~CIARA'S POV~
A friend in need is a friend indeed.From the days of my childhood, I have never been able to understand what this phrase meant.
Does it mean that it is only a friend who is in trouble that is a real friend or is it something else entirely different? I pondered on this very riddle and I had almost given up on it.
Until now.
Now I know what it means by a friend in need is a friend indeed. What it means to have a friend who is there for you in tough times, What it means to have someone willing to sacrifice everything for you.
What it means to have someone like Ava Miller. That girl is a rare gem and anyone would be lucky to have someone like her.
Just as she had proven to me.
~FLASHBACK~
"I'm pregnant, Ava."
Mockery. My demons were mocking me, the words they spoke revolved along the lines of me being a worthless piece of flesh that no one cares about and I tried not to believe them, I did but as I saw Ava's face get paler with each passing minute I couldn't help but believe them.
"Is this a joke, Ciara?"
I lowered my neck and shook my head in shame, the laughter of the monsters inside me intensified and I almost cried from the pain I felt in my heart but the next words Ava said shut them up completely.
"Who is he?"
I raised my head and stared into her beautiful anger-filled eyes.
"I don't understand you, Ava."
She let out a dry chuckle and I couldn't help but get scared about what could happen if it were directed at me.
"Let me rephrase my question, who was the bastard that forced himself on you?"
My mouth was ajar and my eyes grew to the size of saucers as my brain tried to formulate a logical explanation as to why she would say that.
"Why would you ask me that?"
"It was rape, isn't it? I am sorry for not being here for you baby but I promise I will never leave your side again. All I need is his name and I will make him suffer."
I opened my mouth to talk her out of this but before I could get the words out, Ava beat me to it.
"Is it the chief guard? Or the one who has a scar on his lip or is it Charlie? No wait, Charlie's not into girls. ugh, If Noah had the effort to build the discipline of…wait, is it Noah's?"
I lowered my eyes to the floor and slowly nodded my head and I didn't need to look up to see that the anger swimming in her orbs had intensified.
"I'm going to kill him."
I looked at her with so much speed that my eyes almost fell from their sockets but I couldn't care less about the pain I was feeling now, what was important was stopping the thoughts that ran through her head.
"What?"
"How dare he lay his hands on a woman against her will?"
"Ava, stop."
"If there is something I hate most in this world then it's a man who is too much of a coward to get a girl into his bed the old-fashioned way but don't worry, Ciara. I would purge this world of his existence even if it's the last thing I do."
She turned to leave the cell and my panic got the best of me.
"Wait, Ava."
She halted in her step and turned to me with a white-hot rage still burning in those eyes.
I looked away and lowered my head for the umpteenth time. "It wasn't rape," I whispered to her and prayed that the darkness in my head couldn't hear me.
Her eyes rounded and the anger that once burned in them turned to tenderness and something else that I couldn't understand. She rushed to me and took my frail form into her arms.
"Does he know about the baby?"
I shook my head and the tears I held spilled from my eyes.
"It's okay, Ciara. Everything is going to be fine..."
I cried harder into her embrace and the feeling of having someone to care for me.
"...you aren't alone, Ciara. I will always be here for you."
~END OF FLASHBACK~
It's been a week and not once have I doubted the words she said to me that day.
She brought me food and warmer clothes and even got one of the guards to clean my cell leaving the once vile-smelling confinement with a flowery fragrance, the only stretch was the restraints still fastened on my wrists.
A clean baby starts with a clean mother, were the words she said and she has made it her life mission to see to my every need.
"How is the best mama in the world doing today!?"
I lifted my head with my lips stretched into a smile. She walked towards me with a smile of her own on her lips and a tray in the other.
"I brought something for you."
She sat in front of me and the delicious aroma made my mouth water.
"Do you want some?"
I nodded my head without hesitation and a light chuckle left her lips, she held the spoon and scooped the contents, and fed it to me, my taste buds exploded from how delicious it tasted.
She held up the spoon again and I opened my mouth before she told me to and they exploded again.
As she continued feeding me and I continued eating, she began to speak.
"So I was thinking about baby names and I have a couple you would like."
I nodded my head, urging her to speak when I felt a dull ache in my tummy. It's probably because of how fast I was eating.
"I was thinking if it's a girl then her name would be Evagaline…"
The dull ache became a throbbing pain and I swallowed my saliva to find some relief. There was none.
"...and if it's a boy then his name would be Tobias, get it because It would be…are you okay, Ciara?"
The pain had gotten more excruciating and tears fell from my eyes. I fell to the floor and curled into a ball.
"It hurts, Ava."
I was met with just silence and I turned to Ava who was standing there, staring at me.
"I know." That was all she could say.
I froze in place and a shiver ran through my spine as I heard the voice of the woman I called my friend.
"Ava, what is…"
"I only waited a week so I can hear the heartbeat of your little bastard when it does from the poison."
Tears fell from my eyes and the pain surging through my body was too much to handle.
My eyes drooped and my vision blurred, but I could see the look of hatred in her eyes.
