GINEVRA The morning after a cloud of darkness was dreadful. The brightness of the morning, which I loathed the most, was striking my eyes with such viciousness when my body jerked awake from yet another nightmare. These days, it was Julia who taunted me the most. Memories of her, her voice, the softness of her—she was all over the place. When I woke up, it was Julia. When I slept, it was Julia. Even in my sleep, Julia tormented my dreams. It was unnerving. I had begun going crazy with anxiousness. So crazy that I developed profound hatred for the break of dawn. Since the sun rose this morning, I had been in bed. My eyes wide against the gray ceiling, my head ringing with numbers, desperate to calm my raging nerves. At intervals, sleep had seized me, and I had succumbed to the call of nature. And yet, I couldn’t last longer than five minutes in my sleep.My body was sore all over—too sore that it had become impossible moving my limbs. How possible was it to move when I had be
GINEVRA My body had instantly stiffened with tension when a subtle chaos ensued. The soldiers in the hall shuffled around, more soldiers filed into the hallway, their stance firm, steady, at alert, their hands against the guns that was still tucked into their waistbands. They were prepared for whatever was to come. My eyes met with Cyrus’s rigid form. He had his hand pressed against the earpiece in his ear, and his lips pursed. A few seconds of silence passed, he nodded once. “Stay here. I’ll be right with you.” He whispered. Without allowing me an opportunity for questions, he stormed out the hall. Soldiers followed. Cassandra stepped forward and intertwined her fingers with mine, squeezing gently as though providing me support. As much as I appreciated her gesture, I couldn’t stop my restless mind from running wild with crazy imaginings. With a clear of her throat, Cassandra announced. “Due to an emergency that has presented itself with an urgency to be attended to, we’ll have
RICARDO Regret. I had felt it in my core, my veins, my heart, my bones, through every inch of me. Through the entirety of my being, regret had become paramount. Was it the way her pained eyes bored into mine? Was it the exhaustion and physical pain that had been evident with the way she spoke, walked, or even smiled? Was it the way she held onto me tight, silently pleading that I got her out of this mess? I was ripped apart by all of it. It was my fault, my fault for holding a grudge where there was none. Up until this moment, I couldn’t tell for sure what had prompted my desire to hurt the woman whom I was supposedly attracted to. I had thoroughly pondered on this matter, I thought about it, until I realized. My actions had been as a result of my fucked up mind. All of this sprouted from my need to dominate Ginevra Rodriguez, to own her, to have her surrender to me without realizing it. All of this was an act of manipulation. If she felt weak, if she sensed that I was her s
GINEVRA The dull sound of my phone going off brought me back to consciousness, but that consciousness came with a head jamming pain. My throat elicited a groan, my heavy eyes doing a shit job at taking in my surroundings, my hand sliding around the empty space on the bed in search of the device whose sound had become louder by the minute. My voice, groggy, whispered, “Ginevra speaking.” “Are you high?” Cyrus’s voice blared with anger. With a roll of my eyes, I sat up on the bed, raking a hand through my hair. “I wish I was. Why’re you calling so early in the morning?” There had been a pause. Frantic breaths met my ear, a grunt followed. “Why do I have to be responsible for you per favore. . .” A groan, low in his throat, thick, erupted. “You have to be in Rome for the banquet of the commission.” Shit! With speed, I sprang up from the bed and slid out. My throat had elicited a scream of, “fuck!” As I ran into the washroom. I consumed too many pills yesterday’s night. That much
GINEVRA My orbs glistened with a deep, dark shadow where demons resided, two hands, fingers dark, pressing firm against my throat. On one hand, was disbelief, and on the other, hatred. I couldn’t come off it. I was completely engulfed. I couldn’t breathe. I wanted—needed this to be a dream, and even so, it wasn’t going to be a sweet dream. I was in a black hole, surrounded by nothing but darkness. That smile plastered across his face—Ghost had been mocking my present state. I was pathetic. The palpitations of my heart held anomalies, my eyes, tear-filled, closed shut in a blink, and yet, darkness remained. It was a lie, everything that was shared between Ghost and I. It was all a lie. ‘I desire to make a powerful enemy out of you’—those were the words which he had spoken to me. Power, he gave me. But instead of becoming enemies, we had sealed our alliance by pleasuring one another. So I thought. All this time, with every kiss, every stroke, every moan, every release, every
GINEVRA A dirty smirk marred my face, my eyes squinting with mischief. “Oh, there’s one theory which I’d absolutely love to test out.” The frequency of my words held seduction, the kind that had Ricardo’s eyes glazing over with lust. Ricardo’s front pushed into me, his bulge straining against his pants. “Oh yeah?” I blinked up at him, batting my lashes demurely while my tongue had been slowly gliding across my bottom lip. “Mmhmm.” He groaned. “And what theory might that be, princess.” I chuckled. Typical men. My left hand cradled his face, my thumb stroking with tenderness. Ricardo leaned into my touch with a moan. “It is a shame, Ghost.” I tsked. “If only you weren’t such a liar, If you hadn’t betrayed me, I wouldn’t have had to do this. . .” The implication of my words were yet to be deciphered by Ricardo when I pushed my blade into his stomach. His eyes snapped to mine, and I shot him a smile as I continued to bury my blade into him. In a split second, I was flung across
GINEVRA "Fuck! fuck. . .fuck!" I screamed, my fist continuously ramming into the leather seat of the car conveying me to the airstrip. Dragging in a deep, shuddering breath like a child calming herself after a long cry, my fingers began fumbling with my buttons until my shirt was completely opened, giving me an opportunity to breathe without any barriers. The car was eerily quiet, save for my harsh pants, and the hysteric laughter that had bubbled out of me more times than I could count. Seated with me in the backseat of the car was Cassandra—my underboss had to stay back for the banquet as my representative. So, here I was, seated with a traitor, a traitor whom I was yet to rid of. Because my underboss thought it unfit for me to exert my revenge. Not yet at least. Cassandra’s eyes were on me, unmoving, unblinking, perhaps expectant of my fury, and yet, I said nothing. And she, too, didn’t say a word. When my eyes connected the wandering ones of the man who had been driving us
GINEVRA I stepped on the accelerator like a mad person on the loose, swinging my car from one side of the lane on the highway to another. I drove like I had been living with a death wish as I continuously took out my frustrations on myself—both with words, and with my actions. The back of my head had continuously met the headrest with hard slams, and my fist had continuously rammed into the steering wheel with so much force my knuckles were ripped apart. "How much more do I have to endure in one day!" A scream tore out of my throat, my eyes brimming with tears. Elena's words clouded my thoughts, disorienting my conscious state, forcing out screams of profanities from my mouth. I had tried so many times to shut out my raging mind, but nothing had worked. Without the pills, my mind was the loudest—sickeningly loud. The voice in my head was constantly reminding me that I was a failure. That voice had continued screaming my shortcomings at me until my skin shivered with guilt.