Chapter Seven

"How long has it been Fiona ?" Audrey immediately hugged Fiona who walked into the entrance of the luxurious hotel, it wasn't as Luxurious as a few of the hotels the Ekalot's owned.

Fiona was too startled to hug Audrey back, Audrey was gently squeezing her, they both soon disembark from the hug.

Their eyes met, one filled with tension and the other was almost emotionless.

"Audrey are you alright ?" Fiona reached out unsure of what to do with her hands, Audrey immediately backs up some spaces, it was actually a violent jerk that was displayed.

"Don't touch me." A tiny whisper escapes Audrey's lips, Fiona had no clue what was going on, but looking at Audrey's facial expression she looked tired, exhausted, her eyes were red, her skin was pale and her hair was dull.

Fiona stood quietly trying to figure out why a bride was look like a ghost a month to her wedding, she's supposed to looked stressed but it was an horrifying sight.

"I'm sorry.." Audrey's words broke Fiona out of her trance. "Preparation for the wedding is quite hectic, please pardon me Fiona, where is Delilah ?" Fiona asks her eyes stuck at the entrance of the hotel building.

"I didn't know you invited her too." Fiona hissed mostly because Delilah was in possession of her cell phone. "Well I didn't want anything to do with a wedding, she said if this is what I want that I should go for it and shouldn't turn back." Audrey chuckled lightly.

Fiona rolled her eyes and coughs a sigh. "I'm glad you invited me Audrey, I hope we can amend everything and go back to what we were."

Audrey smirks and nods. "Definitely." Her gaze leaves Fiona and lands on Theodore who was on the phone.

"You brought a date ?" Audrey asks arching a brow. Fiona turns to see Theodore and glares at him and micmicks a grossed out expression.

"What's with the look ?" Theodore archs a brow, he put his phone away signifying that he was done with his call.

"This is Theodore my sister's bodyguard and Dimitri's rival, he's always bitter because Delilah chose Dimitri over his broke ass." Fiona mocks while Theodore grins nefariously. Theodore walks up closer to the both of them.

"Good evening, Miss Audrey don't pay attention to her introduction, I'm a private detective, Delilah just happens to find me useful especially when it comes to this brat.." Theodore flashes a warm smile which slowly disappears when he finally notices Audrey's facial expression.

Audrey chuckles at the two dynamic, she steals a glance from the two seeing how irritated they were next to each other.

"You two must be very close." Audrey commented, both of them even looked more disgusted.

"We were stuck together on our way here, I'm already sick of him already.." Fiona laments recalling her trip with Theodore.

"Just be grateful I didn't drop you off and abandon you in the middle of no where you brat.." Theodore snarled quietly. "Well at least I wouldn't have spent more than eight hours looking at your stupid face." Fiona yells.

"Be glad you got a chance for a new face, aren't you tired of looking at Dimitri's and sucking his balls as we.." a slap echoed in the room, Fiona's face was red with embarrassment. "You imbecile." She yelled walking away briskly before causing a scene that could get her in trouble.

Two weeks passed, Fiona was going around trying to boost her reputation in her sister's favor, she's overreacted multiple times but Theodore always seem to bring up her oath to Delilah.

That doesn't bother Fiona, what bothers her is Audrey's fiance, he's never around even for his own wedding preparations, Audrey barely talks about him unless she's asked about him, isn't a bride supposed to be talking about her fiance non stop and brag about how amazing he was to her.

And she doesn't know anything about him except he's getting married to Audrey and his family has money, that's why they were able to book an hotel for a whole month.

Another thing that bothered Fiona was Audrey, she was looking dull and pale but always smiling, her eyes looked like she was always crying, they were swollen and red.

A new thing that she noticed was the blade marks on her wrist, some were old while some were recent.

Which brought Audrey to the conclusion that she was,

"Abused." Fiona says to Theodore who looks pissed he drove all the way down to the hotel to hear her say that. "Is that why you called me, this was the fucking emergency?" Theodore sizes Fiona up in annoyance.

"You're a cop aren't you ?" Fiona whined. "I'm a private investigator for your information." Theodore corrected.

"Big difference, you still work for the law.." Delilah says.

"Are you dumb ?" Theodore questions. "Look, Audrey used to be my best friend, she used to be happier than this, now she looks unhappy, don't tell me I'm the only one that notices how miserable she looks.." Fiona says.

"Why do you care, aren't you interested in boosting your reputation ? That's why you're here in the first place.." Theodore remind her about her actual goal. "It's none of your business if she's depressed you're here to support your ex friend, don't dig deeper than you can handle." Theodore's warns.

"I don't really care what happens to Audrey, I can never really be friends with her after the damage I caused. I had a chance to prove my worth as her friend and I fucked it up and I have to live knowing the pain I caused her, if she's being abused I can't let her marry that monster." Fiona says, Theodore lips widens to a smirk, he shoved his hands down his pockets and walked up to her, reducing the gap that divided them.

"Wasn't Dimitri enough for you ?" Theodore says which throws Fiona into a quick pandemonium.

"Excuse me ?" Fiona echoes

"Don't act dumb, everyone knows you've slept with well except for Delilah of course, it's just a rumor though." Theodore snickered while Fiona tried to hold back her anger.

"It was debunked..."

"When you have money, of course it would be debunked you paid a lot of money to buy your secret and bend the media at your mercy, forgetting the kind of people that controls the media." Theodore says  leaning to Fiona's ear.

"Should I show you the tape you desperately tried to hide from your sister.."

Fiona's body went cold on the mention of those words, she could not say another word, neither could she move. Theodore withdrew from her advertising a wicked grin.

