Scarlett’s POVThis is a trap! A pure trap is what this is!!!“What do you know about it?” I pretend to still have things in my control, deciding to trick my way through it.Sebastian curves his lips as if he sees through me, but he says calmly: “I know that Jack Fuller took something from your mom that day he brought you back. Does this worth mean anything to you?”What?! My jaw drops to the ground, and he smirks, knowing he has won the negotiation.It does mean something to me. It means the world to me! I thought I lost her years ago, and he is only telling me now that Jack the devil Fuller has something of hers in his possession?!“What is it and where is it?!” I demand. Sebastian grins and my heart drops--“A kiss, for this piece. Do we have a deal?”Ahhhhh!He did not care about that fucking mirror! He could buy Ava a million of them, easy! He knew I would try to trick him and he lured me to name that damn kiss too easily! Jerk! Jerk!!!I grab the thing closest to my hand and thr
Scarlett’s POVI have never felt so bad in my life.To my “family”, I have always bullied Ava. I broke her stuff, and I said mean things to her. I did. I have broken her stuff before, but mostly replaceable stuff like the pile of shit I threw out of the window today. And mostly because she broke my things first, or that she broke them herself and blamed me.I have never broken something this meaningful for anyone, especially Ava. Maybe it just doesn’t happen often enough so that I’m feeling like sitting on a thousand needles?Ava has been crying -- fake crying -- in front of her room while Alfred cleans it for a while now. I have been sitting on the empty dinner table and waiting for her cry to turn into a real one, for a while.I got really good at telling apart her real and fake cries -- her nose gets stuffed when it’s real. That means she hasn’t realized the apple of her eye is several pieces of an apple now.I feel like I’m sitting on fire.I kept telling myself that it would be o
Scarlett’s POV“Did you know that--”“Sebastian! Sorry about the farce...” Ava’s pitiful yet bright voice cut off my pronunciation class. I pull my wrist hard and of course this time he lets me go.“Scarlett,” Ava calls after me and I almost tremble at her voice. I take a deep breath and turn to look at her. She glances at Sebastian timidly before she hooks her fingers: “I’m sorry I made a fuss about it. I shouldn’t have told you about your mom, and I hurt you. I deserve losing my room if that could make up for anything...anyways, what I’m trying to say is, welcome home.”“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I mumble as I go and sit at the furthest seat.Ava stares at me, a bit surprised. I’m not arguing with her nor trying to expose her lie out of guilt, yes. But I wouldn’t have anyways even if I didn’t break that doll. Like I told her in the hospital, the Fullers are HER family, and the Romeo over there is HER prince charming. I know better now than to demand “fair” from her army.Ava lets out a
Scarlett’s POVHe NEVER sits with me. He is always by Ava’s side at the Fullers, and he is always across the table at our house.“Sebastian...” Ava mumbles, suddenly dropping her face when she was grinning so widely a second ago when Jack Fuller promised to pay for all the stuff I threw, “I, I want to--” She stands up, her plate in her hands.She wants to move over.“Where else should I sit?” Sebastian sits straight with an arm on the back of my chair. He looks at me and not Ava when he points at the empty chair on his other side: “You know who this chair is for?”Ava freezes where she is, staring at Sebastian so nervously in anticipation, her fingers on the edge of the plate are turning white.I roll my eyes. Yeah. Sure. Your princess. The apple of your eye. Like I care for sitting beside you.I grab my plate to move, but he grabs my wrist first: “That’s Anna’s seat and you know why?”Both me and Ava are shocked frozen.“Because a husband should sit by his wife,” He gives me a harmle
Scarlett’s POVI ignore the ice coke.As if I would reach out for it and give Ava a good laugh!I got myself some mashed potatoes and some salad, but nothing on the table lures me like the hot, steamy bowl right in front of me. No one is even touching it, and I can’t, not with something cold to go with. I guess I can settle for a cup of ice water...I glare at the plain, boring water. I don’t want it.My eyes dart to the kitchen. Maybe there is more coke in there? The Fullers don’t drink sodas. Having a daughter fighting death every day does that -- they eat and do everything to the extremely healthy. But maybe--“The coke came with the order,” Sebastian suddenly says, with an innocent tone no less, as if he didn’t just see through my thoughts, “The restaurant? They surely know how to enjoy a good buffalo wing.”I do, too! I begin to regret pushing the coke away. Yes, the jerk got it, but the coke was innocent. I shouldn’t have lashed out on the poor drink.It’s all on him!I glare at
Scarlett's POV“No, thanks,” Noticing Ava’s stare I add, “I have to go and guard my plunder.”Jack Fuller left the table when Ava teared up at her prince gulping in sweat. Anna Fuller sat through the dinner with us, mostly out of manner before she left the moment she was allowed to.But not Ava. She stayed, and apparently, she had words for him, too.It’s been a long day, and I need to make sure I have a bed to sleep in for the night. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Ava bought Alfred to mess up the room instead of cleaning.“I’ll walk you to your room then,” He offers jokefully, adding before I could say no, “Or you’d rather talk about our deal here?”“Seb...” Ava murmurs timidly as she approaches.I swing off his hand, looking at him coldly to wait for his decision. I know what his decision would be. Ava knows too. The only one who doesn’t seem to know is him.Ava nails her eyes on Sebastian, and he nails his on me. I leave. Love is a game big enough for only two, and I no longer want
