Chapter 36 Reality check...
Dahlia..
" You must be disappointed in me, no?" I whispered, clearly fighting the urge to run my fingers through my hair.
My voice seemed to yank her out of her daze, and she stared at me, the expression on her face unreadable.
I was talking to my best friend, Freya. Of all the people, I felt like she was the one I could relate to the most.
Because everyone else, my Mom, Dalton, and Uncle Sebastian, they were all killers, in my eyes, and the reason I went to Freya? It was simple.
Unlike me, whose hands were already smeared with blood, she was pure, cleaner, and I wanted to associate with her more. I was afraid that spending another moment with them would make me like them, they would turn me into an icy heartless killer, just like them.
I didn't want that. I didn't want to turn into a cold-blooded murderer!
So, my gaze was almost pleading as I urged Freya to get me out of there, far away, being in that wedding venue, being in that dress, it was all suffocating, and I felt like I couldn't breathe.
To think that I had seen it as a magical wedding, my absolute dream wedding, only for it to be smeared by blood! Only for them to make me kill someone because of their stupid test!
Perfect wedding? scratch that! It was a bloody wedding, an absolute nightmare! In my opinion.
" Let's take a stroll along the shores as you take a breather, Dahlia. " After a moment of contemplating, Freya finally spoke, foreign seriousness edging her voice.
" No.. This whole place is suffocating, Freya! I want to be as far from here as possible." I expressed, softly enough that it was just her who could hear.
" We will, but not while you are like this. You need to calm down first. To think this through." She whispered, and although I didn't see what I needed to think through, although I didn't understand why I had to stay and calm down around the very people I wanted to run away from, I still chose to listen to her.
" Let's go." After gathering my dress, she gently clasped my hand with hers as she led us away, towards the shores.
By then, a sense of calm had already been restored to the venue. Soft music was drifting by, people were moving, talking, drinking, toasting, like the bride hadn't killed someone, and Dalton?
He wasn't where I had left him.. Wherever he was, I didn't care. I had already started to fall in love with him, but at that moment, that didn't even matter. I refused to stay married to a family that treated lives like nothing.
At some point, Freya and I removed our high heels, and our toes dipped into the sand as we held hands, walking silently along the shores, each in their different worlds.
After walking silently for what felt like ages, I finally stopped, turning to face her.
" I knew that the mafia world is dark, coloured by blood. Dalton had even warned me before I said yes to him.." I whispered, my words fleeting with the ocean waves.
" I was okay with that. I am not a saint..." I paused, a bitter smile twisting at the corners of my lips.
" But forcing me to take a person's life due to some stupid test? Treating human life as if it weighs nothing?" I choked, tears streaming down my face.
" That's unacceptable to me, Freya. Now, I am a killer, and they are even praising me for it... And you? Your hands aren't tainted. I..I feel like a sinner, like I am not even supposed to be friends with you anymore.." I admitted, soft sobs shortly following after my words.
" Jason betrayed me, and the wedding I'd spent so much planning never happened. "
" And now....My wedding with Dalton, I had just said yes! I am still wearing his ring. With him, I was able to feel things I had never felt for anyone before. That's love, right? And now, I will have to return his ring back.."
" I will be getting divorced on my wedding day itself.." Saying those words broke those fragile walls I was struggling so hard to keep erect, and a deep and broken sob tore past my lips.
Freya pulled me into her arms, hugging me through the tears and sobs, and it wasn't until I quietened down that she broke the hug.
" I am sorry you are feeling this way, Dahlia. " She whispered, wiping away my tears, and I shook my head. She had no reason to be sorry. They did.
" But there is something I have to tell you.."She went on, pulling me towards a concrete bench on the shore, and we sat down, the distance between us painfully clear.
" You have had a sheltered life for years." She started, and my chest constricted. I knew.
" In your world, there has only been Jason and pleasing him." She went on, and I felt it, the pain as the knife dug deeper into my heart as she said the naked bitter truth.
" But out here, real life exists." Her gaze was faraway as she whispered.
"And so does real danger. " She added, her gaze still strained to the distance.
" People like you, who have had several bodyguards protecting them under the clock, wouldn't understand the danger that lurks around, unless something actually happens to them." She went, and the pain and melancholy in her voice had my chest tightening for reasons I couldn't explain.
" Take it this way, in a very practical situation, that man was after your life, and you saw it." This time, she turned to look at me as she analysed. I almost nodded in agreement until it occurred to me. She just wanted to make me feel better.
" No. I am not trying to make you feel better, Dahlia Banks." She almost snapped, real anger evident in her voice, and I had to take a real long look at her, just to be sure that I wasn't with the wrong person. For the years that I had known her, it was the first time she was snapping, and that too, at me. Strange.
" I am not trying to make you feel better, Dahlia. I am calmly analysing the situation for you. However you want to see it, you choose!" She added.
" That man wanted your life. It was either him, or you. And the stronger and smarter one won. It is not magic, Dahlia. It is life, reality."
" This is how real life is. You are either the winner or the loser. You saw it with Jason, didn't you?"
" It's time for you to face the reality," She added, a cold and bone-chilling smile dangling at the corners of her lips.
" You are smart enough. You must have sensed the killing intent emanating from that man when he shot first!"
" The anger was real, and anyone with eyes could see that he actually wanted to kill you." She went on, and I nodded in agreement for the first time, not doubting her.
" But why?" I questioned, disbelief twisting my features.
"Because you have enemies. And the people who hate your mother, your family, will come at you to get at them."
" Again, he could have been offered an irresistible offer to take your life. That's what we call greed." She analysed, so calmly, that it scared me. And at that moment, she didn't look like the simple girl I thought I knew.
" It was either him or you. You took your enemy down, the person who actually wanted to kill you. Instead of beating yourself up and feeling bad for not dying under his gun, because that's what you are doing, " She paused, her serious gaze locked on mine.
" You should be proud of yourself. You have walked into reality now."
" In the future, you will have to get strong and not be a burden to the people who love you. You can't stay in hiding forever." She went on, and at her words, I fell into a stupor.
"And Dahlia, if you think I am innocent, that my hands are clean, untainted, " She paused, her eyes red, her fingers tightly clenched. She looked like she was fighting a force only she could see.
" Then you don't know me well enough.." There was a self-mocking smile on her lips as she dropped..
"I am not a saint. My hands are tainted with blood, a lot of it.."
"And my first kill?" She was laughing as she stated, the empty, and dark kind of laugh.
Tears were streaming down her face, too.
" Your mother handed me the gun.." She paused, abd before us, the waves crashed louder.
" The first life I took, the blood was shed with your mother's gun, Dahlia..."