12

The five ladies - Azure's grandma inclusive - had never been happier seeing the annoyed look on the men's face as they taunted them non stop.

During the dance, Trevor had been sure to get embarrassed by his girl and Priscilla about his poor dancing skills.

Lucas had to be reminded of his playboy ways every time a girl winked in his direction or stared for too long - which by the way, was probably every ten minutes -.

There really won't be any need to talk about Grey, practically every thing he did seemed to warrant an attack by his mom and sister.

Adam made sure to keep his cool and do everything right which earned him the title of being a robot. So everything he said, Priscilla made sure to mimic in a robot voice.

As expected, grandpa was taunted simply because he was old.

Azure and Priscilla had even spoken about the entire therapy thingy and she had agreed to show her to her friends who were therapists. She gave extra attention to a particular Mrs. Roseline who appeared to be very mean but she was very professional and sweet in due time. She made her patients overcome every fear and made such fears into the reason for survival.

Despite all the trouble, they were having a great time like one big happy family. They danced together, switching dance partners every now and then. Azure drank a lot of water for fear of losing herself if she got drunk. (if you don't understand, she was scared she'd go somewhere private and take her own life while under the influence of alcohol) She turned down every offer of wine giving her preference as water.

Azure knew that a lot of eyes were on her but she wouldn't let that spoil her fun, the charity event turned out to be one of the best days of her life.

Grandpa had also blurted out his intentions to hand over his companies to Nicholas and make him the sole owner and decision maker of them. He was willing and happy to finally retire.

Azure had found joy in the presence of her family. Her grandparents, Grey's parents, Grey, Elisa and Natalia as well as their men were her family. She'd do anything to protect them. After a while of partying, it was time for auctions and Azure was becoming really pressed. The hall had just three toilets for female use and it was always full every time Azure went to check.

She felt the presence of someone looking in her direction but she chose not to turn. She figured it was one of those people who had seen the news.

"I'm going to use the bathroom. I'll be quick" she whispered into Grey's ear.

"This is like the fifth time you're going are you alright?"

"It's always too full, I'm extremely pressed right now. I'm going to check again before I pee on myself right here and embarrass you."

"Go on. I'll send your girl gang to check on you if you're not back in five minutes."

"You best do." she chuckled and left his presence.

As she walked towards the bathroom, someone grabbed her hand making her heart skip a million beats as she turned.

"It's really full in there, I don't know what you girls had to drink tonight. I can show you a private bathroom though."

"Really? Where?"

"You know, my family owns this hall that is being used tonight, I have a room upstairs that has a bathroom attached to it. You're pretty and so, I'll let you use it."

"Oh my gosh, you are a blessing. Thank you so much." The man, true to his words led her to a room upstairs and let her use the bathroom.

She came out of the bathroom when she was done with her business and headed towards the door however, creepy Mr I-know-the-way had other plans for her.

He easily tackled her to the bed and got on top of her. Her struggles were no match for him.

"Please let me go, I don't want to do this! Arggggh! Leave me alone! Grey! Somebody help me!"

"Stop screaming." he used his hand to cover her mouth. "Why are you rejecting me? I'm going to go easy on you. You're really a dirty whore in the end. It was alright for your father to fuck you but not me? Come on, stop fighting it, I know you want me."

Seeing that her struggles weren't ending and she was constantly clamming her mouth in attempt to bite him, he got a piece of cloth and tied her mouth stopping her from making any loud sounds.

"Since you're going to be a bitch about this, I might as well treat you as one." He took four other pieces of clothes and tied her hands and legs to the bed.

He decided that he'd take his time with her since he had all the time he needed, no one knew where they were anyways and no one would think to check for her here. He was so certain of his privacy that he forgot to lock the door. He slowly took off his clothes slapping her cheeks every time she looked away from him or shut her eyes in irritation.

When he was utterly naked in front of her, he walked slowly towards her and reached for the zip behind her.

Despite being bound, she made her struggle known to him by her wiggling. "We're going to have a fun time together, okay. " He could only go as far as half way down zipping the dress before he felt the impact of a golf stick on his back and then head.

Being a man who had withstood such pain, he didn't feel any, all he felt was shock. Shock as to how who ever the fuck it was located him.

"You get the fuck away from her!" Azure recognized that voice as Elisa. She still held the golf stick as her weapon.

"Two for me? Like this is not my fucking day!" He made a move towards her but stopped when he saw her flinging the stick recklessly.

