Chapter 5. That woman in his dreams. That woman in the mansion.

In the car…

Kian experienced a piercing headache. He was still in disbelief and struggling with the memories of the dream from the previous night.

It was a very lucid dream, like experiencing it firsthand. Bloody screams echoed in his ears, cries and pleads. 

The pain and grief he felt were also real. It was so vivid that his body still had that harrowing sensation as if he couldn't move, and each time he tried, an electrifying pain tormented his muscles and bones. 

Desperation overwhelmed his mind and, in the end, he had shed tears for a person, a woman he didn't know, a woman from a horrendous nightmare.

And the worst thing is that, after waking up, he couldn't remember the woman's face, the color of her eyes or her hair, but he could still hear her voice screaming, pleading and asking why he had betrayed her. 

The pain of not being able to tell her that he didn't do it was heartbreaking. The frustration of not being able to save her was mortifying.

"Sir... we have news from the Hart mansion," his Personal Assistant's voice, Emiliano Darren, woke him up from his thoughts abruptly. "They found the body of a lifeless maid deep in the forest, it seems that an animal attacked her... and…" Emiliano frowned in displeasure, "according to the police report, they say that the animal tore off her body."

Kian frowned, his sight was on the road but he couldn't focus. "What did the police say? What about the security cameras?"

"They didn't find anything, it seems that the maid went into the forest behind the mansion by herself and didn't come out again."

Kian sighed. That morning was becoming so tiring. "What was she doing there?"

"No one knows," Emiliano continued, reading the report in his tablet, "They checked her calls log and texts on her phone in case she was planning to meet someone, there doesn't seem to be any sign of that... for now, the investigation is in the hands of the police."

"Okay, cooperate with whatever they need," Kian leaned back in his seat and sighed wearily, closing his eyes. He didn't feel like thinking about violent deaths at the moment.

Emiliano took a deep breath, there was another thing he had to report, but he didn't know how. 

Whenever he mentioned that name to his boss, the world froze and hell rose. That man's cold eyes grew even colder and filled with disgust and hate. 

Emiliano didn't want to feel that pressure so early in the morning. 

"What's going on? Speak," Kian asked, guessing his assistant's mood.

"It's about Miss Reed, sir," Emiliano waited to continue. He swallowed a little, feeling the disturbing silence in the car. Even the driver squeezed the wheel harder.

As Emiliano imagined, Kian Hart couldn't even hear that name without freezing the air. "What's with that woman?"

"The police arrested a man who crashed her bike the night before. It seems that he left her badly injured but she didn't want to go to the hospital."

"Well, if she didn't want to, that's her problem," Kian smirked. Finally, someone gave that shameless woman what she deserved. "But send a doctor to check her out, after all, her blood is the only thing of value in her."

Emiliano nodded and called the mansion immediately, but it seems that Eva had already left for school.

"It shouldn't have been that hard of a hit," Kian said sarcastically. "He didn't even knock her out."

However, the street security cameras at that time said otherwise. Emiliano had received the videos and the car had gone at full speed against the bike. Even though the driver had said that he was drunk and he couldn't see clearly, one could easily tell that he had a very clear goal in mind. 

The bicycle was ruined and the young woman on top of it jumped into the air and hit a concrete wall. Anyone would have been very badly injured by the blow. A few broken ribs or worse, a fractured skull. But the young woman got up after a few seconds, with only a few hits and scratches. 

The policemen did not know whether to proceed with the investigation as attempted murder or not.

"What's on today's agenda?" Kian asked, forgetting about the woman.

"There are three meetings with the development and marketing team, and another one in the evening with Mr. Carlton, apparently it's his sister Miss Samantha's birthday party in a few weeks  and he has invited you."

Kian frowned. He didn't want to see Samantha or her family. He had disappointed them when he married Eva, that blackmailer.

"Reject the invitation to the Carltons' party, send an appropriate gift," Kian looked at the city through the window. "Something Samantha likes."

Emiliano knew that his boss had feelings for Miss Carlton, but they weren't anything romantic and much less love. He knew this because, for the many years, he had worked for Kian Hart, he had never treated Samantha Carlton like anything more than a little sister or an acquaintance.

"I will, sir," the car continued driving in silence, and calmly. 

***

On the other hand, in the mansion, the maids were distraught, they had seen the police carry out the body of Martha, the maid who died horribly earlier that morning.

"They will check the forest, right?" one of the girls whispered with a scared expression and a trembling lip. "What if the animal is still there? It could attack us at any moment. What if it was a bear?"

"I don't know, the police won't tell us anything," another girl continued, as she shook in fear too. "But I saw the…" she swallowed, "they took her in parts. Her body was all shattered."

"What are you talking about?" one of the girls paled. 

"That animal in the forest dismembered her…"

The two girls trembled and the third one next to them could only cry in silence. Her teeth jolted with guilt. That morning she asked Martha to call Eva to see Mrs. Roberts, the housekeeper. But Martha never came back. Then she forgot about it and went on with her duties until the dogs around the mansion started to bark. 

The guards went to check and they found the body. They immediately called the police and Mr. Hart's secretary. 

"Maybe it has something to do with Miss Reed," she whispered. 

"What are you talking about? How does it have to do with that idiot?"

"She was the last to see Martha," the girl continued unsteadily. "Maybe she knows what happened…"