by S. S. Sahoo
Once inside, I made my way towards my room ignoring mom who tried to ask me something. Probably, about Juliette. I will answer all her questions later but for now, I wanted to have a talk with Juliette. She needs to tell me how did even managed to get out with all that tight security. As I stepped a foot on the staircase, I stopped when I heard some noises. The noises were coming from the upstairs. Thinking something must be wrong, I took long strides and ran upstairs and followed the sound which led me to my own room. With the door spread open, things crashed down as I saw Juliette throwing things like a mad woman to the floor.
She would occasionally wipe her tears with the sleeves of her dress and pull her hair in agony. She took the lamp from the bedside and threw it on the mirror shattering it into pieces.
“I have been torturing myself thinking that I failed and I couldn’t save you!” she screamed looking at the pieces of mirror which were stuck on the wall hanging loosely.
“I am so dumb! I have been torturing myself. Fucking torturing myself crying myself to sleep thinking you are dead because of me. But what did I get?” all of a sudden she laughed clapping her hands hysterically. But then sobbed and knelt down on the ground keeping her head on the bed.
“Betrayal! Betrayal” she said slowly at the beginning but soon her tone raised and she screamed “Betrayal!” and took the already broken lamp piece and threw it again on the wall.
Her condition makes me want to pity her. So, why did I feel the opposite? I felt what I think must be uneasiness and bad. She loved him. This is the condition you get when you are betrayed in love? Does this what love makes you?
I took a step back and slowly closely the door. She needs some space and time. Her wounds wouldn’t heal this quickly. I will give her some time. I am happy that at least I have never been through such type of agony and mental break down. If this is what love makes you then I am fine away from it. I don’t need anyone in my life.
Dialing a number, I demanded Cosmina on the other end to be present for Juliette at this moment. She may be hurt mentally but that act of throwing things and that broken mirror pieces may have hurt her. Cosmina would look at it. I believe she can look after her for some hour before the next most shocking truth of Juliette’s life would be revealed before her.
I have already called her father and it may take some hours for him to reach here. I believe he can clear everything and make her understand everything. But most importantly, seeing Juliette’s condition I believe she needs someone from her family to make her feel somewhat relieved.
And that reminds me of Nicholas, I need to free him soon. Because I never really intended to kill him. The one whom I want to kill is his father. I have to think about a way to get him and I believe releasing Nicholas will surely lead me to his father. Everything that is wrong started from his father. He is the real cause of everything that is wrong today. Because of him, Juliette has to go through all this today. Because of him, my family lost my sister. I know he was the mastermind behind the plan to kill my sister and initially, he used his own son as a pawn in this game.
I went inside my study room and sat on the lounge tired. I hoped Juliette’s father to be here as soon as possible because it would really help as now she knows part of the truth. She needs to know the whole damn story.
Raking a hand through my hair, I sighed when the door burst open and mom walked in looking as if she was going to kill me.
It looks like she too needs to know about everything that has been going on.
No more of hiding things.
35
Juliette
“Everything is finished.”I pulled my hair in frustration and agony.
“Everything is finished.”I took the broken lamp from the ground and threw it on the wall.”
“Doamnă!” I heard someone but I ignored the person as I tumbled down to the floor and rested my head against the side of the bed.
“Are u alright?”It was Cosmina.
“Oh my God! What have you done? Ma’am, you’re bleeding! Wait!” I heard her and guessed that she must be going to the bathroom for the first aid kit. I looked down and surely saw my hands filled with scratches and was bleeding. And pants were ripped and my bare foot had some scratches as well. But, it all didn’t matter to me but what hurt me was my sentiments and emotions. My emotions were burdening over my shoulder. I was pretty much disheartened and filled with rage because today I had lost my confidence in myself.
I had lost my faith in myself. I couldn’t quite comprehend what was correct and what was not. It seems as if every decision that I made in the past was incorrect and resulted in me in failure. I was broke, and I felt as if I lost my own soul. Betrayal was the cause of all these emotions that I was feeling right now.
Minutes later, I heard some shuffling in the background and felt someone touching my arms. It was definitely Cosmina because she started inspected my wounds while I sobbed not caring anything that was going on in my surrounding.
“Please let me see!” I heard her before I felt my consciousness giving up.
“What happened over here?” I heard someone as I felt my consciousness regaining.
