CHAPTER 62: The Unknown Demise
Edmund had a practiced look of iced coldness in his silver orb eyes, riveting and so very dark. I saw it when I first met him, in a mere Academy hallway, he was rude and condescending and he had the same look on his face as he shoves his bag of clothes on the lounge suite and stares between Kenji and I. Kenji slides his hand from my hip as he clenches his jaw and looks down at me, Edmund stares into my eyes, a penetrating manner.
"You still believe I have nothing to worry about, lemon?"
His tone of voice struck a flinch from my already shaking bones. I take a step forward, fixing my silk gown over my chemise as I look up at him. I couldn't conjure enough words as his suit-covered figure stands staunching and magnificent in the doorway of the slammed wooden door. He stood taller almost, towering over Kenji and I like some sort of agent, hidden leadership and such dominance radiating from him.
I couldn't form words.
Kenji steps around me, "Excuse me." He mutters.
I gasp out when Edmund holds out his hand, connecting it with Kenji's chest, he looks down at Kenji in menace-controlled menace. A dark mist surrounded Edmund as he halts Kenji for all that he is, "If you ever touch her without her permission again, you better hope an expensive make-up job can cover what I'll do to you if you so much as pull a stunt like this again." He threatens Kenji. His tone of voice wasn't that of a growl of any sort, instead, it was stoic promise.
Kenji shoves his hand off of him, giving me one last look before he rips open the door and leaves, closing it behind him with a softer thud than when Edmund purposely slammed it to get our attention. Edmund stares down at me, "You obviously can't read a man's mind well enough to know how far his feelings go for you, can you?" He spits at me, stepping towards the bed and untying his shoes.
"I mean, for the love of God, Melanie. Do you think I'm blind or just an utter imbecile? If I were to use your posh and pretentious terminology." He says to me, harshly, as if this was all my fault. I keep my arms folded just under my chest. The cold air of the night brushing against my tense back as he rips his bag open and grabs a pair of shorts.
I don't even blink.
He points at the shower, "The second I'm done, we're having a long conversation because obviously there is nothing resolved. I understand why you're mad at me, but lying to my face about Kenji's feelings. What did you two talk about when you were both alone?" He asks me, staring in a penetrating manner, his tone of voice was strict and stern as he might as well be icing out the rest of the room with his glacial coldness sent in only my direction.
I stay still.
"Tell me, Melanie? What. Did. You. Two. Talk. About? Or so help me, I'll walk out of this room right now and board my plane which has already landed, but I wanted one more night with you because I didn't want to leave you like this. Pissed off with me, as always. As if I can't do anything right and I'm the apparent compulsive liar when you just lied to my face about Kenji." He shouts at me, angry now too.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, turning away from him.
He shoves his bag to the floor and slams the en-suite bathroom door closed. I slide down the edge of the bed, pulling my legs up to my chest. My chest shakes as I muffle that sounds ready to leave my throat as my eyes glaze over, my stomach clenches in a way that makes me want to hurl out dinner and everything else running through me. The shower running gives me the only indication that he's still in there.
When I heard the shower stop fifteen minutes later, I hurriedly move onto the bed, opening the sheets and settling in. My back facing the en-suite as I stare out into the balcony. I liked the wind drying out my tears, I stay still when the door opens.
I could feel every step he'd laid on the floor. Without a second thought, I close my eyes, not turning towards him, not acknowledging the dip in the mattress behind me. I hear him sigh above me when all he sees is my closed eyes and shallow breathing. He moves off the bed and walks towards the terrace, leaning his bare arms on the railing and staring out into the constellation of stars.
I made no sound as I removed the sheet and slid off the bed. I step in behind him, slowly curling my arm around his torso and lowering my forehead to the middle of his spine. He stands up straight, not saying a word when I cuddle him from behind. He doesn't reach out to me either. He stands stiff above me.
I sniffle against him.
He breathes firmer as he turns towards me, leaning his back against the railing as he pulls me towards him, one hand on the back of my head and the other firmly covering my lower back. I bathe in his warmth with my head firmly under his pecks, in the middle, just under his heart.
"Do you still have to go?" I whisper against his pale and highly toned skin.
"Yes, Melanie." His tone was still strong, stoic and cold. Even though he held me, he was still mad and I guess I understood him. I just didn't want to understand him. He must have been furious with Kenji, a man who thought he could touch me the way he did, but I couldn't read Edmund's mind, he sounded betrayed.
The strain in my neck pulses. A cold palm and five fingers reach up towards it, he massages the area, as if knowing me well enough to know where I felt the pain, where I needed soothing. I look down, tracing each set of abs, counting each one as I go and coming up to an easy eight before seeing the v-line dip past his trousers.
