Chapter 52🌜 Mistake
William's POV
Everyone is a fucking freak. Like if Satan was out of hell for a while, he might mistake this party as his residency.
"Can I sit here?" A girl covered in shimmer moans. Twirling the strand of hair with her finger, she eyes me suggestively.
I turn my face away from the supple cleavage right in front of me. I wipe a hand down my face, not knowing what to say. I scoot over the leather, "Ahem...sure."
Even though there's plenty of space on this couch, she chooses to sit right beside me, her naked thigh brushing my leg. "Its pretty cold in there..."
"Yeah..." I look straight ahead. My cheeks puff up when there's no sign of him walking back to me.
Why would he come back to you? He would be there with Veronica. Her on his lap, his arms around her.
A hand next to me tests the waters, running slowly up my thigh. "You are kinda cute."
"I am m-married." I turn to look at her face but then swiftly turn back.
"Are you?" she purrs, as if my confession turned her on even more.
"Y-Yeah." I nod.
"Married or happily married? 'Cus she isn't anywhere in the sight.
"You know? You are just my type-a stuttering little kitten." She teases my inner thigh with her long nail. "Or is it that you aren't into women?" Her hand backs up a little.
"Huh?" I blink at her.
"Are you or are you not?" She questions again, voice bitingly intimidating. "I think you aren't. Because no man can resist me."
"N-No. That's not true." I ramble. "I am into women." I scratch my earlobe. "You are beautiful, but it's just that I am married."
"She doesn't have to know." She leans even closer, pulling one of her legs over mine. Inhaling the crook of my neck, her lips come close and closer to me.
"Glad you didn't go any-" The same voice of velvet and ice fills my ears, and I thank the gods for sending him back. But then he stops. Then follows a silence so loud, it fails the speakers.
I raise my head as if moving each centimetre up is causing my neck extreme pain. Then I reach his eyes. One covered behind a mask, one free. A common thing? They both look deadly glaring at the scene in front of them.
Even the girl next to me pulls back, "M-Mr. Belladonna? H-h-how can I help you?"
"I don't know whoever you are. But it would be nice for you to stay away from my husband." I cover my face with my hands, looking down, I don't miss the icy warning in his tone. As if one more mistake from her and he would leave three bullets in her.
"Your husband?" her voice a shocked blow of murmurs. She jumps up, as if caught fire. "I thought-" she cuts herself off, looking at me for a moment then turning back to him. "I am sorry Mr. Belladonna, I didn't recognise him behind the mask."
Without another word Zane keeps glowering at her. Getting the hint, she leaves, walking past someone I notice just now.
Of course it's her. Looks like one slap wasn't enough. Holding Zane's probe in her hand, she smirks, eyes filled with malice. She winks at me.
With a sudden bitter tang in my mouth, I purse my lips shut.
"I will go get a fresh batch; These are already lukewarm." It's obvious he's making up an excuse. The question is why. Is he angry?
About what?
He saw me with a woman, so what?
I glare at Veronica, biting my inner lip. As if he wasn't with another woman. "No-no." She comes forward, "I think they would be perfectly fine seeing how cold it is here." Zane stops turning back and she continues, "Otherwise you would need a hand for this again." She lifts up the stick.
Zane burns the stick with his eyes for a second, but then nods a little. Walking towards me, he brings a hand in my direction with a glass in it.
I take the glass from him and lift it up to my lips. "Eww!" Scrunching my nose up, I lower the glass. This shit is bitter as a frog's piss. I look up to argue about it.
Zane has gulped down the whole thing like it was nothing. Putting the glass on the table in front of me, he turns around to leave, stomping down on his heels like a raging tiger out of his cage.
I keep staring at the direction he just went. Blocking my view, Veronica comes. "Aw, no. He's so angry... almost like he hates to be around you." She pouts with sympathy which transforms more into an ugly smirk on her black lips, turning back, she follows him.
"As if I care?" It burns my tongue, spoils my throat but I don't stop until it flushes down the poison I am feeling right now.
Before I can set down my glass, a hand taps my shoulder. I don't budge. I just lock my fingers around the intruder's wrist, yanking them forward and swinging them around to face me.
"Woahhh!" The amber eyes behind a delicate black lace domino mask widen.
"Damn, Will. It's just me." Wearing a loose burgundy silk shirt unbuttoned to his navel stands Ryan.
The mix of body paint and sweat on his exposed lean chest reflects the limited light here.
"Who pissed you off, hmm? And holy shit! I didn't know you could look sexy too..."
Sometimes it shocks me how much he has changed since high school. Since...No, we don't talk about that. "Nothing, just the usual."
"Oh? I don't think so. This is more pissyness than your 'usual'." He takes the glass from my hand, his face spoiling after sniffing it. "What the hell is even that?" He puts the glass on the counter.
"Some shit my dear husband brought." I roll my eyes. "Anyway, I am okay, by the way. Thanks for asking."
"The pleasure is mine." He tucks his hands inside his very tight black trousers.
"Haha, you are so funny." I make funny faces, laughing like a maniac then stopping suddenly. "And what the hell are you even wearing?"
"It's a modern Lucifer inspired piece designed just for me." The lower half of his torso, tucked behind the shirt, has a gold plated sculpture of defined lean abs along with a navel standing out on his fair skin. "It's fashion babe. You won't understand."
