Chapter 17

Three months later

It was six in the morning during the peak winters of California. The sun hasn't yet arrived in the east and the sky was still dark. The office of Richmond Industries was completely empty.  Because of the extreme winter the office hours have been reduced from morning ten to evening five instead of nine to six. Every one of the staff was raining praises to the kind hearted CEO a week ago when the change of timing was announced.  

It was very much before the working time. Pulling her long coat closer Aliza sprinted towards the entrance of the stylish superstructure. The security at the entrance greeted her with a salute. "Mam, Good Morning! So early?" The forty year old Buffy bodyguard Samuel greeted and asked Aliza with curiosity. "It is the year end time Samuel, some last bit of errands are still left over to run." Aliza replied to him in a clipped tone.

Samuel nods to Aliza with a pleasant smile. Nobody doubted her in the office. She had been working in Richmond Industries since more than two and half years and everyone in the work place knew she was the soon going to be wife of the CEO. "You're right madam. Happy new year to you in advance." Samuel was chirpy. Aliza nods and manages a cheery voice. "To you too Samuel." 

She sprints towards the elevator wiping away the sudden beads of droplets appearing on her forehead. Even in the high winter months she was feeling sweaty and suffocated. 

Face is the index of mind. When we try to do something unscrupulous and unlawful our pressure rises and we sweat profuse. Aliza was feeling the same.

You have to do this Aliza. Her mind strongly ordered her when her morals were taking steps behind. He is a man with no morals. He killed many people without ethical values. He is a mafia don. There is nothing wrong if you denounce him.

Love, what about our love? Aliza's conscience intervened but the other side countered in a mockery. Love? What sort of love? Love towards an underworld leader? Love towards a beast who claims life of people with no renounce within a leap of an eye? Do you think your life will be safe with such a man? Can you plan a family with him? What about kids? Will your kids be safe when their father is a biggest national criminal?

No Aliza screamed aloud to her conscience closing her ears with tears  trailing away her eyes. Then go ahead with your work with no second thoughts. Her ethics replied stern.

Making a heart of steel she entered the elevator and pressed eleventh floor. She directly went to the server room and switched off all the CCTV cameras in and around the office including the parking. She then entered the lift and pressed seventeenth floor to enter the CEO's room. Walking towards the desk she removed the lock of the computer and connected the cable to her mobile. Half an hour later the entire information required was loaded into her phone.

Aliza released a loud sigh. She looked around the room if any CCTV cameras were working for one more time and walked out of the lobby with a triumphant smile.

******

It was eight in the night. The work was always busy at  Richmond Industries. With the last document stapled Aliza heaved heavy and walks to the CEO's office with the file in her hand.

When she knocks at the entrance there came a deep voice of her boss "come in". The room was eerily dark when she opened the door. Aliza looked around the place in panic.

Suddenly there was a spark of light through a lighter followed by a puff of smoke from his lips. "Aren't you paid well here Aliza?" His voice was smooth but she knew well the menace behind those effortless words. Aliza had been working for Charles Rodriguez since more than a year. Her feat trembled in fear analyzing his possible conclusion.

"Answer me damn it! Aren't you paid here well?" His voice echoed between the silent walls of the dark room in a deathly gear. Aliza jumped on her legs in fright and trembled in her speech. "Ye....yes sir."

"Then why did you sell our quotation of dock supplies to Reymond industries?" Aliza went pale at the lethal intonation of her boss. She gulped heavy and told him in a shivering voice. "Sir, i....it wasn't me. I did not know...."

"Then what is this?" A bunch of papers make a contact on her face flying in air and the next second he was in front of her like a fiend filled with vengeance. Aliza felt she was going to lose her consciousness in pallid after assimilation of the pernicious aura of her deleterious boss.

"Stop the blabbering nonsense." He yelled on her face. His features were turning more red and eyes dropping the wild tornadoes. A shiver ran down Aliza's spine drinking in the dangerous aura of her demon boss. He switched on something bending down to his desk. Complimenting to her toe curling fear a wall opened opposite revealing a hidden camera fitted inside the wall.

"You stopped all the CCTV footages in the office for as long as you were here but this.... This was still working recording your every moment." Charles pointed to the camera fitted inside the wall in a very low, parlous tone. His eyes were sharp like a tip of the knife looking straight into her like a pierce into her soul. Aliza gulped heavy, she could see it clear before her eyes it was the silence before the storm.

