“How hurt is Beckah?” Clara asked eagerly. It was now the evening and she had been sitting on her bed waiting for Caiden to return. She had sent the demon out earlier to find out how Beckah was doing after her fall down the stairs at the train station.“She was taken to the minor injuries department at the nearest hospital. She doesn’t have any major injuries and her head is fine. She was treated for shock and various grazes. The nurse told her that she will have a lot of bruising tomorrow. That was it. She went back to the hotel after being discharged.” Clara was pleased to hear that Beckah had survived the fall with minimal injuries. She had experienced an attack of nerves on the train ride back to the park. She felt guilty that she had deliberately pushed the bully down the stairs with the intent of hurting her. Clara had come to realise that she wasn’t cut out to be a bully herself. To her, it didn’t feel right to hurt someone deliberately. “You look like you regret what happ
Clara was keen to finally hear James’ story and followed him into the study. She sat down on the leather couch whilst James retrieved a very thick folder from his desk and placed it down on the table in front of her. She wondered if the information in the folder was on the same level as the information Arthur gave her when he investigated her targets. “It’s taken years of investigative work to compile this information,” James said and sat down next to her. “I only knew about your mother’s side of the story and finding out everything else that happened later on was difficult.” He opened the folder and pulled out a photo. Clara recognised that the man in the photo was a much younger James next to his wife and the child in the middle had to be Clarissa’s mother. She could see the resemblance in the eyes. “As you know, your mother was called Fiona St. Clair. She was a very normal child until she was 16. My wife died then and Fiona went a little off the rails and made some unsuitable
Clara was shocked to hear that Clarissa had a twin sister. She had never seen this revelation coming. “Due to the father being skilled at adopting different identities, finding out where he went and what name he operated under was a very hard task,” James explained. “I knew the other baby was with him as the neighbours had heard him leave the flat with a crying baby after having a loud argument with Fiona the week before she died.” “That sounds like they broke up badly,” Clara said. “I guess he also changed the other child’s name so Fiona would never be able to find her.” “He kept the first name the same,” James said. “He respected that at least. It took years to find where he had gone. The police managed to find that he had taken a flight bound for the US and couldn’t tell me anything beyond that. That’s when I started hiring investigators. It’s been a very long journey that’s come to an end at last."Clara took a closer look at the photo of Clarissa’s father. He didn’t look anyt
Clara stared at him in surprise. It felt like everyone wanted to tell her about her connection to Clarissa today. “I’m her twin,” Clara said. “James told me today.” It was Caiden’s turn to look surprised. “That’s quite an odd coincidence,” he said. “I never looked into the future to find out Fiona St. Clair’s story so I never had any idea of the truth.” “I didn’t faint when he told showed me a photo of Clara St. Clair,” Clara told him. “However, I did faint when he told me that we tried to commit suicide at exactly the same time. I never realised we died at the same time because of the difference in our time zones.” She realised when she said that that there was a very good reason for both of them attempting to erase themselves at the exact same time and why Caiden was holding a contract in his hand. They had both been part of a demon contract that had led to their deaths. “Yes, that can be explained by looking at the contract,” Caiden said. “Should I wait until tomorrow to tell
“That’s a very optimistic way of looking at this,” Caiden commented dryly. “I never thought I would hear you say something that optimistic.” “I guess I’ve never shown much optimism,” Clara said. “It’s not in my personality.” Her strongest trait had always been her ability to hold her head high despite her low social class and her bad school experiences. That hadn’t been optimism, it had just been her will to stay strong and get through her sad life. “Perhaps finding out about your family has changed you for the better,” Caiden said. “You never talked about finding your parents, but I get the feeling not knowing anything about them bothered you.” “It did as a child growing up in the care system,” she replied. “As I got older, it didn’t bother me as much. Being called an unwanted child by the bullies did hurt though. When I was reborn, I stopped caring.” Arthur would have found out who her parents were if she had asked him to, but that hadn’t wanted to do that. She had committed to
Clara packed her suitcase with a nervous feeling in her stomach. She was going back to her home country to complete the final stages of her revenge plan.Everything was booked and she just needed to get on the flight. Clara distracted herself by checking the contents of her suitcase against her checklist and noticed that she had left out a few things. She retrieved her toothpaste and cotton pads before zipping up her suitcase. There was her handheld luggage to do and she busied herself with filling up her bag. This was the first time she would be taking a flight by herself so there was a lot to think about. Eventually she was done with packing and she had three hours before her flight was due to leave. Clara wheeled her suitcase down the many stairs in the St. Clair mansion. James emerged from the study when she walked past. “Have you got your tickets?” he asked. Clara held up her phone to show her e-ticket. “Phone charger?” he questioned next. Clara patted her bag and James n
