Chapter 18: A bold confrontation

Jessica’s POV

With knowing all that I now do, I left the room just as David had previously instructed. At least, this time around, I actually listened to him. I sneaked up on him a little bit before I fully entered the room.

“He didn’t even attend her funeral.” He led with that and for the first time, all I could do was share his pain with him.

“David, I know you had to promise your mum you were going to take care of him, but what about yourself? You sacrificed a lot to get to where you were only to have it all jeopardized by him because of the dark…”

“Don’t say that. It does not make it less worse than it already was.” He cut in. I didn’t fight him. I knew what I was going to say was going to make his head pop off so I decided to save that for later.

“Okay. So, what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, clearly you and Victor can’t keep doing this dance for the rest of you lives.”

There was a brief pause before his response and I could tell that he was in agreement with what I was saying. He was exhausted from the whole fight and I could tell he wanted no part in it anymore.

“What would have me do? It’s not like I can just allow him to kill me as he had always wished and it’s not as if he won’t stop coming after me. After all, I am a reminder of all the bad things that he ever came across.”

I took my time before dropping the bomb I’ve been preventing from detonating ever since I was in that room. Eventually, I knew it was going to drop and I needed to rip the band aid off.

“What if you told him about the contents of the letter and show him some bits of the diary?”

The quick gaze that followed my suggestion showed that his approval was not in motion. He moved to me from where he was standing and said, “Do you have any idea the mayhem he would unleash if he realized he has this… thing? I am barely keeping up with slow dance and you want to increase the pace. No, Jessica! No! I am not putting myself or you in danger anymore. I can throw as many punches I can at him but I am not going to end his life. Not even in the least unexpected ways.”

“I know you’re trying to fulfill…” I trailed off as David smashed a glass on his hand which made him bleed. His hands wiggled in shock for the rash behavior. “Jessica, drop it.” He said feeling the pain he caused himself.

I moved closer to him to remove the shards of glass in his hands. He removed his hands in anger and wouldn’t allow. “David, please. Let me.” I begged looking into his eyes accepting that I pushed too far and that I was sorry. He finally allowed me and I removed the glasses one after the other without him almost feeling any pain.

The first aid box that was below the liquor cabinet came in handy and I utilized every equipment effectively.

“You’re good at this, how?”

I sensed that his temper was calm and I could communicate with him freely now. “Girls scout.”

David gave out a loud laugh and I laughed with him trying to cover my objectives which would come to live later in the day close to the night.

There is no way I was going to sit down and watch those two brothers terrorize themselves all because of what a letter said. David needed to put his own dreams and aspirations before any other thing came to life and Victor needed to grow the fuck up. He is no longer a child and the more he is shielded from the secret, the more everyone around him are going to get hurt. If David isn’t going to do what’s necessary, I’m going to tell him to keep intact the rest of the sanity they all still had.

The same number that Victor used to lure her into his warehouse to be kidnapped was the same one I texted. I assumed it was his personal number.

“Drop Cartel, 7:00pm. Time to hear my truth. Come alone!” the message read. It was formal enough to get his attention and he read the message almost immediately.

This time around, I came prepared. I wasn’t going to allow myself to get hurt.

The odds were going to be even this time around. I took a gun and acted as if I was in my side of the house. I played the music loud enough to throw David off to think I was inside. I left the house and drove all the way to my meeting location.

As I walked on, I felt every guilt pressing on me like ghost in the shadows, but I could do this. It was a matter of playing thing right. I waved for a passing cab, it halted — “Drop Cartel.“ The driver nodded and dropped me off at the location. I stood outside taking the surroundings in. Was I really going to be safe? Now, I was the one who had called for the lion's attention in his own den. I sighed, letting out an exhaling breath.

I checked the gun to see everything was intact, I put gun powders in it and was all set once I walked into the warehouse. I walked and the tensed atmosphere seemed to play rhythm with the anxiousness brewing inside of me but as I went on, I shook them off. That was what I had to do right? Brush every stains off, that was the goal here tonight.

I took my phone and texted I was here — and while I took in the whole place in — from the corridors to the exit, the containers and crate, I heard that scornful laugh.

“See who's in the lion's den.“

I turned around and saw him. He looked… quite different today? He was on casual wears and somehow he wasn't the guy from days ago. Anyone would have drooled and…

I jumped out of my reverie once his cold voice rang in my ears.

“Why is it you've called me?“ I gasped. It was unexpected but I put myself in place not to show my nervousness.