He continues the massage, "What did Kenji talk about with you, Melanie? I don't want to have to ask again." He says to me, I close my eyes at his sternness, it was something I didn't need nor want right now and it felt as though he was being unfair.
"He confessed he's had feelings for me...for awhile now. This is the first time he's openly told me everything." I whisper into him. He remains stoic, unreadable with no emotion on his face, besides a clenched and ticking jaw.
His grip loosens as he steps away from me, out from my arms and steps around me, wracking his hands through his hair, silver eyes that could cut fully grown trees thin at our surroundings. I fold my arms around myself, watching him with fear running through my heart like a disease in my blood, darkening and locking, constricting and tightening as I try to remove the feel of it with my hand smoothing against my bare collarbone.
He leans on the doorway to the balcony, with his muscular back to me, "I didn't want to tell you that Sampson had called. He apologised to me for both of us, regarding his betrayal to protect his sister that he still doesn't have back. She's young and has been through what he and I and the rest of us has been through, he doesn't deserve to be lugged around by Charlize because of her feud with your family." He says aloud, monotonically.
My lips curl, "You can't possibly be blaming Ivy's disappearance on me?" I whisper, I couldn't believe his words.
He turns on his side and leans his head back, "I'm not. It's the way you're perceiving it as and that's where we're having problems already, Melanie. I'm tired of us fighting. You still don't trust me, despite our entire relationship growing to the point where I've asked you to marry me and already, you've lied to me about Kenji and don't say it was to protect me. That was to protect you." He says to me, turning to face me now.
I look into his eyes, "What protection would this have for me? What? You think I secretly reciprocate his feelings and that I'm getting truly bored with you, that I won't ever trust you again because of every lie you have ever told me. I wouldn't have let you get anywhere near me if that was the case. I didn't tell you all of what he said because I was continuously telling him over and over again that I love you, that I am irrevocably in love with you and you're going to stand here like the biggest prick on the planet and tell me that I'm the bitch who caused Ivy to get kidnapped? That I'm the one causing the issues here?" I ask him, taking a step forward with my voice low.
I point up at him, "Not one or two but all of your friends have hurt me in unimaginable ways. I don't trust any one of your friends, including Sampson's group. You have hurt me too. We're still struggling to get past that because your over-possessiveness has gone haywire and flown right above my head because you think I'm going to leave you for Kenji or for some other guy you think is better for me." I tell him, turning away and furrowing my eyebrows.
I show him the ring, "What is this, Edmund? What was my promise in regards to this ring? Did you only ask me or put it on me to stake a bloody claim on me? Once I'm fill with your children, will you be satisfied that I'm all yours then?" I ask him, boldly. I know I sounded ridiculous, but he was ripping it out of me.
He scrunches his face up, "What? No! That's not what I'm talking about. We promised no more lies. Then, I walk into a bedroom where Kenji has you against a wall, confessing his undying feelings for you while you what? Stand there and look pretty?" He asks me-No, he growls at me.
I close my eyes, "I told him I love you, you freaking chaotic idiot!" I snap at him.
He raises his arms out wide, "Fantastic job at showing me, lemon. You've got me pissed off and jealous as hell because you continuously have men running after you like a fucking enchanting goddess, while I'm tied to the sidelines as one of your damn accomplishments." He says, turning away and strutting back into the room.
My jaw drops, "An accomplishment? When have I ever made you feel like a bloody accomplishment?" I ask him as he struts over to his side of the bed and rips open the duvet sheets, taking a seat with his back to me as he removes his watch.
"You haven't." He mutters, leaning his arms on the covers.
I stare at him in confusion and anger, "Then, what kind of argument do you have on me, Edmund?" I ask him, roughly as I take a small seat on the leather couch seat at the end of the bed, Edmund leans forward on his hands, groaning and running them down his neck.
"I'm angry because I know I shouldn't be taking this out on you. I know I am making this difficult by agreeing with Sampson that I'd return to help him find Ivy. I knew you would be angry at me, hell-I'd yell at you if you weren't angry with me." He whispers, turning towards me.
I furrow my eyebrows, folding my arms with my nostrils flaring as he steps up and walks over towards me, rounding the bed and kneeling in front of me. He slides his arms around my hips and lowers his forehead to my abdomen, his running circles along my thigh, "I'm sorry. This is extremely hard for me, I don't like other males already managing to get to you, even with me here. I've been jealous of Kenji for a while, he knows so much more about you than I do and I hate that because it is my own fault I didn't work hard enough to show you how much you mean to me." He whispers against my stomach, pressing into me harder before lifting me easily and lowering me towards the mattress. He unties the knot on my gown, moving it out of his way and pressing a long kiss to my stomach.
"I told Sampson he'd have to wait."
