She glanced around the room. There was a desk and two chairs as if it was set up for questioning. A sharp clink of metal chains pierced the air, jolting Autumn back to reality. Eric had a firm grip on Zyler's arm as he led him into the room. Despite the chains that bound him, Zyler entered the room with an aura of unwavering strength. His posture was resolute, his gaze piercing, and there was an undeniable sense of power about him that defied his physical restraints. Autumn couldn't help but be struck by his inner resilience, and she realized that, even in captivity, Zyler remained unbroken.
As he walked into the room, his eyes met Autumn's, and there was a flicker of something unreadable in his gaze. It was a silent acknowledgment that he was not a man to be underestimated, even in his current predicament. Autumn felt a mixture of shame, regret, and a deep admiration for his strength in adversity.
Eric unlocked the chains, and they fell to the floor with a thud. Autumn gestured to Eric that she wanted to be alone. Although Eric looked worried, Autumn knew that Zyler wouldn't harm her, so she nodded to let Eric go. Eric gave them both one last glance before exiting the room and locking the door behind him.
As Eric left the room, a heavy silence filled the air, punctuated only by his footsteps receding in the distance. Autumn and Zyler were left alone with their tumultuous emotions.
Suddenly, Zyler closed the gap between them. The man's intense gaze bore into Autumn's as he brought his lips down upon hers with a force that made her hit the glass panel. He began kissing her with a mix of anger and pain, expressing the sense of betrayal he had experienced. Each press of his lips conveyed the weight of his wounded heart as if he was trying to express the depth of his hurt through their intensity.
Autumn was overwhelmed with a complex mix of emotions. She felt regret and guilt for the choices she had made that had caused Zyler so much suffering. However, beneath it all, there was an undeniable longing, a yearning to bridge the distance that had grown between them, and a love that still burned. She found herself responding to Zyler's kiss with a mixture of passion and hesitation, torn between the desire to make things right and the fear of causing more pain.
In that charged moment, their kisses carried the echoes of a complicated history, a whirlwind of emotions that flowed between them as they struggled with the turbulent feelings that threatened to engulf them both. Each movement was fraught with meaning, each touch infused with a sense of urgency as they grappled with the complex web of emotions that bound them together. Despite the pain and hurt between them, they both knew that they could not ignore the undeniable chemistry between them.
After a long minute, he reluctantly pulled away, leaving a thick strand of saliva connecting their lips. Zyler savored the sweet taste of Autumn's mouth on his lips. The air in the room was thick with their labored breathing, each inhaling and exhaling echoing off the walls. Autumn's heart raced in her chest, the thumping so loud she could barely hear anything else. With a trembling hand, she placed it on his chest, feeling the rise and fall with each breath. She knew she had to ask him to step back, to give her some space before the tightness in her chest became unbearable.
Zyler stepped back. He wanted to know why she was there or did what she did.
"Is Eric your guardian angel now?" Zyler's words dripped with bitterness and resentment as he questioned Autumn's actions. He walked back to the other side of the desk and settled into the chair, his gaze fixed on her with a mix of anger and hurt. The tension in the room was palpable, and the question hung in the air, demanding an answer.
"He does answer to you like an obedient dog," Zyler remarked, his tone laced with biting sarcasm. He crossed his legs and sat lazily in the chair as if he owned the place. Autumn felt his gaze on her, and it made her feel as if she was standing naked before him.
"You won't talk?" he asked. Her silence was enraging him.
Autumn lifted her head and stared intently into Zyler's eyes. He couldn't help but feel a rush of emotions coursing through his veins. Her piercing gaze held him captive, and he couldn't look away. The intensity of her stare was like a magnet, drawing him closer to her with each passing moment. He tried to resist, but something about those eyes always made him feel weak. They were like two shining stars, illuminating the darkness and guiding them towards her. And as his heartbeat grew faster, he knew he would always be under her spell.
At that moment, Zyler's heart shattered into a million pieces as the woman he had given his all to, the woman he would have gone to the earth for, revealed that she had deceived him and brought about his downfall. The pain and betrayal were almost too much for Zyler to bear as he struggled to come to terms with the fact that the person he had loved and trusted had turned against him. But even in his darkest hour, Zyler knew he would not let her escape it.
"You got what you wanted. Why are you here?" he scoffed, almost stopping his tears from escaping.
Despite his facade of strength, his blue eyes betrayed a sense of inner turmoil and exhaustion. It was as if he carried the world's weight on his shoulders, and the facade of power he projected couldn't hide the fact that he appeared lost and emotionally drained.
"It is not enough," Autumn began, her voice quivering as she fought back tears. She tried to convey the depth of her regret and longing, but Zyler interrupted her with a bitter outburst before she could continue.
