The Criminal Diaries

      The next day, Helene is going to come back home after she spent a night at Daniel and Anna’s house. The lovers, by the way, decided to drive her and Sammy with all his stuff. Somewhere after lunchtime, the three went on their way and arrived quietly at the necessary place, talking about everything on the way. After reuniting with his owner, the dog looks much funnier and more cheerful and does not leave the girl, who does not rush to kick him out and pays a lot of attention to him, while they are sitting on the backseat.       When Daniel finds a free place in the parking lot and leaves his car in it, he locks it with a key after Anna and Helene leave the salon and take a couple of big packets full of Sammy’s stuff from the trunk, while the dog does everything obediently and does not stop watching his owner closely with tenderness in his eyes. Then the friends leave the parking lot, come to the main entrance, and walk some distance to the elevator that comes down on the first floor some time later. And when a young couple and a child leave it, the three and the dog enter it, press the button with the number they need, and start waiting quietly for the elevator to take them up.       “Wow, this doggy’s mood got much better after you came back to him,” Daniel notices with a slight smile, leaning on the wall of the elevator with his back with packets in his hands and watching Sammy standing next to Helene and snuggling his nose in his owner’s nose. “He’s so happy now! You can see the gloss in his eyes!”       “And how greedily he ate everything from the bowl!” Anna laughs shyly, squeezing the handle of her bag. “And first, he scattered half of it, but then ate it all.”       “Yeah, my baby suffered a lot,” Helene agrees with sadness in her eyes, yanking Sammy by his ears. “My sweetheart suffered a lot…”       “Don’t scare him like this anymore, friend,” Daniel advises. “The dog experienced such strong stress. The wound, your kidnapping, your alleged death.”       “You say it like I wanted it. As if I wanted to leave everyone and everything.”       “Nevertheless, we recently got the signs that Sammy started to come to himself little by little,” Anna notices. “Because he ate his favorite treats and came to the room of Daniel and me and slept with us.”       “By the way, guys, thank you so much for watching him all this time,” Helene smiles shyly. “I’m really grateful to you for it.”       “Your grandmother just couldn’t do this. So, we thought he could live with us.”       “I hope Sammy didn’t get used to your house. What if he doesn’t wanna come back to the small apartment of Grandma and me?”       “Well, no matter if he wants it or not, he needs to come back home now,” Daniel shrugs. “It seemed that we needed a little for him to start to call Anna or me the owner.”       Sammy barks quietly at this moment.       “Yes, my boy, yes…” Helene pronounces softly, caressing Sammy’s head.       “Hey, Helene, I think you said you tried to go to Peter’s home when you walked with Sammy in the early morning,” Anna recalls.       “Yup, I decided to go there. But the result is predictable enough – he didn’t open the door. But later, I found out that Pete had already gone somewhere a very long time ago.”       “Hey, did his neighbors react to your appearance?” Daniel asks. “Didn’t they have a heart attack epidemic?”       “Oh, everyone looked at me like I was an alien!” Helene exclaims and laughs shyly. “When I showed up, Hillary and Marta’s jaws dropped.”       “I understand them,” Anna replies.       “While Marta grabbed her heart, Hillary crossed herself several times, saying something under her nose. They thought they had gone out of their mind. But even after talking to me, these women kept being in a stupor when I entered the building and left it.”       “And Mrs. Larson?”       “I met her, too. She did say she saw Peter going somewhere in the early morning. But before, she became speechless and couldn’t believe what she saw. I even had to go to her apartment with her, sit her down, and give her a glass of water.”       “They’re gonna spend a lot of time accepting the news about you not dying.”       “Hm, I wonder where Rose went so early?” Daniel frowns slightly. “Or does he spend a bigger part of his time outside and go home rarely?”       “Nobody can say it,” Helene shakes her head. “He doesn’t tell anyone about it. And even if someone asks him about it, the blond starts to shout. And he really threatens to deal with them physically. Just like you all said yesterday. Though his neighbors said he might have come back home in the early morning. And he wasn’t at home for two or three days once.”       “Damn, we’ve gotta catch him somehow,” Anna replies determinedly. “We’ve gotta tell him about you.”       “Yeah, but now? You can’t do this, I can’t do this. I even sent him a couple of messages, but he didn’t read them.”       “We can only hope that he’ll see that they were sent from your number,” Daniel replies thoughtfully. “Though I can’t be sure about it.”       “Anyway, until we tell him about Helene, we can’t give up,” Anna says confidently. “Or we’ll never know anything.”       “Agree. He must find out the truth at first. And then Peter can turn his back on us if he really wants to. He can do anything he wants and live his life if it makes him feel better.”       At this moment, the door of the elevator opens, and Daniel, Anna, Helene, and Sammy leave it and come to the apartment they need, going down the wide, empty halls with many doors with numbers on them.       “Maybe we should try to catch him near his home?” Helene suggests. “Rose must show up there someday.”       “The guys and I spent several hours near that building, but he didn’t show up. We stood in front of his apartment, we waited outside… No result!”       “You think he saw you? Or he wasn’t there?”       “I don’t know, Helene. But that guy ignores us too hard. He doesn’t wanna contact us at all.”       “Anyway, I will try to wait for him near his home one or two times. He’d definitely love to talk to me.”       “If he doesn’t think you’re his hallucination,” Anna replies quietly. “What if Peter really sees some hallucinations and thinks you’re a mirage?”       “He won’t think so if several people see me, and others react to him addressing me quietly.”       “It’s okay, girls, don’t worry,” Daniel says confidently. “We will come up with something. Peter won’t run from us forever. We will catch him somewhere. Or maybe he will decide to say something to us.”       Sammy barks quietly two times in approval.       “Hey, the long-eared one agrees with me.”       “Oh, my gosh…” Helene sighs tiredly. “How I want to solve everything quickly and exhale.”       “It’s gonna be okay, friend,” Anna encourages with a slight smile, hugging Helene by the shoulders on the way. “Now you’ll finally see your grandmother and calm her down. And then we will tell the guys about you so they’re happy for you.”       “Can’t wait…”       “I think we need to prepare her somehow,” Daniel says thoughtfully. “You shouldn't show up so suddenly.”       “We can just tell her softly about Helene and then let her show up,” Anna suggests. “And be next to her in case she feels bad.”       “Good idea, princess! We will do this! Though in the case of Mrs. Marshall, we need to be ready for anything.”       “Anyway, I hope it’s gonna be okay,” Helene expresses hope.       Sammy makes a quiet sound to get the attention of Helene, who caresses his head tenderly. By this moment, she, Daniel, and Anna come to the door with the number they need. When they look at each other, Seymour presses the doorbell a couple of times and waits for the reaction along with the others. Marshall barely manages to hide before someone unlocks the door and then opens it. To their surprise, they see Jessica, whose eyes look puffy due to the tears she has cried since she found out that she lost her friend.       “Daniel?! Anna?!” Jessica pronounces surprisingly. “Hi! I didn’t know you’d love to come.”       “Hey, Jessica,” Anna greets amicably with a slight smile.       “Hi, how long have you been here?” Daniel specifies.       “Since the morning,” Jessica shrugs. “Watching Mrs. Marshall. Who didn’t say you’d love to come.”       “We just wanted to tell her something,” Anna confesses. “It’s very important.”       “About Helene? Did the police find out something? Did they manage to track her?”       “Yup, about Helene.”       “Oh, Sammy, hi, I didn’t notice you at first,” Jessica waves her hand.       Sammy barks quietly as he wags his tail amicably.       “Hey, this doggy doesn’t look sad anymore. Did he start to come to himself little by little?” Jessica frowning slightly looks at Anna and Daniel better. “And you, guys, don’t look like you’re mourning.”       “No need to mourn when we found out some just excellent news,” Daniel replies confidently with his head proudly raised.       “What does it mean?” Jessica crosses her arms over her chest. “I don’t understand you.”       “Don’t worry, Jessica, we’ll explain everything to you now.”       “Oh, Daniel, why are you holding packets with Sammy’s stuff? Did you drive him home?”       “We can do this now,” Anna smiles shyly.       “Alright, lovebirds, what’s wrong? C’mon, tell me everything now! And actually, Mrs. Marshall is gonna see you being so funny and get overwhelmed.”       “Yea-a-ah… She’s gonna be overwhelmed… From what we’re gonna tell and show her. And… Since you’re here, you’ll know everything, too.”       “What will I know? I don’t understand!”       “Okay, Jessica, we’re begging you, breathe as deeply as you can and don’t dare to faint,” Daniel says quietly.       “What?”       Anna takes Helene standing behind the open door under her arm and pulls her onto herself as if she asks her to get out of her hideaway.       “Ta-a-a-ada-a-a-a!” Anna exclaims happily and hugs Helene around the shoulders. “Look who we’ve come with!”       The eyes of Jessica getting sharply pale open widely immediately, as well as her mouth. She freezes in the same place like a column and literally stops breathing, looking at Helene smiling shyly from head to foot with mistrust, feeling that a slight shake possesses her body, and her heart starts beating much faster.       “H-h-Hel-l-lene?” Jessica pronounces hesitantly in a shaking voice.       “Jess…” Helene barely holds down the tears of happiness, bringing her hands folded together to her mouth. “Friend…”       “It… It can’t be the truth!”       “As you see, it can be,” Daniel smiles shyly.       Sammy barks confidently two times, while Jessica looks surprisingly at Helene, Daniel, or Anna.       “Now do you understand why we’re so funny? And why Sammy’s mood got much better?”       “But…” Jessica shakes her head, closing her mouth with a shaking hand. “How? How could it happen?”       “Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll explain everything to you,” Helene assures, taking the shaking Jessica’s hands. “But I completely understand that it’s hard to believe what you see.”       “Is that really you?” Jessica sniffs quietly. “Didn’t you die? Aren’t my eyes lying to me? Are you really standing in front of me?”       “It’s really me, don’t worry.”       “You didn’t go crazy, you can relax,” Anna says quietly. “IT’s Helene. The real one.”       Not holding down her tears anymore and keeping her mouth closed with her hand, Jessica stands in the same place like a column for two more seconds and looks closely at Helene with widely open eyes full of surprise. But then the blonde runs to her friend happily and barely holds down her loud squeak when she takes her in a strong, amicable hug, to which she answers with pleasure, not hiding her wide smile.       “My God, Helene…” Jessica sobs quietly, caresses Helene’s head, and snuggles her nose in her shoulder. “Sweetie… I can’t believe it…”       “Me too…” Helene smiles with tears. “Can’t believe I’m here. With my friends. My close people.”       “It’s… It’s a miracle!”       Jessica steps away from Helene and takes her hands.       “It’s a miracle that you survived after what the guys said. They… They said you died in the fire. An explosion happened. You… You couldn’t get out…”       “It happened, right,” Helene nods. “But everything is a little different. Not what you all thought about.”       “Guys, does it really seem to me?” Jessica asks with mistrust, looking surprisingly at Anna and Daniel. “You can see her, too?”       “It doesn’t,” Anna smiles sweetly, hugging Helene from behind sweetly and rubbing her cheek against her cheek. “Look, I can touch and hug her.”       “While Sammy looks at his owner with such loyal eyes and doesn’t leave her alone,” Daniel adds.       Sammy barks as if he agrees and butts his head against Helene’s foot, while she caresses his head with a shy laugh.       “C’mon, Marshall!” Jessica exclaims. “It was really hard! You made all of us scared! We all almost went insane from grief! We’ve cried our eyes out.”       “I know,” Helene pronounces shyly. “I’m very sorry about what happened. I didn’t wanna scare anyone.”       “Hey, do ya know your grandma hasn’t let go of her tablets for more than two weeks – since when you were taken away? And we even had to call an ambulance two times ‘cause she felt too bad.”       “Yeah, they even talked about the hospitalization, but Mrs. Marshall refused categorically,” Anna confesses.       “You say you’re watching my grandma now?” Helene asks hesitantly.       “Yup, I’m persuading her to eat a little. The last time she ate was in the early morning. But she says she doesn’t have an appetite.”       “I’m sure she’s gonna get it after she sees her granddaughter,” Daniel replies confidently with a slight smile.       Sammy barks confidently as if he agrees.       “Oh, gosh, guys, I am so stupid!” Jessica claps her forehead. “I’m keeping you on the doorstep! I didn’t think about it at all…”       Jessica steps away from the doorstep and makes a gesture to invite everyone enter the apartment.       “C’mon, c’mon, come in! Guys, Sammy, c’mon!”       Helene and Anna enter the apartment first, and then Daniel and Sammy follow them. And while Perkins leaves the packets in the hall by Marshall’s plea, and Seymour looks at the mirror and fixes her little ruffled ponytail, Taylor closes the door quickly and caresses the dog’s head while he sniffs the floor.       “So what, Sammy, did ya miss home?” Jessica asks. “Or do you consider Daniel and Anna’s love place your home now?”       “He’s always loved it,” Daniel notices, putting his hands on his hips. “When Helene brings him to us, Sammy smells everything, then runs to the pool and swims in it, while the guys and I talk.”       “Unlike this small apartment, our house may seem a paradisiacal place where you have enough space to run,” Anna laughs.       Sammy moves his eyes to Helene and presses himself to her when she starts yanking him by the ears.       “Alright, friend, stay here while we prepare your grandmother a little,” Jessica says confidently.       “We can tell her Helene is here,” Daniel suggests.       “Yeah, but we’ve gotta be careful,” Anna warns, “A little bit before we have to call an ambulance for her again.”       “I’ll be here anyway.”       “She’s got the first aid kit near her,” Jessica says confidently.       “Let’s go then?” Anna looks at Daniel and Jessica,       “Mrs. Marshall is now lying in bed in her room. She asked me to give her all the photoalbums from the closet, and she’s now viewing photos.”       Jessica goes to Scarlett's room first, while Daniel and Anna follow her after looking at each other. Sammy follows them too, but Helene stays in the hall and looks at every single corner of the hall with a wide smile, being so happy to come back home for the first time in her life. When they enter the room, the three can see Scarlett really lying in the bed and barely holding down the tears as she views the photos she is holding in her hands. But at this moment, she puts them aside and moves her eyes to the visitors who have just come.       “Hi, Anna, hi, Daniel,” Scarlett greets softly.       “Hello, Mrs. Marshall,” Daniel and Anna pronounce at the same time amicably.       “How are you feeling?” Anna expresses an interest, coming closer to the bed with her fingers locked.       “Oh, babe, how could I feel? My life is some kind of torture.”       Sammy barks quietly and stands on his hind paws, leaning on the bed with his front ones to get closer to Scarlett.       “Sammy!” Scarlett exclaims and caresses Sammy’s head softly. “Hello, my boy. Hello, my sweetheart.”       “He missed you so much,” Jessica notices with a slight smile.       “Oh, how much I missed him…”       “I think it’s time to bring him back home,” Daniel says confidently.       “What do you mean?” Scarlett frowns slightly. “Are you tired of him already? You don’t want to watch him anymore?”       “No, no, c’mon! Anna and I were happy to watch Sammy.”       “It just doesn’t make sense to have him living at our home due to some events,” Anna adds.       “Which events?” Scarlett wonders. “What do you mean, daughter?”       “We came to you for the reason, Mrs. Marshall,” Daniel says. “We have some very good news. Those are going to bring back your wish to live.”       “Yes, my dear!” Jessica exclaims happily. “The guys just told me and showed me everything. And I still can’t believe it.”       “What are you talking about, guys?” Scarlett rounds her eyes. “And why are you so sad? Did you come to yourself after my granddaughter’s death? Aren’t you mourning for her anymore? You don’t care about her?”       “The real miracle happened, Mrs. Marshall,” Anna replies with a slight smile and sits on the edge of the bed. “It’s hard to believe it, but it’s the truth.”       “What’s going on, guys? I don’t understand you! Jessica, could you explain what’s wrong?”       “Just don’t worry,” Jessica tries to calm down. “I understand that these things can’t be accepted so easily. Look at how my hands are shaking. How I’m choking from excitement…”       “Do you have some news about Helene? Did the police find something?”       “Nope, the police found nothing,” Anna shakes her head. “They will not do. Because there is nothing to hide.”       “What?”       A short silence settles in the air, after which Daniel sits on the bed in front of Scarlett holding her breath and puts his hand on her hand, saying quietly and confidently:       “Your granddaughter is alive, Mrs. Marshall. Alive and healthy.”       “What?” Scarlett opens her eyes widely, feeling that her heart misses a beat. “My g-g-granddaughter? Al-l-live?”       “Daniel is telling the truth,” Anna smiles shyly. “Helene didn’t actually die.”       Sammy barks several times happily to confirm it, while Scarlett getting sharply freezes as she looks at everyone with a shocking glance.       “W-w-what do you m-m-mean, she’s alive?” Scarlett wonders in a shaking voice. “What are you talking about? Fear God, guys! How do you dare?”       “It’s true, Mrs. Marshall!” Jessica exclaims, hugging Scarlett around the shoulders. “Your granddaughter didn’t die. I don’t know how she made it through yet, but she survived. She got out of the fire. She did before the explosion happened.”       “For God’s sake, guys, don’t joke at me like this. I’m no longer a young girl. My health is very bad. It will not work in the cases when it used to happen.”       “Nobody jokes at you, Mrs. Marshall,” Anna replies confidently, taking Scarlett’s hand. “We understand that it sounds like a delirium. Trust me, we were also shocked when we found out. But it’s the truth. Helene is alive.”       “You recently said she was dead!” Scarlett exclaims and sniffs quietly. “Marcus Longbottom and his accomplices killed her.”       “They thought they killed her. But it’s actually not the truth.”       “Oh, why we would tell you!” Jessica meddles. “We’ll now show you everything so you understand that I’m not lying to you.”       “Yes, Sammy, go to the hall and bring Helene here,” Anna says softly.       “What?” Scarlett feels that her heart misses a beat. “Helene is here? In the hall?”       “I will go for her,” Daniel says, gets up from the bed, and calls Sammy with a gesture. “Sammy, follow me!”       Sammy follows Daniel immediately, while the man goes to the hall, and Anna and Jessica stay with Scarlett and try to comfort her somehow with a mysterious smile, caressing her shoulder or hand. And several seconds later, the man comes back to the room with the doggy and Helene smiling shyly and hugs her around the shoulders on the way.       “You see, Mrs. Marshall, we didn’t lie to you,” Daniel says with his head proudly raised. “Helene is here, in front of you.”       Scarlett stops breathing immediately and starts to look closely at Helene from head to feet, understanding that her whole body is possessed with a painful tension and a strong frost that is the reason why she cannot even move her fingers. After a few attempts to take a breath, everything goes blurry before her eyes, and she hears all the sounds like through the deaf wall.       “Grandma…” Helene smiles widely, barely holding down her tears, and sniffs. “Grandma… My sweetheart…”       “H-h-hel-l-lene?” Scarlett pronounces in a shaking voice with mistrust and closes her mouth with both hands. “It cannot be the truth…”       “It’s okay, Mrs. Marshall, breathe deeper,” Anna pronounces softly, caressing Scarlett’s hand. “We’re here.”       “How is this possible? How? We thought that… That you… Jesus Christ…”       “It’s really me, Grandma,” Helene assures, sitting on the bed in front of Scarlett. “Me, Helene. Your granddaughter.”       “So, you… Didn’t die? You’re alive?”       “Alive, Grandma, alive. The real miracle kept me alive. The one I didn’t believe in until the very end. I got help I didn’t even expect to get.”       Sammy barks confidently two times.       “I must be sleeping now…” Scarlett pronounces with mistrust. “I think it’s my dream… I’m sleeping and seeing my granddaughter alive.”       “Trust me, Mrs. Marshall, we are all still shocked,” Daniel assures. “The men and I were dumbfounded, but the girls were much more shocked.”       “And how long have you been aware? How long were you hiding that my granddaughter is alive?”       “We found it out yesterday!” Anna exclaims. “Two hours after we left your home, Edward texted all of us and asked us to come together immediately. So, we agreed. And when he came, he wasn’t alone, he was with Helene.”       “Yeah, as it turned out, he met her somewhere in the city, and she told him everything,” Daniel adds.       “It’s correct,” Helene confirms. “I was walking in the city, in any place I saw, and enjoying the freedom. The freedom I was deprived of for a long time. And at some moment, Edward called me, and I explained what happened to me.”       “Jesus Christ…” Scarlett cries quietly. “But we thought differently… The police were looking for my granddaughter. Looking for her… Her… My God… I can’t say this aloud.”       “Please, Grandma Scarlett, calm down,” Helene pronounces softly, putting her hand on Scarlett’s hand. “I promise I’ll explain everything to you. You’ll understand it all.”       “And I need the audience’s help, please,” Jessica says. “I don’t understand anything, either.”       “You will know everything now.”       Sammy barks happily several times.       “Now do you understand why we’re so happy?” Daniel asks. “Because your granddaughter is alive! You didn’t lose her! Just like we didn’t lose our friend!”       “Unbelievable…” Scarlett shakes her head. “I can’t believe it… It’s a miracle…”       Scarlett takes Helene’s hands hesitantly and squeezes them slightly, looking at her granddaughter with wet eyes.       “Helene…” Scarlett pronounces in a shaking voice. “My little girl… Granddaughter…”       “It’s okay, Grandma, it’s okay,” Helene does not hold down her tears, caressing Scarlett’s cheek. “It’s me. I’m alive. And I’m gonna be with you. I will always be.”       “My sweetie… Precious treasure… Baby…”       Scarlett takes Helene in a touching hug, starting to caress her head with her shaking fingers that she can usually barely control, and it becomes kind of numb now. The heartbreaking sobs of the old woman break the girl’s heart and make her cry bitterly on the shoulder of her relative, whom she missed all this time so badly.       “Grandmother…” Scarlett pronounces, holding Scarlett in a strong hug. “Grandmother…”       “Helene, my sunshine…” Scarlett cries bitterly. “My beloved granddaughter…”       “I missed you so much… I was so worried… I was afraid I’d know about your death… I was afraid that you wouldn’t get through all of it.”       “I didn’t want to live after I found out about your death. I thought I stayed all alone in this world. In a world where I had nobody but you. Nobody.”       “You didn’t lose me. I’m here. Here.”       “My baby…”       Scarlett steps away from Helene slowly and grabs her face with a wide smile through tears.       “My God, you’re so skinny… Skin and bones! Your cheeks are gone, your arms are slim… Just a pair of eyes peeking out…”       “But what happened to you? You got yourself exhausted! And you’ve lost a lot of weight!”       “I only had one wish – to die. Reunite with you and your grandfather. I didn’t wanna stay here without you. You were the meaning of my life. The only meaning. I lived for you only. And when I was told you died… I begged God to bring me to you.”       “Don’t say it, Grandma, don’t say it, please…” Helene takes Scarlett’s hand with both hands. “I don’t wanna lose you. I want you to live a long, long life. I need you. I’ll always need.”       “I know, my treasure, I know…” Scarlett caresses Helene’s cheek tenderly. “I will live. For you. For my sweetheart.”       “Please, Grandma, forgive me…” Helene apologizes with pity in her eyes. “I’m sorry about scaring you like this. I swear I didn’t want it. Please, forgive me. I’m so sorry…”       “Don’t worry, my sweetheart. I understand it all. What happened didn’t depend on you. You’re guilty of nothing.”       “I swear I would never prank you like this. I’d never pretend to be dead and make my close people suffer.”       “I know. I know. Don’t even worry about it.”       “I’m so sorry about what happened. I’m sorry about everyone crying their eyes out because of me and… Even blaming themselves for my death. I’m really ashamed of everyone. Especially, you.”       “Don’t be, Helene, for God’s sake,” Scarlett protests. “I don’t blame you for anything.”       “I was restless all this time. If only you knew how much I wanted to find a way to tell you that I was okay. I would come back home soon. We’d be together soon.”       “I am even afraid of what these stinkers did to you. Since you have tracks of bruises on your whole body.”       “Don’t think about it, Grandma, thank God, it’s all over now,” Helene replies with a little false smile. “Nobody will bother me anymore. All the criminals are arrested and will get a harsh sentence soon.”       “My God, Helene, my little baby…” Scarlett cries. “Girl… Sweetie… Can’t believe it… Can’t believe it…”       Scarlett presses Helene closely to her chest, caressing her head tenderly with one hand and kissing her granddaughter on the cheek several times with her shaking, wrinkled lips.       “Don’t cry, Grandma, I’m begging you…” Helene begs in a low from excitement voice. “I don’t wanna see your tears. Please, don’t…”       “It’s tears of happiness,” Scarlett replies softly. “Happiness caused by the fact that I’ve got the meaning of my life again.”       “I can’t… I’m gonna start crying now.”       “We will be crying together then.”       Helene smiles through tears and snuggles her nose in Scarlett’s shoulder, while the girl caresses her head or runs her hands over her back up and down. All this time, Sammy watches them closely, barks quietly at some moment, and accepts the caress from Jessica, who decides to yank him softly by the ears.       And Anna barely holds down her wish to cry bitterly, even if she watches what’s happening with wet eyes. Daniel notices it quickly, hugs her around the shoulders, and smiles shyly at her when she gives him a tender glance full of love. It encourages the girl to press herself closely to her boyfriend, putting one hand on the man’s chest and putting her arm around his waist. Then he keeps holding his sweetheart in a strong hug, kisses her sweetly on the top of her head at some moment, and just snuggles his nose in it, feeling a mild, unobtrusive smell that the lady’s hair spreads.       “Oh, alright…” Daniel pronounces thoughtfully, while Anna kisses him on the cheek. “I think Anna and I can go. We’ll go to a couple of places to buy something for the home. But you stay here.”       “C’mon, guys!” Jessica exclaims cheerfully. “You just came, but you wanna get out already!”       “Actually, we planned it,” Anna replies shyly. “Drive Helene home, help her bring Sammy’s stuff here, and go to do our business.”       “Indeed, my sweeties, why are you leaving so soon?” Scarlett wonders, hugging Helene tenderly around the shoulders, while she keeps her head on the woman’s shoulder. “Stay for a while! Let’s eat just something all together.”       “Thank you for your suggestion, Mrs. Marshal. But you probably want to spend time with Helene. Talk to her, ask her about everything…”       “Oh, we have a lot of time!”       “Grandma’s right, guys,” Helene agrees with a slight smile. “Let’s eat something. Your business can wait.”       “So…” Daniel shrugs and looks at Anna. “Since we’re invited, it would be a sin to decline it, as I think. What do ya think, sweetheart?”       “You’re absolutely right, honey,” Anna agrees. “Nothing would happen if we went to buy everything a little later.”       “Excellent, then!” Jessica claps her hands. “Of course, we could invite all the guys, but they’re busy, as I understand.”       “We don’t know, honestly,” Daniel shakes his head. “We haven’t talked to them today yet. We spent the morning time with Helene and were getting ready to go here, and we had no time to text and call the guys.”       “Did Helene spend a night at your home?” Scarlett frowns slightly.       “Yup, we suggested that she rest, eat, and put herself in order. And played with Sammy.”       “Sammy was so happy with my appearance that he didn’t sleep half of the night,” Helene laughs. “I had to get him involved in intense games so he got a little tired.”       “I can imagine,” Jessica replies. “Since he’s restless after not seeing you for the whole day. But it's been more than two weeks. It’s like eternality to him!”       “Don’t worry, friend, I will not disappear anymore and leave my boy.”       Helene softly caresses Sammy whining quietly on the head.       “I will always be with you, my honey. Always.”       Sammy barks much more cheerfully, and Helene glances at the photos and photoalbums that are still lying on the bed.       “Oh, Grandma, did you view photos?”       “I viewed them every day since you disappeared,” Scarlett confesses. “I recalled the times when you were a baby. When your grandfather was alive.”       “Even if we had misunderstandings at times, that time is still wonderful to me,” Helene replies, taking one of the photos.       “You know, baby, I’ve lately been thinking a lot about it. Thinking about Roger and me not always being fair to you. I mean, he was too harsh to you, but I obeyed him as a loyal wife.”       “Don’t worry, Grandma, I completely understand it. I understand that you and Grandfather wanted to make it better.”       “We didn’t do it out of anger. We were just afraid that you’d repeat the fate of your mother and ruin your whole life. Though we had different problems with you.”       “It was madly hurtful to me that you treated me like this. I was mad when you banned me from literally everyone, walked after me everywhere, and read me lectures that were like a bone in the throat. Though now I have tears in my eyes when I think about it.”       “Forgive us, please, granddaughter,” Scarlett apologizes with pity in her eyes. “We are so sorry about treating you like this.”       “It’s okay, it’s okay. Even if it happened, it doesn’t mean I didn’t love you. I’ve always loved you. You and Grandfather. Even if I was sometimes afraid of him and tried not to stand in his way a lot.”       “Sometimes his methods of education crossed all the lines. For example, I was horrified that he could’ve easily taken a belt or slapped me in the face. I’ve always minded it, but I could never protest. A husband is the head of the home, and I could not disobey him. His decisions are out of discussion. That’s how I was educated. If a man says something, a woman does everything silently, without minding.”       “I know.”       “Anyway, it was wrong to limit you so much. Even when you graduated from school and the university and got a good job. It was wrong to control when you came back home, who you talked to, and how much you earned. Hold your hand when going anywhere. You were an adult girl who did the least of what you should’ve done.”       “Recalling the case when I somehow left home after the conflict caused by hiding the money? When Grandfather started a boycott and didn’t talk to us before his hospitalization?”       “I think we had such a strong fight that we had never had before. I got the claws for the first time and was not shy to show them. And my husband didn’t expect it. He thought I would keep being silent and agreeing with everything. When we were looking for you, Roger walked into the apartment and repeated, ‘When she comes back home, I will teach her. I will kick her so that she becomes obedient immediately. So, she fears walking in front of me and asks for permission for any action.’”       “I always loved him so much, but Grandpa scared me to death at times.”       “Me too, baby,” Scarlett sighs heavily. “But I could do nothing. A husband is a husband. I must’ve obeyed him. That’s what I’ve always thought.”       “I know it’s bad to say it, but our life got much easier after Grandfather’s death. It's like we got the wings.”       “Agree, but I miss him anyway. I’ve never lived alone, and I can’t do this. I haven’t used to living without my husband. All my life, I counted on him and waited for him to solve any problem of mine.”       “We need to go to the cemetery to check on his grave.”       “Whenever you want, my sweetie.”       “I just need to solve all my problems before we talk about it. First of all, I need to do something for my job. I’ve gotta explain everything to my colleagues and boss.”       “They were all so worried about you and were shocked when they found out about your alleged death. They called me often. And your boss took care of me much more. He even went to my home one or two times, brought some fruits for me, and talked to me nicely.”       “I hope I can explain everything to him and not to lose my job. Otherwise, I’m gonna spend a lot of time looking for a new one.”       “I’m sure he will understand it all. You are very lucky to have a boss like him. A very nice man. Understanding, caring…”       “You’re right, he’s really wonderful. He may be too harsh at times, but it’s a rare thing.”       Sammy barks quietly.       “Hey, c’mon, stop talking about your business, job, and bad things!” Jessica exclaims cheerfully, clapping her hands. “We must celebrate Helene’s return with the most delicious dishes. Cook the best things we can cook.”       “Great idea!” Helene agrees. “I’d be happy to organize it all. If you, girls, help me a little.”       “No problem, friend!” Anna puts her hands on her hips with her head proudly raised. “We will organize everything now.”       “I will help you, beauties,” Scarlett says,       “Me too!” Daniel states. “You can count on me in everything.”       “You’re gonna have a different, not less important mission, sweetie,” Anna smiles mysteriously.       “Yeah, buddy, watch my grandma and entertain her a little,” Helene says.       “Oh, girls, it’s not a big deal for me!” Scarlett exclaims. “You and I can do everything quickly.”       “No, Grandma, don’t worry.” Helene caresses Scarlett’s shoulder softly. “We will do everything. But you lie and have a rest.”       Sammy barks confidently two times.       “Sammy will watch you, too.”       “Can you really do this without me?” Daniel smiles mysteriously. “I could be a very good helper for ya.”       “We believe, honey, but we want your mission to be like this,” Anna replies with a sweet smile.       “Okay, you won. I will watch Mrs. Marshall. Don’t worry.”       “Excellent, then!” Helene smiles in approval. “Girls, let’s go! Wash your hands well, while I change my clothes and go to the bathroom.”       “I have a couple of ideas of what we can do,” Anna states confidently.       “And I know what to offer!” Jessica adds.       Still talking about the menu on the way, Helene, Anna, and Jessica leave the room and leave Scarlett, Daniel, and Sammy alone. While the dog barks quietly, the man looks at the man with a slight smile.       “Why are you standing and hesitating?” Scarlett asks amicably. “Sit down, don’t be shy. Let the girls make magic in the kitchen, while you and I talk.”       “Since they don’t trust cooking with me, why not?” Daniel shrugs and sits on the edge of the bed in front of Scarlett. “Though Anna doesn’t trust me with it even at home because I’m not a friend of cooking.”       “Don’t worry, sonny, a man doesn’t have to cook deliciously,” Scarlett waves her hand. “My Roger never cooked anything for himself. He could only make coffee and warm up something on the cooker or in a microwave. He didn’t try to learn because he thought cooking was a female thing only.”       “Everything was otherwise in my family. My mother cooked wonderfully, and my father could cook any simple dish if he had to. And they didn’t divide duties into female and male ones and thought there was nothing bad in doing something that people of just one gender do usually.”       “When people from different generations meet, it doesn’t make sense to prove that your point of view is right because everyone is going to keep their opinion. Everyone was educated differently: one thing is good for one but bad for another.”       “That’s right…”       Daniel caresses Sammy’s head and yanks him by the ears when the dog puts his head on his laps.       “Hey, Daniel, does Peter know that Helene is alive?” Scarlett asks. “Did you and the guys tell him about it?”       “No, Mrs. Marshall,” Daniel shakes his head. “He doesn’t know.”       “Still refusing to contact you?”       “He ignores us the way he can: not replying to our messages and declining all the calls… And now he leaves home, so we don’t catch him at home.”       “Are you sure he isn’t at home?”       “I am. His neighbors spend all the time near the building where his apartment is and know everything about others. So, they see that Peter goes somewhere all the time. And sometimes they don’t see him leaving, but remember when he comes back. They even mentioned that he may not spend days at home.”       “My God, what’s going on…”       “And the important thing is that we’re kind of guilty of nothing. We did nothing bad. But Peter takes it out on us and is sure that we’re all guilty of what happened to Helene. I mean, Edward, Terrence, and me. He doesn’t hurt the girls so far, but he doesn’t talk to them, either.”       “And as I understand, he ignores everyone. I somehow decided to go to his home when I felt more or less good. I thought I could comfort and cheer him up somehow. But Peter didn’t open the door. Though his neighbors said he didn’t leave.”       “Honestly, we’re starting to lose hope,” Daniel sighs with sadness in his eyes. “Starting to accept the fact that Peter no longer wants to talk to us. And we want it less and less.”       “Even with Helene?”       “She didn’t catch him in the early morning when she decided to go to his home.”       “Maybe she can do this? Peter may not listen to his friends, but he should open himself up to his girlfriend.”       “I don’t know, Mrs. Marshall… But I’m afraid that he may start to ignore her, too.”       “Do you think he’s still mad at her because of Marcus’s charges?”       “I don’t exclude it. Marcus didn’t say he slandered her. He says Helene is really not innocent.”       “Yeah, I agree that Helene hasn’t always been holy. But it’s all in the past. She understood her mistakes and became different. My granddaughter loves Peter and would never dare to hurt him.”       “He’s probably full of doubts. He kinda understands that his charges are groundless, but he understands that there’s something about it.”       “Anyway, Helene’s mistakes don’t have to do with Peter. He doesn’t have to be afraid of her betrayal.”       “I know. It has to do with the girls.”       “Not just them. Helene’s tricks are the reason why many other guys suffered somehow.”       “Is everything so terrible?”       “I would say so. But it would be better if she told you everything.”       “She wanted to tell the guys and me about it before we lost the connection with her.”       “Then my granddaughter will talk about it again someday.”       “We will be ready.”       Sammy whines quietly at this moment.       “But now we don’t care about her secrets, we want to reach out to Peter. Try to bring him back to our company. Or at least let him know that Helene is alive. Do it before he wants to do any stupid things.”       “Yeah, I got it,” Scarlett nods with sadness in her eyes. “I’m afraid of it. My granddaughter is going to be devastated if Peter does something to himself.”       “Don’t worry, Mrs. Marshall,” Daniel pronounces softly, putting his hand on Scarlett’s hand. “Don’t even think about it. We will solve all the problems with Peter by ourselves. I don’t know how, but we will do this. We will find a way to tell him the news about Helene being alive.”       “I can’t be quiet, Daniel. Peter is like my son, whom I am attracted to.”       “I get it. And I promise that we will not give up. No matter how much we want it. No matter how hopeless the situation is.”       “Gosh, poor boy…” Scarlett sighs heavily. “Why does he have to get through it all? Why does he have such a bad fate? What did he do to suffer for one reason or another all his life?”       “Agree… He’s actually a good, loyal, and decent guy… Though he’s got a tough character, he’s not as quiet and shy as he seems.”       “If you don’t have a tough character, you will not survive. Quiet and shy people are less appreciated in this world. If you want to get something, you have to be tough and determined.”       “Yeah… Especially if you’ve been used and given from bad hands to bad hands since birth. Peter has been doomed from the beginning.”       “He was madly lucky not to be in the hands of bandits who could have sold him abroad when he was a child.”       “If Peter were a girl, his life would have been much worse. I am horrified by how they’re treated in some places. As if they’re a thing. Someone’s thing, which people can do anything they want to, remaining unpunished.”       “No wonder he wants to withdraw himself from this world and doesn’t even trust his close people. When you’re betrayed again and again. When everyone wants to get a knife in your back.”       “It’s hurt that those who really wish him the best and are ready to help him with everything suffer, too.”       “I get it, sonny,” Scarlett replies softly, caressing Daniel’s shoulder. “I completely understand.”       Sammy barks quietly as if he shows his true sympathy. Daniel caresses the dog’s head again with a slight smile, while Scarlett runs her hand over the dog’s back. After they listen to the sounds better, they hear the quiet female laugh from the kitchen where Helene, Jessica, and Anna come together to decide on delicious dishes they can cook from what they have at the moment.       

