by C. Lymari
“Wait,” I said, and the men did as I said because we were at a party full of people. I reached for my torn skirt and the scalpel at the same time, hiding it within the shredded material. Slowly, I got up, aware there were some gasps. I couldn’t even look at Ren; I didn’t want to see his hate.
“He has the Ember,” I stated as I reached for his pocket to pull it out. I let my hair shield my face as I tilted it to the side. “I’m so sorry.”
My whisper was barely audible, but I knew he heard it because he sucked in a breath. He held it when I put the scalpel in his pocket as I took out the diamond.
“You. Will. Pay. For. This.” He spat the words as Gio grabbed him.
I looked up, watching Ren get dragged away from me. Time seemed to go back to normal, making it all go to chaos. People started shouting, and I was in Silas’s angry embrace as he led me out of the maze. The yard was full of guests as we emerged, all of them looking at me. At that moment, I realized I was living the thing I most feared Silas would do. I looked left, and I looked right, and there was no sign of Ren Falcon anywhere.
Then there was another silence as soon as gunshots were heard.
I should have told him.
I should have trusted him.
All I did was damn him.
Part Two
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as the night, and when you move fall like a thunderbolt.”
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Revenge
The taste of betrayal still lingered on my lips. The essence was rooted deep in my breath so that with every inhale, I felt it stabbing my ribs. Sounds of pain and pleasure accompanied me at night, barely letting me get any sleep, keeping my misery company. And a thirst for revenge was the only thing that made me go on another day.
Ember Remington was going to watch as I took everything from her, and I would laugh at her as she saw my true face.
One year later
Remember what I said about a woman not being able to be owned? Yeah, I was wrong. My bad. Everything you did always came back around, and my turn had come, and I was now paying for it.
My hand went to my neck out of habit more than anything, missing the feel of my mother’s choker hugging my tender skin. And I couldn’t think about it without thinking of Ren. Amid chaos, I forgot he held a piece of my heart with him. Or maybe I didn’t forget, and I wanted him to keep it so he wouldn’t forget me.
If by some miracle he was still alive, I was sure he’d remember the girl who stuck a knife at his back.
Rolling over, I reached for the tray that was on the nightstand. Grabbing my vial, I made lines and snorted. The coke made its way into my system fast, already numbing me.
When the door to my bathroom opened, Silas walked out wrapped in a towel like he owned the place—and right now, he did. You see, a year ago, everything changed. My fate was now in his hands more than ever. With Sammy now gone and six feet under, there was no one to watch over me.
As for my father? Well, he woke up from his coma, but now he was even more useless than before. I didn’t understand why Silas didn’t just throw my father in a rehab center and call it a day.
I was sure I was missing something, but the drugs in my system clouded my mind. It was the only way I could escape the bed I had made. Silas took everything from me. If I thought I had it bad before, it was nothing compared to now. He controlled our assets, and he agreed with the board that I was a liability. He moved me to his apartment, where I was now a prisoner with a penthouse view. As for my father, he was in my old home, where he had Dr. W go in and check on him and a group of nurses that watched over him day and night.
Silas smirked at me as he dried his hair, and I turned my face. I was too drained even to move. I didn’t have to look at my beat-up body to know how it looked. I could feel the bruises, reminding me of the mistakes I’d made.
“Be a good girl while I’m away,” he mocked before he left for work.
My hand shook as I reached for my drugs and numbed myself the only way I could now. Inside my mind, all I knew now was pain and hurt. As I lay stuck deep in my mind where there was no pain, the thought always lingered—to take things further. To go to sleep and never wake up. Either I was a fighter that couldn’t give up or a coward that couldn’t take her own life.
Once he left, I laid back in bed and stared at the ceiling for a few hours. What would have happened if I’d told Ren the truth?
It was hard to get up when my sore body begged me to keep seated. Step by step, I made my way to the kitchen. There were no servants here, at least none that I could see or who could see me. Only Silas’s private security. The world-tough Ember had gone into mourning, and then she went off the grid to a private island and grieved. Silas had a look-alike post on my social media. It was easy to believe a lie when no one got close enough to know you. My father’s plan B was of no use to me now that I wasn’t in the same building. I was trapped and fucked in more ways than one.
As I made my way to the sink, I saw Gio standing there. If the bruises on my skin repulsed him, he didn’t show it. When our eyes met, I mustered all the energy I had in me and smirked at his scar. It went from the top corner of his lip down to his neck.
Truly a miracle that he was alive. I didn’t know much because Silas despised Ren, but I’d overheard enough. Ren had killed one of the guards who had captured him, snapped his neck, and then gave Gio a little parting gift. If he survived or not, it wasn’t known. I wanted to think he was alive somewhere. I was sure that if his body ever showed up decayed, Silas would find pleasure in rubbing it in my face.
The cold water was like metal down my throat. It was raw from screaming, and with no time to heal, things were not pleasant. As soon as the water hit my belly, I felt queasy. I tried to remember the last time I’d eaten. I was either too strung out, or it had been that long.
