.

It had been almost a week since my last encounter with Romeo, since I had confessed about the name. Since then I had locked myself in my assigned room, accepting food only when I was on the verge of dying, I lived these past six days on my own and without the usual haunting presence of Beast. But surprising thing was that they did not reach out to me in those days, Dean did not knock continuously to check up on me, Jon did not come too to tease me, Madilyn did not show her face since she had a scolding from Romeo. And Romeo himself did not break the door to see his slave.

No one bothered me.

They let me live just the way I was living. Breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner...everything in front of the door, sometimes they had to pick up the dishes that were untouched. But it was extremely shocking how they did not question my choice.

Maybe they figured out who Elijah was to me. Maybe they sympathized with me. Maybe they questioned themselves that what a father could do to a daughter that would make her insane and scared.

Though telling about Elijah to Romeo was sort of helpful, as I felt a burden being lifted off my heart. But I wondered why didn't he come to ask for more about Elijah. Did the beast have a shred of humanity in his stoned heart? And did he figure out how Elijah knew about Romeo? Laying on the soft mattress, feeling warm under my blanket, I had a bunch of queries. And some desires.

Desire to meet Luciano, and to forgive him and to apologize for my behavior. The distance between us till now melted my heart and I wanted to meet him and hug him. I was ready to give up my anger at him, my doubts about him, just to see him once again. Living in a cage of beast made me value the very relations I had when I was a free woman.

And of course, all I wanted was to meet my best friend, my sister and my well-wisher; Mary. I could guess that she was going mad knowing I was nowhere to be found. Would she take Luciano's help? I was wondering, thinking that their union was highly impossible, but could they help each other, putting their egos behind, just for me? The answer was 'Maybe'.

Luciano and Mary. I missed them, I needed them.

How could Romeo understand the intensity of my love for Mary and Luciano? He was a beast, he never loved anyone but himself and his purposes only. He was a beast who hated me, for God knows why. He hated me enough to abduct me, with intentions of torturing me and then killing me. How could I expect him to understand my bleeding heart? I wondered what Luciano would do if he had ever met Romeo.

They were both alike in one particular way. They were both mysterious and unpredictable. Luciano was unpredictable in a soothing way, you could predict that his unpredictable moves could always bring me happiness. Though Mary always disagreed and told me I was a fool to believe it. Romeo was unpredictable in a way when I could not predict anything about the nature of his unpredictable moves. Like I could not decipher how and why he picked me up from the ground, held me gently and chose to wipe my tears away while promising me my release when he himself just moments ago confessed that he wanted to hate me more and more.

They both also offered me their silence. Luciano's silence made me worried and desperate. Romeo's silence made me feel different emotions. Sometimes relieved. Sometimes damaged. Somethings helpless. Sometimes worthless. And sometimes so terribly scared. If they both ever faced each other, it would be the meeting of two undefeated kings, I thought.

How did I end up here? I asked myself, I also realized that tears were flowing down my cheeks and I felt pain in my lower waist and around my belly button. I struggled to get up and sit straight. My vision almost blurry. But then I widened my eyes realizing that maybe the time of the month had come. And I was so right, bearing the pain, I immediately hopped off the bed and put off my blanket to check the sheets. There was no stain, I ran to my bathroom and I was proven right.

I went to my cupboard, to get some new undergarment and pads, guess what. They did not have any pads! Did they think I don't bleed! I thought. I had to finally go downstairs, wearing a long dark tailcoat, I saw Luke and Jon sitting in the sofa lying in the middle of the hall. Jon's eyes shifted towards me and immediately they turned soft, usually they always had mockery and tease in them. But that moment, it was not what I was habitual of seeing. He walked up to me, put his hand on my forearm, with concern in his eyes, he questioned, "Do you want something?"

"Yes!" I stepped back.

He took his hand off me, realizing that I was not in mood of their concerns. "What? Tell me, I will get it for you."

"Lady things." I rolled my eyes.

A small 'oh' left his mouth, his voice was way too sweet, and I did not like it, "Madilyn can help you, you know her room, right?" I nodded and walked straight to Madilyn's room. Knocked twice and got no answer, from behind I heard Jon's voice, "Madilyn, it is Clarissa. Help her out!" There was his commanding tone.

I did not thank him for his help as immediately after his order, the door opened with a faint click, "You don't have to follow me around and help me out, okay. I could ask her to open the door myself." My voice was as dry and uninterested as it could get. I hoped to get a Jon like reaction but all I got was a slight nod before he turned and left.

