Chapter 178 TWENTY ONE QUESTIONS
AUR0RA’S POINT OF VIEW.
Panic flared in my chest, hot and suffocating. The night air suddenly became much colder, making me shiver visibly, so that even Kai had to pull me closer to his body heat. Silas Mercer stared at me as if he could see the very lies in my soul, his eyes shining with the same glint I’d seen in Kai’s…this one was just more….sinister.
I gulped internally, fighting the urge to stare at Kai. I did not want to do anything to make him even mildly suspicious. If he found out….I would be done for!
“We should take this inside,” Silas said, a smile now on his lips. It made him seem too polite, so kind, you would never guess he was the king of such a large corporation. Dad nodded immediately, leading Silas to the door while still trembling.
I shook my head in pity and disdain. With the day he acted, you would think Silas created my father. It was incredibly pathetic to say the least. Just as soon as we entered, my heart stilled. I stood in the anor I’d grown up in, the one I spent my first few years in……But I could barely recognize it.
My mother was a lover of pastel colors and elegance. It was always a weird trick with mixing them, especially in a home as large as this, but she always found a way to make it work.
However, now….the house was….nothing as I knew. The wall, once with my mother;s pprtrait now had that of Denise on it. The black, oil-painted image of her smiling down at me felt haunting; a reminder of what I’d endured…whatmy mother suffered.
I turned away quick;y, not ready to reopen wounds I swore to keep buried….for my sanity, not theirs… never theirs.
The flowers my mother had painstakingly grown for months were nowhere to be found. She’d taken this house from the perfect, green beauty it was, and made it one of iron and steel. Kai held onto me even tighter, as if he sensed my emotions and how I felt.
I blinked back tears immediately, turning to him. He narrowed his eyes for a moment, as if he did not understand the change in my demeanor. I turned back to stare at Silas, who now sat on the vast dining table; once the excellent mix of beige my mother had, the table was now black… just like the soul in this house.
Just when I thought we could do this alone, behind us, the side doors creaked as Denise and Morgan crept back into the foyer, their eyes predatory, and filled with sick delight….what the hell are they up to now??
I should have known…… They weren't going to miss this.
“What?” I managed to breathe out, my heart hammering against my ribs.
“Let’s call it twenty-one questions.” Silas maintained that sweet smile. But I was not fooled. No sweet man controlled trillions of dollars for decades; no sweet old man inherited such prosperity. “I’m sure kids your age play it anyway.”
“Oh…” I squeaked before I could stop myself.
“What?” he leaned forward, ignoring the bowl of soup. “Are you scared?” That smile turned into something,….dark.
“Yes! She must be.” Morgan jumped, rushing to the table to the seat beside Silas. “I’m sure I can play this game well…after all, I am the rightful girl for Kai.”
I glared at my bitch of a sister while trying to ignore her. I tried to ignore Denise standing over her daughter like a mother of a pageant queen. My focus was on the patriarch of the Mercer line; he was the king of this table…and I could not lose.
He turned to her with a dismissive glance….but still, he seemed….amused. “Is that so, Morgan?” his voice was suddenly….sweet. “Well, if you think you can meet up, if you believe you are so confident, we can let you in on our little fun game. Is that okay with you, Aurora?” he turned to me.
“Yes, sir,” I said with a stiff smile.
“This should be quite fun.”
Kai still had not said a word. He only stared at his father, a calm aura about him, while he stared at the glass of red wine before him.
“Let’s begin,” Silas said, tapping his silver-topped cane against the floor. Thump…the sound of my heartbeat per second right now. “Question one. My son hates many things related to food… one thing he would only tell a girl he truly loves. Since that is you, tell me, Aurora… what is the one thing my son refuses to have on his plate? A small detail, but one a devoted partner would never overlook.”
My mind raced. I thought of what happened last minute, just a minute after Kai let me leave the lecture hall the other day.
‘I will send a file to you. It is about three hundred pages. You must learn everything in there about me before tomorrow night.’
“What….why?” I’d asked, clearly incredulous.
“I have a feeling it might be needed.” He’d replied, a weird look in his eyes. I’d stayed up all night, drinking as much coffee so my eyes stayed open while reading every word as if it were my mantra.
The crazy guy also made sure to quiz me on it….and anytime I hesitated, or took longer than one second to answer, he made sure I read it all over again.
So if my memory does not fail me, this could be quick and easy. “Cilantro,” I said, my voice gaining a sudden, sharp clarity now. We’d prepared for this beforehand….what could go wrong?. “He says it tastes like industrial cleaner. If a single leaf touches his meal, he’ll lose his appetite for the rest of the night.”
From the corner of my eye, I glanced at Kai, but he had his stare still on the wine. It felt like he was contemplating something, almost as if he were…calculating.