After the wedding, both Cooper and I walked down the aisle to exit the whole venue and get ready for the reception later in the evening. I'm still wearing the crown when we get inside the limo again, and this time Cooper's with me. We remained silent for a while, and when I sensed that he wasn't going to approach me or do anything else, I threw the bouquet of flowers that I hadn't thrown earlier. I'll just give it to Maureen as a gift because she gave me one too. I also took off the crown on my head and even untied my hair from a tight bun.
"Can you do it later?" Cooper suddenly asked. But I just looked at him, and his eyes are not the same as they were a while ago.
He seemed pissed, and as he loosened the tie from his neck, he threw it in a lousy manner. What is wrong with him?
Why the sudden change of mood again?
When he noticed that I was looking at him, he took a glance at me and rested his back on my side. I also leaned back and let his head rest on my shoulders.
"Rough day?" I just asked out of nowhere. I just want to know what's happening to him.
"Did you mean it?" He asked as he started to play with my hands.
"What do you mean?" I confusedly asked as I got busy taking off some of my make-up. I'm not used to heavy makeup; it just makes my skin irritated.
"Nothing, forget about it," he said and even moved away from me. I was a bit flustered by what he did, but I just scoffed at it.
I somehow get what he meant by it. He's asking me if I meant everything I said in my vow. What the hell?
He ruined my mood today.
Ruel, our driver, suddenly announced that we were already near the venue, so I got myself ready upon getting out of the limo. The moment I stopped in front of the hotel that I chose and I saw Jamaica outside, I got out of the car and didn't even look at Cooper. When Jamaica saw me, she asked.
"Hey, you should be happy; it's your wedding, for God's sake," she pointed out while she took care of my gown while I was heading to the elevator.
I don't even want to look at Cooper right now. Why would he ask that to me? I didn't even ask him if he was also sincere about what he said, but now he's questioning my vow?
I rolled my eyes upon thinking about what happened earlier in the limo and didn't even notice that Jamaica had been talking to me about the dress I'll be wearing for the reception today.
"Adi, stop zoning out!" She almost yelled at me, and I just took a glance at her.
I don't want to spoil everything I did for this day, but that guy really knows how to make me feel annoyed. He knows how to make me feel so furious just by asking things like that. How about him? Did he also mean everything he said earlier? Between the two of us, it seems like I'm the one who's more ready than him. He didn't even have a copy or anything when he said that to me; did I even get bothered about it?
I was already furious when we got out of the elevator, and Jamaica just remained silent when she noticed my eyes. I told her to call Luke about it just to control the color of my eyes. I don't want people to get scared of me later. I looked in the mirror and saw myself barely hanging because my reflection is fading away gradually. They made me sit on the long sofa, and Jamaica just tried to massage my shoulders to calm my blood. I don't want this feeling after I took the antidote, and it's losing its effect on my body. It feels like I'm transforming into a monster that I don't want to be like.
When I saw Luke hurrying into our hotel room, I calmed myself down. I breathed in fresh air when I felt the syringe needle enter my skin.
"You didn't tell me that you're out of stock for today," she scolded me.
"I didn't know that this would happen," I said as I put pressure where he injected the serum.
My hands felt numb a little, but I didn't even bother to get myself affected by the pain from the injection right now. I'm still bothered by Cooper and his fucking drama in the limo earlier. I don't know where he is right now, and I don't want to see him tonight either.
Jamaica and Luke kept talking, but they both stopped as Dad entered the room. We are now covered in silence, and when Dad told them to get out for a moment, I got stuck with him inside. I remained silent and just waited for him to talk.
"You shouldn't feel guilty about what happened in the past," he said, and I know that he's trying to protect Mom.
"But I'm the reason why mom did that," I reasoned.
"You know she didn't mean to," he said in a stern voice.
"But we both know that she killed an innocent victim, dad," I aggressively said. "We both know that Mom should have been more careful to avoid that happening, but she got blinded by anger, and now I'm facing the guilt of it."
"We know you're mad about it, but also try to understand that she didn't mean to hurt someone innocent that night," Dad said in a softer tone. This is one of the rare moments that I got to hear him explain to me, and that will always be about how he defended Mom from me.
I don't like what he's saying to me right now, but the way he protected Mom's image in everything will always be one of the things that I got jealous about. It's not that he's not protecting me from everybody, but I just wish that I could also feel that kind of love where they will protect you from everything in this sinful world.
Dad caught my attention again when he held my hand. He looked at the wedding ring on my hand, and he just smiled.
His smile is so rare for me to see.
"I'm sorry I didn't give you the best wedding you could ever have," he said softly.
One fact about my dad is that he's like this when we're all alone. He'll show me his soft side and even treat me like I'm his precious jewel when it's just the two of us. There were only a few times that I got to see this side of him as I was growing up, but the fact that he did it every time something significant happened in my life will be the fondest memory that I will have of him for the rest of my life.
"At least I still have a grand one," I said, trying to compensate for this arranged wedding.
"Please understand that we just did this out of worry that we might get thrown away from this city, and I know how much you love being here that you even fight for your spot at that university just to fit in," he explained.
"Don't worry about it; I'll be fine as long as I have myself," I said coldly.
"Then I can be fine with it," he said as he smiled at me.
He then finally stood up and kissed my forehead. When he got out of the room, I almost cried, but I tried to fight back the urge to do it. As Jamaica came in again, she helped me take off my dress and put out the one that I'll wear for the reception. She's the one who picked this dress, and I knew that I could trust her with everything when I saw what she chose. It's a beige off-shoulder body-hugging dress with a slit showing up to my right thigh. The whole dress is like made up of pearls, and Jamaica just added some details about the ruffles on the shoulder sleeves. She also let out a three-inch silver wedge shoe covered in glitter with small diamonds on it. The makeup artist put a light makeup on my face this time, and they just curled my hair to let it down.
