Chapter 34

Juliette's POV:

“Everything is finished.” I pulled my hair in frustration and agony.

“Everything is finished.” I took the broken lamp from the ground and threw it on the wall.

“Doamnă!” I heard someone say, but I ignored the person as I tumbled down to the floor and rested my head against the side of the bed.

“Are you alright?” It was Cosmina.

“Oh my God! What have you done? Ma’am, you’re bleeding! Wait!” I heard her and guessed that she must be going to the bathroom for the first-aid kit. I looked down and surely saw my hands filled with scratches and bleeding. And my pants were ripped, and my feet had some scratches as well. But, it all didn’t matter to me; what hurt me was my sentiments and emotions. My emotions were burdening over my shoulder. I was pretty disheartened and filled with rage, because today I had lost confidence in myself.

I lost my faith in myself. I couldn’t quite comprehend what was correct and what was not. It seemed as if every decision that I made in the past was incorrect and resulted in me failing. I was broken; I felt as if I lost my own soul. Betrayal was the cause of all these emotions I was feeling right now.

Minutes later, I heard some shuffling in the background and felt someone touching my arms. It was definitely Cosmina, because she started inspecting my wounds while I sobbed, not caring about anything that was going on in my surroundings.

“Please let me see!” I heard her before I felt my consciousness giving up.

“What happened over here?” I heard someone ask as I felt my consciousness regaining.

Everything looked blurry at first, then I blinked my eyes several times and looked around to find myself on the bed. People were taking away the broken things, and the room looked cleaner than it was when I lost my consciousness. I looked at my hand to find it bandaged, and when I looked to my side, I saw two pairs of eyes looking down at me, worry evident on their faces.

One was Cosmina and the other was Zachary’s mother. She sat down next to me and rubbed my forehead. Not able to control my feelings anymore, I took her hand in mine and cried, leaning against it.

“Oh my god! Juliette! What happened? Dear, why are you crying?” she held my hand in hers and rubbed soothingly over the bandaged hand.

I continued sobbing and from the corner of my eyes, I saw Cosmina playing with her fingers looking worried.

“Did something happen between you and Zachary? A fight?” Mom asked.

I wished that was the problem. How terribly I wished that I had never met Emmett, and how terribly I wished that my tears belonged to Zachary. I was crying for the person I loved the most, not because of the one I hated the most.

What is going on in my life?

Why is everything so messed up in my life?

“Juliette dear, please stop crying. My heart is beating so fast now. Oh my God! Please dear, stop crying,” Mom leaned her head against mine, still rubbing my forearms.

“Cosmina!”

All of a sudden, Mom raised her head up and looked towards Cosmina.

“Tell me! What is going on?” she asked almost in a rude way.

“I—”

Cosmina was cut off by Zachary, who walked through the door and stood next to the bed behind Mom. His eyes bored into mine for a few seconds, before they left and traveled down to my bandaged hands. I saw his jaw clenching for a few seconds before he looked around the room and then back at mine.

“We had a fight,” he stated simply.

“Fight? For what?” Mom asked, looking at him sternly.

“She doesn’t want to leave this house,” he said, and that statement made me look up at him questionably.

What does he mean?

“Oh my God!” Mom exclaimed as she kept my hand softly on the bed and stood up.

“Why do you want to leave this house? I do not understand! This is your house, Juliette’s house. Why can’t we all stay together? If she doesn’t want to leave, then why are you keen on leaving?” she said in a rage, and then looked back at me.

“We are a married couple, Mom. We want our privacy!” Zachary said, and all of a sudden, I choked on my own spit.

Privacy?

“Are you not ashamed boy?” Mom asked in a low tone, looking curtly at him and then at Cosmina.

Cosmina gasped and then looked around before saying, “Um, I must leave now. I have work pending.” She bent her head and left.

“Very well! Then leave,” Mom said.

“Why is she so cold to her?” I wondered.

“Ashamed of what? Mother?” Zachary asked as he folded his arms across his chest and looked at her narrowing his eyes.

“Zach—” He cut her off.

“We already had this argument Mother. Now please!” Zachary said and then walked up to me and sat next to me.

“Very well! What about you dear? Do you not want to live here?” Mom asked me, with hope-filled eyes.

I felt a soft pinch on my thigh. It was Zachary.

What should I say?

Will it be good if we leave this place?

But why does Zachary want us to leave? We were better here. I was better. Though I couldn’t communicate with my family, having Mom and the others around me somehow eased my tension. So, why does he want us to leave?

“Dear?” Mom asked again.

“Whatever he feels is right,” I croaked out with difficulty.

She exhaled a breath in annoyance and shook her head.

“Of course!” she muttered.

“We will be leaving tonight!” said Zachary all of a sudden.

“Tonight?” Mom and I questioned in unison.

“What?” we asked in unison.

“Tonight? Are you kidding me?” Mom said and glared at Zachary, who just nodded, much to her annoyance.

“What the hell is wrong with you boy?” she said. Both of them had another heated argument until Mom gave up. She stormed out of the room, giving an excuse that she was going to prepare for our departure party. She said party in a sarcastic way and left, obviously not happy.

