CHAPTER 37—XAVIER POV

"Your brother, Eric King, is dead," she said.

The prude tone in her voice is gone when she tells me the sad news.

"What? How? When?" I bombarded her with questions, my chest rising up and down rapidly as I lost control of my breathing.

"Mr King, please calm down. I'll tell you everything." I go over to the kitchen, taking a bottle of water out of the fridge and chugging all of the cool liquid down. It felt refreshing as the cold water ran down my throat, especially after a night of alcohol and hospital drips.

When I go back down to the dining table I gesture for her to speak.

"Eric was found dead in his hospital room about 2 hours ago. The cause of death was suicide." Her voice lowers at the last word of that sentence.

"What did you do with him?" I asked. My voice is louder and angrier than I expected it to be.

"He is in the morgue until you decide what to do."

"Me?"

"Eric left you as his next of kin—anything we do now must be authorized by you," she explained.

"Like what?" I asked. There can't be anything to authorize when he's dead now.

"Well, if you choose to investigate his death, then we will hand his body over to forensics—otherwise, you can take it whenever you're ready for any final rites or the funeral."

"He really killed himself?" I whispered. I couldn't believe it at all.

"He was a disturbed man, Mr King. Never eating, always in his room—and the lack of familial visits didn't help his condition." Her lips formed a thin line.

A heavy feeling of guilt sat on my chest. Was I really responsible for this?

"I don't want to investigate this any further," I stated. "I will come to collect the body after arranging for the funeral."

She gets up from her seat. "You have 28 days," she said before seeing herself out.

When I finally have a moment to myself, I take a second to fully absorb what has happened.

My brother is dead.

I didn't know how to feel about this—on one hand, he had ruined my life in every way imaginable, but on the other hand, he was family, and as much as I hated him, I couldn't help but care.

I sit in silence contemplating all the events that have happened in the past 2 days, for what seems like hours but is only a few moments.

My phone rings, pulling me out of my thoughts, I check who is calling and I'm genuinely surprised.

But my hopes get the better of me and I have to remind myself that she's probably calling for business or to just mock me now that she practically owns everything that was once mine.

"Hello, Amelia?" I deadpanned.

"Xavier," she breathed out, and my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't get lost in my optimism again however, this time I give her her own attitude before she can fire at me.

"Miss Davis, if you have any relevant information, please let me know. Otherwise, you are wasting my time."

"I need you to come to my house as soon as possible," she whispered, sounding slightly hurt from what I said.

"I'm sorry," I said sarcastically, "but now that you've taken everything from me, I don't have time to be your personal fuck buddy that you call as you please."

"I doubt you have anything more important to do right now." Her hushed voice was replaced with sharp words.

"Everything is more important than you, Amelia."

I just wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine, to hurt her once how she had repeatedly hurt me these past weeks.

"I understand," she said and ended the call.

Fuck. Why did I say that?

I try appalling her number again and again, to tell her I didn't mean that at all.

To tell her that all I wanted, more than anything, was to hold her in my arms. Especially now, when my world was crumbling around me. Her presence would make it all perfect again.

But the answer line beeps before it even rings—she's blocked my number.

I wanted to do anything to make this better, but right now I couldn't. Eric's funeral was my main concern.

Firstly, I had to call my parents and let them know. That was going to be the hardest part of it all.

Having divorced parents meant having to break the news twice, and then having to console and comfort each one since they weren't together.

"Xavier honey!" my mum's cheerful voice answered the phone.

"Mum, where are you?"

"I'm at home. Why?" she asked.

"Please take a seat somewhere. I'm about to tell you some important news," I warned her.

"Ooh, what could it be?" She began guessing, "Please tell me that you and Amelia are getting back together—because I've seen you two in the media."

"No, mum."

"Aah." She pouted. "Well, at least try, darling. I really liked—"

"Mum, Eric is dead," I cut her off.

"What?" she gasped.

"He passed away this morning. They say it's suicide."

