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Her confidence only lasted a few days, slowly but surly it began to wear down and she had doubts. Had she gone too far? Had she not gone far enough? Would he really stay away this time? She'd wake with night sweats and pace for hours in the living room as not to wake Liam. Everything felt so peaceful and quiet now...too quiet.
She was used to always looking over her shoulder and worrying. It was not easy to let that sort of thing go. She bit her lip throughout the day and couldn't help but feel a storm was coming. Every time the phone rang and or there was a knock at the door, her heart would race. She nearly made herself sick overthinking everything. What if he came back? What if he pressed charges? Unlike her, he'd have proof. Just in case the police ever came, she hid the stun gun in one of the vents.
After almost two weeks passed and nothing had happened, her nerves finally began to settle down. She let herself relax and enjoy being with Liam. He was over the moon since their engagement. He was always singing and dancing around the apartment. Sometimes she'd join him and almost felt bad for their neighbors, knowing she couldn't sing, but she could dance!
Every morning Liam would wake her with breakfast in bed. They'd talk about their future. The wedding, where they wanted to settled down and of course how many kids they'd have. Five seemed reasonable, right? They'd playfully argue over the number, but usually it was to add more instead of less. By the second week they were now up to nine kids. She hoped some of those pregnancies were multiples, because being pregnant for a straight up decade did not sound fun. Who knows maybe she'd love being pregnant and they'd go for twenty.
She'd been an only child, with no cousins, aunts or uncles. Growing up she'd always wanted more family. Liam had "Rotham" but they'd never gotten along. He liked the idea of having several children that way if any of them were fighting, they could always talk to their other sibling. He also wanted them to never favor a child, knowing how that felt. Shyla agreed that they would love all their child equally, and try to show it in different ways so no one felt left out. Whatever happened, whether they had twenty kids or none. She just wanted to be with Liam and hoped he'd always want to be with her too.
One night at dinner, she looked across the table at Liam and thought of her own parents marriage. They used to fight a lot, but her father always won, no matter what the fight was about. Her mother would eventually wear down and give in until the next fight. Overtime she just stopped fighting altogether. Shyla wasn't sure if her parents always loved each other, but she knew her father didn't respect her mother.
She reached out and took hold of Liam's hand. "I love you. I love you so very much!"
"I love you, too," he said, before taking a bite of lasagna.
She stared at him for a moment longer, then said, "I respect you."
"I respect you too," he said, after he finished chewing. Then he raised an eyebrow and asked "Is everything okay?"
"It is now," she said. Then she pursed her lips. "I- I know everything, isn't always going to be perfect. I know we are gonna have highs and lows. We are going to fight and even hate each other at times, but at the end of the day, at the very least we should respect each other."
Liam looked at her and narrowed his eyes, "Yeah. Are you sure everything is okay," He asked again, putting his hand over hers.
For a second, she almost told him everything. She knew she'd have to and she would before their vows, before they made any solid wedding plans. She'd sit him down and tell him everything and let him decide, but she wasn't quite ready yet. She wanted this happy bubble to last a little longer and make sure Rotham had been handled. Then he'd know everything, no matter what! If she respected Liam, she'd tell him…even if he chose to walk away.
She nodded to herself and said, "Yes,"
Liam looked at her, wondering if she meant something else. In the last year, he thought he'd learned nearly everything about her. Yet he'd always felt like she was holding something back, somewhere deep inside her. She'd get this look in her eyes and he'd wonder what had crossed her mind. He hoped she could tell him one day, maybe after twenty or thirty years of marriage. Liam smiled and gave her hand a squeeze, thinking about spending the rest of his life with her.
His parents had only married each other to gain something. Liam wanted Shyla and his foundation to be built on something solid, love, trust and respect. After everything they'd been through this last year, he felt like there was no other for him. No matter what happened, they'd figure it out together. Shyla smiled back at him and they leaned in, meeting in the center of the table. They shared a passionate kiss, then lovingly touched their foreheads together. They finished their dinner, then did the dishes. They made a bit of a mess, playing with the soap bubbles and hose. Then he carried her to the bedroom and they made love.
More then a month later, Shyla was running late. She'd gone out to get some ingredients for dinner and what should have taken her twenty minutes, took over an hour. She swore everything that could go wrong did. Someone was already standing in front of nearly every ingredient she needed at the store, and she had to wait for them to move. Then at the checkout line, the women in front of her, got into a conversation at the register and needed several price checks. Shyla moved to another register, only to have it break down. So she had to move back to the other line that now had five or six people in it.
When she finally got out of the store, two men were fighting. She tried to keep walking and was nearly taken out as one them was thrown in her direction. The police suddenly showed up and broke up the fight, but they wanted everyone's statement. Finally on her way home, some kid on a bike knocked into her and her bag broke. She had to repack everything.
