♢♔𝓗𝓪𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓻♔♢
Don't trust anyone.
That's one principle that I always held on to.
It was true. The closest people to you were so prone to betraying you at any given opportunity. Whether as a result of jealousy or envy, it was advised not to trust your friends.
That's why I had Kyro and Lara looking into Illithyia's security system and retrieving the deleted footages. They traced all her movements for the past month and everything was starting to make sense.
We had already found the culprit, and after scheming his death for a whole week and monitoring him, I was finally ready to pounce.
At first, I didn't even believe it. That's why it took me so much time to verify and look into it all.
And it had been true.
That fucker had leaked some information and endangered Illithyia and the baby.
He was going to pay a very handsome price. One that would make him fantasise about death.
"Something is amiss. We can't retrieve the footage from the café. It seems the mastermind behind this went to great lengths to erase it." Lara murmured, holding her phone up to her ear. "Hello, yes come in right away. We need you here."
"Who was that? Your boy toy?" Kyro snickered.
"Yes, my boy toy. And he's a tech genius," Lara said with pride and within seconds, a tall, muscular guy with devilishly handsome looks walked in, calmly giving me a nod and moving to where Lara was.
They quickly switched places and I moved closer, watching the guy nonchalantly type in a bunch of complex codes that he definitely knew by head with the way his rapid fingers swiped over the keyboard.
Vance Cartier.
He was super intelligent, ranked one of the top world geniuses. He was on demand and the government was attempting to coerce him into working with them. It had been five years and they weren't making any progress.
He was always sought after and had a shit ton of fans and enemies due to his effortless hacking skills, but they could barely get past the security system at his house.
Within seconds, something loaded and the footage came up. We all cheered except him, and I figured he didn't talk much.
"Thanks Mr. Genius. Now let's see— oh shit, isn't that Claire?" Kyro gestured to the screen and my heart tripped over its beats for a couple of seconds.
I fucking knew it.
She was the mastermind and it was all because I had relaxed a tiny muscle.
"Looks like she was threatening your girlfriend, or talking about the baby." Lara squinted her eyes as Claire gestured to Illithyia's stomach.
My blood ran cold, ice dousing out any emotion I had. My wife was a piece of work. A dangerous, piece of work. To be precise.
It was an expected move, especially due to the fact that I had finally sent her our divorce papers. But she wasn't going to sign them. She never did.
But this time, she wouldn't be able to save herself. This time, she had no leverage on me and our marriage contract had ended a week ago, according to court. She had something coming if she thought she was going to trap me in our miserable marriage for good.
I was finally a free man.
It was one time. Just one time when we were dating in college and I tried to break up with her.
I had gauged her psychopathic tendencies way too late and because she was so obsessed with me, or more like my money, she got into my phone and found some sensitive information about Vasudevan Investments.
About how one of our shareholders was an alleged rapist and domestic abuser that was facing some serious charges.
It had been taking so much time to process his removal from the company so we had to keep that information under the wraps. If that kind of information got out, the bank would have crumbed to pieces before it had even started.
So I bent to Claire's will. I signed a contract to marry her for the next twenty years, but by the time they had ended, she extended by another two years.
She couldn't fathom living without my money at her disposal. She couldn't fathom how she was going to handle the embarrassment of the world acknowledging that she was rejected.
I used to like her. I was infatuated with her but mistook it for love. I shouldn't have pursued her. I should have known that dating her was signing my soul off to the devil.
It took time to acknowledge that she just wanted me because I had started a six figure business in the middle of college.
But now, all evidence was erased. We had found all her backups and all the people that she had entrusted with this information for twenty-two years.
She had her close relatives scattered all over the world but after so much suffering, we had gotten all of them and destroyed the evidence.
I would do anything for the company I built from dust. I wouldn't risk watching it return to that.
Lorenzo called just then, and I quickly answered.
"She's refusing to sign the papers. Says you can't force her if she doesn't want to," he drawled, as if the whole thing was boring him to death.
"You know what to do. Hold a gun to her head or something. I know you still have it in you," I told him and the deep chuckle at the end of the line told me he was seriously considering it.
"Cool. Luca is here, it's about to get messy, you know how violent he is." He cut the call after laughing and I smiled briefly before returning my attention to the people with me.
"She won't do anything to my baby. If so, she'll spend the rest of her afterlife regretting the day she was born." I clenched my fists, watching the way Vance kept zooming and replaying a particular scene.
He was getting something but I'd deal with it later. Matteo and Julian had texted to inform me that they had brought in the little traitor and I was out for blood.
I went down to the basement in a plain black shirt and trousers, an attire I usually wore whenever it was about to get messy.
Matteo and Julian nodded before leaving me with the man that was hanged a few metres away from me.
"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. Such a shame we had to end up here, isn't it?" I walked towards the table that was covered in black velvet, all weapons ranging from guns to axes lined in order of power.
My former bodyguard heaved, wriggling his wrists that were chained together so he was suspended in the air.
"So you're just going to kill me? After all those years I've served you and cleaned up after your sins?" He spat, giving me a strong glare that was pissing me off.
So without thinking, I effortlessly threw a mini sword that pierced right through his eye and his anguished scream vibrated through the entire warehouse.
Music to my ears.
Blood dripped down his cheek as he breathed harshly, clearly not feeling enough pain to apologise for his actions.
All the times he leaked my company's information to my competitors. All the times he connived with Claire and kept me shackled to this marriage. I was definitely not going to spare him.
"Got something else to say?"
"One day, everyone is going to know what kind of sick fuck you are. They're going to know you're Scar, and that you inflict pain in pursuit of pleasure." I was surprised he still had the guts to run his mouth after he lost an eye.
Guess he had spent his entire life preparing for this inevitable moment.
"Hmm, fair enough. I can live with that. And that's the difference between you and me. You don't get to live," I inspected the small, sharp knife, the end glistening in the dim lighting.
I strolled over to where he was, and he howled louder when I began to carve his body, blood spilling from each vicious swoop. He was almost unrecognisable when I was done with him, as though the wolves had ripped him to shreds.
He was half conscious, his eyes drooping as he lost a lot of his blood. I felt nothing as I tortured him, experimenting with different types of tools. He had lost a leg and an arm in the process.
"Y-You, need to know, s-something," he quivered, and the metallic scent made me wrinkle my nose. "I'm Claire's son."
I paused for a minute, and finally those green eyes made sense. And the way he often hung around Claire whenever he wasn't on duty. It all made so much fucking sense.
I should have known. My sixth sense had always warned me about this boy.
I had been keeping my stepson under my wing all along. And Claire never bothered to mention it to damage me from the inside out.
"We wanted to… destroy you and take over your kingdom. I w-was going to become a prince, and finally get to the top. You were, dumb enough to trust me. It was… was working. She's, going to kill her. Kill… her."
"Kill who exactly?" I asked curiously. He had a few minutes until he died, and I needed to get the last bit of information from him.
"That girl y-you like so much. Illithyia. She's going to die, I—"
"You fucking what?!" I roared with rage, my chest heaving as he shivered violently.
"I… drugged her. Hot chocolate. You'll know, what pain feels like. When. You lose. Her."
Without thinking, I sent him down to the blazing furnace, and the animalistic howls of pain were far more aggressive than before until they completely stopped, the only thing lingering in the air being the smell of burning skin.
He drugged her at the café. That's what Vance had been checking. Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuck.
My hands trembled as I rushed to Illithyia's contact, and just as I was about to call her, she did the same. I quickly answered and my heart dropped a thousand feet when she sobbed furiously over the line.
"I'm bleeding, Havier. Please do something, the baby, the baby—"