Thalia’s Pov
I thought he was joking when he said Nestor and I were a couple, but to our surprise, he was dead serious and locked us outside.
He wouldn’t even allow me to explain why I was out so early, why I was sobbing, or why Nestor was comforting me.
Nestor suggested we give him a few minutes because he was a total jerk and an idiot, but he had changed the password to his gate and we could not climb up the gate because it was electric. His actions astounded us.
I kept knocking and entering the old password, but the system kept asking for my face recognition if I had forgotten the new password.
I began to worry because he had elapsed the month and anything could happen to him that he needed help with. He wasn’t meant to be home alone.
When I yelled out his name, Maggie asked me to hold my breath and rewind.
“What if he collapses inside there?” I exclaimed. “Who is going to help change his temperature or give him fluids?”
“Panicking won’t help, Brandon is a jerk,” Nester responded. “Why is he so thick-headed, like an illiterate?”
“You two were a little too close,” Maggie said.
“You should have informed us he was coming out of the house!” we both screamed angrily.
“So now it’s my fault?” she inquired, her arms clasped. “You both know how jealous he is, but you decided to warm each other up!”
“Mom, are you serious?” Nestor responded. “Let’s just give him some time; he’ll open up once he’s tired of punishing us,” he continued.
“Yes, he’s only torturing us, he’ll tire out,” I said.
“He’s not going to open; I saw it in his eyes, and he made it apparent that he didn’t want to see my face or that of my foolish son,” Maggie said. We all kept quiet.
Brandon being disrespectful to Nestor or cursing him was not a problem but with Maggie that was a different story.
“When he awoke, the first person he asked for was you, Thalia; he adores and loves you but now he believes you are having an affair with my son.” she declared.
I laughed out loud, Brandon’s main desire was always to get between my legs. Even when he was well, he had made it plain that his existence revolved around sex.
His own home was a sex dungeon, for G*d’s sake. He’d spent so much time with me that I was just available meat for him to munch on.
It was only fair that he liked me just like I began liking him. Or was it love?
Nestor shook his head and cursed,
“Please tell me you do not agree?” I asked him.
“Thalia, are you that blind? When he rests on your chest, the man’s temperature returns to normal, he practically stops coughing!” he yelled.
I froze, I was very much aware of that and tested the theory. Love was the only explanation for his change of mood every time he was near me but I had decided to look for other reasons why he responded to my touch in such a way.
I was brainless indeed, I was always falling for his excuses or p*rverted comments that he hid behind to shield his love for me.
“When you’re around him, he always seems to get better,” he added.
“Shut up, I have gotten your point!” I yelled at him. I had no idea why he was rubbing it in my face.
Maggie walked to me and took my hand in hers, “Brandon fell in love with you the day he brought you to his house,” I tried to protest, but she silenced me.
“When I arrived that day, you were dirty and he asked me to bathe you,” she went on to say, “I asked him who you were, and he claimed you were his destiny,” she added with a smile.
I began stuttering, to be honest, nothing was surprising about what she was saying but my heart began racing.
I’d always believed he had affection for me, and I challenged him once despite his obnoxious response.
I ruffled my hair, perplexed, as I tried to comprehend the reality that he loved me.
He wouldn’t act on those feelings for one reason only: he was dying, which is why I was always hesitant to express my affections for him too.
We made a blunder and strayed from the revenge plan. I cursed out because I already had enough on my plate and couldn’t deal with him acting jealousy like a fourteen-year-old.
He needed to act like a man; shutting himself away was simply exacerbating the problem.
He was never going to open the gate if he was so in love with me and misinterpreted my relationship with Nestor, so I had to think fast.
He was most likely adding me to a list of those who had betrayed him and exploited him for their own gain. Even if he had more days, he was going to have suicidal thoughts again.
I began hammering on the gate, Nestor grabbed me from behind and yanked me off the fence. “You are only hurting yourself?”
I screamed, “He’s going to commit suicide.”
He said, “I know,” He replied to which I gave him a perplexed expression. “He told me how you two met, so I know,” he explained.
He let go of me, freeing me, and I turned away in humiliation. Brandon’s decision to tell him about that part of our lives perplexed me. I was mortified, but he swiftly dialed a phone number.
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
He responded, “The guy who built his security system and blew up all the dialysis equipment.”
“Is he in the country?” I asked, my heart racing.
“Yes, but I have to drop off my mother before picking him up,” he stated.
“I’m not leaving,” Maggie replied.
“He’ll be fine, Mom.”
“No, son, Thalia and I will be waiting for you here; we can’t leave her alone,” she remarked as she took my hand in hers.
He gritted his teeth, realizing that he was only wasting his time. He quickly ran to the helicopter and flew off.
I simply wished he would hurry up. Brandon was short on time, and it was entirely my fault. I should have known better; I was supposed to wait until he awoke.
“Stop berating yourself, if only Brandon had asked why you were crying outside instead of behaving like a child, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” she tried to console me, but deep down I knew it was my fault;
I was supposed to wait for him and tell him the bad news, but I foolishly tried to share it with Nestor in hopes of him giving me an idea on how to tell Brandon, but I was so overcome with emotion that I broke down.
