Farewell, My Love.

Two days earlier. The house of the Williams family.

"Mom! Have you seen my passport? I can't find it anywhere," Corey ransacked her entire room, but there was no sign of the document.

"My God, how can you be so distracted!" Margaret Williams sighed with annoyance. She opened the closet door in the living room and took out her daughter's passport. "Here you go. I have already told you many times where it is. Is it really so hard to remember?"

Corey kissed Mom on the cheek and giggled, "Well, Maaam, you know me. Do not be angry."

"I'm not angry, dear. I just get a little confused by such an unexpected trip. I wouldn't say anything if you decided to go to some place in the country, but this is Europe we are talking about!" For some reason, the mother's heart was worried, but she reassured herself that she was simply not used to letting her daughter go so far away.

"Mom, I'm not the only one who's going. I'm going with Rick. By the way, Elena can even go with us. Rick was planning to meet her father tonight and ask him to let Elena go with us. He's already bought the tickets. So everything will be great! I promise to bring you souvenirs!"

Corey was floating like a butterfly, first spreading the wings and knowing the joy of flying. Finally, she will be able to enjoy the company of her beloved man.

Margaret, looking from the side at her daughter radiant with happiness, just sighed, "Okay. Ten days is not such a long time. And if Elena is with you, then I have nothing to worry about. I'll go up to the bedroom for now. If you need anything, just call me."

"Uh-huh," Corey replied, concentrating entirely on the list of things to take with her for the trip. An hour later, her suitcase was packed, and she went to the kitchen to drink some hot tea with a feeling of complete satisfaction.

An unexpected doorbell interrupted the solitude of the girl. 'Hmm, who else can that be at this time of night?' Corey reluctantly got up from the couch and headed for the door. The unwanted guests already irritated her just by ringing the doorbell at such a late hour, but she experienced even greater anger and bewilderment when she opened the door and saw who was standing on the threshold of her house.

"Good evening."

"The evening was good until you showed up here," the girl replied, not hiding her displeasure, "If your conscience suddenly woke up and you came for an apology, then you obviously were mistaken by the door." She wanted to close the door right in front of her guests, but the man stopped her.

"Corey, please, we need to talk."

"I don't remember that I had anything to talk to you about, David. Who you have to talk to is Elena," the girl replied coldly.

"That's why I want to talk to you. This concerns Elena. More precisely, her safety," the young man explained.

Corey frowned and looked at David in disbelief. If it concerned her friend, then she was ready to give up personal dislike and listen to him. "Okay, go to the father's office. It's late, and I don't want to bother my parents with talking in the living room."

She led the guests to the office. The men sat down on the sofa, and the girl sat down on the opposite chair. Two young men were in front of her. One of them was slightly pale and very serious looking; the second, on the contrary, seemed quite relaxed, despite the noticeably swollen lower lip as after a good punch on the jaw.

'These guys annoy me. Hell, when they're around like this, it's just a killer combo. What are the genes in this family that they are so attractive? It revolts me already,' Corey thought to herself. Regardless of her personal relationship with these people, the Anderson brothers were quite the hotties.

"Well, what did you want to talk about? I'll warn you right away that I'm not going to treat you with tea, so you'd better tell me everything asap, I have to rest," the girl was pointedly harsh.

"And you even won't treat us with your stunning cookies? I didn't eat anything since lunch," Daniel entered into the conversation with a satisfied smile on his face, but his gaiety immediately came to nothing, meeting with the discontented looks of his younger brother and Corey. "Tsk, just think, just wanted to defuse tensions," the young man grunted in response and turned away.

Corey sighed fatefully, got up, took a plate of cookies from the desk, and then put it on the table in front of the guests.

"Let's get to the point," the girl replied, watching the elder Anderson eagerly eat her cookies as if savoring every piece of it. Regardless of her attitude to this man, the girl was pleased that her culinary skills found such a positive response from outsiders.

"Corey, what I'll tell you now may seem like the ravings of a madman, but please listen to me," David said and began telling her the whole story behind his relationship with Elena and Rick. This was the first time in his life when he decided to share his secret with a stranger since no one but his family members knew about it.

The girl was listening to the young man attentively, occasionally frowning her brow, since what she heard went beyond all the bounds of an adequate reality. Twenty minutes later her brain began to melt from the surging information,

"Ok, stop!" she interrupted David's monologue. "And you seriously think that I will believe in all this?! In your opinion, can I just accept that my beloved person is almost the last bastard on earth? David, who do you take me for? Why on Earth should I believe you, not him, tell me?" the girl jumped out of her chair and began to gesticulate actively.

She had never heard such absurdity in her life, and just to think, she hoped that this man had come here for a serious conversation. There was no limit to the girl's outrage, "Recently you have done so many dirty tricks to my best friend... No, and you both did not deserve a drop of my trust. And now you come to me late in the evening and tell some nonsense about secret experiments and make Rick look like the main villain?! Is this a show prank or what?! Do you have a hidden camera with you? Or maybe you think you are the heroes of some Hollywood blockbuster?! Get the hell out of my hou... house...," Corey abruptly switched to a whisper and was afraid even to move, she was so much shocked by the picture in front of her eyes.

The plate with the cookies rose into the air by itself, hung over the table, and then floated back on the table just as slowly.