"That's what I thought.."

The tension between the two was unmatched, Fiona's shock was slowly returning to anger while Theodore remained umbothered.

A knock came on the door, immediately Audrey walks in, both Theodore and Fiona's expression changed, both of them held a shock expression.

Audrey was wearing a white top and Jeans, her hair looked a bit shiny, her eyes weren't that swollen and her complexion was a bit lighter.

"Fiona, I'm sorry to disturb anything that was happening but would you love to try out my wedding dress with me this evening." Audrey says while Fiona tried to find words

"Of course." Fiona says. "She'll be right with you this evening, I want to talk to her so please leave." Theodore says, Audrey nods and leaves the two of them alone again.

"The guilt you're holding do away with it, you'll end up irrelevant so what's the point of holding on to it now." Theodore says and leaves Fiona confused. "What did he mean by irrelevant?" She mutters to herself still realization hit her that she had a dateplan with Audrey.

                    •••••••••

Fiona met Audrey met in her room, the room was neatly dress it didn't give any vibes that anyone was being abused.

Something was off to Fiona, there wasn't one single picture of Audrey and her supposed Fiance, before Dimitri and Delilah got married they both had a couple of pictures framed.

Audrey was in changing while Fiona sought to investigate more, she looked around more until she bumped into some receipts.

"What's that?" Audrey asked.

"I just bumped into something, no need." Fiona went quiet after glancing on a receipt that that the Ekalot's name on it. Her eyes widened when she saw her the receipt was related to the hotel.

Someone using the Ekalot name booked the hotel not Audrey's fiance. "This doesn't make sense.." Fiona whispered to herself, Audrey shows up In a wedding dress.

"What are you doing with that receipt ?" Audrey asks almost immediately focusing her gaze on Fiona.

"Who actually booked this hotel ?" Fiona asks showing Audrey the receipt.

"You already know the answer to that don't you." Audrey demeanor immediately changed, it couldn't be easily mustered.

"I want to know how you managed to pull this kind of fraud and get away with it." Fiona says as Audrey chuckles. "I didn't defraud anybody or use any scam, I was actually lended the money." Audrey says.

There were only two people who had access to the Ekalot's finances, Delilah and Dimitri.

"Who lend it to you ?" Fiona half yells. "Is that what you're actually interested in ? You're not going to ask me about my made up fiance ? You don't want to know why you're even here." Audrey says slowly breaking into a scream.

"I knew the wedding was a fraud, I just had my doubts, what kind of wedding has the bride looking like a ghost, at first I thought you were being abused but actually you were cutting yourself." Fiona says wondering why she's actually here.

"You're not stupid afterall, you actually have common sense, where was that when Charlie died." Audrey screams to the point tears were scrolling down her cheeks.

Fiona went silent and didn't say another word after.

"I was stupid, I was 16." Fiona screeches so loud her vocal cords pleads for silence.

"You're now 28, Charlie would have been 30 if you didn't screw up that night, my brother would still be alive Fiona and if two were still in love, you both would have been married by now." Audrey says sobbing.

"Audrey I'm sorry.."

"Sorry won't bring Charlie back, you claimed to have loved him but that didn't stop you from tossing your body just after a few weeks he died, you didn't even attend his funeral, he even died telling you he loved you."

"What do you want me to do, I've said sorry to you a million times, I sponsored his funeral, I got you every scholarship my father offered to you, you always blamed me and you ended this friendship what did you want me to do when you didn't forgive me ? I should keep begging when you had no interest in forgiving me."

"I loved Charlie too." Fiona adds.

"Then why did you let him die ?"

"I tried, I screamed and told him to hold on till I got help, I sustained serious injuries too. You were barely scratched and you already passed out if you weren't weak maybe you could have saved Charlie, if you Loved Charlie you wouldn't have fainted after the accident."

"I didn't have any control of the situation."

"Exactly, but me and you are both different at least I tried, you didn't even try, you are the reason why Charlie is dead."

Audrey breathes heavily pulling out a mini knife from underneath her dress.

"Just do this for me Fiona, die and meet Charlie on the other side." Audrey lunged at Fiona, Fiona dodges about to get away but Audrey gets hold of her dark brown hair and yanks her toward her grasps, she trapped her with a hug, the two of them struggled while screaming.

"Don't bother screaming, no one will come for you.." Audrey chuckles, slowly pressing the edge of the knife against Fiona's neck

"I didn't mean for Charlie to die, I know you won't forgive me for his death but I tried my best.." Fiona sobbed immediately she elbowed Audrey who back sway a bit.

She picked up a vase and smashed it against Audrey's head, for a final blow she kicked her down, Audrey wasn't with her knife anymore which gave Fiona an advantage to throw in another hard kick.

Fiona immediately dials room service, she didn't notice Audrey who slowly crawled to reach to the knife.

"Hello, please call the police I'm being." Fiona went silent, her eyes went to Audrey who stabbed every part of her torso mercilessly until she drops the knife immediately coughing blood.

"The plan was to have you killed, they did say I would get killed if I ventured down this part, again you get to live while you watch someone die.." Audrey chuckles, a smirk appears on Fiona's face.

"At least I didn't kill you Audrey, so this time forget getting my sympathy." Fiona says heading towards the door, she stopped without sparing her Audrey a glance.

"Before you die, who is they ? Who planned to have me killed ?" Fiona asks but got nothing but a cold face from Audrey.

She was already dead.

She walks up to Audrey and helps her shuts her eyes, she gets up then turns to see Theodore on the other side of the room.