Chapter 171: The Final Gift

Chapter 171: The Final Gift
August 2nd, 2010. My twenty-fifth birthday.
Raymond had originally planned to take me to a restaurant for dinner, but I told him I wanted something different tonight. I wanted no one to disturb us. I wanted us to enjoy our time together alone in the villa, just the two of us. Raymond didn't suspect anything. He asked the maids to prepare an exquisite candlelit dinner for us.
When evening arrived, only two bodyguards remained stationed outside the villa. What Raymond didn't know was that Kevin had slipped sleeping pills into the third guard's Coke earlier that afternoon.
Kevin and I had made an agreement. The moment "Summer Night" began playing, he would rush into the living room and attack Raymond with the stun baton.
Raymond sat across from me at the dining table. The candlelight flickered softly between us, casting dancing shadows on the walls. He reached across the polished wood surface and took my hand in his. His grip was sincere, warm. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small velvet box, placing it gently in front of me.
I opened it slowly. Inside lay a blue diamond ring, its facets catching the candlelight and throwing tiny prisms across the tablecloth.
"This ring is the same color as your eyes," Raymond said, his voice soft and genuine. "Do you like it?"
I forced my lips into a smile, making sure it reached my eyes. "I love it."
Raymond's expression grew tender, almost vulnerable. "I'm so grateful for you, Nina. You're like medicine that God sent to cure me. You're my cure."
Medicine from God? I thought, keeping my face carefully neutral. Does a man who dances with the devil, a murderer like you, actually believe in God?
"I was too rough with you before," Raymond continued, his thumb stroking the back of my hand. "I treated you badly. But I'll be gentler with you from now on. I promise."
Before I could fully process what he meant by those words, he rose from his chair and leaned across the table to kiss me. His lips pressed against mine with unexpected tenderness.
The situation was developing in ways I hadn't anticipated. I had never imagined Raymond would want to be intimate with me while I was conscious, alert, without forcing pills down my throat first. Had his condition somehow improved? Had he actually recovered?
But I couldn't afford to think about that now. My mind was consumed with a single overwhelming thought. In just moments, I would kill the man standing before me. My heart hammered against my ribcage like a trapped bird. The sound of my own pulse filled my ears.
Raymond pulled back slightly and smiled at me. "You're nervous?"
"A little," I admitted, fighting to keep my voice steady. "Maybe we should have some wine first?"
Raymond nodded and moved to the sofa, settling into the cushions with casual ease. "Good idea."
I stood and walked to the refrigerator, my legs somehow carrying me forward despite feeling disconnected from my body. The ice pick was hidden inside the ice bucket, exactly where I had placed it hours earlier. My fingers brushed against its cold metal surface as I lifted the bucket.
I carried the ice bucket and the wine bottle to the sofa, my movements careful and deliberate. I poured him a glass of red wine, watching the dark liquid swirl into the crystal.
Raymond took a sip, savoring the taste. Then suddenly, without warning, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me down onto the sofa beside him. Before I could prepare myself mentally or physically, his hands were on me. He began tearing at my clothes with urgent hunger, his mouth finding mine, kissing me with aggressive passion.
I forced myself to respond to his touch, to move my body in the right ways, to make the right sounds. I was acting, performing, waiting. Every nerve in my body was attuned to one thing. The music. I needed to hear that song.
Then it happened. The opening notes of "Summer Night" filled the room, flowing from the speakers like water.
I smiled. Kevin hadn't let me down.
Kevin appeared like a ghost behind Raymond, silent and swift. The stun baton made contact with Raymond's body. Electricity crackled through the air. Raymond's muscles seized, his body going rigid.
I reached into the ice bucket. My fingers closed around the ice pick. The metal was so cold it almost burned my palm.
I drove the ice pick into Raymond's neck with all my strength. Blood erupted from the wound, hot and dark. Then I struck his chest. Once. The resistance of flesh and muscle. Twice. Breaking through. Three times. Again. And again. And again.
Blood sprayed across my face, my hands, my torn clothing. Warm droplets spattered against my skin like rain. In that moment, watching the crimson fountain, two truths became absolutely clear to me.
Ah. This man is mortal after all. Just flesh and blood like anyone else.
Ah. Life, in the end, is nothing but a fragile shell. A temporary container.
The sounds emanating from Raymond came from vibrations in the air. Those vibrations were produced by his throat, by air being forced through damaged tissue. The sounds might have been words once. They might have meant something. But I couldn't decipher them anymore. They sounded like anger. They sounded like rage. They sounded like laughter. They sounded like nothing human at all.
Whatever those sounds meant, they had nothing to do with me. They couldn't touch me. They were just noise.
When Raymond finally fell silent, when his body stopped its violent twitching and lay completely still, I turned to Kevin. "You need to leave now."
Kevin's eyes were wide, his face pale in the dim light. "Where's the rest of my money?"
"I don't have cash on me right now," I said, my voice eerily calm even to my own ears. "I'll transfer it to your account. If you keep standing here arguing with me, it won't help either of us. When the guard outside wakes up, neither of us will be able to escape."
Kevin stared at me. I was naked, my skin painted with blood, my hair matted with it. I must have looked like something from a nightmare. His face went white as paper. Then he turned and ran, practically stumbling over his own feet in his haste to get away.
In the vast mansion, silence settled like dust. Only Raymond's corpse and I remained, sharing the space like old companions.
I walked to Raymond's bedroom. My feet left small bloody prints on the hardwood floors. In his bathroom, I turned on the shower and stood under the hot spray. I watched the blood swirl down the drain, pink water circling and disappearing. I scrubbed my skin until it felt raw, until every trace of red was gone.
I dried off and dressed in fresh clothes from Raymond's closet. A clean white shirt. Blue jeans. Simple. Normal.
Then my gaze fell on the place in Raymond's bedroom where he kept his safe.