CHAPTER 2

"Oh No." Oliver muttered

"What did you say? Do you know them? Who on earth are they? They have guns with them." Patricia asked hurriedly with morbid fear as she looks at those in front of her.

"Calm down Patricia, do not be scared okay? It will be okay I promise..." Oliver said and wanted to alight from the car, when Patricia chipped in "Don't go Oliver, they are very dangerous, they have guns."

"I will be fine, okay, do not panic, it will be just fine." He alighted from the truck and walked towards the group of people in black.

One of the men who had seen him felt he was walking rather too slow, and forcefully dragged him towards his boss.

Patricia stayed back in the car and hid so as not to be seen by the muscled and terrifying looking men, these beastly looking men were ones who breeds only fear wherever they went.

'What could they possibly be looking for?' she thought.

"Oliver, how nice it is to know that you made it home, you are finally here." Nick calmly said breaking off the silence

"..."

"Oliver where the hell have you been?" Albert asked his so called friend in annoyance, he knew if the Mafia found out he was the one who had introduced him to the crew he will be in trouble, so he was filled with rage towards him.

Oliver was frightened, he knew at one point he would have to deal with this, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. At that moment he had no words, his brain was blank.

"Where the hell is my money Oliver?" Nick asked

"I... don't have it yet... but I will pay up I swear." Oliver replied trembling

"You have got to be kidding me Oliver, you didn't pay the interests for three whole weeks now and you say you have no money?" Albert asked as he signals his men to surround Oliver

"I will pay up... please just don't hurt me, I will pay." He said afraid of his own friend

"Do I need to remind you on what you said when you asked for such a huge amount of money from boss?"

"I recall vividly, just give me more time, and I will pay back I swear." Oliver said

"Let me remind you on what will happen to you if you fail to pay back soon, deal with this." Nick ordered.

The hefty looking men grabbed Oliver and they pounced on him throwing punches on his head and body.

"Ahh... Please, I will pay you I promise." He yelled out in pain.

Patricia held her mouth as she watched the scene in front of her with eyes wide opened.

The heavy punches did a ton on Oliver, it was visible.

After what seemed like forever, Nick said "It's enough, we still need him alive."

His men stopped hitting him and then he walked towards Oliver who was groaning in pain on the hard floor,

"You better thank your stars that the boss wasn't the one who came here himself or you'll be dead, you should find a way to pay back or you will become homeless soon enough."

Albert was very much upset with him, he had no interest in helping him earlier, now he might be blamed for this.

They entered into their car and off they went.

As Patricia found out they had gone she came out from the car, which was her hiding place and walked as fast as she could to where her boyfriend was laying down helplessly on the ground barely clinging to life.

"What just happened? Who were those men Oliver?" She asked

"..."

"Do not make me ask again."

"I will tell you everything later."

"No way on earth would you keep me hanging." Patricia said sternly like a boss that she felt she was to Oliver.

The latter was still in so much pain and this surprisingly didn't even affect Patricia in any way, she just stood there with folded arms as she waits for an explanation from her so called boyfriend.

Thankfully, there were no neighbors watching since the house they were living in was the very last in that street.

Oliver struggled to stand up by himself staggers towards the doorstep leading to their house, sat down trying to catch his breath.

*******

After calming down a little, Oliver began his explanations.

"When you fainted and I took you to the hospital for treatment, I found out you had a rare disease that was fatal. I decided to look for money so as to treat that because I don't want to lose you, so the only option there was for me to ask for five hundred thousand dollars from well, street 33, those men that just left are from there and they are asking for their payments..."

Patricia chipped in and said in askance,

"Wait, let me get this straight, you asked for money from the ruthless Mafia Tristan of all people? You fucking lied to me about where you got the money from? I asked you didn't I?"

"Babe, I am sorry I lied to you, I just didn't want you to worry that's all." He said as he winces in pain

"Now look at the state of you, look at what your decision has caused you." She yelled out

She continued exchanging words and yelling out loud, even when Oliver was pleading with her to stop, she just wouldn't.

Then she recalled it was one million dollars that was used for her treatments since she saw the receipt, she asked,

"Where else did you find the other half of the money?"

"The bank." Oliver said simply

"The what?"

"I asked for money from the bank as well okay, I am sorry."

"Oliver, what did you do? They must have asked for a collateral what did you use for that, it couldn't possibly be your old truck, wait don't tell me..."

"Yes, it's the house..."

"Oh darn it."

"I used the house, I had no choice Patricia, you were dying and I didn't know what else to do."

"Where are we going to sleep then if you can't pay up... in your damned truck?"

"If we work hard we can try to pay off the interests and finally the debts." Oliver said.

Hearing this made Patricia upset and she stormed into the house leaving Oliver outside, she didn't care about him even when he was clearly in pain.

Her mind and thoughts were filled with where she would live in from now on if they couldn't pay up, which she was certain they wouldn't be able to pay, she was so upset.

After some minutes, Oliver struggled to get into the house and tried to suppress the pain but it was beyond suppressing, he called out to his woman who was technically, the cause of his current situation.

"Babe, babe I... I need the car keys."

"What for?" Patricia asked.

"I need to go to the clinic or hospital to get checked."

"What? We just got out of the hospital, but you want to go back there?"

"Come on... drive me there, I need to get checked on okay, I might have broken a rib or something." Oliver said weakly.

"You can't do that, just like you said we need to look for money to pay off these debts and now in order for us to do that you can't waste any money on tests and bandages, you will have to heal naturally." Patricia said with no ounce of feelings or remorse.

"Babe please just help me out at least get me some meds from Pete." Oliver said pleading.

"There is no money to spare, I still can't believe you would go to the most dangerous man alive for money." Patricia said and walks away towards the bathroom leaving, Oliver in the sitting room confused and in pain.