It all makes sense now.
All this time, he's been trying to cage me on his side just to get closer with my family and to know every bit of what he wanted to know. He pushed himself to get married to me just because he's plotting all of this sh*t and what? To shove it right in our faces that all along, my family has been the bad people he's been trying to catch.
I've already figured out that her mom was the werewolf that my mother accidentally killed out of revenge, and I've been wanting to tell him everything that I know these past few weeks. I just couldn't, since this would only let my mom be the bad guy when she only did that because she wanted to protect me. Now, here's the result.
Well, I also have something in mind that needs to be fed too. Why does her mother have a tattoo like those creatures from the north? I didn't even confront him about that and just kept my eyes closed upon discovering it, but look at him getting busy destroying my family.
Maybe he's right; I might loathe him if I didn't get to know any of his explanations.
Rylie and I got out of his room. Rylie felt so bad to the point that she even prepared something to eat, but I told her that I have no appetite, so she cooked for himself while I was busy reading his diary.
This is the notebook that Rylie found with my picture and the details that I'm bound to marry him and such. I looked at the first page and saw a picture of his family. There are five of them in the family: his parents and his two other siblings. I can see in this photo how beautiful her mother was. Well, I've seen a picture of her before, but that was from the autopsy report, so there's a big difference.
I read the very first entry he wrote two years ago.
…
May 19, Tuesday
This is the day that I'll start to follow their family. They only have two children, one girl and one boy. The boy's pretty weak, but the girl's a bit different. She's much faster and stronger. Maybe she got it from her bad mother. They are both seniors and will be graduating from high school. Both of them got accepted and landed at the university that I'm at. Well, that's luck.
I hope I can get close enough to them to know their weaknesses. Just then, I'll try to hit them every chance that I have.
Ysmael
…
He used his second name. I scoffed and stopped reading his diary. I went back to his room and tried to pull out the board where our pictures are in the living room. When he goes home, I'll surprise him with his own trash.
Too vengeful, huh?
Well, this is what he'll get after trying to betray me. So this is what he meant by a family matter that I don't have to know about?
He could've just blamed it all on me. He should've just done that rather than doing this, because no matter what he did this time, it didn't make me go crazy and furious; it only gave me pain to find out that he'd been doing all of this behind my back. I couldn't find a way to hate him, and all I could feel was how much pain I have in my heart right now.
Rylie tapped my shoulders and offered me a hot chocolate that she had just made. She's drinking her drink, while I, on the other hand, am just looking at it. I can't help but get hurt by the thought that after what happened between us, he still couldn't have any amount of care for me, even just for a bit.
This is pretty disappointing.
"Hey!" Rylie caught my attention. "I'll be going home now, and my mom's been texting me. While I'm not here, please don't do anything that you might regret in the end, okay?"
She sounded so worried.
"I won't do anything unless I'm not provoked," I said, just to make her feel okay about the happenings. "Don't even think that this is your talkative mouth's fault because it's not in the first place. Well, you just figured it out much earlier than me."
She chuckled upon hearing it and waved goodbye before going out of the penthouse. Meanwhile, I've been restless ever since she got out. I kept calling Luke, but he's not answering right now, when I need him the most.
It's getting dark already, and the hot chocolate that Rylie prepared is already cold. I'm now sitting on the sofa, where we mostly have the closest body contact we've ever had. I'm looking at city lights that are starting to light up as it gets darker even more outside. It's pretty calming, but just then I sense someone walking outside of our penthouse.
I turned around to face the direction of the double doors. Luke's antidote is already wearing off my system, as I can hear them from afar talking in a whispering manner.
"Are you sure she's not here?" The sound of a woman's voice asked someone.
"She has classes to attend to," I heard a man say, and I can probably sense that it's him.
In a span of minutes, they appeared in front of me. He's looking down on the floor while he's talking to someone on his phone, while Shaina, the woman she's with, already noticed me, and she eventually stopped walking as she took a glance at the board and back to me.
Wow, she knew about it too.
Cooper stopped walking as he sensed that I was standing meters away from him. He looked in my direction with no emotion in his face at all.
"I'll call you later," he said, ending his call.
I raised an eyebrow and walked toward the board.
"I can explain," he suddenly said.
"Sure, you can," I said shortly.
"I got home to dispose of all of that today," he said as he took a few steps closer to me, but then I motioned my hand to stop him.
