Mrs. Steele's words broke through the stillness as I sat in the chair, a flood of horror pouring over me. Her tone was deceptively soft as she greeted me, "How are you doing, dear?"
My heart was pounding as I tried to think of a suitable reply. Mrs. Steele continued, in a tone laced with amusement, before I could say anything more. "You're scared, of course," she spoke, letting out a sarcastic chuckle. "I can see it written all over your face."
For all the cruelty in her remarks, Mrs. Steele's manner was unnervingly relaxed. She dropped a bombshell, and I found myself gasping for air.
"I'm glad you could attend the soirée I threw after I invited you. Knowing Liam he would've never invited you which is simply wrong of him." She smiled shocking me.
She was the one who invited me?!
Though a thousand ideas raced through my head, Mrs. Steele dropped another massive bombshell before I could digest any of them. "At least your not already weeping. I can't say the same for your friend when I injected drugs into her veins," and her statement chilled me to my core.
"She told me if she ever got out she'd get her revenge on me. I can't have that can we. But yet here you are looking like you're on the blink of passing out." Mrs. Steele says as if mocking me.
I was overcome with a sense of shock and dread, and I could feel a cold sweat rising as Mrs. Steele's words seemed to be taken straight out of a horror movie.
"Unfortunately, that girl is not dead," she continued, her tone chillingly matter-of-fact. "I'll have to send someone to finish the job. I've never once failed to eliminate a threat on the first attempt. It's quite sloppy of me, really."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Mrs. Steele was discussing Khloe's life as if it were nothing more than a inconvenience to be disposed of. Anger and despair welled up inside me as I struggled to comprehend the depth of her cruelty.
"And you should thank me, dear," Mrs. Steele added with a twisted smile. "If it weren't for my intervention, your name would have been dragged through the mud in the media. Consider it a dying favor."
The sheer audacity of her statement left me speechless. Mrs. Steele saw no issue with her actions, no remorse for the lives she had destroyed. In her twisted worldview, she was the arbiter of justice, and anyone who crossed her path was fair game.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I struggled to find words to respond. Mrs. Steele's nod of confirmation only served to deepen my horror. The realization that Khloe had endured such suffering at Mrs. Steele's hands left me speechless, my mind reeling with disbelief and despair.
Trembling in fear, I managed to force out the words, "What do you mean, I should thank you?"
She then remarked, "That's the first time you've spoken since I got here."
"She wanted to destroy your career, to see you punished and humiliated by the public for being with Liam," Mrs. Steele divulged, "So she went to a well-known news company and provided them with evidence of your affair."
My mind reeled as I struggled to comprehend the depth of Khloe's betrayal.
My chest tightened with anguish as Mrs. Steele continued, revealing how far Khloe was willing to go.
"Your so-called best friend sold you out for a measly fifty thousand dollars," Mrs. Steele stated coldly.
My world shattered as I grappled with the staggering betrayal of someone I had considered my closest friend. Tears blurred my vision as I shook my head in disbelief, unable to comprehend the depth of Khloe's deception.
"No, no, no," I repeated, my voice trembling with anguish and disbelief. The pain of Khloe's betrayal cut deep, leaving me feeling utterly betrayed and alone in a world that had suddenly turned up side down.
"Whether you believe me or not is none of my concern," she stated calmly. "But the truth is, having your friend reveal such scandalous information would be disastrous for my son's reputation, especially now that he's about to marry into royalty, hence my only reason to get rid of her."
My tears flowed freely as I struggled to comprehend the gravity of the situation.
"Why are you here to kill me?" I choked out, my voice trembling with fear already knowing the answer to my question. "Is it because you think I'm a threat to Liam's marriage to the princess?"
"I'll walk away and never look back." I muttered.
Mrs. Steele regarded me with an intense gaze, her expression unreadable. I felt a chill run down my spine as she spoke, her words carrying a weight that settled heavily on my shoulders.
"You are a gorgeous brunette, Quinn, and undeniably innocent," she remarked. "I can see why Liam kept you around for so long."
As Mrs. Steele's words hung in the air, I couldn't help but sense the impending "but" that would inevitably follow. Her reasons for not letting me go were as transparent as they were ominous.
"But, he's too obsessed with you," she remarked casually, as if discussing the weather. "I know he'll search for you." Mrs. Steele's words echoed in the room, their implications sinking into the depths of my shattered heart.
Along with the pain and disbelief whirling inside of me, her words drove a cold chill down my spine. I was disturbed to learn that Liam's mother not only knew about his feelings for me, but also appeared to consider them to be an issue.
