” the word flew out of her lips without her knowing. She quickly moved the mouse to the X mark at the top right-hand corner of the screen.
She couldn’t possibly keep this, could she? She couldn’t. It wasn’t her. Anna Chan just didn’t write things like this. Anna Chan wrote children’s books.
She clicked on the X. A message came up, asking her to save the document. She shook her head. “Of course not.” Then just before she clicked on the no, she didn’t want to delete her creation, despite it being an adult book.
She clicked on save. Then she created a new folder and typed in the name, and viola, she was now writing her very first adult novel. A very hot one at that.
“Chan?” Soriya called again.
“What?”
“Dinner!”
“Coming,” Chan replied, shaking her head. She flipped the laptop shut and then headed out the door.
Chan came into the open living area where her two younger sisters were setting up the table for dinner. The moment she pulled out a chair, Soriya glanced up, her eyebrows raised with suspicion. Oh no! The sister was onto something, again.
“You look…” Soriya paused for a moment, as if searching for the correct word. “Hot and bothered.”
Chan nearly choked on the oxygen she’d just breathed in. She, however, managed to quickly recover herself and gave her sister a good scowl. “What makes you say that?”
Dara placed a big plate of beef and vegetable stir-fry on the table and said easily, “Your cheeks are red and your eyes are bright. Come out with it. Who’s the hot dude?”
Chan opened her mouth to deny the accusation, but found no words came out.
Soriya laughed. “My dear sister, you do know you’re very bad at hiding stuff like that from us, yeah?”
They were right, of course. Chan was utterly and horribly bad at hiding her emotions from them, especially those that affected her in an extreme way. This unexpected meeting with Lilly’s dad was one of them. And of course, the hated Dave. But they already knew about Dave, Lisa, and Amie. Hence, why they had moved.
Chan changed the subject, hopeful it’d be successful. “Come on. I’m hungry. Let’s eat.” She ignored her sisters’ curious looks and started scooping out rice into small bowls. Once each one of them had their share, she started digging in.
“Hmm, as always, your cooking is awesome,” she said, smiling brightly.
Dara chuckled. “Your compliment on my cooking isn’t going to get you out of telling us who this hot dude is.”
Chan sighed. Of course, it was unsuccessful. What had she hoped for? She’d known they wouldn’t let her off that easily.
Soriya pointed her chopsticks at Chan and said, “Come out with it. What does he look like? Where did you meet him?”
“We can totally tell you’re thinking about him since you got back.”
“All right! All right!” Chan said, knowing it was better she got it over and done with. Otherwise, it’d drag on for ages, and she didn’t want that. “I saw him at the night market, okay. He’s hot. At least I think he’s hot.”
“What do you mean you think he’s hot?” Soriya asked.
“I didn’t se
e his face.”
Soriya blinked. “Why not?”
“I didn’t look at his face. I was…” She paused and blushed. “Anyway, he has the most beautiful daughter ever.”
“He’s married?” Soriya shouted, flabbergasted.
“With a kid.” Dara chimed in sourly.
Soriya felt the need to add, “Or kids!”
Chan had been thinking about that, and she knew the odds of him being a single parent was slim. Surely, a woman wouldn’t leave a guy like him for another man, right? Then again, she didn’t know him or his circumstances at all, having only met him for a brief seconds. So she shouldn’t judge and jump to conclusion.
Yes, he was married with a child. Or children. So why did she have the hots for this guy? She’d never had the hots for any guy. The thought of going into a relationship with a guy and having sex with him freaked her out. But why did the thought of this particular one married to another woman make her heart ache with regret?
She took a deep breath and said, “Yes. That’s why it’s what’s the point, right? Why bother telling you guys about him if he’s married with kids?” She took a sip of her green tea as her sisters nodded in agreement.
“Don’t worry. Plenty of hot singles out there,” Soriya said.
“Besides.” Chan continued. “I have no time for that right now. So moving on with the house.”
And thank God, because they did indeed move on to the next hot topic at hand.
“This Mr. Wakefield is coming tomorrow, right?” Dara asked.
