Semua Bab THE CHARISMATIC MRS. BELMONT; BACK FOR REVENGE : Bab 51 - Bab 60

ALICIA"Can I drop you off?" Zach called from behind, causing me to stop mid tracks. I turned around and stared at him, my eyes dropping to the ring on his hand."Umm, it's completely fine Zach, I can get by on my own." I replied, my voice a bit strained and quiet. His face scrunched up in confusion as he hung his head in frustration.I raised my gaze to his face and I paused, my heart breaking slightly. I looked at my feet, at the file in my hand and back to my fingers that were slowly eating at each other."I'm fine," I said, and even as the words came out I could hear how unconvincing they were, "really, I am."He looked at me and his face did that thing where confusion and frustration arrived at the same time and fought for space, his brows pulling together and his mouth pressing into a line as he exhaled through his nose and looked away for just a second like he was trying to decide something.I stood there and watched him and, the guilt that had been sitting at the edge of every

ALICIA"Don't go, stay." As his grip tightened around my wrist, I felt a breath I never knew I was holding in escape my lips and I tried to move forward but he only pulled on me harder."Alicia," he called out, his voice soft and light. As I turned around, the light from the table lamp reflected on his skin, highlighting the brokenness I had decided not to see a few hours ago.I closed my eyes shut, holding back the tears I was desperately trying to avoid from rolling down my cheeks.I tried to push it away, all of it, the way he looked and the way his voice had sounded when he said my name, and reached back instead for the other things, the things I had carried for six years and knew by heart because I had lived inside them for so long they had become part of me– the cold of the cell at night, the kind of cold that gets into your bones and stays there, the crying that had no bottom to it, the pain that rolled through me in waves so heavy I hadn't known sometimes whether I would m

ALICIA "Flowers came in for you again." A nurse peered into the office, flowers gripped in her hands. My gaze lowered to the roses in her hands, a small smile tugging at the corner of my lips. "Who's it from?" I asked, trying to maintain the tone of my voice. Could it be from him again? I adjusted in my seat, my heart doing backflips behind my ribs. "It's from an anonymous sender, I think." She pulled on the attached card, confusion etched on her forehead as she brought the bunch to my desk. An anonymous sender? I grabbed the bouquet and let my gaze fall on the card. It had no name signed, just a signature at the bottom of the card. "Was...was that all that came for me?" I asked, turning the flowers around suspiciously. "Yes." She replied, her gaze on my serious expression that was either giving away my curiosity or my disappointment. I stared at the flowers after she left and turned them over slowly in my hands as I looked at the card again like something new was going to ap

KILLIAN"Tell her I'm here and I need to see her right now." I told Walter again for the third time since I arrived at the mansion that morning. I paced through the length of the corridor, my hands feeling sweaty.The sound of Walter's footsteps disappeared into the distance, the silence slowly pulling at my sanity.After what felt like forever, the footsteps resurfaced and as it got closer, I stopped pacing, pulling my hands over my chest."Well?" I asked as his figure reappeared through the corner. I opened my hands and raised my eyebrows in curiosity but they were lowered instinctively as I noticed his facial expression.Walter's face said everything before his mouth did, that particular look he had carried my entire life when he was the one caught between my mother and whoever she had decided she wasn't available to, apologetic, careful and braced for the reaction."She said she wasn't available, sir," he said, the way he always said things he knew weren't going to land well, quie

ALICIA"Hey, wait up!" I jogged after Zach, chuckling nervously as I finally caught up with him. He paused, his eyes fixed on the cars on the road as I tried to catch my breath."What's going on?" I asked, trying my best to keep my voice controlled."I don't know what you're referring to, Alicia." He said and I folded my arms trying to avoid his gaze."I mean–" I started and tried to find something light in it, something that would take the edge off the last few minutes and bring us back to the easy version of this, the version where we talked about everything, and it never cost this much, "you looked like you had seen a ghost back there, I was starting to get worried about you," I laughed a little, just a small sound, just enough to offer him the option of laughing with me and letting it go.He didn't take it."Don't," he said, his voice wasn't unkind but it was firm and it didn't leave room for the joke to land anywhere, "don't try to make it look like less than what it already was,