Chris had never reacted to any woman as he was doing towards this maths teacher. He had believed himself in love with Elaine – indeed, he did love Elaine exceedingly. But he was finding a depth of joy and companionship with Effe that both puzzled and frightened him.

Simply put, he could not have enough of her, and he had an unreasonable urge to take her in his arms, an act that bordered on the profound betrayal of Elaine’s love.

It was a quandary situation he knew could bite him hard and scatter the set of principles he had always prided himself. He decided to hold back after that day and make sure that he never saw this mysterious Effe Kedem again.

He did not want to hurt Elaine, no, he could not do that to her. Worse, if Elaine had done this same thing with another guy, it would be a betrayal of both his love and trust in her. So this was a situation he could not allow to escalate beyond what he was feeling.

As soon as Elaine returned, he would tell her about this outing, and then he would try and put Effe Kedem out of his mind and soul forever.

They went to the restaurant and had lunch, and later retired to the gardens. Chris and Effe sat on a bench and watched an artist sketching Sisi, who was sitting on a pedestal with a smug expression on her face as she watched her father sitting close to her favourite teacher and friend.

Without meaning to, or knowing what he was doing, Chris Bawa leaned back and draped his arm across Effe’s shoulders. She stiffened instantly, but he did not remove his arm. So much for resolutions, he thought as he drew her against him.

She sighed, a bit miserably, and stared straight ahead.

“Chris,” she said softly.

He sighed, loving the way she mentioned his name.

“I’m listening,” he said.

“Don’t do this, don’t start this. I feel it too, whatever it is, but you have a woman, and I have no intention of usurping another woman’s relationship. I’ll never date a married guy or a guy who’s attached no matter the allure.”

He felt his heart skipping a beat, and he looked down briefly at her beautiful, earnest and frightened face.

“And you have a man?”

“Stop it, please. I already told you no! But that’s beside the point. We can be friends, but nothing more.”

“Hard to believe you don’t have any man in your life, Effe,” he said calmly. “You’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I know many men would die to make you theirs.”

Her eyes searched his handsome face.

“I just came out of a painful experience, Chris, and I’m taking it one day at a time. I don’t need complications, especially from an engaged man.”

“You see me as a complication?”

“Aren’t you?” she asked, almost fiercely. “You have a lovely fiancée, a beautiful daughter, and your life is perfectly sewn-up. Don’t complicate that, please. Love them, cherish them, and be what you plan to be in their lives.”

She tried to remove his arm, but he drew her closer.

“Sound advice, Effe, and I do thank you for that,” he said quietly. “Yeah, true, I’m not the kind of man that fools around. When I give my heart to a woman, I stay the course, walk the walk, tread the tightrope.”

“Good to hear,” she said softly.

“Not the same with you,” he continued as if he had not heard her interjection. “Haven’t been able to get you out of my soul from the very first time I saw you. And today, spending time with you, I’ve been happy and exhilarated, and it made me feel like I’m betraying Elaine. So, I reasoned it out, decided to let this go, whatever it is. Then, I suddenly felt like touching you. Quite a conundrum of conflicting emotions, if you ask me.”

“That can’t be good, Chris,” she said miserably. “I think we should leave. And try not to see each other again.”

His eyes searched her face frankly, and his voice had a soft cadence that reverberated through her heart.

“But can we, Effe? Can we? And is that what you really want? I decided not to see you again after today, but something deep down is telling me something different altogether. Quite frustrating, I must admit, because I’ve never been this out of control with any woman before.”

They looked into each other’s eyes, and suddenly, the recognition of what could be possible and beyond their control was there. Neither wanted to break that moment of instant connection and awareness, that sublime slice of time where everything else receded and ceased to matter, only the two of them.

Chris’ heart hammered, and he found himself losing control in a way he had never experienced before, and his breath caught as he felt her hand suddenly on his thigh. None of them knew what would have happened afterwards, but their cocoon of bliss was shattered by Sisi’s sudden scream.

“Daddieeee!”

It was a scream that was dragged from the innermost depths of the girl’s throat, and it made Chris bounce out of the intoxicating wool he was enveloped in, gaining his feet in one agile movement as his eyes swept the garden.

