Chapter 36
Shards of shattered hopes cut deep. They go in so deep it’s next to impossible to pull them out on your own.
The shards leave deep cuts, a reminder of how you once nurtured a hope within yourself.
And next time you want to feel it, the scars of doubt will tug at your heart.
After all, happiness without suffering is a myth, right?
“Do you know that man over there?”
I pointed at the tall man in white suit. His chestnut hair was short and curly. His skin was bronzed, as if he’d just come back from a vacation.
I watched as his smile quickly slipped off his face like a mask when he turned his back to walk away from a conversation.
He turned to the blonde and said something to her. I saw his left hand squeeze her shoulder. She buckled under the weight of his hand, and he pulled it away, patting her on the cheek.
My pulse was racing, sending a surge of anger and anxiety through my veins.
His glassy stare shot up and began scanning everyone in the room, like he was looking for someone.
He met my eyes and I immediately looked back at August.
“Yes. And I wouldn’t recommend you to catch his eye.”
“Why?”
I frowned.
“Mortimer is a vicious man. Though calling him a man feels wrong sometimes. He has his rules, but you wouldn’t find a code more twisted than his.
Barely anyone agrees to work with him. Everyone he works with either dies or goes bankrupt and eventually disappears.
He’s a shadow player. He’s always all smiles and big promises, but once you fall into his trap, he’ll chew you up and leave no bones.
He holds a lot of power in his hands: from regular people who work here as waiters and are probably eavesdropping on us at this very moment, to politicians.
He’s got his people everywhere. The only reason he hasn’t been dealt with yet is because he knows who to be friends with.
He’s got many enemies, but God save the soul of the one who decides to get in his way. ”
Fear set my imagination on edge.
“Do you think he’d allow me to make a friend of his girlfriend?”
“That’s not his girlfriend. It’s his wife.”
Maybe I was wrong?
“You can try, but he doesn’t like it when someone talks to her without him there.
People like him have a lot of power and, likewise, just as many enemies.
His paranoia knows no bounds. I heard he beats his wife and the staff.
He killed his best man not too long ago and left his corpse to hang from a pole by his mansion, guts out and all. ”
I made one big gulp.
“That’s horrible,” I whispered.
“Yes. I think that was his way of showing what happens to those who go against him.”
I looked down at my ring and began to roll it on my finger.
“I’m not gonna tell you about other things he did, some of which I got to see with my own eyes. I don’t want to scare you.”
August turned to me and gave me a sweet smile.
I quickly smiled back and turned my head to the blonde girl once again.
“Life’s quite short, August. Don’t you think?”
I finished my champagne and placed the glass on a table.
“It’s even shorter in our world. ”
I saw a man approach Mortimer and they fell into an animated conversation.
This was a great opportunity for me to talk to the blond girl discreetly. I had to make sure it wasn’t Bell.
“You know, sometimes it’s worth taking a risk to see life in all its glory.”
He smirked.
I excused myself from August and hastily walked towards the girl.
I came up and gently touched her shoulder.
She flinched in fear.
“Bell, is that you?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
Her eyes widened in terror as tears began welling them up.
A thick layer of foundation could barely hide the bruises on her cheek, above one eyebrow, under her chin and on her neck.
Her beautiful natural hair color had been changed to straw blond. Her sweet cheeks became sunken. She was way too thin. She was a ghost of Bell I used to know.
“Let’s get out of here.”
I took her hand, ready to take her as far away from him as possible. I wanted to protect her, hide her, shield her from any harm.
“Where are you going, Laura?”
I could feel the fear grip me by the throat.
Bell’s hand was shaking in mine. She was ready to break and fall down at his feet begging for forgiveness.
I was gripping and relaxing her hand to remind her she was not alone, that I was by her side.
“She needs to go to the bathroom. I was gonna show her where it is.”
“She can hold it. Stay here and don’t you dare step away from me. ”
His voice was stern and waspish. The man’s aura was terrifying enough to make me want to dash away from him.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her back with one rough jerk, like she was a thing he owned.
I could feel her hand slip out of mine. Her eyes were full of pain and despair. She looked like she had already resigned herself to her fate.
I turned away and headed back to the bar.
Thoughts were racing through my mind. It’s like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, trying to decide if I should jump or not.
This was his doing. He did this. He wanted to hurt me. To get back at me. Teach me a lesson.
Anger blurred my vision like an ominous veil. It ruled over my thoughts and actions.
Back at the bar, I noticed a knife lying on a board next to a lemon. I snatched it and went to the guest room.
I pushed the door hard enough for everyone in the room to turn their heads to me.
“I’m gonna kill you!”
I was pointing the knife at the reaper.
The room was dead silent. The men looked at me, blinking in confusion.
“Excuse me, gentlemen, I have to talk to my adorably sweet girlfriend. She’s clearly upset I’d left her alone.”
They slowly left the room, the last person closing the door behind him.
The reaper leaned against his chair, arms crossed. His eyes were on the knife in my hand.
“What’s the matter, Zoe?”
He sounded bored and a tad annoyed.
I gripped the knife tighter.
I was ready to kill him.
Right now .
Right here.
“What’s the matter?” I mocked him.
I drew upon him in rapid strides and put the knife to his throat.