Everything looked blurry at first, then I blinked my eyes several times and looked around myself to find myself on the bed. People were taking away the broken things, that I had broken and the room looked cleaner than it was when I lost my consciousness. I looked at my hand to find it bandaged and when I looked to my side I saw two pairs of eyes looking down at me, worried evident on their faces.
One was Cosmina and another was Zachary’s mother. She sat down next to me and rubbed my forehead. Not able to control my feelings anymore, I took her hand in mine and cried leaning against it.
“Oh my god! Juliette! What happened? Dear why are you crying?” she held my hand in her and rubbed soothingly over the bandaged hand.
I continued sobbing and from the corner of my eyes, I saw Cosmina playing with her finger looking worried.
“Did something happened you and Zachary? A fight?” mom asked.
I wish that was the problem. How terribly I wished that I had never met Emmett and how terribly I hoped that my tears should belong to Zachary, not to the person whom I loved the most. Contradictorily, I was crying today only for the person whom I loved the most not because of the one whom I hated the most.
What is going on in my life?
Why is everything so messed up in my life?
“Juliette dear, please stop crying. My heart is beating so fastly now. Oh my god! Please dear, stop crying” mom leaned her head against mine still rubbing my forearms.
“Cosmina!” all of a sudden mom raised her head up and looked towards Cosmina.
“Tell me! What is going on?” she asked almost in a rude way.
“I-” Cosmina was cut off by Zachary who walked through the door and stood next to the bed behind mom. His eyes bored into mine for a few seconds, before it left mine and traveled down to my bandaged hands. I saw his jaw clenching for a few seconds before he looked around the room and then back at mine.
“We had a fight!” he stated simply.
“Fight? For what?” mom asked looking at him sternly.
“She doesn’t want to leave this house,” he said and that statement made me look up at him questionably.
What does he mean?
“Oh my god!” mom exclaimed as she kept my hand softly on the bed and stood up.
“You are still repeating the same thing? Why do you want to leave this house? I do not understand! This is your house, Juliette’s house. Why can’t we all stay together? Even she doesn’t want to leave then why are you keen on leaving?” she said in a rage and then looked back at me.
“We are a married couple mom. We want our privacy!” Zachary said and all of a sudden I choked on my own spit.
Privacy?
“Are you not ashamed boy?” Mom asked in a low tone looking curtly at him and then at Cosmina.
Cosmina gasped and then looked here and there before saying
“Um, I must leave now. I have work pending” she bent her head obliged.
“Very well! Then leave” mom said.
“Why is she so cold to her?” I wondered.
“Ashamed of what? Mother?” Zachary asked as he folded his arms across his chest and looked at hr narrowing his eyes.
“Zachar-” she was cut off by him “We already had this argument mother. Now please!” Zachary said and then walked up to me and sat next to me.
“Very well! What about you dear? Do you not want to live here?” mom asked me with hope filled eyes.
I felt a soft pinch on my thigh. It was Zachary.
What should I say?
Will it be good if we leave this place?
But why does Zachary wants us to leave? We were better here. I was better. Though I couldn’t communicate with my family, having mom and the others around me somehow eased my tension. So, why does he want us to leave?
“Dear?” mom asked again.
“Whatever he feels is right,” I croaked out with difficulty.
She exhaled out a breath in annoyance and shook her head.
“Of course!” she muttered.
“We will be leaving tonight!” said Zachary all of a sudden.
“Tonight?” mom and I questioned in unison.
“What?” asked we asked in unison.
“Tonight? Are you kidding me?” mom said and glared at Zachary who just nodded much to her annoyance.
“What the hell is wrong with you boy?” she said and both of them had another heated argument until mom gave up and she stormed out of the room giving an excuse that she was going to prepare for our departure party. She said party in a sarcastic way and left obviously not happy.
“Why do we need to leave?” I asked slowly looking back at Zachary who was looking towards the door where mom just left a few minutes ago.
“For my family’s safety!” he said and got up from the bed and went into the walk in closet.
“Family’s safety!” I muttered. Of course! he doesn’t want anything to happen to his family because of me. Seeing people wanting to kill me, there must be a reason why he said that. Why does Emmett want to kill me anyways? What did I even do? Sour thoughts flowed back into my mind as I thought about him.
“I should call him Nicholas!” I thought.
