Jace P.O.V
Today was the meeting with Valentine and I was beyond anxious. The memory of the bullet being impaled in my fathers chest, right in his heart, was still fresh since this morning. The memory or the dream was then followed by my mothers wails, even though she cheated on him, she still loved him.
But she had no right to be grieving for him. She had no right! She was the one that cheated on him. She was the one that caused my father pain. She-not only hurt my father who loved her and worked his ass off for her-but she hurt me too!
My dad worked and worked double shifts just to get a roof under our heads. My family wasn't like the Lightwoods who were beyond rich or the Fairchild's who were an average family with an average pay. It was my father who actually provided us with our needs. And where was my mom? She would abandon me every time my father left for work.
"I will be right back just a quick stroll by the grocery store. I will be back in ten minutes, promise." My mother had told me, but then minutes turned into hours. She would always come back late at night, with her lipstick smudged and her shirt loose, almost dangling from her shoulders for dear life. I was eight at the time but I wasn't stupid.
I know what I saw.
Quiet frankly, I believed-for a moment-that she was visiting my dad at work but then again she was young, in her early twenties and my father was at his thirties at the time. She was nothing but a gold digger, who abandoned me to deal with my fathers death.
I got on my black Ferrari. I took three deep breaths right before twisting the key and turning the engine on. It takes about twelve minutes to get to Val's studios, so I might as well get a head start.
I was about to park my car in front of the entrance of Val's studios, when I suddenly saw a familiar BMW creeping out of the side of the building. I hit the gas pedal gently and made my way towards the BMW. As I make my way towards the car I see Magnus leaning by the car, but he seems to have company.
I park beside his BMW and got off to greet him and this mysteries woman that was by his side. I then notice the woman had blond hair that curved right under her ears and pale skin that looked familiar to me. There were black tinted glasses covering her eyes and there were a couple of freckles sprinkled below the glasses. I notice that she was wearing a beige skinny trench coat and some leggings. I squint at her.
"Do I know you?" I said in a stern voice, since I don't like meeting new people. She smirked at me and took off her glasses, which let me see her familiar and captivating emerald eyes.
"Do I really look that different, Jace?" Clary said tilting her head a little with her smirk still fresh on her face. She slipped her glasses in her right pocket of her coat, which happened to be holding something else.
I stared a her wide eyed. "Did-did you dyed your blond!?" I asked her in a bewildering tone. "And cut it!?" Why would she do that? I loved her tameless red hair of hers. The times I've spent dreaming about grazing my fingers through her long red hair.
Before I can continue my depressing thoughts about her red hair she said, "Oh angels no! It's just a wig, Izzy's touch." She touched the fake wig as if an instinct.
I choke back a sigh of relief.
"Was the trench coat Izzy's touch too?" I said with an eyebrow raised. She rolled her eyes at me and I suppressed the urge to laugh because she looked cute when she did that.
"Oh no that was all me." Magnus said. I glanced down to his outfit and started examining it. He wore some maroon vans and acid-washed skinny jeans and to top it off he had a neon blue shirt. While as I just threw on the first shirt I saw and some jeans.
"What exactly are you going to do? You never did explain this plan of your throughly." I said in a curious tone.
Clary sighed and said, "The less you know, the better. " she glanced at Magnus and reached a hand in her other pocket and took a folded paper and handed it to Magnus.
"He's making you pay!?" I shouted at the folded piece of paper. "That's insane!?"
"My fathe-I mean Valentine does not hesitate when it comes to money." Clary says in a quiet tone. She also has that same look in her eye she gets every time she mentions her father. She's trying to hate him, but she can't. Deep far down she knows she still loves her father and that will never change.
I can relate to her mixed feelings about her father. I had-or still have mixed feelings about my mother. What she did was wrong, but it's hard to forgive her. After all, she still cared and loved me, at least I think she did.
"Well Clary are you ready?" Magnus asks, cutting the tension that seemed to growing.