Scarlett’s POVSebastian left after my outburst that night. I think I hurt him after all. Rip the band-aid, right? He never comes again after that, and I had a week in peace. No annoying Ex, no Ava, and no news.In the end, our news didn’t make it to the front page. Not even the last page or any page. Jack Fuller secretly reached out to my cameraman only on the second day, proposing to buy out the video. And though the cameraman raised the price three times after a deal was made, Jack Fuller budged over and over again.I know because he wasn’t just any cameraman, he was one of Adrian’s best friends, a veteran from Afghanistan, and now my bodyguard.My homemade little video was sold at the price of fifty grand. I think I could push it even further than that, but we already got what we wanted -- to test out Jack Fuller's attitude--He went out on a limb to keep my name off the news, even though Ava would loved painting me as the worst adopted sister of all time.My family is definitely
Scarlett’s POV“So what did he took from your mom?” Lucas asks.“Well...”Lucas narrows his eyes: “Do you not know what it is?”No. I didn’t go through with Sebastian’s “deal”, and in the end, I only got to know that Jack Fuller took something.Damn that jerk.“Then how is it different if I’m going instead of you?” Lucas lets out a chuckle, seeing through my hesitation, “How were you even going to look for it though?”“Well...”“Yep, say no more,” Lucas concludes our conversation, realizing I have no good answer to his questions, “I’m not letting a pregnant woman climbing second-floor balconies to look for a maybe.”“I can sort of tell Jack Fuller’s things apart from something that doesn’t belong to his office--”“I’ll show you the study through video,” Lucas’s solution comes faster than my hard-came answer.“If they catch me red-handed, I’m just a daughter sneaking around her adopted father’s study, but if you--”“I won’t let them catch me.”That concluded our discussion. The party s
Scar bursts out in tears, hitting him and clawing him and kicking him everywhere she could, “I will never forgive you! Ever! I was blind to have fallen for you, but now I know better! If you want a piece of advice, here is one: never love someone who doesn’t love you. And I, don’t, love, you! Never again!”The man stands there, letting every word slam on his heart like little hammers. But no matter how much they hurt, he just can’t seem to let go. How could he when he knows what real love tastes like now? She says it as if loving him was a mistake. It wasn’t. It was the best thing that could ever have happened to him.The mistake was that he didn’t cherish it, because he didn’t realize what he had.“You said you would give me a chance if our daughter didn’t die,” The man says.“I didn’t say that!” Scar snaps.Lilith listens carefully--“You didn’t say no either,” The man says calmly. It’s not a funny joke, but he is not laughing because every muscle in him is stretched tight, restrain
In the end, Lilith told Sebastian everything she knew, didn’t get anything out of that man, AND got pushed into the small bedroom -- to avoid Scar.She didn’t notice the door on the wall behind his desk when she first went into his office. The door is small, the room smaller -- just enough for a single bed, a table and a floor mirror. Nothing more. The owner of the room didn’t put any thoughts into comfort when he was deciding the ufnction of the room.The bed is not made. Someone just used it very recently. The table is, magically, messier. On its top piled papers, folders, and notes. Whoever left them there, left them in an order that he might recognize, but no others could.Lilith dares not touch anything. Turning around twice, she ends up standing in the small space between the bed and the door, awkwardly.“Where is your honorable guest?” Scar starts firing the moment she is allowed in. Lilith gets so nervous, her breathe slows down to the lowest, too. Scar might be on fire, think
Sebastian’s words freezes Lilith. His accurate intuiation shocks, but not as much as his aggressive eyes. Looking into his eyes, Lilith knows she can’t win this fight without needing him to say those words. She has seen how tamed this man can be in front of Scar, and that gave her the illusion that he is not dangerous. Not as how any man in his position holding his kind of power should be.How wrong was she.When it comes to anyone but Scar, he is still the predator who is to be reckoned with.She frowns and tries to run, but the man wouldn’t let her open the door: “If you know that Silco might harm Scar and you hide it from me, then it’s on your hand when Scar gets hurt.”“It’s on me when I refuse to deliver Scar into YOURS hands, which are holding Ava Fuller’s filthy bloody ones?!” Lilith fights back fiercely, “Don’t make me laugh! I come here because YOU begged to make amendment, no the other way around!”The man doesn’t show it, but Lilith could see that her words sting. If there