She let out a heavy sigh when she got on their street and couldn't wait to tell Liam everything. He had to be out of the shower by now, and wondering where she was. Less then a block from their place, she noticed drops of blood on the sidewalk. As she drew closer to home, the bigger and more frequent they got. She passed the building next to theirs, and stopped in front of the alleyway.
She could see their screen door was broken and the front door was just gone! She dropped everything and rushed up the front steps. The front door was on the floor and everything inside was a mess, like it had been hit by a hurricane. There was broken glasses, furniture and blood everywhere. She could barely process it all. Her heart raced as her eyes darted around the room looking for Liam. She ran into the bathroom, but he wasn't there! Again everything was messed up...like there had been some sort of struggle!
She stumbled back, fearing the worse and screamed, "LIAM! LIAM!"
She heard a groan from the bedroom and ran in. She saw Liam sitting in nothing but jeans on the bed, with a slab of meat on his face. He looked horrible. His hair was messed up and his bottom lip was cut open. He had cuts and scratches all over his face and up and down his arms. He looked like he'd gotten the shit beaten out of him!
"Liam!" Shyla cried. She rushed over and quickly fell to her knees before him. She hovered her hands over his injuries and asked, "What happened to you!"
Liam coughed, spitting up some blood before he asked, "Where have you been? Are you okay?"
She looked at him wide eyed, "Am I okay! Yes! What happened!"
"I don't know!" said Liam, honestly. "I just got out of the shower, when I heard a knock. I hadn't even finished getting dressed, when the door came down. I went into the living room and there were a bunch of guys."
"What did they want?"
"I don't know. I thought money or something? Maybe they had the wrong address. I told them to get out, but they came at me!" He rubbed his jaw, "I got a few of them, but in the end they got me down. There must have been five, maybe six of them! I was just so worried something happened to you!"
"Oh, Liam." said Shyla, trying to comfort him.
"Don't." said Liam, pushing her away. "I should have been able to handle the situation!"
"There were like six guys!" said Shyla. "No one could do that!"
"I took classes." spat Liam. "My family always wanted us to be able to protect ourselves."
"You did!" said Shyla, "You're alive!"
"Just barely," he admitted. Then looked ashamed.
"What? What is it?" asked Shyla.
"They took me down and I thought they were going to kill me, but-"He trailed off.
"Liam?"
He couldn't look at her, "They just held me down and-" He cut off again.
"And what? What happened?"
He painfully shifted about on the bed, but didn't' say anything.
"Liam, please!" pleaded Shyla. "What is it? Tell me!"
"They-" He closed his eyes, "They held me down and shocked my balls with a stun gun or something. I- I pissed myself!" She pulled back as he removed a blanket, he'd been holding over his jeans. His crotch was wet. She froze as he continued. "They just kept doing it, then they kicked me in the chest before they took my wallet and a few other things and ran off. I called the police. They should be here any minute."
She nodded and carefully hugged him. Then she started crying and said "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" She knew this was all her fault! ROTHAM! It had to be him! There was no way this was a coincidence! She expected he might retaliate, but never against Liam...against his own brother!
Liam pulled away and looked at her as she madly sobbed, "Hey! Hey! I'm okay! This isn't your fault. I'm just glad it was me, instead of you. If you had been home, I don't know what would have happened. I would have died before I let them lay a finger on you,"
"Oh Liam! Liam," she shook her head. Again, she almost told him, but there was a loud knock at the door.
Liam got up and pushed her behind him. "Stay back, stay in here until I see who it is!" He cautiously went into the living room and saw it was the police. "It's okay Shyla. It's the police. You can come out,"
Shyla stepped into the living room and saw it was the police from earlier, with the two men fighting. They didn't seem to recognize her. One of them took pictures of everything, while the other took their statements. Shyla didn't have much to offer, she mostly just listened to Liam go over everything.
Shyla stepped into the living room and saw it was the police from earlier, with the two men fighting. They didn't seem to recognize her. One of them took pictures of everything, while the other took their statements. Shyla didn't have much to offer, she mostly just listened to Liam go over everything. After a while, she zoned out and thought about why it had taken her so long to get home.
All the people that had been in her way, everything with the registers, the men fighting, and being knocked into by that kid on the bike. There was a chance it had nothing to do with this, but most likely, again...it was Rotham. Was he really that insane? Had he slowed her down, so that the men he'd hired had time to take out his revenge? Why hadn't he come after her? She was the one who'd hurt him! She closed her eyes and cried into her hands. She saw a flash and realized the officer had taken a picture of her. She began to question if they...were legitimate. She really hoped she was just being paranoid.
