"You never told me she was a mother."
Lay stood in front of Suho's desk as he placed his cigarette on the ashtray.
"Will it make any difference?"
"She has a daughter. You can't be heartless enough to make a child motherless." Lay furiously spat, beating the seconds with his words, wanting to show his disapproval of Suho's next plan.
"She made a father and a mother lost their son, made a brother lost his brother. Tell me the difference if I take the life of this child's mother."
Lay shook his head. Suho had told him countless of times he had been selfish the moment he agreed to drug Jennie, but he could not be selfish enough to take the future moments that Jennie's child could have with her. He needn't be selfish at all. This outcome was his consequence for giving in to the weakness of his heart, the consequence that he knew would wake him every night at midnight, the consequence that would drive him into the madness of guilt whenever he sees a child without a mother.
He couldn't handle that.
"Don't tell me you're feeling guilty!" Suho slammed his hand on the table, but Lay remained indifferent.
"I'm not."
He needed this ticket out.
"Then take her to my garage."
"I can't do that."
"Bullshit!"
Lay was struggling with his inner inhumanity, but he knew underneath the outer exterior was a sensitive man, a man that knew it was a grave act to take someone's life. His failure to do something would kill him mentally. He rushed outside his house, not hearing Suho's other shouts as he came inside his car, a certain place in mind.
Maybe it wasn't too late to make things right.
***
Jennie was inside the living room, playing with her daughter on the couch. Ever since her talk with Jisoo the night before, things have been slowly coming back to the way it was. Except, their love was not expressed intimately in their words and actions. The guilt and disappointment still hanging over their heads, and Jennie was not expecting that everything would be fixed. But every moment her hand would brush against Jisoo's skin, she would itch to hold her. Every moment she would stare at her lips, she would long to kiss her.
She felt her finger stuck in between two wet and soft ends. Jennie gazed down to see Lisa biting her finger. She giggled as she playfully tried to pry her finger away, earning excited squeals from her daughter. Jennie leaned so that her mouth was just above her daughter's face. "I love you, my baby."
Just then, Jisoo came in, bringing Lisa's toys with her. She sat on the other side of Lisa, cooing her.
"Hey there, baby."
As Jisoo showed her toys, Lisa reached for them, but only got to hold one, the cat.
"It's the first time she paid this much attention to it." Jennie whispered.
"Maybe she misses her like I do." Jisoo spoke, looking intently at Jennie.
Time heals all wounds. Maybe the phrase was one of the biggest lies ever said by the mouths of the many. Because a wound could not be easily healed by time if it were caused by someone you had given too much of yourself to. Not if the empty space left in your heart was in the form of the person that was the reason for your hurt.
So that was why Jisoo and Jennie held on to each other. They could not risk giving each other the pain of such sorrow.
"Jisoo, I--" Jennie was about to say her words of love when her phone rang on the table. Jisoo could only offer a little smile as Jennie excused herself to answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Good morning, Juliet."
And just when she had thought she could escape him, he made himself known once again to her by his voice. Jennie had enough of his games.
"What do you want?"
"Juliet."
And the way he said her name had tingles run through her spine.
"Please, leave me alone." Jennie said it with a hint of desperation that Suho caught. She could almost imagine him smirking at the other side of the line.
A long pause of silence followed before Suho spoke again.
"I will leave you alone if you shall grant me one last meeting here in my mansion."
"You're impossible." She had tried to sound indifferent, but her voice would betray the emotion she was trying to hide from him. And he was glad he could hear her fears through the phone.
"If you don't want your lover and daughter to be buried deeper into this mess, I suggest you come and meet me here."
Jennie knew this was one of the risks she took when she chose to bring her daughter into this world and when she chose to love Jisoo. Because if she had loved no one, she would fear nothing, because she had nothing to live for, nothing to fight for, nothing to live for, and she wouldn't be afraid every moment she would close her eyes at night thinking someone might come inside the room to take Jisoo and Lisa away from her.
This was what she feared, to have them be used as bait.
"Where and what time."
"In the garage. I'm expecting to see your skinny ass in 30 minutes. Hurry, Juliet."
The line went dead. It was suicide to enter the lion's den alone, but she could not bring her family into the mess she had created even way before Jisoo came to love her. She needed to face this.
Alone.
If this was a sacrifice she should make to secure their safety, then she would make it.
She sneaked past Jisoo and Lisa before she got through the door, running to the front gate to catch a cab to Suho's house. Before the cab could reach a far distance, she looked back to the mansion, saying her farewell and I love yous that could be her last. It could be, but she would not let it.
She still had a wedding to be at, she still had to say her vows, she still had to hear her daughter's first words, she still had to see her take her first few steps, she still had too many time in this world with them both.
She would not leave his house until everything was settled, not until she was sure she was free from his prying eyes, until she no longer lived under the radar of his anger and revenge.
And when the cab stopped at his place, she had sprinted to the garage, making a loud bang as she opened the door to it. Suho stood in the middle, holding a small bottle in his palms, and a cigarette in the other. He had a dirty grin plastered on his face as he saw Jennie.