"Two my ass. Say your last prayers you bastard!" Trevor had come in as well and pointed a gun in the direction of the strange man.

"Don't shoot him Trev. There's a party going on downstairs and we don't want to disturb them. The grandparents and my parents wouldn't like this." Grey walked inside and placed a hand on Trev's to put the gun down.

He, however, went forward and one sight of his Azure on the bed, he could feel the ripples of his boiling blood. He pushed the man with all the strength he had and started throwing series of punches at him. As expected, the man gave a good fight as well. While they fought, the other two went over to Azure and untied her.

Azure couldn't help the tears streaming down her eyes as she clung to Trevor, who stroked her back in comfort. Elisa on the other hand ran back downstairs and called Natalia and Lucas discreetly so as to not alarm the elders.

"Stop it bro, you'll kill him!" Lucas pulled Grey away from a bloodied looking weakling on the floor once he entered the room.

"He deserves to die! He almost.... S-she wouldn't be able to live if he went through with that" Tears were streaming down his eyes as well.

"I know, I'll take care of him. Right now, I think your attention should be on her, rather than him."

Grey staggered over to the bed and sat, motioning with his hands for her to come close to him.

Despite the blood and cuts on his face and body, Azure had no problem crawling into his hands and bawling her eyes out.

Lucas called up some guards to take away the body from the room and gave orders to Elisa and Natalia to go back to their parents lest they started getting suspicious. He was going to look for a back door exit out of the building and Trevor was to stay there with the both of them.

When all were gone apart from Nick and Trev, she finally rose her head and looked closely at Grey.

"Why does everyone want to have sex with me? Does it really not matter whether I want it or not? I begged him not to, I begged him to stop but he made me watch him..... Am I some sex toy or something of sort that's on display for public use? Why don't I have a say who has sex with me or not?"

"You do have a say Azure. I haven't....."

"But you want to, don't you?" She fixed her gaze at his grey orbs, daring him to deny it.

"Azure, you are a pretty girl and I love you. It's normal for me to want to make love to you, it's normal for any man to want to have sex with you but, it's not normal for any man to take away your choice to have sex with them. I'll never do it and you know it."

"Yes Ruth, Nick is right. Sex is a thing of consent and when there isn't any, that's rape. There's a lot of time that I've wanted to make love to Natty and she doesn't want to. I've never used force on her, all I have to do is get her horny in some way, make her willing.... "

"I don't think I want to hear about you having sex with my sister Trev. Save it."

"Oh come on! I know you think about it sometimes, you know like, 'what's my sister doing right now? OMG is she fucking that crazed Trevor, how are they....' "

"Shut it man" Grey stopped Trev before he went any further. Truth is that he thought about it a lot sometimes.

For a while, Azure forgot that she had just been almost raped and burst into laughter and the two men joined in. Trust Trev to always lighten the room.

Their laughter was cut short when Lucas entered. "Let's go now. The girls told the elders that you two had something important to take care of at home. Trev, you can go back to Natalia now, she is worried sick and probably needs your attention. Nick, Ruth, you guys come with me. I found an exit and there's no paparazzi there."

"Thanks guys, you guys are amazing."

"You'd do the same for us right?" Trev said as he neared the door. "Of course I would." Grey replied without hesitation.

"Then there's nothing to be thankful for."

Grey sat behind the wheels on their way back home. The ride was as silent as possible and Grey was becoming worried. Even as they arrived home, Azure made sure not to say anything. She simply went to the room, took off her clothes and went into the bathroom. She brushed her teeth while the bathtub was filling up.

An hour had passed and she still hadn't come out. Grey's patience had stretched to the extreme and he was done giving her space to herself.

Entering the bathroom, he saw her relaxed with her eyes closed. He went back in and got an mp3 player and played some soft music for her. He believed it helped calm a person's mind.

He went into the kitchen and poured some wine for them. He also lit candles and did the entire cliché romantic bathroom service.

When he was done, he got into the bathtub with her, making her wake from her slumber.

"Grey, what are you doing? What's all these?" Azure started as she sat up and looked at him, confusion clearly written on her face.

"Finally! She speaks to me." He took the two glasses of wine into his hands and handed over one to her "Wine for your thoughts?" He wiggled his brows as he spoke.

Azure let out the smile eating her up inside. He truly was the best she could ever ask for.

"Since you asked nicely and with my favourite wine, I'll let you know my thoughts." She felt better already even before she told him anything.