Does she really treat Sebastian differently?Scar doesn’t like touching this question. It stings. He is like a wound on her heart that just won’t heal. Every scar he left on her remains hurting, bleeding, and corrupting nonstop, yet she just can’t seem to gouge it out.If only she could.Why is it so hard to just cut all ties with this man? However she warns herself of the danger this man poses, she keeps finding him back in her life, closer and closer.Unlike Ava who has never even apologized for what happened but basically took all the harm she did on Scar as okay, Sebastian apologizes. He puts up the genuine guilt act all the time. Doing the right thing, that’s his brand. He takes all his chances to apologize, but he still doesn’t understand--His fault is not giving Ava a key to his house. It wasn’t even falling for that simple lie when the
Scar couldn’t answer Silco’s question.What kind of a question was that?! She doesn’t treat them differently! They are all her enemies, and they all played a part in that horrifying night five years ago! When Ava bullied her, Sebastian took Ava’s side; when Ava needed her blood, Sebastian was the one plugging the tube into Scar’s wrist; when Ava tried to murder her child, HIS child, he gave Ava the key to their house! So of course she treats them differently! If Ava was a murderer, then Sebastian was just a stupid tool Ava used; if Ava wanted her dead, Sebastian only failed to protect her.So why that question?!Why SHOULD she treat them as equally evil? She doesn’t only because she is a fair person!Having a bloody battle in her mind, Scar couldn’t help but feel angry when she couldn’t pin down where the anger comes from.It was a simple question, one that she does have an answer for.So why couldn’t she?Why did she feel guilty when Silco asked that, and why did she run from that qu
Silco finally nods with a proud smile, seeing Scar had led her to where he was leading her to go: “I think that would raise our chances by a lot, princess.”Scar’s eyes beam, not at the coming win, but at the proud look from Silco.She doesn’t even realize it.Never in the first twenty years of life has she tasted what being proud of feels like, and that’s not because of a lack of trying. For a very long time, she believed so long as she worked hard, she would get the praise from Jack and Anna just like Ava. She never did.It feels amazing.While Scar is enjoying her newfound secret, forbidden satisfaction, Lilith is amazed at the closeness shared between Scar and Silco that her best friend doesn’t seem to even notice herself. Does Scar still remember that she doesn’t even know the identity of this man? Scar looks up at him like a little lamb at her shepherd.What’s with this sudden, almost-father-daughter vibe?!“So we just wait?” Scar asks Silco, “What if they don’t make a move?”“Y
“Silco!” Still in the euphoric state, Scar springs off the sofa, demanding the man like a little girl, “You knew him?! Elijah Green? Did you know what a weirdo he was?! Who tells people that they look like their dead friend on the first time they meet?! Why on earth did you make me go to that horrible party?! You owe me an explanation!”Silco lets out a smirk, “Dead...friend? Interesting...” He laughs at her pout, rubbing her hair as he leads her back to the sofa: “The party was horrible? Then why did I hear that the Fuller’s mother-daughter pair put on quite a show to entertain?”Well, it WAS quite enjoyable when they panicked as their lies spilled all over the floor before Scar picked it up for them.Scar sticks her tongue out.“Sure, she begged me for mercy,” Scar shrugs, throwing herself back into the sofa with a loud sigh, “but they only wanted to keep up their lies in front of the Green Lady. I have been calling her about our deal and she hasn’t picked up yet. Pretty sure I got
“I have heard a lot about you,” Elijah Green grins at Scar, giving a meaningful glance in the Green Lady’s direction.The Fullers are pasting around the Green Lady again, like two buzzing flies that would always come back. Looking over, Scar couldn’t help but let out a snort, “So have I.” She says with a cold voice, “Is that what this conversation is for?”If he is here to fight for Ava, too. Scar frowns. She swears to God! She would—“I think they are lying to mom,” Elijah Green answers tamely, as if he doesn’t even hear the sarcasm in Scar’s tone. In Scar’s surprised look, the man laughs like a marshmallow, with a childish, mischievous shade in there, “Anyone who looks so much alike my dear -- hmm -- friend, couldn’t be a bully.”Every time he says that, he adds a pause in there as if it originally wasn’t a “friend”, but something else there. Weird. Scar thinks.“...but I bet you are fierce, no? I bet you are kind to people, but take the stand if needed,” Elijah Green is still going
Sebastian is afraid.Never in his life has he been so. How could he not? He is in the face of his final judgement. He only got through the past five years lying to himself that Scar hated him because Alice died, when he managed to save Alice. That’s his one shred of hope. That some day, when he could tell Scar that, all will be forgiven and forgotten.But that’s precisely why he dared not touch it. Because deep down, he knows that the answer is likely to be no.He just doesn’t know how to survive that answer. If his actions would never get forgiveness from the one person he can’t live without. Then what?It takes him all his willpower to force his eyes up to meet Scar’s. His throat so dry that it starts hurting. He grips a fist, hides it in his pocket with his whole body stiff like a rock.There is storm in Scar’s eyes.There is anger, of course. Anger for all that has happened. Anger for all his stupid mistreatment and self-righteousness. Anger for all the hurt he used to meet her lo