Loving You Too Long

“Do you think I only want to get rid of you?” Loretta asked, curious. Then she shook her head. “No, dear. I do want to get rid of you, but not simply.” She continued with meaningful words. “With all the attitude and humiliation you’ve given me all this time, I want you to die slowly in the most painful way.

“Right now, I’m enjoying her tears, as she loses you and pleads with everyone to find you.

“But soon, I’ll witness your tears. Begging and pleading with me to let her go.

“True revenge is not by retaliating against that person directly. Because that would be a simple act of revenge.

“True revenge is making the person you want to punish feel pain by making them witness the suffering of someone they dearly love. And in your case, it means the pain endured by your beloved wife. Haisley.”

“Don’t involve Haisley; she doesn’t even know anything!” Nathan snapped harshly.

This only made Loretta smile even more delightedly. “Of course, she still has to face consequences. You know why? Because she’s disrupted the rhythm of my life!” She shouted angrily. Then the woman took a long breath and exhaled slowly. “She messed up everything I carefully arranged.” She said in a calmer tone. “I even prepared a murder scheme for you so subtly that you wouldn’t feel any pain for my revenge for your treatment of me all this time. But she made you run away from me.”

“That’s because your plan is still not perfect,” Nathan said with a mocking tone.

Loretta nodded. “I can’t deny that your brother is smarter than you, Nath.” Loretta returned the insult to Nathan. “Didn’t he realize that I ordered someone to follow you?” She asked again, which Nathan had to reluctantly admit. “Unfortunately, I forgot to have my people keep an eye on him until I was caught off guard. If only I had realized when he invited me to dance. If Gilbert hadn’t intervened, I’m not sure you would still be here and alive. Maybe right now you’d be drifting in the ocean, becoming fish food.” She continued with an evil smile on her face. “But yes, I can still come up with another strategy.” The woman continued. “I will create a spectacle for you and Haisley at the same time.”

“Don’t you dare touch Haisley!” Nathan growled threateningly.

But what could Nathan do while he was helpless? That’s what made Loretta laugh mockingly at him. “What can a powerless coward like you do?” Loretta asked with her mocking tone. “You can’t even save yourself. How can you save your wife?” Loretta continued to taunt.

“Don’t play games, Loretta. I won’t forgive you if anything happens to Haisley!” Nathan threatened loudly as Loretta now walked away from him with triumphant laughter.

“You can haunt me after you die,” she said with a cynical tone. “Or you can meet my victims in the afterlife and carry out your revenge plans on me afterward.” She continued with laughter. “We’ll see, Nath.” She said, giving a kiss on Nathan’s forehead and leaving him with the man named Ramon.

***

Haisley was eventually moved to the villa owned by her friend Flavia’s family. It wasn’t without reason; they were afraid that the malicious individuals hired by Loretta might return to the villa and do anything unexpected.

Who knows if Loretta’s crew is collaborating with someone working at the villa, planning further harm to Haisley. So far, Flavia’s father, who was asked to monitor the airport, has not found the names Nathan or Loretta on any flights. They had suspected this, considering it was unlikely for them to forge a passport for Nathan in such a short time. Not to mention, all of Nathan’s important documents were left in the villa he rented previously, which Gilbert had hidden from the beginning, even before Nathan took Haisley away at that time.

Now, only two possibilities remain. Loretta is hiding Nathan around Miami, or she took him to another area by sea. Everyone cannot feel at ease until they receive the latest news about Nathan.

Simultaneously, they speculate about the reasons behind Loretta’s reckless actions. If it’s related to her obsession with getting Nathan, there’s a slim chance they’ll be contacted by Loretta, meaning they’ll have to wait for news from Flavia’s father’s contacts. But if it’s all about money, they just have to wait for a demand for a ransom to get Nathan back. Again, this sounds unlikely, considering Loretta herself is not poor; she certainly doesn’t need money.

Gilbert’s father has tried contacting Loretta’s father in England. However, they ended up discovering another surprising fact about Loretta. Loretta’s father stated that he washed his hands of what Loretta was doing. In a not-so-brief conversation, he revealed a shocking fact that Loretta wasn’t actually his biological child.

“She’s not my biological child,” said the middle-aged man from a distance with a sad tone. “I brought her from an orphanage to save my wife. Our daughter, Loretta, died in an accident. My wife couldn’t accept that fact. As a result, she underwent psychological treatment for some time. To bring her back, I picked up a child who had a physical appearance and face almost identical to my daughter. She also had the same date of birth and birth year. I adopted her, making her my Loretta. Discarding her old identity and giving her my daughter’s identity.”

“At first, everything improved. My wife became cheerful again because she got her Loretta back. And Loretta was genuinely a good child, always following what my wife and I asked. She studied well and even complied with what my wife wanted for her school and extracurricular activities. Until she grew up, understood what she wanted, she began to change.

“She showed her true rebellious character. She grew into a defiant girl. But my wife still considered it normal, attributing it to the search for identity and peer influence, that’s what my wife always suspected.

“However, over time, Loretta became increasingly uncontrollable. Many disappointments she caused gradually made my wife more and more down. Loretta was no longer considered our child by my wife, and she tried to evict her from our home.

“But then, she came back.

“I don’t know what she said to my wife; my wife then accepted her back into our home. But since she came back, my wife became unhappy. She fell ill and then passed away a few years ago.

“I tried to turn a blind eye to her. Letting her do whatever she wanted. When I felt she was starting to tarnish our family’s reputation, she misbehaved. Telling me about what she knew about my wife.” The man still spoke with a sad tone. “If I dared to kick her out and ignore her as a child, she would tell everyone about my darkness. About my Loretta, who is not my biological child but a child my wife obtained from her affair with her ex-lover-because I clearly couldn’t give her offspring.

“I already knew about that fact and chose to stay silent because I loved my wife too much. And hearing that she would tarnish my wife’s reputation, I chose to remain silent. Not to mention, she threatened to tell everyone about how I abused my power to make an adopted child my biological child illegally.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“Honestly, I’m afraid that all of that will ruin everything I’ve built and maintained all these years.”