Chapter 2.

Melanie.

I reach home and cry my eyes out as I fall on the bed. Recalling all that happened, six years ago.

I recall my father, my mum. I should be having dinner now, but I can't because seeing Regan today, has evoked horrible memories. Seeing Regan ruined my entire day.

I was supposed to have dinner with my friends and Mitch, my boyfriend at Rochelle Restaurant. But I cancelled. I couldn't even be a proper company tonight, even if I had forced myself. And I wasn't willing to play pretend, just like Regan, once Lucinda returned from her call, earlier today.

He just returned to normal, as if he hadn't disclosed that his family and the Tenshaws were both neck deep in blood. Empires built on blood.

A familiar ache sears my heart. The one that stems from the guilt I suffer, whenever I recall I slept with Regan; allowed him take my virginity, days after his family had destroyed mine. The ache that comes from the knowledge that mum and dad will never be around to scold me again.

It was at dinner, six years ago in Spain that the Heartstones came to abduct me and slaughter my entire family for a debt my father owed. A debt we never knew of. They stormed our home, killed my father, mum, my five sisters and everyone. They grabbed me and declared I was to be used to pay the debt, and finally they slit his throat. 

The last I remember of him was he spoke to me in Spanish that I should be a brave girl. I shouldn't let them see my pain. That I was a Schofield. I fainted when they killed him. Because somehow, I thought he was my rock. Indestructible Hulk. But he died, so easily.

I passed out. Numbing my entire body.

I sob hard.

The doorbell rings and I reluctantly go to open it. 

"Regan?" I frown. He doesn't wait for my permission. He enters. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?" I ask, fiercely. 

"I want to know how you became Melanie Berry. The last I know, you're Rita Schofield." He's angry.

 What's he got to be angry about?

"Rita's dead. She died when you asked her to cross that road, six years ago in Florida." I bring my hand to my hips. Am still in my work dress. 

"I asked you to cross to a better life, Rita. I referred you to my buddy, Defranchez, so he could help you escape anywhere but here. I didn't ask you to become Melanie. To remain in the States. What if anyone in my family had found you? What if dad had found you? He would have had you killed!" Regan comes to hold my shoulders. 

Shaking me.

His touch suddenly makes me weak, as I stare into his eyes. Concern etched in his handsome face. Tall, his striking turquoise eyes that I have never forgotten. His blonde locks that I had raked my fingers in, when he took me for the first time. I was 18 then.

I want to tell him I remained because I wanted to find him. Because I wanted to be with him again, after he braced his family for my sake. Rescued me and taken me. Branded me for himself.

 I changed my name with Defranchez, so his family would never find me. Struggled to get my papers through Defranchez, just so I could someday see this crazy Americano again. 

I wanted Regan then. And I still do. But now things are different. He's different. He didn't remember me. He didn't ask Defranchez for me or search for me. He didn't feel the same way I had felt that night, six years ago. For him, I was just a source for his amusement, while we ran that night. 

Now seeing him here, am really furious. I want him to hurt the same way I was hurt. I want him to lose everything the same way I lost everything. I want the Heartstones punished for wiping out my family, years ago.

 If he had even searched for me, one bit, I might have considered not getting revenge on the Heartstones. For Regan's sake, I might have forgiven. But knowing he's able to move on. To find a marriage, after he promised me heaven and earth that night he slept with me, I want him to bleed. 

Didn't he say earlier, his family was in enmity with the Tenshaws? So I would use this information to my advantage.

 I would hit them where it hurt. I had held on to all the information I had on the Heartstones, years ago. The murder of my family. The locket in my possession, handed me by my father days before his death, which has codes to vaults, where the Heartstones kept deadly secrets. Secrets that could ruin them forever. Now I would unleash hell on them. 

Regan looks at me, his expression tensed as he watches me. Watches my lips. I wonder if desire stokes in him, the way revenge burns in me. He lowers his head to my face, his strained eyes watching me. 

"I never forgot that night, Rita. I never did." He looks pained.

 But all I see is the face of a man, who never bothered to search for me. A man who never bothered to comb the earth for me.

Bile rising to my throat at my foolishness; sleeping with the son to the man, who had wiped my family. 

"Get out of my house, Regan. And never come back." I never asked him how he got to find my house. Knowing his family, I know their connections. 

"What if I don't want to?" He holds a grin.

I inhale a shaky breath.

"Then I'd call Lucinda and inform her that her fiance's family wiped my family out, six years ago. That her fiancée was my first." 

Regan pales. His hands fall limp to his sides.