Sebastian’s POVHis name doesn’t ring a bell, but his daughter’s does.The moment I realized it was the kidnapper speaking, I put the call on speaker and wrote down the name for Jim. They pulled out his whole life with lightning speed.But I didn’t need that anymore.Justin Roland was a talented actor, but being a nobody, he had never got any role deserving of his talent before I signed him four years ago. Struggling with tuition for college, he was going to drop out of high school to be a model. Upon hearing that, I offered him a movie under the condition that he would go through college. He did, with excellent grades.The girl, Sparrow Ryan was a high school classmate of his. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, so let’s just stick with the fact that Roland had a high school sweetheart who he married last year, and the Ryan girl did not like that.She jumped off a building on Roland’s wedding day.I normally don’t follow this detailedly into events like this happening in one of my
Sebastian’s POVJim makes an “okay” gesture at me at the same time. They traced Liam Ryan’s location and he is telling the truth. Jim raises a paper at me, on which it wrote [stall, planting sniper].“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I speak into my phone, trying to think of anything to say to stall without him noticing, “Do you want me to bring Justin Roland with me? You think he is the murderer, no?”He pauses, obviously taken by surprise at my suggestion.“That’s true...yeah, take that bastard,” He grumbles, “His wife, too!”“Okay, I’ll pick them up on my way over,” I assure him, walking out as I keep talking, “I didn’t know this had anything to do with his wife though?”“That bitch spared no effort mudding my sparrow!”“But--”“Stop stalling and shut the fuck up! Or I might just kill one, just to pass time!”He hangs up. I glance at Jim, and he nods: “You did good. I’ll come with. Brief me about this Justin person?”Honestly, there isn’t much to tell. Justin has been with his curr
Sebastian’s POVJim took the shotgun. Upon Justin’s words, he exchanges a glance with me in the rear mirror with an unexplainable look. That’s a look mixed with confusion, surprise, and condemnation.Condemn that the story I told him was obviously biased. I told him what I heard from Justin, and because I trusted Justin, I assumed that was the truth. I forgot how people can make mistakes, even if they meant well. I don’t think Justin lied to me, but I think he didn’t tell the whole story because...He didn’t know the whole truth.Justin looks me right in the eyes, and I see a lost kid who is crying for help with the desperation in the tears twirling in there.“Justin, tell me what happened,” Using a firm but gentle tone, I grab the back of his neck and knead, like how I did with my little brother, “You can tell me. I’m here for you.”“I don’t know...!” The moment he opens his mouth, he burst into a hysterical rant, “I’m so fucking tired! I don’t know what to do! Everything I do is hor
Sebastian’s POVWe didn’t show up in front of Liam Ryan right away.If his goal was to hurt me, then there is no telling what he would do when he sees me. If he pushes one of the girls off at the sight of me, then everything is lost. We stopped the car far away from the building, and approached by foot. I wanted to leave Justin in the car, but he insisted on sticking with us just in case his absence would rile up Liam Ryan.He is a good kid, when it comes to serious business. He is just lost...blind, to his own feelings.I still think that Sparrow Ryan’s death cast a shadow on his would-have-been-perfect marriage, but it could be my own personal feelings talking. I just see a lot of me and Ava in Justin. He and Annie wanted each other, and they shared a special past that can’t be replaced. The only difference is, I caved into my Sparrow when he married his Ava.If Sparrow Ryan didn’t brand their marriage with her death, then Justin wouldn’t be such a mess. Her desire for Justin turned
Scarlett's POVThe building’s structure is like a hotel. The elevator is designed in the center, with two lines of small rooms going around it. We were in one of the rooms on the inner lines, and the light we saw came through the room on the outer circle.I didn’t know this until Liam Ryan dragged both Ava and me out of the room, through a pitch-dark hallway, to a huge hole in the center of the building.The half-built elevator shaft is like the enormous mouth of a monster lurking in the dark, waiting for us to drop in.The back of our chairs are inches away from the edge. I dare not to move, turn, or even peek at the abyss behind me, and I’m already getting dizzy from acrophobia.I’m going to puke...“Scared?” Liam Ryan smirks at me, “You weren’t looking so pale when I pulled you up from right that hole behind you, with that pulley.”I turn my head slightly, only to see what I can only call a middle school student craft homework. It’s just a few wheels with a rope! I can’t believe th
