by S. S. Sahoo
“The twist was the will had this clause which said: ‘If something happened to the will holder, her/his possessions will automatically be given to the one on whom the will holder has made the nominee.’ It maybe her husband, father, mother, brother but only relative to the will holder.”
“So, it was clear that Nicholas wanted the money and only because of that he had planned to marry you and after marriage he planned to get the possessions to himself. I stood against this. I threatened him that I will unveil his identity to you. Do you who stood up for him and threatened to kill my family? It was his father. I came to know that Vito was his father. Vito Greer was Nicholas Greer’s father and all this was his plans to get the money. He threatened that he would kill Jace and your mom Jessica if I dared to open my mouth before you. I was helpless! I am sorry Juliette” tears fell from his eyes as he lowered his head leaving my hand and he wiped his tears.
“Dad!” I said slowly.
“You had no idea about what was going on and that is when all of a sudden you came up to me telling me that Emmett proposed you and you two decided to get married. I was devastated. I was letting it happen. Everything was before me but I couldn’t do anything. I was failing from saving my own daughter” he sobbed and tears fell down from my eyes. I couldn’t believe how stupid I was. How did I even fall in love with a fake person? Dad had to go through all this because of me.
“I wanted to save you. I wanted to save my whole family desperately and you know ‘A drowning man will clutch at a straw’ I did that to save mine and my family” he said and that strike me.
“Bu- But why did Emmett chose to hide his identity from me? Why did he not tell me his real name? It was not as if I knew him so why Emmett over Nicholas?” I asked the question which has been nagging me from the beginning.
“He wasn’t hiding his identity from you,” dad said and that made me even more confused than I already was.
“Then from whom was he hiding?” I asked and looked behind me towards Zachary.
“This is when Mr. Zachary enters,” he said and I looked back at Zachary to find him filling a glass of water from the jug for himself. He didn’t even look at us. I turned back to dad and looked at him confused.
“My my sources, I got know that Nicholas was a married man,” dad said and that gave me a mini heart attack.
“What?” I stood up from my seat in anger.
“Juliette! Listen to me, dear. Please sit down” dad said and took me some minutes to calm myself before I sat back on the couch.
“Not only married but he even killed his pregnant wife,” dad said in rage and something strikes my mind.
That reminded me of those conversations of Zachary’s men which I overheard beforehand when I was trying to escape.
“His wife is Zachary’s sister,” I said slowly and we heard a loud crash and I looked back to find the jug of water on the ground. Zachary threw it angrily on the ground and rubbed his face.
“Excuse me!” he said as he came back and took a seat back on the sofa.
I was just going to open my mouth when dad interfered continuing “So, I got to know that he was hiding his identity from Mr. Zachary Sullivan and Mr. Zachary was in search of him because he had killed his sister. That was my ‘A drowning man clutches a straw.’ I got in contact with him and told everything about Nicholas. But the problem was Vito. Vito is the mastermind in all this. He was the one after whom Mr. Zachary was. It was his plans to kill his own daughter-of-law. I don’t know why he planned to kill her and he used his own son a pawn. Nicholas was just a pawn in this game. All Vito wanted was money. He wanted it from you, Mr. Zachary’s sister. And we knew that he would go to any extent to get the money. For that we, Mr. Zachary and I made a plan. The plan had you getting married to Mr. Zachary. We had a deal that until Vito and Nicholas is taken care of and out of the game, we would protect you. Because Mr. Zachary wanted Vito and Vito wanted you. In order to reach Vito it was necessary for you to be with him. If you got married to Mr. Zachary your will and life is saved. So, that’s what we di-“ I cut him off this time.
“So everything was an act? The marriage and being held away from home was a plan?” I asked o which dad nodded a ‘yes’ slowly.
“We had a deal, Juliette! Don’t worry!” dad said all of a sudden his face lit up.
“Deal?” I asked.
“Mr. Zachary has promised that he would protect you from Vito and Nicholas and he will even end this marriage once they are out of this game” dad finished and looked at Zachary smiling at him.
“End this marriage” I muttered to myself.