“The matter is that I’m about to kill you.”
“You’re so sexy when you’re mad,” he said in a languid voice.
He held my waist in his arms as he pulled me closer.
The knife was digging into his neck.
“I don’t give a crap what’s going on in your depraved head. Because I know you’re a sick bastard and you’re gonna burn in hell.”
One corner of his lips perked up.
“ Vita mea , you’re gonna burn with me.”
His hand began stroking my waist.
“Don’t you dare. Touch. Me.”
His jaw tightened, the mischievous spark gone from his eyes.
He slowly took his hand away and I took a step back.
“Are you gonna kill me? Right now? To pay me back?”
“Yes,” I spat.
There was now a sneer on his face that I couldn’t wait to wipe off.
“Bell. You knew he had Bell all along. Did you do this? Did you sell her to him? Was this your plan?”
He scowled.
“No. I don’t sell people.”
I smirked.
“Sure you don’t. And the fact you orchestrated an attack on my university with your mates.
What’re you gonna say to that? You and your buddies killed for fun, taking some of the victims to sell and make a quick buck off of.
So don’t you lie to my face saying you haven’t been involved, as Bell’s standing there right now when she’s supposed to be safe. ”
I was almost screaming. My nerves were stretched to the limit.
His gaze grew dark .
“Who told you about the university?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
He moved up to me. His neck pressed against the knife, ready to be slashed and to bleed out.
I put the knife down.
“August.”
“August,” he said loathingly, “and what exactly did that bastard tell you?”
“Something you don’t have the gut to tell me,” I said accusingly.
Tension and anger radiated from his dark gaze.
“And what do I not have the gut to tell you?”
“The truth,” I blurted out.
He sighed audibly.
“Zoe. How long have you known August for?”
I didn’t answer.
“What makes you think you can trust him?”
“Why should I trust you, too? I’ve known him for as long as I know you, and his company brought me more joy in the short time I’ve had him around than yours ever could.”
There was a lot of bitterness behind my words, and I spat it at him like venom.
His right hand grabbed me by the throat. I tried to cut him with a knife, but his left hand gripped my wrist so tight I dropped the knife with little pushback.
He was enraged. I could see it boiling behind his eyes. It sent shivers down my spine.
“I will say it again, if you didn’t hear me the first time. I don’t sell people. And Bell being here tonight isn’t my doing. Because had I had a hand in this, I’d bring her dead body to you and watch you shatter into tiny pieces you’d never put back together.”
I slapped him across the face.
The silence after the slap was deafening .
His head turned slightly to the side, more from the shock of it than from my blow. He slowly moved his hand from my neck and touched the flushed side of his face.
I’d long dreamed of doing this, and now I regretted notdoing it sooner.
My newfound audacity was immediately replaced with fear when his eyes met mine. But the anger... the anger was too strong. It wasn’t my life at stake, but the life of my Bell, after all. It gave me courage I didn’t think I was capable of anymore.
“Zoe, do you remember what’d happen to you if you betrayed me?”
A wave of anxiety rose to the surface like a bloated carcass rising from the depths.
My body froze in place. I nodded.
“Then why the fuck are you on his side? Do you wanna die so bad?”
“I’m ready to die if Bell will be set free.”
My emotions mixed into a concoction I couldn’t make heads or tails of.
I looked into his eyes as tears welled up in mine, blurring my vision.
“He’s beating her. I saw her powdered bruises.
He forced her to chop off her hair and dye it.
He even gave her a new name. And I don’t know, why, but he made her his wife.
She looks like a ghost. She lost so much weight I could barely recognize her.
Her eyes were filled with so much fear and pain.
She doesn’t deserve this. She had a future. She worked so hard for that future.”
I slowly knelt before him, crossing my palms pleadingly.
“Please, Eric, I beg of you. Save her. She has to live free. She should enjoy her life. She doesn’t deserve to be wiped off like she never existed.”
Tears were streaming down my face.
“Please, Eric. I’m begging you. Please. Eric, please. ”
I kept repeating it like a mantra.
“Zoe.”
He said my name with a tinge of regret in his voice. He cringed like he was in pain.
I was wiping my tears away, because I could barely even see him at that point.
“You know I’m not a good man. Why do you keep looking for something I don’t have in me?”
I sniffled.
“Because... because I can’t leave her. I can’t live with myself knowing she lives like this. She doesn’t deserve this. I’m the one who doesn’t have a choice. I should live her life. I should suffer and hide the bruises. I’m the one who should become a ghost. Not her. Don’t you get it?”
His jaw was clenched and there was not a hint of sympathy in his eyes.
I dropped my head and whispered:
“You don’t understand.”
I tried to stand up, which was hard to do in my dress.
He took my hand and helped me up. I stood up and jerked it out of his grip right away.
He handed me his white handkerchief. I took it, heading to the mirror hanging above the fireplace. I wiped my tear-stained cheeks.
Having wiped away my tears, I threw the handkerchief on the mantelpiece.
“I’m going to offer to take her place.”
I blurted it out and ran to the exit.
I opened the door, but he slammed it shut before I could get out.
“The fuck do you think you’re doing?” he hissed to the back of my head, “Who are you trying to give what’s mine?”