Inside Madilyn's room, I saw her covered with her blanket, I called out for her thrice then she angrily shrugged the blanket off her body and stared at me with annoyance, "What the hell do you want that he has not given to you yet!"

"Um well..." I was cut off.

"If you demand diamonds every day, he will even get you one every day. So, what the hell that you don't have?" She stood against me, huffing at me.

"Pads!" I snapped.

"What" she seemed shocked, I don't know why.

"I bleed monthly, you dumb." I made sure I made my remark clear and embossed in her tiny brain.

She cursed at me and went to dig in her cupboard, she gave me a pack of it and asked me to leave. "Get lost, now."

I did not thank her of course, and I turned around to walk out of that hideous maroon colored room. But I stopped at my way, a small smirk crawled up to my lips, I turned around at her again, "Won't he get you diamonds every day if you demand them?"

Her nostrils flared, her face around the nose was reddened, there was jealousy in her eyes as I expected along with lots of frustration, her chapped lips parted to possibly throw a mockery at me but I interrupted her, "Don't answer, dear. I know the answer... he won't." I chuckled at her and then left, heard her loud cursing and slamming the door.

"I would like to talk to you," while I was walking upstairs, I heard a familiar soft and friendly tone.

I sighed and turned around to find welcoming and warm blue eyes of Dean. But like usual, he did not have his wide grin, instead he looked serious yet approachable. "You! I actually missed your stupidity, I wondered how you tolerated my locked door for so long." He smiled.

I continued, "But like always I wouldn't like to talk to you, I said it before, I will say it again. I am so freaking tired of you all." He nodded.

"I wanted to ask a few things about Elijah, if that is alright. Though he hasn't asked us for this. If you want to talk about him, you know my room and number." He smiled at me again, a broken and forced smile on his depressed face.

The name Elijah, the idea of talking about him, it all took away the remaining strength I had at that moment, ignoring his offer, I focused on my bleeding self and rushed to my room. Still, the idea of sharing the deepest darkest events of a dead daughter and a killer father lingered in my head.

After doing my necessary work, I rested myself on bed yet again. My lower waist was tightened with pain, even the soft mattress couldn't give me relief. I kept on turning on the bed, wincing in pain, thinking if I should have taken Dean's offer seriously or not. Even Mary did not know much about me & Elijah. A knock on the door woke me up from my deep brainstorming.

"Come in," I said.

Servant came inside, bringing a dish, "Warm milk for you."

I pointed to my side table, he then placed it there. "Anything else?"

"No, thanks." I smiled warmly at that young boy who probably was stuck in this hell like me.

"Sir was wondering if you need to consult with the doctor." He spoke up shyly.

I sighed. Rolling my eyes at the mercy of his 'sir', "Tell him he needs a psychiatrist, why doesn't he consult him?" A small smile emerged on his lips. And soon he left.

Sipping milk, I remembered something a bit similar.

I was squirming under a dark brown blanket, tears flowing down my cheeks. I felt sore on every part of my body, I was mumbling only one word, 'Mom'. The hard mattress made the pain worse, blood stained sheet was wrapped around me as an extra covering because my naked fifteen years old self felt utterly ugly and dirty and needed every possible cover to cover the tainted body. Though I were an innocent little girl, victim of my own father. I could feel myself being disgusted by my own skin. As every inch of my skin still had the scars of the sin that happened in the night that passed. My sweat clad neck had the evidence of the sin marked on it. My aching and sore lower body was enough to make me feel as if I were the one who sinned. My childhood and teenage was thrashed and snatched last night with every violent push. All I could do at that moment was to mumble prayers and avoid seeing my own reflection.

The door opened with a thud, I closed my eyes and tightened the grip of my blanket. His footsteps were getting closer and closer, "Baby girl, warm milk for you." At his words, I remembered how in my childhood, I used to yearn for him to call me his little girl, to love me and kiss me on my cheek and not neglect me. But that particular moment made me hate me for desiring such love from a disgusting man. His absence was a blessing that I had not realized. My mother was right about him. 'The far he is from you, Clarissa. The better. Do not demand fatherly love from him.' I was so naive and foolish to oppose my mother.

He sat beside me on the corner of my bed. His hands patting against my blanket, I was relieved to not feel his skin over mine. "You must be sore; do you need to consult a doctor. A friend of mine is a doctor who will not ask questions but just prescribe you medicines if needed." I sobbed listening to his silky deceiving voice. I put my hand over my mouth to suppress the cries as he did not like my tears because of his touch. He used to punish at that offence and I did not need more torture. At that moment, I prayed someone could stab me in my heart with the same dagger that was already piercing my heart, making it bleed, taking my breath away slowly. Second by second. Minute by minute. It was sucking the life and sanity out of me.

