𝙱𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝙴𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚙𝚎 || ✔

25(L)

__________

And this is when the feeling sinks in,

I don't wanna miss you like this.

Come back... be here.

__________

My eyes flicker open to a person above me, the voices amalgamating into one white noise as one thought invades my mind.

Sierra.

I get up instantly, my vision swirling. "Woah, there, bud," I hear the man in front of me say.

"Ross," I say, keeping my hand on my best friend's shoulder. My business partner, Ross Sinclair.

"What happened, man? I see you run for the elevator, to the basement, and you don't return for an hour? Everyone left, Liam," he completes, holding me up. 

"Can you drop me home? I don't think I can drive right now," I say, feeling my phone in my front pocket.

"Sure..." he says, dragging his words.

"I'll tell you what happened later, Ross, I need to get home right now," I say, and he nods.

"Okay."

*****

Once I reach home, I call Oliver. I trust the man, perhaps more than I trust Ross. He knows what happened with Sierra, even if I don't know the full of it. 

Oh my god, Si.

In the haze of my semi-consciousness, Sierra's wellbeing escapes my mind. Where is she? Is she fine? Was Killian really the person who kidnapped her? Why didn't she tell me that right away? Tears of frustration well in my eyes and I throw the lamp off my desk, yelling in anger.

I could have saved her.

My fault.

"I don't know what that lamp did to you, but, damn," I hear a voice behind me, making me turn around. "What's wrong, Liam?" Oliver asks, suddenly worried by my tear-stricken face.

"He took Sierra," I mutter, hanging my head.

"Who took her?" he asks calmly.

"I don't know! She was scared of him, Oliver, I think he was the person who kidnapped her before," I yell, throwing hands.

"What was the person's name?" he asks, sitting down in front of me.

"Killian. Dr Killian Blackwood," I say, looking at him.

"That's wrong, the person who took her was Kayden Clark," he says, frowning.

"So another person kidnapped her?!" I yell again, and Oliver frowns at me.

"Calm down, bro. She got help. She can handle herself. I am scared for her, I really am, but we don't even know that he took her.  We need your love for her to be a motivation, not a hindrance," he says, and I nod. A sudden moment of silence surrounds us when suddenly Oliver shoots from his seat. "That's why we couldn't find him," he says.

"What?"

"After a few months of Sierra coming back, we looked for Kayden. We couldn't find him. It was Killian all along, Liam. He kidnapped her and told her a fake name. There never was a Kayden Clark. It was Dr Killian Blackwood..." he mocks, "...all along."

"So he had kidnapped Sierra?"

"I think so. How long have you known him?"

"A month, at most..." I say, pausing, "...actually, it was a few days after I had dinner with Sierra at Masa. This was all fucking planned?! He fucking used me, didn't he? I led Sierra into that asshole's plan! I did that, I helped-"

"Liam!" he yells, clapping his hands twice. "If it wasn't the coincidence of the century, I do think that he did that," he completes. "But, it was not your fault," he pauses, sitting back down, leaning towards me, "I thought that, too. Years ago, when she got kidnapped the first time. A few days before Kay-Killian took her, we had a huge fight. She had a boyfriend at that time, William- something, I dunno. So, he was cheating on her and she broke up with him. Two weeks after that, she comes to my house, crying over that asshole, telling me that she wanted to get back with him, since everyone needs a change sometimes. I was infuriated, to say the least, and yelled at her, saying that she needed to have some self-respect 'cause what she wanted to do was pitiful," he winces at the memory.

"Ouch," I murmur and he smiles.

"Yeah. She was angry. Really angry. So angry that she forgot she wanted to get back with Bill, and told me that she came to me because I was her best friend, not because she wanted an attack on her dignity. Needless to say, we were stuck in a vicious cycle of painful jabs on each other, and ended up not talking."

"How was the kidnapping your fault, then? I don't-"

"Oh, that's coming. Two weeks after our fight, I get a hundred missed calls from Sierra and Caroline. I thought she wanted to reconcile by making me apologize, 'cause she has never apologized for anything she did. I did not pick any of their calls. Caroline was calling me from both their phones because Sierra was taken, and I didn't respond because of my-my...vanity?! My ego? I don't know, but I do know that if I had picked her calls, I might have found her before she had to escape him," he completes, lowering his head as I see a tear fall down his eye.

"Five weeks later," he says, laughing ruefully, choking on his words, "five weeks later I visit their home, eager to pounce on Era for being so goddamn stuck-up and egoistic, and the door opens to a tired and dull Caroline, who couldn't be more adamant on dragging me to the sofa and explaining to me everything's that happened! Can you imagine how guilty I felt, while my best friend's sister cried on my shoulder?" he asks rhetorically.

"And you know the worst part," he asks, looking up at me, his eyes red, "when she came back, she was not angry at me. She was too...compliant, apologizing for everything she did, speaking only when she was asked something, saying nor doing anything that wasn't asked of her. I remember, while she had a panic attack in front of me because I yelled, she scampers down to the floor, kneeling, asking for forgiveness," he pauses, and I wince, tears welling in my eyes.

What happened to Sierra there?

What did he do to Sierra that made her someone she was definitely not?

My Si is confident, happy, sarcastic, beautiful. She was definitely not someone who would kneel for someone for something she didn't do.

"Even now, I do not what he did to her. But there's one thing that I am sure of, now. I will not let history repeat itself," he says, shaking his head, inhaling deeply.

"We will get her back, Oliver. I promise," I say, patting his shoulder.

"I know we will; I just hope it's not too late by then."

Author's Note:

I  wanted you guys to know what's happening on the other side of the fence. This is probably where we'll get to the juicy part. This is the last act, people. We're in the endgame (unless I get numerous votes and comments and I decide to do a plethoric series of bonus chapter *wink-wink*)

Vote and comment please, we need to get up in the rankings!