She looked at him and then looked down at her hands, unclenching and clenching them. "You know. . . you can still back out from the plan, right?" Her voice wavered at the end. "I can't make you do this. You should know what Valentine's capable of and I don't want you to risk yourselves, so if you-"
"Biscuit, we know what your father is capable of-" Clary flinched at hearing that specific word, but Magnus continued. "-And we already agreed that we will help you and Jace." Magnus gave her reassuring smile and grabbed a hold of her pale hand and gave a it a squeeze.
Instead of feeling jealousy, like I usually do. All I felt was an empty ache at my abdomen. It then started to spread to the tip of my fingers, which left them numb. I haven't had contact with this feeling in a while. It abandoned me when I was a child, when I started to enjoy the company of the Lightwoods. I was all too familiar with this emotion; sadness.
That's what I felt, sadness. Like someone just ripped out a piece of my heart and then shoved it back to where it belongs, hanging loosely at my chest. I didn't feel fire coursing through my body, nor my blood boiling, which are the symptoms of jealousy. Just simple, plain sadness
I felt lonely all of the sudden, like Magnus and Clary just disappeared in thin air. A shiver skidded across my spine. I blink once, then twice and stopped when my vision focused on Clary.
"Well here goes nothing." Clary said as she released Magnus's hand. She then turned to me, her fake blond hair moving in sync with her movements. She gave me a tired smile and then dispatched her self from Magnus's car. I looked at her curiously, wondering where she was heading to.
"Hey Clary you do know the entrance is at the front?" I shouted at her. She said nothing, she only looked behind her and smirked at me. I scrunch my eyebrows together. Where is she going? How is she going to get in, unnoticed? A million questions where drowning my brain, so I did the most logical thing; I ran towards her.
"Clary where are going?" I said. She stopped and turned around towards the brick wall, which brought back memories. The memory of Clary's body pressed with mine and me kissing her hungrily against Takis brick wall, flashes in my eyes. I cleared my throat and looked away, suddenly feeling my face hot.
"I . . . don't understand there's-there's supposed to be. . ." Clary raised a hand and stood up straighter and grazed her hand on the brick wall, until she suddenly stop.
"What is it." I said to her, now intrigued on what she found. I crouched next to her looking over her shoulder. Her pale hand was covering a faded colored brick. This one though, was different from the rest. The brick was almost faded into this peach color, which made it look fake. "Is it fake?" I asked.
"No-well it's almost like a . . . decoy, I guess. It's kinda hard to explain." She says. I scrunch eyebrows in confusion. "Try to find another one that looks like this one." She pointed at the 'decoy' brick. I nodded at her, not sure what to do, but to listen to her orders.
Three minutes later I found a similar peach brick. I alerted Clary, she smiled at me and told me she found another one. The one that I found was just above my head and pretty far from the first brick that Clary found, but the second brick that Clary found was a couple bricks away.
"So, what are going to do next because I still have that meeting with Valentine." I told her as a matter-of-factly. She rolled her eyes and slipped her hand in her right pocket and took out a screw driver? I was about to ask her why she had a screw driver, but she then grabbed a medium sized rock in her other hand.
She set the screw driver in the middle of of the brick and brought her hand up, the one holding the rock and smashed it to the top of the screw driver, causing the decoy brick break into pieces. The movement reminded me of a hammer hitting a nail. I stared at her with a dumfounded look. Clary fairchild, the fragile short skinny redhead, just broke a brick with nothing, but a screw driver and a rock.
"It's a decoy Jace, which means it's fake." She said in her nerd tone. "It's also easy to brake." Clary then brought the screw driver over to the other decoy brick, the one that she found. She did the same; broke it.
"What exactly is a decoy?" I asked. I know what it is, its just that she is confusing me.
"A person or thing used to mislead or lure an animal or person into a trap." She replied as she came over to the brick that I found. She stood on her tippy toes brought up the screw driver, but she couldn't reach it. I smirked and grabbed a hold of her waist and lifted her up off the the ground. She let out a shriek and I chuckled.
