The sound of heels making contact with the cemented floor filled the dimly lit rooftop.
A girl wearing a long red gown and red heels walked to a hidden door at the corner of the rooftop. She enters a password and does a retina scan before the door opens, and she makes her way in.
The room is filled with light, unlike the outside. The girl walks to a corner and smiles evilly.
There appears to be what looks like a hospital bed in the corner. On getting to the bed, the girl's smile became more sinister and twisted.
"Hi sister," she said with a mocking tone.
On the bed, a young woman's hands were chained to two bed posts. She looks emaciated, and her eyes appear lifeless. But it doesn't hide the fact that she was a beautiful woman. She has sea green eyes and long black waist-length hair.
"The nurse said that you refused to eat." She asked the sick woman.
"Sasha, I am still shocked that you are the one doing this to me," the woman said slowly, and tears began to roll down her cheeks.
"You are shocked?"
"Poor Amira, you thought I really took you as my sister?" Sasha laughed.
"I have never liked you; I have hated you from the moment you stepped foot into my family house," she said, with so much anger that she had to take in deep breaths after.
"I had to grow up in an unhappy home because of your mom. Even in her death, she wouldn't leave us alone. Dad refused to let go of his first love, and my mom suffered in a loveless marriage for years.
"Then you came into our home and took all of my dad's love for yourself!" She screamed and threw her bag at Amira.
"Do you want to know how your mom died?" She asked with an evil grin.
"You..." Amira said it with shock.
"Yes, it was me."
"I was fourteen years old when my mom told me about your mom and you. She said your mom was the reason for our sufferings, and she was also the reason why dad refused to marry her despite her love for him. I decided to fight for our happiness. I used my dad's phone to send her an SMS, asking her to meet me on this same rooftop. She came without suspecting anything and was waiting for my dad, but she saw my mom instead." She looked at Amira and grinned.
"Your mom got angry when she saw my mom, and they got into an argument. I walked up to her slowly from behind and covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief filled with drugs, and she passed out. Then my mom and I lifted up her body and threw her down from the building," she said with a victorious smirk.
"The next day, it was ruled a suicide, and from then on, things got better for me and my mom. Your grandpa took you from Dad because he blamed him for your mom's death.
Everything was fine until five years ago, when I was diagnosed with kidney failure and needed a transplant urgently. Mom secretly did a test to check if you could be a donor, and it came back positive.
We knew that your grandpa wouldn't allow you to be my donor willingly, so we had to get rid of him. Then, mom convinced dad to bring you home." She smiled evilly at Amira.
"You and your mom won't have a good end!" Amira yelled at her while trying to free herself from the chains and attack Sasha. The movement of the chains just made the quiet room noisy, and there was no way she could free herself.
"Why... what did I ever do to you?" She asked as hot tears kept spewing out of her eyes.
"Your mistake was being born into the Davis family," Sasha said while laughing.
Then footsteps were heard, and the door opened to reveal a handsome man in a white lab coat, with four bodyguards behind him.
"Bryan," Amira called out to him with a glimmer of hope.
"Hi baby," Sasha said, giving him a deep kiss.
"B..rr..Yan," Amira called in a shaky voice.
"Amira, dear, are you shocked?" Sasha asked with a smirk on her face.
"Let me introduce you to my fiance; we have been engaged since I was ten years old," she said while hugging him intimately.
"And of course, you didn't know because we didn't want you to know. When I discovered your feelings for him, we decided to keep you in check.
"We didn't want you to fall in love and escape from our grasp, so we decided to use your feelings for him to our advantage," Sasha ended with a sneer.
Bryan walked up to Amira and gazed at her with so much disgust in his eyes.
"You don't know how disgusted I always felt anytime I had to be all lovey-dovey with you," he said.
"Why?" Amira asked with tears flowing down her face.
"You are beautiful and smart; I mean, you are a decorated medical doctor at such a young age. You can make money without stress, among other things. But I can only love one woman in this lifetime, and that woman is Sasha," he said without any hint of guilt.
"Get her ready for the kidney transplant," he ordered the men that came with him.
"You already took one of my kidneys!" Amira yelled at them with a horrified expression on her face.
"That was the initial plan, but now my other kidney is failing, and I want to get rid of it. Even if the one we collected before can keep me alive, I still don't want the failed one in my body." Sasha said it with a slight smile on her lips.
"Dad will never forgive you when he finds out about what you have done to me," Amira said through sobs.
"Dad thinks you eloped with a lover without caring about him. He had a heart attack when I told him, and of course, Bryan testified to it." Sasha laughed evilly.
"To me, dear sister, you are just an organ cultivation vessel and nothing more," she chuckled, making a signal for the men to grab Amira.
They unchained her and dragged her out of the room. She struggled but was no match for the strong men.
"I will advise you not to make too much noise, or I will make you die slowly and painfully," Bryan said.
"I think we should do the surgery without administering anesthesia to her," Sasha said while glaring at Amira.
"Ahhh, my stomach hurts; I can't stand," Amira screamed, and she started breathing heavily.