Scarlett’s POVI don’t want to get into an argument now. I’m too scared to be so close to an abyss that my limbs are all freezing. Besides, I don’t want to lower myself to the level of sabotaging another just to survive, though she might deserve it.“Did you know all these?” Liam Ryan turns to me with a cruel smile.He is standing between Ava and me, his back facing the abyss. Just one stumble could lead to his definite death. And Sebastian is obviously thinking the same because Liam Ryan laughs coldly at Sebastian: “Any funny movement from you, or any bullets from anywhere, I will take these two chairs down with me, along with their passengers.”Dead silence.And the next second Sebastian taps on his ear as he tells Liam Ryan: “They won’t come close. Don’t do anything reckless.”“Ohh, I’m not reckless, I know what I’m doing,” Liam Ryan smirks evilly, “Sebastian Knight, do you? Do you know where your heart lies?”If he dared to say my name, I'm going to fucking haunt him when I turned
Scarlett’s POVI close my eyes in desperation.I really should have told him that I have his baby in me. He might still choose to sacrifice me, but he wouldn’t do it this decisively without even a pause.For a moment I really want to lash out like Liam Ryan did. I want to struggle and shout and curse and say to hell with everyone and drag everything to hell with me. In that moment I feel Liam Ryan. He didn’t even care about a 90 billion worth company. All he wanted was a solace of justice. He wanted only fair treatment.What did I do wrong in all this? Should I have not loved the kind boy who saved me all these years? Should I have left the city when Mom “needed” me? Should I have told him the truth five years ago?What did I do wrong?!I sort of put together Sparrow’s story in Liam Ryan’s rumble here and there. Basically, Justin mistook Annie for Sparrow, and just like how I found out about the truth when Justin proposed to his Ava, Sparrow stood up and told the truth.Except no one
Sebastian’s POVHe’s got me.How am I supposed to make such a choice?!It doesn’t matter who I name because he just wants to drag me into the hell he is living in -- whose sky and soil are made of guilt and regret of a loved one gone forever. Whichever of them I choose, I leave here today with the blood of one of them on my hands.And I can’t let either of them die, not on my watch.Jim is preparing the air cushion downstairs as we speak. His men surround us in the dark corners, and they can take Liam Ryan down any second. But not when he has his hands on their chairs. It’s too dangerous. One wrong move and it’s three lives over the edge.I came here, ready to give everything, but I didn’t think he was so far beyond reach that only human lives seemed to be able to feed the wrath in his chest.What do I do?“Name your choice, Sebastian Knight,” Liam Ryan curves his lips into a devil smirk, pressing the back of the chairs, leaving them sitting on only the two hind legs.Scar lets out a
Driving for 20 minutes in the car, Scar’s eyes are still cold from the outburst earlier. She has loved that man, and hated that man. He is just to painful to keep in her heart. She wants him out of her life, but he just keep coming and stir things up! “So heartless about him, hmm?” Silco breaks the silence tauntingly, “Sure you won’t regret it? I know how much you loved him before.” “That’s none of your business!” Scar snorts coldly, her tone not at all like the sugar baby she shows others.
“Scar!” Scar left when Sebastian was dragged down by the Fullers. By the time he catches up, she’s already by a pure black luxury car waiting right outside of the Fuller’s gate. Scar wasn’t going to wait for him until Sebastian hurried up a few steps and put his fingers between the half-closed door. If he has to be honest, he is surprised that Scar didn’t close the door on his fingers anyway. But Scar turns visibly impatient at his way of stopping her. “You just never settle for what’s yours at the time, do you?” Scar says coldly, standing behind the door when Sebastian feels like the door is the furthest distance in the world. A cold snort lands quietly in the car. Sebastian hears. On the back seat sits that masked man, Silco. That name upsets him. That man is using Scar, if he is not playing her also, he knows. He looked into that guy, and found nothing. Nothing! That’s not normal, and it's not at the level of resources he has. Maybe that man doesn’t exist on papers, meaning a
The phone call changes Scar back to the vengeful fallen angle. For now. “I’ll go after Johnny Vanderbilt for what he did on his part, thanks but that’s none of your business…” Scar curves her lips, her devil like grin has no warmth, sending chills down the spine of her enemies, “I hope your family really have no trouble with your lousy explanation on cheating, Mrs. Fuller. But for now, I want my mom’s necklace.” Anna shakes her head slowly with mercy in her eyes, as if Scar is just a misbehaving child who doesn’t know better. “What happened to you, Scarlett?” Anna insists on calling Scar the name she gave her, ignoring Scar’s words, “Are you seeing anyone for these episodes? It’s not a light thing. If you need help—” “Not from you!” Scar spats with cold anger, “Stop with the hypocritical act of yours! You just don’t know when to stop even after your true color is exposed, do you? I was wondering where Ava got that from.” “How dare you talk to my mom like that!?” Ava shrills, blow
For years Scar has been wondering where Ava got the lying and acting from without a hint. It was right under her nose. It was Anna Fuller, Ava’s mom who is so good at lying that Scar didn’t even notice anything wrong! Anna cost Scar’s mom, and Anna’s daughter took Scar’s baby! Like mother, like daughter! She won’t let them get away this time! She can’t unite with her mom and baby with peace before she gets justice from this pair of snakes! “You need to talk to your father, honey—” Anna Fuller reaches for Scar’s face like the perfect mom she paints herself to be. Sebastian pulls Scar back a step, blocking her with his body as he grunts warningly: “Anna, stop it.” She turned on the manipulating machine again. But Scar heard Anna already. Letting out a cold snort, Scar murmurs slowly: “My father…” The laughter is full of bitterness, anger, hatred and disappointment, everything but what should associated with that word. “Scar…” Sebastian tries to pull her close, but Scar remains wh
