Chapter 84 Breaking illusions
Annabel looked up to see Carson. He watched her humiliation in silence from the doorway.
She was on her knees with a painful ache on her lip and a searing burn on her cheek.
She thought he would rush to her to yell at his mother or do anything else. He just stared though.
His expression was one of shock and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Then he stepped back as she watched his gaze fall from her tear-streaked face to the blood on her lip.
For a long painful moment he just stood there. His gaze then strayed from hers. Slowly as though it took a lot of effort, he cocked his head to the side.
His hand then rested on the doorframe as he retreated another step.
“Carson?” Annabel muttered in a tiny shattered supplication.
He avoided her gaze. He didn’t say anything at all. He shoved his hands into his trousers pocket and looked away.
The door thumped softly behind him as he walked away, lowering his head and disappearing into the dim hallway.
It was the last damning punctuation.
The thud was the sound of her world collapsing, her heart shattering and her hopes turning to dust.
Her mind continued to whirl.
Anabelle remained on the floor, kneeling on her knees and staring at her hands.
The subsequent silence was even more deafening than the sound. Annabel sat I'm that silence.
The room felt big and empty after being so recently filled with venom and shouts. At last, she released her grip, a sob rupturing from her throat.
Her body trembled with an almost intolerable wave of grief as she fell forward her forehead against the carpet.
Her face was wet with hot salty tears that soaked the pricey rug.
They were tears of betrayal but they were also tears of humiliation and rage. She'd trust him.
He was different, she had thought and he would be her partner and protector. He had declared that he was no longer the same haughty man.
But in the most crucial instance he had demonstrated his inferiority. He lacked courage. In addition to not protecting her he had seen her being hurt and turned away.
Her thoughts kept returning to the picture of him standing there with such a chilly and aloof expression.
It was an agonizing loop. He had seen his mother hitting her. He had seen her fall. And he had made the decision to turn away.
She felt a deep gut-wrenching ache in her chest that was far worse than the physical blow.
A void that seemed to go on forever was there in her heart.
She had just realized how completely trapped she was in the mansion, the exquisite room and the gardens which all felt like a gilded cage.
She sobbed until her head ached and her throat became raw.
Her body was a trembling mass of crushed dreams and a wreck of grief. She cried for the lively and optimistic girl she had been just a few months before meeting him and becoming enmeshed in his secretive and deceitful world.
She sobbed for the future she had dreamed of with him, a cruelly beautiful fantasy.
She felt less the more she sobbed as though her grief were an unfillable void. She had no feeling. She was devoid.
Quite a while went by.
The room was covered in long pale shadows as the sky outside changed. Her sobs had turned into silent tears and she remained motionless on the floor.
A low throbbing ache had replaced the burning in her cheek. Her skin was covered in a tight crust from the dried blood on her lip.
Painfully and slowly, she forced herself to her hands and knees before sitting back on her heels.
Slowly, her clenched fists tightened. She noticed the subtle crescent-shaped fingernail imprints on her palms.
She felt the numbness that had engulfed her crack. The hollow spot in her chest started to fill with a new sensation that was cold, hard and sharp.
It wasn't sadness. It was not hopelessness. It was anger. A slow-burning, low-temperature fire that permeated her bloodstream.
Grief no longer weighed heavily on her mind. It seemed clear and targeted.
She looked around the room, taking in the crystal chandelier, the silk curtains and the pricey furniture. They owned everything.
It was all a representation of the world that had attempted to shatter her.
Bridget's poisonous lies, Victoria's icy superiority and Carson's callous treachery.
Each of them contributed to this flawless act of brutality. She felt useless because of them. She had cried because of them. They caused her to bleed.
She made a silent promise in her mind that was icy and unchangeable. She wouldn't be damaged. She would leave. She was not going to let them win.
She would steal all of their possessions. Reputation, tranquility and their idyllic little world. She would hold everyone accountable.
Carson would be her first choice.
He would bear the brunt of the consequences because he had made the decision to turn his back.
She would show him that she was a force to be reckoned with not an issue to be resolved.
He would regret the instant he abandoned her on the ground.
The day they thought they could degrade her and get away with it, would be a day they would all regret.
Her tears had dried up. It was just the fire shining in her eyes. She would pay them back, she swore silently.