Chapter 36

Juliette's POV:

“So you knew everything!” I said while Zachary drove us back to his mansion.

As I had expected. No reply from his side. He must be thinking I am so stupid. He must be laughing at my fate internally. It’s not even his fault. Who wouldn’t laugh at me?

What a life I have. Amazing! Had I ever imagined my life to be so messed up? I have no control over my life. All I have been doing is crying. Why did I even let this happen to me in the first place? This is only because of me. I should have been more cautious. I should have been more guarded about the things that had been happening around me. How could I not see the worried eyes of my parents? Why did I not get the hint when dad told me that he didn’t really like Emmett? Everyone was so right about Emmett, that he didn’t seem like a good person to them. Why was I the only blind one?

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose in aggravation. My state has been worsening day by day, and I couldn't blame anyone but myself. But what Dad has done, I can’t really ignore it. Sure, he did it for me, for our family, but he made every decision by himself. He even took my life’s decision. We could have done something else. What am I even talking about?

Why? Just why am I the only person in the world to have such a complicated life?

I have been punishing and cursing myself since I have come to know about Nicholas. Why am I even cursing myself?

The car came to a halt, and I looked at Zachary before looking around.

“I thought we were going home!” I told him when he began to undo his seatbelt.

“Come out!” he told me before he got out of the car. I sighed and shook my head. If I wanted anything at the moment, it was to go back home. What does he even want now?

Getting out of the car, I looked around. It was a gas station. He locked the car and walked towards the ‘in-and-out’ store. I followed him, not knowing what to do. We walked inside the store, and I watched as he walked towards the freezer and took out two ice-cream sticks.

“They only have the bars,” he said as he handed me one choco bar ice cream.

Before I could even open my mouth to say something, he walked passed me towards the counter to pay for the ice cream. I looked back at the ice cream and instantly, a smile crept up my face and I looked at him; as always he was already looking at me eating from his stick.

This man...

Getting rid of the pack, I ate mine, and turned around facing the freezer, not wanting to let him see me smiling. I was still smiling. I didn’t even know the reason why I was smiling. Oh my God! Was I going crazy?

But then I recalled what Dad told me.

“Mr. Zachary has promised that he will protect you from Vito and Nicholas, and he will even end this marriage once they are out of this game.”

“So I am with him until he gets Vito in his hands? That means I can get back to my previous life. Can I forget everything?” I spoke to myself. I was so busy chatting up with myself that I didn’t even feel the presence beside me.

“Will you eat the stick?” he said, and that made me come back to reality.

“You are so foolish!” he said as he took the stick away from me and threw it into the dustbin.

While he extended his hand to hand me the tissue paper, I couldn’t hold myself from blurting out, “You are right! I am foolish!” I said, as I took the paper from him and wiped my fingers before throwing it into the dustbin.

I turned to look back at him to find him glaring at me.

“What?” I asked, startled by his expression.

“Nothing! Let’s get back to the house,” he said, and without even letting me speak, he walked out of the store. I watch him from inside the store window.

“Bipolar much!” I said and ran out of the store following him. I even tripped in my place, and all he did was glare at me. His eyeballs would fall out of his sockets one day if he continued glaring at me every single day.

“Every single day,” I muttered to myself. It is not as if I was going to stay with him forever. Probably, as soon as he gets his hands on Vito, he would send me back to my family. Why would he even want to stay with me? All he is tells me is that I am an idiot and that I am foolish, that’s all. Why wouldn’t he send me back to my family? As if I want to live with him.

“Who wants to live with this Mr. Grumpy Pants?” I said out loud and bit the inside of my mouth when I realized what I just said. Slowly when I looked back at him, I found him looking at me with a neutral look.

“Hmm, well, that’s something new. He isn’t even angry,” I thought when he put his seatbelt on, and I did the same.

“Okay! I take it back! I am sorry,” I shrieked in my seat when he took a turn, almost throwing me out of the window. Luckily I had the window rolled up and I had my seatbelt on. If I hadn’t, then God only knows what would have happened to me. Thanks to the modern world, especially to that God-like engineer who thought of making these seat belts. I guess he knew that people like Zachary exist in this cruel world.

“Will you slow doowwwwnnnn ahh—” I screamed when he took a deadly turn just before a truck.

“Thank you Mother Mary for saving me,” I said once we were away from the truck.

“Slow down you idiot!” I snapped at him, and thankfully, after ten minutes of the torturous ride, the car stopped before the mansion’s gate.

“You idiot!” I snapped as I jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut. The guard who opened the gate looked at me and then at Zachary, who was still inside the car looking at me smugly.

“Asshole! Who taught you how to drive?” I screamed and all he did was smirk at me.

The window rolled down, and I crossed my arms across my chest as I bent down to look at him.

