Greg then sat back in front of Eva. He smiled and asked, “I guess you know to whom the other corpse belongs to?”
Eva looked confused, “No… the face was covered with worms…”
Greg looked intensely in her eyes, “Can’t you read in my mind darling?”
Eva was baffled. She then stared at Greg when suddenly she remembered that she saw a golden bracelet around the corpse’s wrist. At that time, she was so petrified that she did not realise that she knew the identity of that person’s corpse, but now, she realised that it was the common friendship bracelet that she had along with Athena. Eva got up abruptly and looked at Greg out of fear – her whole body was running cold.
Greg understood that Eva had just read his mind. He then laughed sarcastically and said, “Come on Eva, you should be grateful to me for getting rid of this fake friend who was taking advantage of your friendship. Indeed, she was the one who gave me the idea of getting married to you so that I could enjoy your wealth. Of course, she thought that I was going to stay with her but come on. The worst part is that she was becoming a huge problem for me – her and her baby… I mean our baby... anyway. The world is now devoid of her pathetic existence.”
Even if Athena had betrayed her, Eva was far from wishing her death.
Witnessing Greg’s inhumanity, Eva asked, “And what about me?”
“You? Oh, darling, you would have been a perfect wife, but your curiosity has reached too far now… So, I cannot take the risk freeing you while knowing that you know all this about me,” Greg replied.
Greg seized the dagger which was lying on the floor and approached Eva slowly. Eva could feel that Greg’s mind was dark and inhumane that he would not have pity for her. She stepped back and closed her eyes.
“Don’t close your eyes. Let me contemplate them. Let me see the terror seizing them,” Greg said.
“No...”
Eva’s disobedience got Greg angry. He shouted, “I said open your eyes!”
In a swift, Eva opened her eyes while breathing heavily.
“Good girl. Your eyes remind me of an old friend – a gorgeous one,” Greg commented.
Hesitantly, Eva asked, “Who?”
“Lana,” Greg said with a mysterious smirk.
Eva then remembered Athena talking about a young woman called Lana – the one whose little brothers found her disjoined body. Eva goggled at Greg and her breath nearly ceased as she realised that the psychopathic killer was Greg, her lovely fiancé.
“It’s you,” Eva said with a shaking voice.
“Me?”
“You are her murderer... it’s you who inflicted such an inhumane death on her,” Eva said with her saliva blocked in her throat.
“Yeah,” Greg said.
“Why?”
Greg smirked and said, “She was becoming a problem and I always make sure that my life is obstacle-free."
“What has she done?”
“Don’t really know how, but that girl has learned about my affair with your dear best friend. After our engagement, she came to my house and threatened to tell you everything. So, I had to get rid of her,” Greg explained.
Eva felt so sorry for that poor girl who dared to deal with the devil (Greg). She then said, “But you didn’t have to solve your problem in such a horrible way... you mutilated her to death. This is monstrous...”
“Kill her with a bullet and my problem is solved. Mutilate her to death and savour the satisfaction. It’s a matter of perception,” Greg stated.
“You’re a psycho,” Eva replicated.
“Shut up!!”
Angered, Greg took the dagger and point it towards Eva. Eva stepped backwards until she collided with the wall. There was no escape. She closed her eyes and pleaded God to wake her up from this nightmare.
Despite that, some seconds have elapsed – nothing happened. Eva then heard that something had fallen on the floor next to the feet. As she opened her eyes, she saw Greg unconscious on the floor. Eva immediately checked his pulse. Greg was still alive, but Eva could not understand what had happened to Greg.
However, Eva finally took a deep breath and showed a sign of relief. She then looked for the car keys in Greg’s pockets. As Eva got up from the floor with the keys in her hand, she saw that Greg was gaining consciousness. So, she immediately ran out, got into the car and drove away.
∞∞∞
Chapter 11
Like father, Like Son
As Eva got home, she immediately ran to her father while crying and shuddering like a leaf. There are two kinds of death in this world: one is the physical one – the one everyone wants to run away from; the other one is the one which makes you plead for the physical death. Eva had just experimented a near-death, but she had to realise that her soul was already dead.