“Oh, Juliette I know this is all messed up but trust me Mr. Zachary will protect you because we have a deal. I know you don’t have any wish to stay in this marriage and neither Mr. Zachary has any wish for the same. He will free you after Vito is in his hands” dad said and I stared at him blankly.
What is wrong with me?
“I know this is hard for you but princess please let us take care of you. Please hold up for more days until Vito is captured. He will no longer be able to hurt our family” dad said while I sat there quietly.
“What do you say? Juliette? Say something!” dad said squeezing my hand.
“What will I say? You both have made every decision by yourself and we have reached this far. Do whatever is appropriate” I said as I got up from the seat and walked across the room to the window.
“Juli-“ dad was cut off by Zachary.
“Mr. Swason! I think it is enough for today. You traveled all this way here. You need rest. Let Cosmina take you to the penthouse where you could take some rest and you can join us in our house when Mrs. Swanson and Mr. Jace arrives” Zachary told him and I heard when he dialed Cosmina. Their conversation didn’t reach my ears as I was busy sorting out the wrong pieces of my filthy life. I stood there looking out of the glass window. Tears spill down my eyes like a stream. I cursed for having such a fate.
All of a sudden I came to know that my dead grandfather has left a will on my name, and the money is wanted by my ex-fake fiancé. My so called present husband whom I thought until yesterday is the one who is going to hurt me came out to be the one who has always tried to protect me. My own father had secrets from me and me, I am so stupid to fall head over heels with a fake greedy person.
I am the sole reason of my downfall. Nobody is to be blamed for it. It all happened because of me. How could I be so blind in love that I didn’t even notice the worried face of my father and the greedy face of my lover?
I guess this is life and my marriage is just a business deal.
38
Juliette
“So you knew everything!” I said while Zachary drove us back to his mansion.
As I had expected. No reply from his side. He must be thinking, I am stupid. He must be laughing at my fate internally. It’s not even his fault. Who wouldn’t laugh at me?
What a life I have. Amazing! Had I ever imagined my life to be so messed up ever? What I had thought and what has happened, totally no control over my life. All I have been doing is crying. Why did I even let this happen to me at the first place? This is only because of me. I should have been more cautious. I should have been more guarded about the things that had been happening around me. How could I not see worried eyes of my parents? Why did I not get the hint when dad told me that he didn’t really like Emmett? Everyone was so right about Emmett that he didn’t seem a good person to them. Why was I the only blind one?
I sighed rubbing the bridge of my nose in aggravation. My state has been worsening day by day and I didn’t really blame anyone but me. But what dad has done, I can’t really ignore it. Sure, he did it for me for our family but he took every decision by himself. He even took my life’s decision. We could have done something else. What am I even talking about?
Why? Just why am I the only person in the world to have such a complicated life?
I have been punishing, cursing myself since I have come to know about Nicholas. Why am
I even cursing myself?
The car came to a halt and I looked at Zachary before looking around.
“I thought we were going home!” I told him when he began to undo his seatbelt.
“Come out!” he told me before he got out of the car. I sighed and shook my head. If anything I wanted at the moment then it was to go back home. What does he even want now?
Getting out of the car I looked around. It was a gas station. He locked the car and walked towards the ‘in and out’ store. I followed him not knowing what to do. We walked inside the store and I watched as he directly walked towards the freeze and brought out two ice-cream sticks.
“They only have the bars,” he said as he handed me one Chocó bar ice-cream.
Before I could even open my mouth to say something he walked crossing me towards the counter to pay for the ice-cream. I looked back at the ice-cream and instantly a smile crept up my face and I looked at him and as always he was already looking at me eating from his stick.
This man...
Getting rid of the pack, I ate mine and turned around facing the freeze not wanting to let him see me smiling. I was still smiling. I didn’t even know the reason why I was smiling. Oh my god! Was I going crazy?
But then I recalled what dad told me.
“Mr. Zachary has promised that he would protect you from Vito and Nicholas and he will even end this marriage once they are out of this game.”
“So I am with him until he gets Vito in his hands? That means I can get back to my previous life. Can I forget everything?” I spoke to myself. I was so busy chatting up with myself that I didn’t even feel the presence beside me.
“Will you eat the stick?” he said and that made me jerk out of my thoughts.
“You are so foolish!” he said as he took the stick away from me and threw it into the dustbin.
