Kara’s POV.I was in a room, bound to a chair. I couldn’t move, not even an inch. The door that led to the room was locked from the outside, I could just tell, and I was gagged, so I couldn’t even scream for help. The room was dark, except for a single, bright moonbeam that flitted in from a hole in the boarded-up window. I didn’t know how I got here, or when it had happened, but I knew that it was bad. How could I not, when I’ve been bound so?Then, suddenly, the door started to open. The locks disengaged from the outside, and the door opened with an ominous creak. I held my breath as a familiar shape stepped out of the darkness and into the moonbeam. Behind my gag, I screamed because that man was Derrick. Derrick grinned, and it was inhuman. His mouth stretched far too wide, and his eyes were large as saucers, cracked with red as if he hadn’t been sleeping for a long while. “Told you!” He gasped. “Told you I’d get you back.” And then he started towards me…That’s when I woke u
Jade’s POV.After we returned to our hotel room, Derrick cleaned off the minibar while cursing Kara’s name. To help him, I ordered a few more bottles of alcohol to be sent up to our room, and by the time midnight rolled along, Derrick was drunk.Not drunk enough to fall asleep, of course, that wouldn’t do. But he was certainly drunk enough to lose his inhibitions. He’d gone out of steam a long time ago, cursing Kara’s name, and started sobbing for her.It was really pathetic.“How could she just move on like that?” he asked me, voice shaking with tearless sobs. “And with someone like that? She could just make us all believe she’s dead and leave to live a life on her own. Doesn’t she care about the guilt we carry? Doesn’t she think we care?”“I hate what she’s doing to you,” I murmured and rubbed his back soothingly. “Kara doesn’t d
Kara’s POV.Derrick was like a man possessed as he tried to hit Axel over and over. Axel again, for his part, managed to dodge some of Derrick’s punches, but one caught him in the mouth and split his lip. He did not fight back, which was smart because that meant no one would see him as violent, and that first punch would be forgiven.Still, I was so angry that I wanted to join the fight myself, but that would not go well. So, I tried my best to pull Axel away from Derrick, while Jade tried to do the same.But then, security rushed in.The burly men in uniform managed to pull them away from each other in record time, and Derrick hurled expletives at everyone within reach. The security guards tried to calm him down, but he didn’t listen to them. Instead, he tried to break off from their hold and rush at me.People were filming the whole thing with glee, and everyone recognized Derrick. That meant this would definite
Kara’s POV.I didn’t really want to go to the Conference Conclusion Celebration, or the CCC as everyonecalled it. It was supposed to be a party that was just a tad less glamorous to be a gala, but extravagant as well.After everything that happened because of that blasted conference, I honestly wanted nothing to do with it. If I hadn’t been there, then Derrick wouldn’t have seen me. If Derrick hadn’t seen me, then he wouldn’t have fixed on me. Although Terra assured me that everything was alright, that Derrick hadn’t said anything in protest and Whitney Conglomerate had gone so far as to apologize and refuse the refund, asking Terra to take it as compensation (a bribe, actually, to make sure we don’t go to the media with Derrick’s misdeeds), still, I felt paranoid, like it wasn’t really over.“What if he decides to come too, Axel?” I asked my friend at lunchtime when h
Jade’s POV.The ring on my doorbell was unexpected on a weekday, so when I heard the sound, I nearly flinched.I’d spend the whole evening internet-stalking Derrick Whitney, trying to see if he had truly moved on from me and what happened with Kara. I had been dreading the day he found a new girlfriend, because that would be detrimental to me.After Kara’s death, Derrick started to unravel. He looked at me with suspicion, and it seemed like he was finally understanding what I’d done to distance him from his wife. He didn’t know what exactly I’d done, but he’d guessed some of it, and no matter how much I tried, I could era the suspicion from his eyes.So, in the end, about a month after Derrick and Kara’s villa went up in flames, Derrick told me that he couldn’t stand to be with me anymore. Apparently, it felt like a slight against Kara’s memory.Like, it was already to cheat on Kara with me when she was alive, but it was only a slight after she died? It was absurd. I tried so hard to
Derrick’s POV.“Harassment, Derrick?!” My grandmother screamed as soon as she stormed into my office. I was already sporting a headache, thanks to the board meeting I’d just attended, and I didn’t have the patience for my grandmother’s dramatics.“Grandma?” I exclaimed. “Why are you here?”“I’m still the majority shareholder of this company, so the board deemed it necessary to get me involved, because this affair pertains to the image of our company. If this woman decides to go to the press with the story of what you did, it’s not just you who’s going to be in trouble, but all of us! Which leads me to my initial question. Derrick, what possessed you to make you do this kind of thing?!”“Can we not do this right now?” I asked, but it was pointless. If anything, that question made her angrier.“No, you gave up that luxury the moment you decided that it was appropriate to treat a young woman you paid to do a job in this manner.”I bit my tongue to keep myself from blurting out that I had