***

      But Terrence and Raquelle preferred to spend this day at home and not to go anywhere, using the moment to spend it with each other. After spending some time in front of the poll, the lovers give an order to cook something light both of them eat with no rush, sitting in front of each other in the dining room. While the servants working at their house are running from one side to another to put every corner in order and make sure everything is in its place, and there is not a thick layer of dust on the surfaces.       “I'm so happy Helene’s story ended well,” Raquelle exhales with relief, mixing what’s on her plate with a fork.       “I must confess that I felt a great relief when I saw her,” Terrence confesses and takes a sip of water from his glass. “When I realized that the guys and I could stop blaming ourselves for the person’s death.”       “You shouldn't have blamed yourself, ‘cause you were guilty of nothing. You did everything you could.”       “I know, but we felt terrible deep inside. We could do everything before, but we failed that time.”       “Excuse me, Terrence, but what could you do when the person was nobody the hell knows where?” Raquelle takes a sip of water from her glass. “Nothing!”       “Yeah, but as it turned out, Marcus’s house wasn’t too far from the place where they hid Helene. If we hadn’t been slowpokes, we would’ve come there in time.”       “Please, don’t think about what Peter said. Maybe he said it in anger. In a shocking condition. Because… When you lose a close person, the whole world is guilty for you.”       “The case is not only about it. It’s a matter of honor. The disappointment caused by the failure. The fact that we broke the promise we gave so many people.”       “But now you can exhale with relief and calm down,” Raquelle smiles shyly. “Helene is alive and healthy.”       “Still can’t believe in this miracle.”       “Our jaws dropped, too, honey.” Raquelle takes something from a small cup placed near her plate and eats a little. “We had a thought that our stress didn’t lead to anything good, and we went a little crazy.”       “The men and I went a little crazy when you and the girls decided to start an infirmary,” Terrence laughs. “One, another, third…”       “You don’t see someone you consider dead for a long time every day.”       “Agree… But damn, you made us nervous! You really did!”       “Well, nothing bad happened to me.” Raquelle leans on her hand with her chin, with a sly smile. “Because my beloved hero ended up near at the right time.”       “You must be kicked for these tricks!” Terrence says determinedly. “You ain’t’ take care of me at all!”       “Aw, poor boy… I ain’t take care of him…”       “Yes, poor boy! Because living with you requires strong mental health. You know one hundred and one ways to play on the nerves of your man, irritate him, and provoke him.”       “Ha, as if it’s easy to live with you!” Raquelle chuckles. “Tolerating you requires angelic patience.”       “Not truth! I am very sweet and fluffy! It’s easy for anyone to get along with me. Without pretending to be nobody the hell knows who, of course.”       “Yeah, yeah, I got it, got it.”       “So, cutie, it’s been a while since you got lessons in education for ages?” Terrence smiles slyly. “Did ya forget who you must obey?”       “You’ve been living with me for so long, but you haven’t understood that I ain’t obey anyone, and I do what I think I need?”       “M-m-m… A sweet home kitty started to show her claws and act like a wild tiger again.”       “Ya love when they scratch your gorgeous face?” Raquelle spreads the fingers on her hand aside, showing her carefully extended nails and teeth. “And my teeth haven’t sunk deeply into your skin for ages?”       “Wow, it seems like one mean bitch decided to tease me…” Terrence purrs with a mysterious smile, twirling nervously on the chair.       “I’m not even dreaming of taking your pants off and ripping your t-shirt.”       “If you lay naked on the bed and spilled this glass of water on you, I’d fuck you instantly.”       “Leave your fantasies with you, MacClife,” Raquelle smiles sweetly, leans back in the chair, and, biting her lip slightly and looking into Terrence’s eyes closely, runs her finger unobtrusively over the open part of her chest and collarbones. “You want too much…”       “But it takes so long to reach the bed…” Terrence starts stroking his chin, looking at Raquelle sitting in front of him with a bedroom glance. “I’d place you tight on this table. Throw everything off the one and show you who the boss is here.”       “As if it’s gonna change something. As if I’m gonna be sweet and obedient…”       With these words, Raquelle takes one of her slippers and touches Terrence’s ankle softly with her toes, getting underneath his trouser leg and raising a little higher.       “When you’re on edge, you’re gonna beg me to make you finish,” Terrence assures in a low, deep voice and runs his thumb over Raquelle’s lips. “You, bitch, are gonna do anything I come up with. And you won’t even dare to say anything against it.”       “Be nice to remind me when it happened?”       “Always. Always, my sweetheart…”       “I take my hat off to your stubbornness that anyone could be jealous of.”       “I never give up until I get what I want.”       Terrence touches Raquelle’s hand lying on the table near her half-empty plate of food with his fingertips.       “And I get everything when I just stop my eyes on it.”       “Isn’t it tight in your pants at all your dirty thoughts?” Raquelle smiles playfully.       “It’s tight… It’s too tight… Because you, cutie, are sitting here and provoking me.”       “Yeah? And what am I doing?”       “Eating me with your eyes, for example. Caressing yourself, biting your lips…”       “Something like this?”       Raquelle runs her fingertips over her chest again, pulling her silky top slightly on thin strips, while Terrence watches her actions like a charmed one and swallows nervously.       “You know well what’s waiting for ya if you don’t stop it right now,” Terrence warns.       “I get it…” Raquelle purrs. “I understand that it’s hard to hold yourself down when you don’t know if I’m wearing these clothes only or something else underneath them.”       “As if I don’t see you ain’t wear a bra. And if you ain’t wear knickers, I won’t have to spend my time taking what I don’t need off you.”       “You really look fucking hot when your mouth caresses my naked breasts,” Raquelle pronounces in a much deeper and more tender whisper, runs her finger over Terrence’s lips, biting her own lips, takes something from her small cup and puts it in her mouth in a seductive way, while her eyes are focused on the man’s eyes. “When I feel you between my legs…”       “I’m dreaming of putting the naked you on your knees, grab your hair, and tell you to suck fucking badly,” Terrence states with no shyness. “This thought already makes me get an orgasm.”       “It hasn’t even been five minutes, but everything scratches?”       “Did ya expect something else, sitting here and testing my nerves?”       “Ah, how am I testing your nerves?”       Raquelle takes her glass, takes a little sip, and splashes some water on her chest as if accidentally.       “Oh, why am I so sloppy? I’m so scattered because of you…” Raquelle spits more water, which is the reason why her top gets stuck to her body so that Terrence can clearly see her tough nipples. “Oh, gosh, damn! My hands can barely hold everything!”       “Ar-r-r-r-r, you’re the only one to irritate me and excite me at the same time!” Terrence growls quietly, twirling nervously on the chair and pulling the collar of his t-shirt slightly. “Fucking bitch…”       “Ask them to put my food in the container and put it in the refrigerator,” Raquelle says as if nothing happens, wiping her mouth carefully with a handkerchief and soaking her wet décolleté with it. “I will warm it up and eat later.”       After fixing her hair brushed in a ponytail with a gracious movement, Raquelle gets up from the table and pushes in the chair.       “Hey, where are you going?” Terrence asks surprisingly. “I haven’t ended it with ya! I mean, I haven’t even started it!”       “Hey, I’m thinking of a hot bath with a lot of foams in one hour or two,” Raquelle says with a mysterious smile, coming to Terrence from behind and grabbing him by the throat. “I wanna know if you want to help me wash my back.”       Raquelle runs her half-open mouth over Terrence’s auricle, while her hand slides slowly over his chest.       “Or maybe you actually wanna join me?” Raquelle whispers in Terrence’s ear and barely touches the area behind it with the tip of her tongue. “Seat me between your legs and shower me with kisses… Lick me with your tongue… Or work your fingers there, in the bottom…”       Not letting Terrence say anything, Raquelle leaves a short kiss on his lips and then gets her sweetheart involved in a much more continuous one, during which she moans sensually and keeps caressing his chest and touching the male’s nipples with her fingertips.       “Well, you think a little here, but if you decide on something, let me know,” Raquelle smiles sweetly, scratching the area under Terrence’s chin with her fingertips. “But remember that if you agree, I’m gonna ask as much as possible. You won’t get away from me after a couple of kisses on my neck.”       After kissing Terrence tenderly on the neck and leaving a wet path on it with her tongue, Raquelle steps away with an innocent smile and fixes his hair slightly. Then she leaves the dining room, shaking her thighs with her shoulders spread and a perfect straight back. The man being a little tense and breathing heavily watches her with a bedroom glance, not being able to stop looking at her long, thin legs, the beauty of which is expressed thanks to her coffee shorts from the same fabric as her top.       Meanwhile, Raquelle gets upstairs to the second floor, passes some distance down the hall, comes to the door to the bedroom, and closes it slightly after she enters it. Not thinking a lot, she comes to the dressing table to see if her hair is fine and fix the twisted slips of her silky top. Also, she decides to add some aroma oil on her neck and décolleté to prevent dry skin. The girl smiles slightly when she feels the smell of the mix of musk, vanilla, and cinnamon. She also does not forget about the skin on her face and hands, adding some moisturizing cream with a wonderful smell.       After paying some attention to her appearance, Raquelle comes to the door leading to the balcony, opens it, and leans on the railing with her elbows. She closes her eyes while the warm wind blows up her face nicely. The girl watches what’s happening far from here with interest, even seeing people who live in the nearest houses. The brunette lets the skin tan under the shoots of the bright sun, feeling a great relief, probably for the first time in a while, after the worst things are over. And she understands that it’s really good not to rush and to do your business without worrying that she may lack time to do everything quickly and well.       When she reflected on her schedule and found a perfect balance between her work and her personal life, Raquelle felt much better and began to get much more pleasure from her business. She learned to listen to herself and to stop when her body gives a stop sign and literally shouts that it’s tired. The girl understands that she has already gotten her place under the sun and no longer has to work on everything to gain popularity and prove to the world that she has a talent. Listened to the advice of her grandfather, Frederick, who somehow said that she had a right to reflect on every suggestion and work on what she would really be interested in.       Raquelle spends some time on the balcony before she sighs quietly with a slight smile on her face, leaves it, and closes the door. Then she quickly checks her phone lying on the bedside table on her side to see if she has new messages and calls, and puts it back when she sees that there are no especially important notifications. Next, she gets a desire to choose a book from those she has to read after she read the last page of the previous one. There is a big shelf for books in the wardrobe with works of writers from around the world in absolutely different genres: romance and drama, detectives, thrillers, and historical literature. The girl even bought some books in the genre of fantasy, even though she has never read anything like this before.       But after checking all the books she has, Raquelle understands that she does not like anything: she has read something hundreds of times and can literally tell the story by heart, and she is not ready to read something now. Sighing disappointedly, the girl decides to open the Internet shop and try to find something interesting by reading synopses. But when Raquelle barely leaves the wardrobe, closes the door, and turns around, she shakes slightly and tenses when she sees Terrence, who came to her without making any sounds.       “Fuck, you scared me!” Raquelle exhales sharply.       “So, cutie, did ya wanna run away from me?” Terrence asks with a sly smile. “At first, you provoked the animal, but now you rush to hide in your hole?”       “Who’s the one to blame for you being up all the time? I’ve done nothing to you, but you’re so restless already.”       “Just one kiss from you, one glance from you is enough for me to dream of your body. Your naked body…”       Terrence moves slowly but confidently to Raquelle, puts his hand on her cheeks, and runs his lips tenderly over the area behind her ear, while she closes her eyes with a slight shake in her whole body.       “Moreover, it’s been a while since I gave enough attention to it. I’ve gotta fix the situation immediately.”       “It’s been a while?” Raquelle blinks her eyes innocently.       “It’s been a while.”       Terrence gets Raquelle involved in a continuous, assertive kiss on the lips, which she answers powerlessly to. After her quiet, sensual moan, he puts his hand on the lady’s breast that he clenches and unclenches tenderly and rubs her tough nipple intensively. That’s why she starts breathing heavily and deeply and rolls her eyes at some moment.       “Hey, hey, didn’t someone start tasting the dessert too early?” Raquelle smiles mysteriously.       “I’m not doing anything yet!” Terrence shrugs and leaves several short kisses on Raquelle’s lips. “Nothing at all…”       “Get cool, horse, not so fast!” Raquelle steps away from Terrence sharply, looking into his eyes closely. “Who gave you permission to do these tricks?”       “Me! I gave myself permission! I allow myself everything.”       When Terrence wants to bring his lips to Raquelle’s lips, she puts two fingers softly on them.       “Hey, hey, what are you doing, pretty boy?” Raquelle smiles sweetly. “Do you know what happens to those who try to cross the corner against the will and law?”       “M-m-m, does it mean that today you don’t wanna be my obedient dolly that would be happy to spread her legs immediately?” Terrence concludes.       “If it’s too hard to wait, you know where to go to help yourself get rid of pressure. Nobody would bother you in a bathroom. I can care about it personally.”       Raquelle steps away from the door to the wardrobe with her head proudly raised and does not realize how Terrence presses her sharply to the wall near the one and presses himself to her so tightly that she even starts lacking air. And she can hear his breath that burns her skin when he brings his face very, very closely to her lips, but does not kiss them.       “Alright, dolly, okay,” Terrence says in Raquelle’s mouth, leaning on the wall with both hands. “If you don’t wanna be nice, don’t be. You will be the one anyway. When you aren’t able to resist my charms. Aren’t able to get rid of the thought about me getting through your border and making you scream from pleasure.”       “You’re gonna waste time,” Raquelle chuckles. “You’d better do something better. For example, watch your kids.”       “They’ll do without me today. While I watched them, you were out of my view.” Terrence runs the tip of his nose over the curve of Raquelle’s neck, breathing in the smell that her skin spreads. “My girl stayed without attention of her hot and sexy man.”       “Hold yourself down, Terrence. Don’t get excited.”       “Why should I, let me ask?” Terrence surprises and runs his hands over the curves of Raquelle’s waist. “I’m at home! I can do anything I want!”       “Not everything, honey. Not everything.”       “C’mon, Cameron, stop pretending to be hard to reach. Turn on the passionate whore on and surprise me with everything you can do.”       Terrence brings his lips to Raquelle’s lips for an assertive, continuous kiss, during which his hands slide over her back up and down and then hold her tough buttocks by one.       “You know I’m always ready to pay off and appreciate your effort so much.”       “What if I fuck you off?” Raquelle smiles slyly, running her finger confidently over Terrence’s torso. “And stop feeling me up everywhere you can! I didn’t let you do this, just saying!”       “But who let you feel me up?”       “I don’t need your permission. I can feel you up anywhere I want. I can even get into your underwear and caress your penis until I see you finish.”       “The more you show off, the longer I won’t let you get close to the one.”       Terrence grabs Raquelle by the wrists and presses them tightly to the wall, raising the girl’s hands to her shoulder’s length and noticing that her pupils are dilated as he looks closely into her eyes.       “If you start begging me to get into you, I’m gonna smile and say, ‘Sunshine, of course, no!’” Terrence covers Raquelle’s neck generously with short kisses, while she breathes heavily enough with closed or rolled eyes. “I’m gonna keep giving you the body caress that can drive you crazy and make you whine from impatience. Make yourself ready for anything to feel what you’d even sell your soul to a demon for.”       “Ha, is this everything you wanna surprise me with?” Raquelle laughs playfully.       “Are you in a rush now?”       Terrence brings his lips to Raquelle’s lips, giving her a continuous kiss on the lips, while she sticks out her breasts with sensual moans and feels that an electric wave gets through her body when she feels the tongue of her fiancé in her mouth and the way he runs it over her palate.       “I don’t have a reason to rush. I can do this even until the deep night.”       “I can barely feel something yet,” Raquelle smiles innocently. “Slight hints only.”       “Not everything at once, cutie. You just need to wait a little.”       “Or remember you’ve already forgotten.”       “I’ve forgotten nothing. Everything is a part of my plan.”       “You know I get excited by something hotter. Something sexier and sassier. But I feel something like the same thing I feel when we hug and kiss to say hello and goodbye.”       “Dreaming of the moment when we come back home and all night for you and me only ahead?”       “To make it happen, you need to make two or three times more effort. But you, my sweetie, you’ve lately kinda lost your ground. You’re washed up now.”       “Not at all!” Terrence protests. “I'm still sexy and hot! And I know how to make a girl scream from pleasure.”       “Show it to me then, bastard!” Raquelle demands determinedly with a challenge in her eyes. “Show me everything you can do! Turn on the alpha male knowing what he wants mode.”       “Oh, how sassy you are!”       Terrence sucks the skin tenderly on the curve of Raquelle’s neck, clenching and unclenching her breasts with both hands and rubbing the lady’s nipples intensively with his thumbs.       “You’re an adult girl, but you can’t learn that you must not provoke a wild animal, no matter what.” Terrence runs his lips over the front of Raquelle’s neck and grabs her chin with his mouth, while she leans her head back. “Not afraid to ask for trouble.”       “I asked for them when I didn’t piss you off and prevent the beginning of our communication.”       “And it doesn’t make sense for the one to be trapped in a cage to resist and fret,” Terrence notices with a slight smile. “Nothing can help them anymore.”       “It doesn’t make sense for someone, but it’s really effective for someone else.”       Raquelle slaps Terrence strongly in the face to wake up many more strong emotions inside him and add some fuel to the fire.       “You’re walking on the tiny ice, babe,” Terrence says in a much lower and deeper voice, rubbing his cheek energetically. “You’ve gotta know that you’re waking up all my strongest animal instincts inside me with all your actions.”       “Since you decided to be a sleepy head, I’m gonna wake you up,” Raquelle leans on the wall with her back, grabs Terrence sharply by the collar with both hands, and brings him very close to her face. “Because I am not going to be happy with this half-hearted work. If you want to see me finish and make me suck you, be nice to work much harder.”       “You’re gonna scream from what I’m gonna do to you. I will give you the pleasure that will make you forget your name.”       Grabbing Raquelle by the hair with the fingers of one hand and putting another hand on her cheek, Terrence gives the girl an assertive kiss on the lips, which makes her heart stop immediately and stops her breath for a while. While quiet, sensual moans get out of her mouth, and her body is possessed by the tormenting tension and a sweet shake.       “M-m-m, much better…” Raquelle smiles smugly. “But it’s still not hot yet. It doesn’t burn me yet.”       “Still want me to kick your ass?” Terrence growls quietly and sinks his teeth into the sensitive skin on the curve of Raquelle’s neck and sucks it tenderly. “Show you who the boss of the home is…”       “Ar-r-r, don’t irritate me, MacClife!”       “I’d bet who’s irritating.”       Terrence grabs Raquelle tightly by the throat, presses her tightly to the wall, and looks into her eyes determinedly with a heavy breath.       “Your disobedience gets me fucking excited, though.”       Terrence pulls both of Raquelle’s lips, bites them slightly, gets his tongue slowly but confidently into her half-open mouth, and runs it over her palate and around her tongue, making the girl sigh sensually and bend backward.       “Damn, how sexually your skin smells…” Terrence covers the curve of Raquelle’s neck generously, which he has not kissed yet with exciting kisses, clenching her breast with the fingers of one hand and putting another hand on her buttocks. “Could you tell me which smell it is? New perfume?”       “Hey, ya like it?” Raquelle rolls her eyes.       “It drives me crazy.”       Terrence runs his hands underneath Raquelle’s top and runs them over the naked curves of her waist and holds her by these as he caresses the girl’s ears and earlobes with his lips, kisses the area behind them, and breathes on them with hot and cold air. That’s why she closes her eyes, leans her head back, and shakes sharply with a sense of dizziness at times.       “Fuck, bitch, what are you doing to me?” Terrence growls into Raquelle’s ear in a low voice, leaves several short kisses on her lips, and pulls them slightly. “I want you…”       “Are you sure about it?” Raquelle asks in a hoarse voice.       “As well as the fact that my name is Terrence MacClife.”       Terrence turns Raquelle sharply with his back to her, grabs her by the throat with one hand, and starts massaging her breasts intensively with another hand and stimulating her nipples, while his lips slide over the lady’s tender skin and caress her ear with quiet moans.       “My girl is shaking… My sweetheart is breathing heavily…” Terrence moves one hand to Raquelle’s belly and gets underneath her top, feeling her smooth skin and her tense muscles. “And how tense she is…”       “It’s nice, I can’t deny it…” Raquelle smiles sweetly and sucks Terrence’s thumb tenderly, with which he caresses her lips. “But it’s not enough for me…”       “Don’t worry, babe, you’re gonna be standing naked, bending over, and giving your ass to me soon,” Terrence promises, lets his hand slide underneath Raquelle’s silky shorts and caresses her labia with his fingertips, making the girl exhale loudly. “You’re almost ready for this, judging by how wet it is between your legs.”       “We will see it, bastard,” Raquelle growls quietly and leans her head back, letting her thighs rub against Terrence’s groin on purpose.       “Don’t dare to go back down.”       Terrence runs his hands underneath Raquelle’s top and caresses her naked breasts that he clenches and unclenches and caresses from all sides.       “Every second that you spend provoking me increases your chance to leave this place quietly to zero,” Terrence adds and leaves several kisses on the front of Raquelle’s neck and under her chin, making her breathe heavily and deeply and feel a slight dizziness and a fast heartbeat in her chest and temples.       “If you keep cutting corners like this, you will have to leave,” Raquelle threatens and bites her bottom lip strongly not to moan from the eternal pleasure.       “Are ya gonna lie to me that it doesn’t get you excited?”       “I like it, but I’d hardly spread my legs and suck your dick at my will.”       “Yeah? But your body doesn’t agree with you at all!”       Terrence lets his hand get underneath Raquelle’s shorts, runs it in her vagina, and starts stimulating her clitoris slowly and tenderly, caressing the lady’s breasts with circular movements and rubbing her tough nipples. That’s why she pleases his ear with quiet moans that she cannot hold down, and starts rubbing her thighs against his genitals much more energetically.       “Quiet, baby, quiet…” Terrence says with a smug smile and leaves several kisses on the curve of Raquelle's neck. “Quie-e-e-et…”       “Please, Terrence…” Raquelle pronounces faintly. “M-m-m…”       Still doing what he is doing, Terrence gives Raquelle a cheeky kiss that makes her stop immediately. He pulls intensively, bites, pinches, and licks her lips and works skillfully in her mouth with his tongue, waking up a much more dizzying wave of bright emotions and giving her more of what she is dreaming about.       “Yah, but you say it ain’t get ya excited,” Terrence notices, runs his hands over Raquelle’s belly, and runs his fingers around her nipples. “It does… I do know what you’re dreaming about…”       “If you knew about all my sexual fantasies, you’d obviously grab your head,” Raquelle laughs playfully.       “Trust me, my fantasies are much wilder, better, and crazier.”       “I wanna make all of them real!”       Raquelle turns on Terrence sharply, grabs him by the throat with one hand, puts another hand on his cheek, and gives him such a passionate and hot kiss on the lips that his legs get suddenly weak. At some moment, the girl jumps on him and puts her legs around her sweetheart’s waist, when he grabs her and starts holding her by the thighs.       While Raquelle works actively with her tongue, which she runs over his palate, around his tongue, over the area behind his ear, and over the curve of his neck, Terrence seats his fiancée on the dresser after he moves some things aside without looking. Her hands caress the man’s wide shoulders and slide over his muscled arms, her nails sink into the skin, feeling every single muscle of his, and leaving bright red tracks on some areas. The man himself feels free to run his hand underneath her top and caress confidently her naked back, while their lips connect in a hot, furious kiss that makes the sweethearts forget about needing to breathe regularly, feel the heat on the cheeks and understand that the all-embracing shake gets through every single cell of the body, and any touch of the hot hands wakes up an unbearable excitement.       “What are you dreaming of?” Terrence asks, running his hand over Raquelle’s thigh and knees. “Tell me about your dirtiest and hottest sexual fantasy.”       “You think you can make it real, huh?” Raquelle chuckles.       “There’s nothing I can’t do.” Terrence brings his lips to Raquelle’s lips for several short kisses, while his hands are placed on the lady’s thighs. “Though I’m really good at sex things.”       “And I can make any of your fantasies real. Just tell me where and how everything happens.”       Raquelle lets her tongue slide over Terrence’s palate with a quiet moan, runs his chest with her hands, runs them over his torso, runs them underneath his t-shirt, and does the same things but much more slowly with a wish to feel every single muscle on her beloved man's body. A little later, she puts her hands on his hips and starts raising them up so that his t-shirt rises too. The man understands the hint quickly and lets her take this cloth off him obediently so that she can throw it aside like something unnecessary. Then she keeps enjoying the sight of the naked male torso and caressing it with her warm hands.       But when Terrence wants to take the silky top off Raquelle, grabbing the edges of it and raising it, she cools him down a little when she puts two fingers softly on his lips and shushes.       “Quiet, pretty boy, quiet,” Raquelle pronounces in a low, seducing voice. “Do not rush.”       “What’s wrong, dolly?” Terrence smiles innocently, putting his hands on the front of Raquelle’s thighs. “What are ya so shy?”       “You’ve gone too far already. You sped up and ran in a gallop, not seeing any barriers.”       “I just wanna see you naked as soon as possible.” Terrence spreads Raquelle’s legs much more, noticing how hot it is between them, caresses the inside of her thighs, and teases her a little by slight touches of his fingers to her crotch. “I wanna get deeply into you. I want you not to talk for nothing and just to moan quietly and beg, ‘More! More! Faster! Faster!’”       “To get into me, you need to deserve it!” Raquelle exclaims, connecting her legs sharply, and kisses Terrence sweetly on the lips. “To deserve it, you need to get the permission to touch me.”       “Oh, yeah, shouldn’t I fill out an application and notarize it?”       “Wonderful idea!”       Raquelle jumps off the dresser and, shaking her thighs, comes to the bed, while Terrence looks at her back with interest, stroking his chin.       “So, you don’t think you can get me easily. Don’t think it’s enough for you just to put your hand on my breast or between my legs to make me melt.”       After coming closer to her bed, Raquelle lies on it with her head proudly raised and strikes an incredibly sexual pose, focusing on her dignity.       “But as we know, the forbidden fruit is the sweetest,” Terrence purrs with a sly smile, coming to the bed and setting himself comfortably next to Raquelle. “The sweetest…”       With these words, Terrence raises Raquelle’s belly slightly and caresses her naked belly.       “In this case, it’s especially desired and attractive…”       “Hey, who let you touch me?” Raquelle asks, clapping Terrence slightly on his hand and removing it from herself softly. “Huh? Who doesn’t know what to do with his hands?”       “Since your mind, it means I don’t need a special invitation.”       “You can only look at me now.” Raquelle rolls onto the side, leaning her head on her palm. “Admire one hot and beautiful girl who is gonna become your wife soon.”       “What’s gonna happen if I touch her?” Terrence asks with a challenge in her eyes, caressing Raquelle’s thighs and running her hand over her long leg.       “It’s gonna be very bad!”       “Yeah? What do you mean, let me ask you?”       “I ain’t advise you to ask for trouble.”       “Oh, oh, I’m so scared!” Terrence laughs, puts his hand on Raquelle’s buttock, and slaps it playfully. “I am so scared and put my tail between my legs… I dunno where to run.”       “MacClife!” Raquelle pronounces threatfully. “What did I just say?”       “Oh, what can you do, dolly? No-thi-ng!”       “You think I’m joking with you?”       “Don’t joke. You'd better suck me. Or at least spread your legs and let me do all the work.”       “Fuck yourself, bastard!” Raquelle throws boldly. “Suck yourself!”       Terrence lies Raquelle on her back sharply, raises himself above her, and grabs her by the throat with a heavy breath, setting his confident look into her eyes. While she looks at him without fear, with slyness and a shy chuckle.       “You will not hide from me, cutie,” Terrence says in a low voice. “I will be fucking you in all holes, and you will be screaming, moaning, and finishing.”       “Ar-r-r, how sexual you are now!” Raquelle growls with enjoyment.       “I see you’re shaking now.” Terrence lets his hand get underneath Raquelle’s shorts and runs his fingers around her vagina. “And you’re so wet…”       “I dunno what you’re talking about.”       “What if I Do this-i-i-is?” Terrence pronounces in a much lower voice, starting to stimulate Raquelle’s clitoris intensively.       “Oh, my gosh…” Raquelle rolls her eyes, leaning her head back and bending her back as she tenses her thighs unconsciously, while the wave of electricity gets through her whole body. “M-m-m-m…”       “You see how good it is!” Terrence kisses Raquelle on the lips with pressure, pulls her bottom lip, and sucks it intensely. “It just requires not playing hard to reach.”       “Ar-r-r-r-r, fuck, I hate you! I hate you!”       “I love you too, my queen.”       Terrence covers generously all the parts of Raquelle’s neck with kisses that are different in length and strength, while she exhales loudly after every single one, moans sensually, and presses the man much closer to herself by the neck, not being able to resist what’s much stronger than her.       “More…” Raquelle pronounces in a little hoarse voice. “More… Don’t stop…”       “Listen, Cameron, isn’t your sexual fantasy about you playing a victim that resists so hard and me playing a determined rapper?” Terrence specifies, massaging Raquelle’s breasts a little and running his hand over her naked belly. “Who would take you by force and make you get an orgasm, no matter how hard you pretend to be hard to reach?”       “M-m-m, I don’t hear you talking… I’m enjoying what’s happening…”       “If you really want, I’d be happy to make it real.” Terrence leaves several kisses on the open part of Raquelle’s breasts and runs his tongue over her cleavage. “I don’t actually mind being a very bad guy that wanna tame one gorgeous, sexy bitch.”       Terrence raises Raquelle’s hands above her head sharply and gives her a continuous, furious kiss, letting his tongue fight the girl’s tongue at some moment and awaken the sense of electricity every time they contact.       “The one, resisting whom it’s freaking hard,” Terrence adds with a blissful smile and leaves a couple of short kisses in the hole of Raquelle’s throat, breathing in the smell that her tender skin spreads. “Oh, fuck, babe, I’m losing my mind…”       “Your idea of the sexual fantasy is amazing,” Raquelle notices. “Excitedly amazing. I even started to breathe barely when I imagined it.”       “I get it…” Terrence sets his confident look in Raquelle’s eyes, still raising himself above her and pressing her wrists to the bed. “It’s not interesting when someone gives up without a fight. It’s more interesting when you have a deal with a wild, untamed kitty that threatens to show the claws and show the teeth.”       “Yeah, but I’m afraid that you have to wait a little before you play the role of a rapper.”       “I don’t wanna wait,” Terrence says determinedly, grabs Raquelle by the neck, and runs his thumb over her lips. “I want you. Here and now.”       “That’s why one more training of your patience would be nice for you.”       Raquelle pushes Terrence off herself with one slight movement, lies him on the bed, sits over him, and, bending her back graciously and sticking out her buttocks, brings her face close to his face.       “Everything is serious from this minute on,” Raquelle says confidently and caresses Terrence’s lips with her index finger. “Touching me is not allowed. Looking at me is allowed for as long as you want.”       “What are you gonna do?” Terrence smiles slyly.       “Anything I want. Caress your gorgeous body anywhere I want.”       “And you think it’s fair?”       “Don’t worry, Terrence, I promise I won’t make it last for too long,” Raquelle promises and leaves several short kisses on the corners of Terrence’s mouth. “But I ain’t sure yet.”       “I wonder who can ban me from touching you?”       Terrence puts his hands on Raquelle’s buttocks and squeezes them tightly with his fingers.       “How can I be banned from something when I am Terrence MacClife, and you are my soon-to-be wife?”       “If you feel me up and try to kiss me, you’ll make this ban longer,” Raquelle smiles slyly. “One minute longer. That’s gonna multiply every time you break the rule.”       “Sorry, babe, I ain’t care about the rules.”       “And I ain’t care you ain’t care.” Raquelle squeezes Terrence’s chin with her fingers. “So, shut up, lie silently, enjoy the show, and moan.”       Raquelle brings her lips close to Terrence’s lips for an assertive kiss, during which she does not even try to hold down her shaking sighs, feeling that the tension spreads throughout her whole body like a river caused by the unbearable desire. Clenching his hands tightly into fists, the man holds down his wish to touch his sweetheart and compensates for it by showing no resistance and his active participation in this game. The heart works at full capacity, the head is dizzy, and a heavy breath burns the soft, wet, slightly bitten lips.       But it’s getting more unbearable for Terrence to do nothing every second, while Raquelle gets down and down slowly but confidently. She caresses his ears with her lips, runs her mouth over the area behind them, covers his neck generously with kisses, caresses the skin of it with her tongue, bites it tenderly, or sucks it, making his kind of infinite torture longer to seduce her fiancé and make him suffer a lot before giving him what he wants.       “Oh, fucking hellcat…” Terrence moans quietly with closed eyes. “You decided to kill me, huh?”       “C’mon, my sweetheart!” Raquelle smiles innocently, running her fingers through Terrence’s hair, while she pinches the skin on his neck tenderly with her lips. “C’mon, my sweetheart! How would I dare to do this?”       “You’re the only one to drive me crazy like this. Just you.”       “It’s impossible to remain indifferent at the sight of such a hot man.”       Running her hands over Terrence’s chest, Raquelle sucks his tough nipples with sensual moans tenderly and caresses them with her tongue. That’s why he exhales with a shake, understanding that the tormenting tension squeezes every single muscle of his due to his attempt to hold down his frantic wish to touch his sweetheart.       “Who is so delicious, just saying…” Raquelle starts literally whispering and leaves several kisses around Terrence’s nipples, while her hand slides slowly over the tough muscles on his stomach. “M-m-m…”       “Yay, babe, kiss me everywhere!” Terrence says in a little hoarse voice with a sly smile. “Kiss anything you want…”       “But please, don’t tense so much.” Raquelle runs her lips over the muscles on Terrence’s stomach. “I ain’t doing anything painful to you. I mean, I’m doing nothing.”       “I’d watch you, bitch, if your feet and hands were tied up, and you were told to lie and do nothing! If someone caressed the naked you anywhere they wanted and decided to get underneath your underwear!”       “Of course, I could tie you up to the bed and torture you until the deep night. But I’m too lazy to look for the ropes. I don’t wanna distract myself from this process. I can barely hold myself down already…”       “Ar-r-r-r, fuck…” Terrence growls quietly with a shake in his whole body, feeling that Raquelle’s tongue caresses the area under his navel, and her lips leave short kisses around it. “Bitch…”       “Damn, Terrence…” Raquelle biting her lip starts to run her hand slowly over Terrence’s abdomen, not getting down to his groin on purpose, even if the temptation to touch the male genital is too high. “How sexy you are when you swear. It wakes up a wild passion inside me. A wild desire to suck you. Burn from looking forward to the moment when I feel ya into me.”       “You just need to give me your ass or spread your legs. So, I can do my best for you to spend a lot of time coming to yourself after getting an orgasm with deafening shouts.”       “I shake at just one thought about it…” Raquelle whispers in Terrence’s ear and runs her hands slowly over his naked torso up and down.       “I am ready,” Terrence smiles mysteriously with a heavy breath. “I am always ready for ya.”       “Are you sure about this?” Raquelle specifies in a seducing voice, starting to rub herself against Terrence’s groin as she is standing on her knees in front of him.       “But there’s one little thing. I prefer to fuck you when you’re naked. This is how I can feel you better. I can feel every part of your body better.”       Terrence’s hands reach out to the edges of Raquelle’s top and start raising it before she slaps them slightly.       “Hey, you get one minute of penalty time!” Raquelle states determinedly.       “I did touch your top, not you!” Terrence excuses himself. “So, I didn’t violate any rules formally.”       “The top is still on me. Which means there can’t be any ‘formal’.”       “But, Raquelle…”       “Shut up!”       Raquelle brings her lips to Terrence’s lips, which she pulls and bites slightly before she gets her tongue into his half-open mouth and slides it slowly around the tongue of the moaning man.       “I swear I’ll fuck you as cruelly as possible!” Terrence threatens with a heavy breath. “I won’t let you go until you finish several times in a row.”       “It’s my dream…” Raquelle smiles blissfully, running her hands over Terrence’s chest and stomach. “But nothing will happen so easily.”       “Don’t worry, Cameron, I will give my everything to make it happen. Or maybe, I won’t even have to do anything. But when I just look into your eyes, you’re already watering and ready for an epic pleasure.”       “I advise you to think better about how you wanna surprise me while I have fun and think about whether I should be on the top or on the bottom.”       At first, Raquelle runs the tip of her tongue slowly around Terrence’s lips, but then she pinches them with her mouth and pulls them tenderly. All this time, she rubs her crotch against the man’s groin on purpose with smooth back and forth movements as if her body clearly says that it’s dying of the wish to go much further and bring this case to the finish the lovers dream about so badly. At some moment, the man breathing heavily and having a red face from excitement, sits up slowly and, losing his patience, puts his hands on the lady’s buttocks and squeezes them like a boss, while the girl caresses his ears with her lips and sucks his earlobes.       “What are your playful hands doing. Huh?” Raquelle whispers in Terrence’s ear.       “Stop, I can’t take this anymore!” Terrence states determinedly. “Can’t lie and do anything. Without a chance to touch you.”       “You want me to give you a permanent ban?”       “Ready to pay all the penalties with hot kisses and unforgettable sex. With a powerful orgasm included. Maybe even several ones.”       After leaving several short kisses on Raquelle’s lips, Terrence covers her whole neck furiously with them as he growls quietly. His hands slide chaotically over the lady’s back, shoulder, and arms, or just hold her tough buttocks. The girl does not hold down her sensual moans, closes her eyes at times with a sense of dizziness, and sinks her nails too strongly in the man’s wide shoulders in passion, and puts her legs around his waist.       “Ar-r-r-r, Terrence, I hate you…” Raquelle rolls her eyes and pulls Terrence’s hair strongly. “Hate you… You’re an asshole…”       “Same, bitch,” Terrence snaps, runs the tip of her tongue over the area under Raquelle’s chin, and kisses her in the hole on her throat. “It’s fucking mutual…”       “Stop making me weak for you. You make me powerless… You don’t leave me a choice.”       “Tell me you want me. Tell me you want me right here, right now.”       Terrence runs his hands underneath Raquelle’s top and caresses her naked back, enjoying the feeling of her soft skin that gets covered with goosebumps immediately every time it comes into contact with his fingertips.       “Beg me to fuck you!” Terrence says in Raquelle’s mouth. “Beg me to get deeply into you now!”       “Keep dreaming, huh!” Raquelle exclaims, pulling Terrence’s hair strongly. “You beg me do this! Beg me to say it!”       “Ar-r-r-r, it irritates and excites me fucking bad!” Terrence caresses Raquelle’s breasts with circular movements and rubs her tough nipples with his thumbs. “The way you can act like you’re ready to rip my pants and get my dick deeply into your mouth or ass, but then give up one minute later and pretend that you don’t want this.”       “Of course, I don’t want!” Raquelle swallows loudly, while her face is very close to Terrence’s face, and she keeps her arms wrapped around his neck. “I don’t want at all! Not at all!”       “Your fucking wet puss says it’s not the truth.”       “And why?”       “Nothing! I don’t actually want you, either.”       “Hey, don’t ya want me at all?”       “At all!”       “Come on? Is it okay that your dick is now getting into my ass and about to rip your pants?”       “And why?”       “Nothing!”       After pressing Terrence closely to herself, Raquelle gets closer to his lips for a short but powerful kiss that he cannot resist. But when she steps away, the man gets her involved in a much more continuous and more assertive one that makes the girl feel dizzy, and the way the heat burns her whole body rapidly inside. She presses much closer to her fiancé instinctively when his warm hands slide over her arms, the curves of her waist, and thighs. She makes a sensual moan after every impatient kiss on the neck. She hears her own fast heartbeat in her temples. She feels the deep and heavy breath of her sweetheart, whose eye iris is clouded with infinite darkness.       “Hey, don’t ya still want me?” Terrence smiles slyly, holding Raquelle by the curves of her waist. “Don’t ya wanna feel the heat of my body? Feel all my power?”       “The only thing I want now is to slap you strongly,” Raquelle says in a hoarse voice.       “M-m-m, do ya feel like an animal caught in a trap with no chance to get any salvation?”       “Let me go. Let me go right now.”       “Nope, I don’t want,” Terrence shakes his head.       “I won’t repeat twice.”       “Until I bring the case to an end, you won’t go.”       “MacClife!”       “Relax, dolly, don’t be nervous. You'd better relax and enjoy what you’re given.”       After Terrence clenches and unclenches her breasts and leaves several short kisses on the open part of them, Raquelle slaps him in the face strongly. Then she sets her confident look in his eyes, raising her head proudly and waiting for his actions. Then the man kisses her on the lips much more assertively, grabbing her by the throat and grabbing his fiancée’s hair with the fingers of his free hand.       To add some fuel to the fire, Raquelle pretends that she wants to get out of the tight grip, moaning loudly, pushing, and giving strong hits. That’s how she really makes Terrence much more excited, so that he covers her collarbones with kisses and sucks some parts of the skin on her neck with quiet moans. At some moment, the man takes the top off the girl impatiently with shaking hands after pulling it from side to side for some time. Seeing the half-naked fiancé, he looks at her breasts like charmed, then squeezes them with both hands and pays attention to her tough nipples that he sucks, sucks in, and caresses with the tip of his tongue.       “Oh, my God…” Raquelle pronounces quietly.       “You shouldn't have provoked the wild animal!” Terrence exclaims. “Since you’re so non-obedient and sassy, I’m gonna have to educate and tame you.”       “Tame yourself, bastard!”       “Shut up, bitch!”       Terrence lies Raquelle on the bed with one easy movement and covers her naked breasts with kisses generously, while his hand slides over her flat, tense belly that he caresses with his lips at some moment, running the tip of his tongue over some areas on it. The man gets a frantic pleasure as he sees the girl bend backward obediently with sensual sighs, stick out her breasts, and stretch herself in a seductive way. Not thinking a lot, he grabs the electric of the lady’s shots with both hands, pulls them down determinedly, and throws them aside. Then he scans the whole naked body that is ready to be at his will right now with his hungry eyes.       “The hellcat is awesome…” Terrence pronounces with enjoyment, running his fingertips over Raquelle’s pubis. “You are fucking great…”       Terrence runs his hands over the inside of Raquelle’s thighs and reaches out to the inside of them, feeling the heat that this area spreads.       “Oh, yay, babe, you’re so hot!” Terrence leaves several short kisses on the inside of Raquelle’s thighs and just caresses them with his lips. “So sexy…”       “Isn’t she outta your league?” Raquelle smiles blissfully and stretches herself out gracefully on the bed, showing that she is not shy of being naked and loves her body the way it is. “Wouldn’t ya burn if you touched her?”       “It really burns like fire and stings like a bee. But I can’t resist. It’s so attractive and gorgeous. But the owner of it is so proud of the one.”       “And she’s hungry now…” Raquelle rolls her eyes and leans on the blanket with the back of her head when Terrence runs his hands chaotically over her belly and leaves several kisses around her navel. “Really hungry…”       “And I know what my baby wants.”       Terrence runs his finger in Raquelle’s vagina and rubs her clitoris tenderly but intensively, while his other hand is on her abdomen.       “Oh, yes, yes…” Raquelle exhales sensually, bending her legs at her knees and feeling that something warm and tickling is getting stronger in the bottom. “Yea-a-a-ah…”       “I know, my girl, I know,” Terrence pronounces confidently. “I know how good you feel now…”       “Fuck… Screw you… M-m-m…”       “How wet you are… How excited you are… How much you want to feel the love of the real man.”       Moving his hand up to Raquelle’s belly and breasts, Terrence connects his lips with hers for an assertive kiss. While his tongue slides over the palate and around his fiancée’s tongue, his fingertips make circular movements around the areola, but do not touch her nipples on purpose, even if they make him feel an intolerable desire to caress them somehow.       “I hate you,” Raquelle snaps in a hoarse voice and feels a slight tingling in her heart when Terrence’s lips touch her lips. “I hate you…”       “M-m-m, you’re snapping and resisting, but you’re watering, moaning, and bending,” Terrence smiles smugly and leaves several kisses on the curve of Raquelle’s neck. “I like it all so badly!”       “By the way, I just got one little question.” Raquelle runs her hands over Terrence’s back, puts them on his buttocks, and clenches them tightly. “And I wanna get the answer on it.”       “At this moment, the thing I don’t care about is you talking. The only thing I wanna hear is you moaning and begging me to take you.”       “Anyway, I really wonder to know one thing…”       Raquelle grabs Terrence’s throat tightly and looks into his eyes closely.       “Why the fuck are you still wearing these fucking pants?” Raquelle resents in a much lower voice.       “Pants?” Terrence gets confused briefly.       “So, I am lying here absolutely naked with everything revealed, but you, asshole, keep your wealth in the safe? Don’t ya think it’s kinda dishonest?”       “Why is it dishonest?” Terrence rounds his eyes. “The longer you dream of the naked me, the stronger your desire is gonna be. The less you’re gonna pretend to be hard.”       “Ha! Is that why I have to lie like this?”       “The most beautiful view of those I’ve ever seen in my life.” Terrence clenches and unclenches Raquelle’s breasts two times and runs his hand slowly over her belly. “How could I resist this?”       “Alright, either you take this cloth off you now, or you’re gonna be banned from feeling me up, kissing me, and looking at me.”       “Oh, how brave you are… How sassy you are… M-m-m… My blood is boiling in my veins…”       “You have two seconds to make a decision.”       Not stopping to look into his eyes, Raquelle takes the pants off Terrence’s buttocks and claps them strongly.       “Or… I swear… I shall rip them to the fuck.”       “There’s the third variant,” Terrence purrs, leaning on Raquelle’s forehead with his forehead with a heavy breath. “You can take them off. Slowly or quickly – in any way you like.”       “Wonderful variant, too. Because I really love undressing you.”       Grabbing Terrence’s face tightly, Raquelle kisses him on the lips, gets her tongue into his mouth at some moment, and hears him make a quiet moan when he slowly slides over her palate and tongue and around the one. His hand clench her buttocks like a boss and slide confidently over the curves of her waist, sending electric impulses to the brain so that the skin gets covered with goosebumps and the whole body shakes.       While Raquelle sucks and licks her fiancé’s lips tenderly, she sinks her nails into the muscles on Terrence’s scapula, runs her hands over his tough back, and gets down to his buttocks, which she takes the pants off much more. Next, he helps her a little, grabbing the fabric with his fingers and pulling it down as he leaves short kisses in the corners of the girl’s mouth. She smiles blissfully when she sinks her nails into his naked buttocks and feels that something touch gets into her abdomen much better.       “It’s way better,” Raquelle pronounces in a low voice and runs her hands over Terrence’s torso with a heavy breath up and down several times. “Way better…”       “How impatient you are,” Terrence notices with a sly smile. “You don’t like waiting at all.”       “I just want you to get into me too badly. I shake when I think about it.”       “There’s no way back, babe.” Terrence runs his fingers around Raquelle’s nipple and clenches her breast tightly. “My buddy is ready to break through the border already.”       “Yeah? I thought it was just coming and was too far from doing this!”       “Don’t need to think now,” Terrence advises, caresses Raquelle’s nipple with his thumb, and sucks it with his lips. “Don’t need…”       In parallel, Terrence runs his fingertips over Raquelle’s pubis and the inside of her thighs, feeling that he shakes after every single blissful moan from the girl.       “A-a-a-a, will the fuck you fuck me today or not?” Raquelle pronounces loudly and irritably.       “Ah, I do like to hear it so badly!” Terrence pronounces with enjoyment. “I do like…”       “How the fuck long are you gonna keep mocking me? Can’t ya see how I’m whining? How hungry I am and…”       “Shut up, bitch, I give orders!”       Terrence shuts Raquelle up with a little aggressive kiss on the lips, under the influence of which she lets her relaxed hands on the bed powerlessly, dying of the tormenting tension that she feels in her core and barely understanding what’s happening around. She chokes from just one touch of the man’s lips, and the heat that his naked body spreads makes her melt slowly and feel that her heart is about to jump out of her chest.       “Oh, yay, babe, you’re so imitable…” Terrence purrs with a wide smile and covers Raquelle’s neck furiously with exciting kisses, while she rolls her eyes with a loud, heavy breath and sticks out her breasts, which he puts his hand on and clenches tightly.       “I swear if you don’t start doing this now, I will bend you over and make you scream at the whole house,” Raquelle threatens loudly and irritably. “You want this?”       “You’re the only one to be bent over, cutie. As I understand, do you want to get an orgasm in this pose? Right?”       “Even standing on my head!”       “M-m-m… I haven’t tried to fuck a girl hanging with her head down. But I’m gonna take a note about your idea.”       After growing irritably, Raquelle lies Terrence on the bed with a sharp movement, sits over him, and kisses him greedily on the lips. His hands slide confidently over the girl’s back, arms, shoulders, and the curves of her waist, his face is red from tension, and his breath gets much deeper and heavier. Every single cell of the body is set on fiery fire, waking up his intolerable desire, while the lady’s crotch rubs energetically against the male genitals, and her lips cover his neck, collarbones, chest, and chest generously with kisses and suck his nipples with moans full of eternal pleasure.       “Fucking bitch…” Terrence moans hoarsely and swallows nervously as he leans on the pillow with the back of his head. “Oh, fuck…”       At some moment, Terrence sits up sharply and puts his arms tightly around Raquelle’s waist, while her hands slide chaotically over his shoulders and chest, her fingers clench his disheveled hair, and her lips caress the area behind his ears, burning them with a hot breath.       “Asshole…” Raquelle sighs sensually. “Can’t resist you at all.”       “Shouldn't have gotten in touch with you,” Terrence wheezes. “Bitch…”       “Fuck me. Right now.”       “Spread your legs. You’re gonna scream now.” Terrence caresses one of Raquelle’s nipples with teasing movements, while the fingers of one of his hands clench her breast, making her make a deafening moan. “Or do you want me to fuck you in your ass today?”       “Fuck me in anything you want, in any way you want…” Raquelle runs her tongue around Terrence’s tongue, pulls, pinches, and sucks his bottom lip. “M-m-m… I agree with everything…”       “Oh, it’s so good to me!”       Terrence lies on the bed again, pulling Raquelle after himself, while their lips connect in a hot kiss full of passionate desire. When they break it, they literally burn each other with their withering glance full of greediness for something special that makes them feel dizzy and get goosebumps on their skin. The girl chuckling shyly and keeping her head proudly raised raises the man’s hands above his head, presses his wrists against the bed, and sinks her teeth into the skin on the curve of his neck with a sensual moan, making him feel a sudden tickling in his heart and hold his breath. While he rolls his eyes, tensing all his muscles, she gets down and down, sucking and sucking in his nipples, caressing his naked torso with her hands, and covering his chest and stomach with short kisses full of passion.       “Fuck, hellcat…” Terrence swears in a low, hoarse voice. “Fucking bitch…”       Terrence oohs unconsciously and closes his eyes when Raquelle sits over him and breaks determinedly the invisible wall that separates them from each other until the very end. A powerful electric wave runs over the skin, and the muscles contract immediately over the tormenting waiting of something sweet and exciting. The girl closes her eyes, bends her back backward, sticks out her breasts, and starts moaning quietly, getting deeper and deeper in the undiscovered places full of mysteries with slow and smooth pushes.       “Oh, yay, babe…” Terrence smiles blissfully. “Yea-a-a-a-ah…”       Terrence puts his hands on Raquelle’s buttocks and brings her closer to herself, enjoying the way she moves her thighs, rubs his chest energetically, and runs her hands over his stomach, on which she can feel his muscles that are as tough as stone. Her eyes are focused on his eyes for most of the time. His eyes are full of the primitive hunger and look at the face of the naked beauty like under a spell, while her sensual moans make his heart beat much faster. At some moment, Raquelle gives Terrence a continuous kiss on the lips and moans right into his mouth several times, whispering something unclear that he does not care about, however, while he is focused on his pleasure only. The hurricane that grows inside him and can destroy everything in its way.       “M-m-m, fuck…” Terrence growls, running his hand over Raquelle’s back and clenching her buttocks with another hand. “Yeah… You’re imitable…”       “I know, pretty boy, I know…” Raquelle wheezes and moans sensually several times in a row. “Oh, yeah… M-m-m…”       Terrence’s hand reaches out to Raquelle’s belly and ends up on her small breast that he clenches tightly, making her roll her eyes. Along with this, her pushes get a little faster and more determined, and she squeezes his throat in passion at some moment. And he does not care about it. Even if he can barely breathe. Then he sinks his nails in the lady’s buttocks and presses her sharply against himself, feeling the enjoyment from the loud, long-lasting moan of his fiancée.       “It’s all mine…” Raquelle smiles smugly and leaves a couple of kisses on the curve of Terrence’s neck, breathing in the smell of it and feeling a little dizzy. “It’s all mine…”       “Stop talking, move your ass faster!” Terrence growls in a bass voice, burning from impatience, and slaps Raquelle strongly on her buttocks, while she steps away and stops doing everything at some moment. “Faster, I said! Get in deeper! Are ya sleeping? Why did ya the fuck stop?”       “Why am I hearing you talk?” Raquelle barely touches Terrence’s nipples with the tip of her tongue and sucks them with her lips. “Didn’t I say the only thing I wanted to hear was you moaning?”       “I think you’re the only one to talk here.”       “Look who’s talking, asshole!”       “Watch yourself, bitch!”       “Lie quietly, horndog!”       “Don’t irritate me!” I didn’t even start it!”       “Shut up and do your business!”       “I can decide it by myself, bastard!”       Being on edge and breathing like a furious animal, Terrence throws Raquelle off himself with one movement, lies her on the bed, and, not hesitating, spreads her legs rudely. Then he makes such a sharp and deep push that she shakes with a sensual, long-lasting moan, while her whole body is possessed with a tormenting tension and a sweet lie. Like a heartless animal, the man does everything as determinedly as never ever, breaking through all the possible borders and feeling like a lord on the territory that does not belong to him.       “So, bitch, if you want rudeness, you will get it,” Terrence promises in a low, hoarse voice and raises one of Raquelle’s feet, starting to hold her by the thigh. “You asked for trouble. You started it all…”       “Oh, yay, babe…” Raquelle moans, bending like a cat and clenching the sheet with her fingers tightly. “Yeah… M-m-m… More… More…”       In passion, Raquelle sinks her nails tightly in Terrence’s back and bites the skin on his neck, losing her mind with every single push and forgetting how to pretend to be hard to reach. While she does not care about what’s happening to her body, the muscles of which shake from tension that seems something that is impossible to bear. Something that makes her close to losing consciousness, suffer from a lack of air, and literally hear her fast heartbeat in her head.       “You say I’m washed up?” Terrence recalls with a heavy breath and starts holding both of Raquelle’s legs in the air. “You don’t get as much pleasure as before?”       Raquelle says nothing and stretches herself on the bed like a string, raising her hands above her head and imagining how the tormenting sweet tension possesses every single cell of her body like a tsunami.       “Alright, I shall give you something hot now,” Terrence states determinedly. “You, bitch, will be screaming at the whole house and begging me to give you more.”       “Please, Terrence, please…” Raquelle whispers powerlessly and makes a sensual moan when she feels a much deeper push, after which she literally runs toward her beloved man. “Please…”       “I do know how to tame such obstinate bitches.” Terrence squeezes Raquelle’s throat tightly, feeling that his heart trembles nicely at the sight of the girl strengthening herself out like a string and the sounds of the enjoyment that she makes. “I do know what to do when you’re non-obedient and want passionately to be kicked as fuck. And be fucked…”       After looking at her whole naked body with a hungry glance and licking his lips with the dryness in his mouth, Terrence clenches and unclenches Raquelle’s breasts, while she keeps her legs around his waist tightly and presses him much closer to herself. The man covers the girl’s neck with wet and furious kisses generously since she shows it up, running her fingers through his hair and starting to pull it strongly. He succumbs to the temptation to kiss the lady’s puffy lips and run his tongue over his fiancée’s tongue, while she answers him with the same thing. He does not forget to caress her tough nipples and her breasts with his lips, breathing in the smell of her skin that clouds his mind more and more and turns him into a hungry tiger.       Terrence being impatient already gets tenser and tenser, and his actions become more determined. His smile gets much wider every time he exhales loudly after another powerful push toward the finish line. Meanwhile, Raquelle zones herself out of this world and focuses her attention on her feelings and emotions. What’s happening to her body that shakes and bends with no control. Even if she is absolutely weak, fragile, and vulnerable when she is naked, she does not care about it and is not shy of it at all. The skillful skills of the man do not leave her a choice and deprive her of any wish to resist this magical moment when the lovers feel each other’s warmth much better than ever and as close as never before. The moment when they have a little time before the wave of heat runs rapidly through the whole body, and the tormenting tension reaches its peak, bringing both of them to a temporary craziness.       