Chan nodded her head.
“Well,” Soriya said, scanning the room with something akin to disgust on her face. Any moment now, the house would fall down on them. Of course, Chan totally agree with her. If that gigantic company Harrington Group were to start construction, then they didn’t need much to bring this old place down. All they needed was a big bad wolf to do his huff and puff to blow the dwelling down.
“There’s not much to miss if we were to leave,” Soriya said absentmindedly. “Not to mention we’ll probably have a very grand and noisy resort and hotel next door if we don’t sell.”
Dara nodded in agreement. “I don’t think I’d survive living here while construction goes on for the next six to eight months.” She looked heavenward and sighed. “I’d die of the noise.”
“Me, too,” Soriya said. As always, her demeanor changed within a flick of an eye. She jumped up with excitement. “Oh! If we get a new place, we can have Alex and her husband around for dinner when they arrive next month.”
Chan nodded, never forgetting her childhood friend Alexandra and her husband Jayden was coming to the Gold Coast for a wee holiday. Gosh, how she really missed Alexandra, the backbone of their little group back when they were children.
“Yeah, haven’t seen her for ages,” Chan said, thinking back to a year ago when she’d gotten the invitation to the wedding in New York City, when she and her sisters had been going through hell. Of course, she’d politely declined Alex and told her she and her sisters couldn’t attend.
They’d been busy all right—going through a lawsuit regarding their dad’s assets. Not to mention they had to deal with the blackmailing and threatening from both Amie and Dave.
“And little Andy,” Soriya said, drawing Chan’s attention to the present. She noted her sister’s eyes were large with adoration at the mentioning of Alex’s little son.
“I’d actually get to hold him and kiss him for real. And not just gaze at his photos on Facebook.”
“So true,” Chan said, nodding her head.
Once dinner was over, Chan cleaned the dishes and then headed back to her own room to continue with her work. This time, it was the children’s book. Thank God she managed to write the story, and once she got started, she kept going.
It was a bit later when Dara and Soriya knocked on the door and then barged in. As usual, she didn’t even get to say, “Come in,” as common curtsey.
Soriya lounged herself comfortably on Chan’s aging mattress, her long legs spread across the floor. Dara sat on the edge of the thing, cross-legged. She picked up Chan’s notebook that had scribbles of background information about plots, characters, and settings for the story and scanned through them.
“How’s the series going?” Dara asked, flicking her gaze to Chan
“Okay,” Chan replied.
“You know,” Soriya said, “it’s time you get yourself a nice, comfortable bed.”
“Can’t afford one yet,” Chan said absentmindedly. She raised her head and smiled. “Speak for yourself. You’re sleeping on a mattress as well.”
Actually, none of them had a bed and were sleeping on mattresses. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing, but they made do with what they had. Their dad hadn’t left them much. Except, of course, this old house. Everything else, Amie had managed to steal from them because she’d been their dad’s wife and had the rights to it, according to his will. His retirement fund, his life insurance, and the many assets back in New Zealand.
Chan and her sisters had wanted some things back, but they’d gotten tired of fighting for it. They’d spent five years fighting and still hadn’t gained any result. The lawyer fees weren’t something to laugh about either. At times, Chan felt like the lawyer was just scamming them for their money and not actually doing anything.
Soriya pursed her lips as she looked at Chan. “Maybe we’ll get some nice beds once we’ve sold the house.”
Chan nodded. She was looking forward to that as well. She was also looking forward to her royalty check from the publishing house she wrote for. She was told it’d be a large sum, and she couldn’t wait for it. It would be amazing to not having to worry about money for a while.
Dara got up and headed to the door. “All right, good night, Chan. Don’t work too hard.”
“You, too,” Chan said, noting Soriya getting up as well.
She said good night to both her younger sisters and then continued with her work. She didn’t go to bed until just after midnight, and when she shut her eyes, she didn’t have her usual nightmares of Dave chasing her and doing horrible, unmentionable things to her. This time, she dreamed of a man who was as warm as the sun on a spring day, kissing her.
* * * * *
CHAPTER 5