When the night came, I sat on the bed holding a pillow against my chest. My things were already packed and two men came into the room to take my bags away. Now, I sat on the bed lost in my thoughts thinking what has next planned by my fate for me. My life is so messed up and my fate is playing with me at every point of my life. What did I ever do to deserve this?
A knock on the door broke me out of my state.
“Mom!” I said when I saw her there looking at me with a small smile on her face. Sh looked sad and she was holding a small bag with her. With her hair done in a side braid, and wearing a long orange gown she looked elegant and beautiful conning her own age. Age is just a number perfectly demonstrates her appearance.
“How are you?” she asked once walked in and took a seat next to me.
“I am good!” I lied to her with a smile on my face.
“Hmm,” she hummed in response nodding her head.
“I am here to give you something!” she said and I watched as she fished a box out of that bag.
“Here!” she handed it to me and asked me to open it. Reluctantly, I obliged to her and I opened it only to find a necklace inside it. Beautiful but old designed necklace. It was indeed a traditional gold choker necklace.
“Oh, my! It’s beautiful” I said trailing my finger on it.
“It was passed down to me by Zachary’s grandmother. It is our traditional necklace which we pass down to our generation. It’s from our ancestors” she said and I looked down at it.
“I am giving it to you now!” she said all of a sudden which made me gasp in shock.
“What? No! I mean mom I can’-”
“Juliette!” she said cutting me off “You are my daughter-in-law! I must hand over this to you. It’s my duty being in this Sullivan family and I expect you to hand it over to your generation too!” she said and that made me clench my fists in agony.
“I doubt I could ever give you a generation!” I thought.
“Let me see this on you,” she said as she took the necklace from me and got off from the bed and made an effort to tie it around my neck.
“Mom!” she cut me off again “Please let me, Juliette! I always had this dream to give this necklace to my daughter-in-law with my own hands. I have waited so long for this moment to finally see my son happy with someone. Never had I imagined, that he would ever call someone else as his family and today he did. He called you his family Juliette!” she said and that got my attention.
“Yes! he calls you his family. I can’t express how happy I feel today. Finally, he will be able to live like a normal being away from all this. This all happened only because of you dear. I don’t know how you two met but I am glad that you did, else I would never have seen this side of him” her voice broke in the end and I saw tears sprinting her eyes.
What is she talking about?
“Though I still dislike the idea of you two moving out yet I have come to this point that I will not force you two. Beforehand, when Zachary told me about you two leaving I was okay with it, but day by day when I thought about it I became greedy. I couldn’t bear the feeling that my son is now grown up and it’s finally the time where he wants to stand up for himself, for his family” she croaked out.
“Mom!” I got up and hugged her while she cried on my shoulder.
“But it’s okay!” she said and I gave her some space stepping back a little.
“I can trust you. I trust him to you. I believe you will bring happiness to him and for that, I am honored to pass this necklace down to you. See this as my trust of handing my son to you Juliette!” she said and she tied it around my neck.
In the car, after we said our goodbyes to mom, dad and grandfather I looked at Zachary who was driving. I touched the necklace with sorrow. I am not at all happy owning it. It burdens me with responsibility. I don’t really think that I could provide happiness to anyone. I have failed and tumbled so hard in my life that I can barely stand on my own. How can I support Zachary in all this? I don’t even have any idea why we are even together. Why is he even with me?
I looked at him while he drove the car silently. I heard a thunder and soon it rained heavily. Only the sound of water hitting the glass and the sound of the rubber wiper blades moving on the windshield could be heard. He didn’t even have the radio on. I looked at the glass window, but I couldn’t see anything because of the rain.
“Slow down a little,” I said slowly when I noticed the speedometer. Dangerous to go at such a speed when it’s raining. I doubted he would ever oblige to me but surprisingly, he did. He reduced the speed but he didn’t even glance my way, continued concentrating on the road.
Four hours later, the rain was milder in the area where we were. The car finally stopped before a gate. I watched as a guard came holding an umbrella and Zachary rolled down the window screen.
“Boss!” he saluted.
“Make sure nobody gets in! Nobody is allowed until they have my written permission!” Zachary said and the guard nodded before opening the gate and Zachary drove inside the area filled with trees at the roadside. Minutes later, a mansion came into view. If Zachary’s previous was huge then this one was gigantic.