"Do you want to rip my heart out for you? Would that be enough?" There was a vicious edge to his words, a raw pain that cut through the room like a blade. Each word he spoke seemed to shatter his heart into a million pieces, and his voice trembled with the anguish of feeling hated and betrayed.
"Why did you do it? Do you hate me that much?" the façade of his strength slipped, unveiling his vulnerability. His voice cracked, and he breathed, inhaling huge air. The room felt suffocating, and he was slipping to the ends of darkness.
"Answer me, Autumn. Why?" A heavy hand slamming against the table echoed through the room, causing Autumn to jump in her seat. She looked up at him, her heart pounding in her chest, as he glared at her angrily. "Do you love someone else?" he bellowed. "Is that why? Do you want another man?" With each question, his fists pounded against the table, the force of his anger palpable in the air. Autumn's mind raced as she struggled to find the words to answer his relentless questions.
"Because you raped me with your cigar pipe," she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her breath searing with anger. His accusation rubbed her the wrong way. Her breath was searing with rage, and his accusation had struck her like a cruel blow. How dare he say such a thing? How dare he accuse her when he had been the one who had shattered her world in the first place?
The accusation cut to the core of her, reopening old wounds and exposing the raw pain she had buried deep within her. She had given him her virginity, and now, he threw this accusation at her. The injustice of it all overwhelmed her, and her scream reverberated through the room, a primal expression of her fury and hurt.
"You chased me through the forest like I was some kind of an animal," Autumn's voice quivered as she recalled the haunting memories of their past. The terror she had felt, the countless times he had pursued her, had etched themselves into her memory as if they had happened just yesterday. The fear that had coursed through her veins felt as fresh as it had on those fateful days.
Her voice quivered with the weight of her emotions as she continued, "You ruined my life. You took everything I held dearly—my hometown, my life." The sadness and pain in her words were palpable, a testament to the devastation that Zyler's actions had wrought upon her. The scars ran deep, and the wounds were still far from healed.
"Because you separated my baby peaches and me. You brought me here to this foreign land. You threatened my mom and dad," by this, she was on the verge of tears. This time, there was no accusation but raw pain that killed her from within.
"We do not belong together," she wiped her teary eyes. "You suffocated me," hiccup escaped her. "You never listened to me. You shoved a cigar pipe in me. I begged you to let go. You tied me to my bed and your bed countless times. Was it enough to want my freedom from you?"
Zyler was at a loss for words. In the process of possessing her and claiming her, he forgot how much he had damaged her.
"I did it for my freedom and April's life," she dropped another bomb on him.
"April?" confusion marred Zyler's face.
"Yes. The girl you wanted to kill. The girl that you desperately wanted to make a pawn of is my April. My sister," Autumn, was done hiding this information from him. He had to know that she chose her family over him.
"How?" was all he said. He had no idea how April ended up with Liam. He cursed himself for not seeing the resemblance in the sisters. If he had seen it, Autumn wouldn't have done this. Little did he know that she had long chosen her family over him. And if he knew it, it would break his rock heart beyond repair.
"I don't know," was all she said. She needs to find out a lot from April, but before that, she should make sure that April is safe.
"You're not getting away from me," Zyler's voice dripped with a dark intensity as he spoke. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, acutely aware of their difficult situation. "Liam is after April, and I can't shield you from him in here."
"I can protect myself," Autumn, her back pressed into the corner, watched him feign innocence, but Zyler wasn't convinced. He advanced on her in a single, swift movement, his presence overpowering. "You have no idea what Liam is capable of," Zyler growled, his words laden with a foreboding sense of doom.
Zyler and Liam were like opposite sides of the same coin. Zyler recognized that. If Liam is as obsessed with April as he had been with Autumn, no one can stop the senator. Zyler knew the depths of their own darkness and the capacity for obsession and violence that lurked within them.
He laced his around her waist and pulled her to his heart. "Listen to me, Autumn, please," he pleaded in desperation as Autumn struggled in his hold.
Zyler sank to his knees before her, arms wrapping around her waist in a desperate embrace. "Please," he implored, his voice quivering with emotion. A single tear trickled down his cheek, and Autumn felt her eyes welling up in response to the raw vulnerability in his plea.
With trembling hands, Autumn laced her fingers into Zyler's tousled hair, and he closed his eyes, leaning into her touch. It was a poignant moment, filled with a heartbreaking mixture of regret, longing, and the pain of what had been lost between them.
"I cannot protect you in from here, Autumn. I would watch this world burn to ashes, but I cannot watch anything happen to you." He locked eyes with her, his gaze intense and unwavering.