I was almost ready for the reception when my phone suddenly rang. Jamaica gave it to me, and I frowned when I saw an unregistered number calling my phone. Where the hell did they get my number?
I answered the call and was about to say something when I heard someone from the other line talk right away.
"You'll be so dead," a woman's voice said, and I just scoffed about it.
"I think you've got the wrong number," I said, and I heard the other line laugh.
"I was never wrong, Adi."
My lips parted as I heard her call me by my nickname. Only a few people know about that, and I was a bit surprised when she said that.
"What do you want?" I calmly asked.
"Oh, I don't want anything," she said as she giggled a bit.
I tilted my head as I tried to recognize her voice. I know I've already heard her voice somewhere. Come on, think...
Hold on a second.
My lips parted as I realized who she was.
"Mathilda," I called her name.
With that, she laughed, sounding so crazy. She's Mathilda Evergreen; she's a friend of mine who tried to kill me when we were in fifth grade. I thought she was my friend at the time, but it turns out that she only befriended me with the goal of getting with my brother, whom she really likes, and she even strangled me with a rope before when I declined her offer about stealing the test paper for the whole class. More than that, when we got to ninth grade, I realized that she's a werewolf when I saw her transforming in the woods one night and even killing two innocent people out of thirst for her prey, which made her think that I'm the one who spread about it. She even hated me until now, and recently I just heard from one of the members in my brother's laboratory that she became part of the group from the north.
I guess it all comes back to those b*tches, huh?
"So you still know me, dumbass," she said. I can sense she's grinning as she says that.
"How could I even forget you?" "You were my favorite classmate before," I said, and when Jamaica heard me, she told the people to get out of the room quickly.
I simply moved to close the curtains and stayed near the door of my hotel room.
"You're such a fake, Adi," she said in a serious tone.
"I'm not like you," I tried to tease her, but what she said next got me.
"You must be so happy now that you're married to one of the most powerful leaders of our kind. You should also know the consequences of that now that I just remembered that he's the one who killed my fiance. I guess you should pay for it, you know, eye for an eye," she said calmly.
I'm about to say something, but then I heard the door open, and I immediately saw Cooper, who looked so serious while he walked towards me to get my phone.
"Go fuck yourself," he ended the call with that.
"What just happened?" I almost screamed out of annoyance.
"Mathilda Evergreen is on crack after what I did to Theo," he said in a stern voice. "You shouldn't have talked to her right now, or else she'll ruin the whole night for our celebration."
I crossed my arms and scoffed.
"I'm not the one who's at fault when you killed Theo, and I didn't even tell you to kill him," I said before I walked past him to get out of the room. Jamaica followed me down to the party. It was almost 7 o'clock in the evening when I went down, and the host had already acknowledged my presence there. We didn't go on traditional way that we're going to dance in front of these people. I just told them that they should enjoy this very moment for us and have fun. I tried to talk to other people and even accompanied some of my family.
It was almost 10 o'clock in the evening when I saw Cooper entering the hall. I don't know where he came from, and I don't even want to know about it. All I could think right now is that I hate him for being an asshole today.
I'm already with Rylie, and we're at the island counter waiting for our seventh shot this evening. I just want to get drunk right now, but it seems like I can't. On the other side, Maureen has been persistent in talking to Tommy, and they keep each other's company while she's interviewing him for her project.
Everything is just on blast, and the elders are also enjoying the slow music, but it just went down when we heard a loud shot, and I'm pretty sure it's just near us. Just then, someone fell on the people with a gunshot in his chest. It's one of the people working for Cooper.
It gets even worse when another gunshot comes.
"Get down!" Luke shouted, and he protected Maureen. They hurriedly evacuated, and all of us went down to the back of the island counter.
"What is that?" Rylie shouted.
"I don't even fucking know," I shouted back as I tried to hide her, but just then, when I was about to stand up and help someone who fell down on the floor just near us, I got shot by the shoulder and instantly fell down into the ground.
Luke called my name, but I told them to run now. I put pressure on my right shoulder and tried to stand up again when I heard footsteps coming in my direction and stopped just about meters away.
"I told you, eye for an eye," I already knew it's Mathilda.
As I stood up while holding my right shoulder, which was already covered in blood, I smirked and spit blood in front of her.
"You should have just told me you want an invitation for my wedding," I said as I stretched my neck.
"Oh, bitch, you know I've always loved gatecrashing someone's party," she smiled at me like crazy.
"Because you're always not invited," I said before I swiftly ran in her direction and strangled her with the wire I just got under the table when she shot me.
She's laughing as I tighten the wire around her neck. I can clearly see her veins about to pop, but all she did was just laugh at me crazily.
"Kill me, just like... what... you always do," she said as she ran out of breath. I don't know why she's not even fighting back, but I got caught up in what I was doing, and a gunshot fired up behind my back, and I suddenly felt like I was losing my strength from it.
Just then, I felt a cold thing on my back, just above the side of my left shoulder. I let go of the wire around her neck as I tried to pull the bullet from my back. I felt an excruciating pain covering my entire body as I tried to pull it out. My body felt weak, and before I could even fall to the ground again, I saw Cooper approaching us. As my eyes were about to close, his arms caught me.
I can still hear him talking to me and asking if I'm alright.
I couldn't even bother to open my eyes properly again, and before I could even fall, I think I just heard him say the most genuine thing I heard from him today.
"Adi, don't leave me."
And suddenly, everything went black.