Crimes Of Eregor II: LEGACY

20: Women of the past

As she dusted her clothes and pulled out the creases, she whipped out a bottle of DKNY perfume and sprayed it all over herself, drenching herself in fragrance to overwhelm the stench of her sweat.

"You're late, Katelyn," Emilia rolled her eyes in vexation as she looked up from her desk when Katelyn shuffled by. She was perky from finishing the cup of aromatic americano latte she'd bought from Starbucks, while Katelyn was still trying to catch her breath.

"1 minute early," Katelyn tried to hide the fact that she was panting in her escape from the killers but to no avail.

"Being on time is considered late." Emilia's words were laced with a hint of sarcasm, but she simply gave Katelyn a pat on the back and continued walking past her. "Let's go."

Katelyn trudged behind in her stilettos, while dreading the fact that these uncomfortable shoes were a mandatory part of her work attire.

The daughter of Clyde Davis, eh? She definitely wasn't one to be trifled with.

No matter how much Emilia rebuked Katelyn at work, she had to lower her head to someone else whose parents were in close terms with politicians. Afterall, her main job wasn't confined to this desk and paperwork from 9 to 5-she was the daughter of a mafioso that led Seige at the time.

The arranged marriage against her will made her absolutely disgusted that she had to sacrifice her happiness and firstborn to have been from a man that she did not love at all.

The only reason why she had to protect Gwen was simply because Seige had to do something to hide the world-changing artifact that Daniel desperately wanted to get his hands on. And in order to do so, they replicated the Infinity Emerald, a fake which Daniel seized, while placing the real Emerald right under his nose without his realisation.

Gwen.

It was probably the most cruel thing that they had decided to do while Gwen was only two years old, but it was the only way they could prevent raising suspicions that Daniel was holding on to the fake.

Katelyn felt suffocated. Every commute to and fro from work was always an intense chase, a run for her life, and sometimes even involved her having to stab or shoot someone on her way to work just to get out of harm's way.

She knew he wanted her dead. She knew he just wanted to remarry that girl without Seige going after him.

Emilia. Her very own superior.

Emilia probably knew what was going on as well, and that might have also fuelled one of several reasons for the cold shoulder she gave Katelyn ever since they established each other's presence in the present predicament.

Lunch with the superiors was a sorry event, especially when Katelyn received a dressing down for submitting the recent proposal a day late. The night before the deadline, she had been cornered helplessly into a life and death situation, and if not for Cyprus's idea to have men tail Katelyn after she knocked off from work, Katelyn would have never been able to submit the report anyway.

Everyone who was seated around the embossed wooden table were chatting blithely amongst themselves about their children, and how they were faring in school.

But Katelyn's mind had drifted elsewhere as she mulled over the fact that her everyday life was led with feelings of trepidation-and neither Gwen nor herself was safe at this point.

"How's your daughter, Kate?"

No response.

"Kate?"

No response again.

The whole world just felt like it had been blanketed in an ominous fog of unprecedented calamity, and people around her were as insignificant as fleeting shadows that seemed to have no presence in her eyes.

"She's been having a rough time recently, I believe..." Emilia's two-faced self switched on as a smile of deception parted her burgundy-tinted lips. "Let's just leave her alone..."

Katelyn gazed emptily out of the glass panels, and there was only one person that could come to her mind.

Gwen. Are you safe out there?

❃❃❃

PRESENT DAY

"I'm never ever letting go of her again, and neither am I surrendering myself to a fate that I can never be there to protect the child I loved!" Katelyn's arm morphed into twin Katanas that lacerated Emilia several times, striking with just as much force as the words that came out from her mouth.

Emilia was thrown backwards against the sidewalk as Katelyn made aggressive movements towards Emilia.

For all these years that I could not be there for you, Gwen, I am truly sorry to have failed in my basic duty as your mother...I deprived you of the love and affection that anyone else your age was blessed with...I turned your life upside down...

These thoughts fuelled even greater motivation and hatred within Katelyn that spurred her to fight Emilia till the death.

From this point, I will set things right, Gwen. Trust me.

Martin was watching nervously while reprogramming several updates to Katelyn as soon as he analysed Emilia's movements, attacks, defenses and blind spots. It didn't help that the caffeine in his drink was kicking in and exacerbating his existing state of nervousness. He sincerely hoped that for a split second, a mere window of opportunity would open itself for Katelyn to strike Emilia from behind—where her core was located, without receiving fatal damage.

It was now or never.

"You think a few words can sway me?" Emilia chuckled in amusement and dodged Katelyn's attacks. "I was once your superior, and it will always stay that way so I can teach you to know your fucking place!"

Pointlessly pricking at cold, metallic shells of souls whom already departed from their human bodies, Katelyn and Emilia both had decades worth of hatred, anger and grudges against one another that manifested in the form of a war of words.

But words alone could not compensate for the pain both parties had endured, as well as the suffering that Katelyn had brought her daughter regrettably.

"I'm never letting you lay a finger on Gwen again!" Katelyn successfully cornered Emilia and held her at knifepoint with the blade, forcefully making a dent in her neck.

"I won't even feel a tinge of pity destroying this inhuman body of yours, Emilia," Katelyn lunged forward and unexpectedly delivered a second blow to the lower half of Emilia's body. "What you did to my daughter is unforgivable."

Emilia choked and her weaponised hands morphed back into human-like hands and she turned her head stiffly towards Katelyn.

"Did you...really think I would...cave in so easily?" The smile that crept across her face was just as unassuring as the one she gave Katelyn decades ago over the staff lunch.

Martin watched the screen in despair as he pulled out his communicator with trembling fingers to send a brief voice message to Gwen.

"I'm sorry."

A/N: I have been so busy with school that I barely wrote anything for almost half a year! I might continue the series more regularly after my University projects are done :) thanks for all the reads and comments, I appreciate everyone's feedback and support!