"I can dispose of it for you if you want to," I said coldly.
"I just want to know everything that happened in the past about my mother," he said as a matter of fact.
"You want to know everything?" I asked sarcastically. "Well, I can tell you everything."
"You expect us to listen for all of the lies that you're going to tell?" Shaina suddenly butted into the conversation.
My gaze suddenly shifted in her direction. I slowly walked toward her and smirked.
"You know what I don't like the most?" I said as I could feel that the antidote inside my body was completely gone. "Sneaky bitch like you, that doesn't belong in the conversation at all."
She stared at me, looking so tough, but I just smirked again as I could still sense her fear.
"You're weak, aren't you?" I tried to humiliate her.
When I was already a few inches away from her, she took a step backward. Just then, Cooper held my arm to stop me from getting much closer. I scoffed at the thought of it.
"Maybe she's the one you really like and you're just stuck with me because of your revenge, isn't that right?" I blurted it out and chuckled a bit.
"You didn't get to have your antidote this time, huh?" He asked, but I just harshly moved his hand away from me.
"Don't you ever touch me," I said like a warning.
I heard him sighed.
"Shai, go home for now," he said to her, but then I suddenly grabbed Cooper's arm as he tried to guide Shaina and hold her arm to walk her out.
My sharp nails pierce into his skin, and I can see blood running down his arm. Before I could move for more, Cooper swiftly grabbed my other hand to imprison it.
He lowered his head, so I couldn't see any reaction in his face, and all I heard was him telling Shaina to go away for now.
As soon as the door closed, he kissed me so hard that he could even bite my lips. I didn't respond or kiss back. He then stopped and pinned me to the wall.
"Is this what you want?" He asked. "Do you really want to fight like this?"
"Yes, I do want to fight like this because this is the only way that I can feel that you care for me!" I said it straightforwardly, and as I felt him loosen his grip on my wrist, I eventually moved away and pushed him. I walked back towards the board and gave it a hard punch. I even stepped on it and kicked it in his direction.
"You want to know the truth; well, here it is, whether you like it or not. I've been sexually abused by those people to whom Theo, that man you killed months ago, belongs. Out of anger, my mother killed those shitty creatures just to get even, and here's the part that you've been wanting to know: Yes, she killed your mom just to get even. Petty, right? But you know what's much worse? I recently found out that your mother was one of them. Even though she didn't hurt nor touch me that night, my mother only did that because she's one of them, and it only means that your mother also tolerated what happened to me before."
He looked shocked for a moment, but he then lowered his head and sighed.
"I already know about it."
I paused for a moment. What did he just say?
"I already know what happened to you; that's —"
I didn't make him finish talking, as I realized what he meant by that. I walked straight out of the penthouse, and as soon as I saw the elevator open with a housekeeper inside, I got in and closed it.
"To the ground floor," I order her.
Tears started to pour down on my cheeks, and right then my phone rang, and I saw Luke on the caller ID. I answered it right away.
"Hey --"
I interrupted what he was about to say and spoke.
"I want to go home."
As I ended the call, the elevator opened, and it was just the right timing when I saw our driver getting out of the car. I called him and told him to let me have the keys.
I got in the car and drove it away really fast. I could hear the driver shouting my name, but all I could think about was what he told me.
He already knew about it, but he didn't even make a move to do something about it. I thought he would be different. I should have just listened to my thoughts and been distant in the first place, but I refused to think about it all the time.
I'm a fool. Now, this is what happened.
I'm now on the highway, and lots of cars are already on the road. My eyes are getting blurry from the tears I shed, and I kept wiping them away.
My phone vibrated as soon as I stopped the car before the intersection. I tried to reach for my phone, and when I got it, I answered Luke's call. The stoplights are already green, so I drive slowly.
"Where are you? I'm getting --"
I didn't hear what he said next, as I just felt a huge impact coming from my left side. My head hits something, and my vision gets really blurry. The car's not moving either, and I'm about to open the door on my side when I felt another impact again, making me hit my head on something I couldn't see. I touched my head, and when I tried to look at my hand, it was all covered in blood.
I could hear someone screaming, but I couldn't even move and turned around to look for them as I felt like half of my body was stuck.
"Ysmael!" I gasped softly.
I'm still hearing someone, but my eyes felt heavy, and my body felt like it was about to break.
Just then, everything around me went blank.