“Why do we need to leave?” I asked, slowly looking back at Zachary, who was looking towards the door where Mom left just a few minutes ago.

“For my family’s safety!” he said and got up from the bed and went into the walk-in closet.

“Family’s safety!” I muttered. Of course! He doesn’t want anything to happen to his family because of me. Seeing people wanting to kill me, there must be a reason why he said that. Why does Emmett want to kill me anyway? What did I even do? Sour thoughts flowed back into my mind as I thought about him. I should call him Nicholas!

When the night came, I sat on the bed holding a pillow against my chest. My things were already packed, and two men came into the room to take my bags away. Now, I sat on the bed, lost in my thoughts, thinking about what fate has planned for me next. My life is so messed up, and my fate is playing with me at every point of my life. What did I ever do to deserve this?

A knock on the door broke me out of my thoughts.

“Mom!” I said when I saw her there looking at me with a small smile on her face. She looked sad, and she was holding a small bag with her. With her hair done in a side braid, and wearing a long orange gown, she looked elegant and beautiful.

“How are you?” she asked once she walked in and took a seat next to me.

“I am good!” I lied to her with a smile on my face.

“Hmm,” she hummed in response, nodding her head.

“I am here to give you something!” she said and I watched as she fished a box out of that bag.

“Here!” she handed it to me and asked me to open it. Reluctantly, I obliged to her and I opened it to find a necklace inside it. A beautiful, but old, designed necklace. It was a traditional gold choker.

“Oh, my! It’s beautiful” I said trailing my finger on it.

“It was passed down to me by Zachary’s grandmother. It is our traditional necklace that we pass down to each generation. It’s from our ancestors,” she said and I looked down at it.

“I am giving it to you now!” she said all of a sudden, which made me gasp in shock.

“What? No! I mean, Mom, I cannot—”

“Juliette!” She said cutting me off, “You are my daughter-in-law! I must hand this to you. It’s my duty being in the Sullivan family, and I expect you to hand it down to your generation too!” she said, and that made me clench my fists in agony.

“I doubt I could ever give you a generation!” I thought.

“Let me see this on you,” she said as she took the necklace from me and got off from the bed and made an effort to tie it around my neck.

“Mom!”

She cut me off again. “Please let me, Juliette! I always had this dream to give this necklace to my daughter-in-law with my own hands. I have waited so long for this moment to finally see my son happy with someone. Never had I imagined that he would ever call someone else his family and today he did. He called you his family Juliette!” she said, and that got my attention.

“Yes! He calls you his family. I can’t express how happy I feel. Finally, he will be able to live a normal life, being away from all this. This all happened only because of you dear. I don’t know how you two met, but I am glad that you did, or else I would never have seen this side of him,” her voice broke in the end, and I saw tears sprinting out of her eyes.

What is she talking about?

“Though I still dislike the idea of you two moving out, I have come to the point that I will not force you two. Beforehand, when Zachary told me about you two leaving, I was okay with it, but I became greedy day by day, when I thought about it. I couldn’t bear the feeling that my son is now grown up, and it’s finally the time where he wants to stand up for himself, for his family,” she croaked out.

“Mom!” I got up and hugged her while she cried on my shoulder.

“But it’s okay!” she said, and I gave her some space, stepping back a little.

“I can trust you. I trust him to you. I believe you will bring happiness to him and for that, I am honored to pass this necklace down to you. See this as my trust of handing my son to you Juliette!” she said, and she tied it around my neck.

In the car, after we said our goodbyes to Mom, Dad and Grandfather, I looked at Zachary, who was driving. I touched the necklace with sorrow. I am not at all happy owning it. It burdens me with responsibility. I don’t really think I can provide happiness to anyone. I have failed and tumbled so hard in my life, that I can barely stand on my own. How can I support Zachary in all this? I don’t even have any idea why we are together. Why is he even with me?

I looked at him while he drove the car silently. I heard thunder, and soon it started raining heavily. Only the sound of water hitting the glass and the sound of the rubber wiper blades moving on the windshield could be heard. He didn’t even have the radio on. I looked out of the glass window, but I couldn’t see anything because of the rain.

“Slow down a little,” I said slowly, when I noticed the speedometer. It's dangerous to go at such a speed when it’s raining. I doubted he would ever oblige to me, but surprisingly, he did. He reduced the speed, but he didn’t even glance my way, he continued concentrating on the road.

Four hours later, the rain was milder in the area where we were. The car finally stopped before a gate. I watched as a guard came to us, holding an umbrella, and Zachary rolled down the window.

“Boss!” he saluted.

“Make sure nobody gets in! Nobody is allowed until they have my written permission!” Zachary said, and the guard nodded before opening the gate and Zachary drove inside the area filled with trees at the roadside. Minutes later, a mansion came into view. If Zachary’s previous house was huge, then this one was gigantic.