And I was forced to question my existence and fate. 'How can a father be this disgusting towards his own daughter.' I complained to my destiny. Demanded some reasonings for what happened to me. Because my fifteen years old self was unaware of what happened, why it happened, how it happened and when it happened.

Flashback of a haunting memory suddenly blurred. I wiped my sweat off my forehead with sleeve. I noticed I was breathing way too heavily. I did not want to have another episode of misery in front of Romeo and his men. Jon already started carrying sympathy in his eyes for me. I did not want them to feel sorry for me. I was strong enough to get out of the that phase myself. I did not want their saddened gazes to bother me.

But was I strong enough to leave the Beast's cage?

To be honest, no. There was no way from where I could plan my escape. Because everywhere I stepped, I was watched. By him.

He tortured me mentally. Draining me of my courage and strength. He made me his slave mentally. He made me hopeless and helpless. Romeo made me his without even doing anything.

And that was very scary. He was making me habitual in his demands. Clarissa was a puppet moved by Romeo. The biggest achievement for Romeo was probably the fact that he was able to make me give up every now and then and remind me constantly about my helplessness.

A person's greatest defeat is slavery of his mind. And I have given up now. If my death is written here, let it come, I am tired of all this. Tired of living. I thought.

I did not even at what moment Romeo defeated me. My life was being wasted minute by minute, and except sitting in my room, I could not do anything.

A cage made of gold and scent was suffocating the life out of me, was stripping me off my abilities to think. Romeo was a Beast worth ruling the world. Because he could rule over people without even touching them. He had a control over me with his silence. I wondered what could happen to me if he ever decided to not remain silent. My loudest cries were muffled in his silence always. I wondered if he ever cried. I wondered if the beast was ever wounded like I was. I wondered if Romeo ever possessed a heart worth loving. I wondered if I could ever share about Elijah to anyone. I wondered things, because being a prisoner, I only had the luxury to keep wondering.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the heck is wrong with you, Nate?" Mary threw a dark broody glare towards his brother, sitting on the edge of her bed. "It's been six days already!" She reminded him.

"I know you must be angry, but I could not let you go in this condition." He looked at her wounded sister, and his eyes softened seeing her bandaged arm and head. "You fainted first then after forceful two days rest, you went to drive towards Romeo without telling me about it, then ended up getting into an accident! Am I supposed to react differently and let you do what you want!" His voice gradually raised and the frown on Mary's forehead deepened.

"Yes! Because he is ninety percent having Clarissa, and you made me waste my one week!" She rolled her eyes at him, "If she is dead now, it is all on you now." Her voice was lower, and she had regret and fear in her tone.

Nate shook his head and moved forward towards his sister, picked up her palm as gently as possible and patted it, brought it towards his lip and planted a peck on it. She winced. "Don't be angry at me, Mary! I could not deal with the idea of losing you."

"Losing me? We lost time for Clarissa, Nate. What if she was fine and alive one week ago, and now she is gone? I told you we had no time to lose yet you made a big deal out of nothing when I fainted and then again when I got into an accident which did not do any big damage on me! But what if Clarissa was getting way worse damage in this week. God knows what Romeo must have done. You never know what he does when hatred is all he has for a person!" Mary snatched her hand out of his gentle grasp and sat up straightly, looking directly at her brother and explaining her reasonings.

Nate heaved a sigh, a part of him could understand her, but the brotherly part of him dominated and remained selfish. "But I ended up choosing your health! I am your brother!" He did not give up.

"You were selfish!" She snapped. Pulling the blanket of her body, she hopped off her bed. "You were so selfish!"

"You are not understanding. How could you have helped Clarissa if you yourself were injured and fainting after every half hour!" Nate stood up, walked up to her, held her hand and pushed her slightly to sit on the bed, he crouched down in front of her, holding her hands tightly. "You were drunk driving towards Romeo? Why? What were you thinking? Are you out of your mind?"

"I wanted to confront him without any fear," she mumbled.

Nate huffed, "How lame!" he uttered.

"But-"Mary was cut off by violent banging on the main door and constant ringing of the doorbell. Nate and Mary looked suspicious and with no time wasting, Nate rushed to the cabinet to pull out his loaded gun, he ran down stairs, so did Mary who limped a bit but still was quick enough to follow her brother. The banging was louder than before, and it seemed as if the door was about to be broken.

Whoever was standing outside was throwing things at the door, and he or she also broke windows but could not harm the grills. Nate with confused steps moved towards the door, he could hear the person kicking the door and grunting.

