Chapter 31 Rule Three Catherine - Revenge isn’t linear
Rule Three Catherine - Revenge isn’t linear
The other permanent guests dance, drink, and devour each other in their nightly feast of debauchery, while I sat near the window in the honeymoon suite, waiting, longing, and crying about my circumstance.
Time meant nothing here. The seasons changed outside, and so did the people inside, but I never did.
I could, if I wanted. There weren’t any rules to my stay here.
Well, just the one. That I stayed. I could go anywhere on the grounds, wear whatever I wanted, do whatever I wanted, so long as I don’t try to leave. Then...
I shuddered and continued to wallow while staring out into the snow storm.
I’d gone out this morning to feel the cold.
It was a very odd existence here. In many ways, I was just as I’d always been.
I slept, I ate, I went to the bathroom. That wasn’t the case for every permanent resident, but for me, it was.
I still felt pain, pleasure, and emotion.
Which, most of the time was... heartache.
“Clean up your tissues. We have guests.” Lattice, the front desk manager appeared behind me, sneering. I turned and wiped my eyes.
“Guests? In here?” I stood from the bench, smoothing my white gown. “Why? How? In this weather?” I waved at the window.
“Yes, a newlywed couple has just arrived. They are wet, tired, and scared. I suggest you find another room to mope around in for their stay, lest you make your mood worse.” A slow, evil grin spread across his face.
Lattice was a permanent resident too, but he didn’t seem to care as much as some of us.
He found the ones taking it hard amusing.
“Wasn’t there enough rooms?”
Time and space moved differently here. I wasn’t sure how many rooms this place actually held. Thirteen, twenty-five, three hundred? In the time that I’d been here, since I took up residence in the honeymoon suite, Lattice had yet to put anyone in this room until now. What changed?
“There was, but, I thought it would be quite fitting to have them here. Now, they are already up the stairs and turning the corner. Scoot, hurry!” Lattice waved his hands, shooing me out. He cackled maniacally as he disappeared, leaving me to only grow angrier.
I swallowed hard and clenched my fists. There was no way I was letting a pair of newlyweds have my room.
The knob twisted, and I turned, my gaze focusing in on the handle.
The key went into the lock and twisted, just like my insides.
What would they look like? Two men, two women?
One man, one woman? Would they be Black, Asian, or maybe Interracial?
Would she already be swollen from pregnancy?
Would he walk with a cane? Were they even the same age?
None of it mattered, and yet, all of it did, because no matter what this pair looked like, I knew it was going to destroy me, because they were in love.
I held my breath as the door slowly creaked open.
The thump of a footstep drew my attention to the floor, and I saw the white of her dress first. Slowly, my gaze trailed up as the door opened wider.
The dress was old and worn, no longer puffy, probably from the weather outside, but despite the state of the dress, she was. .. beautiful.
For the first time since I became a permanent guest in this hotel, my heart began to beat.
I heard it in my ears. It moved hard, fast, and had me gasping for air.
Her skin, the same shade as mine, was flushed from the cold, creating the sweetest tint to her big cheeks and cupids-bow lips.
Her eyes were a dark, onyx, the same shade as her long, shiny hair.
My lips parted as I felt something for the first time in ages.
Desire.
I couldn’t hate her, whoever she was. She smiled, and my anger melted away. How could I be angry at a woman as beautiful as she was?
But then, she stepped aside, and someone joined her.
And just like that, as if I’d been doused in ice water, my heart stopped, the blood stopped rushing through my veins, the excitement was put out, like a flame after a night of party.
I would know that face anywhere. As if I could forget. The charming smile, the mousy hair. That suitcase in his hand—it was the same one he had back then.
Emmett Grant. In the flesh.
This was why Lattice put them in this room.
He wanted me to come face-to-face with the man who murdered me.
husband.