The men let go of her for Bryan to take a look. With this momentary distraction,Amira ran to the ledge of the rooftop and jumped without hesitation. She looked up and saw the shocked looks on Bryan and Sasha's faces, then closed her eyes in satisfaction.
A smile appeared on her face as she waited for the pain.
THUD!
As her body collided with the ground, Amira suddenly gasped and woke up from the bed.
She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and stared at her hands in disbelief.
She clearly died from the fall and could still feel some lingering pain in her bones. How could she be completely fine now?.
Wait a minute.
She looked around and found that the room looked familiar. The old bookshelf, the broken window, the old bedbug-infested bed-this was her home in the small village where she lived with her grandpa.
She quickly ran out of the room, not caring if she was dreaming or not. She went to the sitting room, but her grandpa wasn't there.
"Amira, you finally woke up." Sima said while smiling at her sweetly.
Amira found the smile really creepy, as this aunt never liked her, nor does she care if she dies from starvation.
She ignores her aunt and walks up to the calendar on the wall.
"Umm, Aunt Sima, what is today's date?" She asked.
"What! Has your grandpa's death made you lose your mind?" It's just three days after your grandpa's death," she asked with a sarcastic tone.
Three days after grandpa's death?
How is this possible?
Grandpa died in 2015, when I was just eighteen years old.
This means I came seven years ago, in 2022.
God must have seen all my suffering and given me another chance to live my best life.
"What is wrong with her?" Edward asked his wife as soon as he saw Amira's weird behavior.
"I don't know; she is acting weird," she replied without bothering to raise her head.
Their discussion brought Amira back from her thoughts.
"Mom, she is leaving tomorrow, right?" Lisa asked.
"Yes, sweetie, her father is coming to take her back to the city, Sima replied to her daughter.
"I want her room, dad," Lisa said while looking at her dad.
"In your dreams," Amira replied before her uncle.
"What do you mean by that? Your grandpa died, and you are going back to the city to live with your family. Do you expect us to continue paying rent for our little apartment and leave this house empty?" Sima said it angrily while glaring at Amira.
"Someone that hears you now will think you actually killed your father-in-law," Amira sneered.
"What has gotten into you? Is that how you talk to your elders?" Edward asked with anger evident in his tone.
"I was just stating my observations and nothing more," she replied without even raising her head.
She turns and heads back to her room. The couple share a puzzled look.
"Did you notice the coldness in her eyes?"
She used to be so easy to manipulate and gullible, but now she seems like a totally different person," Sima said with a puzzled expression.
"She is leaving tomorrow, and that is all that matters," Edward said without much expression on his face.
The next morning, as early as 7 a.m., Amira was awakened by the sounds of knocking on her room door.
"What took you so long to open the door?" Sima asked angrily as soon as the door was opened.
"I don't remember asking you to wake me," Amira replied impatiently.
"Am I not doing this for your own good? I know you don't have any presentable clothes, so I brought one of Lisa's gowns for you to wear, and you are being ungrateful." Sima said as she threw the dress at her angrily and walked away.
Two hours later, Amira walked down the stairs with a little suitcase. She takes her grandpa's photo frame from the sitting room cabinet and walks out the door.
"Please drive carefully; our Mira gets scared easily," Sima said while sharing a few crocodile tears.
"I will miss my sister so much," Lisa said, joining her mother's drama.
"Don't you feel ashamed of yourself; even a blind man can tell that you are pretending," Amira said with a sneer and got into the car.
As soon as the car left her grandpa's compound, she could feel the driver's eyes on her, but she acted like she didn't notice.
She remembers him very well. He was the same driver who also came to pick her up in her previous life. One of her stepmother's loyal servants.
The driver suddenly changes routes and takes a lonely and secluded road. In her previous life, this was the same road where she was kidnapped and almost raped.
The driver slowed down and continually checked his phone as if he were waiting for a signal.
"What...what are you doing, Miss?" the driver asked in fear as Amira suddenly placed a fruit knife on his neck.
"Start talking!" Amira ordered while pressing the knife on his neck, which caused him to start bleeding.
"I don't understand what you mean," the driver replied with fear in his eyes.
"I can kill you right now, and no one will suspect a thing. So you better start talking, "she threatened.
"It was madam who asked me to take you here and wait for a signal from the people she hired. I don't know anything else," he said with a fearful and pleading voice.
"It seems like my stepmother never intended to welcome me." She chuckled.
"I can turn the car around and take you home. Please just put the knife down," the driver pleaded.
"There is no guarantee that you won't report to my stepmother if I let you go, so..." She immediately slits throat and watched coldly until he took his last breath.
She gets out of the car and takes her suitcase from the booth. She started walking back to the original road.
Suddenly, several sounds of gunshots rang out on the quiet road. Amira follows the sound to see what is going on. She is shocked when she sees several armed men continually shooting at a car with tinted windows. They seem to be more focused on the driver's side. They stopped when they were sure that the victim wouldn't survive.
As soon as they left, she walked up to the car, a Mercedes-Benz C300. She finds a stone to break the driver's side window. The driver, with more than ten bullet holes in his body, came into view. He was clearly dead, as no one can survive after being shot several times, with some of the bullets hitting some vital parts.
