Chapter 13

She couldn't go home.

Serena knew she would probably do something she would regret later if she went home directly with the way her blood was boiling. Beneath the anger was trepidation about what would happen to her marriage as a result of her brash attitude but she ignored it and hold on to the anger. That felt better than the blame and guilt she knew she would feel if she focused on what she had done.

"Who knew I could be so rude to anyone? Almost couldn't understand me anymore" she thought as she neared the intersection that lead to her home. A home where Mathew would be seething as he waited for her to come and apologise for all her wrongdoings. She wouldn't do it and that could only lead to more fights. She was sure that Eugenia would have called her son to give him well-edited highlights of what had happened at the party she never got to attend.

Well, she was not about to fight. She didn't want to. Nor would she be apologising.

She looked at the intersection she was supposed to take, and pictured Mathew waiting for her on the porch with a stormy expression. Or worse, Mathew was in bed, pretending to be asleep as he treated her to a deafening silence. She shivered slightly as she knew that she was ready for neither. Now that her initial bravado had left her system. She just wanted to curl up and have a good night's sleep or talk to someone about all the turmoil in her system that seemed to be giving her alternate characters. She parked by the roadside, simply looking at the intersection for a long while. She did not want to go home. She was sure of that.

Serena thought of going to her mother's place but she knew that she would not be welcomed. Meimu would not forgive her for what she would term as humiliation in a hurry. She dialled Amara's number without knowing what she intended to tell her, she looked at the time on the dashcam and saw that it was already 7:45 pm. The phone rang for a while but her friend did not pick up.

Serena disconnected the call and wondered what she would have told her friend anyway.

"Hey there, I just sassed my husband, his entire family and my mum too, now I am afraid of going home to my angry husband?"

Yeah, right. That would be a good one. She knew that her friend would probably hoot in laughter and dance n the table with her bulging stomach to the dismay of her husband. Yes, Amara would be happy for her but she would be the only one. Every other person she knew would berate her for being brazen and they would probably think her loose as well.

She briefly thought of going to a hotel to sleep for the night but she shook her head as she laughed at herself "Yeah, right. They just called you a tart and you are about to prove it by sleeping out? Way to go, girl"

She started the car again and drove past the turn that lead to her house. She just had to keep going. Yes, a drive would clear her head. Maybe by the time she got home, Mathew would be asleep and she could just sneak into bed. That would give her enough time to face him tomorrow.

She had had enough drama for today.

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"Fuck this!" Kincaid Aslanov swore at himself as he saw more blood seeped through the hands he had over his stomach and shoulder. What had he done to himself? Oh damn! He knew he couldn't hold on for much longer. Damn it! That bastard Jeff had fucked him over. He wondered what they had paid the bastard to turn on him.

"Oh shit," he thought again unable to speak much as he felt his energy wane. He knew he couldn't allow the darkness to take him over. No, he couldn't. There would be hell to pay. Jeff would surely rue the day he decided to sell him out. But for now, he needed to keep his eyes open and his feet moving. He kept staggering on the path.

It had been pure luck that he was able to jump into a parked truck in front of the spot they had chosen for the meeting. Jeff had told him how the people didn't want to draw much attention to themselves, so they wanted the meeting to be held away from the hotel. Government officials could be like that so Kincaid had agreed. The contact had been through Jeff, Kincaid had not thought much of it since it happened like that at times. Jeff had been in the business for a while before Kincaid became the head of the Aslanov clan. Heck, his father had worked with Kincaid's father but the elderly Shante had been diagnosed with terminal cancer by the time Kincaid came back home from his self-imposed exile so he had introduced his son, Jeff to Kincaid to help him out with the successful running of the family business. Kincaid had been so aggrieved when the elderly Shante had succumbed to his illness the year before as he could remember how the man used to treat him back when he was small and his relationship with his father had not become strained.

Jeff had proved himself to be as capable as his father was with Kincaid's father. And he had become Kincaid's second hand and aide. That was why he had been the only person he brought for this particular journey even though Basset had warned him about the danger. Kincaid blamed himself for shunning his brother's advice even when the latter had asked that he be allowed t follow him. The lad still had a lot to learn and he was trying his best to make sure that he had other choices apart from the family business but the boy seemed intent on involving himself.

"Shit!" Kincaid swore again when his foot caught against something and he went down.

"If Jeff and the bastards that he was sure were still searching for him at the moment did not catch up with him and finish him off first then he was sure he would kill himself with his inattentiveness. He looked up and he realised that he had made his way to the main road again.

He couldn't feel his legs again and he had no idea how he was expected to get to safety when he couldn't even do that. Where was safety anyway? He shook his head at himself. Safety was the Aslanov Island and that was several miles away.

Damn it, he had not come this far to die like a common dog by the roadside, he thought.

Headlights pierced the darkening night and he swore again.

Damn, they caught up with him. He thought as he tried to reach for his colt only to remember that he had lost it somewhere. Maybe in the back of that truck.

Just peachy. Now he would just be like a goose for them to pluck off without a defence.