“Walk back to the house!” he said, and before I could get in, or punch his face he drove off, passing a baffled-looking guard inside the mansion.

“Zachary! You douche!” I ran after him.

Of course he made me walk back to the mansion. It was probably two kilometers. He even mocked me by stopping the car in the middle and honking the car. When I tried to run and catch up, he would put his foot on the accelerator and sped up.

“Asshole!”

I huffed out air and wiped the beads of sweat that formed on my forehead. I am going to kill him today. How dare he abandon me in the middle. On reaching the front side of the mansion entrance, I spotted the car.

“Where is that monkey?” I yelled on the top of my lungs, wanting him to hear me. He should know that he was going to die. At least he can’t tell me that I didn’t warn him.

“Zachary!” I ran once I spotted him leaning casually against the door of the mansion.

As soon as he saw me, he ran towards the lawn.

“Where do you think you are going?” I snapped, running after him. It was really difficult to run with heels on, but at the moment, all I wanted to do was kill him.

“I am telling you! No! Warning you! Stop right—” I stopped and panted before continuing, “right there!”

“Zachary!” I took a small vase from the side and ran after him wanting to bang it on his head.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing? Put that down you idiot!” he yelled, still running away from me.

The nerve of this man.

“Stop calling me an idiot!” I snapped and ran to the table where he tried to avoid getting caught by running around it.

“Then what else should I call an idiot?” he asked, mocking me, making an innocent face.

“Oh, I will tell you. Come here!” I snapped, and then he ran towards the other side of the lawn. He wasn’t even running. It was as if he was jogging. I cursed God for giving me short and thin limbs. How I wished to have limbs like Usain Bolt. Then it would be so easy to sprint and catch him.

I didn’t even realize when I tripped and I lost my balance, throwing the vase in the air. I stumbled, and limping on my foot, I felt myself falling to my side. Everything happened in a slow motion. I even saw Zachary making an attempt to catch me, but it was late. Too late.

Splash!

I fell directly into that fountain. Water filled up my nose and my mouth as I felt my body twisting in an odd position inside the fountain. When I tried to get up, I tripped again because of my heels and fell, face-planting inside the fountain, and then everything blacked out.

I blinked several times before I felt my eyes open. Everything was a blur for a few seconds before my eyes adjusted themselves to the light, and I held my head, which was throbbing painfully.

“Ugh! What happened?” I heard my own voice and looked to the side find a woman sitting on the bedside smiling down at me.

“You fell into the fountain and hit your head. You had a concussion,” she said, and I watched as she removed the pressure belt from my arm.

“It’s alright! Nothing much to worry about, Mr. Sullivan,” she said while she checked my eyes, and I looked over to find Zachary standing next to the mirror, looking at us.

“Thank you doctor, for getting here on short notice,” Zachary told her and she smiled. They shook hands and Zachary walked her out of the room.

While they were out, I managed to sit up, and I leaned against the headboard, holding the side of my throbbing head.

“Ow!” I flinched when I touched the part where I hit my head accidentally.

I watched as the devil himself walked back inside the room. He had changed into a white t-shirt and black jeans. He took a seat on the chair right next to my bed. I thought he was going to snap at me, telling me how stupid or foolish I was, but to my extreme shock, I watched as the sides of his eyes wrinkled up and his brown dull eyes lit up before he threw his head back and laughed out loudly.

“Wha—”

Words didn’t even form in my mouth when I saw him laughing for the first time since the day I met him. His laughter echoed in the room as I gawked at him. My face heated up and I knew I was blushing, embarrassed, because I had always somehow managed to make a fool out of myself before him.

“St-Stop!” I managed to mumble. This only made him laugh even more.

“Shut up!” I took the pillow and hit him. He got hold of the pillow, still laughing hard. “I can’t believe this! You fell into that fountain and you even blacked out! Not only clumsy, but you are a—” he laughed again, and I tried to hide my face as I tried to pull the pillow away from him. “But you are a delicate darling too!” he finished, and got off the chair letting me take the pillow.

“It all happened because of you! Shut up!” I hit him with the pillow. His laughter filled my ears, which gave my skin a tingling sensation. I was embarrassed, I knew it.

That is when my eyes fell on the clothes that I was wearing. I was wearing my night gown. Who changed me into this?

That made me jerk off out of my thoughts.

“Who changed me into this?” I questioned as I threw the pillow next to me. Thankfully, he stopped laughing, wiping the sides of his eyes and looked down at me.

“What?” he asked, amused.

“WHO CHANGED ME INTO THIS?” I asked, enunciating each word.

He bent down until he reached my eye level and smirked. “Oh, I don’t know! Maybe me?” he said smugly when he saw my startled expression. Before I could hit him, he laughed and practically ran out of the room.

“What the hell!?” I yelled after him.