***

      It’s getting closer to the evening. Natalia spends this evening with her family: her father, Anthony, her mother, Letitia, and her grandmother, Adriana. Not just the evening: they decided to spend a whole day together, using the moment when none of them has to go anywhere. It was what made them really happy because all of them were always too busy with their business and had to rush. And now they are sitting all together at the table and enjoying the delicious dinner that the women of the family cooked together.       “Gosh, it’s been a while since we came together like this and didn’t rush,” Adriana sighs with a slight smile, eating slowly what she has on her plate with a knife and a fork. “It’s such a rare thing…”       “We’re lucky not to have any meetings today,” Letitia replies, holding a fork and a knife as Natalia and Anthony are. “We can relax a little before tomorrow, when it’s the day of the beginning of the judicial proceedings between the model I am representing and her agency.”       “But I came back from another abroad trip, and I have to get ready for another,” Anthony says thoughtfully. “There will be one excellent show I was told to make a huge report about.”       “The season of fashion shows is getting closer!” Natalia notices. “They’re gonna have one shot after another! And barely have time to follow all of them.”       “Yeah, spring and fall are the peak! Besides, I want to get the agreement to interview some legendary people. I would even probably film a documentary movie. I’ve been thinking about it, but I can’t find time to work on the concept at least.”       “Oh, why wouldn’t you think about interviewing Raquelle? I’m sure she’d be happy to agree and answer all your questions!”       “I haven’t gotten the suggestion of interviewing her, but I would be happy to talk to her. Raquelle is an experienced enough model who knows everything about it all and can share secrets and give pieces of advice to newbies.”       “She has lately been shooting much more rarely,” Letitia notices thoughtfully. “As if this girl is planning to quit her career.”       “No, Mom, she doesn’t plan it,” Natalia shakes her head. “Raquelle just became too picky and examines all the suggestions closely. And no matter what, the past scandals did impact her career negatively.”       “That girl has achieved so much already,” Adriana notices cheerfully. “I can’t say she’s got everything, but she’s reached many goals and got many fans. So… She can think about other things. Creating her own family, for example.”       “She thinks about it, Grandma, don’t worry. She is about to have a wedding that Raquelle will not cancel.”       “Hey, as I understand, everything is still on?” Letitia specifies. “No cancellation of the wedding?”       “Nope, the wedding date remains the same. Since things got better and clearer, we can get married. We’ve been delaying it for too long, as I think.”       “Ah, daughter…” Letitia sighs heavily. “I can’t believe you’re gonna leave us and live with your husband soon.”       “And I’m a little nervous because of that,” Natalia confesses shyly. “Changing your place is always stressful. I had to spend a lot of time getting used to the new place after we left Kingston. But now I’m gonna have to get used to a new one.”       “Don’t worry, my birdie, this thing is going to be easy and quick next to your beloved man by your side,” Adriana assures, caressing Natalia’s hand. “You and Edward are gonna have so much to do that you will not even notice how you’re used to your new home.”       “One thing is spending one night somewhere or changing your place for a week or two. And another thing is leaving your own home forever.”       “Anyway, the doors of our home will always be open for you,” Anthony says confidently. “You can always come to us, and we’d be happy to accept you.”       “I know, Dad.”       “Oh, when I moved to Mexico with Enrique, I didn’t notice how I got used to that place,” Adriana waves her hand. “I was scared, I don’t deny it. It was a strange country, and I didn’t know any Spanish words. But my husband didn’t stop supporting me and helped me adapt to everything easily.”       “Anyway, I think I can do this,” Natalia smiles shyly.       “Of course, you can! You have such a wonderful fiancé! Edward is such a good boy. I can’t literally get enough of him.”       “By the way, Natalia, why didn’t you invite Edward to our dinner?” Anthony asks. “It’s almost like our family member, huh.”       “He’s been doing repairs at our house all day,” Natalia explains. “He spent hours going to stores for the whole morning to find what he needed and then went to continue to work on it.”       “M-m-m, repairing at your love plane is a holy thing,” Letitia replies funnily.       “He wanted to go to the store yesterday. But as you know well, Edward had to save this thing for later because he met the alive and unharmed Helene.”       “Yeah, I still can’t believe that the girl didn’t die,” Anthony replies thoughtfully. “It’s some kind of miracle!”       “Agree, it’s a miracle that she was saved by one of the criminals," Adriana notices. "As they say, you get help from those you don’t expect.”       “I’m really happy Helene is alright,” Letitia smiles slightly. “She’s such a sweet and kind girl and didn’t deserve what happened to her.”       “Yeah, but the girls and I were so excited when we saw her that we almost died,” Natalia confesses shyly. “If not for the guys, I don’t know what would’ve happened to us.”       “I’d also pass out if I saw, for example, my late husband standing in front of me,” Adriana says confidently,       “I’m sure that the men were shocked, too, even if they didn’t show it,” Anthony assumes. “They saw that girl allegedly die. And everything looked like Helene was really gone.”       “They felt so guilty of what happened to her all the time,” Natalia confesses with sadness in her eyes. “Blamed themselves for not being able to do anything.”       “What would they have done, daughter?” Letitia wonders. “They were in the same place, but Helene was in another place!”       “The boys are fine fellows anyway!” Adriana exclaims. “They did everything they could. And the important thing is that they weren’t afraid to get in touch with such a dangerous criminal.”       “Yeah, the guys are really lucky that Marcus didn’t kill them, either,” Anthony agrees.       “The girls and I have never blamed them for what happened,” Natalia says softly. “Vice versa, we’ve repeated many times that we’re proud of them. But they weren’t proud of themselves ‘cause they thought they failed the mission and broke the promise. The promise of coming back with Helene.”       “It’s okay, babe, now, when this girl came back to you alive, they can finally calm down and stop blaming themselves,” Adriana replies with a slight smile.       “I imagine how happy Mrs. Marshall is going to be after learning this piece of news,” Letitia says confidently. “Does she know it already?”       “Daniel and Anna promised to drive Helene home this morning,” Natalia confesses. “Yesterday, she stayed at their home for a night, and today she was supposed to come back home to her grandmother.”       “The poor woman is gonna get the meaning of life again,” Anthony replies. “She didn’t literally want to live when we thought Helene died.”       “Yeah, Mrs. Marshall has cried so many tears since the kidnapping of her granddaughter,” Adriana shakes her head. “My heart broke when I looked at her.”       “I think if Helene had shown up later, we would’ve lost that woman for sure,” Letitia assumes thoughtfully.       “By the way, thank you all so much for helping us watch her,” Natalia thanks amicably. “The guys and I are really grateful to you for that.”       “It was the least we could do for you. You were all under a strong stress because of what was happening, but watching Mrs. Marshall would’ve been too much for you.”       “Yeah, it wasn’t hard for us to watch her and comfort her,” Anthony adds. “We agreed that we’d watch that woman by one. But when none of us could, we got the help from Mrs. Marshall’s neighbor.”       “Thank you so much,” Natalia smiles sweetly. “It really means a lot to us.”       “As they say, come back if you need us again,” Adriana shrugs.       “I think you’re not the only ones to jump from happiness,” Anthony assumes. “I imagine how happy Peter is now.       “He doesn’t know Helene is alive yet,” Natalia shakes her head and bites her lip slightly. “And we don’t know how to tell him that.”       “Go to his home?” Adriana suggests.       “Won’t work. He isn’t at home or just doesn’t open the door. He doesn’t wanna talk to us. He ignores us in all possible ways.”       “I’m starting to be worried about him,” Letitia expresses anxiety.       “We’re afraid, too. Peter is now all alone and can do any stupid thing. But alas, we can’t prevent it at all.”       “Okay, I can understand why Peter is mad at the men with a big stretch,” Anthony says quietly, putting his fork and knife on the plate and locking his fingers tightly. “But you, girls… Why would he be mad at you for? You’ve done nothing bad to him! Neither you, Anna, nor Raquelle.”       “We all tried to send him messages and call him, but he ignores them, too. And he actually turns off all the calls if his number is available.”       “You’ve probably got hope now,” Adriana assumes. “Helene is alive. Peter will not ignore her, for sure.”       “Honestly, the situation with him is hard,” Natalia sighs heavily, putting her fork and knife on the plate and leaning on her palm with her chin. “The guys and I discovered something that made us think that Peter… Suffers from some mental illnesses.”       “Mental illnesses?” Anthony frowns slightly.       “I dunno… Well… Schizophrenia, hallucinations… It’s like he talks to someone. Someone who exists in his head only.”       “But you didn’t see it personally,” Letitia notices.       “Daniel says he’s witnessed these things many times. Not just that. But also what I told you about before. And Helene confirmed it really happened.”       “Why are you surprised?” Adriana shrugs. “The boy has been treated like a doormat all his life, and he has mentally unstable people in his family.”       “And if it’s all the truth… We don’t even know how to talk to him after that. It can’t be gone. Schizophrenia can’t be cured.”       “People who suffer from similar illnesses must take cures to weaken the symptoms for the rest of their lives,” Anthony recalls. “But as I understand, Peter doesn’t take anything at all?”       “Yes, he doesn’t like all these tablets and cures. And he doesn’t like doctors, either.”       “And there have been periods when he acts like a normal, healthy man,” Letitia adds.       “Exactly. And as I understood, all these weird things happen when Peter has some problems in his life. While nothing happens, he seems healthy, sweet, and friendly.”       “Agree….” Anthony agrees thoughtfully. “He fretted after his conflict with Daniel, and he’s had hysterics since Marcus started to harm him. And after the case with Helene, he actually went insane.”       “Maybe Peter just hides his illness too well when everything is alright?” Adriana assumes. “Maybe it’s easy for him to do this at these moments, but he loses control of the situation when he runs into difficulties?”       “I dunno, Grandma…” Natalia sighs heavily. “But it’s all too strange. And the guys and I are a little anxious.”       “Do you mean you don’t want to talk to him anymore?” Letitia concludes. “You want to say Peter is no longer in your company?”       “Nope, we wanna talk to him. We wanna help him. But does it make sense? First, Peter is obviously unhealthy, and second, he wanna change nothing. He doesn’t wanna fight his demons at all.”       “If he is a threat to everyone, he will be taken for forced therapy,” Anthony notices. “If Peter commits a crime when he is out of his mind, and the examination confirms it, nobody will care about opinion. But if he resists, he will make it worse.”       “And we’re worried about whether Helene made the right choice by deciding to be with Peter. Yes, she loves him and would be happy to get married to him. But… What if it may be a real threat to her?”       “Or vice versa, that girl can make real magic,” Adriana smiles mysteriously. “You said she impacted him well. Helene takes care of him, and Peter is ready for anything for her.”       “I’m afraid she’s gonna be his enemy due to Marcus’s charges about the betrayal that he did not prove.”       “But now he knows the girl is guilty of nothing.”       “Marcus didn’t take his words back. He insisted on it and didn’t give up until the very end.”       “I think the best thing she can do is to tell Peter about all her actions from the past,” Letitia replies. “Yes, he won’t like it, but he should know the truth.”       “She should’ve told him everything earlier,” Anthony adds. “Told him about what she did to Raquelle and you, along with Ashley and her gang.”       “The girls and I can do this, but it has to do with Helene,” Natalia notices. “She should decide to do it. Yes, I don’t think she would be mad if we did it. But there are things we’re not connected with. Which she should talk about by herself.”       “Birdie, aren’t you and Raquelle really mad at Helene at all?” Adriana wonders.       “Nope, Grandma, we are not. We discussed everything a long time ago.”       “Your mother, your father, and I still remember what she did to you once. Especially, you.”       “Oh, yeah, I remember that case well!” Anthony exclaims. “I remember how we wanted to start a scandal.”       “And we will never forget the way Mrs. and Mr. Marshall looked,” Letitia adds. “I remember they were all green and dumbfounded when we tried to solve it all. It was clear that they were ashamed of their granddaughter.”       “Yeah, they turned out to be very decent and intelligent people. Didn’t look like those who would start a fight if someone dared to hurt their precious baby. Even if their baby crushed someone’s skull or made someone disabled without regret.”       “No, no, these two were really ashamed of Helene. Remember how many times they apologized to us and said they were really sorry. And they swore on God that they would pay damages to those who suffered.”       “It’s kinda strange that such wonderful people got such a restless granddaughter.”       “She didn’t talk a lot about her life with them, but she said she loved them so much,” Natalia confesses. “But Mrs. Marshall made some confessions recently, and Helene herself confirmed her words. She told us that her grandfather was a very harsh man and kept all the aspects of her life under control: where she went, who she talked with, when she came back home, where she worked, and how much she earned. They went everywhere with her, she wasn’t allowed to date boys, she should’ve studied well, and given them her salary. And her grandmother followed the rule that a man was always right and was by his side.”       “Yeah, she told us about it, too,” Adriana recalls. “She said she was still sorry about it. She was worried about being silent and not meddling, even if she was horrified by the methods her husband used to educate their granddaughter. Like, he didn’t let himself do it to their daughter.”       “Yeah, they were afraid she would be left holding the baby at the age of fifteen or sixteen, but she eventually gave them a different type of problems,” Anthony sighs tiredly.       “It made Helene furious,” Natalia replies. “She wanted them to give her more freedom. Not to have to tell them about all her actions and give them the money she earned honestly, so Mr. Marshall could put them in a secret place. And what a scandal they had when he found out that Helene hid a part of her salary and even agreed to rent the apartment.”       “On the one hand, they weren’t right,” Adriana notices. “The girl grew up and could pay for herself. And on the other hand, they did it because they were afraid that she’d harm someone again and get in trouble. You and I know well how her attempt to frame Natalia and then Raquelle cruelly ended.”       “If the situation hadn’t been solved, I would’ve turned that school upside down and shut it to the heck,” Anthony says determinedly. “They would’ve paid a lot for trying to slander Natalia. My daughter, who would not hurt a fly.”       “Oh, God, it’s so good that our daughter graduated from it a long time ago!” Letitia raises her hands. “When she got a certificate, I felt like I got rid of the load. And I felt much better when we left Kingston, where nothing good would be waiting for us.”       “It was one of the best decisions of ours,” Natalia smiles shyly. “Our life changed for the better here. You got career prospects, and I met many wonderful people. And of course, I found my biggest love.”       “Oh, there were many boys who admired such a wonderful beauty like you,” Adriana laughs shyly. “You’ve been the most beautiful one among folks of your age. That’s why Ashley was jealous of you. She understood that she wasn’t better than you. And every year, everyone saw it clearer and clearer because you were surrounded by a crown of boys, but only several people liked her.”       “My daughter must’ve been a beauty!” Anthony says with his head proudly raised. “Besides, she’s our smart girl. She can do anything!”       “You’re right, Anthony! Natalia is our perfect hostess. Her husband will surely not be hungry and naked, and their home will always smell of home-cooked food cooked by her. Not ordered at a delivery club where they can give you who knows what.”       “Anyway, we successfully completed our mission of raising our child,” Letitia replies confidently. “We can call ourselves proud parents without doubts.”       “And we can give this treasure to the best of the best one,” Anthony adds.       “And I found the one, luckily,” Natalia smiles mysteriously.       “Yeah, you got a really wonderful boy, obviously,” Adriana replies confidently. “He’s handsome, he’s provided, he’s brave… Letting him go would be a sin!”       “Oh, no! He’s mine! Only mine! Other girls must not keep an eye on him! I will give my treasure to nobody.”       “Trust me, daughter, this treasure will not leave you, either,” Anthony laughs.       “I hope, Dad, I hope.”       “Oh, I can’t wait for the wedding day!” Adriana pronounces with enthusiasm. “I can’t wait to watch my granddaughter in a gorgeous wedding dress. Watch her become a wife. Become Mrs. MacClife.”       “By the way, why haven’t we received any call about the dress?’ Letitia frowns slightly. “The wedding is getting closer, but it’s not done yet!”       “I’ve just made changes several times and asked them to add something or remove something,” Natalia confesses. “That’s why they’ve been working on it for too long.”       “I think sewers grab their heads all the time because of what another bride comes up with,” Anthony says funnily.       “C’mon, darling, they are used to it!” Letitia waves her hand. “They completely understand that brides are very changing and demanding at such an exciting moment.”       “Agree,” Adriana smiles shyly. “Especially when a girl gets married for the first time.”       “Don’t worry, family, I promise that I made changes to my dress for the last time,” Natalia raises her hands. “I will not make more changes anymore.”       “Of course, you will not!” Anthony exclaims. “You’re about to have a wedding soon! A little time before it happens.”       “But I’m gonna walk down the aisle in a dress of my dream.”       “I guess Raquelle also pays a lot of attention to her dress and has asked them to make like one hundred changes,” Adriana assumes.       “Of course, Grandma! She wanna be beautiful, too. We two don’t wanna fail it all. We’re gonna have professional photographers and reports on the wedding. The whole world is gonna know it.”       “You and the guys have been getting ready for this for so long that everything is supposed to be without a hitch,” Letitia assures. “And you still keep everything under your control.”       “I hope, Mom.”       While Natalia, Adriana, and Letitia keep eating what they have on their plates and sometimes drink a little from their glasses, Anthony apologizes gently and leaves to get an additional piece of food that he is delighted with. After the dinner, they agree to sit on the sofa in the living room and watch a movie, not even thinking about turning on the phones they turned off this morning, and talk to anyone about any business. Today, all of them woke up with a strong wish to spend this day with their family. And nobody is going to change their mind to please someone who can wait until tomorrow, as they think.       

