The Battered Beauty.

Immediately Gwen entered her bedroom, she shut the door behind her. Her heart was slamming wildly against her chest as she hurried into her walk-in wardrobe and came out with a small cell phone.

Dialing the only number saved on the contact, she brought the phone to her right ear and spoke coldly.

"Lin, tell me you have found her corpse."

"Not yet, Lady G." A female voice responded from the other end.

"What the f**k are you waiting for? More money? Or do you want that f**king b*tch to ruin all my months of planning?" Gwen asked pacing up and down in her room. Small beads of sweat were already forming on her forehead as she considered all the possibilities of Amelia miraculously showing up at the mansion.

"No, Lady G. We were having some challenges earlier. But we are on top of the case now. I can assure you that she is not in this city. Our strike team have already infiltrated the Interpol database. They would keep us abreast with all the information needed to track her down. If she shows up on our radar, we will take her out."

"I'm still not f**king impressed, Lin." Gwen's face twisted, anger boiling in her voice. Her initial mask of vulnerability had been replaced with that of a hardened criminal seeking to wreak havoc.

"I gave you guys a simple job and you failed miserably. Tell me, how hard can it be to take out one measly tramp? She was given to you on a platter of gold and you succeeded in messing it all up. I'm supposed to be getting ready for my wedding but here I am, stressing out because of your stupidity." Gwen let out a frustrated sigh, wiping the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Lady G, I know we messed up but I promise you, we will fix it."

"You better or I will get someone else to take care of you too." Gwen hissed and ended the call. She was about to sit on her bed when she heard approaching footsteps.

Thinking it was Jerry, Gwen speedily dashed into her walk-in wardrobe and hid the phone. Then she hurried over to her vanity mirror dresser and picked up her menthol tear stick. She applied it below her eyes and ran back to her bed, almost tripping on the floor. She dived onto the bed just in time as the doorknob twisted.

"Go away, Jerry. I want to be alone." Gwen said in a feigned broken voice as the door opened. Her back was turned against the door and she didn't get to see the sly grin spreading across her mother's face.

"You deserve an Oscar award for best female actor in Hollywood, sweetheart." Regina praised her daughter after shutting the door and completing the locks.

"Mom..." Gwen turned sideways, slightly disappointed to see her mother. "I thought it was Jerry." She pouted climbing out of the bed.

"You needed to see that love-sick puppy almost running after you if I hadn't stopped him."

A thin smile crossed Gwen's lips as she picked up a tissue and wiped out the stinging menthol balm under her eyes.

"Has he agreed to the proposal?"

"What do you think?" Regina came up to her daughter, beaming proudly and stroking her flushed cheeks lovingly.

"I knew he couldn't resist my charm." Gwen's smile widened. "At least we won't have to hide our affair anymore. You have no idea how sickening it was to watch Jerry cuddling and kissing that tramp in my presence. Sometimes I felt like strangling her with my bare hands."

"Well, she is out of our lives for good." Regina scoffed, happy that they had finally gotten rid of the pest.

"But those bastards failed me, mum." Gwen lamented in a slightly shaky voice. "They didn't stick to the initial plan. One of the fools got himself stabbed to death and the others have disappeared into thin air with Amelia. What if she shows up later on in the future?"

"She will have nothing to come back to as long as you get married to Jerry today," Regina said reassuringly.

"You think so?"

"I know so," Regina said confidently, leading her daughter to the bedside. They both sat down, holding each other's hand. "All you have to do is continue being that charming princess before your father and the old hag. As long as you play your cards right with them and keep Jerry under your wings, you will be untouchable."

"Okay, mum." Gwen exhaled, releasing a sigh of relief. "I can't believe I'm getting married today."

"Me too..." Both women hugged themselves, giggling like little children.

"Finally, I'm going to have Grandma and Dad's blessing to marry the man of my dreams."

"Yes... The old hag is finally on our side after years of insults. You needed to see the way she shunned your father in front of the entire family. It was simply epic." Regina's eyes glimmered with happiness.