He was about to see who was outside, but they heard, "Fucking Nathan Sanders, I know you are inside!" The voice at first sounded unrecognizable but after a moment both Mary and Nate looked at each other to confirm their doubts but then with a nod from Mary, Nate put down his gun and opened the door.

A huge figure pounced on his lean and unmatchable build and Nate was immediately pulled outside and thrown on the porch, the man groomed in the darkest green t-shirt threw a punch at Nate's face, it all happened way too fast, so Nate and Mary couldn't really comprehend. "Where is she, Nate? Where have you hid her?"

"Luciano, stop!" Mary's voice took away the anger and fire from Luciano's sea colored gaze. And he felt Mary's hands clutching his biceps stopping the next punch. "What is wrong with you?" She yelled and pushed him aside.

She sat down near her brother, holding him gently by his shoulders, pulling him up to sit straight, "I'm sorry." She mumbled while caressing his cheek. Nate shook his head as if nothing happened while holding another cheek. "You don't have to apologize."

Mary stood up by the support of the wall beside her and looked directly at the culprit- Luciano. "Son of a bitch," she hissed. He stood up and walked up to her.

She resisted, and walked back, "Don't come close to me you bastard! Why don't you ever respect my brother!" She yelled and that time she moved closer to him to throw a punch at him. "Why are you so fucking out of control all the time!"

Luciano blinked twice and gathered his composure, he pulled Mary closer to himself by her arm and she let out a wince, but he did not notice as he felt the need to explain his little stunt, "Because he kept me away from you! I was mad for you in these past days. You were not found! I thought maybe I lost you too! Like her! I couldn't deal with losing you too, Mariana. That is why I don't respect him because he fucking made me so vulnerable and scared by the thoughts of your disappearance." Mary parted her lips; some rude remarks could come out if, but she chose to remain silent.

Luciano then noticed that he was holding her bandaged arm way too tightly, so he let it go in a second and apologized, "I am so sorry."

"Damn you, Luciano. You are a curse on us!" Luciano heard Nate's voice from behind and his fists curled, but seeing Mary almost on the verge of crying, he closed his eyes to forget Nate's existence.

"I...I was looking for you, he hid you from me. He acted as if he did not know where you are. Pathetic. I was so- "Mary's shoulder slumped and she couldn't hear more from Luciano knowing that what her brother did was wrong and Luciano was indeed right on this matter, she ignored him and tried to walk pass Luciano and get inside the house, but he held her palm, stopping her, "I was so worried, Mary. Trust me, I was so damn tired of myself." He pulled his head down, speaking near her ear, gently pressing her palm. Mary knew Luciano's tricks way too well to know that his display of vulnerability was not a lie.

"I trust you on that, but at least for me you could not behave with my brother like that. It was pathetic as well! I know what he did was wrong, he kept me away from working for Clarissa too, I get that he became selfish, but his fear for me-"she pulled herself out of that intimacy, "His fear about me, it is all because of your sins of the past. So, don't act like a victim. He is scared whenever I cough, he is scared whenever I am out late at night or day, he is scared when I faint, he is scared when I am driving a car all alone...he is scared because he does not want another Luciano to come and ruin me again. He is selfish because he, like me trusted a Luciano before too and now he chooses his sister over everyone and everything." Mary's tone was lower than intended, her voice broke at places, she held back her sobs. But she made sure she hit Luciano's strings of heart badly, to make him feel worse about himself.

It worked, Luciano's anger faded from his eyes, he lowered down his gaze, it was the moment where his sins were playing in front of his eyes like a film named 'Destruction of Mariana Sanders'. He closed his eyes, holding back the emotions in them, resisting himself from seeing the truth that Mary painted in front of his eyes. Nate and Mary turned around and went inside the house, leaving the door open.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Mary grunted.

"I had to keep him away from you, otherwise you wouldn't have taken care of your health and ran off with him being detective. And he doesn't also know about your little desired adventure towards Romeo. Do you even know what he would do to you and the world if he knows about your plans of meeting Romeo?" Nate regarded her with questioning eyes.

She sat on the sofa, tilting her head back, closing her eyes, "I am not scared of him, I play with his little shred of humanity very well. Look what I did to him, he is still outside mourning about his own evil deeds. But you are still wrong, you shouldn't have changed houses and lied to him about me." She opened her eyes for a moment, and looked curtly at her brother, "If you try to stop me ever again, if you ever do this lying thing with Luciano ever again, if you...if you tell about Romeo to anyone especially Luciano...I will feed your balls to the dogs." The threat was convincing and was not a joke.

