I Am An Illegitimate Child With A Legitimate Reason For Revenge-Chapter 99: You’ll get better

Steve knew Raymond could be extremely unreasonable at times and this was one of them.

"Come on, you two were doing things the wrong way. You know what she passed through yet you still wanted to jump her. Looking at it from my angle, you seemed no different from the twins."

As soon as he said this, Raymond’s eyes turned dark.

"Excuse me? What did you just say?" Steve flinched. His words really angered Raymond but he wasn’t about to back away from spilling true facts.

"It’s true whether it angers you or not." Steve boldly said.

"Steve, how dare you compare me to those monsters? They kidnapped Ariel, forced her to do dirty things and hit her countless times. How dare you compare my actions to that?"

Steve was silent. The two acts were worlds apart but...

"Her body is tired and it needs rest." He simply said. "If you do this while knowing well that her body won’t be able to handle it, I’m sorry to say but your nature overlaps with the twins."

Raymond gritted his teeth.

"I didn’t force her." He claimed and looked aside. "And I know her body needs rest." He said. "I wasn’t planning to go all the way. I just wanted to kiss her."

"And then what if you felt the urge to move on to the next step? Would you have been able to stop yourself?"

"I would." He clenched his fist. "I’m not an animal."

Steve watched his trembling fists and sighed. He walked up to him, placed a hand on his shoulder and said,

"I’m just looking out for you. Both of you. We don’t know if Miss Ariel is left with any scarring trauma from the events and to avoid hurting either of you, I would advise that she heals properly before you think about that."

He took his hand off Raymond’s shoulder and looked at the drip bag. It was empty.

"What am I going to do if she is indeed left traumatized?" Raymond suddenly asked. "She smiles now and she doesn’t look scared but what if she’s pretending? What if she’s hurting really bad inside and tries not to show it on the surface?"

"I will recommend you take her to a psychologist now in order to avoid such a shock." Steve calmly said. "She needs treatment, both her body and mind and that can only happen if she opens herself to it."

"Are you talking about me?" Ariel asked as she stepped out of the bathroom.

Steve looked at her and then at Raymond.

"You’re the only one who can talk her into it. Talk to her and if she agrees, I’ll book an appointment with a specialist I know." He said and smiled at Ariel before walking out.

Ariel watched him leave and then turned to Raymond who looked a bit out of it.

"What’s wrong? Were you talking about me just now?" She asked and Raymond looked up at her.

He tapped her side of he bed and she instinctively went to sit beside him.

"Ariel, are you scared?" He asked outrightly.

"Scared? Scared of what?" She asked in return and he examined her expression closely. She didn’t seem to be hiding anything.

"Do you have nightmares?"

"No."

"How..." He stopped himself from uttering hurtful words and shook his head. "...Not once?"

"I did have nightmares. I had nightmares everyday and every time I closed my eyes. It was like they tormented me in reality and in my dreams."

Raymond was silent. He couldn’t say anything concerning that and all he could do was listen in silence like a weak defenseless child.

"But lucky for me, the nightmares stopped." She said and peaked to see his confused expression. "I... I don’t know why they stopped but just a few days ago, I found out..." Her words became slow and hesitant.

She touched her belly and pursed her lips wondering if it was a good thing to bring this up. What would be his reaction?

"Ariel." Raymond called and suddenly hugged her.

The expression she had on her face made him believe he had made a mistake.

"Let’s forget about everything." He said. "Let’s forget about what you passed through there and that I ever asked. Let’s forget it all."

He stroked the back of her hair.

"You’ll get better. Your body and your mind will get better and no matter what, you will still be who you are. Nothing changes, alright?"

Tears slowly gathered in Ariel’s eyes. Raymond... She hugged him back. He was the beacon she never thought she would have.

After all her prayer in tears and hardship, in suffering and death’s door, God gave him to her. God gave her a safe haven.

"Thank you, Raymond. Thank you so much for everything." She cried and he pressed her head against his chest.

"It’s alright. I’m here for you. I won’t leave you ever so don’t entertain any funny thoughts okay?"

"Yes."

After that night, things started moving well in their favor.

Raymond still had to stay in the hospital for a few more days and luckily, it was a weekend.

He couldn’t afford to be absent from the Steins company for long. The fight was already getting heated and his absence would give the enemy enough time to regain their stolen power.

"I will take it all back." Raymond said to himself.

With a cast on, Raymond went to the company. Seeing him in such a situation, rumors started spreading that the twins were trying to get rid of him as a competitor so they attacked him in secret but failed woefully.

It was half true and half lie but what mattered was the reaction of the masses.

Raymond proved to be a tough nail and wouldn’t go down even when wounded to such an extent so more people moved over to his side.

Raymond was finally earning his side as the winning side.

The twins were extremely infuriated and tried to pull a stunt like the last time. They wanted to kidnap Ariel but she was no longer in the facility and their source of information had suddenly disappeared like it was never there. They were lost and angered.

Raymond had taken Ariel to a safe place. It was in a friendly environment and everyone there was nice to her.

Paige, who happened to be a psychologist, advised that, for the meantime, she should live in a lively and warm environment. That was part of offsetting the hostility she had experienced in the hands of the twins.

As it turned out, Ariel was indeed traumatized and she herself didn’t know it. She told herself so many times that she was fine and couldn’t even figure out if she was really alright or not.

The moment they realized her trauma was when Raymond walked up to her, one day, in a hurry and reached out to stroke her hair.

That moment, she suddenly remembered the countless times the twins had raised their hands on her and she shrieked, crouching to the floor in fear while shaking violently.