"What about that arrogant cow called Judith." Gwen sneered. "I saw her strutting out of the mansion like a featherless peacock when Jerry's car drove into the premises."

"Humiliated." Regina tittered like a witch. "You know how she always seeks to control your father and oversee Amelia's inheritance. Well, today marks the end of her poke-nosing. Once that marriage certificate is signed in Amelia's name, your father would have no choice but to sign the liquidation of her trust fund. Everything has been arranged. Jerry and you- posing as Amelia,- will be the new beneficiaries of that billions of dollars. We are made for life, honey."

"Oh yeah...oh yeah..." Gwen stood up, dancing gaily.

"Now it's time to take off these horrible clothes and get you all glammed up for your celebrity wedding." Regina cooed excitedly as she picked up the intercom and dialled the maid's quarter.

"Send the stylist, the makeup artist upstairs. The bride is waiting."

-

-

Inside the VIP ward of a private hospital in Hilbor County - hundreds of kilometres away from the ongoing wedding ceremony- Amelia lay motionless on the bed.

Several beeping machines, tubes and IV drips were strapped to her pale body. Her head, right arm and left leg were neatly bandaged and one of her closed black eyes was slightly swollen. Her bruised heart-shaped face bore testimony of the torture she was forced to endure before the accident, making her situation more sympathetic.

After undergoing hours of surgery to fix up her battered body, the doctor declared her free from danger but unfit to leave the bed for the next seven days. The MRI, X-ray and CT scan revealed a few slightly fractured bones but thankfully there was no record of a brain injury.

Seated beside the battered beauty and wondering what the heck he was doing looking out for the daughter of an enemy, Blaze was looking exhausted and sleep-deprived. He had been awake all night, standing outside the operation theatre as the theme of doctors battled to save Amelia.

Even after she was transferred from the emergency ward to the intensive Care VIP ward, he still felt the need to stay by her bedside and wait until she opened her eyes.

On one hand, Blaze loathed the unconscious beauty feeling she deserved to suffer alongside the rest of her family. But on the other hand, he felt sorry for her, seeing all her fragile body was made to endure under the space of eighteen hours.

Blaze was aware that Senator Gregory Shawls had a lot of enemies in the business and political world. But something about this abduction and attempted assassination felt very suspicious on a different level.

After recovering some items from the unconscious Amelia and the impounded car which was currently undergoing demolition at a junkyard, Blaze had reasons to believe Amelia's enemies were internals. To confirm his suspicions, he received an update on an ongoing celebrity wedding ceremony between Amelia Shawls and Jerry Morgan from his personal assistant, who was currently investigating the accident.

If the real Amelia Shawls is currently incapacitated from an attempted assassination, then who was that impostor pretending to be her? Why didn't the senator call off the wedding since his real daughter was missing? Why aren't the law enforcement agencies searching for her? Why hasn't the news captured anything about her abduction? What was going on in that godforsaken family?

All these and many more questions bombarded Blaze's thoughts making him more curious than ever before.

He leaned forward from his seat, inspecting the bruised face of the sleeping beauty. Even in her battered state, something about her fragility and ethereal beauty pulled him closer to her. It reminded him of his delicate mother and how much she meant the world to him.

Softly touching her bruised cheek, his gaze became darker and chillier than ever, a deep contrast to his handsome and calm look. His hand slowly balled into a fist as he recalled that look of helplessness in her eyes before her car plunged into the river.

"No one is allowed to punish you except me, Amelia." He said in a deep and caustic tone as he removed his hand from her face. "I will punish all those who have dared to lay a finger on you. I will make them pay with their lives and everything they stand for. This I promise."

Blaze's phone suddenly beeped twice, indicating that he had just received a message.

When he swiped the screen upward and opened the message sent to him, a devilish smirk slowly curled up his lips as his darkened grey orbs fell on the image on his phone.