He knocked. That was the first thing Gia thought when she pulled open her door to find Nikolas standing there. He knocked. He had a key, yet he knocked....

He  pulled her roughly to him, his hard unyielding lips clamping down on top of hers. He pushed her backwards into the apartment. He swung his foot out to kick the door closed behind them.

There was no love in the kiss. Gia was afraid. Something was wrong. His grasp on her arms hurt and his mouth was bruising. She tried to push him off, but his power was overwhelming. She was starting to panic. She struggled against him. Shrill warning signals were erupting in her head. Ultimately, she had no choice but to bring the heel of her black leather boots down on his foot.

He let her go.

"What was that!" she yelled, shoving him in the shoulder. When he finally looked her in the eye, his eyes were completely wild. She had never seen his kind warm eyes so crazed before. "What's going on, Nikolas! "

His face was pale and his voice was hoarse as if he had been crying. He took out his wallet and began pulling out money. Wryly , he said, "How much, Gia? Ten, twenty, fifty?" He began tossing the money around the room. "How much do you charge these days? You'll have to forgive me, I always seem to forget that you have to pay a whore beforehand!"

Her hand had a life of its own as it dashed out and fiercely struck Nikolas across the face. In return, she felt the back of his hand as he reciprocated. Gia fell back into the wall. He stared at her in glazed shock.

"What's going on! You come here, you attack me-Why, Nikolas? Why?" Gia screamed.

"I hit you," he muttered absently, pure disbelief coloring his face.

"Nikolas!"

He collapsed on the sofa. He buried his face in his hands. He wasn't surprised when more tears came to trickle down his cheeks.

Gia ran to him. "You're in pain. I can tell. Why won't you share it with me? "

He looked up into her pretty face. A face he used to know, but she was a stranger now. She had sworn her love. But she could have been lying then, just as she had lied when she had said that there were no secrets between them. "You're my pain, Gia," he replied bitterly.

"What did I do?" she asked. Deep inside, she already knew that he had found out the truth. She had known the minute he hit her.

"You pretended to love me," Nikolas explained, his voice breaking. "That's why I'm bleeding inside....I could have understood you spying on me for Stefan. I could have understood you taking his money. I could have even understood you taking my money. But why did you have to say you loved me? WHY! "

"Nikolas! Oh God!" she croaked.

"Didn't you know," he asked, his face contorting into a mask of agony, "that I would have given you everything I had anyway?"

"Nikolas!" She moved very closely to where he sat. She took his face in her hands. "I can fix it! I can," she sobbed. "I wasn't pretending. I love you. I wouldn't lie about that! Never, never, never! Not about that!"

"Why would I believe you? You're a liar! You have lied about everything. You were paid to insinuate yourself into my life. You spied on me, reported things that were not for anyone else to know. How much did he pay you to sleep with me?"

"He didn't...I slept with you because I love you. I wanted you inside me-"

"Spare me!" he yelled, pushing her hands off of him. He sprang up off of the sofa. "The lies just roll off your lips. Stefan would be proud."

"Him!" she shrieked, pounding her fist against the wall. "He told you didn't he? That son of a bitc-"

"He didn't tell me anything. Do you honestly think he would  ruin the little game he had going?" Nikolas snarled. "I heard the tape. The one Emily was blackmailing you with....surprise for me--It turns out I don't know anything about anyone. My uncle fakes his death. You  lie. Emily turns out to be a blackmailer. This all goes on under my nose and I am completely oblivious to everything! God, you all must have a good laugh at my expense."

"It's not like that-"

"There goes stupid Nikolas. He never knows what the hell is going on."

Gia's tears fell in streaking puddles. After months of slow groans and deafening creaks, the roof had finally caved completely in. Gia was crushed beneath the ragged debris. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. All she could do was feel. Nikolas wasn't the only one who was bleeding. But he was the victim. And all of Gia's wounds were self-inflicted. 

"Let me make it up to you!  I can...I will do anything. What  do you want? Do you want me to beg?" she asked, dropping to her knees. "Do you want me to crawl?" She crawled across the floor to where he stood. "Name it and I'll do it. Because when it comes to you, I have no pride."

It broke his heart to see her on the floor before him. He felt himself being drawn back in. When she said she loved him, him found himself believing. He always did. She would continue to make a fool out of him if he let her. Nikolas didn't want to be a fool anymore. And so, as his hands ached to pull her to him, he hardened himself against her. He dried his tears on the back of his sleeve and stepped around her.

As he walked to the door, he said coldly, "Get up off the floor, Gia. It really is a pitiful sight."

"Then have some pity," she screeched between sobs.

"Cassadines have no pity, Princess," he replied, before slamming the door behind him.

Gia curled up into a ball on the floor. She cried blindly, endlessly, each sob slicing a new cut on her soul. She cried until she felt her stomach clench and that all too familiar wave sweep over her. Awkwardly, she crawled across the floor to the bathroom. On her hands and knees, she threw up the contents of her stomach. When she was through, she fell back against the cool tile floor. She laid there until she heard loud knocking at her front door.

She tried to ignore it, but a tiny voice told her that it could be Nikolas. Had he come back? With energy she didn't have, she leapt up off the floor and raced to the door. She flung it open without looking in the peephole.

She was met by the grim faces of Mac Scorpio and Alex Garcia. "Gia Campbell, we have a warrant to search the premises." ~*~  ~*~  ~*~

She wasn't surprised when Andreas told her that he had come. She knew he would. He stood in the doorway, his face pale, his hair disheveled. His eyes spoke the misery he was trapped in as he said, "You were right, I've been a fool."

She stood up, opening her arms wide. Without hesitation, he walked into her embrace. She pressed him to her. She felt the tension lift as he dissolved into tears. "I told you they would hurt you, Nikolas.  Did I not?"

"You did, Grandmother,"

"I told you to protect your heart, but you didn't listen."

"I should have, Grandmother."

"Everything will be all right, Darling," she cooed, her hand smoothing his silky black hair. "I will take care of you."

"I know you will, Grandmother," he said shakily, losing himself in the comfort she was so willing to give.

Helena smiled sweetly, savoring the victory she knew was within grasp. "Dear Nikolas, this only the beginning." ~*~  ~*~  ~*~

End of chapter Twenty, Please e-mail any feedback by clicking on the mailbox below :)

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