"I will take anything that can happen to me. Do you want me to hurt myself?" he asked, hugging her tight, kissing her on her stomach. But before she could respond, he abruptly released her and sprung to his feet.
"I am sorry, Autumn. I am sorry," he pleaded. "If I could turn back time and do things differently, I would. But I cannot."
With a sudden movement, Zyler rushed towards the wall, his actions unfolding like a harrowing scene from a tragic tale. He slammed his head against the unyielding surface once, the room vibrating with the impact. Then, with an eerie determination, he struck himself again, the sickening sound of impact filling the air as his forehead split open, crimson blood flowing in a distressing stream from the gaping wound. Autumn watched in horrified shock; her voice stolen by the haunting spectacle before her.
"Stop it!" Autumn's voice trembled with urgency as she rushed towards Zyler, who was poised to inflict more harm upon himself. Without hesitation, she placed her hand between his head and the unyielding wall, preventing the devastating collision that he was about to initiate. Her touch was a desperate plea to halt the self-destructive path he had embarked upon, a plea for him to cease the torment and pain that seemed to consume him.
"I hurt you a lot, and this is what I deserve, don't I?" He wasn't manipulating her. He genuinely believed that this was his path to healing and repentance.
Kneeling before her again, he begged. "Why didn't you tell me it was April?" another tear slipped.
Eric watched it through the glass panel, and his face showed sadness. For the first time, Eric saw an emotion in Zyler's eyes—the pure pain of heartbreak and love.
"Because your revenge was the only thing that mattered," Autumn's voice carried the weight of profound regret and pain. She tried to distance herself from him, their proximity becoming almost unbearable.
"You didn't let go," she continued, her gaze avoiding his as she recounted their tumultuous past. "You were hell-bent on it. It was destroying you and everyone around you." The room seemed to grow heavier with the unspoken truth between them.
"Look at me," Zyler's voice carried a note of desperation, and she finally met his gaze. His eyes held a wellspring of pain as he spoke. "All you needed was to say one word," he implored.
"And you would've let your revenge on Liam go?" Autumn questioned directly, cutting through the silence with her unflinching query. The room fell into a heavy silence again, and she scoffed bitterly as he didn't say anything. "That's what I thought."
"It is about you, baby," he grabbed her hands, kissing her palms.
"Why are you hell-bent on not letting me go?" she was getting frustrated at his repeated persistence.
"Because you are my home. Autumn. You are my sanity. You are the only humanity I have," another tear escaped his eyes. Her heart was breaking piece by piece. She hadn't seen him cry. The only time he shed a tear was when his mother died.
"If you leave, I will have no choice but to let my demons eat me from within. I will lose my home and my heart all at once. What is a human without humanity?" he stared into the depths of her soul.
"You are selfish," Autumn's words carried a note of disbelief as she accused him, her frustration at his single-minded focus on his own needs evident.
"I am," Zyler replied without a hint of shame, acknowledging his selfishness without reservation.
"You need to let go. You need to heal," she implored him with genuine concern, the weight of her words laced with wisdom. "And perhaps, in the future, if fate allows, we may find our way back to each other." She watched as he nodded vigorously, his acquiescence resembling a child who had fervently agreed to a difficult decision.
"Let go," she pleaded. But he wasn't. She was worried that he would drag her into his darkness.
"Please," she added. "No," Zyler's refusal to let go intensified; he clung to her with the desperation of a man who had lost everything. His grip on her stomach was unrelenting, like that of a child unwilling to release his mother's embrace, and his frantic pleas reverberated through the room.
Eric rushed in with his guards. The tension in the room escalated as Zyler's protests escalated into aggression. "No, No."
He lashed out, his fists striking with raw determination. The first guard was caught off guard as Zyler's punch landed square on his jaw, sending him staggering backward. The second guard fared no better as Zyler's fury drove him to another powerful blow. "I want to be with her. She is my baby girl."
Zyler focused on reaching Autumn, who stood just beyond his grasp by the door. Now filled with a heartbreaking plea, his voice cut through the chaos. "Autumn, baby, please come back," he implored, the desperation in his tone evident.
But before he could bridge the distance separating them, the guards acted swiftly. They raised their tasers, electric currents crackling with ominous intent. The room was bathed in a stark, unsettling light as the tasers discharged their paralyzing charge into Zyler's body.
Time seemed to slow as Zyler, his voice silenced, and his body contorted by the electrical shock, collapsed to the floor. The scene unfolded with a gut-wrenching intensity, leaving Autumn torn and conflicted as she reluctantly stepped out of the door, the haunting image of Zyler's collapsing form etched in her memory.