While still observing the driver's condition, she suddenly felt chills run down her spine, and she raised her head to look at the back seat, only to meet a pair of cold blue eyes staring at her wearily.
"Hello, sir," she said, trying to speak to him. She could tell he was injured just by looking at his unusually pale face and the cold beads of sweat on his forehead.
"Sir, I can help you," she said as she opened the back door to check on his injury.
"What are you doing?!" she asked as she dodged his attack and immediately held him down. She easily subdued him because he was injured.
"I want to help you, sir," she said, but he quickly moved his body to the other side to protect something that was covered up on the car seat.
"Sir, you can trust me; I promise to help you," she pleaded softly, and the man turned his face towards her. They locked eyes for a few seconds before he finally moved closer to her without any hostility.
"Please move closer so I can have a better view." She breathed a sigh of relief as he moved closer, making the thing he was protecting visible.
"Is the baby okay?" she asked, quickly making her way to the other side of the car and opening the door to check on the baby.
"I think he is fine." She is startled by the deep voice and raises her head to look at the man.
After checking the baby and making sure that he was just sleeping, she helped the man to lean on the seat properly, then took off his shirt to check his injuries.
"The first-aid box is in the booth," he said weakly. She immediately gets out of the car to get it from the booth.
She skillfully took out the bullets from his back and shoulder. She was surprised that he was shot only twice while the driver was shot several times.
"I am the one they are after; I was supposed to drive, but the baby kept crying and refused for anyone to touch him, so I had no choice but to call one of my company's drivers to take me home," he explained while leaning weakly on the couch.
"Sir, how.." She was interrupted by the ringing of a phone, probably the man's own. The ringing seemed to have startled the baby, and he started crying. It is a miracle that he didn't wake up during the shootout.
Amira moved closer to the baby and lifted him off the seat into her hands. She observed the baby's features and noticed that he didn't have any resemblance to the man.
"Seb, the car's GPS is on." He could only say this before he rested weakly on the seat.
He turned to Amira, took off the amulet he was wearing on his neck, and handed it to her. Then he passed out due to exhaustion.
Half an hour later, she heard the sounds of moving vehicles and immediately became alert. She looked through the window and saw five black SUVs stopping behind the car they were in.
A young man, probably in his late twenties, came down and knocked on our car window.
When he saw that no one was answering, he gestured to one of his companions to break the window. Amira became flustered, as the glass shards could injure her if the window was broken.
She immediately lowered the glass, and the people outside had shocked looks on their faces when they saw her. When they saw the baby in her arms, they immediately became alert.
"Ummm, he gave me this." She immediately spoke up and showed them the amulet. As soon as they saw it, they all became at ease.
"We are here to help, so you can open the door now," the first man said.
She nodded and unlocked the doors. They immediately opened the door and carried the injured man out, while I followed them with the baby in my arms.
"Clean the place up and take the driver's body to his people. Ensure he is given a proper funeral. Tell them that Boss will come and pay his respect soon," he told the men before entering the same car we were in.
After an hour of speeding, the car slowed down, and she looked out of the window curiously. Her eyes immediately became watery when she saw the name of the hospital. She had a lot of memories of this place.
SPRINGFIELD HOSPITAL.
The place where she spent all her time working hard to impress the man she thought loved her. The same man made her live a miserable life, which led to her suicide.
"Are you okay?" the man who came to pick them up asked.
"I am fine, sir," she replied, then turned to look at the side mirror and saw her tear-stained face.
She must have cried subconsciously.
"I am really okay; I just remembered something sad," she explained awkwardly while wiping her tears.
The injured man was taken to the emergency room, and they had to wait outside.
"What is your motive?" the man suddenly asked.
"I don't understand what you mean, sir," she replied without showing any expression on her face.
"I am asking what your motive is for getting close to the boss." He repeated it with a domineering tone. I was probably expecting her to cower in fear.
"If you are trying to intimidate me, I am sorry to disappoint you, sir, but it isn't working," she said with a chuckle at the end.
"So, you are telling me that you just happened to be in that area at the time and that it was just all a big coincidence?" he asked again, not believing her.
"I just happened to escape from death and bump into them," she said while maintaining eye contact with him.
"What do you mean by escaped death?" he asked again.
"You would make a good prosecutor, you know?" She smirked at him.
"Just answer the damned question, '' he said. Probably losing his patience.
I wonder why he was so worked up. She thought.
"I was supposed to come to the city to reunite with my father, but the driver took that route because he was ordered by my stepmom to kill me, but I figured it out and killed him instead. End of story," she said while smiling at him as if they were talking about the weather.
He brought out his phone and made a call to the people he left to clean up the scene.
"Carl, check around the area; get back to me if you see any car with a dead man in them," he said while looking at her suspiciously.
"If I find out that you lied, you will be tortured until you tell the truth," he said menacingly.
He takes the baby from her arms, then turns towards the bodyguards.
"Lock her up in the empty room on the top floor and make sure she doesn't escape," he ordered, and the men immediately dragged her into the elevator.