Chapter 76 Poisonous truth!
|| Author POV ||
Rosa’s whole body stiffened as if the floor had vanished beneath her feet. Her gaze stuck on the silver weapon. Heart thudded like a war drum.
A gun?
She literally froze. She didn’t know what to think or what to do. Rosa felt numb. She didn’t need any more evidence to know the truth.
Tears sprang into her eyes, her gaze shifting downward, right beneath the silver weapon and there was an old newspaper.
Her breath literally jammed as soon as the bold headline caught her attention.
·˚✎ ﹏
Killian’s gaze stayed fixed on the road, one hand steady on the steering wheel. But then his eyes narrowed sharply, he glanced at the seat beside him. Empty.
“Damn it!”
He spat, irritation flashing across his face. “Haah.” A low breath hissed through his teeth.
The file? How could he forget something so important?
His grip tightened on the wheel. Whatever patience he had left snapped in that moment. He slammed his foot down and spun the car around. Tires screeched on the wet pavement, speeding back toward the mansion.
Killian drove back to the mansion. The guards bowed when he entered but he didn’t spare them a glance. His mind was already elsewhere, on what he forgot.
His boots echoed against the stairs as he ascended. His steps slowed when he noticed his bedroom door was hanging open.
He ignored it and moved straight toward the study to get the file. Then his eyes narrowed. The study door was open too.
Killian walked closer. Standing at the threshold, his gaze landed on the figure curled in the corner, beside his desk.
Her back was to him, shoulders trembling, sitting on her knees on the floor. She was shaking hard.
His gut twisted. “What are you doing here?”
Killian watched as her entire body jolted at the sound of his voice. A sob slipped out of her, so soft yet piercing. His jaw tightened.
What the fuck is happening?
Killian took a step forward.
Her frame trembled and she slowly, limply stood up. Another broken sob cracked from her lips before Rosalie turned to face him.
And then he saw her.
Tears soaked her pale face. In one shaking hand, his gun. The one he kept hidden for emergency. In the other, the crumpled newspaper crushed in her trembling clutch.
The gun slowly slipped down from her hand, landing on the floor with a thud. Rosa flinched.
His gaze rose to meet hers. Her eyes, red, swollen, shattered, terrified. And then came her voice.
“Wh-wh-who.. who a-are you?” she stammered, taking a step back.
The same question she asked that terrifying night.
Killian didn’t need a second thought to grasp the situation. His dark gaze pinned her trembling form. Her wide eyes were swimming with fear. Rosa swallowed hard, eyes fixated on the crumpled newspaper in her hands.
Her voice cracked as she whispered, “Wh-who is.. William Salvatore?” Her trembling gaze flickered up to meet his. “Is he your f-father?”
A shuddering gulp escaped her lips. Her gasps filled the silent room “H-he was the drunk driver.. who.. wh-who killed my parents?” Rosa hiccuped. Tears spilled freely down her cheeks and her body racked with hiccups.
But the terror she felt after unmasking his truth didn’t ease her pain.
She wanted to scream, cry, run, and die, unable to digest the pain. Now she saw it all clearly, that conversation about burying the truth, the secret he desperately tried to bury. His silence told everything.
He knew. He knew his father’s sins. He tried to shield her from the truth. Even hid his true face.
But he was a killer’s son. He was a killer himself. She’d been living with a killer all along!
He lied.
He’s not a normal professor.
He betrayed her trust.
Killian’s stare was emotionless. His eyes bore into her unblinkingly. He didn’t really see it coming.
His fists tightened at his sides. The veins in his arms and neck popped out. Jaw clenched so tight it looked like he’d break his own teeth.
“You’re the s-son of the man who killed my parents.” Rosa choked out the words like poison, like they hurt her to even speak.
Her grip on the newspaper weakened and tears rolled endlessly down her cheeks.
“I can explain–” Killian was cut off by her.