"So this is a trap?" I asked her while I tighten my grip on her, afraid of letting go. I really couldn't careless if this was a trap. I would follow Clary even if it was a suicide mission, which it kinda is. I mean we are kinda going to face Valentine, her father, the guy who killed my father and who knows what more illegal things he has done.
"Not really. I mean it is a trap or was a trap. This is a set that was used on that scifi movie that Valentine directed." Oh, I guess. I'm still a little bit confused, but before I could questioned her, she beat me to it in saying, "Thanks." She turned her head slightly to see me, a blush creeping up onto her cheeks. I smirked at her.
I set her down gently. She turned around slowly and stared at my golden eyes. I did the same. I was about to close the gap that was bugging me, but Clary turned around an headed to the first brick she found. She then stuck her hand and cleared out the excess of the brick.
She took her hand out and looked at the-now rectangular hole-and stuck her hand again. It was a perfect fit. It seemed that there was nothing behind the brick wall, since her hand stopped up until her elbow. I saw her hand twisted and a sound was followed, click.
She smiled in satisfaction. She repeated the same thing with the second hole. When it came to the one that she couldn't reach, I told her I could carry her like I did before, but she slapped my hands away before I could grab a hold of her. She then ordered me to do it instead of her.
"Now there is going to be a metal stick . . . almost like a key." Right after she said that I felt something brushing my fingers. "Okay now twist it and stop twisting it until you hear the click sound." I twist the metal thing until I heard a click. I released my hold of the 'key' and bring my hand to my side.
I then heard a noise, the rumble of something. Then the ground started shaking-no not the ground it was the brick wall that was in front of us. Somehow the brick wall just managed to disappear in front of us. "What? How-how?"
"I told you. This was a set. I did a little bit of research and I took a lucky shot and guessed that Valentine was too lazy to replace this with a real brick wall and I was right." She turned to me and wished me luck on the the meeting with Valentine. She turned around to head into the hole that appeared out of no where. I don't know, but the thought of Clary plunging into darkness gave me an uneasy feeling. Almost like Wanting to vomit.
I step towards her and grab a hold of her wrist and said, "Clary, be careful. . . okay?" She smiled at me and step towards me and wrapped her hands around my neck. Her touch send shivers down my spine. She pulled me towards her and gave me a sweet savoring kiss that, much to my disappointment, didn't last long.
"Aren't I always?" Clary said in a teasing tone. She released me and plunged into drakness. Not long after that the hole that was in front of me was replaced with the brick wall. The three bricks that were broken were replaced with new ones. Weird, I thought.
After the kiss that Clary and I share, I made my way to Magnus and started walking towards the entrance of Val's studios with Mangus. We entered and then was meted by Helen. She gave me a smile and told us that Valentine is already in the meeting room. Once we entered the meeting room, Valentine was looking out the window staring out the window watching people walk by Val's studios or watching cars park in front of his building. He then spoke, "You're late." Granted we were about ten minutes late. Neither Magnus or I responded.
"I see my daughter didn't bother too show up." If it wasn't for the fact that I could read people's emotions really well, I would mistaken his tone of voice in anger instead of sadness. He could really mask his emotions really well, but I could tell that he really wanted Clary to come. Not in greediness, but in love. I guess deep down he still loves Clary.
"It really shouldn't surprise you." I told him in a matter-of-factly tone. He looked at me, briefly. There was something about his posture that was mysterious, like he wanted cry out or punch something. I don't think he wants to punch me since his eyes told a different story.
"Have a seat." He spoke professionally. The stubborn guy that I am, refused to sit down, but Magnus listened and took a seat across from Valentine. He looked at me and raised one eyebrow. "Suit yourself." Valentine said to me. I glared at him and took a seat beside Magnus.
Valentine then took out a leather covered suitcase, that I didn't even noticed he had it until now. It was skinny, not big enough to carry at least two pairs of clothes. He opened it and took out some papers and an expensive looking pen.
Magnus reached out and grabbed the papers. He then started to read it throughly. One of the jobs of being a manager is to control business dealings, so Magnus makes sure it is safe to sign. This is also Valentine, the master mind of business dealings, so we have to take extra precautions. Since we can't really trust him.
