His Devious Rule

In a small town, away from the city,

Anywhere eyes reached, the pristine white snow had layered on everything making the town look surreal like a fantasy land out of a fairytale.

Each house by the road had a small lawn, enclosed by fences. The simple, small cars and two-wheelers could be seen parked in the open garages that had collected snow on top of it.

Cheerful giggles of the children could be heard from far while some elders' voices shouted, calling those children inside due to the decreased temperature in the evening.

Due to a sudden and unexpected plan to the town, Gianna shivered in cold due to insufficient warmness from the two-layered clothes. However, her determination was stronger.

The rented car from the nearest airport broke down, not too far away. So she walked on the pavement free of snow.

Gabriel was behind her. He focused on himself and wrapped his jacket tighter. "Sister, where are we? Why did you bring me here?"

Gianna glanced at him and continued to walk carefully. She had tried to find the whereabouts of Alvin and Anya but nothing was fruitful.

She visited the Oasis mansion where the guards ignored her like a fly in the air. The Collins mansion gate was covered with reporters. She had been to the Watson mansion where Ean said or did nothing by holding last-string patience. Her self-respect didn't let her approach Janet Collins. Thus here she was.

She had initially thought to negotiate with Alvin but her hatred and anger reached their peak by all the struggles and embarrassment she faced today. So she was going to sit in the Owen family and bring those two out on her accord. She will also sow a bitter seed to separate Anya and Alvin.

Gianna quickly made way for kids who ran on the pathway so that they wouldn't bump into her. But Gabriel pushed them away as he walked.

A little boy fell on the snow because of him, causing all five kids to pause and look at Gabriel. They never saw that man in their locality, so everyone looked at each other and grabbed snow with their gloved hands. Some made small and some made bigger than what they could hold.

Gianna sensed the sudden silence of the kids and turned around, "Huh… Gabriel!?" She hid behind her younger brother.

Gabriel turned around and saw the kids in horror. "F**king pigs." He cursed them as he ran towards the road.

Gianna gasped when an icy cold snowball slammed her face followed by her body.

'Thump.' Gabriel slipped on the snowy path and fell hard on his butt.

"He called us pigs." A girl said.

They looked at each other and grabbed more snow as they made their way towards the groaning man, like little hooligans of the street.

"You are an ugly pig." A boy said and slapped the snow on Gabriel's face.

Gianna who recovered from her shock witnessed the kids surround her brother and hurl the snow at him. Gabriel continued to curse them as he coughed the snow out of his throat.

"Ahh… Excuse me… Let him go… Hello…" Gianna's attempt to save her brother in her elegant style was completely useless.

Alvin's men at the corner: "…"

The commotion started to bring people outside, two tall men alighted a car and rushed to the scene. "Kids… behave, behave…"

A man helped Gabriel while another man spread his hands, pulling everyone in front of him, "It's getting cold. Why don't you all return home?"

A girl complained, "But uncle, he called pigs."

"He said f**k to us." The boy looked very angry about that.

The two men's faces chilled hearing the boy of just six years old using the f-word.

Gabriel caught his breath and growled at the kids, raising his hand, "If you anger me more, I will forget you are children and punch you in the face." Then he muttered more curses while dusting the snow off his clothes.

Frightened, a girl burst into tears. The rest joined her forcing themselves to cry as loud as possible.

Gianna and Alvin's men: "…"

In no time, all the residents came out. The parents of the kids went running to them and tried to coax them. Gabriel tried to leave but the father of the kid stopped him.

Gianna silently tried to walk away when Gabriel pointed at her, "You can ask my sister. I didn't do anything."

"He pushed me to the ground."

"I saw it." The kids created the mountain with their cries.

The two men who had approached them first questioned them, "Why are you two roaming here? You don't seem to be from this town."

"We came to visit the Owen family," Gianna responded so that they don't find them as kidnappers of kids or thieves.

The two men looked at each other. Even the elders glanced at Gianna, then at each other. Whereas the kids stopped crying and asked expectantly, "Mom, did Zane come from the city?"

"Is Sister Anya home? She brings us a lot of chocolates."

"Let's go and meet them."

The kids had their discussion in a moment of silence.

The two men nodded at each other and one announced, "Everyone, get back to your place." Then they tugged Gabriel aside and motioned for Gianna to follow them.

The residents knew those two were cops so they took their kids and returned to their homes.

"Show me your identity cards?" A cop asked Gabriel and Gianna.

Gabriel, who started to fear Alvin, had just recovered from the shock of the Owen family. He shrugged the cops off, "Who are you two? Don't think you two could con us. Get lost."

He tried to leave when a cop displayed his card in front of his face. "We are here to protect the Owen family. We have to check each person before letting them meet the Owens."

Another man ordered, "Show us."

Gianna paled at the turn of events. Her confidence and determination wavered. However she was in better condition than Gabriel, "I am Gianna Sallow, the dean of Imperial University. Anya Owen is our college alumni. We are having a program on National day where we are inviting well-known, successful students as our guests. Due to unavoidable reasons, we weren't able to contact her hence I arrived to invite her."

She checked her handbag and gave a photo of a paper to the cop, "I found this address from our college student details."

Gabriel wasn't surprised by the smooth liar next to him.

The cops checked the details but they folded the paper indifferently. A cop asked, "Show us the invitation card."

Gianna: "…"

She made up the lie, where will she get the invitation. Anyway, she pretended to check her bag.

The same cop sneered, "There is none, isn't it?"

Another cop sighed, "No, she must have forgotten in a hurry."

Gianna realized that she screwed up everything. She looked at the cops with an awkward smile, "I guess I did forget. I can ask my assistant to send the picture of it immediately."

"Right. In the internet era, it takes less than a minute to prepare an invite card." A cop scorned.

Gianna's lips twitched. Gabriel couldn't believe his sister didn't remove the trouble, but rather put them in another big mess.

Gianna sighed, trying her best to manage the situation, "Fine, I will tell the truth. Anya Owen is the mother of my grandson. She isn't letting us see him. I don't want to create this issue. So I wanted to discuss this with her parents so that they could convince her." Although she wasn't there because of it, what she said was the truth.

The cops looked at each other and laughed, "This woman is mind-blowing. She comes up with lies in an instant."

Even Gabriel was also shocked at another lie as he didn't know Zane was Alvin's son.

"I am telling the truth." Gianna tried to reason.

A police car came to a halt near them. "What happened?" A middle-aged man got out of the car.

The two cops saluted the man, "Captain, they want to meet the Owen family. They already created a commotion on the road, now they are lying to us back to back."

The captain looked at the smartly dressed wealthy people. They had received pressure from the higher authority to provide security for the middle-class family. He snickered, "Looks like Ms. Owen wasn't overreacting."

They took the identity cards of Sallows and a cop went to the Owen house and asked if they knew anybody from the Sallow family.

Earning 'NO' as a response, the Captain ordered, "Send them to the car."

The Captain sat inside the car while Gianna and Gabriel were forced into the car. The car left and the two cops got inside their car to guard the Owen house.

"…" Alvin's men, who were prepared to kidnap the two Sallows.