“D-don’t m-manipulate me.” Rosa sniffed, staring at him with eyes filled with fear “Are you a m-ma-mafia?”
She hiccuped painfully at him. She asked through her gut feelings. She wasn’t even sure what he was to kill people like that.
Killian closed his eyes in frustration. He had got no more excuses to deny it.
“Yes, I am!” he snapped at her making Rosa flinch.
He wanted to know what she will do now.
Shiver ran down her spine. The shock was too heavy to process, twisting her insides into knots. Her body trembled with fear. More tears spilled out of her broken eyes. So she was right.
He is a bloody man! She never expected this!
“I didn’t know–” Killian snarled. His tone was mocking, “that my innocent little rabbit could be so disobedient.”
He stepped closer. Rosa’s knees trembled. Her heart pounded. Her stomach turned. The realization hit her again, harder than before. She was under the same roof as a murderer.
“You shouldn’t have looked.” Killian’s voice dipped into a deadly calm, “So now tell me, little rabbit... what do you think happens to people who know too much?” he gritted his teeths.
His dead eyes were peeling off her soul.
Rosa’s gulped hard. The person before her, he wasn’t the man, he wasn’t her man! He wasn’t the man she loved, trusted. He wasn’t the one who called her his girlfriend!
He faked everything! But why?
Rosa shook her head, backing away. “You l-lied..”
His jaw clenched hard at her words. His fist tightened, everything felt too messed up to even explain. And truth be told, he didn’t even know what to explain anymore. What could he say? Where would he begin?
That he didn’t mean to?
That he had to?
Rosalie’s eyes slowly lifted to meet his. They were shattered, full of pain, disbelief, and betrayal.
Killian Just stared. As if he lost his words. She was scared of him, really scared. Not the kind of fear that used to make her cheeks flush or her voice stammer.
This was fear soaked in BETRAYAL.
And for the first time, he hated the reflection he saw in her eyes. His cold eyes flared at her innocious one.
Rosa felt it. Her death wasn’t far. It stood right in front of her, cloaked in the skin of the man she claims to love. But he wasn’t a man. He was a beast!
“I c-can’t believe–” her voice broke.
Her vision blurred and her heart cracked open. She looked around desperately, trembling while the newspaper slipped from her weak fingers and hit the floor with a soft rustle. Her legs wobbled.
She couldn’t take it anymore. Betrayal. Lies. The truth behind her parents’ death. His face, his real face. It was all too much. She didn’t even know what she was crying for.
Her breaths turned sharp and quick as she stumbled back. Her spine crashed against the window frame. Her eyes suddenly widened in horror at the sight of him approaching. His expression was hollow. They were dead. It scared her.
“You’re mine, bunny.” he murmured, his voice a twisted lullaby. Calm yet cold. “And now that you know the truth, you don’t get to leave.”
Rosa shook her head frantically, eyes darting to the open door. Her heart beating like a trapped bird smashing against its cage.
Her fingers fumbled. Grabbing the phone nearby, she bolted toward the door. She did what her brain told her to do at that moment. But she was too small. Too tiny compared to the monster before her. He was faster.
Her wrist was caught in an instant, helplessly, painfully. Rosa’s eyes widened.
“No! L-Leave m–Ah!” a squeak tore from her throat as Killian yanked her close.
Before Rosa could react, she was lifted off the ground like a doll and flung over his shoulder. Her fists pounded against his back. Tears streamed down her face.
“No! Let me go! Please–let me go! You’re a killer!” Rosalie screamed, her voice cracking with fear and anxiety.
Killian didn’t blink. His face was carved in stone.
“Let me go! Please! Let go!” she sobbed harder, thrashing in his hold but it was useless.
In that moment, panic consumed her. She knew nothing as if her mind was blank. The only thing that filled her brain was, he was a killer.
The man she gave herself to, the man she confessed her love to, the man who made her heartbeat faster! The very man she loved like a mad woman is nothing but a killer, yet he lied to her. He’s not even a human! No human can kill like that.
