CHAPTER 47

Anna gripped onto Raven's shoulder and clung onto him. Her head was so heavy that she felt she was about to hit the floor. She clutched tighter onto him and he cursed under his breath unable to hold her back. Footsteps approached them.

"Dad?" The hurt in Raven's voice had more tears gushing out of Anna's eyes. She couldn't believe everything when she heard it from Austin. How could Raven possibly do? About his long-misunderstood father.

Richard stopped before them as he stared down at the pair, his eyes flashing false sympathy.

"Poor girl, you didn't have to act smart, did you?" He looked sympathetically at Anna whose face was into Raven's neck before  harshly grabbing a handful of her hair and yanked her body away from his.

"No!" Raven leaped forward against the restraints as Anna cried out, helplessly trying to reach back to him while Richard continued to drag her and pushed her down at the center of the floor. Her head collided with the hard granite tile, as her earlier wounds opened wider, oozing out more blood.

"What a pity, you couldn't even take two stabs for your so called Love?" Richard said and that was the last thing Anna heard before everything blacked out.

'Stab? They stabbed her?'

Richard scoffed at the girl lying on the floor and suddenly the person became a stranger to him. Who was he? Was he the person he called Father?

"Dad?" It was a question floating in the air. The answer obvious but still too hard to believe.

"Don't call me that." Richard growled.

He marched towards Raven before crouching down to his level. His eyes were brimming with fury and hatred, something Raven had never seen in those grey orbs.

"I'm not your Father and you are not my fucking son." He spat before turning around and walking away. There, he said it.

Raven was at loss of words. If this was a nightmare, then he just wanted to wake up. He couldn't take it, it was too much.

"Only if I didn't marry your mother after your Father abandoned you both, you wouldn't have been the CEO. It would have been me, fucking Richard Lorraine." Raven stared appalled at the man who was spitting his hatred at him.

Why couldn't he just kill him already and get it over with? It would be easier than listening to all that.

"What are you saying, Dad?" Raven couldn't hide the hurt in his voice and when Richard broke out into a chuckle it had him in more pain.

"Fucking idiot. Don't you still get it? I am not your father." He strolled back to Raven and stood at a meter distance as he stared up at the man. Raven didn't even know him anymore.

"I was just an assistant of Gregor Franklin, you birth father," he said, staring at somewhere far away, his face twisting in disgust, "When your father failed at business and flee away from the country, I supported your mother to bring you all out of the debt. Me." He pointed at himself, gritting his teeth.

"I waited for years to finally take over the company when your mother, that stupid women, handed over the CEO position to you. She didn't even think about how hard I worked for it. I fucking slogged for that my entire life." He tugged at hid hair with both his hands like a lunatic.

It was too much to understand. Raven kept quiet and listened his rantings. 'What should I believe? '

He looked at Christine, who was now quiet and indifferent. He knew Christine could be a pain to handle but this.... Never ever did he think his once loyal employee would stoop so low for money.

"Don't over think it, son. It's not your fault that your mother drafted the property will to your name." He chuckled darkly.

'Fuck, the will.' Raven closed his eyes, realising where all of that was coming from. But if that was true, what Anna said must be.....

Raven glanced at Anna, her chest was moving up and down but her eyes were closed, body still. Blood pooled around her neck and an unbidden image of Areum lying in the same position came to his mind. Raven gripped the ropes, a mixed feeling of rage and vulnerability gushing through his veins. 'I have to get to her.'

"That fucking crazy women. How could she do that to me? She just wrote off that all the property and the shares will belong to you and your family when you get married." He ran a hand through his hair again, before his eyes snapped down to Raven. A smirk, ghosted his face.

"Then, I came up with a plan. A plan to get you to sign the shares to me." Raven ceased his brows as Richard blurted out all his dark secrets. He couldn't believe what he was hearing but it was painfully true. Everything he said made sense and keeping in mind that he wasn't his birth father, it definitely made sense.

"Do you know who helped me carry out the plan?" Richard asked folding his hands before himself with a smile. Raven's eyes travelled to the blonde standing beside Anna on the floor as he glared at her.

"Oh, No no. Not Christine. She just distracted you. Think a little further. For a hint, someone you used to love" My eyes widened, heart beat dropping as I stared dumbfounded at him. Areum...? No, she wouldn't.