"No." I can hear the tears in her voice. "Tell me you're lying!" she screamed.

"I wish I was. How quickly can you be here? I need to make arrangements for his funeral."

"I'll catch the next flight possible. Hopefully, I'll see you tonight. I love you."

"I love you too, Mum," I said and ended the call.

I called my dad next. The call with him went much more quickly. His voice was evidently shocked, but I knew he wouldn't show any emotions over the phone.

After he receives the news, he helps me plan the funeral—which was now going to happen tomorrow and offers to take care of the invitation list.

Grateful, I end the call and will meet him tomorrow to go over any final arrangements.

After this I call various funeral services, making sure I had a decent funeral planned for tomorrow. Although Kings Corp. was no longer mine, I had many other smaller incomes—specifically in properties and stock.

It takes a couple hours for everything to be final and then I finally call the hospital to let them know that Eric's body will be collected tomorrow morning.

Everything was sorted out.

Except for La.

I change out of my wrinkled hospital gown, throwing it into the garbage before getting dressed into suitable clothes.

I was going to go see Amelia, under the pretence of inviting her to the funeral. I couldn't seem to get her out of my head, despite the much more serious things happening.

I take my other car—which hadn't been destroyed by the crash and drive to her house.

Nervously, I knock the door.

"Coming!" her voice said seconds before she opened the door. "Oh. It's you."

"Yeah." I rub my neck awkwardly. "Can I come in?" She moves a little to make space for me to come in.

"So, have you done everything, since it's all more important than me?" she asked.

"Amelia, I didn't mean—"

"I don't care. Why are you here?" she snapped.

"You called me, I wanted to know why," I explained.

"Follow me," she said and led me to her dark living room. There was no light except for the tiny streaks that peeked through the edge of the curtain.

In the middle of the room, there was a laptop. She pressed a button, and a video started playing. "Watch and listen carefully." she instructs so I pick the laptop up, off of the couch.

It's me and Eric, sat in the hospital lobby, 4 years ago.

"I know that she doesn't know that I killed her mother. That's why you're going to tell her you did it," Eric sneered.

"No, Eric. I can't do that. I—" I protested.

He starts laughing. "I know. That's what makes this game so fun, Xavier. See, I get to kill her, and you get the blame. This way, she will leave you, but they'll kill you, and it's going to destroy her…and that it so much better than me doing it." He winked.

"Ok," I whispered.

"Huh?" he pretended he didn't hear.

"Okay. I'll do it." My shoulders slumped down in defeat.

I put the laptop back down onto the couch and turned to look at Amelia. I couldn't see her properly due to the dark but the light from the laptop screen illuminated her face enough.

She was crying.

Tears fell like raindrops from her emerald eyes. She wasn't looking at me.

"Kings Corp. will be signed back to you as soon as possible," she said, wiping her eyes with her sleeves.

"La, I—"

"Don't call me La." Her eyes look up to me fiercely.

"I just wanted to—" I stuttered.

"Get out, Mr King."

"No. I won't get out. I'm here, now that you know the truth." I hold her hands into mine.

"You should've told me," she whispered. She sobs into my hands as her knees give in under the weight of her grief and she's kneeling on the ground, pulling me down with her. "Why didn't you tell me, Xavier?" she choked out.

"I wanted to, but I couldn't—" I began.

She pulls her hands away from mine and wipes her tears away, suddenly practising how vulnerable she looked in front of me. Her painful expression turned hard, and she backed away from me.

"You lied to me for 4 years. You think I wouldn't have believed you over your lunatic brother, Xavier?" she screamed, her volume getting louder with every word.

"I couldn't risk losing you. I would rather have you hate me than have you dead!" I yelled back, equally as loud.

"Mission accomplished. Now leave, Mr King." Her simple words were like throwing daggers at me.

"Very well," I sighed. "I hope I'll see you at Eric's funeral tomorrow." I hand her a small note with the details of the event that I had written earlier.

I turn around and leave before seeing her reaction.