Her heart was shattered into million pieces.
“Leave me! I want to leave! You bad man!” Rosa cried desperately. Her fists kept hitting his back which was barely a tap to him.
Killian didn’t say a word. He kicked open the door to her room and stepped inside. He was angry beyond control. Without hesitation, he threw her down onto the bed.
Rosa bounced slightly against the mattress. “Ung!” A startled gasp escaping her lips.
Before she could react, “You are not leaving!” Killian spat angrily, snatching the phone from her hand.
Rosa flinched back, eyes wide in fear.
Killian didn’t look at her and turned around before storming toward the door. His steps were furious.
“No!” Rosa panicked, scrambled off the bed and chased after him, only to reach the door just as it slammed shut.
Click. Locked. From the outside.
Her heart dropped. Rosa banged her fists against the wood. “No! Nooo! Open the door!” she screamed, slapping it, her voice raw with panic. “Let me out! Let me out!” her voice echoed through the silent room but no one opened the door.
Her brain wasn’t working. Everything inside her felt shattered, numb, burning. Rosa forgot how to think. The betrayal was too sharp, too deep to numb.
She was hurt, from the core.
The professor? Professor Salvatore? The man she loves with her life?
He’s a mafia?
He kills?
She had been living with a criminal all this time. Loving a monster disguised as a man.
“Noo!” Her knees buckled and she collapsed against the door, palms slapping it weakly. Her voice cracked with pure desperation.
“Please open the doooor!” she sobbed. “Please! Please...!”
But no one came. “P-please don’t do this to m-me.”
Her weak body slumped to the floor. Her knees folded as her forehead rested against the cold wooden door. A painful whimper escaped her lips as she clutched at her chest. Her poor heart was thudding so hard it ached.
She rubbed over it like someone losing their mind, desperate to ease the pain but it only got worse. She was feeling insane.
Each breath was sharp. Her throat burned from all the screaming and now nothing came out but broken gasps.
“Professor.” Rosa mumbled with tears falling down. She curled into herself.
Like something inside her had cracked. Like she didn’t know who she was anymore.
“Tell me it’s not true. Tell me it’s a lie!” she choked out. Her fists pounded weakly against the door, each hit more desperate than the last. “Don’t do this. Please...” Her chest ached like it might burst open. The pain clawed up her throat.
God forbid her from being happy for too long, right? First, she lost her parents. Living as an orphan. Then, she was harassed and kicked out of her own home. And now what? The man she gave her heart to turned out to be a criminal.
Will he kill her so cruelly just like that man?
The man who held her so gently, the professor who scolded her, the man who kissed her with possession, was that all a lie? How could this be real?
Thousands of questions bombarded her numb mind. Why did her life have to be so twisted, so cruelly miserable?
Rosa hiccuped, collapsing onto the floor. Her hair fell messily around her and her body trembled with every broken gasp, tasting her own tears. She couldn’t handle something this cruel, this unexpected.
It hurts so bad. She was so fragile, it consumed her sense.
“It’s not true. It’s not..” she whispered over and over.
MEANWHILE, Killian stormed into the study again. His chest was rising and falling with fury. His nose flared dangerously. How could he be so thoughtless?
“How the hell did she even find out!” Killian growled in a murderous tone.
He thought he’d finished twisting her mind. Thought she wouldn’t dare dig deeper. He even hid the keys then fucking hell, how?
“FUCK!” he roared, sweeping the scattered papers off the desk, sending files flying.
His forehead throbbed with rage. His mind spiraled. Killian didn’t know what to do anymore. He didn’t know how to handle her. He needs some times to process.
He should’ve known he couldn’t keep it a secret from her forever. His mind spun with chaos. The image of her tear-filled eyes flashing in disbelief, soaked in betrayal and broken trust filled his mind.
“Ugh.” He groaned lowly, watching the gun on the floor with sinister eyes.
The truth was out, so was the monster inside him!