Clara found it was pleasantly sunny outside when she left the hotel for a short walk. The blue sky was a considerably clearer of clouds than the grey sky she had seen in London at the airport. She had chosen to stay in Seattle as that was where Griffen Investments was based and her main target was still Beckah. Clara looked up the location of the nearest drugstore so she could buy some toiletries and other things that had forgotten to pack. There was a drugstore a short distance away so she walked there at a slow pace so she could take a look around and take in the different skyline. Now that she had been living in the UK with only one short trip to her home country, seeing a different city view was odd. Everything was bigger in the US and felt too big to explore by walking. Clara walked into the drugstore and picked out the items on her list. She went past the family planning section on her way to the checkout and hesitated before stopping in front of the shelves. She might need
Clara woke up slowly and took a moment to recognise the blue ceiling of her hotel room. She was in a different country now. She then noticed that she wasn’t wearing anything and the events of the night before came rushing back to her. She had finally slept with Caiden. Clara blushed at the memories. They had certainly made up for lost time and she had dropped off to sleep very quickly after they had run out of energy to go for another round. It turned out that sex was a good way to fall into a new sleep cycle. She looked around for any sight of Caiden. The demon had been in the bed when she had settled down to sleep. She couldn’t see him anywhere and his clothes weren’t on the floor. He must have gone back to the demon realm. It made sense when she looked at the time. It was now late morning. Clara sat up slowly and became aware that she was feeling sore. She had read about the morning after in books and so far, the books she had read were fairly accurate. It had hurt a little wh
“I’m getting married!” Clara announced happily. She smiled over her coffee and Arthur watched her with a bemused look on his face. "When is the wedding?" he asked. “Next month,” Clara told him. “I was planning to invite you. We’ve only just decided on the date so there’s no invitations to give out yet.” “Do you not have wedding planner then?” the hacker questioned. “Invitations are normally sent out much sooner.” “I don’t want a big wedding,” Clara replied. “James was fine with it and just asked that I invite him.” She was a little surprised that her grandfather had agreed with her desire to have a very small wedding. They both enjoyed high positions in society and people like them normally had grand weddings with a long guest list and a high budget. “I shall consider an invite as a great honour then,” Arthur quipped. “How many guests are invited?” “I’m inviting 12 people,” Clara said. “Caiden has invited a couple of friends. He doesn’t have any relations to invite.” “Of cour
Their first month of dating passed by quickly. They soon fell into a routine of meeting after work and going on dates. Clara was blissfully happy, but she knew they needed to discuss their future together. Caiden was only living temporarily in the UK after all. She chose to ask after they had finished eating Caiden’s latest attempt at a home cooked romantic meal. His cooking skills were unique to say the least. “Are you going to stay here in London when your job here is finished?” she asked. “Where would you like to live?” he questioned. “Here or in a different country? We have lots of options.” Clara thought about the matter seriously. She had grown up in the US and had been unexpectedly pulled into a different country. She did prefer living in the UK, but there were other countries to try as well. “We can move around,” Clara said. “I think we should make this our main country and travel to other places. That is if you want to. This is a decision we should make as a couple.” Ca
Clara kept a careful watch on the office building opposite so she wouldn’t miss seeing Caiden leave when his work day had finished. She had already missed seeing him before, she wasn’t going to do it again. Fortunately, he was one of the first people out of the building and Clara immediately began to pack up everything she had brought with her. Caiden entered the coffeeshop and beamed when he saw her waiting by the door. “Excellent. You’re ready to leave on our date,” he said and held his hand out to her. “Can we take a diversion first?” she requested. It was only fair to let Arthur know that she had found Caiden, but she had decided a text wouldn’t suffice and it was better to let them meet in person. “Will it take long?” “I want to introduce you to someone,” she explained. “Arthur has been helping me look for you and I think he would like to see the success of our search.” Caiden looked thoughtful and then he nodded. “I would like to meet him. He has provided assista