“Gabriel,” Scar suddenly turns to the big dumb bear, “There was a time when you bullied me at school and were caught by the teacher. When my teacher asked you to give her mom’s number, you said the wrong number before you quickly changed it. Except it wasn’t a ‘wrong’ number, was it? It was the number you were told to memorize when you were a kid before it was changed to her current one. Why did she use this phone number for twenty years without any trouble when you had to memorize two?” Gabriel opens his mouth like a big mole who digs through its ceiling to the ground by accident. “Mom…?” Gabriel stammers, looking at Anna like a lost boy. He doesn’t know how he could not fall into Scar’s trap. There is no way because it’s not a trap. It’s an endless dark hole in his mom’s past that as much as she’s trying, she’s failing to cover up. “That’s too stretched, don’t you think?” Ava struggles, “Just because of a name and a random mistake—” “Silco pulled the info of the owner who owned
“Oh my poor Scarlett…” Anna Fuller grips her chest with a hand as if her heart pains, her soulful eyes filled with tears glimmering, “You had a few rough years, I know…I wanted to look for you but…” But Jack didn’t let me? But Ava would be heartbroken? Anna said none of those words, but knowing her too well, Scar knew what the indication was. Scar tilts her head, as if seeing Anna for the very first time in her life. In some way, yes. That’s how Anna Fuller talks. Painting herself as the most pitiful person in the world even when you are the real victim, at the same time indicating that someone else is at fault, anyone but her. She might have never told Scar to hate Jack Fuller, but every time when she “comforts” Scar, she paints another layer of hatred over Scar. Like when Jack Fuller ignores Scar, instead of sitting both of them down and talk it out like a proper mom should, Anna would secretly go to Scar when no one else is around, and say things like, “It’s okay, baby, you st
Looking at Gabriel’s steaming head, Scar giggles, waving her hand indifferently. “I came with big money behind me this time, and that’s why your fox of a father and snake of a sister are treating me with a basic manner. They know they can’t push me around but they are not stopping you from pissing me off because they want to see what I can do about your disrespect. Do you know what that means?” “Bullshit!” Gabriel grunts, but he can’t help but glance in his father and sister’s direction either. “I’ll tell you what I will do to you,” Scar stops spinning her phone, putting it in her purse as she stands up, her look bored and cruel, “That little precious company of yours that’s misleading you into thinking that you are not pure valueless trash? It’s going down in exactly three days. I know it doesn’t exactly hurt them,” She nods in Jack Fuller and Ava’s direction, “I mean, how could it when they never cared about you?” “You—” Gabriel wants to shout, but Scar cuts him off— “BUT, I’m
Scar was already at the Fullers when Sebastian made it. The last time Sebastian was with her in Jack Fuller’s living room was five years ago now, yet he feels like it was only yesterday. It might have something to do with the fact that he barely lived a day since. Just surviving. Sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed elegantly, Scar swings her foot lightly with an indifferent look. She is in a business set: white, tight blouse and straight short skirt. A pair of high heels, of course indicating one thing: She’s here for serious business. Just not the kind Jack Fuller looks forward to. That much is obvious because the owner of the living room sits right across Scar with every line of the muscle on his face stretched tight, as if facing a cannibal monster. He is scared, and he ought to be. Though Scar wouldn’t claim it, she’s still a Vanderbilt. Damian has all but thrown everything the Fuller had into fire in the past five years. Ava and her dad did little to improve Z-House’s
“Please, can you come over?” It’s Ava again. Sebastian listens to her sobbing calmly, his face so cold that his new secretary subconsciously holds her breath as she pauses her morning brief for the call from who she was told to be the boss’s wife. Didn’t he give his wife a million-dollar wedding? As a gossip, Emma is sure that she saw the wedding of her new boss on the front page somewhere. Even after years, she still remembers the bright smile of the bride in the newspaper. That’s why she was so excited when she got the offer— A genuine billionaire who spoils his wife to such? He must be a gentleman in person. He is. He is professional in work, but also kind to the staff. He is the definition of a gentleman… Except to his wife. Emma glances at Sebastian again, her heart bumping fast both for excitement AND nervousness. Sure, she has a crush on him. But who doesn’t? Money. Look. HOT body. He has got it all. But when he talks to his wife, he has this dark aura around him as if h