Zaria 🌹
I nervously knock on the door of my father's bedroom. Turning my head slightly to the left, I take a final glance at Damien who is standing at the end of the corridor.
"I'm right here." He mouths. I nod in response and exhaled a deep breath, hoping this would go according to our plan. Him being here helps but my nerves still exist.
I hope he gets what he is looking for in my father's study room while I distract him with chit chat, mainly pretending to be on my father's side.
Within a minute, he opens the door with a confused look on his face. I don't usually meet him often ever since I've moved out. Actually, I only come here when I am called. We barely even talk on the call, so my sudden appearance has caught him off guard. After the dinner, he probably believed we left the house.
Let's just pray he is willing to talk to his youngest daughter for a while.
My anxiety threatens to rise but I take a step inside the room without him giving me permission.
"Why are you here?" He asks immediately, shutting the door behind us.
"Well, I'll get straight to the point." I take the armchair near the window and sit down, showing confidence and braveness. On the inside, I am anything but.
"I know what you did to my mother." My voice comes out stern, for which I am grateful. I am not good at confrontations that involve the man in front of me, but this question has plagued since the moment I got to know the truth.
His facial expression falls before he collects himself and fakes a smile. "The only thing I did to her is love her."
Rage starts to burn little flames on my skin but I don't flinch or even bat an eyelash. This man killed my mother and now is lying straight to my face.
"Lies." I huff and roll my eyes.
His eyes fall and he sits on the edge of the bed. His expression turns to dread and the signs of aging on his face becomes more profound.
At the mention of my mother, he looks like the father I thought I knew years ago. But I don't let this falter me. I lost my dad the day I lost my mother. This man is just a shadow of that past. I am not allowed to believe him.
"No, Zaria. It's not a lie. I really did love your mother. I know Lex told you his side of the story, but do you want to hear my side?" Surprisingly, his tone was gentle and regretful.
I don't know what he is about to say. I was so little when that incident happened, Thia used to tell me about how my dad was before we lost our mom. She told me that my father was genuinely a nice person, he loved us, cared for us and did not treat us less than a princess.
He has been a monster since the day he lost his wife. I remember those days very faintly, as much a 6 year olds' memory goes, which isn't much.
I always had a hard time believing that because I only ever saw the evil in him. Not a father who cared for me.
Not waiting for my response, he continues, "When she went outside to find Zayn, she didn't come back. But I still waited for her and when I finally lost my patience, I went to look after her. I saw she was holding Lex and I rushed towards her but suddenly, a wolf attacked her. To save her, I fired the gun on the animal but it hit my wife's heart. The animal ran away, so did my little boy and I was left with your mother's... her lifeless body in my arms."
His words come out forced, as if it really hurts him to remember that day let alone speak of it.
I swallowed the sob that was threatening to break free. I shut my eyes briefly to prevent from shedding a tear. I'm done feeling helpless. Life is not fair to me, so I'll not be fair in return.
I'll not show any mercy to my fucking father. It even disgusts me to acknowledge that this man is my father.
No he isn't my father, he is my curse.
He didn't have any right to fuck up my life for a mistake he committed.
"So you decided to take 12 more lives?" The tone in my voice is unrecognizable.
12 lives. Me, Thia, Damien, Cade and those other 8 kids who died. Who knows, there might be more and none of us knows about.
He looked confused at me so I elaborate, "I know about the brain experiment you were a part of."
His eyes widened but then laughed it off humorlessly. "Your husband told you that, didn't he?" The way he says it, it's obvious that he already knows Damien suffered.
Now that I think about it, he had a hand in the kidnapping and sufferings of his friend's son. Was he aware of it all? I need to hear it from him.
"Did you always know about him? Even when you were marrying me off to him."
"I didn't know he was one of them. I recently got to know that from Luc-" he abruptly stopped in mid sentence.
His reply is a confirmation, he confirmed he was involved. Also, he was about to take someone's name but he stopped, that means he doesn't want to reveal that person's identity. So I follow the plan.
I school my expressions to that that of warmth and comfort. It takes a lot of effort. "Dad, I want to know whatever you were involved in. I want to help you. You can trust me."
He stares at me with disbelief, studying my face. It's going to be hard to convince him so I talk further.
"Damien knows about your hand in the experiment, so he married me for revenge. He betrayed me too and I hate him so much for that. I want to avenge him and I need your help for that." For a minute, I say those words as if I'm actually telling the truth, just so he can believe my lies.
But this man has been a bigger player than I give him credit for. "How am I supposed to believe you? Why would I believe you after everything I have done to you and not expect your punch back at me?"
So he does know what he did to me was wrong and still did it. I am not gonna revisit this thought later. Plan.
"I guess, we both have our reasons to not trust one another but our enemy is the same. Enemy of an enemy is a friend, right?" My voice is so bitter and cold that it's foreign to my own ears.
I hear a low vibration of my phone against my skin. Not making it obvious, I turn around ever so casually as if I'm taking inventory of this room for the first time. When my back is faced at my father, I discreetly turn on my phone screen and see a text from Damien.
Damien: "Done."
Relieved, I turned around again to face my father and picked up my purse from the table.
"Think about my offer. You have good bait always lurking around your enemy's shadow." I say before I leave the room, hoping he would let me be on his side so I can find out the names we need.
⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅
"Where are we going?" I ask Damien who is driving the sports car.
It's past midnight and we're still in the forest of Maxion, but instead of taking the right turn, he takes the left.
"It's late. We'll rest at the mansion we have here."
"But I didn't bring any clothes for change." I debate, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly.
"I wouldn't mind seeing you walk naked around the house." He said ever so casually but my cheeks heat at the visualization of that situation.
His eyes wandered on my skin, on my cleavage then scanned me entirely as if he was imagining what he'd do to me. Thank God the car bulbs were off, I wouldn't have been able to hide my red cheeks any other way.
"Anyways, did he say anything else ?" Damien asked, focusing back on the road.
"Nope. But he was about to take someone's name and that name started with letters L-U-C. He didn't finish the word. " I reply. I just say the letters, i don't pronounce it because I'm not sure if my pronunciation will be accurate.
"L.u.c." Damien muttered to himself with a deep thought.
The enormous entry gate which is lit up with beautiful sconces comes into the view. The doorman opens them and we drive across the big water fountain and into the porte-cochère.
The mansion is so huge as if it was half cut of a real castle. It's old architectural style by the looks of it. I don't know what the mansion is made of but it definitely gave a strong illusion that it's made of stone. Dark brown to black stones. perfectly living up to the ruthless fortune of the Erik's.
The mansion is the perfect representation of an underworld's god's home. The lighting strike behind the back of the mansion made it look scarier yet beautifully intimidating.
Damien and I walked inside and I was convinced it definitely is a mini castle made of stones. The grand entrance was also made of stone and even the two circled stairwell leading up on the second floor. High French doors and windows carved in the dark grey stone and luminous sconces and the railings were in gold and silver, the massive chandelier lights glistening on them.
This place reminds me of something and suddenly I feel dizzy. I turned around to look at Damien who stood right behind me.
"Have I ever been here?" I asked. My head hurts as the dizziness increases.
"You haven't. But I recently turned this mansion to look like our Kallistar's castle. I did everything I could to make it similar to that place, for you." He said looking around.
Before I could take in everything he said, my vision blurred and I stumbled over. I feel Damien catch me, his arms wrapped around my waist saving me from falling on the ground. I hear him say something in panic but I don't hear anything as I fall into a blank space.