Chapter 57 — Raining Secrets on a Hill

Darkness began to lighten, and once again my eyes fluttered open, sharp malign pain continued to bug my head. I scanned around, and this time I was tied in the back of a van.

What the heck were those two specimens of demon doing?

Startling me the doors of the van jerked open, and unintentionally I cowered back a bit as two men stood before me with Christian behind them.

With a motion of his finger the men approached me, and I began squirming. "Don't touch me! No! Mmngng..." A hand wrapped around my mouth and the others began untying my hands and legs. I yelped as one of them yanked me by the hair and set me on the ground outside the infernal van.

I scanned the surrounding only to witness endless rows of trees until my eyes landed on the traitorous baboon, and I advanced towards him, clutching his collars in my fists. "You! How could you have done this? I thought you were my friend! How could you?"

A strong hand pulled me from behind keeping me in place no matter how much I thrashed while Christian fixed his coat. Glaring he strode towards me and clasped my face between his fingers.

"There's no friend in this world, Ember. Always remember that," he spat and glanced at the men, "Bring her to the top. Our hero will be here soon."

A crease formed between my brows. Who was he talking about? Wait...Did he? Oh no.

"Ember!" the voice that fluttered my heart every time it spoke, boomed through the forest, and even though a part of me was relieved, the other feared for his life.

Christian's lips curved into a smirk. "Ooh! Already here."

"No...What're you going to do?" I muttered, an unknown fear churning my insides.

"Patience, darling." Turning around he began walking through the trees, the guards dragging me behind until we came to a clearing and there he was in a disheveled state.

"Hunter!" I began twisting in their hold. "Let go of me. Hunter!"

As his eyes landed on me a surge of relief spread throughout his distressed face, and he leapt forward when two more men grabbed him from behind.

"Not so fast, brother," Christian sneered.

"I swear, Delgado, if you hurt her," He growled.

Before Christian could bark back another of his smartass remarks, a petite feminine figure ran out of the bushes to stand before Hunter.

"Hunty, baby," she croaked.

Hunter stiffened and slowly looked at her, his brows frowning. "Who are you?"

Placing a hand on his cheek she loomed closer. "Look at my eyes, baby. Don't you remember me?"

Hunter's eyes widened by a fraction as realization dawned upon him while I watched frozen, a dagger seemed to dangle over my heart.

"V?"

This time she planted both her hands on his cheeks. "Yes, Hunty. It's me, your V. I'm back. I'm back for you. Death couldn't snatch me away from you."

Hunter watched her shocked, not a word left his mouth. With every passing second the dagger neared the core of my heart. I was afraid. Afraid he'd choose her. After all, she was his first love.

My breathing turned to a gasp as she slowly advanced for his lips and murmured, "I love you."

The wind, the chirping of the birds, my breathing, everything seemed to stop in anticipation, in fear.

"I don't." His eyes blazed in a glare so heated it could melt even iron. "You died for me the day you cheated."

Bella aka Vienna ceased her action as her expression contorted while a tear of happiness rolled down my cheek, and I exhaled the breath I was holding, the dagger over my heart vanishing and replacing with a flutter of heavenly breeze.

"That's enough." Christian flicked his finger in boredom. "Bring her to me." He motioned at the men keeping me hostage and like loyal dogs they obliged dragging me right to him.

"Ember! Christian, the fuck are you doing? Let her go!" Hunter began wrestling once again, and the men holding him were struggling to keep him down.

"I had been waiting for this for so long, brother, to see you suffer like I did." Christian watched Hunter with a strange satisfaction like he found Blackbeard's lost treasure.

"What the fuck are you talking about and stop calling me that. I'm no brother to you!" Hunter spat throwing one of the men off his back.

"Oh are you not?"

Halting his movements Hunter looked at Christian. "What do you mean?"

With slow, brief steps Christian prowled towards Hunter, perhaps aiming to intimidate him which miserably failed for Hunter like a wounded lion jerked forward only to be obstructed by his docile hounds.

"We are brothers. You see our slut of a mother failed to mention that to you. Oh wait! She fucking failed to mention that to the whole world."

Hunter froze, his eyes widened, and his mouth pursed. What the heck was he talking about? They were brothers? How come no one knew before? Wait...That explained the portrait being in his house. But why so much hatred?

"I, Christian Delgado," he spread his arms, "is the bastard son of Jane King, the son she hid from the world, the son she considered nothing but a mistake," he scoffed.

As everything on the hill in the forest came to utter silence, gingerly listening to every word that departed his mouth.

He began circling Hunter like a predator scorning the prey he just hunted. "I had to grow up watching my little brother confiscating all the love from our mother while I lived a prisoned life away from the world raised by fucking maids. I hated you, I hated that bitch. So I decided seeking revenge to make your life a living hell just like mine was and would you look at that," his lips curved into a smile so wicked it would put a witch to shame as he stood before the man I loved, "I have succeeded."

The crease between Hunter's brows augmented. "What have you done?" he muttered slowly as if scared to find out the answer.

Christian's smile raised even more. "Yes, little brother," he pronounced the word 'brother' with such malign spite. "It was all my doing. First that son of a bitch Harold and then our beloved mother...I was the mastermind behind your messed up fate."

A vein popped in Hunter's neck, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. "What. Did. You. Do?"

Turning around Christian walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. "I sent them both to hell right where they deserve to be."

I gasped not being able to believe my own ears. Hunter's grandfather's death by accident...It was never an accident. He killed him. He didn't even spare his own mother.

"No..." Hunter's eyes casted down red and distant as he sank on his knees on the ground, all the anger from before as if suddenly evaporated, and a curtain of dark heavy grief fell over his features. "All this time I thought she left us for another man. I despised her..." he whispered as if drowning himself in an ocean teeming with all the sorrow he had been concealing inside him.

"Hunter..." My heart broke watching the love of my life so shattered, so doleful, but what killed me more was when a tear involuntary rolled down his cheek. I fixated my glare at the back of the demented demon disguised as human, standing a few feet away. "Christian, you monster! How could you? You deserve to be behind bars, you sick psycho!"

But my audacity deflated like a balloon as he slowly turned back facing me and revealed his ideal set of teeth in a sinister smile, eyes promising nothing but pure evil.

Uh oh.