Brandon was devoting all of his resources, effort, and brainpower towards my revenge, and I only had one task, which I shamefully failed.
Maggie offered to take a walk down the coastlines, but I declined. I needed to be near the gate in case Brandon changed his mind and decided to open up.
But that was not to be; instead, we stood till our legs gave up and we decided to take seats.
The good news was that Nestor had texted, he managed to track down the tech guy who he was bringing back. I looked at my watch and noticed it was more than five hours since Brandon had shut himself inside.
In my mind, I began to imagine the horrors of what he could have done to himself. Maggie tried to start a conversation about anything else, but my mind was elsewhere. The only thing that jolted me awake was the sound of a helicopter.
We could see Nestor and a nerdy-looking guy bickering as they walked out of the helicopter. The man was dressed entirely in black, wore a large hat, and had a mask over his face.
I could see why he was hiding his face. He was the individual that brought Gentex’s dialysis equipment down. If the investigators found out and we saw his face, he’d be in big trouble.
When he got to where we were standing, he walked right by us, took out his strange-looking laptop, and knelt.
He tapped the Conner of the gate, which gave him a socket-like item, into which he connected his laptop.
He pressed a few keys on his keyboard and the gate opened. I nearly collided with him and dashed into Brandon’s house, screaming his name.
When I opened the bedroom door, everything was shattered to bits. CDs, papers, and flash tied to my revenge scheme against the Nelsons were all drenched and in pieces.
I bit my lip in surprise. He sabotaged all of our plans; the bustard ruined everything without giving me a chance to explain myself.
Nestor and his mother joined me, as surprised as I was. We took a few steps back and looked around the room.
Nestor began looking for Brandon right away. He was nowhere to be seen. He checked the kitchen, toilet, and bathroom but couldn’t find him, implying that he was in one of the twenty-one insane rooms.
My heartfelt twitch when I realized that the foolish doors were a maze of unending doors and that finding him was practically impossible.
I could tell from Maggie’s and Nestor’s expressions that they knew that too.
“Brandon once said….he said…all the rooms had surveillance,” I quickly stated.
Nestor quickly began looking for the tablet, the dumb thing practically controlled everything together with the remote but both were nowhere to be found, and the surveillance television was in pieces on the ground, we were stranded again.
Nestor dashed outside and summoned the hacker, instructing him to break into the residence.
To my surprise, he declined, explaining that he couldn’t hack his boss because “hacking a gate is one thing, but hacking a complete house is another.”
“I will tear off your bl**dy head if you do not hack this stup*d house,” I cried as I grabbed him by the neck and held him.
I could see his mouth curve into a silly sneer as he stared at me in silence. “Calm down destiny,” he cried as I lifted my fist and tried to hit him.
“At least you’re not ugly; I’d be upset if I was facing life in prison for something ugly,” he continued.
“What did you just call me?” I asked, staring him down.
“Destiny? Ain’t you the reason our boss came back to life?” He said as he took out his laptop.
Maggie grinned as I stared at her, but I averted my gaze.
Nestor swiftly changed the subject when he saw how uncomfortable I was. He said, “Are you the one who designed the system?”
“No, the p**dle made it, and I built the gate. Rule number one is to engage separate techs to work on different systems in your project in case he is kidnapped or dies,” he explained.
“Shut up and get to work. I screamed at him.
He said, “Wow, feisty,” and added, “I like you.”
I was about to kick him when Maggie pushed me away from him and urged me to exhale.
“P**dle will be furious that I hacked him,” the idiot stated while tapping his keyboard. It seemed like he was taking forever.
I began biting my nails and became very sweaty. I couldn’t find a place to sit, I felt as though I was squandering my time.
Finally, a screen emerged on his laptop and the white rooms appeared. “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia,” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
As we started checking the rooms, It didn’t take long to spot Brandon in the room next to the kitchen with bottles of wine strewn about, he appeared to be comatose.
I quickly took off and headed to the room, “Brandon Brandon!” I yelled as I opened the door. He looked so lifeless but I quickly checked his pulse rather than panicking.
He was breathing and his temperature felt quite alright. Nestor knelt down and felt the pulse too. “He is fine, he is just dead drunk,” he replied. But I was not convinced, I wanted him to plug him into all the stup*d machines.
“Thalia the only bed that has monitors is the one in that trashed room,” he said.
“Then bring it in here!” I yelled at him. He stared at me for a minute before getting up and ordering the tech guy to give him a hand.
They switched the beds and connected Brandon to all the o*gan monitors, temperature, and blood pressure machines. Everything seemed normal, maybe Nestor was right, he was just drunk.
They all stayed for some minutes before Nestor decided to take his mother and the tech guy home. It was getting late but he promised to come back and check on us.
I was left there all alone, staring at the jerk that almost caused my heart to burst because of his selfishness.
I was hungry but yet I had no appetite, I decided just to lay there on his chest waiting for him to wake up. I slowly began dozing and before I knew it I fell asleep.