"Whatever." I toy with my tail swaying it side to side. "So, Mr. Lucifer-oops, Modern Lucifer ? ji, may I know why you contacted me?"
"Why? Can I not come to my best friend without a purpose?" He presses the back of his hand to his forehead, then shudders abnormally with his whole body.
I see the whole scene happening in front of narrowed eyes, wondering 'is he fucking for real?'. I knock on his shoulder with my knuckle like it's a door. "Are you taking your ADHD pills regularly?" I ask in the most concerned voice.
He drops the wrist from his face and sneaks a peak into my direction. "Ah, yeah?"
"Nice." I drop my sweet smile then narrow my eyes pointedly at him. "Because I was second-guessing. Now without stalling spill what you have to say." I know Ryan. And I know that right now he has something he wants to tell me, but he's hiding it behind humour.
"Boo, you are not fun!" He boos at me, which fades behind his wavering eyes. All the charisma, the laughter on his face loses its spark and gets taken over by the apprehensive clouds of worry.
"What is it Ryan?" I question him with more seriousness in my voice.
"I need to tell you something." He looks around. People are hopping up and down, some are sticking closer to each other as if glued, some are bathing the other in champagne and then licking it off. "Let's go somewhere else."
He starts walking and I follow him. After crossing more wild encounters than a 90s European porno, he turns right from the neon green-lit EXIT sign.
The lights are dim in this alleyway almost like it's an extension of the insides.
Wet sounds of tongue slapping and slurping fill the silence along with chirping of crickets and numb music still audible from here.
"Where are we going?"
"Shh..." Ryan shushes. He lifts his hand and points forward. There's a stairway in front of us. People are climbing up the stairs, and from the looks of how most of them look horny half-undressed couples-it must be the hookup zone. He motions at me to follow him behind.
We stop in front of an open door. The room looks great from outside, nothing like Zane and my room, but definitely nice for something casual. Candlelit with warm jazz playing in the background. Smelling like a blend of Sandalwood and Jasmine.
Ryan walks inside. I follow him. Just when I enter the room, he goes behind me, looks to the right then to the left, then slams the door shut, locking it with urgency. "What the-" Something shitty has happened. For sure.
After checking the lock, he takes a peek outside from the keyhole. I am assuming the coast is clear, because he turns around. His eyes intense and lips thinned into a line.
"What's happening, Ryan?" Maybe it's the see-through mesh of my bodysuit but suddenly chills start running up my whole body. The blood flowing through my veins in an irregular beat of palpations. "You are scaring me."
"William, I need to tell you something." He pulls out a handkerchief from his pocket and daps his forehead. "I don't know if you are in the state to take it well though."
"What the fuck is it, damn it?" I walk closer to him, my eyes already filled with hot streams of wet tears. "Just tell me. I can take it."
"I don't think-"
"Enough, Ryan." I raise my hand. "Just tell me"-I grasp my mask and then remove it-"What is it?" My breathing is harder and louder.
"I think you should sit down, William." He looks down at his shoes.
"Just fucking say it!" I snap.
The tone of my voice does pump up Ryan, and screams, "I think our lead could be wrong!"
"Lead? Wh-what do you mean?" I rub my hand on my chest. "Be-be clearer. P-p-please."
Ryan comes closer, squeezes my shoulders and this time his voice comes out quieter than sorrow but louder than the sirens in my brain, "Yesterday I found something. You know how we planned that I would get close to Vance, right? So these last few days, I tried to get close to him.
But he's far too clever to leave a fucking loose end, but yesterday when he went to take a bath, I was in his room and see a ringbox on a table. I picked it up and there was a ring in it. You know just like the one Zane wears? Just like the one... you remembered."
"S-So what?" I walk past him, staring at the candlestand. "It could be any other ring."
"William, I am pretty sure it's similar to the description you mentioned. Rectangular cut, little diamonds bordering around the sapphire."
Ryan comes behind me and grabs my shoulder to turn me around.
"And remember you mentioned that day you were confused if it was a blue gemstone or green one? Zane's ring has a blue sapphire...and Vance's ring has a green one."
"What?" I look up, my eyes wide and mouth open.
"Yes. And the tattoo... both of them have the same snake tattoo on their forearms."
"So you think he did-"
"At this point, I can't tell William. In dono main se...It could be either of them."
He looks down again. "It could be Zane because he was the one who married you not Vance. He is the heir not Vance."
He faces me again, his face red. "But it could be Vance too, seeing how he used to bother you earlier-although past bullying cannot justify this, but there are chances."
His words blur into the echo of one particular sentence which shatters me again into pieces with that same bullet which tore Romie's heart.
...it could be either of them. My knees buckle and I fall down on the floor, leaning against the table. The candleholder falls beside me. The candle extinguishes into dark ashy smoke.
The most painful day of my life started reviving on the walls of my brain. The same stretcher those paramedics have put Romie on. "Be careful!" I had screamed, tears streaming down when that nurse had slammed Romie's hand forcefully on the stretcher like she meant nothing.
Then dad announced my marriage with a man out of nowhere like it meant nothing.
Then I met Zane for the first time, acted cruel to him and neglected all his first steps towards me. Then took fake vows with him.
Was it all just a mistake?