After making my way to the room, my prison, I laid in bed and waited to do it all over again.
There was chaos all around us. The guests didn’t know whether to look at my battered and dirty body or focus on the gun that had just gone off. Everyone started to run, and I was in shock that I didn’t run right away. I was half-naked with not a penny to my name. By the time I decided life was still better that way than with Silas, he was already dragging me to our limo.
“Get every fucking reporter out of here. If they post those pictures, we will end them. I want every camera confiscated,” Silas yelled at whoever was next to him. I clutched Ren’s jacket, inhaling his smell.
Please don’t let him be dead.
Please let him live.
Please have him come back to me.
Why would he, though? I was a bitch to him.
“You fucked him.” Silas seethed once we were alone in the limo.
Tilting my chin up, I mustered my defiance against him. “And I enjoyed every wicked seco—”
Smack.
My cheek turned from the hit he gave me. I’d seen his real face before, and it had scared me, and maybe right now, I was feeling so much that I couldn’t feel any more because it made me reckless.
“What are you going to do now? Threaten me? The whole world sees me like a whore right now. You can keep this contained, but leaks happen, and when it does, I will be there, striking the match to watch you burn.”
Silas fixed his tie and gave me a smile. “No one tells you anything, do they? I’m in control. The board took a vote and removed your father. It’s all mine now. And I won’t be giving you a cent. None of it it’s rightfully yours. The way I see it, I own everything you have.”
I sat still as he touched my cheek, stroking it lovingly.
“I don’t care what anyone says anymore. Release the tapes. I. Am. Done.”
His jaw went slack, and I saw his eyes darken to the point they looked as black as a starless night. “Because of him?”
His finger came down slowly, and he looked in disgust at the dirt. His cold hand moved open a lapel, and his lips curled at the
sight of my neck.
“I own you now,” he stated calmly as he pushed up the sleeves on his shirt.
Before I could give a response, he yanked my arms, throwing me down on the floor of the limousine.
“All you had to say was that you like it rough and dirty,” he whispered in my ear as he held my face down from my neck.
“You want to see blood…” His purr chilled my skin. His hand came to my bodice and pulled it up, baring my ass for him. The thump of my heart was so loud, the sound pounded in my ears. “I’ll make you bleed.”
A guttural scream left my lips, the sound loud enough to pierce the air around me and leave me breathless. Pain burned through my body like a match setting ablaze. It burned slow, down in my back, until it got to the point where I burned all over. The pain was so immense that I opened my mouth and no words came out.
I thought I had lost the ability to cry, that my tear ducts had dried. Something else I had been wrong about.
Drugs were now my companions and my safe haven, something Silas allowed because it kept me numb and accessible. He knew that, either way, I didn’t want him, so I guessed he called that a win. Days blurred into one, and in the end, the less I complained, the faster Silas was done with me. I guess this was the downside of having no friends—no one gave a shit about you, and you became nonexistent.
“I don’t care what you do, just make her less pathetic.” Silas’s voice carried through my foggy brain, and I had barely enough strength to open my eyes.
“She’s lost a lot of weight.” Dr. Wozniak looked blurry.
He kept looking at me in shock or maybe horror. If I’d had the energy, I would have laughed. No wonder Silas had been careful not to leave bruises in the last few days.
“Doctor,” Silas warned.
“With all due respect, Mr. Remington, I have been in charge of Ember since she was a child. I was the one who pulled her out of her mother’s womb. She’s my patient, and I will ask the questions I deem necessary.”
If I wasn’t so weak, I might have been awake long enough to hear the rest.
Hours later, I woke feeling better than I had felt since I arrived at Silas house. I tried to move, but attached to my arm was a banana bag.
“Not only were you dehydrated, but also malnourished. Mixed with cocaine, you’re just asking to die.”
Was I that obvious?
I stayed quiet because I didn’t need him to judge me for something he didn’t understand. He didn’t say anything as he switched the bag and gave me all the vitamins and nutrition I’d lacked in the past months. The more time that passed, the more my hands started to get shaky, and my body jittered.
“You always used drugs, but you were never an addict,” he stated.
Hearing him confirm what I already knew wasn’t pleasant. If anything, it made me feel even more pathetic. He sat down and observed and looked away when I couldn’t take it anymore and reached for my joint paper. It wasn’t what my body craved, but it helped numb me a bit. It was sad to depend on something so minimal and unimportant to the point it became your whole world.
He looked down at his smartwatch, and something passed over his features.
“I have to go, but I will be back.” He unhooked me and started to put his stuff away. He was about to walk away, but instead, he looked me straight in the eyes. “Are you safe, Ember?”
Before I could answer, Gio was there. “Time to go.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling my throat constrict.
I looked away and bit my lip as moisture pooled around my eyes. I didn’t know what I thanked him for, whether it was for being here or for caring, and it was fucking weak on my part. Still, that act of kindness got me through the night.
“I don’t care how you do it, but you find out who did this!” Silas shouted as I made my way to the kitchen.