While he extended his hand to hand me the tissue paper, I couldn’t hold myself from blurting out “You are right! I am foolish!” I said as I took the paper from him and wiped my fingers before throwing it into the dustbin.
I turned to look back at him to find him glaring at me.
“What?” I asked startled by his expression.
“Nothing! Let’s get back to the house” he said and without even letting me speak he walked out of the store. I looked at his retreating back from inside the store” glass window.
“Bipolar much!” I said and ran out of the store following. I even tripped on my place and all he did was to glare at me. His eyeballs would fall off his sockets one day if he continued glaring at me every single day.
“Every single day” I muttered to myself. It is not as if I was going to stay with him for every day. Probably, as soon as he gets his hands on Vito he would send me back to my family. Why would he even want to stay with me? All he is says about me is ‘I am an idiot’, ′ I am foolish’ that’s all. Why wouldn’t he send me back to my family? And as if I want to live with him.
“Whoever wants to live with this Mr. Grumpy pants?” I said at loud and bit the inner side of my mouth when I realized what I just did. Slowly when I looked back at him, I found him looking at me with a neutral look.
“Hmm well, that’s something new. He isn’t even angry” I thought when he put his seat belts on and I did the same.
“Okay! I take it back! I am sorry” I shrieked in my seat when he took a turn almost throwing me out of the window. Luckily I had the glass of the window rolled up and I had my seat belts on. If I hadn’t then God only knows what would have happened to me. Thanks to the modern world, especially to that God like Engineer who thought of making these seat belts. I guess he knew that people like Zachary exist in this cruel world.
“Will you slow doowwwwnnnn ahh-” I screamed when he took a deadly turn just before a truck.
“Thank you mother, Mary, for saving me, ” I said once we were away from the truck.
“Slow down you idiot!” I snapped at him and thankfully after ten minutes of the torturous ride, the car stopped before the mansion’s gate.
“You idiot!” I snapped as I jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut. The guard who opened the gate looked at me and then at Zachary who was still inside the car looking at me smugly.
“Asshole! Who taught you how to drive?” I screamed and all he did was smirk at me.
The window rolled down and I crossed my arms across my chest as I bent down to look at him.
“Walk back to the house!” he said and before I could get in or punch his face he drove passing a baffled looking guard inside the mansion.
“Zachary! You douche!” I ran after him.
Surely he made me walk back to the mansion. It was probably two kilometer, probably. He even mocked me by stopping the car in the middle and honking the car. When I tried to run and catch up, he would put his foot on the accelerator and would speed up.
“Asshole!”
I huffed out air and wiped the beads of sweat that formed in my forehead. I am going to kill him today. How dare he abandon me in the middle. On reaching the front side of the mansion entrance, I spotted the car.
“Where is that monkey?” I yelled on the top of my lungs wanting him to hear me. He should know that he was going to die. At least he can’t blame me that I didn’t warn him.
“Zachary!” I ran once I spotted him leaning casually against the door of the mansion.
As soon as he saw me he ran towards the lawn.
“Where do you think you are going?” I snapped running after him. It was really difficult to run with those heels on but at the moment all I wanted to do was to kill him.
“I am telling you! No! warning you! Stop righ-” I stopped and panted before continuing “right there!”
“Zachary!” I took a small vase from the side and ran after him wanting to bang it on his head.
“What the fuck do you think you are doing? Keep that down you idiot!” he yelled still running away from me.
The nerve of this man.
“Stop calling me an idiot!” I snapped and ran to the table where he tried to avoid getting caught by running circle it.
“Then what should I call an idiot?” he asked mocking me making an innocent face.
“Oh, I will tell you. Come here!” I snapped and then he ran towards the other side of the lawn. He wasn’t even running. It was as if he was jogging. I cursed God for giving me short and thin limbs. How I wished to have limbs like Mr. Usain Bolt. Then it would be so easy to sprint and catch the monkey of a Zachary.
I didn’t even realize when I tripped and I lost my balance throwing the vase in the air. I stumbled and limping on my foot I felt myself falling to my side. Everything happened in a slow motion. I even saw Zachary making an attempt to hold me but it was late. Too late.
