Author's note: I'm in such a good mood, that I decided to publish the next chapter earlier! And yes, I am a thespian so I needed to use that chapter title. :D Enjoy!

It was September 1 and Amanda Clarke missed home more than ever.

She missed her own bed.

She missed the sound of the waves.

She missed the Sunday breakfasts with her Dad and the sand of the beach beneath her bare feet.

But most of all she missed her best friend Jack.

Amanda rolled herself up into a ball on the couch of the new apartment Victoria and her Dad had found yesterday and covered her ears with her hands to blank out the heated discussion her father and Victoria were having next door. It had started when David had announced that they were going to leave for the beach right after breakfast, but for some reason Victoria had been strictly against that idea, so that they had started arguing about 20 minutes ago.

"David, why won't you listen to me?!" The 9-year-old heard Victoria raising her voice.

"Because I don't want to disappoint my daughter! "

"Perhaps you shouldn't promise her the impossible then! And you're absolutely sure you did see that photo of Roger, right?!"

"Of course I have! And yes, it scared me and I feel terribly guilty for having caused this to my friend. But right now I just want to give my daughter some normality!"

Before she had to hear another word from their conversation, Amanda pressed her hands tighter to her ears and closed her eyes. She tried to focus on something else, on something from a time when her life had still been that of a normal 9-year-old girl.

Her lips turned into a smile as she inevitably had to think of Jack and their adventures on the beach. She wondered whether he still missed her or had already forgotten about her after he hadn't received any message due to her sudden disappearance. Amanda couldn't help herself but had to imagine how life in the Hamptons went on without her and her Dad. How Jack would come to their beach house to see if she was home, but all he would find would be a new family moving into the house. Maybe he would become friends with the family's daughter and very soon Amanda Clarke would simply be a once familiar name in the back of his head.

The blonde girl swallowed. It made her incredibly sad to think how much she had loved her life and how little it must have meant to her father for he had forced her to leave everything they had behind from one day to the other.

Her whole life, and especially after her mother had died, Amanda's Dad had always been the best Dad in the world to her. He had given her so much freedom that she had never felt caged or as if she was missing something in her childhood. He had also taught her to respect people and to always be true to yourself. That was why Amanda was so frustrated to see Victoria influencing her father, changing him into a man, who did not always stay true to his word and who did not put his love for his little girl above everything else.

The only wish Amanda truly had, was to return to their old life again. She would even accept Victoria coming to their beach house every now and then since her father and she had never fought during that time. She hated herself for not realizing how lucky she had been back then.

"Amanda, Daniel, come on we're leaving." David stormed out of the bedroom quickly packing a lunch bag for them.

Amanda was startled and jumped up from the couch. Apparently, her father could still keep a promise after all. When she looked around, she noticed Daniel sitting on the floor near the kitchen counter. Although she still thought that he was a spoiled rich boy, she also felt sorry for him. He was even younger than her and probably understood less of what was going on.

"Where's my Mom?" The-6-year-old asked shyly.

"She'll be right here, Daniel." David answered the exact moment Victoria came out of the bedroom with a sour expression on her face.

She walked over to her son not even glancing at David a single time. She took Daniel by the hand and led him outside the door. "We'll have so much fun today." Victoria said sarcastically while David motioned for Amanda to follow them with a heavy sigh.

They came back from their trip to the beach early in the afternoon. The depression that had dominated their mood in the morning had almost vanished completely and even Victoria and David had forgotten about their previous disagreements.

On their way back from the parking lot to the apartment, Victoria felt an arm slide around her waist.

"Okay, you have to admit that the beach was a good idea." David teased instantly seeing the smile Victoria tried to keep from spreading across her face.

"I hate you." She replied punching David's arm. The whole day she had done nothing but lying on a blanket in a shady place on the beach and whether she liked to admit it or not, she did feel relaxed just like David had told her in the morning.

"I know you don't." David smirked admiring the dimples that perfected Victoria's genuine smile, which he loved seeing on her face. "I remember exactly how you moaned when I gave you that back massage today."

"Shhh." Victoria hushed him pointing at Amanda and Daniel who were walking just some feet ahead of them.

"How about we allow the kids to watch some TV tonight while we take a long, refreshing shower." David whispered into her ear and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"David, you're…" The next moment Victoria felt his arm abruptly being removed from her waist. His hand held on to the side of her dress, so that Victoria was quickly turned around staring into two pairs of male eyes. Those eyes belonged to two muscular men dressed all in black, who had thrown David onto the ground and now began to handcuff him.

"David!" She shrieked not thinking clearly as she saw one man digging his knee into David's back causing him to scream out in pain. "Let go of him!" Victoria didn't hesitate to violently grab the hair of the man forcing him to loosen his grip on David.

"Victoria." David used the moment to speak to her. "Please, take care of my children." His head was slammed onto the ground, but he could still hear the words he needed to hear before he could accept that the bubble they had been living in finally had to pop.

"I will, David." Victoria managed to answer before the other man closed his arm around her throat dragging her backwards. He then dropped her, so that she fell down onto her knees and immediately felt the cold metal of another pair of handcuffs closing around her wrists. She raised her head desperately searching for David, but she could only find Amanda's terrified face as yet another man lifted the girl up and carried her away.

"No!" Victoria shouted although she was still almost out of air.

She had told him this would happen. She had known that they had been too carefree. And yet David had managed to convince her of the contrary. It had been a huge mistake not to trust her instincts, especially because of the threat they had received. As the image of tortured Roger Halsted appeared in her head again, tears shot into Victoria's eyes. Tears, because she felt ashamed of herself for not taking the pain he had to go through seriously, and tears, because she knew what David would have to endure.

The tall man remained standing behind Victoria to keep her in an upright position, which made her knees burn like hell due to the fall to the ground. All she could really focus on however were Amanda's desperate screams for her father and the scaring fact that he didn't answer her anymore.

"Not her!" A terribly familiar male voice pulled Victoria out of her numb state. "You idiot! Release her."

"Sir, she attacked us." The other man replied.

"I don't care what she did. Release her."

Slowly the man removed the handcuffs from Victoria's wrists and she let herself sink to the ground for she didn't have enough strength to lift herself up again. When she turned around and wiped her hair out of her face, she saw Daniel staring at her with widened eyes. She was relieved to see that he was unharmed and therefore tried to smile at him. Nevertheless she noticed that someone was holding his hand. Thus she let her eyes wander further upwards until she eventually met his face.

Her heart stopped beating as she felt her husband's arctic pools peering down at her.

The intense blue of his eyes caused her to shiver and his gaze seemed to freeze every inch of her body it observed.

"Hello, my darling. You cannot imagine how much I've missed you." Conrad's stare was cold, his voice filled with satisfaction from finally signing David Clarke's fate as a ruthless terrorist and demonstrating his wife where her rightful place in this world really was.

It was official now; the villain had made his appearance and was more than ready to add the long feared twist to the plot.

So I guess you can consider this the first part of the story (which is sort of scary because I've already written 20 chapters...). The second part will probably be shorter and I don't know when I'll be able to start writing it since I've got to finish a paper for university. Feel free to share your thoughts on Conrad's entrance and Amanda's and David's future with me. I'd love to hear your assumptions about how the story will continue! See you! xo