His office was on the way, and I roamed carefully so I wouldn’t be seen and peeked into his office. I couldn’t see much, just two of his men and some pictures laid on his desk. Deciding it wasn’t my concern, I took two steps back and started to walk again. As I passed the office, Silas called for me.
“Get in here now!”
I rolled my eyes and did as he said. It was funny how some vitamins and human contact made a difference. Yes, I still depended on the drugs, but the fact that Dr. W had come five times already made me feel better.
Silas sat behind his expensive wooden desk. He was my master, and I was his helpless subject. He was angry, which was rare nowadays. He had the world at his fingertips, and nothing fazed him much, so it made me a bit worried.
When I got close enough, my stomach dropped at the sight of the pictures on the desk. It looked like me, but it wasn’t. It was the woman Silas had paid to impersonate me. As I kept scanning, there was one with a close-up of the girl’s face. In bold red Sharpie, it said Liar.
I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was probably fear, but it could also be the withdrawal already.
“Stop with your stupid drugs. I need you to make an appearance before people get suspicious.”
My eyebrows raised as he expected me to do as he wanted. Go where? What was I even going to do? My eyes caught on the calendar on Silas’s desk. One week was more than enough time. I had one shot, and if I did it right, one shot was more than enough.
Last time, I was a coward, but I wasn’t the same girl now. I was no longer scared. Silas had stolen everything from me; it was only fair I did the same for him.
“I always go to the Día de Los Muertos celebration.” I spoke with a confidence I had not heard in myself since the night it all changed.
I celebrated day of the death as a way to honor my mother. I read in an article she would go to the parade. Once my father even told me she made altars to honor her dead. It seemed fitting, almost like a sign. If it all went wrong, there was no better way to die, I guess.
Silas dismissed it. “Absolutely not.”
“I go every year. One year is understandable, but two in a row? Whoever sent those pictures might get even more suspicious. Your perfect little stack of cards is one blow away from tumbling.”
He stayed quiet because he knew I had a point, and he didn’t like it. It looked like whoever had put a hit on my head was observant. It turned out that the very thing that wanted to kill me could also end up saving me.
“Looks like whoever put a price on my head knows me quite well.”
Silas didn’t show any emotions. “Get out of my face.”
“Gladly,” I spat.
As soon as I was out of the room, my hands shook. Nerves, excitement, addiction—who the hell knew. What I did know was I had one shot at making it count and proving I wasn’t a coward.
“How’s my father doing?”
It was the first time I had asked about him, and it surprised not only me, but also the doctor. My father woke, but he wasn’t the same. When the accident happened, my dad had a piece of glass stuck in his spine. They had put him in an induced coma so they could do the surgery and his body could heal. When they tried to wake him, it didn’t work. Sometimes those things happen—people die in surgery, or it doesn’t go as planned. The Remingtons had money, so they kept him plugged.
“He’s doing better,” Dr. W replied hesitantly as he worked another round of vitamins through my bloodstream.
I wondered what he thought of all the mess we were in.. Now that my head was a bit clearer, I could see things didn’t add up. Sammy was murdered, but it was brushed under the rug. It was contained, so the media didn’t know of the actual shitstorm we—I—had been dealing with.
“Any function in his legs?”
The great Michael Remington was not only not fully inside his mind, but he was an invalid. I had built up my father to be this great man who was too busy for his rebel daughter, and look at him now. He couldn’t even walk or talk.
“He started to have movement below his knees, so that’s a good sign.”
Yay. Go, Dad.
“He stays in yo
ur room.”
I felt the doctor’s gaze on me, but I ignored it.
“I think it calms him to sleep there.”
Silas had moved me out of my home and dropped me here, and he put my father in my penthouse. It was all about power with him—his way of showing us who called the shots.
“He enjoys being in your closet. I think it’s because your essence is still present there.”
Yeah, like that wasn’t weird or anything.
“Doc…”
I didn’t want to, but I turned to look at the doctor. I had never been more grateful for him until now. He kept me from teetering into oblivion.
“Yes?”
Why was it so hard to ask for help? Could I even trust him? What if I opened my mouth and he ran to Silas? Then my one shot would be taken away from me. The world was full of lies, some nicer than others, some tame, some vile, but no one ever said what they felt. It put a mask between yourself and harm.
“I miss my bong. You think you can bring that?” I let out a humorless chuckle.
The sad thing was, I did miss it; it reminded me of home. Funny how you never think about the things you have until they get taken away from you. Sure, I still had a warm bed every night, but it came with unwanted attention. I had food if I wanted it, but it came with the price of knowing that every single thing came from Silas. He was the master of my universe, and I was a flightless bird in a cage.
The doctor gave me a pointed look like he was disappointed in me.
I couldn’t stand his gaze, so I moved to grab my coke vial. I was starting to get jittery. And as much as I wanted to pretend like I was strong and could leave it right now, this powder was a refuge.
“Remember, small doses. You have ease yourself down,” he said, his voice stern.
I did less than what I was snorting these past few days and let the coke relax me.