Page 29 of The Alpha's Forbidden Secret Baby

He laughed. “This is blackmail. I hope you remember. I won’t just let you off the hook ‘cause you asked me to.”

“Please,” she begged again. Her voice broke. She was desperate at this point.

“No. It feels good saying that. I see why you threw it in my face all these years.” he cackled.

“What do you want?” she asked. She had gotten tired of the game.

“Hmm. A lot of things, Rayla. But what can you give me?” he asked.

Rayla’s mind ran around. She couldn’t figure out what he wanted.

What type of blackmailer doesn’t state his terms? How would she know what he wanted?”

She was beyond frustrated. She wanted to beg him some more, but he beat her to it again. He had a knack for interrupting her before she spoke.

“When you know what I want, you call me. You have my number now,” he said. The line went dead immediately.

The bastard! She was so mad. Who did he think he was? He won’t get away with this. She didn’t know how, but she vowed to make him pay.

She remembered what was at stake. She became pensive. There had to be a way around it. She vowed to find it.

Rayla needed sleep. She didn’t know where her room was so she went up to Abel’s new room. Xander and Abel seemed deep in conversation. When she stepped into the room, they went quiet.

She had been so preoccupied with her issue she had paid little attention to her son. Abel was mad about that. Xander seemed to notice the tension. He excused them and told her to call out to him when she was done with Abel. He would show her to her room then.

When he walked out, she turned to Abel. “How are you doing, Son?” she asked sweetly.

Abel looked her over and turned his face away. “What’s going on, Mom?” he asked. “You have been unsettled and cold all morning.”

“Nothing is happening,” she bristled.

“You are lying,” he voiced. “Well, if you don’t want to share, I’d rather focus on my phone.” He picked up his phone.

Rayla was dismissed. She wanted to scream at him, but it would do no good. She walked out of his room with a heavy heart.

By evening, her nerves were calm. She had managed to sleep for a few hours in her new room. When she woke up, she stood on the balcony contemplating her life.

Her life has become a rollercoaster of awful events. She wished she could just end it all. She had fallen into depressing thoughts. She was in too deep.

She didn’t notice when Xander came to stand next to her. He touched her lightly on her shoulder.

Chapter 9 - Xander

A shiver-inducing symphony of sound unfolded as he walked through the wall, each footfall echoing with a haunting resonance as if the darkness itself was whispering something inaudible. He was used to this already. Like a soft murmur, the air hummed with an eerie vibration.

Without breaking a sweat, Xander materialized at the balcony where Rayla was standing, deep in thought, with her arms resting on the railing. She seemed bothered about something and remembered that she had been this way since he went over to her place hours ago.

He stood behind her, watching from the darkness as she heaved heavy sighs at intervals. She jerked her head to face the night sky and drew in a long, deep breath.

Above, the celestial canvas was punctuated by countless twinkling stars, each one a glimmering light in the darkness. Like precious stones scattered across the canvas, they cast their gentle glow upon the world.

Xander traced her gaze to the constellations that wove intricate patterns across the heavens, and he could tell that she was fascinated by them.

“Beautiful, isn't it?” He stepped out of the shadows and joined her by the railing.

Rayla turned to him with a faint grin, trying so hard to hide whatever was bothering her. She returned her gaze back to the sky and stole a glance at him.

“Do you ever wonder about the constellations?” she asked him.

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