~CIARA'S POV~I sat in a pool of blood that used to be the fetus in my belly and my heart was saddened with each second that passed. I have cried till I can cry no more and cursed till I could curse no more, but nothing I did could ease the ache I felt in my chest.Because nothing can bring it back to me.I lowered my head and the tears that I thought had dried up flowed from my eyes like an angered river and a sob left my lips.How could you do this to me, goddess?I looked up into the ceiling and the anguish in my soul fuelled the anger in my chest.How could you forsake me after all I have been through? How could you take the only silver lining I had in this stormy condition you gave me for life?How could you let the evils of this world take my only joy?And how could you sit there and do nothing while the innocent people suffer for what they know nothing about.My heart raced and my breathing got ragged but my head was still hel
~CIARA'S POV~ ~FLASHBACK~ "Auntie, please could you help me get my bike?" I turned from my work and stared into the pleading eyes of my neighbor's child. I've seen enough teary eyes to know the real from the fake but if there is one thing I learned from all my years of being a teacher, is that when a child wants something he will go to any length to get it, until he does. And this little boy wants something. I smiled at the mischief that blended with the innocence of his eyes and I didn't have the heart to deny the child before me of his request, even though he had an ulterior motive because every child has an ulterior motive. To explore the life that we adults are too broken to enjoy. So I set off into the forest, to find the bike of a child who would lose it again. I moved with haste, determined to make it back in time before Nana woke up so I could prepare our meal. Except, I didn't go back. I couldn't go back. Not when I was attacked by wolves who were double my size and who
~NOAH'S POV~Perspiration coated my skin and heavy pants fell from my lips as I trained by myself in the field. It's been a week since I last visited that vermin and the anger I felt then still burns brightly in my soul. Who broke my toy before I could? Who had what it took to break the spirit that had been trying to shatter for weeks? But why does it bother me? I should be thrilled that she has lost her will to resist the truth. I should be ecstatic that I am one step closer to getting my revenge on that cursed woman. And yet…why does it bother me that her eyes have lost their shine? Why did my heart ache when I didn't hear her perverted comments? Why was I consumed with guilt when her broken voice bounced off the damn walls of that cursed cell?I fell to my knees in agony as a sharp pain ran through my chest. My breathing grew frantic and my heart pounded against my ribcage as dark spots st
~CIARA'S POV~I looked at the bandages wrapped around my wrists and thighs. Frustration sat in the pit of my stomach and my hands turned to fists.It has been a week since my first suicide attempt and every night as I'm about to escape this cruel world someone crawls into my cell like the coward they are and treats my injuries.But it wasn't just my wounds they took care of. The culprit also took it upon himself to clean my cell, leave me food, and change me into fresh clothes and underwear. Disgusted that a total stranger had seen me in a vulnerable state, I moved in every position possible trying to scratch my skin against the floor in hopes that their vile touch would leave the surface of my skin. It was pointless. Because the only part of my body that touched the floor was my feet. I wasn't moved by this. I wasn't moved by the sheer possibility that there might be someone who cared for me in this wicked world.
~CIARA'S POV~I sobbed bitterly into the bandages around my wrists. My heart ached from the tidal wave of pain that washed over my being and my soul wished to leave my body to call out to his, hoping to ease the pain we both felt. But I didn't let it. As I wailed in agony on the concrete floor, the metal door cracked open and I looked up expecting to see Noah standing before me with a look of longing in his eyes. But there was no yearning look or sad cobalt eyes to get lost in and there was no Noah Richard to cry with. There was only an ominous presence and the hatred-filled eyes of the bitch who took my peanut from me.Ava. "It's been a while, Ciara," Her voice dripped with hostility and I growled at the negative energy that oozed from her pores. She raised her hands above her head in mock surrender and a smirk crawled up her face. "Relax, Ciara. I just wanted to say hello to my best frien
~AVA'S POV~*FLASHBACK*The moonlight cast a glow on my face as the omega patrollers from the Gold Bay pack dragged me from the border where I was found to the main packhouse.It was my long-awaited opportunity for revenge and I didn't care if I got caught sneaking into the pack. I pulled on the restraints on my arms and discovered how weak they were. I was trained for moments like this so it wasn't hard to free myself from the young omegas who had caught me. Their eyes grew wide thinking I was about to make a run for it.I rose my hands up in surrender as they seemed ready to attack.“Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. I just have sensitive skin you know… you were pulling on my wrists so much.”
~CIARA'S POV~I shivered from the cold.“Shh! You're okay. You're fine.” A man's voice whispered to me.My vision was hazy but I noticed that someone had put a blanket over me and I embraced it to myself. I noticed that I was in a real room and on a really soft bed. It felt like a band was playing drums in my head. It ached so bad that I felt my head would split open. I shut my eyes and grunted in pain. My body was badly bruised and I was in excruciating pain. I don't know for how long I had slipped in and out of consciousness but I was exhausted. Each time I opened my eyes, I was greeted by that pain, the pain of one with a battered body.“Here have this.” A pill was slipped into my dry mouth and I was lifted from the bed just enough to take a sip of water. I swallowed.“Thank you,” I murmured.
~CIARA~I stepped out of the room I had been in on the fourth day. I was much better and could move around as well. I decided to take a look around. I caught a scent as I came out but just then, I heard the sound of the door locking. It was Noah at the door.The door had so many locks and alarm systems that even if a burglar thought of this place as one to be robbed, the burglar would be confused as to where to touch so as not to let on an alarm. Noah was carefully putting each latch into the lock until he was done with the last one.Why does it have that many locks?“Woah!” Noah was careful to take his hand off before touching something wrong, but he sighed, smiled, and put his arms on his hips. He rustled his hair back and stared at me and the move made me almost melt into a puddle at his feet. He smelled so good and he still wore