THE CRACK

AMARIS POV

“What have I said about my properties?”

The voice came in clear, calm, but harsh, piercing through the partially deafening silence.

I struggled. I struggled to open my eyes just to confirm I wasn’t dead yet. That I wasn’t hallucinating his presence.

Zevian was indeed here. Standing tall, his gaze fixated on Giaus, who was now lying limp on the ground with a pool of blood surrounding him.

Zevian was about to take a step closer to him, but the supposedly limp Giaus dragged himself away, desperate to get as far away from Zevian as possible.

“Forbidden… Forbidden,” Giaus stammered before coughing up blood.

And all I could think of was, what manner of strength did Zevian possess to render a man barely alive with one hit?

“Yet you disobeyed.”

Zevian muttered, grabbing Giaus by the collar.

“But… but you don’t love her? I was told you hated her. I just wanted to punish her for you,” Giaus ranted while being lifted off the ground by Zevian.

“Yes, I hate her… but that doesn’t make her less of my property. And you touched what’s mine.”

Zevian growled, and before anyone could register what was happening, Giaus was already on the other end of the bathroom, his head twisted at an awkward angle. No sound came from him.

He… he was…

I turned to look at Zevian. “You killed him,” I said, not only disbelief but fear.

“And you almost let him hurt you?” Zevian said, sounding irritated as his eyes ran over the blood on my body.

I tried sitting up, but pain shot through my back. I ignored his words, withholding the information that I was the one who pointed the pin at Giaus.

“Isn’t he your business partner?” I stared at the ground instead, too scared to look anywhere else.

“Was.”

Zevian squatted beside me, examining my hands.

“And this is exactly why I warned you never to be more than two feet away from me.”

Zevian’s words shocked me. Didn’t he keep me by his side at parties just to have complete control over me?

“I…I.. hm,” I stammered, not knowing what to say.

“I guess you won’t be able to walk?” He said, ignoring me.

Before I could get a word in, Zevian had already swooped me into his arms, lifting me against his chest while I shut my eyes tightly and grabbed onto his neck.

Why was he carrying me? My palms were obviously the ones bleeding, not my legs.

Or was he going to fling me like Giaus?

My eyes flew open at the thought, only to meet Zevian’s bright eyes staring back at me questioningly.

“You look ugly when you stare like that.”

Quickly, I shut my mouth, which I knew was open, and faced his tie instead.

~

Zevian drove back home, not failing to call Lucas to check up on me, which was another weird thing added to my list.

Lucas treated my wounds and gave some supplements, saying they would help me heal faster and better, then went into the room to check up on Amoria.

Meanwhile, Zevian went upstairs, probably to cleanse the chaos he had just created by killing Giaus.

The room eerily became quiet, like it usually was. It was late at night, and all the staff had probably gone to bed in their own quarters.

I stood up, about to go to my room, when my gaze trailed to Amoria’s bedroom. I noticed the door was slightly ajar, with Lucas still inside.

But by the time I looked back, my mom was standing quietly in the hallway, her arms folded against each other, her gaze fixated on me.

“Your plans are finally coming together, huh?” she said, walking calmly toward me.

“M…mom?” I said, still in shock that she had decided to speak to me. This was the first time her words were directed at me or that she had even looked my way.

“You stopped being my daughter a long time ago so don’t you call me that,” she hissed, her gaze scanning the injuries on my neck and hand.

Slowly, she walked toward me, and I eagerly wanted to have a bit of a conversation with my mother for the first time in a year, even if it might mean her condemning me for things she thought I had done wrong.

But never would I have imagined that the first thing she’d do once she got closer was leave a resounding slap on my face, throwing me off balance.

My hand shot to my face, rubbing the sting as I gazed at her questioningly.

“Next time, be more careful… do you want to harm my daughter that badly?!” she half yelled.

“That’s what you say after finding out I was hurt? Do you even know how I got this? Do you know why I got this?” I said, already feeling my eyes getting wet.

“I don’t care! You’re the reason she’s here in the first place, so it’s the least you can do. I didn’t see you getting this hurt when you guys weren’t linked,” she hissed.

I swallowed the urge to say what I wanted, knowing fully well she wouldn’t care. But just before I turned away, I decided to ask the one question that I had always wanted to ask.

“If you didn’t love me, why did you bother taking me in? You could have just left me in the streets. At least I wouldn’t have grown up begging for the smallest bit of your attention.”

“You, this ungrateful child!” She yelled, her hands raised in the air, ready to hit me. “Why can’t you just die?! Why didn’t you just die!”

Her voice cracked, suddenly dropping her hands as she probably remembered that “her daughter” would hurt from whatever she was about to do to me.

My heart tightened against my chest as I struggled to breathe.

The pain I felt from her words was a thousand times worse than the slap to my face or the injury on my hand.

She walked past me, not even sparing me a glance or denying that she didn’t mean it.