Chapter 139
1628words
"You sound like you're threatening me, uncle. Has anyone ever told you how much I hate to be threatened?" I asked in a very low voice. From the moment the man got out of jail. He's done nothing but make infinitesimal demands. He had done nothing but make me feel like if I didn't meet those demands I was going to hate myself for it. Or I was going to ruin my relationship with Paris. Or he would make my life miserable. The list went on. There was always something so that I would always find myself, bending over backward to do his bidding. But right there at that moment, something snapped inside of me, and I decided that I had had my last bit of enough.
"And what if I am?" he asked, eying me coldly and I sighed,
"Then we don't have a deal," I said and took a step backward,
"What did you say, lass?" he asked, sounding somewhat angry, and I shrugged, as though I was bored of this entire conversation. With my uncle, a non-committed behavior always did the trick.
It would do it now.
"I had feared that being in this big house would cloud your judgment more than a little bit and have you acted the fool. But I didn't know you would be willing to trade in your own life."
Again with the threats, I thought and blew out a cleansing breath,
"you want to kill me so bad, uncle? Then why don't you just go ahead and do it? Because the way I see it, you aren't going to let me go. Never. Today you want thirty million dollars, and you claim you are going to disappear once you get your hands on it. But what happens when it finishes? Because the thing I know about free money is that sometimes, it's so easily squandered, simply because the squanderer has no real knowledge about how it actually came about. So say this one actually finishes, what's the guarantee you won't come back to me?" I asked and a nasty grin spread across his face,
"Well, that's the thing gilrie, you have no real guarantee."
"and there lies the actual problem, uncle. I refuse to live in such a way. You won't keep me in constant unrest. So you can either kill me right here, and right now, or go straight to hell. Because neither you nor your sons are ever collecting one dime from me ever again. Never again."
He slowly began to nod, and something in the way he was behaving right then told me that my words had clearly not sunk in yet. This man was really the bane of my existence,
"I was willing to play this game as clean as I could manage."
"funny. Because I know you to be only so good at filth." I spat, suddenly very angry, but had to remind myself to relax. To exhibit any sign of emotions with my uncle was like bleeding in the presence of a shark. He would all but eat you up if given the chance.
"filth is exactly what you will be getting from me, from this place on, seeing as you don't actually care about my less callous approaches," he said, and dug his hands in his pocket looking very innocent. Right then, he simply looked like a man, like an uncle having a civilized conversation with his niece. But I knew, he was anything but,
"I wonder what Paris would actually think of you when I tell him about a couple of misdeeds you've done a while back, with my all so gracious help, of course. Gracious, because I don't think you ever had to pay me for any of those deeds. I helped you so liberally because I wanted to see you happy. But I suppose this is my thanks in return."
Oh, how low this man could go…
"what the hell are you jabbering and yapping about?" I asked, sneering at him,
"I don’t yap, Kate. I spit facts. But perhaps you've forgotten our endless adventures and need a little help remembering. I don't mind reminding you to be honest. You know how much I love helping you. He said kindly and I drew my brows together and looked at him with scorn,
"can't you just leave me alone?" I asked, narrowing my brows at him,
"That is exactly what I was trying to do. I was trying to leave you the hell alone. But it seems like you like having me around. It would explain the whole point of not wanting to pay me off. I see you, sweet niece of mine. Don't ever for once think that I don't." he said and smiled happily to himself. I, on the other hand, wanted to watch him whimper in pain.
"go to hell," I said and began to turn around. I was going back to the party, because apparently, coming out here to speak to this man was nothing but an actual waste of my precious time.
"they might be dead, Kate. But you and I both know what happened. You and I will always know what happened." he said quietly, and I froze, slowly turned to face him, and saw a smirk playing on his face,
"What the hell are you saying to me?"
"Do you need me to spell out the details? You never know who might be listening. It's best to be careful, don't you think?"
"I despise you," I said angrily. Sharks and bleeding be damned. He laughed, my uncle actually laughed,
"Do you really think that If anything happened to me, you would be free?" I asked, barely holding on to my uneven temper,
"throw all that at a man who actually cares. Who actually has something worth living for? Not me, Kate. Because ratting you out would be the last straw. Should I get to that point, then it means that I could hardly care less if you dragged me down with you or not. All is well with me, as long as you actually fall down."
PARIS's POV
I was toying with her, using all of the strings I could, just to keep her close, and if the fact that using Jean got to her, affected me just a little but, I did my best to keep that to myself and played the game right.
I rushed to her and pinned her against the wall before she could open the door and leave, and watched as her chest rose and fell, and when alas I looked at her face, she looked entirely livid.
"but…are you entirely out of your mind?" she asked, her breath against my cheek a caress, and I closed my eyes against it,
"How long are you going to punish me, Em?"
"Punish you? Paris, I already told you I didn't show up tonight because of you. What else do you actually want from me?"
"you!" he yelled, "I want you! I want every bit of you. Your body, your soul, your heart. Everything." I said and pressed a chaste kiss against her neck, and felt her shiver,
"You can never know what it actually does to me, knowing that I have any kind of hold over you. Knowing that I can still make your body melt like butter under me."
"don't do this," she said and struggled for release,
"Does Jean make you feel everything I make you feel right now?"
"How dare you?" she said weakly, "how dare you threaten me with his name, then go on to try to make comparisons? Let go of me, Paris," she said more firmly, and I saw the tears gathered in her eyes.
I didn't want to take responsibility. But something told me that I had no choice. It was one thing to make Ember angry. I did that all of the time, and sometimes it actually gave me some kind of satisfaction.
But making her cry made me feel like some kind of monster, it made me feel like the worst kind of heathen. I could forget trying to kiss her if she angrily told me to let her go.
But not when she had tears in her eyes. Not when I finally felt like the villain,
"But Ember, why the hell are you crying?" I asked in frustration as I let her go, but didn't give room for her to pass through."
"but you infuriate me." she said slowly as she dabbed at her tears, "because every time I tell myself I've moved on from you. That you mean nothing, then you go ahead and make me question myself. You make me doubt myself. Because what business have I, being trapped within your hands in a bathroom?"
"I trapped you in here," I said firmly and she pressed her lips and shook her head,
"And until you called Jean's name, I had barely put up a fight." she said and slapped a hand over her face, "what the hell am I doing?"
"fighting what both your heart and body want," I said simply and she glared at me. I was both unfazed and gladdened by it. I would much rather have angry Ember than tearful Ember.
"I don't want you, Paris. But I do want you…" she said and tried to push me aside, "to get the hell out my way, so I can do the things I came here to do.
I gave way for her to go through and this time didn’t try to chase her or hold her down. If I really wanted Ember back, then I was going to have to play my cards right.
Otherwise, I was bound to lose her forever.