Mr Robert was totally bewildered when he saw the pathetic condition of her daughter who ran in brusquely, “Hey my baby! What happened? Why are you crying?”
Mr Robert ran to her while seizing her by the arms to prevent her from tumbling due to her weak gait.
“I will tell you everything, but please right now we should go away from here… I’m sure it’s the first place he will come to look for me… My life is in danger and yours too,” Eva said, still in tears.
“Wait! What are you talking about? Who? Who is looking for you?”
Eva then explained to his dad the situation while crying, “Greg, he wants to kill me! He has already killed Athena and now I’ll be the next victim! He is a cold-blooded murderer! We had been so wrong about him! Please dad, no more questions… We must go away quickly! Call for the security!”
Mr Robert then slowly removed his arms around her daughter’s neck and stepped back. He stared at her with an uncanny look. Eva looked at him and thought that his father was not believing her.
Eva then grabbed her father's hand and exclaimed, "Please dad, you have to believe me! I'm not mad, I promise!"
Mr Robert slightly pushed her. With her startling eyes, Eva looked at his dad – quite doubtful. She then heard the doors being violently closed behind her. At that moment she understood that she was not alone with her father. As Eva turned back, she saw three men dressed in dark clothes, each having a sword.
Terrified, Eva mustered her courage and said, “I know that it’s Greg who sent you here, but I plead you to let my father go… He is innocent… Please.”
One of the men then said, “What should we do about her, Sir?”
Eva was confused, she turned back to see the person to whom the man was talking to, but the only person who was behind her was her father, Mr Robert.
Her father then smiled and said, “Greg asked me to make you sure that you don’t leave from here.”
Perplexed, Eva told her father, “Dad… I don’t know what Greg has told you, but please trust me…He has been lying to all of us since the beginning… Please, believe me, dad. He is a psychopathic killer!"
“Stop crying and sit down silently. And please Eva, I don’t want to hear your voice till Greg arrives.”
“Eva? Why are you calling me so? And why don’t you believe me?”
“Eva is your name, right?”
“Yes, but you have never called me by my name… What’s happening? I am your daughter… Can you please believe me at least?”
"Who said that I was your father?"
"What are saying? Greg must have brainwashed you... Dad, please don't do this to me," Eva said.
“Do you think that if you were really my daughter, I would have let you get engaged to Greg?”
“What? What are you talking about dad? Please stop this nonsense, you are my father and you must believe me when I’m saying that Greg is dangerous," Eva kept repeating.
“Sorry to tell you that, but I am not your father," Mr Robert boldly said.
Eva nearly fainted at this bold statement. She thought that she was becoming insane. However, she could feel that Mr Robert was not lying. It was just the truth. Eva did not know what to think about �
�� everything was shattered. First, her best friend, then her perfect betrothed and now her lovely father who is not even her real father.
"No, it's impossible. If it was so, I would have sensed something bizarre about him earlier," Eva thought. Then, she remembered that every time that she was with Mr Robert, the necklace was not around her neck, just as when she was with Greg at the Maldives.
Still, Eva did want to believe this.
"You're lying," Eva said as she collapsed on the sofa.
Mr Robert then replied, “If you were my daughter, I would not let you get engaged to your own brother. I'm not lenient towards incest. Come on.”
“Wait – do you mean that Greg is….”
“My son? Yes, he is my one and only son,” Mr Robert said while serving himself a glass of lemonade.
"No! You're lying! Greg is the son of Mr Gregor Salinger!" Eva then added, "He cannot be your son." Even if Eva struggled to convince herself that Mr Robert was lying, she could feel that it was actually just a bitter truth that she was not ready to face.