"I realized that I'm not scared at all. The fact that I was almost raped doesn't make me feel fear or make me sad, it simply makes me angry to think that there are a lot of girls who get raped all the time because they are weak. I'm angry that I am one of those weak girls who couldn't do anything to save herself from being sexually abused and that's why I was thinking about attending self defence lessons. I was speaking to your mom and she particularly praised one of her therapist friends. Her name is Mrs Roseline and I want to meet her, first thing tomorrow after which, we're going to sign up for self defence lessons."

"Okay, I agree with you. It's good to be skilled enough for situations like that however, it's not your fault and you need to know that. It's the bastards own fault."

***

The next day came quickly and the headlines shocked Grey out of his wits. There was a serial killer on the loose and himself and Azure were the obvious bullseye.

'It seems like the world's current favourite couple, Mr Nicholas and Miss Ruth have attracted to themselves, a serial killer.

Miss Katherine who released a false press about the identity of Miss Ruth was found at her home dead. The same goes to the directors who tried stealing from Mr Nicholas and also, a certain Mr Eddy who was admitted to the hospital last night. It is said by a trusted informant that Mr Eddy tried taking advantage of Miss Ruth last night and was beaten up by her boyfriend, the famous Nicholas Corner.

The three set of people seemed to have died in the same manner and this makes the police think that it is a serial killer.

The Bureau's consultant claimed that the serial killer is most likely a woman and that she has to be an enemy of either one or the two as a couple. They assure us their best will be put into figuring out who this killer is.

The serial killer first cuts off their palms and feet, then she slits their throat. She uses a heated rod to draw a cross sign on their backs and nails them to the wall using tent pins and with their blood, she also writes underneath them, For the greater good. Everyone is scared of crossing the path of the couple for this killer could be anywhere...."

Grey turned off the TV once he heard footsteps descending the stairs. He also quickly threw the news papers into the bin and made sure he was void of any emotions on his face.

***

Azure finally had her turn into the office of Mrs Roseline while Grey's went to work.

"I'm elated. I get to meet the infamous Miss Ruth Pierce. How do you do daughter?"

"I'm good Mrs Roseline. Priscilla told me a lot about you and your expertise."

"I'm glad she did. Anyways, let's get to the point here, what do you believe your weakness and strength to be?"

Azure was shocked at the brazenness of this woman, could she even be qualified to be a therapist with her cold attitude.

"Well, Nicholas remains my strength and losing him my weakness." Azure decided to remain calm and continue to respond to her.

"Then you're a fool. You have a weak mind, you should set your strength as having a mind of your own rather than be thinking of a man as your strength."

"What! Listen to me you old woman...."

"You listen to me Ruth! Are you that foolish to not see that indeed you're a burden to Nicholas? Now he tells you he loves you, that he'll never leave you, he doesn't care if you're crazy but 5 years from now, he'll only look for ways to throw you out of his life, spend more hours at work to avoid you and more. You might think that he is your strength but you will become his weakness in the nearest future."

"I do not like where..."

"Shut up and listen to me you little girl. How long will you make Nicholas take care of you like a child, your mates are working very hard and earning money for themselves...."

"Those mates you speak of weren't locked up in a house for fifteen years and raped through out those years.... "

"That's my point. Because you are a different case you should work even harder. You may think you deserve Nicholas but he doesn't deserve you. He deserves better and until you can be a better woman for him, you will remain his weakness."

"He chose me. He made me his woman even though he was aware that I wasn't deserving of him. What can I do, I love him so much."

"You can suck it up and become a useful woman. If I become your therapist, the first thing I'll do is take you away from Nicholas. Until you become a deserving woman, it's useless pursuing love. He'll get tired of you in the end."

"You're too hard on me, What makes you even believe that I'll pick you as my therapist. All you do is condemn me and try to separate myself and Nick."

"I've done my work here. For certain you'll have a lot to think about and just to show you how weak you are in Nicholas' eyes, he didn't even tell you about such a serious matter involving you."

"What are you talking about?" Roseline took out several papers from her folder and handed them over to her. Azure's eyes were wider than saucers and she couldn't believe Grey would hide such a thing from her. She sprung to her feet and walked out of the woman's office in anger, not even bothering to say goodbye to her. She knew something was bothering him this morning when he failed to kiss her before they left the house, he even failed to give her a compliment and he remained silent through out their ride.

Grey was going to hear from her. For certain, she had picked the therapist she needed to save her.