”How are you…no, no why are you here?” The worry was clear in Amy’s voice.

Edward wasn’t expecting that to be the first thing she asked so he shot back, “I could ask the same thing of you.”

Amy fell silent.

Then he looked down and Edward remembered what had gotten him mad in the first place.

His hand inched slowly to the bump and when his fingers rested on the fabric of Amy’s shirt, Edward wasn’t expecting to feel the warmth and longing he did.

”I saw you get shot Amy. I heard the shot.” His voice was breaking. Edward was on the verge of tears. “And now months later, I find you heavy…”

”…with your baby.” Amy opened her eyes which had fallen shut at the feel of her lover’s fingers.

***

”No, Edward, we can’t be seen together!”

But Edward wasn’t listening as he pulled Amy along with him to the car which he had asked Viktor to bring closer to the mall. Stake out was over; they were leaving.

”Are you even listening to me?!” On a normal day, Amy’s voice was small but now it had become shrill with worry.

Edward still didn’t reply. He pushed open the door of the mall and headed for the car which he spotted coming toward the mall entrance.

”Edward please you need to listen to me.”

Finally, Edward stopped and turned around to face Amy, “Get in the car,” was all he said as he heard Viktor push the brake in front of them. He opened the car door and tilted his head to the side as if daring her to do something else.

Amy gulped as she fell silent. Meekly, she got into the backseat of the car with Edward following directly behind her.

”Drive Viktor.”

The bodyguard, naturally confused at the sight of the woman he and his team of soldiers had spent more than a few months searching meticulously places —including some ridiculous ones that obviously couldn’t accommodate a human being —for was jerked back to reality by his boss’s command.

He had zoned out for a second as he tried to analyse what exactly was going on. Where had she come from? How had she even come from where?

In the picture of the map that he had stored in his head by virtue of continuous assessing, Shanghai was not one of the places the river flowed through.

In fact, it was so far away from it the river could flood twice and still not reach the city.

Without another thought, the bodyguard started the car and sped out of the mall. He looked at Edward through the rear-view mirror and asked,

”The hotel sir?”

Edward shook his head. He turned to face Amy, “Where can we go to talk?”

Amy looked like she was on the verge of tears, She looked up at Edward with pleading eyes, “If you drop me now, no one will have to find out that you’re around.”

Obviously, her responses had sparked a lot of questions and Edward was going to ask them all; first, he needed to find them a quiet place to talk. So, he repeated the question again.

Tired of fighting the man who was obviously adamant about seeing her, Amy sighed. “There’s a small park somewhere around that’s almost always empty, we could go there.”

Edward nodded and turned back to Viktor, “Follow her directions.”

Viktor nodded.

Once again, Amy let out a sigh. “Take a left turn at the next junction.”

***

Viktor reverse parked the car under the lone tree in front of the corrugated fence that barricaded the park. He shut off the engine and relaxed back in his seat.

Without a word to her, Edward opened the car door and took Amy’s hands in his. As he got down from the vehicle, he tugged her along with him.

Because he wasn’t paying attention to her and was a little impatient with his steps, Amy stumbled and would have fallen if not for Edward’s quick reaction.

He caught her around the waist and pulled her close to him. His nose filled with the familiarity of her scent and Edward took a breath.

His eyes watered as he remembered all he had gone through without her and how horrible the past months had been for him.

”Why didn’t you come back to me?” he whispered in her ear. His voice broke at the end, but Edward wasn’t crying.

He wasn’t going to let himself appear weak before the only woman he had ever truly loved that wasn’t family.

”I searched for months for you Amy. I missed you so much.”

But Amy wasn’t as strong willed against the tears as Edward was, she let hers fall freely. Putting her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer to her body and buried her face in his neck.

”I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I promise I will explain everything to you,” Amy told him and pulled away from him to search his face.

Edward looked into her eyes and held gazes with her until he couldn’t hold himself back, he dove in for a kiss that started softly but soon became fevered with want.

”We are outside,” Amy brought them back to reality when Edward’s hands started sneaking around to her backside.

Edward groaned, but nodded.

”Let’s go into the park.”

The gate to the park was old so as Amy pushed it open, it creaked loudly and even more so when she closed it behind them.

As they strolled to sit on the bench that stood behind the single fountain if the dried up plaster structure could still be called that, no words were passed between them. Even after they had sat down, the both of them were quiet until Edward spoke up.

”I want to know everything from the beginning. Don’t skip any detail at all.”

Amy gulped an nodded. She started the story from when she was kidnapped and then to the point at the river.

”…the shot shocked us both because I was quite convinced they weren’t going to kill me. I had overhead a conversation earlier where they were…”

”Who is they?” She had been using they to represent her abductors since the beginning of the story but a part of Edward was a hundred per cent certain that she knew who they were by now.