The police called for an ambulance and Liam reluctantly got in. He thought he'd be okay, but it was better to be safe then sorry. It was also important to document his injuries. She rode with him and held his hand the entire time. She needed to think, but wanted to make sure he was okay first. They ran some tests and treated his injuries. It was well into the AM when he got released and they took a cab home. They put the door back on and cleaned up some, then she made him soup. He barely got it down with his injuries, then she helped him into bed. She stayed with him until he fell asleep then stayed up half the night thinking.
She knew Rotham was sick, but she couldn't believe he was this twisted, to have attacked his own brother! What did he honestly think he would get out of this? Was this some sort of message? Shyla struggled with the endless possibilities and once again what she was going to do. She checked on her stun gun and it was still there. She had hoped Rotham understood her, but he hadn't...now things were going to get really messy. She let out a heavy sigh and put the stun gun back. She went to bed and watched over Liam until she fell asleep.
***/
Liam shot up in bed as he heard someone knocking on the front door. For a second he thought he was having a nightmare or PSTD. He trembled, then caught sight of Shyla. She was fast asleep. He wanted to lie back down, but heard the knocking again. He jerked which made his ribs hurt. He was lucky they weren't broken, but they were bruised.
He painfully got out of bed and cautiously hobbled to the front door. He carefully opened it and saw it was his brother. He was relieved and once again surprised to see him. After he'd shown up, he'd suddenly taken off again. He'd called and left a message, saying something had come up and he'd pop by when he had time.
He was dressed in a black suit and tie, with a large black overcoat. His hair was combed back and he had on sunglasses. In his hands was a box of donuts and a cup holder with drinks.
"Hey little brother, sorry about showing up and then disappearing on you. I hope you got my message."
"I did," said Liam, opening the door wider.
"Yeah, something came up and they needed- What happened to you." Rotham hadn't seemed to notice Liam's injuries until now.
Liam cleared his throat. "Some men, attacked the apartment yesterday,"
"What, no!" said Rotham. He pushed his way in and looked around. "Oh wow!" He quickly put the drink holder and donuts box down, on the nearest surface he could find, and kept looking around, "Did they take anything?"
"Yeah, my wallet," said Liam, shutting the door. "And a few other things, we're still not sure on everything just yet.
"Is Shyla alright?" Asked Rotham.
"Yeah." said Liam, yawning. "She wasn't with me."
"Well, that's good! Did you call the police?"
` "Yeah. They took a report." said Liam, looking at the stuff Rotham had brought. "Doughnuts and coffee? What's the occasion?"
"Ah yes. I wanted to surprise you! Are you guys up for some sightseeing? I'm considering moving some of my offices to the city. I liked what I saw when I came up last time. I hoped you guys could show me around. The doughnuts are also peace offering for Shyla. I don't think she likes me. I'll admit, I did say something to her before you ran off."
"I knew it." said Liam. "What did you say?"
"Well, it was a while ago. Mostly I said if she couldn't even handle a weekend with us, how could she ever expect to become part of this family. You remember her that weekend, right? Every little thing set her off."
"Hmp." said Liam. She had been unusually twitchy that weekend. "Well, I don't think I can show you around today, and while the doughnuts are nice, Shyla doesn't like coffee with her doughnuts."
"Well then, I guess it's a good thing they screwed up and gave me a large milk. Does she like milk?" asked Rotham taking off his sunglasses.
"Yeah." said Liam, "But she's asleep now."
"Late night?" asked Rotham, taking a croissant from the doughnut box.
"Yeah. We didn't get back from the hospital until like two in the morning." said Liam.
"Oh, so you went?"
"Yeah, just to be safe and to make sure we document everything."
"How bad are your injuries?"
Liam shrugged. "I'll live,"
"What did the police say? Is there a lot of crime in this area?"
"They didn't say much. They only took my statement and told me to cancel my cards, and let anyone important know I had my information stolen."
"Did you do that yet?"
"Not yet." said Liam. He let out a sigh, "I just woke up."
"I can put someone on that for you. That way you can rest up,"
"Its fine. I'm feeling better."
"You don't look better," said Rotham. "I'd tell you to sit down, but I don't see anywhere."
"Yeah, they trashed it all," said Liam, bitterly.
***/
Shyla woke with the overwhelming urge to pee. She got up and shuffled into the bathroom. She relieved herself and thought she heard muffled voices. She wondered if Liam was watching TV. She flushed, washed her hands and looked into the mirror. Right! She was not a morning person, especially when she'd barely gotten any sleep the night before. She looked around the bathroom recalling yesterday, then she wondered what Liam was doing, given the TV had been busted. Maybe he was listening to the radio?