The car came to a halt, and I watched as Zachary got out of the car. Following him, I stepped out of the car and saw the white cream coated mansion shining because of the lights that reflected on it. The white colored mansion towered over me, as if trying to intimidate me. I gaped at it for a few seconds before I looked at the sidewalks, where varieties of plants were planted alongside the sidewalk. The place was two times bigger than the previous one, and only thinking about it made me sad. I would feel even more lonely in here.

I looked at the lawn to see a marble fountain sitting in the middle of the lawn. It had a lion in the center, and water spurted out of its mouth, the water fell gently towards the crystal blue pool, which had lights under it that made it shine, and the water fell beneath it, causing ripples to form and wave out until they were no more. Beautiful piece of architecture. I heard the door open and saw two women dressed in classy maid outfits walking out to us.

“Doamnă!” Both of them bowed their head to me.

Umm...

“Call the other workers and ask them to bring our bags to our room!” I heard Zachary and I looked at him when he spoke to them.

Without giving me a glance, he walked in and I followed after him, not knowing what to do. We walked inside and I found myself flabbergasted, looking at the work inside the house. Marbled floor, classy, expensive and elegant interior.

I was so busy gaping at everything that I didn’t even notice when he stopped in his tracks, which cause me to bump into him on his back.

“Watch where you walk!” he said slowly in a scolding tone. I nodded and hurriedly took the loose curls of my hair that fell on my face and moved it behind my ear.

“Straight from this way and the first left. Take the stairs and the second room is the one!” he said, and without letting me speak, he walked away.

“Zach—” I stopped mid-sentence when I saw him leaving me.

Sighing, I walked, reminding myself of the instructions that he gave and soon enough stood before a door. I opened the huge door only to come into a huge room.

“Wow!” I heard my own voice.

A big room with partitions, which made it another room inside it. Both of the rooms in my view had king-sized beds. First, there was a small hall where table and lounges were placed, and then the rooms with partitions. There was only one attached bathroom and I saw curtains flying in one part of the room and assumed it was the door to the balcony. The room didn’t have a walk-in closet, but a huge wardrobe and I saw a huge wooden panel folding screen at the corner for changing clothes, I guessed.

Expensive, classy paintings were on the wall, and the room had dark navy color paint on its wall, with some parts splashed white like the ceiling and the beams. The room was indeed dark, yet modern. I call the mansion modern, because I saw a pool inside the mansion when I walked up the stairs previously. Classy, yet modern. Mirrors everywhere. Next to the bed, on the pillar, next to the wardrobe. I gasped when I saw something next to the door of the balcony. The same recliner chair that I selected back in that furniture shop. It was there. So, Zachary was talking about this house.

I assumed the partition of the room was for us to sleep away from each other. Nobody was here so I assumed Zachary wouldn’t like to put on the act of showing us as if we were a couple. I chose the bed and went directly to it. It was what I could see. I was tired. As I was about to sit on the bed, my eyes fell on my own reflection in the mirror. I was wearing a white v neck lace dress and what my eyes specifically saw was the necklace.

I still had that necklace on. I walked to the mirror and looked at the necklace. It was beautiful, but I knew I couldn’t keep it.

“It would be better if I handed it over to Zachary,” I spoke to myself and took it off my neck.

I walked out of the room to the place where I had last seen Zachary. I walked in the direction where he went a few minutes before. It led me in front of a single door. I took in a deep breath before knocking on the door a few times, and I opened the door.

It was a study room. Shelves filled with books, trophies, and medals. Paintings were hanging on the navy blue wall, along with some family pictures, achievements, and certificates in frames hanging on the wall. The room was bigger than Zachary’s last study room in that house. There was a large table in the middle, and there he sat working on his laptop. A large window screen behind him where I marked the rain again pouring heavily.

“What do you want?” he asked, not even glancing my way.

He had his white shirt undone from the top and his black coat was thrown on the couch next to his table. For the first time ever, I saw him wearing glasses as he worked on his laptop.

“How did you know that it was me?” I asked as I walked up to him. Still, he didn’t even look up at me.

He seemed to ignore me as he continued working on his laptop, punching the keyboard furiously.

I sighed at his behavior and then placed the necklace before him on the table, which instantly stopped him from typing further on his laptop. He looked at the necklace, but didn’t look up at me.

“What is this?” he asked, still not even looking up at me.

“This necklace was given to me by your mother!” I said and frowned when he still didn’t look up at me.

What is his problem?

“So?” he questioned.

“It is from your ancestors. Your family has this tradition to pass down this necklace to each generation!” I said.

“I know that!” he stated and continued with his typing.

“I am giving this back to you. I do not belong to your family.” When I said this, he stopped typing, but didn’t lookup.

“So, I assumed it would be better if it stayed with you, and you hand it to the right person. I am not th—” I was rudely cut off him by him.

“Yeah! Okay! Now leave me alone!” he said and continued typing. More furiously this time.

“Okay?” I said more like a question.

“I am going back to the room,” I said and shook my head at him before turning around and leaving.

Did I expect an act of chivalry from him? What is wrong with me? I thought as I closed the door behind me.

“So rude!” I said out loud and walked towards the room.