***

      The next day, Daniel, Edward, and Terrence agree to meet in the city to decide what to do next. On the way, they see a small comfortable café where they go with a wish to drink a big glass of cocktail and eat something light. While the men stand in the queue and talk about their current problems, the band’s assistant, Blake Connor, joins them after he goes by here, decides to come in, and accepts the men’s invitation to join them with pleasure. After they choose what they want to buy from the long menu, paying for them with a card or banknotes, and taking their order two minutes later, the four sit at the table they put an eye on and keep talking about the latest events that happened to them.       “What a fucking twist!” Blake pronounces surprisingly, setting his widely open eyes on the three. “Are ya kidding?”       “We aren’t kidding,” Edward shakes his head with a slight smile, holding a plastic glass with a straw that he uses to drink at times. “We’re telling you the truth. Helene didn’t actually die. She’s alive and healthy.”       Blake almost chokes on the drink from his glass in surprise and has to cough quietly and catch a breath before he speaks again:       “But how? How is that possible? You said she was killed by the psycho Marcus!”       “We thought he killed,” Daniel replies quietly. “But as it turned out, one of the criminals saved her.”       “Wow! Does it look like he decided to play a hero?”       “Sort of,” Terrence shrugs. “The police haven’t caught him yet because he’s hiding very well.”       “Oh, I forgot to say that Mr. Johnson called me this morning and said that Elijah Hartley had been arrested,” Edward announces.       “Come on?” Daniel opens his eyes widely. “Elijah was found? He was arrested?”       “They didn’t find him. He went to the police station and surrendered at his will.”       “No way!” Terrence pronounces surprisingly. “Himself? Decided to surrender?”       “I know, I know, I’m shocked, too. But Mr. Johnson confirmed everything.” Edward drinks a little from his glass through the straw. “He questioned Elijah personally. Hartley asked to bring him to the one who worked on Marcus’s case. Then that asshole made confessions and went to jail, accompanied by the policeman and lush fanfares.”       “Whoa…” Daniel cracks a slight smile. “It seems like he didn’t lie to Helene and really went to surrender.”       “That man also told about many other crimes of Marcus Longbottom. He told the police where they could find many of those who hadn’t been found yet.”       “In short, he gave that old bastard up as fuck!” Blake exclaims.       “Exactly! We can say Marcus Longbottom and his whole gang are arrested from this day on and are gonna be on the trial soon.”       “Listen, I’m really happy!” Terrence pronounces cheerfully, eating a little pack of potato chips with pleasure. “We’ve finally ended this story!”       “Mr. Johnson is gonna do his best for all these bastards to be sentenced for a long time,” Daniel says confidently and eats a couple of hazelnuts from a pack he bought. “We can have no doubts about it.”       “I’m really happy for you, guys!” Blake smiles widely. “And I’m really happy Helene is okay. She’s a cool girl and didn’t deserve it all.”       “Now we can stop feeling guilty,” Daniel notices. “The conscience was eating us inside.”       “Why would ya be worried if you didn’t have to do it? Marcus and his ass-lickers must be the ones to worry.”       “We did promise the girls. We literally let them down when we came back without Helene.”       “It’s okay, you did everything you could. If you’d locked that girl personally in a house and burned it down, your remorse would’ve been explainable. But now you can relax your ass and sing like birds at the top of your lungs!”       “Oh, yay, our balls no longer hurt!” Terrence pronounces cheerfully and drinks a little from the glass standing in front of him.       “The important thing is that she’s alive and healthy.”       “Right, though she’s gonna need a lot of time to come to herself,” Edward notices. “Helene is shocked after what happened to her. When we talked to her, she didn’t express any emotion. No scream, no cry, no hysteria. But it may be her protective reaction. One day, she will probably freak out so hard that we won’t be able to calm her down all together.”       “Poor girl, I’m so sorry for her.”       “The important thing is that she understands her problem,” Daniel notices. “That’s very good.”       “Support her, guys,” Blake says. “She needs your support and care as much as never ever. She can’t get through this all alone.”       “Don’t worry, Blake, we will not leave Helene,” Terrence assures with a slight smile. “She knows she’s not alone. She has the men, the girls, the grandmother, and me.”       “I guess the girls jump from happiness ‘cause their friend is alive.”       “That’s right!” Daniel exclaims. “The girls are really happy. After they almost provoked a mass fainting.”       “The girls!” Blake laughs. “They need a little to start to cry or faint.”       “Yeah, they love making us nervous,” Edward exhales sharply. “We definitely need tough mental health to be with them. To ride on this rollercoaster again and again.”       “As I understand, are they now hanging out together, while you’re filling your stomachs here?”       “Nope, they ain’t together,” Terrence shakes his head. “At least, Raquelle isn’t with the girls surely ‘cause she’s supposed to meet her manager team.”       “Helene wanted to go to her work, make a surprise for her colleagues, and talk to her boss about the situation,” Daniel says thoughtfully. “She said it yesterday when Anna and I drove her home.”       “Mrs. Marshall is probably incredibly happy now,” Edward assumes.       “Oh, ya! When she saw her granddaughter, she immediately got the strength. She lay a little in the bed and then rushed to help the girls in the kitchen.”       “Hey, do your other friends know what happened?” Blake asks. “Does George know it? The man is worried about you!”       “I personally sent a voice message to some guys and explained everything,” Terrence confesses. “Not everyone has replied to me yet, but those who saw my message were fucking overwhelmed and attacked me with questions.”       “We texted Smith too, but he hasn’t replied to anything yet,” Edward adds.       “And your families?” Blake specifies.       “Father and Mother know everything. Natalia told her family about it, too.”       “And Raquelle called Mr. Cameron yesterday,” Terrence confesses. “She told them everything.”       “But I’m gonna tell Cassidy about it tonight at dinner.” Daniel promises.       “Oh, has Cassidy been released from the clinic?”       “Not yet, but she was allowed to leave the clinic for a day. They sometimes let her go home if she wants or if I ask. And Anna suggested that they go to the shop together.”       “In short, the older brother gave the kid to his precious sweetheart,” Edward smiles slyly.       “By the way, the girls get along and wanna spend time together at their will. But I’m happy that my sister wanna accompany my princess.”       “M-m-m, how hard the Perkinses try to get the love and trust of the family of the girl and her,” Blake notices with a mysterious smile. “Doesn’t it mean anything?”       “If only, Connor!” Terrence exhales sharply. “I think we’ll never live until the day Dan finally proposes to his sweetheart.”       “Why would he rush?” Edward throws his hands up. “He lives with a girl, she cooks him restaurant dishes every day, washes his entire house, washes his socks and underwear, and pleases him in bed. Doesn’t it look like a family life? Why the fuck would he care about getting engaged and married?”       “The important thing is that Anna is happy with everything,” Blake laughs.       “She won’t tell you that so openly!” Terrence exclaims. “That girl is too shy to run after a man and tell him to put a ring on her finger and give her his surname.”       “I’ll see what you’re gonna say if I come to you with some very nice news,” Daniel throws gloomily.       “Dude, the roof of this café would rather fall over my head than you grow up for getting married,” Edward replies.       “It’s okay, guys, Daniel is gonna have to get married one hundred percent if his sweetheart, let’s say, is expecting a child,” Blake assures. “If he doesn’t take responsibility, her family is gonna fuck his brain. They won’t let their daughter give birth out of marriage.”       “They can’t probably wait for the day they watch their daughter get married!” Terrence exclaims.       “Oh, yeah, if I decide to do this, I’m gonna have a cool mother-in-law and father-in-law,” Daniel says proudly. “Who are gonna join our dinner tonight, as well.”       “M-m-m, it’s time to rehearse the role of the most decent and educated gentleman. Take a shower, brush your hair, put on a suit, and show your best manners.”       “Thanks, MacClife, I dunno what I’d do without your wisest pieces of advice.”       “You’re welcome, bro!”       “In short, your life is getting better little by little!” Blake notices cheerfully, leaning back in the chair. “You’re sitting here so funny…”       “Not all the problems are solved, but the worst things are over already,” Terrence shrugs.       “Okay, are the plans for the wedding still up?”       “They are!” Edward exclaims. “It will take place on the day we agreed on before.”       “Cool! I didn’t waste my money on a suit that I’d have to take care of so it doesn’t become food for moles in my closet.”       “Awesome, but our suits aren’t done yet,” Daniel confesses. “At least, we haven’t received any calls from the atelier yet.”       “I hope they manage to finish them by the wedding day,” Terrence expresses hope. “We need to try them on and see how we look in them. What if we have to change something.”       “Hey, what about the bachelor?” Blake asks with enthusiasm. “When will we hang out in male company?”       “Oh, my bro and I would love to know what one of the best men is gonna come up with,” Edward rolls his eyes dreamily. “We can’t wait.”       “Don’t worry, guys, I have a fucking cool idea that you’re gonna love,” Daniel says with his head proudly raised. “Of course, that’s bad I have to arrange everything by myself, but you can count on me anyway.”       “So, doesn’t Peter still wanna talk to ya?” Blake asks with sadness in his eyes.       “We’re starting to get ready to accept the thought that we’ve lost him,” Terrence sighs tiredly. “All our attempts to reach him don’t make sense. And we aren’t sure if we wanna run after him.”       “Do ya mean you wanna let him kill himself?”       “It doesn’t make sense to help someone who doesn’t want it,” Edward notices. “It looks like Peter is happy with everything. He gives a fuck about going crazy. He gives a fuck about doing stupid things in case he keeps withdrawing from everyone.”       “But you’ve got hope now!” Blake exclaims. “Helene is with you now. She’s able to wake up that Sleeping Beauty and wash his brain enough.”       “Of course, we will try, but if we meet a failure, it’s gonna be the end, for sure,” Daniel replies. “Now she’s the last chance of ours to fix something.”       “You’ve gotta solve this problem at least for the band. The album is about to be released in the nearest time, but you have one less member.”       “We don’t know how to solve it all,” Edward confesses. “But we’ll try to come up with something. Though it may happen that we have to give up on our principles and find someone to replace Rose. Or become a trio officially.”       “Although George doesn’t say it openly, he’s probably regretted deciding to promote us one hundred times,” Terrence assumes.       “No, guys, c’mon!” Blake protests. “You’re the favorite guys for George! He doesn’t give anyone as much attention as he gives to you. Not only because you’re perspective and can help him earn a lot of money.”       “The favorite guys and the main sources of all his problems.”       “Don’t worry. George understands everything completely and isn’t gonna give up on you. And he’s ready for anything to help you solve any problem.”       “We know, buddy,” Daniel sighs tiredly. “But we’re really sorry about the shit that happens all the time.”       “Just don’t miss your chance to fix the situation. And I think if Rose knows that his girlfriend is alive, his mind is gonna come back to its parking lot.”       “At least, she could keep his mind under control,” Terrence notices. “And Rose was a really decent and reasonable man.”       “So, find a way to reunite these lovebirds as soon as possible,” Blake advises. “This is the only way you can move this case off the dead point.”       “We’ll do our best,” Edward promises. “But our hope is very small. Knowing that Rose had gotten mad at her because she thought she betrayed him before all this shit happened. Even if it’s never happened.”       “If you have a chance, you must use it instead of yawning and looking around.”       “We’re trying.”       A short pause settles in the air, during which Edward keeps drinking his cocktail, Terrence keeps eating potato chips with spices, and Daniel bites nuts, while Blake watches them eat all of this with jealousy that he can barely hide.       “Oh, alright, men, I think I’ll go,” Blake says thoughtfully. “You’re eating it all so tastily that I’m barely holding on not to strangle you.”       “So, Blake, are you still on the diet after your food poisoning?” Daniel laughs.       “I’m gonna have to keep it for at least one more week and choke on healthy but disgustingly bad food. Though I’d be fucking happy to eat a big fresh burger and drink sweet water.”       “We’re truly sorry for ya,” Terrence replies and, slurping quietly, eats a couple of chips from the pack. “M-m-m, we’re very sorry.”       “I love milk cocktails!” Edward exclaims and drinks a little through the straw. “It’s so delicious…”       “But I decided to eat nuts,” Daniel confesses and eats a little bit from the pack. “I’ve loved them since childhood. I can eat a lot of them. Every time I have a chance.”       “Ar-r-r, you’re assholes!” Blake growls quietly. “Fuck you all!”       “All the best, dude!” Edward pronounces funnily.       “If you feel bored, call us!” Terrence adds.       “I’ll go to keep choking on a dry chicken breast and mix it with unsalted rice,” Blake sighs resignedly. “And drink clean water from the faucet.”       “Set up a picture of a burger as wallpaper on your phone and view it as you have lunch,” Daniel advises.       “Excellent piece of advice to crush my phone to the fuck.”       After laughing together, Daniel, Edward, and Terrence say goodbye to Blake by shaking his hand tightly and saying something. Then the helper of “Against The System” throws the empty plastic glass in the trash can placed not far from him, and leaves quietly the café where a pop rock song is playing at the moment.       “Got out too fast,” Edward laughs. “As fast as a rabbit!”       “You must’ve seen your face when you had to keep a diet after your poisoning,” Terrence chuckles. “You watched all of us with evil when we ate anything we wanted, but you had to suffer.”       “When someone is not allowed to do something, they want it much more than when they are allowed to do it.”       “It’s a very good way to work on your body before the wedding day,” Daniel notices.       “My body is gorgeous anyway. The thing I can do is just to make it much better. To become much hotter and more attractive.”       “With such big cheeks?” Terrence rounds his eyes. “Hot? Attractive?”       “It’s your problem, bro. I don’t have any problems with it.”       “Well, I wouldn’t say it…” Terrence pinches Edward sitting next to him on the cheek. “You’ve got big cheeks after Mom’s cakes and pastries.”       “They ain’t impact my body. Because I know my limit and don’t eat big basins of food.”       “If you wanna surprise your cuties on your first marriage night, I advise you to increase the load right now,” Daniel says confidently. “Or sewers are gonna get sick of changing your suits again and again.”       “I am freaking handsome anyway!” Terrence states proudly, running his hands through his hair. “And my body is awesome!”       “You’ve done nothing yet, but you’re irritating me already,” Edward growls quietly.       “Same, kid. Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. Because I didn’t see your annoying, pretty face.”       “Oh, how much pleasure I had when I was doing repairs to my house all day long. I didn’t see your face, didn’t hear your voice, didn’t get your messages… Cool!”       “I was too busy with much more interesting things than thinking of you.”       “M-m-m, I do even know which,” Edward smiles mysteriously. “Judging by the scars on the nape of your neck and a couple of hickeys on the curves of it.”       “None of your business.”       “C’mon, Terry, we understood it all. We know where and who you played a little with.”       “Indeed, Terrence, what were you doing yesterday?” Daniel asks. “So, was Raquelle playing the role of the hunter, while you became her victim who was getting out, getting out, but didn’t get out?”       “Who was fucked cruelly,” Edward smiles slyly. “Like a fucking prostitute.”       “Actually, everything was vice versa,” Terrence says with his head proudly raised. “I’ve never been a victim. I’m always a hunter.”       “I dunno…” Daniel pronounces thoughtfully. “You look pretty good when you’re tied up and unprotected. It’s like it’s where you’ve always belonged.”       “Oh, yay, especially when Marcus’s friends hung him on the horizontal bar,” Edward laughs. “I kinda enjoyed that when they let us have a break.”       “But you would’ve looked much better if they hadn’t just tied you up to the chair,” Terrence smiles innocently. “If they’d also closed your mouth with a rag.”       “Well, it’s fine and fucking good for you, bro,” Daniel notices. “Whips, handcuffs, slaps, strangling, tying, rudeness – it’s all about you.”       “Uh-huh, not saying that my arms became numb at that moment. At first, I didn’t feel them, but then I started to feel tingling.”       “Yeah, getting an orgasm in this amazing pose is a hard thing. You can get pleasure for two minutes only in the best case, while a playful tongue and tender hands caress the bottom of your body.”       “Suggest this idea to Seymour. Maybe she’d be happy to organize this thing for ya.”       “Okay, don’t avoid the answer,” Edward says cheerfully. “Tell us what you felt like when being a victim. How quickly Cameron broke the barrier. Half an hour? Or maybe it took much less?”       “My hunt for the victim didn’t take too much time. Of course, Raquelle resisted, but I took the victory anyway. As always, huh.”       “Now I see why you gave a fuck about your little bro, who you usually wanna know everything about,” Daniel replies. “You had something much better to do.”       “I just needed to tame my lady that went really loose.” Terrence drinks a little from his glass. “That bitch dared to tell me that I was washed up. I didn’t give her as much pleasure as I did before. You imagine?!”       “What’s wrong with it?” Edward shrugs. “Being washed up at your age is a pretty normal thing.”       “What age?”       “You’re gonna be thirty next year!”       “The peck! In the prime of my life!”       “It seems that you’re close to the end since Raquelle isn’t happy with your tricks anymore,” Daniel snaps with a slight smile.       “That’s why I had to punish that cutie and do my best for her to lose your voice from pleasure,” Terrence says, sticking out his chest proudly.       “I wonder how many times she had to slap you in the face and grab your balls for you to stop being an amoeba in her eyes?” Edward wonders.       “She purred after one touch of my finger. And when I undressed her, that bitch was watering and begging me to fuck her.”       “Monotony sucks, old man,” Daniel replies. “If you’re told you’re washed up, it means the girl is sick of your BDSM things. It means you need to try to be more tender and more romantic.”       “Sick of BDSM things?”       Terrence laughs loudly, leaning back in the chair and grabbing his stomach.       “Don’t make me laugh, Perkins! Raquelle Cameron herself getting sick of this?” The girl who gets an orgasm when she’s pulled by the hair, thrown rudely on the bed, and fucked cruelly?”       “Here’s the shy girl outside, but the tiger inside,” Edward replies.       “Uh-huh, your brother found the one not to be overwhelmed by his wild fantasies and to love playing a rapper and a victim,” Danie chuckles kindly.       “Hey, I’m not always like this!” Terrence exclaims. “Sometimes I want some tender romantic! I wanna do everything slowly and tenderly and feel every single moment.”       “Have you ever had these moments?”       “I have, many times.”       “In this case, you’re gonna have to prepare a good box for BDSM games for your first marriage night,” Edward replies. “And play on her nerves, changing your tactic of behavior all the time.”       “Since Raquelle doesn’t respect a tender and romantic sex, alright, I will fuck her cruelly. Be determined and never feel shy. And enjoy the way she racks her vocal cords from pleasure and finishes in my mouth.”       “If these things happen with the agreement of two people, it’s okay,” Daniel raises his hands.       “I don’t need the agreement. Because I know Cameron is gonna agree to any crazy thing. And instead of thousands of words, she is gonna lie naked on the bed, moan, and bend. Her body is gonna speak everything for her, whatever she says.”       “Oh, man, you’d have your as kicked hard if another girl were instead of her. The one to dream of something romantic and to be nervous when just standing next to a man.”       “It’s not about my cutie. My baby behaved sassily and let me know she was open to experiments even when she was a virgin touched by nobody.”       “Yeah, she really needed someone to release the tiger from the cage where her own grandfather held her for the time being,” Edward says thoughtfully. “Who would have his eyes shot out if he knew his granddaughter wasn’t as shy and innocent as he thought. That she got wild sexual fantasies and…”       Edward does not speak his mind because the male voice of someone coming to their table interrupts his talk with Daniel and Terrence:       “Hey, guys.”       After moving their eyes sharply to the uninvited person, Edward, Daniel, and Terrence freeze and round their eyes when they suddenly see Peter standing in front of them. Looking at them with sadness and a sense of shame in his eyes. Not looking like he is too aggressive and going to harm the men, who are kind of happy to see him, but get a little tense.       “Peter?” Daniel, Terrence, and Edward pronounce hesitantly but surprisingly at the same time.       “How did you end up here?” Terrence asks.       “Went by and decided to come here to drink and eat,” Peter replies tensely, shifting his weight from one foot to another. “And then I saw you and… Decided to come.”       “Erm, I see…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully.       “I… Can I sit down with you?”       Before they answer, Edward, Daniel, and Terrence frowning slightly look at each other.       “Go for it,” Daniel shrugs. “Land the board.”       When he gets the permission, Peter sits hesitantly on the table in the free chair next to Daniel and folds his hands in front of him, looking at them during a short, tense pause.       “Hey, where have you been all this time?” Edward asks quietly. “Why didn’t you answer our calls and messages?”       “Just wanted to be alone,” Peter replies and swallows nervously, breathing a little heavily from excitement. “I needed it…”       “We even went to your home, but you went somewhere or didn’t open the door on purpose,” Daniel notices. “Though we know for sure that you were there.”       “Yeah, I know you came.” Peter chuckles quietly and glances aside, tensing a little because he sees the hallucination in the form of Theodore skipping not far from him. “My neighbors talk a lot about it. Everyone saw you trying to break into my home.”       “We just wanted to support you,” Terrence confesses. “Let you know you can count on us. Yes, we gave you several days to let you stay alone, but then we thought we could try to get along again.”       “I’m glad… Glad you still wanna help me. Even after everything that happened.”       “Forget it, it’s fine,” Daniel waves his hand. “We understand it all.”       “Did you come to us for nothing?” Terrence asks. “Or do you wanna talk about something?”       “Who the fuck knows,” Peter shrugs, setting his dead eyes into the distance. “I kinda wanna say something, but… I don’t know where to start. What I want to say.”       “Anyway, you’ve gotten yourself exhausted,” Edward notices, looking at Peter better. “Your bruises that are bigger than your eyes speak for themselves.”       “I ain’t fucking care, honestly.”       “Are you gonna keep living like this?” Daniel wonders. “Are you really happy with everything?”       “I don’t see the meaning in changing something, Daniel. I don’t see the meaning in this fucking life.”       “No, buddy, we will not let you kill yourself for the second time,” Terrence says determinedly.       “Who said you’d know it?” Peter chuckles without emotions. “I’m no longer gonna be an idiot and call you in case I wanna die.”       “Why?” Edward wonders. “Why do you need it? What would change if you died?”       “Don’t pretend to be an idiot, Edward. You know the answer very well.”       “Listen, Peter, we completely understand your feelings,” Daniel says confidently. “We know it’s hard for you now. But it doesn’t mean you have to fight this all alone.”       “I would fight. If I had a meaning. But now, why would I cling to something?”       “Don’t turn your back on us, Peter,” Terrence says confidently. “We really wanna help you.”       “What could you do if your beloved person is gone? You can jump out of your skin and kick your ass fucking hard, but nothing would change!”       “You do understand you need friends,” Edward says confidently. “You understand you need us.”       Peter swallows nervously before he says tensely:       “I understand. It’s really hard for me without my friends. But alas, you’re powerless now.”       “We’re here, Pete,” Daniel assures, putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “We will always be. No matter what. We’re the ones you can count on.”       “It doesn’t change anything.”       “Just tell us what we can do for you,” Terrence says. “We can solve any problem together.”       “I’m sorry, guys, but… I’m really not sure whether I can do this. There is no reason.”       “Doesn’t our band mean anything to you anymore?” Edward rounds his eyes. “Don’t you wanna become famous and be loved by everyone anymore?”       “Of course, I can continue to play and do all my duties. But my gloomy face is gonna mess up everything. There wouldn’t be a fire like before. The last performance showed it well.”       “But what if music can help you find the strength to keep moving on?” Daniel assumes. “Slowly.”       “After what happened, music no longer helps me.”       “You haven’t probably tried. When did you sing something last time? When did you take the drumsticks or a guitar?”       “On the latest show. I haven’t had any wish to do this since then.”       “Dude, if you lie on the bed all day long and look into the distance or drink your stress down, you’re obviously not gonna have any wish to live,” Terrence says confidently. “If you keep refusing to do your business and turning back on those who are ready to give you a helping hand.”       “I believe you have the strength if you get out of your home and go somewhere,” Edward adds.       “I’m just sick of the walls of my home,” Peter explains. “I am sick of the faces of my neighbors who teach me all the time. I am fucking done with cats that shout all day, all night. No rest at all!”       “It’s okay to spend some time in sadness,” Daniel replies. “But it’s not okay when it lasts for too long, and when someone isn’t gonna come back to a regular life. You can accept the sadness as your visitor, but you must not let it become the lord of your life.”       “I need just one reason.”       “Okay, since you call your life bad, why did you come to us?” Terrence asks quietly. “Why? What did you want to tell us? What did you want to do?”       “Who the fuck knows!” Peter throws gloomily and leans back in the chair.       “If you’re not honest with us, we can’t help you. We aren’t psychics to get into your mind and try to find something in it.”       “I didn’t say I needed your help.”       “Sorry, Rose, you’re really weird,” Edward says confidently. “And we’re gonna be honest, we’re worried about you. We’re afraid of any little thing you may wanna do now.”       “Uh-huh, knowing that you almost killed us the last time,” Terrence adds.       “My bad,” Peter pronounces distantly without emotions. “I did it.”       “That’s all?” Daniel opens his eyes widely. “Is this everything you want to say to excuse yourself?”       “Okay, I’m sorry.”       “You don’t look like you are,” Edward notices.       “No, no, I’m really sorry. I’m sorry about what happened.”       “What do we do to you now?” Edward puts his glass on the table and leans back in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest. “How do we talk next? Be friends or be enemies?”       “Yeah, Rose, decide what you want: either we keep talking as if nothing happened or we go our separate ways once and forever,” Terrence adds confidently.       “You want it?” Peter frowns slightly.       “We don’t. But you don’t likely have a wish to do this. Though we don’t actually understand what we’re guilty of you. Why you’re acting like the only thing we’re doing is harming you.”       “I said I didn’t trust people! I don’t trust even my close people. And I’m waiting for them to hurt me.”       “Oh, it’s okay that I’ve screwed it many times by saying and doing something bad,” Daniel says quietly. “I understand why you may not trust me. But what’s Terrence and Edward’s fault? What did they do to you?”       “Nothing,” Peter glances aside. “They did nothing to me. Nobody did.”       “But what’s the problem then?” Edward wonders. “Why the fuck are you acting like this?” You do know that we’re not enemies to you. You know we’re always with you.”       “The problem is me.”       “If you don’t like some things, just tell us about them,” Terrence insists. “Why the fuck do you pull a cat’s balls and pretend to be nobody the fuck knows who?”       “I ain’t pretend to be anyone!”       “M-m-m…” Theodore smiles slyly, walking behind Edward and Terrence’s backs. “But who cried recently about missing his friends so badly? Are ya talking your words back?”       “Listen, Peter, we’ve lately been thinking we talk to different people all the time,” Terrence states. “One man talks to him, then another, a third one next. But now we’re sitting in front of the one, whose identities are mixed so hard that he doesn’t know who he wants to be.”       “Oh, man, this pretty boy doesn’t know the answer,” Theodore replies confidently. “Who he is. I mean, he doesn’t want to accept the part of himself that he’s trying to reject so hard.”       “Trust me, I don’t understand myself, either,” Peter replies thoughtfully. “What I am, who I am…”       “And I think you understand everything well,” Terrence says confidently. “You just don’t wanna talk about it.”       “Right. I don’t.”       “But why did you come to us?” Edward wonders. “Why, Peter? What do you want from us?”       “I dunno.”       “Listen, we’re talking about nothing now,” Daniel exhales sharply. “It’s like trying to get busy with something to pass the time. Waste it for nothing.”       “I’ve been wasting it for twenty-seven years. And I haven’t found my place in this world.”       “You know well why,” Theodore replies, bending to Peter’s ear. “You know what you need to do to feel yourself.”       “Nevertheless, you came to us,” Terrence notices. “You had a choice: coming to us or going by. But you decided to choose the first way. It means you were coming here with a certain goal. With a certain thought.”       “I just felt lonely,” Peter excuses himself, looking at his hands. “I realized that I wanted to talk to someone. Even about nothing. Even if I say some bullshit.”       “Okay, if you want, you can say senseless shit,” Daniel raises his hands. “Maybe you need it. You need to speak nonstop to feel better. Even if it’s gonna be a ten-hour ‘blah-blah-blah’.”       “Uh-huh, maybe you wanna say something specific after you talk enough,” Terrence adds. “And then explain to us how we could help you.”       “Is it so hard to look at the guys and say ‘help me’?” Theodore wonders. “You want this, cold-hearted princess! Stop sitting here with a gloomy face and pretend that you need nothing and nobody.”       “You can’t help me anymore, guys,” Peter shakes his head. “Maybe you could do this before, but now you can’t. Nothing can help me. Because dead people can’t be brought back.”       “Wrong, buddy,” Edward smiles mysteriously. “We can help you.”       “We’re not in a fairytale, MacClife. The dead beauty won’t wake up after a kiss.”       “Yes, we’re not in a tale,” Terrence agrees. “But everyone knows that life can give us amazing surprises.”       “It doesn’t give anything to me.”       “Yeah?” Daniel pronounces surprisingly and looks at Peter with a sly smile, turning on him. “Let’s bet we can do this? We can make a real miracle and breathe into ya!”       “You’d just waste time.”       “Trust me, what we wanna tell you is gonna make a bomb effect,” Terrence says with his head proudly raised.       “There is no doubt that your life is gonna seem better to you when you know some cool news,” Edward assures.       “Hey, blond, don’t ya think they’re too funny for those who are mourning?” Theodore smiles slyly. “They aren’t worried about their friend’s death? Isn't it a reason to kick their ass? Huh?”       “Hey, let me know why the fuck are you all sitting here so funny and cheerful?” Peter crosses his arms over his chest, looking gloomily at Terrence, Edward, and Daniel. “When I entered the café and saw you afar, I noticed you were sitting here and laughing at something. Smiling with twenty fucking two teeth. Having fucking fun.”       “Why wouldn’t we have fun when life started to get better?” Daniel shrugs.       “Wow, how quickly you forgot everything. How quickly you stopped mourning. Mourning for Helene. You only spent two fucking hours mourning her? And then you stopped and went to keep having fun!”       “Not at all, c’mon!” Terrence protests. “We were mourning for a whole week since the day everything happened.”       “And the girls cried their eyes out!” Edward exclaims.       “I believe the girls are mourning,” Peter replies coldly. “They loved their friend. But it seems like you give a fuck about her since you’re having fun already.”       “I think it’s a great reason to kill these bastards right here and now,” Theodore says confidently, taking a jackknife from his leather jacket and opening it with one slight movement. “For hurting you fucking insolently. For giving a fucking about Helene.”       “Everything is not what you think,” Peter,” Daniel says quietly. “Not what you think.”       “Oh, yeah!” Peter throws gloomily. “I got it all! I understood that you gave a fuck! You do not care that Helene is dead. You do not care that I lose the meaning of my life!”       “We do care!” Edward protests.       “You came to yourself quickly! Very quickly! You’re talking about the band already. You decided to come back to the fucking stage. Sing and play as if nothing happened. Enjoy life and smile… Have fun! So, all your fans whoop and get an orgasm…”       “We can explain everything to you!”       “Don’t explain anything to me.”       “Listen, Peter…” Terrence tries to take a word.       “Shut up, Terrence!” Peter cuts off sharply.       “Kill these bastards,” Theodore encourages determinedly. “Deal with those who want to harm you.”       “Listen, buddy, do you really think we would have fun and have some plans if we knew about the grief of someone to be close to us?” Daniel wonders.       “But what’s this?” Peter wonders. “What are you doing now? Mourning for Helene? Sitting here gloomier than a cloud? Drowned this café with tears? Wearing black clothes to show you’re mourning?”       “The girls saw that we were mourning with them.”       “Ah, yeah, pardon, I forgot…” Peter leans back in the chair. “I forgot you were guilty of Helene’s death. If not for you three, she would have been alright.”       “We’re not guilty of it!” Terrence exclaims. “Helene’s death is not our fault. It’s the fault of Marcus and his friends. Who have been arrested, just saying.”       “I didn’t forget how you all were standing like columns and did nothing to help her. You did the fuck nothing and let her die in the fire. Slowly, with torture.”       “You know well why it was impossible.”       “Everything was possible. You just didn’t want to hurt your ass. You wanted to hurt me as much as possible. You didn’t help her, and you’re sitting here and laughing. You give a fuck about my girlfriend being dead. You do!”       “Helene is not dead!” Daniel pronounces in one breath. “She’s alive and healthy.”       “She would’ve been alive if you’d done something!”       “Daniel is not lying, Peter,” Edward says quietly. “Helene didn’t die in the fire. She managed to survive.”       “She was saved by Elijah Hartley, Marcus’s accomplice,” Terrence adds. “Who suddenly disappeared somewhere at some moment.”       “Nobody cared about it, but as it turned out, he was doing his best to rescue Marshall,” Daniel says. “He barely had time to carry her out before the explosion happened.”       “Stop telling me tales!” Peter exclaims.       “We’re not joking, Peter. It’s the truth. Helene is alive. She didn’t die. We all made sure about it. The guys, the girls, and me.”       A tense silence settles in the air, during which Peter looks at Edward, Terrence, and Daniel with mistrust, doubting the trueness of their words but understanding that there is something about it.       “Really?” Peter frowns slightly. “Helene is alive?”       “Exactly!” Terrence confirms happily with a wide smile. “Your girlfriend is alive! Safe and sound!”       “We know it seems something unreal, but we don’t lie,” Daniel adds cheerfully. “Everyone knows it already! We couldn’t tell you about it ‘cause you ignored us.”       “That’s why we’re so happy!” Edward exclaims. “We’re happy! We’re happy that our friend is alright. We’re not guilty of that situation.”       Peter glances aside and swallows nervously, feeling that his heart squeezes painfully in his chest, on which something literally presses. That’s why it’s getting a little harder for him to breathe, and he feels a little dizzy.       “Are you sure about it?” Peter asks with mistrust. “Is that true? How do you know this?”       “We do tell you that everyone is aware of it!” Daniel recalls. “And we saw Helene with our own eyes!”       “Everyone is aware and is now happy!” Terrence adds. “The girls can’t believe it’s impossible, Mrs. Marshall is crying from happiness, and Sammy is as funny as he’s never been and doesn’t leave Helene alone.”       “Your father would be fucking disappointed if he knew he didn’t make his plan come true,” Edward notices. “He was sure that he killed Helene, but he got such an unexpected surprise from his main ass-licker that walked around him just like Eric Brown walked around Uncle Michael.”       Getting sharply pale and breathing heavily, Peter shakes his head with mistrust, replaying the words of his friends about Helene not being and staying alive again and again. His whole body is contracted by the coldness, and his fingers become kind of numb so that he cannot control them. Terrence, Daniel, and Edward keep speaking, but he can hear their voices like through the thick concrete wall. And he can barely realize what’s happening around him: where people go, what they say, what people are doing. His eyes that express nothing look closely into the distance, and his lips shake slightly as he tries unsuccessfully to say just something, while he is obsessed with opposite thoughts that do not let him decide: either the men are lying to harm him much more, or they are telling him the truth with the hope of giving him a meaning of life again.