Chapter 40 And the bough broke
CHAPTER 40: And the bough broke
Vera
The sound of the lock clicking in place was like the sound of my prison doors shutting me off to face my retribution.
My breath came in short, rapid hitches that hurt my chest, and the salt of my tears stung the raw skin of my cheeks.
Rubbing my sore wrists, I backed up until the mahogany headboard bit into my spine, my eyes glued to Silas.
Ever since the first time I met him, I had seen several sides and colours of him, but none prepared me for the man in front of me tonight.
He didn't scream.
He didn't even look at me.
With a terrifying, methodical calmness, he stripped off his coat and suit jacket and tossed it onto a chair, followed by his tie. Next he began unbuttoning his shirt and rolling up his sleeves to reveal his corded forearms. I felt my stomach drop into a bottomless pit, because each trace of skin he revealed, felt like a preparation for a violence I wouldn't survive.
“Please,” I sobbed, my voice a thin, pathetic thread.
I had no idea what I was even pleading for.
He remained a statue of ice, ignoring my plea as he sat at the polished vanity table.
I saw the barely restrained fury radiating off him in icy waves. I felt it…the harsh chill that made me tremble, watching him open his laptop and insert a flash drive into it.
The house was eerily silent, a disturbing testament to the fact that I was alone with my retribution.
Was he angry because he had found me in his forbidden room?
Or did he already find out what I had paid through my nose to hide?
But how?
The silence in the room was a living thing, thick with the stench of my own terror.
Through with what he was setting up, he turned and finally spoke, his voice a low, vibrating growl that made me flinch.
“I obtained a very interesting and educational video today,” he said, approaching the bed slowly. “I thought you might want to see it too, especially since you're the main star of the show.”
Genuinely confused, I shook my head.
“I don't—i don't understand.”
He pounded his fists against the table, creating a jarring sound that made me flinch and throw my palms over my ears.
“Look at the fucking screen, Vera,” he growled. “I won't ask twice.”
Fighting back tears, I looked at the laptop screen just as he pressed play.
As soon as the video began, my blood didn't just run cold…it turned to ice.
The grainy, rain-streaked footage of that deserted road four years ago flickered to life.
The night I wished for the nth time that it never happened.
But unfortunately it did. And it had come back to haunt me.
My breath stopped as I watched the scene that had never stopped replaying on a loop in my memory.
There was Damien’s car. There was the impact that threw the woman standing by the roadside, who I now knew was Simone, into the air, then she landed on the ground.
I could hear the sound of Silas’s heavy breathing, but I couldn't tear my ears off the screen, even if I wanted to.
I watched in horrific clarity as I stepped into the camera angle, looked at the broken woman on the asphalt, obviously horrified, then…I watched myself leave the camera angle, before the car drove away. Leaving her there.
The screen went black.
The silence that followed was deafening. I couldn’t find the words to say. The shame, the guilt…the fear threatened to choke me up.
My stomach clenched and I felt physically ill, feeling the bile threaten to crawl up my throat.
“Why?”
It was a simple question, asked in a bone chilling quiet tone that carried a lethal edge.
I couldn’t form the words. I could only cry silently.
“Speak,” he bellowed.
I flinched.
“It was a mistake!” I wailed, the words tearing out of me as the floodgates opened. I was a mess of shaking limbs and tear stained face. “I didn't mean to…I was scared! I didn't know what to do, it was raining so hard and I—”
“A mistake?” He was across the room and beside the bed in a flash.
My heart plummeted.
He didn't hit me, but he lunged forward, grabbing both of my arms tightly and hauling me toward him so my face was inches from his.
His eyes were bloodshot, burning with a raw, unbridled rage and…pain that made me tremble.
The man before me was a perfect picture of torment and agony.
“How dare you?” He hissed. “Your mistake cost me everything! It cost me my wife!”
I shut my eyes, unable to withstand the look in his eyes.
“Look at me,” he shook me once, a violent, frustrated tremor.
My eyes flew open.
“Your damn mistake cost me my child! She was pregnant! Do you hear me? You killed my son!”
The world tilted.
“Pregnant?” I gasped, the guilt hitting me like a sickening blow that twisted my gut. “Oh God—Silas…I didn't know... I swear, I didn't know—”
“You didn’t know?” He sneered, his grip tightening as he shoved me back against the pillows, hovering over me like a dark god of vengeance.
I backed up towards the headboard until I was pressed against it again.
“Please…I'm sorry—”
His nostrils flared, his teeth baring. “You’re sorry? What is that supposed to change?” He growled. “Will it bring back my family?”
No matter what I do, it was never going to bring back what he had lost because of me.
I joined my hands in front of me, pleading. “I'd do anything…anything you ask of—”
“Shut up!” He roared.
The rest of my words died in my throat, my lips pressing shut.
His eyes burned with rage, disgust and hatred that threatened to sear me alive.
“You’re nothing but a fucking criminal…a murderer,” he spat with disgust. Tell me, was this your plan all along. Did you plan this?”
At first I didn’t understand what he meant, but when I did, I shook my head severally.
“No, please—”
His dark glare cut off my words, pushing me into silence, where I could only cry silently.
“You recognized me at the club as the man whose life you destroyed and decided to play your timid, innocent girl facade to worm your way into my life.”
How could I?
But it didn’t matter to Silas at the moment.
He wasn't reasoning any more. He was bleeding.
“No! No, I swear on my life, I didn't know it was you!” I screamed, reaching out to touch his arm, but he flinched away as if my touch were poison. “I never knew her or her name. I didn’t know you. I didn't know she was yours! It was all an accident,” I cried. “Please believe me.”
He chuckled. A short, dark sound.
“Believe you? Why would I believe a word that comes out of your mouth?”
“I’m telling you the truth—”
“Liar!” he thundered, his voice shaking the very walls of the room. He moved in again, towering over me, his shadow swallowing me whole. “Why didn't you turn yourself in to the police?” He sneered. “Why did you offer to pay your worthless lover, even begging to do anything so he doesn't expose your crime?”
I paused, genuinely confused.
Then slowly, it dawned on me that I had been played by Damien.
He learned everything from him. Who else would have a copy of the CCTV footage that he told me had been wiped?
Damien had played me and told Silas about my secret while twisting the details to make me look guilty. He was trying to ruin my life.
And he had.
Silas let out a harsh, jagged laugh that sounded like breaking glass.
He backed away from the bed, keeping some distance between us, like he couldn't bear to be in the same space as me, his eyes filled with a cold, disgusted loathing.
"Suprised your lowlife boyfriend screwed you over?”