Chapter 48: Chapter Forty-seven

“You have always thought I killed him. Haven’t you?” Hunter said as he walked out of the kitchen, his voice deep and steady, almost casual, though the weight of his words filled the air like smoke. He moved toward the wine cabinet in the living room, reaching for a bottle with deliberate calm. “So, why are you asking me this question again and again?”

Mirabella was hot on his heel, her steps quick and unsteady as though she feared if she stopped following him, the truth would get lost forever. “I don’t think you killed him. Well… not entirely,” she said, her voice low but cutting. She hesitated before adding, “If I did think you killed my brother, I wouldn’t be here with you.”

Hunter paused midway through pouring himself a glass of scotch. The amber liquid stilled inside the crystal as his dark eyes turned to her. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then his lips twisted into something sharp. “Have you ever thought for once that you have a choice? Whether to leave me?” His words were cold and wicked. “Then, you must be delusional. You have no choice but to be here with me.”

Mirabella opened her mouth, the sting of his words pressing hard against her chest. She wanted to argue, to push back, but instead she closed it again. Silence filled the room until she finally forced herself to say, “Like I said, I don’t think you killed him. You once told me that he made his choice… and that you would have killed him yourself if he had come back alive.” Her voice lowered at the memory of that night.

Hunter tipped back his glass and swallowed the scotch in a single gulp. He refilled it again. His face creased a little, as if weighing her words against his own silence.

“Please…” Mirabella whispered, her eyes glistening with fresh unshed tears. “Just tell me what happened to him. At least I deserve to know that much. I am already paying for his sins, so please tell me what happened to him.” Her voice broke, and tears slid down her cheeks.

Her plea pierced something in Hunter. He had always known she believed she was paying for her brother’s and parents’ choices. None of the things between them meant anything to her at all. He doesn't blame her for thinking that way. That was what he had told her to make it so easy to bend her to his will, to break her, to keep her tethered to him. But hearing it aloud, raw and pleading, felt like a knife to the ribs.

Hunter drew in a slow breath. His jaw tightened before he finally let the words spill. “Your brother died after he collided with my enemy. He snitched on my business to the police.” His voice was firm, factual, void of sympathy. “Dicksen must have been scared that David would snitch on him too, after their plans failed. So he killed him before he got the opportunity.” Hunter’s gaze locked onto her, sharp and merciless. “That’s what you should know.”

Every word landed heavy on her chest. Mirabella’s knees weakened, her eyes distant, lost in a fog of memory. She swayed, and before she could stop herself, her body gave in to the dizziness.

“Bella… you…” Hunter’s voice cut through the haze as he reached for her, holding her against him when she nearly collapsed. His hand pressed against her back firmly, grounding her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I just feel… a bit dizzy,” she replied weakly, her voice trembling.

Hunter’s hold on her tightened. His next words carried the weight of steel. “Dicksen is dead. I killed him. I don’t forgive betrayal, and I don’t like it when my candy is taken out of my mouth.” His eyes glinted dangerously, the predator in him flashing just beneath the surface.

Mirabella froze at his words. Her brother. Her blood. Reduced to candy in Hunter’s mouth. She tore herself from his arms, her steps slow but determined. Without a word, she turned toward the staircase. The silence in the house was louder than any scream.

Just then, Ashley walked into the living room. Seeing Mirabella, she walked to her with a beam in her eyes. “Hey girl." But then noticing the look on her face, she asked, “are you ok. You look pale. Should I get you anything? Escort you to your room?” She rushed all her words.

Mirabella gave her a smile which didn't reach her eyes. “I just need to be alone."

Her feet carried her to her room, each step felt heavier than the last. When she reached it, she locked the door, her trembling fingers fumbling with the latch. She collapsed onto the bed, the weight of Hunter’s confession pressing her into the mattress. Fresh streams of tears burned down her cheeks.

Fresh wounds tore open inside her heart. Wounds she thought had healed but were easily ripped apart with the slightest scratch. It was so easy for men like them to kill, to strip away lives like they were nothing. Hunter had admitted he killed his opponent because he took candy from his mouth. David, her brother, was that candy. Her blood. Her protector. Gone because of their game.

God… what was she doing with this man? With someone who could look her in the eyes and say he would have killed her brother had Dicksen not done it first. If he could say that so easily, then he could kill her too. And why wouldn’t he? He had used her body, scraped at her soul and tampered with her mind until she couldn’t recognize herself anymore.

What was she thinking? What had she been thinking? David had told her to stay away from this devil in human form. That had been his last wish. His dying words and she had neglected everything and drowned them out with her weakness, her blind entanglement with Hunter.

Would David ever forgive her for everything? For being here. For allowing herself to be used. For forgetting his last plea?

Her chest ached with the answer she already knew. No. He wouldn’t. She had disappointed him, as much as he had felt disappointed in himself.

Mirabella wiped her tears with trembling hands, but they wouldn’t stop falling. Her mind raced, fear and guilt colliding until all she could think of was escape. She had to find a way out of this house. She had to leave Hunter. For David’s sake. For her own sake too.

But even as the thought played in her mind, her body quaked at the impossibility of it. Hunter was everywhere. His presence in her life was a shadow she could not shake, a chain she could not see yet always felt around her throat.

Still, she pressed her hand against her heart, whispering into the darkness of her room, “I have to leave. I will leave.”

The words trembled out of her, low but determined. And in that moment, as she closed her eyes, she knew she had taken the first step toward something Hunter had told her she didn’t have.

A choice.

Just then, she felt a nausea coming up her throat. She rushed to the restroom and bent over the toilet and emptied everything in her stomach. It kept coming and coming and she sat on the floor out of exhaustion.

She has been having weird feelings and changes in her body lately. The dizziness she always felt was too much. More fear spread through her body. As something crossed her mind.

She might just be pregnant for the Devil.