Chapter 66
Davian
The Shot
Waves of Opulence
Ahmet Kenan Bilgic, Turgut Mavuk
A bang shattered the pleasant, quiet orchestral music and silenced all conversation within seconds.
Guests looked around, and I too turned away from Monica, forgetting for a moment to keep an eye out for the man who wanted to ruin my life.
“What was that?”
Lara suddenly clung to Tony's forearm, and he put a hand on hers.
“That sounded like a goddamn gunshot,” he muttered, raising both eyebrows, his gaze fixed on Joseph, who, along with Arnold, was staring toward one of the countless terrace doors.
One word. One word was all it took, and every nerve ending in my body began to catch fire.
“Quill.”
Her name came out of my mouth barely audible.
Tony and Lara turned to me, staring at me as if I had lost my mind, but I didn't wait and started moving.
That was the moment when other guests also began to push their way toward the terrace with increasingly loud murmurs.
“Excuse me,” I said, and a woman stepped aside. “I need to get through.”
Two more women moved out of the way, but the men in front of me wouldn’t let me through, fighting their way forward with stubborn determination.
I couldn't make it. The crowd was too dense, growing louder and louder.
Frantic voices came from somewhere on the terrace. Suddenly, a woman screamed.
What the...
My throat tightened. A heavy pounding rebelled in my chest.
Please, Quill. Please don't be out there.
With every second of uncertainty, my vision blurred with tears.
Just don't be out there.
The crowd grew louder and louder. The press of people swelled more and more. Only now did I notice that the orchestra had stopped playing.
Why had I let her go with the gun?
Despair tore me apart so much that I couldn't take it anymore and looked for other exits.
In a panic, I pushed the people next to me aside and rushed through one of the deserted passageways that would take me outside through one of the hallways.
I didn't get far.
My steps faltering, I stopped.
Relief flooded my chest like a long-awaited breath the second I spotted Quill leaning against the wall.
However, any relief was beaten out of my lungs again when my gaze fell on her blood-smeared fingers, with which she clasped her trembling knees, clawing into them.
She was alive. She was breathing. She was crying.
“Oh my God...”
I rushed forward, covered the last few feet and dropped to my knees in front of her, grabbed her upper arms, causing her to flinch, and it broke my heart to startle her like that, but it broke even more when I saw the blood and tears on her cheeks, along with the despair in her watery eyes.
She sobbed, looked at me, and sobbed even harder.
“Davian. I'm sorry...”
No. No. No...
Panicked, I grabbed her tighter, searching for injuries on her body, but found only more blood on her dress.
“Quill.”
I tried to shake her gently, but she looked down, so I had to take her face in both my hands to make her look at me.
“What happened? Are you hurt? Why are you bleeding…”
When I discovered the reopened scar on her hand, from which hardly any blood was coming, I ultimately failed to solve the puzzle in my head.
What was going on here?
“Troy”
I froze, ready to absorb every word like a sponge.
He hadn't... He couldn't have...
I looked down, behind her knees drawn up to her chest, at her stomach, searching for more injuries, but there was nothing.
The panic became unbearable, and I looked back into Quill's eyes, wanting to pull her close and make sure she was okay. But the blood literally screamed at me, robbing me of my sanity.
“Troy... I...”
I searched her eyes.
What the fuck did Troy have to do with this?
Rage overwhelmed me, but I somehow kept it in check, clinging to Quill's desperate eyes, and it was as if I could feel something tearing her apart from the inside.
She opened her lips but paused, so I stared at the gap.
“I... I killed him.”
All this pain,
flooding out of my eyes like streams of ink.
All I have left is to find enough paper
to soak up the ocean forming around me.
The only way to keep from drowning
in my own destruction.
– Blue