"I never expected you to come here so fast. Please come closer."
Jennie had a little more certainty to her steps as she walked towards him, determined and resolute to solve this. She had come far enough to feel the guts of fear and anxiety. She stopped a couple of feet away from him, wishing the small distance could promise even just an ounce of safety.
"Remember this, Juliet?" Suho proudly showed the bottle in the air. There was no use if he told her the truth if she would no longer be alive in the next couple of minutes, days, years. She would die wishing she hadn't come to him.
Jennie furrowed her brows in confusion as he lightly shook it, the pills inside making a sound.
"They're called ecstasy. That night at the party."
He could only laugh seeing Jennie still oblivious to the truth that was already being shown to her. There would be no fun if he would kill her without letting her know anything. He had no guns, no knives. What better way to kill than using his own bare hands? The deed would satisfy him to the farthest extent.
"Drugs. I gave you one when you drank the refreshment. Gave you one hell of a hallucination about Jisoo. But I must admit, you were a pretty darn good kisser when you were on the bed with Lay."
Jennie stood silent at his revelation, but the fury was already starting to boil in her blood. She knew he would reach the farthest extent to hurt her, but knowing the truth of it all only made her see the real monster that had been spawned to haunt her. She knew Suho wouldn't stop there, she knew he intended to do more damage. She needed to fight, and there was no escaping this battle against him.
It had been full of nothing but pain and death believing she had been hurting Jisoo because of her unfaithful actions with Lay, but to discover it had been false was another kind of throbbing ache inside her heart. It left her utterly speechless, the words turned into actions of fury that were beginning to sprout at her fingers. The anger was clear in her eyes, cold and sharp. The fury swirled from the deepest shelters of the ocean to finally swim to the surface to breathe its first intake of air.
Jennie went forward, ready to strike Suho with her hand as she had it raised towards him, but he was faster. He pushed her hand away to grab at her elbow, throwing his knuckle to meet with Jennie's face, smashing a punch into the soft spot on her temple. Jennie stumbled back, blinking as the first wave of pain and unease came to her.
Suho walked to her, the same knuckle now meeting with Jennie's stomach, digging with a deep strike to it. Jennie bent her upper body, mouth hanging open as she tried to regain the breath that had been stolen as he hit her body, her head becoming light and dizzy. Unsatisfied with his work, he bent his arm to give another punch to the side of her face, making a strong impact to her jaw. Jennie fell on the ground, trying to relieve the pain by holding a hand to the spot that hurt. But as she expected, Suho wasn't finished.
"God that feels so good! I should've just went with this first." He lunged for Jennie's torse with his legs, kicking once, then twice, then thrice.
It all happened too painfully that Jennie couldn't even remember when he had stopped. Jennie took as many breaths as she could, the pain in her body making it hard to move, but she tried. She had her arms under her, and pushed herself to sit up, wincing at the sensation in her upper body. Suho reached for her hair behind her head, tilting her head roughly upwards to look at him. He smiled wickedly at the sight of Jennie's bloodstained lips.
"Wrong move, Juliet."
***
Her brother had just arrived when he called for her from the door. "Jisoo! Someone's looking for you outside!"
Jisoo gave Lisa one kiss before she went to the door to meet the visitor who summoned for her, only to stop dead at her tracks when she saw it was the same man Jennie had sex with the night at the party. She waited for Seok Jin to be busy with Lisa before she closed the door, leaving them alone outside.
Lay spoke first as he saw Jisoo was about to open her mouth. "We need to talk."
Jisoo could only snort at his attitude. "I can't believe you have the guts to even come here and talk to me."
But she had not missed the begging tone in his voice, though she tried to pretend she had not heard it. "Please, hear me out. It's about Jennie."
"Yes, I know she cheated on me with you. You want her back with you on the bed? I won't allow that. Get out before I'll be the one to do so." Jisoo's irritation and anger started to well inside her every passing second she would look at him. She would not give her Jennie to him.
"She didn't cheat on you."
Her irritation and anger could only skyrocket at that point. "There's not much use in telling me more lies that--"
"She was drugged." He said, his stance unwavering. "Suho drugged her."
"Why should I believe you?"
Jisoo had been easily moved by people's words, but when she opened her heart and let herself be vulnerable to them, it only allowed pain and hurt come because of her blind eyes and naivety. It was too easy to stitch together a story. It was too easy to speak lies, for they were just empty words.
"Who was the one who invited you to the party? Why do you think Jennie insisted to go there? He knew all along she was Junmyeon's mistress. Jennie was being threatened behind your back."
But not all words easily spoken were lies.
Jisoo shook her head, repeatedly uttering the word 'No'. Jennie hadn't told her anything about him. Her heart started to feel fear inside of her. Jennie had been in a war all by herself. Her anger blinded her to see the truth.
Jennie loved her, she never cheated on her! And when she turned around to call for her inside the house, Lay spoke once again.
"You won't find her there. She's on her way to his garage in the mansion."
Jisoo's blood ran cold.
"Take me there. Now."
She needed to find Jennie.