Chapter Thirty-Four
River
I wish I could say that I felt calm, but I’m freaking the fuck out. The box is burning a hole in my pocket, and I just hope that she says yes.
Please, let her say yes.
We arrived at our luxury resort this morning, and have since looked around and had some lunch. I then booked us in for a couples massage, and while we are gone from our villa, I’ve organized a private dinner to be set up just for us. I asked for rose petals to be laid on the ground, trailing from the entrance and ending in a big heart, which is where I will get down on one knee. I want to make it as romantic as possible, and for someone like me, who is more comfortable with violence than romance, it’s been a bit stressful. But for Bella, I would do anything, and she deserves a proper, romantic proposal, with lots of effort and thought involved.
Holding hands, we walk back to the villa, admiring the beauty of the resort. “I thought you said you’d get a cabin—I wasn’t expecting anything as fancy as this,” she says, glancing around. “It’s beautiful here. I love it.”
“I’m glad,” I reply, touching the box in my pocket to make sure it’s there for the millionth time. “I wanted to spoil you a little, and after looking online, a cabin wasn’t going to cut it.”
“You always spoil me,” she replies, pointing to some beautiful flowers. “How pretty.”
“Yes, gorgeous,” I reply, staring at her.
“That massage was the best I think I’ve ever had. I feel so relaxed,” she says, smiling up at me. “I love you, you know that? Thanks for bringing me here.”
“I love you, too,” I say, stopping to open the door to our villa for her to enter before me. She walks inside and then stops when she sees the rose petals, in the shape of a heart, and trailing around the beautifully set dinner table.
“Oh my God,” she whispers. “River, this is beautiful.”
She turns around, her eyes wide and a smile on her face, and I drop to one knee before her.
“Bella, you are the love of my life, my soulmate, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you make me the happiest man alive by marrying me?” I ask, my fingers trembling as I hold the box open for her to see the ring.
“Yes, of course I will,” she replies, her eyes tearing up with happiness. I slide the ring on her finger, and she looks at it with wonder. “That is the most stunning ring I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Thank fuck.
All my nerves disappear and I stand up and kiss her. She said yes, she’s mine for fucking ever.
I pull out her chair for her and we both sit, and our dinner is served to us, course by course. Just the two of us, under the moonlight, surrounded by rose petals, our private pool lit up with romantic dim lighting.
“I can’t believe you did all this,” she says, looking down at her ring in awe. “I can’t stop smiling.”
I put on some Ed Sheeran for her to listen to, and we finish our dinner and then dance together, enjoying everything about this moment.
It’s the happiest moment of my life.
The next few days we spend at the villa, living our best lives, making love, eating and swimming. It’s perfect. Bella wears her ring proudly, and I couldn’t love her and our time together any more.
I have a fiancée.
That’s why as soon we get home to the clubhouse, and the police show up to take me in for questioning, you can imagine how pissed off I am. I’ve been living in a romantic bubble the last few days, only to come home to this bullshit.
“We’d like to ask you some questions on the disappearance of Robert Montanna,” the officer says, escorting me to the car. The look in the cops’ eyes is not friendly. They think I murdered him.
Fuck.
I was kind of thinking they were coming after me for the murder of Mark, or maybe Victor, so this one caught me by surprise.
I can see the panic in Bella’s eyes as I’m driven away, and I curse the cops for their timing, and my asshole stepfather for still ruining my life from the grave.
Because I did kill Robert Montanna.
But how the fuck are they going to prove it?
They sit me in the examination room and try the good cop, bad cop method to get a confession, or any other information out of me. They can try as hard as they like. Getting confessions out of people is what I do for fun, and none of their legal mind games are going to work, but go ahead and let them try.
“We got a tip that you might know what happened to Robert, so we just want to talk to you about it,” the nice cop says, sitting down opposite me.
Who would know this? Romeo? No, he wouldn’t. Bella? No. She would never do that to me. I trust her with my life.
But who would say something now? Andrew? Now that the cat’s out of the bag, maybe he wants me out of the way?
The cop pours me a glass of water. “Were you close with your father?”
“Not really, but last I heard that wasn’t a crime. Do you have any evidence to back up this tip?” I ask, curious as to whether they can keep me, or if this is just them grasping at straws to try to pin someone for Robert’s murder.
“This is just an interview,” she replies, which means they have nothing. And as they should, because I covered my tracks extremely well.
After Robert beat my mother so bad for the last time, she was put in a coma to relieve the swelling in her head. That’s when she lost the sight in her eye.
And that is when I went to his house and killed him.
We fought first, until he was a bloodied mess, and then with the last hit, he fell back and knocked his head on the tiles. He died quickly, and I wish it wasn’t the case, but fate took it out of my hands. It was hard getting rid of his body, I have to admit. But I did what I needed to and covered my tracks. I burned the body, and there are no traces of him remaining.
When my mother got out of the hospital, she didn’t know what had happened, but I told her Robert had left and I hadn’t seen him. I told her that maybe he went to visit his firstborn son from another woman, Tatum, who he rarely saw. I don’t know if she’s aware of the truth, but I think that deep down inside she does, because she hasn’t been looking over her shoulder waiting for his return.
She knows he isn’t coming back to hurt anyone ever again. I made sure of that. “Okay, well, I haven’t seen him in years. We all assumed he went to stay with family out east,” I say. “I didn’t even know he was dead. Has his body been found, then?”
The cop says nothing, which means again, no.
Bad cop steps in then, a large burly-looking man, and leans over me. “We know you did it. Just tell us the truth, and we can make a deal to get you less time. Tell us where his body is.”
“I did not do anything,” I tell him. “I’m not saying anything else until my lawyer gets here. Because I don’t like these accusations that you are making.”
They aren’t going to find the body.
I do my own cleanups, and I’m thorough as fuck.
Good cop takes over, because of course they don’t want me calling a lawyer. Especially when my lawyer is Jaxon fucking Bentley, one of the best criminal defense lawyers in our county.
“I’d like to call my lawyer, please,” I say, staying calm and collected. I’d also like to be with Bella to make sure that she is okay. She must be so worried right now, and asking a lot of questions.
She doesn’t know what happened to Robert.
But she does know what I’m capable of.