The pity in her eyes.

If only Roselle could know how painful her words had hurt she wouldn't continue to talk, she wouldn't tell him she would hate him. "Off the heater! Cool the room!" Roderick shouted, grasping his spinning head.

"Boss!" A man gasped convulsively, running towards his boss Roderick. Roderick bawled, swayed and fell headlong across the man who had run to him, and he rolled limply on the floor. "Get me my medicine." He whispered fiercely, whirling and kicking out his leg with every strength in his body.

He threw the medicine into his mouth and gulped it down with water. The man turned off the speaker immediately hoping Roselle had not heard Roderick's demand for his medicine.

After some minutes, the pain in Roderick's head gradually subsided.

"Boss, don't you think this is not the right time to punish her? Besides, you can't control your mind at the threat she's giving you." Damen helped his boss sit properly.

"Do you think if I leave her now without making her have the heart of stone, do you think she would be merciless in dealing with her enemies?"

"I know that the main reason you're torturing her is because she's not the main person who killed Melissa Tom."

"If she's soft-hearted like that in dealing with people, will she succeed if she can't kill? That's why I want to make her have a strong heart so that she won't have to fight with her conscience if the need to kill arises."

"I get what you're trying to imply, but boss, it's better to first deal with the matter at hand now and save the punishment for another time, if not we will lose this opportunity now.

The event is just in two days and it's only her who can accomplish our plan. If you keep her there for another day, she would become weak, she won't have the strength to do anything."

"What is her friend and driver doing?"

"They're still in the Galaxy."

"Make sure you give them everything they need and make sure they never get to speak with her. You can go now, I can handle myself."

"Yes, boss," Damen answered and left immediately. He didn't understand why his boss was acting kind towards Tina and Nate yet he was punishing Roselle, making her believe he was torturing her friend and driver. He sighed and went to the left corridor towards the room called Galaxy.

In the dark room, Roselle crouched back to the chair, one hand held tightly across her neck to stop any flow of tears, but in order to quell the long moan that was bent on escaping and which she felt would increase into a wail at the thought of Tina going to die for her mistake.

'What about my family, they must be probably thinking that I had been truly kidnapped.' She thought and looked around the dark room. 'If only there was a way to escape.'

The door of the room opened and forcefully sent a bright light into the room which struck her eyes. She squinted trying hard to figure out who stood at the doorway.

Disordered footsteps walked into the room which had been cooled down some minutes ago, but still, her body felt feverish.

Anger was bubbling and boiling in her heart and she had the urge to pounce on her boss and let out her frustration on him, but she dared not if she really wanted to see Tina alive again.

"Let her go, boss, I beg of you. She can't be the one to pay for my mistake." Roselle began to beg again.

Roderick went closer to her, he paused and looked around the room with a wild and exasperated expression, his lips tightening with resolution as if his anger would burst soon.

He bent closer to Roselle, close enough that his face was just four inches away from her face and Roselle could feel his breath fanning her face.

The room was still in silence and anger ranged in their heart like water ebbing and flowing from the tug of a faraway, invisible force. But suddenly Roselle felt this anger disappear maybe because of his breath that was so close to her that she couldn't help but inhale all of it which made her now feel pity instead of anger towards him.

She didn't want to allow this pity to take over though she had heard it all when he had whimpered and demanded for his medicine. She didn't want to know what he was suffering from and why he had a caring gaze in his eyes now.

Slowly, she saw him touch the mask on his face about to remove it.

The warning he had given her the day he had first removed that mask in front of her hit her mind 'The next time you make me show you this scare will mean danger to what you love.'

Roselle shot her eyes close and begged him not to remove his mask pleading that she would do whatever he asked her to do.

"Open your eyes and look at me straight in the eyes," Roderick ordered.

Roselle shook her head negatively.

"Open your eyes!"

Roselle trembled and flew her eyes open and the first thing that struck her eyes was the burn on his face.

His right cheek was wrinkled signifying more about his rough life and this pity tugged on her heart again and defeated her anger.

Somehow, she felt the need to trace her fingers on the lines of those scars to ease the pain in his heart.

Uncontrollably, her hand began to move upwards and she drew it back immediately when she suddenly realized what she was doing.

Roderick's brows furrowed when he saw her action. He leaned forward now his face almost an inch away from hers and his face hung above her for what seemed an interminable time before his lips moved as he whispered close to her ears.

"Don't you dare hate me and don't you dare threaten me again, because the moment you do, I won't hesitate to kiss that threat off your lips"