Now I understood the reason Liam kept me away from his family, now I understood why he didn't even live with them. They were horrible murders.
"And besides," Mrs. Steele continued, "You've already seen my face and what I'm capable of and you know what I've done to your friend."
Her laughing was a painful reminder of her control over my life, and it made me aggravated. My eyes were starting to well up with tears again as I tried to process what was happening to me.
"Liam only wanted to use me," I cried, my voice trembling with emotion. "He never once cared for me."
"He never told you, did he?" she remarked, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Confusion washed over me, leaving me to wonder what she was talking about and a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. What could she possibly mean? What was Liam hiding from me?
"That's like my son," she remarked, her tone tinged with a hint of irony. "Keeps everything to himself, just like I taught him."
Wait, why would she teach him to keep everything to himself?
"Liam has alexithymia," Mrs. Steele stated matter-of-factly, her tone devoid of any emotion as she leaned back in her chair, fixing me with a steely gaze.
As Mrs. Steele's words hung in the air, I felt a rush of confusion and disbelief wash over me. Alexithymia? The word echoed in my mind, stirring a vague recollection of having seen half the word before, tucked away in one of Liam's books.
But at the time, it had seemed insignificant to me.
Now, faced with the reality of Liam's condition, I couldn't help but feel a pang of regret for not exploring it further, for not delving into what it meant for him.
Why hadn't I asked him about it? Why hadn't I delved deeper into understanding what he was going through? Guilt twisted in my gut as I realized the weight of my oversight.
But he had told me he hated whenever someone snooped.
But what exactly was Alexithymia. I looked towards Mrs. Steele.
"Alexithymia," she began explaining as if noticing my confused face, "is a condition characterized by difficulty in identifying, understanding, and expressing one's emotions."
The revelation hit me like a ton of bricks, casting a shadow over everything I thought I knew about Liam. Suddenly, his aloofness, his guarded demeanor - it all made sense.
But it also left me feeling a pang of sadness, realizing that the man I cared for was grappling with a condition that made it difficult for him to connect with his own emotions, let alone express them to others.
The book! He was reading a book about expressing his emotions.
"Why... why didn't he tell me?" I asked, my voice trembling with a mix of confusion and hurt.
"Well since your going to die anyway, why not." Mrs. Steele spoke nonchalantly.
Mrs. Steele's gaze softened, if only for a moment, before returning to its usual steely resolve. "Because that's how I raised him," she replied, her words ringing with a hint of pride. "To keep his emotions in check, to never let anyone see his weaknesses."
"But that's cruel," I blurted out, my voice trembling with a mix of disbelief and anger. "How could you treat your own son that way?"
Mrs. Steele's expression remained impassive, unaffected by my outburst. "Such is life," she replied curtly, as if that explained everything.
I shook my head in disbelief, struggling to comprehend the depth of her callousness. "But to raise him without love or affection... How could you do that to him?"
Mrs. Steele regarded me with an impassive expression, as if my outburst were nothing more than a minor inconvenience. "I raised Liam without love or affection because I knew that love was a weakness. It could break him, so I taught him from a young age how not to connect with others. Torture him on how to use women to his pleasure and advantage without emotional attachment."
"I groomed him from a young age to take over the family empire. And now, with his impending marriage to Princess Catherine, our plans are finally coming to fruition."
And in doing so, she had subjected him to a childhood devoid of love, affection, or any semblance of warmth. I almost wanted to shoot this woman myself. Liam deserved so much more.
"I... I can't even imagine," I stumbled out, the whole brutality of it all spinning in my head.
Mrs. Steele's gaze remained cold and calculating, devoid of any hint of remorse. "It's what needed to be done," she replied simply, as if that justified her actions.
I felt a surge of anger rise within me, the injustice of it all threatening to overwhelm me. How could a mother be so heartless, so devoid of empathy for her own flesh and blood? Deep down, I knew that understanding Mrs. Steele's twisted logic was beyond my grasp.
Mrs. Steele nodded, a smug smile playing at the corners of her lips. "Liam may not be capable of expressing emotions in the way most people do, but he has his own way of showing affection. Possessiveness, control... those seemed to be the only ways he knew how to express his love."
"He'd make sure his possessions were well taken care of, looked after too........the same way he ensured you wouldn't get fired by assigning you a case he coxed up so you'd win and show everyone in the world that his precious Bonbon was a good attorney even though he had every evidence right from the beginning to seal a deal." Mrs. Steele spoke making me gasp in horror.
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