65

65

Clarissa DEVOIR—

I turned around in total shock. That wasn't possible. There was no way Damien could send a message to me, certainly not through these pricks.

He was lying. He had to be.

The leader didn't say a word but instead held up his phone. He clicked a single button.

And now, with my eyes suspicious of what was about to happen...

I was about to ask him to go away and stop playing games when a voice filled the room.

It was bold and deep, and someone I knew. I knew I would recognize that voice out of a thousand, wherever, whenever.

I stood, rooted to the spot, as Damien's voice echoed, filling the room as he spoke.

"...And why would I do that? What makes you think that I will let go for an opportunity to kill you completely...."

I gasped in shock, realizing it was a conversation between Damien and Carl that had been recorded.

Somehow, it had been recorded. The question now was why he was playing it for me.

"I don't understand," I said, staring at the leader, confused.

This made no sense. I already knew that Carl was out there to negotiate with Damien. He was going to use me as a bargaining chip to get the latter to do whatever he wanted him to do.

I already knew all that, so what was the meaning of this? Did he plan on playing the recording just to taunt me and show me how hopeless I was in front of him? I didn't want to hear any of it. Carl had already won. There was no need to agonize me any further.

However, the leader's face curled up into a twisted smile. "Oh, do be patient a little, Clarissa," he said softly.

"We'll get to the best part soon," he added. There was a dark undertone to his voice, one that told me I was going to regret this.

A tiny voice in my head warned me that something nasty was about to happen. And yet, I found myself curious to know what was happening. I had to get to the bottom of this.

He clicked on the phone again, and a voice filled the room once more.

"...The men you sent to kill me, call them off. End the whole thing."

This time, I recognized Carl's voice.

There was a pause again, as if the leader was giving me time to digest everything and make sure I was following carefully.

I gave him a frown. Somehow, it felt like I was finally starting to understand what was actually happening between the two men.

"...If you lay a hand on me or Lily, then forget about seeing your dear Clarissa ever again. I'll make sure to bring her back in a casket."

I gasped. He was threatening to kill me if Damien didn't comply.

"You won't," Damien's voice recorded in the room, easy and sure, like he was the one taking the upper hand.

"Because you'll be already dead. And you know the best part? You are going to take down the Trevor company along with you. I'll make sure it doesn't recover. That way, I'll be able to eliminate two of my enemies along with a rival company. It's a small price to pay; I'm sure Clarissa will understand...."

I stepped back, feeling my knees go weak. What was happening? Suddenly, everything was too much for me to comprehend.

"Stop it," I said, my voice shaking.

I didn't want to hear anymore.

That wasn't Damien. It couldn't be. He was not going to betray me like this. Somehow, the whole thing had to be fake. There was no way. I thought I knew Damien... or at least, I thought I knew him.

There was no change in the leader's expression as he kept on playing the recording.

"....Clarissa has no ties to me, and you know it. I don't even love her...."

The recording ended. I felt my head reel from the information.

Damien... didn't say that.

I felt a stabbing pain slice through me at his words.

They echoed in my head in a never-ending beat.

Clarissa has no ties to me, and you know it. I don't even love her....

How could he say those words with such certainty? Without a second thought, because I knew he had thought long and hard about it before coming to that conclusion.

Suddenly, I felt my knees go weak.

What was this dull feeling in my chest? I felt myself tearing apart.

The realization that I had been in a delusion all this while. I was stuck in my fantasies, a world in my head where Damien actually had feelings for me.

But now reality slapped me hard in the face. He used me.

He made me feel loved and cared for so that he could break me harder.

I felt the harshness in his words, like I was there when he said it. I searched my head for an explanation. There had to be something I was missing.

Or maybe it was just my broken heart that couldn't take it.

The leader watched me with a look that I couldn't quite place.

"That's your gift," he said simply, "from Carl."

"The bastard," I whispered, still in a daze. "The bastards..."

"He thought that you should know that when you were spending all your time pining for one man, you might as well know how he really feels about you. Not so high and mighty now, are you?" he asked in a cruel voice.

"After all, even your own husband doesn't love you. I wonder who will."

I felt another stabbing pain through my heart at his words. And this time, I was defenseless... undone.

Damien made a fool out of me. Hopelessly in love with a heartless man.

"Why did you do this?" I thought, broken. "What did I do wrong?"

"Why did he carry me on all those while when he didn't really have any attachments to me?"

"Was it stressful, Damien?" I wondered. "Pretending that you cared all those while."

I didn't even notice when the leader left the room, leaving me alone.

I was barely aware of my surroundings. Everything was darkness now, even though there was light flooding across the room.

The truth became clear to me now. Damien was willing and more than ready to let me die here as long as he went on with his ambitions.

Carl went to negotiate with him, but Damien turned the tables around. He gave them an ultimatum, a choice.

To kill me and die, or let me live and die.

Didn't he see that all that was left for me was death? I didn't even have an option here.

And once again, it all boiled down to the fact that Damien simply didn't care. And he was probably tired of pretending that he did in the first place.

"No," I muttered, still unable to believe that he had betrayed me like this.

He made me a fool for believing in him, for thinking that he was going to come here and rescue me like a knight in shining armor.

I wasn't even a princess. Why would he go to that stress? They were right, nobody would love me.

First, it was Karl cheating on you with my elder sister Lily. I thought I was going to get revenge, I thought I was going to have better luck in this life, but nothing changed. I only got played twice.

I crawled to the head of the bed, weak in my knees. It hurt, it hurt all over.

My whole body was in flames.

"Look at you now, Clarissa," a voice in my head mocked.

I was the cause of this, the one who had brought this misery upon myself. Why didn't I just stick to the revenge plan? It would have saved me so much heartbreak.

But no, I went ahead and fell in love, and now I have to pay the price.

But first, I needed to survive.

"You are on your own now, Clarissa," the voice continued to mock.

"And you know that you can't survive on your own. You'll just end up dead... like last time."

I shut my eyes, wishing that I could shut out the voice with it.

My whole world was tearing apart, and once again, I was at the center of it, all alone.

I was scared.

And finally, I let myself do something that I vowed never to do again.

Finally, I let the tears fall.

I sniffed in the silence and darkness of the room. Ugly tears ran down my cheeks, and I didn't even have the strength to wipe them away.

There was no strength to do anything. Maybe I would cry away the pain.

Once again, I dared to be hopeful.

I let myself cry just this once, and then I would never do it again.

Then, I would get my revenge on everybody.