There were about five papers scattered in front of Magnus. Two minutes later he passed me one of them, indicating he was finished reading and that it's safe. I checked if I had to sign anywhere. I looked at the bottom and read the fine print. It seemed legit, so I grabbed the fancy pen and signed my name at the bottom.
"Your real name, Jonathan." Valentine said. I cringe at the sound of my real name. I tighten my grip on the pen and glared at him, my nostrils flaring. I don't even want to know how he knows my name. I took a deep breath to calm down and released my iron grip on the pen. I looked down to the paper in front of me and signed Jonathan Herondale, quickly.
Valentine threw me a tight and meaningless smile. I clenched my jaw and I released the pen. I took both of my hands under table and clenched them, my nails digging in my skin as I glared at him. Out the corner of my eye I saw a flash of red, but this wasn't Clary's red silky hair. It was a small light that was attached to the camera that is on the right side of me.
Then all of a sudden I thought, how is Clary going to avoid all the cameras? I raked my mind for something. If I recall Simon was going to do something about that. I mentally chuckle, who would've thought rat-boy was putting his geek skills in use. I guess, I should not be judging him, since I am in love with one.
After Magnus read all the papers and I signed the ones that I needed too, Magnus spoke up and said, "If I recall correctly, Clary will be mailing the same papers that Jace signed next week."
"Yes, she called." Valentine said. Called? I looked at Magnus and shared the same look of confusion. Never thought Clary would stay in touch with her father.
We have been here for about ten minutes and I'm already fallen asleep, but no I would not fall asleep in front of a murderer, so I pinch myself awake. Magnus and Valentine were talking about who-knows-what. I couldn't care less.
"-yes I am proud of my daughter." Valentine said. Now this snapped my attention. Magnus and I looked at him, curiously. His expression morphed into regret, like he didn't mean to say that. Almost like it slipped out. Silence was followed after, making me uncomfortable.
I was about to say something to Valentine, but something vibrated on the side of my jeans. I took it out and saw a text scrawled across my phone.
Give her five minutes more!
-Si
Si? Who is Si? Simon? How does he know that I was still here, in Val's studios? I looked back at the camera, whose light is blinking furiously. I looked back at the text message. Giver her five more minutes? Does he mean Clary? Is he watching her from the cameras of Val's studios?
I nodded at at the camera, quickly and unnoticed.
"Funny, you can't say that to her face." I laughed at my comment for what he said earlier. If Simon wants me to stall, I will do much more than stall.
With a glare Valentine said or more like snarled, "What's between me and my daughter is none of your business herondale!"
"She's hardly your daughter judging by the fact that you know nothing about her!" I retorted back a him.
"You think I don't know the crap that you put her through!" Know that shut me right up. "You made her high school years a living hell all because you supposedly love her" He slammed his fist down that made Magnus flinch. "And I had to stand by and watch, so don't you dare come to my property and talk to me about my daughter." You can literally see the vein that is threatening to come out.
"When are going to figure out that you and I are the same. We neglect love because we are afraid of getting hurt." He managed to choke out. "So we hurt them first before they could hurt us."
I stared at him in shock. Never did I thought that Valentine Morgenstern would be afraid of anything. I'm pretty sure five minutes had already past, but it seems my feet are glued to the ground. It took me a while to register his words. He's right, I am like him. I get up from my chair and follow Magnus who is already out the door.
"Jonathan." Valentine called when I was half out the door. I turned around and saw him in the same position he was when we came in, staring out the window with his hand crossed. "Take care of her will you? Don't be like me." He said in a regretful tone.
"What if she doesn't feel the same way." I asked as my voice cracked at the end.
"Then let her go." He said. "At leasts that's what I did." I looked at him curiously. What does he mean by that? Before I could respond to that, my phone vibrated. I looked down at my hand, which is where my phone was, and read the text in my mind.
She's out.
-Si
I look at Valentine and head out the door without mumbling a word.
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