Chapter 34: Blood on His Hands
Chapter 34: Blood on His Hands
The sound of shattering glass still echoed in Daniel’s ears as he rushed into the room. His eyes widened at the sight before him.
Sienna lay sprawled across the rug, her hair fanned out like a halo tainted with streaks of crimson. Blood trickled from her temple where the vase had struck, staining the pale carpet in spreading blotches. Her body twitched once, then fell frighteningly still.
And there was Eve—standing above her, chest heaving, the broken vase still in her hand.
“Eve—what the hell did you do?!” Daniel’s voice cracked with shock as he stumbled forward.
Her face transformed instantly. The wild gleam in her eyes vanished, replaced with trembling lips and tears brimming like an actress stepping on stage. She dropped the jagged remains of the vase, clutching her hands to her chest as though she had no idea how they’d gotten there.
“She—she attacked me, Daniel!” Eve’s voice trembled, raw, panicked. “I tried to defend myself, I didn’t mean to! She just—she went crazy!”
Daniel froze, torn between the woman bleeding on the floor and the one trembling before him.
But as far as he know Sienna, she would never attack someone in such a way. But in his mind, Eve is not a liar though.
“Attacked you?!” His words spat out like venom, but his eyes darted back to Sienna’s lifeless form. “Eve, what the hell happened?”
Something was wrong, and it was difficult to figure it out at this moment. Daniel’s mind went blank watch the blood surrounding Sienna’s still body.
“She found out,” Eve whispered, her voice cracking perfectly at the edges, like porcelain about to break. “She confronted me, screaming, accusing me… I tried to calm her down, but she slapped me, Daniel! She was out of control!” Eve clutched at her cheek though there was no visible mark. Her tears spilled freely, shimmering trails of innocence. “I—I panicked. I just grabbed what I could to protect myself. I didn’t want to—God, I didn’t want to hurt her!”
Daniel’s stomach knotted. His knees buckled, and for a fleeting second, he nearly collapsed beside Sienna. The sight of her motionless, her skin so pale, made bile rise in his throat. His chest burned as though his lungs couldn’t expand, as though the air had turned into glass shards tearing him from the inside.
He knelt, hands trembling, checking Sienna’s pulse at her throat. Weak. Faint. But there. Relief warred with fear, leaving him shaking harder.
“Damn it, Eve,” he whispered, pressing his palm against the wound on Sienna’s temple, trying to slow the bleeding. Blood smeared across his fingers, hot and sticky—her blood. Sienna’s blood. His wife’s blood.
“Daniel—” Eve’s voice broke, almost a sob. She sank to her knees beside him but kept her distance from the blood. “What do we do? If we call the police, they’ll say it was me—they’ll think I killed her! They’ll put me in prison!”
Daniel snapped his head toward her, rage sparking in his eyes. “Maybe you should be in prison!”
Eve recoiled as though he’d struck her, but she was quick to regain her composure. Her tears still flowed, her hands still trembled, but her gaze locked on him with desperate intensity.
“No—you don’t understand,” she whispered fiercely, leaning closer. “If the cops come, they won’t just find me guilty. They’ll find everything. Everything I’ve done. Every… mistake.” Her voice dropped to a near-whisper, intimate, dangerous. “And if they trace it back—do you know what that means for you, Daniel? For the company?”
His breath caught. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Her lips curved, just slightly, before trembling again to hide it. “The deals I made. The names I used. The money I moved. It wasn’t all… clean. If they look too closely, if they dig into me, they’ll find you. They’ll tie it to Lockwood Corp. They’ll say you were complicit. They can put it all on to you for cheating on your wife and then killing her to get out of our way! Next day the headlines will take place everywhere and it will ruin our life, more importantly yours, Daniel! I i don't want people's harsh words to harm you!”
Daniel’s hands froze over Sienna’s temple. His heart thundered in his chest. His mind reeled. Complicit. His empire—the legacy he had spent his entire life building—was suddenly dangling over the edge of ruin.
Eve leaned closer, her whisper a velvet blade. “If we call the cops, they’ll find everything I’ve done.”
The room tilted. He couldn’t breathe. Sienna’s blood was still warm on his hands, but Eve’s words carved through the haze.
Sienna’s pulse fluttered faintly beneath his fingertips, reminding him she was still alive. Yet Eve’s grip on him tightened invisibly with every second.
He looked up at her. Her wide, tear-filled eyes held terror—too much terror. Not all of it was for Sienna.
“You planned this,” Daniel muttered hoarsely, though even as he said it, doubt clawed at him. Was this really her plan? Or had things spun out of control?
“Planned?” Eve recoiled, shaking her head wildly. “You think I planned to kill her in front of you? Daniel, please—I love you! Everything I’ve done, it’s because I love you.” She reached for his blood-stained hand, gripping it tightly despite the crimson smears. “We can fix this. Together. But only if you trust me.”
Her voice was soft, pleading, intoxicating. The devil cloaked in silk.
Daniel’s gaze flickered back to Sienna, her fragile body sprawled and broken. Guilt thundered through him, but Eve’s words pressed harder, heavier. His empire. His reputation. His entire world.
If Sienna spoke, if she revealed what had happened, if she connected the dots—everything could collapse.
He swallowed hard, his jaw clenched, his chest rising and falling in rapid bursts.
Eve leaned close to his ear, her whisper a serpent’s hiss:
“If we call the cops, Daniel, they’ll destroy us both.”
Daniel is left frozen, blood on his hands—literally and figuratively—caught between saving Sienna and saving himself, as Eve coils tighter around him.