"Mary..." Nate and Mary heard the familiar silky voice that they dread yet again.

Mary let out a small 'Uff' and Nate continued to stride towards his room, leaving both Luciano and Mary to talk.

Luciano came in front of tired looking Mary, he lifted his hand and caressed her cheek with a feather touch, Mary cursed at him, which obviously hurt his every fiber.

"The last we talked, we talked about knowing the connection between Clarissa's Father and Alfred. I was supposed to put my life in danger to find his file in Alexander's office." He made himself comfortable beside Mary. She shifted in her spot, feeling his presence that close to her made her surprisingly uncomfortable.

Mary glanced right next to her, "Well, you are not dead, so I guess you succeeded."

"Nope!" Luciano looked away from her, trying to hide his defeat.

Mary heaved an exaggerated sigh, "Why and now what?"

"I was almost caught going inside Alex's room. So, I gave up that idea, thinking what damage could occur if I tried again and get caught." Mary nodded, he continued, "Alfred sent his people to Clarissa's house, he called me and told me Clarissa's case is not mine anymore. And that I have disappointed him, and he thinks that I am hiding something and he basically warned me. Now I don't know what the hell should I do next. Instead of thinking what should I do next, I was thinking about your disappearance because of your brother's lie." He groaned thinking about that whole fiasco that Nate created.

Mary straightened up, her eyebrows creased at him, "What do you mean it is not your case anymore!"

"He said that I never took this long," he paused, and guilt washed over his face, Mary on the other hand did not care about what he felt. She wanted to listen more about what happened, "He said I failed him and he would love to have Clarissa and he won't give up. He thinks I have contributed to her disappearance due to my heart." He then stopped saying more.

"Bastard, so he thinks that she left by herself, not kidnapped."

Luciano nodded, thinking the same thing.

"That is the only plus, and that explains that Alfred is not responsible of her disappearance at all! My doubts are clear now!" Mary cheered to herself.

"What doubts?" Luciano inquired.

"Nothing!" Mary widened her eyes and cursed herself in her head, she tried to put his emphasis on something else, so she questioned, "So, did he threaten to kill you or what?"

"You know how he warns people. It is laced with a threat that one wrong move again and you are a dead meat. So that happened. But I think his focus on Clarissa is personal! He is way too obsessed with her. I feel her dad and Alfred are connected. Because firstly, you saw Mr. Martin and Alfred meet. Secondly, data about Clarissa and her family is forged to an extent. Elijah Martin, Clarissa Martin, Veronica Martin...the names...it took me days to find just the names, Mary. No pictures are real. Even Clarissa's own picture was someone else's. Who did that? Alfred has power to do that and if he and Elijah Martin was connected in anyway, it is possible Alfred did that. And this war might be personal." Luciano was then pacing around the room, massaging his temples.

Mary started coughing which pulled out Luciano from his tensed trance, he poured a glass of water and handed it to her, "Here...water. By the way, I did not ask...how did you end up being injured and why did Nate try to stop you from searching from Clarissa."

"I fainted a week ago, then after two days, I got into accident. I was angry at Nate from keeping me jailed at house for rest. Uff. So I drove carelessly." Mary scowled at Luciano, "Look, I am so tired. Can we do this tomorrow. We will figure out something." Mary knew the look on Luciano's face. It was of disbelief. He could not process that Mary would delay talking and figuring out about Clarissa. But a part of him reminded him about Mary's health. He knew she used to stress herself way too much and to an extent where she always ended up on floor, unconscious so he did not want to press her. He got up from the sofa, looked at her head leant back against the soft fabric.

He crouched down a little and pressed his lips on her cheek, which made her open her eyes instantly. That familiar feeling of having his lips on her skin was something that she did not want ever again but she felt the electrifying sensation again, for a split second, she could not comprehend anything but then immediately she lifted her hand up to protest but he held it, and put it down on her lap, he tilted his head and spoke against her ear, "It was nothing sexual, it was just to satisfy myself that you are safe." He glanced at her and a small smile was on his lips, Mary did not dare to look up at him, but she could not resist too, she did look at him, the warmth of those blue eyes was addicting.

She knew it so well that how bad it was for her. He then vanished from her house in a minute.

Just to distract herself from Luciano, she thought to herself about Romeo. 'What will I say when I see him?' she wondered.

a/n:

So that is how the normal day for Clarissa goes, and now she has given up! So, what is in store for future now? And and and...Mary and Romeo, how will it go?

Sorry for yet again a late update, life caught up very badly!