Chapter 160

"You planned it." — "What?" — "They knew, so you felt threatened and killed. You and Dante murdered Olivia and Galliard Gray."

My heart collided with my chest, and my breath immediately froze. The awareness of my being was the only thing I was sure of.

I dug my fingers into my palm, hoping to feel something real. But nothing was making sense. Everything was disconnected.

"Stop... Stop," I whispered. "Stop this. It's sick from you." Just stop.

"Then tell me, Emília. What really happened?"

My eyes bulged as the veins on my neck seemed to want to pop out.

"I don't know! I would never kill my parents. Why would they think something like that about me? I love them. They're everything I have. Never! I never yelled at them. Imagine killing them, damn it?!"

The crying came in spasms. I leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor where I curled up.

I couldn't believe it.

I had lost them, and now I was the guilty one.

What had I done wrong?

What did I need to do to get the truth?

What did I need to bring them back?

"But Dante did."

His breath was close. The air hit the back of my neck, but it was his name that made me stand up.

"Dante?"

"All the rumors about him have a bit of truth, but they don't tell the full story." His jaw clenched before continuing. "He didn't just kill the kidnapper. Four more people were killed by him. On the very day he was held captive. Dante didn’t save anyone from the kidnapping. He stayed there. On purpose. He investigated who the people were, what they did, what their families were like, where they went, what they ate... He discovered things we weren't even close to knowing. And he acted. Acted long before we did."

"I don’t understand..."

Christian Norman sighed.

"We’ve covered up his murders as long as he helped us. He and Torman made that deal. That’s why he was adopted. But today, we realize we couldn’t control him. He’s dangerous, and now he’ll be hunted by us as a murderer."

The shock lodged itself deep inside me. The failure of my heartbeat was the soundtrack of my horror movie.

"No..."

"He made it clear he wants this. He wants to be hunted like one. He wants to be seen as a vigilante. Dante is seeking revenge, and you’ve been placed in the middle of all this."

I didn’t know what to think anymore.

"No. Impossible."

I shook my head in desperation.

It was just easier to pretend it wasn’t true. That none of this was supposed to happen.

"He has a hurt leg. He can’t hurt anyone."

"Dante is smart. He escaped with the contacts he has."

I banged my head against the wall, the tears burning in my eyes, blinding me.

"You’re lying."

"Unfortunately, Emília, Dante made sure to leave a note at the crime scene." He continued, but I just wanted him to shut up.

He was a liar. A filthy, indecent bastard playing with my mind.

"Shut up!" I screamed.

I didn’t usually shout. I was polite. Calm. That’s how I was taught to be, but right then, I was a chaotic mess.

I was a fountain of dark disasters.

The light within me was gone.

"You said you wanted an answer."

I stood up, rushing to the door. But it was locked.

I pounded on it, begging for help. I hit it hard enough to hurt my hand. It bled, tearing open my skin, but this pain didn’t overshadow the excruciating pain in my soul. As if it had been killed along with my parents.

I needed to get out.

I was suffocating.

"Your parents were..."

"Shut your mouth! Let me out!"

I hit the door again.

Nothing.

No one was coming to my aid.

No one would help me get through this. To survive this day.

"Your parents were murdered by Dante Faulkner," he sentenced.

"It’s a lie! Impossible! He wouldn’t do that! He wouldn’t do this to me!"

"I’m sorry, Emília."

"Stop saying ‘sorry’!" I yelled. My heart was wide open, pouring out everything I had accumulated over the years. "You’re not sorry! You destroy! No one is sad for me. No one!"

I closed the distance between us, my anger building up in my veins and pouring out of my mouth.

"You don’t know Dante! He loves. He lives. He feels," I said, interrupted by tears. "He loved me. He lived with me. He felt me. He protected me. Dante would never do this to me."

Every part of me was being torn apart. All the damn cells in my body were working on anger, pain, and ruin.

I was ruined.

"He did. Not just to you, but to others too."

Dante was the cause of this day. He didn’t protect you. He never wanted to.

Everything collapsed.

Everything I had built as a fortress was claimed by cruel agony. The memories were turned into pain. My anger turned into melancholy.

I fell into a state I didn’t want to escape from. I was drowning in destruction. I wanted to hold my mom's hand, for my dad to kiss the back of my neck, but who embraced me was mourning.

And not mourning for the betrayal and my parents.

Mourning for me.

Because I died that day.

And was reborn another.