At this very second, Eva felt disgusted by her own little seemingly perfect life – everything was just a masquerade. She felt as if she has been manipulated for years while thinking that she was in control of everything (a thing which has just been proven to be wrong). Eva closed her eyes. She thought that once she would open her eyes, she would find herself lying in her bed after such a devastating nightmare. However, once again she was proven wrong, the truth was bitter, but she had no other options than swallowing it with courage. Eva sat on the couch, looked around and then firmly fixed at Mr Robert – trying to identify the slight proof on his face that he was just playing a bad prank, but in vain.
Mr Robert then added with a wicked smile, “Shocked?”
“It’s impossible! I remember you were here during my first steps….You were here before mum died; you have always been here; you have always been my father… I am not able to believe this nonsense,” Eva said with pauses while enrolling her childhood memories that were engraved in her mind.
“It’s time to shed light on the matter I suppose. I mean it’s time for you to know the truth.”
As the word “truth” came out from the mouth of Mr Robert, Eva felt deep angst inside her heart. She could feel that what was going to be revealed to her would be the worst truth ever that she would have preferred to cherish the lie. In the eyes of Mr Robert, Eva could see darkness finding its home. At that right moment, she understood that she had never known the real face of Mr Robert despite all the years spent together. Eva took a deep breath as if she was making sure that she had enough oxygen to prevent her from suffocating upon the terrible truth that was to be revealed.
"If what was supposed to be the truth is not the truth – what is the truth then?"
Mr Robert then looked at her firmly and replied, “I know that what I am going to tell you is not only going to shock you, but it will also hurt you. However, you better not move from this couch, else… You know these men behind you can be very friendly sometimes. I mean cruelly friendly! Ha-ha!”
Eva remained speechless, she was torn between her curiosity and her fear.
After some seconds of deep silence, Mr Robert took a seat on the couch in front of Eva with his right foot resting on the other one. He then let out a sardonic smile before finishing his lemonade. “Your mother was so beautiful – just like you with your doe eyes. You know, she was that kind of a lethal combination of beauty with brains. She built an empire by twenty-two years old only and her name was making the headlines. I mean how is that possible for a man not to fall for her?” He then continued, “Anyway, I saw her on a magazine, I knew that she would be my perfect bank. You know, I was poor to the bones, not even a single penny in the socks. I borrowed some money from a friend and started to gamble. Luck smiled to me and I won at the lottery – just a mere $2000, but it was enough for me to execute my strategic plan. Anyway, after some struggles, I was finally able to present myself as a rich chap, in order to appear as being of the same social status as Rachel. It was a long way until I was finally able to marry her. Although she was already married to some other guy, I was able to take care of this trivial matter. So, we got married, but she was already pregnant. The father was her late husband, not me.”
“So, you mean that my real father is no more?”
“Yes. He was an obstacle to my plan. So, I had to get rid of him," Mr Robert said before ending into a sarcastic laugh.
Eva’s heart nearly stopped to beat at these words harshly said by Mr Robert. With a croaking voice, Eva asked, "How can you be you inhumane?"
"Oh, come on Eva. With the status that you hold in this world, you were supposed to know that no one survives without being smart enough," Mr Robert said.
"Smart? Do you think that killing someone innocent makes you smart? You are totally deranged!"
"Shut up!"
Eva blenched and then pulled herself together. She could sense the anger of Mr Robert roaming all around the room. Eva could feel that the worst was yet to come. She could read in Mr Robert's mind that there was something much more hurtful coming soon. Eva could see the blood of innocents impregnated in the dark mind of Mr Robert. She then asked, "What about my mom?"
"Your mom? You already know that she died due to the burglary which has gone wrong, and the criminal is already behind bars," Mr Robert replied.
This was told to Eva for years and she had always believed it until now. Even if Mr Robert didn't tell the truth, his mind was conveying the truth to Eva. She could hear the voice of her mother shouting for help – pleading Mr Robert to spare her life. Eva broke into tears as she could the pain that was inflicted on her mother.
This unbearable truth was the worst revelation to Eva till now. Sobbing, Eva exclaimed, "You are lying! I can hear her pleading you to let her go! Her innocence is haunting you today, but you don't want to admit it!"
