Is this destiny?

Damien entered a small shed in the back of the Hill family property.

He observed Sylvie who was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall. Her wrists are tied at the back as well as her ankles. She is gagged.

They didn\'t plan to gag her, but as soon as sedative wore off, Sylvie was screaming profanities non-stop which irritated bodyguards who watched over her. So, they gagged her.

As soon as Sylvie spotted Damien, she started mumbling something, but it was muffled so he didn\'t understand her. But extreme frown, vicious glare and twitching of her body told him that she is furious. And those mumbles could not be anything pleasant.

"Hi Sylvie", Damien greeted her. "I see you didn\'t change much."

At Damien\'s request, bodyguard removed the gag from Sylvie.

"Bastard! You are in this? You are with them? How dare you do this to me?!", Sylvie was hoarse, but she still screamed as soon as her mouth was unobstructed.

Damien grimaced and extended his palm in front of her. "ENOUGH!", he bellowed.

Sylvie was shocked that he raised his voice at her.

"Can you once, just once not be selfish?", there was irritation in his voice.

"What selfish? They invited me here only to humiliate me!", Sylvie sneered.

"No. They invited you here as a chance for you to be member of the family. If you get your act together, you might still be part of their lives. Don\'t you see? You are pushing everyone away."

Sylvie didn\'t like what he said. She is not pushing anyone away, people are mean and rude to her! "Get lost! Part of the family? If Felix wants to be in my family, he only needs to leave that woman and come back to me! And why would I listen to anything you have to say? You are a cheater! I know that woman seduced you! That whore!"

"SHUT UP!" Damien screamed and immediately regretted that he lost patience. He took few deep breaths to compose himself. "How many times I need to tell you that I never cheated. I\'ve met Smita years after we split up. And I will not let you call her names! I am not here to talk about me, or us. I am here to remind you that your son got married. If you don\'t change your ways, you will be left alone. All alone. Goodbye, Sylvie."

Damien left the shed.

From outside, Sarah and Aiden heard what happened and looked at grim expression on Damien\'s face. He stopped in front of them and shook his head. "Sorry… I don\'t know what else to do."

…

"I want to talk to her.", Felix demanded. He heard that Sylvie is taken away from the party and that Damien met with her.

"I will come also.", Sophia held his hand.

"It\'s not a good idea. You will only get upset."

Sophia didn\'t agree. "I\'m coming with you. We are together, remember?"

…

Sarah, Aiden, JoAnna and Jeff waited outside of the shed while Felix and Sophia went inside.

As soon as Sylvie spotted them, she frowned. She was not able to hide her displeasure that Felix is holding Sophia around her waist, close to him.

"Are you here to tell me that we should all be a happy family?", Sylvie\'s face was contorting from anger, and her tone was full of mockery.

"No."

Sylvie was surprised by Felix\'s answer.

"I came to tell you to stay away from us. If I see you anywhere close to my wife or my child…", he placed his palm on Sophia\'s belly. "…you will regret it."

Sylvie noticed his gesture which indicated that Sophia is pregnant, but she is so enraged that she will realize its meaning only few days later.

"Regret it? What will you do? I am your mother!", Sylvie screamed.

"To begin with… If I only suspect that you came close to my family, I will sell the house you live in."

"That is my house!", Sylvie was livid.

"It\'s on my name, I paid for it. I can sell it."

"Scoundrel! Is that how I raised you? Are you biting a hand that feeds you?"

Felix was irritated by Sylvie\'s words. "You are not feeding me for a long time. And don\'t even get me started on how you raised me."

"I see… you came to threaten me!", Sylvie hissed.

Felix shook his head. "That was not a threat. It was a promise."

He turned to Sophia and said in a soft voice. "I\'m done. Let\'s go."

"Ungrateful child! You will regret this!", Sylvie screamed while Felix and Sophia stepped outside.

"Are you OK?", Sophia asked Felix.

"I will be. I needed to get a closure."

Even in the dark, Sophia could see that Felix is troubled. How come he would not be? She felt sad that his mother is so… unreasonable. Growing up without a father, and with such a mother… it must have been difficult. Sophia hugged Felix.

"What do we do with her? Send her home tied up like that?", JoAnna asked.

"She is a bitter woman, never happy, and she blames others for her misfortune." Stella was right behind JoAnna. They all wondered how long was she standing there. Stella looked at six young people in front of her and shared her wisdom: "You will meet a lot of people like her. Maybe not to this degree, but many people don\'t try to fix their problems. They blame everyone for bad things that happen and expect others to make problems go away for them. You can\'t help them. You can\'t help anyone who does not want to accept help."

Small smirk appeared on Stella\'s face. "It seems you didn\'t decide what you want to do with her."

Sarah and JoAnna remembered that their mother said that if they don\'t figure out how to deal with Sylvie, she will. But they really didn\'t know what to do with this woman.

"Are guests gone?", Sarah asked.

"Few more are left, but they are drunk, so they don\'t count.", Stella\'s smirk became sinister.

Girls confirmed that they don\'t know how to handle Sylvie. Felix and Jeff didn\'t look interested, and Aiden felt chills.

Stella smiled and ushered them back toward the villa. "OK. Go enjoy rest of your evening. I will take care of sending Sylvie home."

…

Stella ordered bodyguards to untie Sylvie.

"This is not over!", Sylvie cried. She was confident that Stella is letting her go.

Stella extended her arm to block Sylvie from exiting the shed. "I know. I just got here."

"Are you trying to intimidate me?"

Stella laughed. "I don\'t need to do that. You came here with intention to disrupt a wedding. Do you know how much time and effort I put into all that? And you wanted to ruin it? That was a wedding of my eldest daughter! You don\'t want to be close to your son? Fine, we will take him, we already did. He is part of our family now… I\'m not here to intimidate you. I\'m here to punish you."

Without giving any time for Sylvie to react, Stella closed distance between them and hit few pressure points which made Sylvie unable to talk, and her arms fell limp next to her body.

Sylvie was shocked. Unable to comprehend what happened.

Stella enjoyed Sylvie\'s expression. "I don\'t need to gag you in order to prevent you from making noise… Don\'t worry, you will be home tomorrow, alive… Now, there is a technique I didn\'t use in a long time. It\'s about breaking the muscle tissue without leaving bruises or any other marks on the skin…" Stella\'s smile widened while she spoke.

…

Stella exited the shed and her smile faded when she saw Owen.

"Busy?", he smirked.

She ignored his question. "Are you finally going to tell me why you came?"

"We need to talk."