THE TASTE OF DIRT

Rose’s POV

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Richard’s phone rang. He picked it up and left the basement, probably to scheme with one of his loyal dogs against me.

Katherine and I was left alone in the basement. She didn't leave with Richard, she had more to say to me. She just stood there, watching me. As soon as the steel doors closed, she let out a dry, rattling laugh. Her eyes darting at me.

She leaned closer to me. When Richard was in the room, she acted like I stank, like I irritated her. But now, she was leaning in, her eyes cold as ice. It gave me a cold chill down my spine.

"A safe?" she scoffed. "You and I both know there is no safe, Rose. You have always been so selfish. Don’t you want to die already, so I can finally be happy?"

I looked at her. That was typical Katherine, doing the most evil things but somehow tagging everyone else as the villain. I could never understand her. Did she really not know she was evil? She just betrayed her best friend how could she twist all this in her favour.

"You know I came from a poor background," she hissed. "I told you to hook me up with your dad, or help my mom at least, but you refused. You wanted a happy life all to yourself. Well, now you have made me take everything from you. I hope you die a miserable death Rose."

She stood up and walked out of the basement, I didn’t say a word. I just watched her leave. She was right about one thing. Why wasn't I dead yet? I had lost everything, but for some reason, I was still clinging on to life, hoping Richard would never find that safe.

A moment later, the steel doors flung open again. A maid walked in holding a little plate. I used to be served buffets but now I was being fed from a steel plate that was sure meant for dogs. The maid walked closer to me and tossed the plate onto the floor.

The food spilled on the cold dirty floor, there was no water with it. They finally gave me food but no water.

"Can I get water... please?" I whimpered.

She looked at me like I was a pile of disgusting trash. This was my maid, Esther. My dad had saved her from her debtors and made her the chief cook in this house, but somehow this was how she could repay my dad's kindness.

When I fell ill, she told me that her job was an insult. She sided with my enemies instead. In her words, my dad should have made her an assistant, not a petty cook. She wasn't even a graduate, an assistant of what exactly.

I learned one thing too late. In this life if you pull them from the dirt, they will eventually try to drag you with them, back to the dirt.

She scoffed at me. "What a bad life you live. I don't want to give you a spoiler, but the safe has been found. Turns out even your secretary turned you in. You were such a nasty boss, in your next life you should be at least one percent as smart as your dad." She turned around and left.

I let out another dry laugh. My secretary, Jang, had turned on me. Of course he would, and yes I wasn't as smart as my dad. My dad usually saw through people easily, he warned me about Richard and Katherine. Come to think of it, no wonder Mr Jang never reached out to me. He was just too busy scheming with Richard to ruin me. There was no one person on my side, even though I had been on everyone’s side my whole life.

The steel doors slammed open again. Those red Louboutin heels creaked on the cold tiles. I knew that rhythm. It was the last thing I would hear before I died. I guessed that rhythm would be my passage song to the after life.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Their heals knocked on the cold concrete floors.

"Your time is up, Rose. Thank you for making us billionaires, the gold on that safe cost a fortune. If we wanted we wouldn't work our entire lives." Katherine smiled.

Richard looked at me from head to toe. "Now, how exactly do we kill a breathing woman? I mean, I poisoned your dad slowly but that was different." He scoffed. " Can't you just die on your own, you are so selfish. You really want us to be murderers."

"Don't worry, honey. I brought something and I have been waiting for a long time to do this myself," Katherine grinned.

She pulled out a little dagger. It wasn't long, but I knew it was sharp enough to send me straight to hell. She didn't hesitate. She didn't even blink, she also didn't let me blink.

She drove the blade into my protruding belly. She stabbed it over and over, my blood splashing onto her face. Her eyes were filled with so much fury, for a moment she had the face of a demon. I couldn't even feel the pain anymore, the only thing I could think of was what she told me years ago.

"I won't let anyone kill you. I would do it myself, okay?" Back then, I had laughed, because she had just saved me from being hit by a car. Now, I realized it wasn't a promise of protection. It was a threat. How did I ignore all these red flags.

One last tear streamed down my face as my vision slowly blurred. It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair. If only my dad could look down from heaven and tell God to let me rewrite my mistakes, or let me do it myself.

My eyes slowly shut...