Chapter 106
My lips began to tremble. The deafening sound of my heartbeat resounded in my ears. This isn't happening, I told myself as my gaze remained locked on Natalia's dead body, which resembled a pale mannequin. She sat upright on the sofa, her long hair cascading down her shoulders and falling to her lap where her fingers were crossed. She looked alive and dead at the same time. I even tried convincing myself that it wasn't her, that it was just a mannequin, but I couldn't fool myself.
I swallowed deep and hard. My eyes snapped shut. I counted to ten, then opened my eyes again, but she didn't disappear, which I had expected. She looked so real, and the thought alone sent shivers down my spine because I knew I would end up just like her if I didn't escape from my captor.
“Holy shit,” Grey hissed under his breath in pure disbelief as he finally managed to get up and followed my gaze. “It's Natalia… It's not a mannequin like I thought at first,” he added, confirming my biggest fear. I was still hoping that, at this moment, my eyes were simply playing a trick on me, but hearing it from Grey's lips made the truth sink in.
“W-who d-did it to her?” I breathlessly asked, shaking my head in horror.
“I did it.” A very familiar voice spoke from the door. The moonlight disappeared, and shadows fell on him, making it impossible to see his features. But then it wasn't necessary to see his face to identify his identity. The sound of his voice alone told me who he was.
“You bastard!” Grey's sharp voice thundered across the empty room. As the moonlight spilled through the open window, it illuminated the culprit's face, revealing my ex-husband's stepbrother, Ash.
“You should have been locked in a mental institution—”
“I escaped, dear brother.” Ash cut Grey off. “I got tired of staying there for more than a year, so I acted like a meek sheep and an obedient patient. When they let their guard down, I transformed into a wolf and killed them.” Ash continued casually, as though he were talking about the weather and not about murdering someone in the mental institution.
Ash paused, and his gaze drifted to me. A sinister smile then stretched across his lips as his malicious gaze surveyed me from head to toe. “We meet again, Lily. It's been a while. You look youthful and even more beautiful than the last time I saw you. It's the peak of your age, and I want to preserve your beauty so you'll be young forever. When this night is over, you'll become one of my collection, and you will sit next to Natalia.”
“You're twisted!” I shouted, my fists turning into tight balls behind my back.
“Touch her, and I will kill you, Ash!” Grey spat in fury, his laser-sharp eyes boring into his stepbrother. If looks could maim, Ash would be on the floor by now, bathing in his blood.
“You can't even protect yourself, Grey. With your wrists bound, I wonder how you will protect your wife.”
“Bastard! Once I free myself, I will fucking kill you with my own hands.” Grey clenched his jaw. He tried untying the ropes binding his wrists, but it was to no avail.
Ash could only laugh at Grey as he watched him struggle to free himself. The rope wouldn't budge; it securely bound his wrists and was almost digging into his flesh. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't loosen the rope.
“Stop resisting, Grey. We both know you'll end up dead tonight,” Ash told him as he removed the hoodie jacket he'd taken from his brother and used it to fool me into thinking he was Grey. He draped it over the arm of the sofa and then sat beside Natalia.
“I'm not going down without a fight. I will use all my strength to fight back, even if it costs my life to protect the people I care for.”
Ash laughed, the sound filling the corners of the room. He then stopped, and his face turned as hard as stone. “You're helpless, Grey. I won this time. I will kill your wife, which I failed to do a couple of times before.”
“I'm not his wife,” I spat.
“You are,” Ash insisted.
“We are divorced,” I told him.
“There was never a divorce between you and Grey, Lily. You're both stupid to believe that.”
A gasp escaped my lips. “W-what do you mean?” I asked in puzzlement, still unable to grasp his meaning.
Shrugging his shoulders, he nonchalantly replied, “The divorce is a sham. Elizabeth perpetrated it to make the two of you drift even further apart. The divorce is falsified and did not undergo any legal process, which means the two of you are still legally married.”
The color drained from my face at this revelation. Grey had never initiated the divorce after all. He had been telling me the truth. I didn't believe him, just like he hadn't believed me when I told him I didn't either. But what I couldn't believe the most was the revelation that Grey was still my husband and I was still his wife.
“You just gave me another reason to kill you, Ash,” Grey said gravely beside me. He looked at Ash as though he wanted to wring his neck with his own hands.
Still, Ash ignored him and pretended not to hear a word he said as he rose from the sofa. My eyes followed his every movement, readying myself for whatever evil thing he had in mind.
Ash pulled back a curtain on the wall, revealing a large built-in cabinet. He fished something out of his pocket. It was a key.
“Mother and I were the only ones who knew the truth about the fake divorce. We both knew that you were planning to give Lily the La Paraiso Hotel, and to stop that from happening, we destroyed your marriage, and we succeeded. The hotel went to my mother after the fake divorce.” There was a click as the cabinet was unlocked. Ash reached for the handle but didn't pull the cabinet open. Instead, he turned to look at me, then to Grey, and continued. “Unfortunately, La Paraiso Hotel went bankrupt, and she was forced to sell it. Then her conscience got the best of her, and she couldn't take it anymore; she planned to expose the truth, and I couldn't allow that to happen. I'm miserable, and the two of you don't deserve to be happy, so I did what I knew I had to.”
“Don't tell me you—” Ash immediately cut Grey off before he could finish his sentence.
“You think I'm incapable of doing it?”
I could not take it anymore and screamed, “She was your mother! What did you do to Elizabeth?”
Ash turned to me and smiled. “I killed her,” he said, then pulled the cabinet open. There was a loud thud as an object fell to the floor. At first, I thought it was a mannequin, but when my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I realized it was Elizabeth's dead body.
Her eyes were wide open, and the rope used to strangle her was loosely hanging around her neck. I stifled a scream from escaping my lips by biting my lower lip. The sight of the dead body and the stench coming from it turned my stomach upside down, making me want to throw up.
“You're crazy! How could you do that to your own mother, Ash?” Unable to take it anymore, tears streamed down my cheeks. By no means had Elizabeth been a good mother, but she didn't deserve to be murdered by her own son.
“You will pay for everything, Ash. I'll make sure you'll pay for it,” Grey said, his tone hard with promise.
“Sorry to tell you, Grey, but Dylan, Lily, and you will die tonight. But don't worry; I'll bury the three of you together, and you will have your so-called happy ending in your next lifetime.” Having said those words, Ash grabbed the gun from his holster, aimed it at me, and without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.