She opened the bathroom door slightly, then heard him...Rotham. "I should be going," He raised his voice, no doubt so she could hear. "Perhaps we can talk another time."
She fully opened the door and stepped out, wearing nothing but a tank top and underwear. She stared at him and he stared right back at her.
"Hey, Rotham stopped by," said Liam.
"Why!" said Shyla. She didn't want to know why he was over. She wanted to know why he'd done it. Rotham picked up on it and smiled. It was a small smile at first that slowly got wider. His eyes were wild and crazier then ever as they got bigger. She gasped, having no doubt that he'd done it now! Liam was further back then Rotham and couldn't see his brother's face. "He wanted to see if we'd go sightseeing. He's thinking about moving some offices here."
"Oh," said Shyla, not taking her eyes off Rotham.
Rotham cleared his throat. "Yeah. I also thought we could get to know each other better. Perhaps you could let me apologize for last year and we could "talk." said Rotham, his eyes suddenly grew cold and his smile fell flat. He gave her a serious look as he continued, "Since we're going to be family."
"Right." said Shyla, swallowing.
Liam stepped beside his brother and Rotham suddenly had a friendly expression on his face. "Well, sorry to just drop by like this. Try to be careful and let me know how the investigation goes." Then he turned to Shyla as he asked, "You have my phone number?"
"Yeah," said Liam
"Well, it's also on the doughnut box." said Rotham. Shyla nodded, getting the message. He looked away from her and back to Liam. "Also you should call mom."
"She'll just worry,"
"She will, but you'll never hear the end of it, if she finds out something like this happened and you didn't say anything."
"Right," said Liam. He let out a heavy sigh, "I'll call her today,"
Rotham nodded to him, then to Shyla with a small smile on his face, "Take care,"
He left and Shyla just stood there for a few minutes. She closed her eyes as Liam came up to her and put his arms around her, "I know. I know. He's still an ass. He always will be, but at least he's making some effort. He told me what he said to you,"
"He did," asked Shyla, opening her eyes. She seriously doubted that.
"Yeah, how if you can't survive an entire weekend with my family, then how do you expect to be part of it."
"Right," said Shyla. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm still tired. So very tired,"
"Yeah, I'd love to go back to bed" he said, "But I should probably make a few calls."
"Okay," she said, "Anything you need help with?"
"Nah,"
"Alright. Don't forget to take your medication."
"I wont," he said.
She lightly brushed his cheek and he kissed her wrist. She went back to bed, but didn't fall asleep, not right away. She was too busy thinking, but she was tired and her thoughts led her no where. Eventually she passed out and woke to the phone ringing. She saw it had only been a few hours, but she might as well get this over with. She popped out of the bedroom and saw Liam was on the phone. He half-smiled at her. She waved then took a doughnut from the box and wrote down Rotham's number. She got dressed and Liam surprised her from behind with a hug.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Okay," he said, "I got most of it done, but still have to call mom,"
"You could always call and hang up really quick." Shyla teased.
"Yeah and then Rotham tells her and she'll flip out. She might even fly down here,"
"Eww no, can't have that."
"Nope," said Liam.
"I'll probably pop out and go for a walk, give you some privacy."
"I could always shut myself in the bedroom." He said, before kissing the back of her neck.
"Yeah, but I could use the fresh air,"
"Okay," he said.
She turned and gave him a kiss before he stared calling his mom. She left as he said hello, shutting the door behind her. She looked around half expecting Rotham to be standing there, but she didn't see him anywhere. She walked to the nearest payphone and called him. He picked up on the first ring and simply said, "Yes,"
"I want to talk," said Shyla. "There's a park no far-"
"No," said Rotham, cutting her off. "If you want to talk to me, you come to my office. You know the Fizben Tower?"
She turned, seeing it in the distance. It was downtown, but the tallest building in the city, you could see it from wherever you were. "Yes,"
"Great. One hour." said Rotham.
"No." said Shyla. "I want somewhere public!"
"Funny. I don't care what you want."
"I wont be able to step away that long, Liam-"
"Liam is currently talking to my mother, he'll be busy for hours,"
"How do you know, he's currently talking to your mother?"
"I know a lot of things," said Rotham, "That jacket looks good on you,"
Shyla swallowed, looking around. Was he watching her, right now. "Where are you?"
"Where you're going to be in fifty-eight minutes," He hung up without another word.
Shyla listened as the dial tone returned. She stood there for a good minute, then looked at the tower in the distance. She knew it was a trap. Clearly if she went, he'd have all the power. She knew what he'd do to her and yet, looking back in the direction of her place, she now knew what he could do to Liam. Maybe that was the message, I wont hurt you, I'll hurt him. She received it loud and clear. She bit her lip, but started making her way to the nearest bus stop.
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