I blink, immediately lifting up as he does the same. His hands move down my thighs as he pulls me closer, "I told him my girl needs me with her and I won't refuse the love of my life. I promised him I'd return when you are ready to come with me so that we can work together because together is the only way I know how to run now, Lemon." He says to me.
He shakes his head, nuzzling me in closer, "I hate fighting with you, to the death of me, I hate it. It was wrong of me to suggest I leave now when we just got here and after everything I have put you through. I know how much I've done, every wrongdoing and I swore to my own deathbed that I'd do my damndest to make up for it all. I'm sorry for making you upset when I saw and I heard you. He was out of line, coming onto you like that and it's what made me angry." He whispers and explains, slowly.
I dove for him.
He grunts at the momentum, but ultimately squeezes my small frame with a soft laugh on his lips, "I love you, lemon." He whispers into the crook of my neck, I squeeze my arms around his neck leaning on his shoulders as I wrap my legs around his torso, he encases and clasps his arms around me, rubbing my back gently. The tears fall freely as I sniffle against his cheek, he cups my cheek and captures the tear, lowering my forehead to his.
He pecks my lips, "I'm sorry for this, lemon. I was jealous, reckless and stupid to not see how different you are with him and with me. Even in your body language, baby and I'm stupid for not seeing it before. I want this stress gone because then I can focus on us, on creating our future. I'll admit, I'm so scared to lose you, but you bounce back to me like a Super Bowl." He chuckles lightly, his thumb parting my lips in between the minuscule space we share.
I smile into him, loving his description of me as I kiss the tip of his nose, "You had a shower without me." I whisper with a small pout. His arm tightens around me fully as he gathers my lips in his, in a crushing kiss that has me squeaking at the momentum when he parts my lips, lowering me to the bed and growling purrs into my mouth. Blinding cruelty snapped behind my eyes when he attaches his lips to my neck and opens his mouth widely. My heart thunders in my chest. He slides his fingertips down my thighs and groans as he wraps my legs tightly around his torso.
I shiver underneath him when he moves me higher and higher up the mattress.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
"Melanie, this is important, open up!" I hear Marvin say aloud from the other side.
I freeze.
Edmund gives me a stern look, "He's got to stop this or I will retaliate, Lemon." He says, frustrated as he lowers his hips to mine and my eyes bug out of their sockets given how frustrated and ready he was right before my twin brother interrupted. I give him a wide-eyed look, he nods-
"Still want to get the door?" He asks me, his neck muscles straining.
I shake my head, he raises an eyebrow, "Well, that's new."
I couldn't figure out what he meant as Marvin bangs on the door again. Edmund rolls off of me, begrudging with another menacing look on his face as he stomps his feet towards the door, unlocking it and ripping it open, "You have three fucking seconds and this better be important."
Marvin shoves his phone into Edmund's face, "Check the fucking news." He says, shoving the door open with a stressed out Lorraine in his arms as Edmund struts towards me when the television is flicked on, still holding the phone in his hand, he uses the other to effortlessly pull me onto his lap.
"State one news, reports of the infamous Business Intellectual Academy, where Detective Finley Forthright was teaching, was found shot in the head yesterday evening."
Everything in me dropped.
"His body was located by a family four clicks from the academy, with scars on his abdomen and arms. He was beaten and tortured before being shot. The local police department has surrounded the Sylvan Lake, with obvious signs of torture in the South wing of the forest. Detective Forthright was the head officer on the current report cases of the four dead girls over the past ten years. These investigations were included in Melanie Myers' kidnapping by former Detective Ace Johnson and Maven Northern's murder as well. A scandal appears to be what has occurred here when Finley Forthright holds folders in his office of confessions regarding his feelings towards the victim of the previous kidnapping attempt on Melanie Myers." I watch the news reporter hold the microphone to her lips as she struggles to hold the umbrella over her head with the rain and storm fighting against her.
She nods to the screen, "Yes, here we have the exact same scene where former Principal Dandelion Jewel was also shot but survived the incident. Rumours say it was Melanie Myers herself, who saved Dandelion Jewel from her a fatal incident, where Finley Forthright was not so lucky. Another incident in holding shows two students named Mason Wyatt and Claude Borne have been missing since Thursday afternoon, the Academy has now been closed by both the local police and American operatives who feel they have jurisdiction on these cases. No word on where Melanie Myers, or any of her associates are during these times either. Stay tuned for more on Chanel one." Credits roll to the next ad.
I swallow the bile in my throat as Edmund tightens his grip around me more, no longer in the mood to make love, we all stare at the television in shock.
My eyes widen, "Oh my Lord."
Lorraine shudders, "He's r-really dead, not like in a clinical coma. He's really dead."
Marvin looks to Edmund and I, "If Charlize and Thea are here and Claude and Mason are missing, who the hell shot Forthright?"
No one knew.
Forthright was...dead.