"So, Greg was right? You are able to read minds?
"I want to hear the truth through your mouth," Eva replied.
“Oh, my dear Rachel… My lovely wife. I killed her too. I was hesitating at first, but I had to make sure not to deviate from my initial aim. Guess who inherited from her fortune?”
Eva could feel her life leaving her. A thunder of torment hit her. The greed of Mr Robert had taken the life of her mother. At that same moment, Eva understood that by marrying Greg, both the father and the son would have been able to enjoy the rest of the fortune that she has inherited from her mother.
"Scoundrel!! Now there's no doubt that you are the father of Greg! You are both greedy monsters who do not hesitate to take the life of innocents just to achieve your aims!" Eva exclaimed.
"Shut up!"
Eva flinched at the ferocity in his voice.
Mr Robert's phone rang. He made his way to another room before answering the call. After some minutes of conversing, Mr Robert came back and said, "Your betrothed will be here soon, my darling."
Eva was afeard – she knew that she was not going to get out of this mansion alive.
∞∞∞
Chapter 12
Michael
The sound of Greg’s black Ferrari could be heard metres away. Eva’s heart was racing as if it was on the verge of exploding like a time bomb. She knew that Greg was not going to spare her life – not even for her bewitching gleaming eyes as he used to say. However, after all these darkest revelations, death seems like a gentleman who wants to give her solace – the perfect escape from her miserable life. Eva felt like her life was a movie script which was brought to life in a harsh manner.
The door opened abruptly. Eva turned back knowing in advance that it was Greg, her perfect betrothed who was now her to-be-murderer. A deluge of trepidation took over her. Eva was barely able to breathe as she could smell the odour of the cemetery waiting for her. With a steady gait, Greg approached himself to the couch. Anger and inhumanity were a lethal combination running in Greg’s blood. Rebecca’s guilt is irreparable. That gir
l was the genesis of Greg’s surly side. Greg seized Eva’s arm and pulled her upwards from the couch. Eva groaned as Greg exerted a tight pressure on her arm. The dastardly aura wielded by Greg was enough to give her goose bumps.
Greg hold her even more tightly and said in an angered tone, “Do you know what will happen to you now? You – naughty girl, you will be severely punished.”
Eva did not rebuke. At this right moment, she realised that she had nothing to lose anymore – her mother is no more, her best friend was her Judas Iscariot, her father is not her father and her fiancé is the monster in front of her. As Eva remained silent, Greg pushed her back to the couch.
Mr Robert then approached Greg and hugged him, "Oh my son!"
As Mr Robert saw a bruise on Greg's arm, he asked, "Are you okay, Michael?"
"Yes, don't worry dad," Greg replied.
As Eva heard Mr Robert addressing Greg as Michael, she was quite perplexed. "Michael?"
"That's my real name, baby," Greg replied.
"How is that possible?"
Mr Robert then replied, "You are able to read minds, yet you have not yet understood this?"
Eva was puzzled, "What do you mean?"
"Greg Salinger is the son of Mrs Georgina and Mr Greogor Salinger, not mine," Mr Robert replied.
Eva then remembered the fact that Greg Salinger was kidnapped when he was four years old. Finally, by re-joining the pieces of thoughts of both Mr Robert and Greg, Eva understood the truth. Mr Robert was the one who had kidnapped Greg Salinger, and later on, he sent his own son to impersonate the real Greg. "That plan was a masterpiece," Eva said to herself. By doing this Michael would have inherited part of the Salingers' fortune. Fortunately, the fradulent plan of Mr Robert and Michael failed as the greedy Stephen Salinger managed to be the sole heir.
Eva then asked, "Then, what have you done to the real Greg Salinger?"
"Do not worry, I didn't kill him. I was good enough to send him to the orphanage," Mr Robert replied.
"Anyway, now let's talk about you, Eva," Michael said. He then added, "Are you afraid, Eva?"
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