When Clara finally looked up from her phone and glanced back at the door, the person she had been waiting for had already left. She had missed a lot in the two minutes her attention had been diverted.A member of staff approached her table with a cup of coffee in her hand. Clara looked around in confusion. “I didn’t order anything,” she said. Clara was aware that she was the strangest customer in the coffeeshop and the staff were probably wondering when she was going to leave. She had been the first customer of the day and had only ordered two drinks in the past three hours. “One of our regulars came in a couple of minutes ago to pick up his online order. He saw you looking tired and bought an expresso for you,” the staff member explained with a smile. “He’s a nice person.” Clara blinked in surprise. She had never noticed any of the customers paying attention to her. The incident must have occurred when she had been occupied with her phone. She checked the name tag on the girl’s
The weeks quickly turned into months and soon an entire year had passed. Clara had taken a position at St. Clair that had enabled her to travel around the world just so she would have better chance of finding Caiden. She returned to the family mansion on the anniversary of her return from the demon realm after an unsuccessful trip to New York. Her actual work had gone well, she just hadn’t found any signs of Caiden in the city. There hadn’t been any traces of Caiden in any of the 10 countries she had travelled to over the past year. He didn’t have any presence on the internet either and Clara didn’t have any idea of how she could improve her search methods. Clara collapsed onto her bed and closed her eyes. She was physically and emotionally exhausted from her search. Despite everything, she wasn’t going to give up. She would sleep for a while and then she would look at other highly populated places to visit. “Clara Kennedy.” Clara’s eyes opened immediately at the sound of
Clara landed on the floor of her bedroom alone and fully aware of the gravity of the situation. She didn’t have Caiden at her side anymore. She needed to find him for that to happen. Clara stood up and realised that her legs were shaking. She had been feeling intimidated by the demon king and had refused to let him know. Now her nerves and lack of sleep had got to her. She took a deep breath to calm down. She had vowed that she would be able to find Caiden and she needed to start working on that.One person came to mind immediately. Arthur would be able to help her. She took her phone out of her pocket and called him. “...Hello?” Arthur asked cautiously when he picked up the call. Clara realised he had assumed that the phone call was someone else using her phone to inform him of her death. “It’s me, Clara,” she told him immediately. “Things have changed. Can we meet up? I have a lot to tell you.” “Of course,” he said. “I think we'll need to go somewhere that allows for private c
Caiden was lost for words as he watched the events that he had foreseen so many times play out in front of him. It was no longer a vision of the future; it was happening in reality. It was finally the end of Clara’s life. Her soul floated in front of him as her eyes slowly closed. Caiden made his decision in that moment. He grabbed hold of Clara’s soul with his hands and pushed it back into her. Despite being very light, her soul wouldn’t move until he exerted all of his power. Clara’s eyes snapped open when her soul returned to her. “...What’s going on?” she asked breathlessly. “I can’t take your soul,” Caiden admitted. “I want you to keep it.” He had no real idea what was going to happen now. The contract had not been fulfilled properly. He had completed his part of the contract and he had stopped Clara from fulfilling her part. There was no precedent to follow here. He was the first demon to refuse a soul. “What’s going to happen to both of us?” Clara questioned weakl
Clara knew that her grandfather was confused to hear her sentimental words. They rarely talked about their personal feelings. “I haven’t been the best grandfather,” James replied with a deep frown. “I brought Beryl here to be your mother figure as I had felt that it would prevent you from becoming like my daughter. It turned out to be the worst decision I have ever made.” Clara could not deny that James’ decision to date Beryl and bring her into the family had been lethal for Clarissa. She decided to focus on something else. “Thank you for rescuing me when I was a baby,” she said. “I’m sure Clara would also thank you for looking for her.” “You don’t need to thank me for that,” James replied. “I would also like to thank you for taking me in instead of leaving me to the care system,” Clara continued. She didn’t know much about the British care system, but it was likely similar to the American one she had lived through. She had been lucky to be adopted by a decent set of foster pa
“It was a good ride,” Arthur said with a wink. “You kept me guessing for so many years. I’m so pleased to finally know what was going on the entire time.” Clara relaxed. The hardest part was over now. “Is everything over now?” he asked a moment later. “You’ve brought all of your targets down apart from Xavier King.” “It is,” she confirmed. Arthur nodded and then he looked deep in thought. He coughed awkwardly before speaking again. “Where did Clarissa go if you are in her body?” he questioned. Clara had been expecting this question. Arthur was the only person who had a connection to Clarissa and knew that she was using her body. It would have been odd if he didn’t ask where Clarissa had gone. “...She died when she committed suicide four years ago,” she explained. “Her body was alive for a short time and I was put into it. I’m sorry to tell that she died all that time ago.” Arthur frowned and looked away. “I see... That’s sad,” he said. “It’s odd to hear that Clariss