“So here..“ I passed the diary to him. He stared at me, — confused? Not sure, but those eyes flickered to change once he read the contents one my one.

He throws it to the floor, I bent to pick it up.

“Dark triad?“ He scoffed then a bitter laugh followed.

Victor’s laugh slowly died with the thin air, his eyes bored onto mine with something darker than confusion — betrayal.

“You came all the way here to preach this pathetic thing?” he hissed, stepping closer, I moved backwards.

“Do you think I don’t know what you’re doing?.“

“But let me inform you, you're just other pawns in his games In case you still think I'm the bad guy.“

My grip around the gun tightened inside my coat. I was scared but I fought to stay composed.

“I just thought you deserved to know the truth.“ I said forcing a smile while my hands trembled.

He snorted. “The truth? Well now, you want to talk about the truth?“ He smirked, stepping into my face as if daring me. “Truth is… you should have stayed out of this. But now you've played your pact and I know exactly what you and your boyfriend have been hiding..“

I cut him off, “what do you mean?“

Victor’s face twisted. “That letter wasn’t meant for you, Jessica. It wasn’t even meant for David. It was for me. And you all think you can control how I react to it? Who gave you that right?”

His tone dropped a warning — sharp, cold, poisonous.

“You think waving some diary in my face changes anything? That I’d suddenly forgive the who watched our mother die and still got to play the hero?”

I blinked. “That’s not true. David — he saved you. Again and again. He lived for you, even That letter proves—”

“What is it that you know!!” he roared, grabbing the edge of a crate and shoved it down with a crash that echoed in the warehouse.

“You think just because it was written in ink on paper, it means anything? My pain was real. The beatings. The nights I prayed someone would come. He never did. The dark rooms I got locked in.”

He stepped closer, and I took every step backwards, his presence intimidating.

“You’re manipulating me,” he snorted darkly.

“Just like everyone else.” he added.

“Victor, listen…” I walked closer by hands resting on his arm,

He yanked me by the wrist and before I could react, he was already pushing me roughly against a container wall.

“You set me up.”

The rage in his eyes… It wasn’t just fury. It was the fury that carried years of trauma, pain, betrayal — a storm he no longer wanted to suppress.

I cried in pain, “Victor, please — Let me go.”

“No,” he growled. “You come in here, waving ghosts in my face and expect me to walk out changed? You think you’re helping? No. No. You’re just another liar in my life.”

He raised a hand, not to hit me but to snatch the gun from my coat. He had seen the handle.

I reacted out of instinct.

BANG.

The shot rang like a crackling thunder.

His body jerked back, as he stumbled into the crate behind him. He looked down at the blood blooming red on his side. Not fatal — but enough to stagger him.

I froze. The realization I had shot someone pressing on me.

My chest heaved. The gun trembled in my hand. “I.. I.. didn’t mean to…”

Victor’s face was a mask of disbelief… and something that broke my heart: hurt. Not just from the bullet. From me.

“I wasn’t going to hurt you,” he muttered, clutching his side.

I lowered the gun, guilt gnawing at me.

“But maybe now… maybe now you’ll understand just how dangerous this truth is,” he whispered, collapsing to his knees.

I rushed to him, panic clawing at my throat. “Victor…”

His eyes fluttered. “Tell David… ”

And that was it, he fainted. Silence took over.

I stayed on my knees beside him, I stopped breathing once I saw that Victor was barely breathing as I watched the blood seep through him. My heart pounded so loud that I felt like it echoed off the warehouse walls.

What have I done? I screamed in guilt.

I didn’t come here to hurt anyone. I came here to fix things. To heal something. But now I’d only added another wound to this cycle of pain that neither of them seemed to be able to escape.

Tears blurred on my vision as I looked down at Victor. For all his threats, for all the danger he brought, he didn’t deserve this. Not like this. No one does. I thought I could be the bridge between them, the one who brought the truth, the one who brought light into the shadows they had both lived in for so long.

Instead, I became part of the darkness.

I pressed my hand to my chest, trying to hold in the panic, the regret. Every breath swept me off like a betrayal. David… when he sees this, when he knows what happened, that I came here against his wish and even shot Victor —what will he think of me?

And Victor… even if he survives, would he not have any complications? Or come thrice as harder than usual.

I wrapped my arms around myself, rocking slightly as I stared into the void of the warehouse. The silence was too loud, growing along my impatience. My soul also growing too heavy.

I never came here to be a villain.

But now, all I felt was guilt.

And the terrifying sense that this night had changed everything — forever? Well, yes! But now, I feared the future.