Sisi had jumped off the pedestal and was racing towards her father, screaming as she did, causing other people to look at her with shock. Three men wearing animal masks were pursuing her. They had emerged from the trees and were running hard after her. Two were in horse masks, and the third was wearing a wolf mask. One of them knocked the artist and the easel down, and as Chris bounced forward with a savage snarl on his face, two of them drew knives and veered off towards him.

“Get the girl!” shouted the one in the wolf mask as he and the other one flanked Chris, whose face was inhuman as he bore down on them.

“I’m sick of your fuckery!” Chris hissed with fury, his huge hands closing into wrathful fists.

Sisi was still screaming as she veered towards a scared Effe who was also running towards the girl with the third masked assailant coming at them with a glinting, cruel knife in his hand.

Chris lunged, spun once, gathered momentum, and slammed a fist so hard and so devastating that when it landed into the masked face of his attacker, the man grunted and slammed down hard on the grass, causing the one in the wolf mask to pause for a beat of time.

He raised the knife at Chris’ face.

“I fucking told you to stay the fuck away from Elaine!”

“Punk!” Chris hissed acidly and advanced towards the man. “Show me what you got, you fucking idiot! Elaine is mine! If you’re man enough, face me, and stop messing around with my daughter!”

The man lunged with the knife first and pivoted when Chris side-stepped his thrust. He slashed the knife in a wild arc, aiming for Chris’ stomach. Chris allowed it to sail in, then spun into the exposed trajectory of the man’s arm and slammed his left elbow into the throat of the attacker, who gurgled with pain. Chris completed his turn, and his right fist crashed into the man’s jaw sickeningly.

The attacker swung the knife desperately, and Chris slammed a fist into the point of his elbow, numbing the man’s whole arm so that his knife fell. The man took a startled step back and barely saw Chris swinging round with a turning kick that slammed into his chest with the force of a derailed train, picked him up and slammed him down.

As Chris charged forward, a sudden scream behind him made him spin around.

He saw Effe clutching her right arm which was bleeding profusely.

The third man had slashed her and was now running after the fleeing Sisi.

“Help her, Chris!” Effe cried desperately.

Chris paused, appalled at how badly Effe was bleeding.

“Your arm,” he whispered.

“I’ll be fine!” Effe cried desperately, her face horrified. “Get Sisi, please!”

Chris nodded and took off after the third attacker.

“Sisi!” he shouted desperately. “Stop! Don’t run!”

The terrified girl heard her father, but she was too traumatized to stop. She raced towards the main entrance of the garden with the masked man going hard at her. Chris was furious and scared and worried about leaving Effe behind. He hoped those two were out cold because he shuddered to think of what they would do to her if they weren’t unconscious.

“Effe, come on, don’t stand there!” he shouted over his shoulder. “Follow me!”

When he burst out of the entranceway, Chris noticed a security man coming towards him with a look of confusion on his weathered face. The man was holding a club that looked like a baseball bat.

“Sir!” he said desperately. “What’s going on here?”

Chris barely paused as he ripped the club from the man’s hands, swung it back, took aim, then released it. The club turned in the air twice and crashed into the legs of the masked man, causing him to stumble and crash to the ground.

He gasped with fear and held up his knife as he sat on the floor.

Chris Bawa didn’t break stride as he released a savage kick into the face of the attacker, slamming the man down and rendering him unconscious.

By the time Chris finally caught up with Sisi in the car park, precious minutes had passed by. Sisi was crying, devastated, and Chris held her tightly and tried to calm her down.

“It’s all right, princess. You’re all right. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

He ran a hand down her back soothingly as the girl cried, and that was how Effe found them several minutes later. Chris looked at her with despair, noting that her bleeding arm was bandaged now, but there were still bloodstains on the bandage.

“I’m so sorry, Effe,” he whispered tragically. “Shouldn’t have left you like that.”

“It’s alright, Chris,” she said with a sad smile. “The two in the garden escaped, but the guards took the other one inside. We called Chief Inspector Hollison. I believe that with one of them captured, it will put an end to these cowardly attacks because we will know who they really are, and who is behind it all.”

Chris nodded.

“And your arm?”

She shrugged.

“The resident nurse had a look at it, gave me a shot and four stitches. It’s fine.”

“Thank you,” Chris said tremulously, and Effe smiled as she bit her lower lip concern in her eyes.

“They mentioned your fiancée’s name again,” she said softly. “Elaine, right? I remember a similar thing happened at the school, but somehow you managed to keep that fact from the police.”