#21: We Spent All The Money

Belle:

Scott and I remained standing speechless in the kitchen several moments after Ava left. I couldn’t react, not yet. In my mind, reacting meant acknowledging that this was all real. That my intricate plan which I’d elaborately designed for years had all come crumbling down to my feet in one day.

At that moment, Scott looked up at me. There was no rage on his face, only silent fear; as if he were asking me, ‘What do we do now?’ I stared at him in disbelief. For the second time that night, I felt disgusted with him.

“Did you really just let her walk out on you?” I asked sharply.

His eyes narrowed. “Didn’t you see what happened here…?”

“What exactly happened here?” I shot back, crossing my arm over the other. “Because she threatened to pour some milk on your wounds? What harm was that even going to cause?”

“You know it’s not that. There’s something clearly different…”

“Yes there is. With you! You’ve grown soft. Too soft. Why on earth would she respect us anymore when she literally saw us get thrown out of the ball and those men beat your defenseless self to a pulp? What happened here is that she has lost all respect for you. She has seen how small of a man you are. You should have never allowed her leave this house in the first place. Now in one day, she has realized you ain’t shit and that there are clearly more powerful people she can slave for…”

Without warning, Scott walked up to me in a flash and gave me a hard smack on my face. I cried out in pain as I clutched my cheek, looking up at him. His anger had returned, but now it was directed toward me.

“What did you do when those men beat me? Didn’t you literally surrender yourself to be taken by him? Even you should have known how stupid and desperate that sounded.”

I grabbed a pan and he immediately stepped back.

“So now you can beat me huh? You’re just a coward. You put yourself in trouble when you started haggling with Noah like a fool like you don’t know who he is. Me surrendering myself was the only sensible thing I could have done after you signed a death warrant for us with your misplaced arrogance. If that man wanted us dead, nothing would have stopped him and even if our bodies were ever found and all traces were to lead back to him, with the power he has, not even the army would have questioned him…”

Scott carefully withdrew the pan from my hand and placed his hands to pacify me. Or maybe it was just to slightly move me out of the way so he could look out and be sure no one was listening to our heated argument.

“Can we stop this for a moment?” He shushed me. “Now is not the time to point fingers.”

I rolled my eyes. If I’d been the one in the wrong, he’d have never said that. I would have had the berating of my life.

However, he just had to look me in the eyes with that soft expression of his and I felt the anger disappear from my body like a smoke.

“We shouldn’t fight,” he said calmly. I nodded.

“This is all Amelia’s fault,” I said, coming back to that realization.

Scott nodded.

“She must have been communicating with her somehow. I thought you had her phone bugged.”

“I do,” Scott responded, bringing out his own phone. “The system is down. But the last time I checked there was no communication with anyone.”

I shook my head.

“Whatever. Our main goal now is to separate the two of them. Amelia is the hole in our boat that we need to patch. Since the first plan didn’t work, we have to be smarter.”

“Well…?”

I glared at him again.

“You come up with something this time.”

He sighed before running a hand through his gradually thinning blond hair. He was exasperated but so was I.

“I know. I’m trying. I just never thought we’d ever have to deal with her suddenly growing a spine. Or at least even if she began to, it wasn’t supposed to be this fast. We would have nipped it in the bud on time. It’s as if she just died and someone else replaced her.”

I rested my back against the wall. As much as I wanted to blame him for everything, he was right. None of it made any sense at all.

“Don’t worry,” I assured him, a scheme already brewing in my mind as I wrapped my arms around him, not even bothering about who saw us in that moment. “I’ll come up with something. I always do.”

“Sir!”

Scott pushed himself off me immediately like a child who’d just been caught playing with something he knew he shouldn’t be playing with.

“What?” He scowled when he realized it was just Gemma, the maid.

“It’s Ava,” she said, turning to me.

My brows furrowed as a millions possibilities crossed my mind.

“What did she do now?”

Before she could answer, Scott stormed out of the kitchen and I quickly followed behind him.

“What the hell are you doing, Ava!”

There were clothes strewn all over the staircase and living room floor. I gasped when I saw them, afraid she had thrown all my clothes away and was serious about chasing me away from her husband, but I soon noticed the clothes were so ugly and dull, things I’d never be caught dead wearing. Her clothes.

Ava smiled and cocked her head to the side. It was a beautiful smile I had to admit, but it reminded me of the joker. It was the kind of smile a crazy person would give before setting the whole building on fire.

“Redesigning my closet. I’m getting rid of all the rags in my house.”

I instinctively stepped back when her eyes remained on me. I looked around. My clothes had to be here somewhere. Why else would she have looked at me when she mentioned getting rid of rags?

A part of me wanted my clothes to be there. If she was throwing my things away, then that meant she now saw me as a threat. Even if that was inconvenient at the moment, it was still hope that regardless of everything that had happened that day, she was still obsessed with Scott.

Scott and I were the only people she had. Or so I thought until today. Having no other option meant she treated us like gods which let us milk her for as long as possible. Spending the money she made from her writing was a perk I wasn’t ready to let go of.

Her having options meant we were doomed. I was desperate to assure myself that her love for Scott surpassed everything else, including common sense. I sincerely hoped that the way she was smiling like a deranged patient meant she had lost it. In her malleable state, I would only need a few words to get her back to base if that were the case.

“What has gotten into you? These are all your clothes! What do you expect to wear if you get rid of them?”

She smiled again, this time leaning over the rail. I wished at the moment that the rail would give out and she would fall headfirst into the hard ground.

No.

She was of no use to me dead. If she would just fall and permanently hurt her spine. Then she’d have to be a cripple. Then her brain would still be intact to write and make more money but without the stress of her ever acting out anymore.

Unfortunately, the rail remained sturdier than ever.

“I’ll just buy more,” she announced with glee. “I’ve made so much money writing and you’ve been keeping it for me, haven’t you. Plus my five hundred thousand dollars in your account. Thank you for keeping my money safe all this time. It’s time for me to start spending!”

Scott turned to me with worry in his eyes.

I totally understood it.

We’d spent all of Ava’s money.