Richard seemed to understand his inner battle as he let out a frustrated growl.

"Damn, your mother. The crazy women. She drafted the will saying when you get married, the shares will be equally divided between you and your wife. And when she bears your child, three fourth of the shares would belong to the child." His head snapped to Raven again, something between pain and rage floating around his eyes. He looked at him disgusted.

"And what would I get hmm? What about me?" He yelled. Raven bit onto his tongue, silently listening to the story of betrayal Richard was narrating.

"So I arrived at a decision. I had to do something, anything and get my shares if not all of it." He walked over Anna's limp body and Raven gritted his teeth, tugging at the rope and shuffling his sore knees. He walked over to Christine before putting an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him.

Raven looked away disgusted, as Richard hungrily latched his mouth to her neck, then dragging his tongue down her throat.

"I wanted a girl who could marry you for the sake of my plan and then take your initials on the papers." He walked back to Raven, with Christine beside him, a sickening smile plastered on both their faces.

"That's when I appointed Areum, for this job." He smirked before it totally disappeared from his face.

Raven closed his eyes and ducked his head down, defeated. Anna was right. Richard let go off Christine as she hooked her arms into his. Richard frowned.

"Areum was doing just fine before she suddenly decided to give up on the plan. Crazy bitch!" He marched to Raven in a flash and bent down. He grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head up. Raven hissed.

"Did you know what she told me? That she fell in love. With you" His other hand came up to grab Raven's jaws, as his eyes bore into his tearful ones. 'I know she did.'

"She refused to continue the plan. Because of you." He yanked his head away and walked away from him. Raven felt the ropes slipping off his wrist due to the sweat. He slowly tugged on them again and felt the rope sliding easily across his wrists. He clenched his jaws but I kept still. Richard wasn't done ranting and Raven wasn't done listening.

"I tried to make her understand but she was so fascinated with your charms, she just wouldn't listen. So, I had to strike her off the plan." He shrugged.

Raven clutched the rope tight, trying to hold in the building rage as he glared at the man. Richard turned around and chuckled.

"Don't look at me like that. It was your fault. It was only because of you that you lost them." He spat. Raven frowned, brows knitting together.

"Them?" He almost whispered, confused.

Richard looked at him, surprised before a wicked smile tugged his lips up and he broke into laughter.

"Oh, my son. Didn't you know? She was pregnant."

'What? '

All the blood drained off Raven's face. His shoulders slumped and a stray tear rolled down his bloody face.

Richard walked over to where Anna was lying unconscious on the floor and crouched down. He faked a sad smile.

"I remember that day, at the restaurant rooftop." He looked over at Raven while he stared at the ground, defeated. He suddenly lost all his remaining strength. The rage disappeared. Fortunately, he was already on his knees or else he wasn't sure if he would have been able to stand steady on his feet. Raven realized that he didn't just loose her but his child.

'My child.'

"It wasn't planned, genuinely. I didn't plan on killing her," Richard threw his hands up in surrender, "I knew you would be there with Areum so I called her to the rooftop just intending to talk it out with her. I wanted the plan continued and completed. But that women, she was blinded, by love."

He emphasized the last word. Reaching forward he stroked Anna's head, smiling like a lunatic while his gaze was fixed on Raven.

Something snapped within Raven. A sudden urge. An urge to rip that smile off his ridiculous face.

"She threatened me, to open up about everything, my plan, in front of you and your mother myself, or else she would do it for me." His brows ceased, a slow irritated look spreading across his pale face, as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"That's when I lost it. That just budded flower was challenging a tree. Do you know what the tree did then?" He raised a brow at him.

"He crushed the flower." He stood up, laughing like a manic. Christine joined in soon and then both of their disgusting laughter was ringing in his ear.

Raven felt his ears would be bleed when it finally died down. He looked over at the girl who had no part in all this, lying across the floor, wounded, for him. 'Because of me'. Had he not come into her life, she would have been safe, out of this mess.

Everytime he fell, she picked him up again. He didn't deserve her but when he came to realize that, it was too late. He already fell for her and there was only one thing he wanted to do now—protect her. And he would do it at any cost because he had lost himself once. He won't again.

'I won't loose her.'