Chapter 265 Chapter 265

Chapter 265 Chapter 265

Hailey's POV.

It is usually a hard game to convince a group of resolved men to change their mind even when you apply every method in the books. I have begged, and made myself vulnerable, even tried to reason with them. The rest was up to them.

They had to choose what to do with Vincent on their own. I was offering them a way they could get revenge without being the next target of the authorities, but they were bent on taking the hard route to fuel their satisfaction.

“I shouldn't be here any longer,” I said after a lengthy pause. “I'll be outside, I'll wait for your decision, all of you,” I said bowing my head as I walked out.

I thought they would try to stop me but they watched me twist the knob and slowly walk out alone.

As the fresh air of the hallway slapped against my skin, I took a deep breath and exhaled. The room smelled like a toxic mix of sweat and blood, but out here felt like a sterilized quarantined room. I couldn't understand how they could even stay cooked up in that room for long.

“What's going on in there?” A voice said beside me, causing me to flinch in fear.

“Jeez, Benita! You startled me.” I heaved a sigh.

“Startled?” She quoted, twisting her lips. “You got me worried, girl,”

“How,” I made a curious frown.

“Don't play coy. I heard they brought Vincent back, so I hope it is easy for you to understand how worried I got when I heard you scream. You sounded terrified and angry. What happened there?” She asked.

“Ohh, it's nothing. I got a little carried away, that's all.” I tried to hide my face.

“You don't look like you got carried away to me,” Benita replied. “You look tired and look at those eyes, you cried, didn't you?”

“You know me so well, who are you?” I made a faint smile. “Actually, it's hard to explain. Yes, Vincent is in there right now, I might have also made a few men angry,”

“Why?” Benita leaned her back on the wall, crossing her arms to listen to me.

“I told them not to kill Vincent. I can't stand the thought of Damien soiling his hands in cold blood especially now that he's gotten a little bit of freedom from the public,”

Benita shook her head, her warm expression turning sad as she slid her back downwards and sat on the floor. I followed the same gesture and rested my arms on my knees, then bowed my head.

“Kai even had the nerves to say I'm just like Vincent.” I muttered in spite.

“I mean, can you blame them?” Benita whispered after a few seconds. “They probably wouldn't have agreed to help us if Sophia hadn't disobeyed her father in the first place.”

“I hate Vincent, I really do. I think he deserves to die after all the pain he caused us, after all the pain he caused Sophia and her father,” she confessed. “But I also know it's not the best route to take,”

She tilted her neck in my direction and stretched her hands to grab my hands. “You shouldn't be disappointed at any choice they make. It's hard to stop your emotions from taking the lead, Hailey. This man used them like puppets, of course they'd want to kill him with their own hands.”

“I know, I just… I…” I stopped and heaved a deep sigh. “I don't know. I guess I just want things to go back the way it once was. You know when we didn't have to worry about getting shot or kidnapped.” I cracked a faint smile. “We just had to worry about classes and which dress we would wear to keep up with the trend.”

“I know, right?” She chuckled along. “I loved going to parties. But we can never go back to the way it once was, we can only hope for a better future,” her voice dropped as she pulled back and blinked slowly. “We can only fight for a future with the ones we love. You have a baby, I got Marco back. That's the good thing in life we can never trade back.”

“Benita,” I cooed. “Stop, you are gonna make me cry,” I laughed, my eyes gathering tears.

“Please don't. If you cry I'll cry and I just got my makeup done,” she snickered.

“You always know what to say, don't you?”

We turned our heads as footsteps echoed at the end of the hall. Sophia tried to unbuckle a belt on her waist. She wasn't aware that we were watching her until she succeeded and raised her head up, her brows curling up in response.

“What's happening? Why are you both on the floor?” she asked, stretching her hands.

“Nothing,” I quickly answered, leaping up to my feet. “We were just on our way to to our rooms. “

She scanned Benita's looks and puffed her cheeks. “Don't tell me you were both eavesdropping. I know Vincent is in there,”

“We weren't eavesdropping, Sophia. We just happened to be having a chat around here” Benita stopped as her eyes flashed with realization. “It's a total coincidence, trust me,” she snickered.

“If there's any updates you guys can tell me, stop holding it out on me.” Sophia laughed to calm the tension in the air.

I shook my head and tilted towards Benita “Trust me, we will tell you if there's anything going on,”

At that moment, the door behind us clicked open and Lorenzo walked out. He looks around, his eyes resting on Sophia with a weird look as though struggling to give a command.

“Hailey, Boss wants to speak with you,” he said after a brief moment of silence.

I tried to laugh it off but I quickly walked in after Sophia peered her head in the room. Lorenzo wasn't going to tell her to leave, he made room for her to fit in at the entrance, her eyes circling on Vincent. Deep down, I wanted Sophia to leave immediately. I knew if she got to know that Vincent wasn't going to die, she might have protested against and convinced her father otherwise after I have worked so hard.

Against my wishes, Sophia forced her way in studying the room as she pinched her nose to block the morbid stench.

“Sophia, excuse us,” Damien called.

“I'm not obstructing anyone, Dad. Don't you think I should be here if Hailey is. He tried to kill me too, remember. He manipulated me and if you are going to eliminate him, I should be…”

“We are not killing him,” Damien stated, forcing her to pause.

Damien turned to Vincent and gritted his teeth, showing that a part of him hated the decision he was about to make. Kai was quiet but it was easy to read the apathetic look on his face. A look that suggested he was forced to submit after careful thoughts about the results and consequences of killing Vincent off.

The only problem was Sophia's speechless look, her frozen stare, and curled lips.

“Sophia, this isn't the end. We are only doing this for a better prospect in the future. Please understand,” I voiced out. “He is of much help to us under apprehension than…”

“You convinced them about this, right,” she said with a straight voice and Lorenzo shut the door behind us to lock Benita out.

“I did,” my shoulders hunched. “Killing him off will only make us a…”

“...Target. I get it,” she completed. “I just didn't think my father would care much about it. He's not one to take traitors lightly, not after the pain he caused us. ”

“But you forgave me,” I voiced.

She sighed and shook her head. “That’s different. You are different. Some of my actions pushed you to make your decision, but Vincent had no reason to betray us. He killed my mother, he caused us to hide around in the first place.”

“And we caught him before it was too late,” I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Let's allow the law to deal with him. He's already doomed, killing him off would only cause his suffering to end sooner.”

The room went silent for about a minute till Sophia cleared her throat and let out a mouthful of air. “Alright. This is for the best, I believe. But we can't let the authorities know that we had a hand in his condition.” She waved her hands, gesturing at his injuries.

“I have a plan already,” Damien uttered. “We'll place an anonymous call to the police to lead them to a random location. I'll have one of my men drop him off in the location and hide around the corner to make sure the police picks him up and not one of Anthony's minions,”

I felt happy that they listened to me, but my smile faded off as soon as Sophia threw a question in the air.

“Who's gonna drop him off and wait for the police to pick him up?”

Kai stepped forward, hands tucked in his pocket, his eyes darkening with a sinister look. “I will.”