The girl began to move backwards until she pressed her back against the chair. "Is this... is this some kind of trick?"

"This is telekinesis," Daniel commented on the situation as if this were commonplace.

Fear and dismay were read in Corey's eyes. She looked at David, still not believing in the reality of what was happening, "Did you do this?"

"Yes. These are the consequences of that experiment," David replied sadly. He would prefer not to have such abilities, given the way how he got them, and that because of this, the life of his loved one was threatened.

"Fuck my life...," Corey sat back in the chair, keeping her eyes on the plate on the table, "Show me again."

David glanced at the cookie plate, and it began to move freely around the table in different directions until it stopped at the very edge opposite the girl's place.

"It turns out that what you said is true? Then Rick...," from the mere thought that everything David had told was true, Corey felt as if her body was paralyzed. This truth was too shocking for her. The girl's lips quivered, "No... no, no, no. I do not believe, it is impossible...," she stretched out her hand to move the plate away from her when suddenly a man's hand firmly gripped her palm.

"I'm very sorry, Miss Williams. It's a pity, indeed," Daniel said calmly, and his face at that moment was unusually serious. He extended his other hand and covered Corey's eyes.

The girl shuddered and looked around. A fire blazed around her, and the place was unfamiliar. She tried to say something, but her mouth was gagged. Corey looked at her hands and found that they were also tightly bound. The girl looked up and saw a man standing opposite her. Her heart missed the beat.

It was Rick. But at that moment it seemed to her that she was seeing this person for the first time. All that was left of Rick was his appearance, but his aura, his emotions, his eyes, everything was unknown to her.

He looked at her with his cold, lifeless gaze, as if she were an empty place, some kind of insignificant cockroach that accidentally crossed his path. The man coolly pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger. Bam!

Corey screamed and pulled away Daniel's hand, "What is it?!" The girl's body trembled with horror, and tears began to flow down her cheeks. The picture she had just seen was worse than even the worst horror movie.

"This is the future, Miss Williams. The best one possible. And believe me, you had better not see other options," Daniel answered her question. His voice was confident and serious.

Corey covered her mouth with her hands, unable to say a word.

"Corey, listen, I am not forcing you to help me, this is your life, and it's up to you. But it so happened that in this situation you became the key link. And Elena's life will depend on how you will act. And not only her life. The life of many, to be honest," David said sadly. His heart contracted in pain, listening to the girl's quiet sobs. "If you trust us, we will do everything possible to keep you and Elena safe."

Corey wiped the tears away and took a deep breath, "Sorry, I want you to leave. It's hard for me to answer now. Go away, please."

"Well, thanks for listening," David replied and got up. The girl led them up to the exit, without saying a word no more. She, as if doing it automatically, opened the door and let the men out. She was about to close the door when Daniel turned around and stopped her,

"Miss Williams, I know you are scared now, but rest assured, both of you will be fine."

"Who are you talking about?" Corey asked him, not entirely understanding what he meant.

"What do you mean, who? I am talking about you and your child," Daniel replied and saw the girl's dumbfounded face, "Oops, I think I hurried with my comment," the young man scratched his head in confusion, leaned toward Corey and added in a whisper, "Please remember well what I am going to tell you now. As soon as he closes his eyes, take a step to the side."

After these words, he turned around and left after his brother. Corey slammed the door and stood there for two minutes, frozen in the spot. As if remembering something, she quickly went up to her bedroom and began to look for something in her purse until she found the thing she needed.

She picked up the box, which she bought in the pharmacy in the morning. The girl's heart pounded like crazy. She's been missing her period for two weeks already, but she did not dare to confirm or refute her assumptions.

With trembling hands, she opened the package and pulled out a tester. Corey squeezed it in her hand and went into the bathroom. Five minutes later, everything became obvious. Two bright stripes testified only about one thing. She was pregnant.

The girl fell on the bed and burst into tears. She was scared. Not scared because she was expecting a child, but because Daniel knew about this earlier than she did. And that meant only one thing - that everything they told her about was true. Bitter and cruel.

The whole night passed like kind of a blur. She was crying until her mind fell asleep from the lack of strength that swept over her. Waking up in the morning, the girl looked in the mirror, washed her face with cold water and did light makeup.

Even if it was true, she had to see everything with her own eyes. She decided to agree to this relationship, and she herself must put an end to them so that later there would be no regrets. The girl took the suitcase and headed to the airport.

Already sitting in the waiting area, Corey watched on the phone a live broadcast of how Elena and Rick arrived at the airport, as they headed in her direction. She put the phone in her pocket and closed her eyes.

This trip was the first and now, perhaps, her last trip together with Rick. So, she will do everything in her power to refute the words of David and Daniel. She will believe in Rick until the very last moment.

And in fact, during the whole trip, the man was kind and attentive to her. He was the way she always knew him. Corey's heart was quietly calming down, hoping that all this was one big mistake.

She believed in him until the very last moment, but the reality was cruel to her.

And now he was standing in front of her, pointing a gun at her, and in his eyes, there was not a single trace of his old feelings.

Corey's gaze, on the other hand, was full of love and tenderness, despite the tears running down her cheeks.

The man could not stand it and closed his eyes.

"Farewell, my love," she whispered in her mind, closed her eyes and took a step to the side.

Bam!