Blocking her wind pipe he pushed her to the wall behind and held her throat  hard. That's it! Aliza understood she was going to lose her life in the coming couple of seconds. Her eye balls went up almost losing her consciousness when he bent his head and spoke low in her ear gritting his teeth. "I DO NOT TOLERATE DISLOYALTY, MISS STELWART AND YOU JUST INVOKED THE SLEEPING MONSTER IN ME BY SHOWING YOUR UGLY NATURE."

Kissing her neck he inhaled her scent and released her with a jerk with an ache on his features. Aliza chokes on her breathe looking at the devil in trepidation and shivers in her tone. "Please believe me sir, I'm innocent." Charles looks down at the rise and fall of her pulsating chest. "NO MATTER WHAT I CANNOT STOP LOVING YOU AND I HATE MYSELF FOR THIS."

"Do not show me your face again ever in your life. You are dismissed from the job."

***

The temperature in California had dropped to a record low this year and the clothes Aliza was putting on did little justice to her trembles accompanied with the heavy downpour. She had forgotten her long coat in her quarter while re-reaching the office in a hurry. A sleek black Lamborghini Urus rushed through the gateway but Aliza stood rooted to her feet. It was a do or die situation to her.

Aliza felt humiliation and shame for her helplessness.  Guarding her last ounce of courage she yelled to the passenger window at the back of the car. "Sir I am not disloyal, I did not commit the breach." The car shifted its path and went away from beside her in full speed splashing the muddy flashes of water on her already wet dress.

The next moment a white van stops a few feet away from beside her and two men in blue walk towards her. "You're under arrest Miss Aliza Stelwart for committing breach of contract in divulging secret information about The Richmond Industries to foreign firms."

Handcuffs go attached to her wrists as she thought in distress. My life is destroyed and am caught for the pilferage I shouldn't have done. But Alas it was too late for the culpable acceptance.

******

The night Charles couldn't sleep. It was a punishment he levied on her or it was the retribution he awarded to himself, he did not know.

Love has different shades and the most chastising among is pain. He loved her. He loved Aliza Stelwart without knowing who actually she was.

The next day morning he called his lawyer to get the bail papers ready for Aliza. He ordered his security to follow her from the moment she is released from the prison and brief him of her every minute details.

After Aliza was released she did not go to her uncle's house. On the contrary she walked to the hospital and the news came to Charles as a shock. In spite of everything she did to him Charles cursed himself for still holding affection for her in some corner of his heart. Aliza Stelwart is a bitter pill in Charles Rodriguez's life which he can neither swallow nor throw out.

"Give me the details of everything the doctor says to her." He commanded his security with panic racing in his heart. "Yes sir" came a firm reply from the other end. Half an hour later Aliza walked out of the hospital exit in panic and was suddenly hit by a car. It was an open hit and run case on the busy road.

Her body flew in air bumping on the wind shield and collapsed to the ground in a jerk with blood running in streams from all over the body. The  medical team immediately responded to the emergency and rushed to the spot. A senior Gray haired doctor came forward and examined the pulse. He looked around the people gathered and voiced to no one in particular. "Is there someone related to this lady?" The security head of Charles walked forward pushing himself from the crowd.

The doctor shook his head looking at him. "I'm sorry to say but she is no more."

****

Charles picked the call hurriedly before the second ring. "Yes what happened to her?" He asked in worry. "Sir I am sorry to say but madam Aliza is no more." The head security Anime called in defeated tone. "Do not talk nonsense. Are you drunk?" Charles yelled on the phone.

Anime ignored the voice of his boss. He knew Charles was out of control and for many more years to come he would. What happened was disastrous but he was sorry, he couldn't help the situation.  "Sir, the accident happened five minutes ago in front of the hospital. A car hit madam and fled away. I think it was a murder rather than an accident." He spoke bewailed lamenting for the loss of his boss. "You need to come and register to take the custody of the body."

"You bastard, do not speak another word. You're are drunk and fired." Charles snarled on the phone and walked out of his office room in shivering steps.

Dhak-dhak.....dhak-dhak it was the beat of his heart that could be heard even up to his ears as he neared the accident spot. Charles kneeled beside the body taking short heavy breaths. His hands quavered in turning the face of Aliza towards him which was to the other side and then there was loud yelp followed by a bullet scream.

Love is blind and foolish.

Our heart always doesn't love the right person.

Not all unions are made in heaven and bound to be fairy tales.

Forced - the painful saga of love and hurt.  

To be continued.....