38
My office door slams open, and a fuming Remo walks in.
“What now?” I sigh, only for me to freeze in place when Remo throws papers at my desk.
“Ambrose retrieved the CCTV footage of Mace’s murder and released it to the press.” He slams his hand on the table.
What!?
“You’re mistaken, Remo. How could—”
“She did! And you should realise now that keeping her alive all this time was for nothing! I told you time and time again that she is a liability, ready to destroy us; a time ticking bomb that will take advantage of everything to turn it in her favour.”
Getting up from my desk, I grab the papers, looking over headlines upon headlines from different tabloids, all reporting on the murder of Mace Torre.
I hid myself. I worked years and years to get to where I am today.
I was hiding from government officials; I was building a small life here and thought to spend it with her. And to see this?
“I don’t believe—”
“Fucking believe it, Helia! Stop this madness right this second and look at the facts. I had the IP address tracked, and it was released just half an hour ago from the Torre mansion, Ambrose’s laptop. Look at the reports if you don’t believe it, or do your own research.” Remo walks up to me and gets in my face, brows twisted and a frown on his face, and yet his eyes blaze like never before.
He doesn’t realise that something feels off, but it definitely is my heart chipping away with every word that is coming out of his mouth.
“You fix this, Helia. You fucked up, so you take care of it. I want her gone. There is no place for her here anymore. Rip her out of your heart, destroy her until there is nothing left. I don’t want to see her walking around ever again.” Remo’s nostrils flare, his gaze unwavering. He makes sure his words have made it into my head, then he leaves.
And I am left in a mess I never thought would happen.
I’ve never failed.
Whatever was softening my heart for Ambrose is slowly burning up in flames inside of me. My heart takes a different turn with my eyes stuck to the papers in front of me. There are photos of me in the Torre mansion, and my hands start to shake.
How fucking dare she take what I gave her and use it against me?
I was going to give her the world. Even burn it and destroy it for her.
It hurts.
It fucking hurts to see what she has done.
She made me believe she never needed anything when all this time she was going to use it against me?
She never changed.
I will make sure that she burns the way she burnt my world around me and left me in the ashes of everything I built. I will break her to the point she will be begging at my feet for mercy, but I will have none left in my heart.
Without wasting another minute, I rush out of the office building and don’t bother changing as I speed towards the Torre mansion. On the way, I ran IP tracking and indeed, Ambrose is the one that leaked the footage. As soon as I arrive, I stride towards the back and climb up the walls and onto her balcony.
It’s time you face the hell I am about to deliver, dear Ambrose.
I grab hold of the annoying curtains and pull, throwing them to the floor with a crash.
My eyes fix on the huddled figure against the bed.
She jumps up. Her eyes are red, and a part of me wants to ask her what is wrong, but I smash it down.
She destroyed me.
“Helia…” Her voice is weak, but there is no going back now.
“How fucking dare you?” I walk up to her, grabbing her neck in a tight hold as I lift her off the ground.
She gasps, her hands clamping around my arms with her legs thrashing under me.
“No! You’ve got it w-wrong!”
I lean forward, and her perfume surrounds me. I can’t help but feel pathetic for ever falling for this wicked woman.
“I should have fucking known you would turn out to be like this. You’re disgusting, do you know that?”
She shakes her head, her red-rimmed eyes flooding with tears.
“P-Please,” she sobs with difficult gasps.
My heart pinches in pain at seeing her hurt because of me, so I throw her to the floor.
She drops with a loud thud, gasping, rubbing her throat.
Snapping her head to me, she rushes over to me on her knees, grabbing hold of my hands. Her hair is a mess, her clothes wrinkled, her hands freezing, and her body trembling. She doesn’t look like herself.
“Believe me, Helia. I didn’t do it.” She shakes her head. Her speech is slow but strong enough to get her message across.
“You lost the chance to ever beg when you decided to ruin my life for your selfish reasons. How could you be so cruel to destroy me like this after all that has happened between us?” I shake my hand out of her hold and step back before bending down and grabbing hold of her hair. “Did you want to see me in pain?”
She sobs, shaking her head, the motion restricted by my hold on her.
“Did you create all this drama to get your back company? You wanted it so badly you decided the only way was to reveal me like this?”
She continues shaking her head, but what is there to deny anymore?
My eyes scan her face, over the marks, the new and old tears, the smeared lipstick, the red eyes, and the shakiness in her body.
And I break with her. I feel with her.
My lip trembles as I speak. “Why did you have to destroy us, Ambrose?”
She shuts her eyes, sobbing and crying.
“Helia, I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me. It was Mum. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
I let her go, push her away from me, but stay in my hunched position.
I take out the knife from my back pocket and try not to show how my hand trembles.
“Let’s say I believe you…”
Her eyes are on me. Waiting.
“How did you get the footage then, Ambrose? You surely had to go looking for it, didn’t you? The email that was written? That sounded exactly like you. I have been reading your emails for months.”
She looks away from me, and it gives me my answer.
I grab her throat, twisting the knife so it points right at the jugular vein on her neck.
Her eyes snap to me.
But she doesn’t look away.
My own hand trembles.
What have you done, Ambrose?
“Given your history, I should have known better.”