He let out a sigh. “Two.”
It wasn’t much, but it still managed to sting. Biting my lip, I nodded and looked away.
This was ridiculous. It was in his past. Then why did I want to murder those girls who got to have him?
Pressing his forehead against mine, he held my gaze. “It was when you left for New York. Even for just some time, I thought to let you go. I wanted to forget you so you can live your life happily. So, for that, I thought other girls could help me. Even if deep down, I knew I couldn’t last long until I finally lost it and ran back to see you.” He placed a kiss in between my brows. “And it happened. I could stretch it only for one month until I lost it. I knew no one could take the place of my Rosebud. Nor could I live without loving her, without seeing her.”
A tear slipped down my cheek. “Those years were hell for me as well. At least you could come and see me from afar. But I had to fight with myself constantly to forget you. The fight I knew I would never win. Everyone thought it was just a crush of a teenage girl.” I shook my head with my vision blurry with tears. “But it was much, much more than just a crush. I had lost my heart to a boy I never thought would love me back.”
“But he did. More than anything, more than himself, with every fiber in his being,” he whispered, brushing his lips against mine. The crack in his voice told me his pain. I could express my agony with my tears, but he couldn’t. “I’m so sorry, baby. Because of my one decision you had to suffer that much. But trust me, I did it only for you. Even if it killed me.”
I felt his rough stubble against my palm. “I know.”
He pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me tightly. “I love you, my rose. I love you so fucking much.”
I smiled. “I love you too.”
We went silent for a moment until I spoke again.
“Ace?”
“Hmm?”
“You said you were waiting for me to complete my studies. What would you do if I really had managed to move on from you and fell in love with someone else?”
His grip tightened on me. Greek accent was deep as he replied, “Then I’d kill that bastard and make you fall in love with me again.”
I giggled, shaking my head. “What if I truly loved that man and hated you for doing that? What’d you do then?”
“Rosebud,” he warned.
Pulling away, I looked at him. “Tell me. What would you do?”
He pulled me back into him. “I’d kidnap you, tie you to my bed and seduce you until you forgot him and start loving me again.”
My eyes widened. This caveman! “What if I kept hating you and wouldn’t love you back as you wanted? What would you do then? What would you do if I never loved you again?”
His shoulders tensed. Jaw clenched and unclenched. His fingers tightened on my hips as he stared at me with hard, yet unreadable eyes.
Then I saw the vulnerability. The uncertainty. The fear.
“I’d die.” He let out a shaky breath. His thumbs gently brushed over my cheeks. “I’d die if I had lost you completely. You don’t know what you mean to me. This man standing before you only breathes for his Rosebud. Without her, he is nothing. Without you in my arms,” he leaned in, pressing his forehead against mine again, “I’d be lost. You’re my light, baby. I can’t think of my life without you even in my wildest dreams. I can’t live without you.”
My heart broke with every tremble in his voice. With a tear slipping from my eye, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his lips softly. “Good. Because I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life. I won’t leave you even if you want me to. Because this Rosebud of yours also can’t live without her Ace.”
Cupping my cheeks, he captured my lips in a deep, hungry kiss. With one hand around my waist, he pulled me up, making me wrap my legs around his hips.
Sucking on my lower lip, he growled against my mouth. “Promise me.”
I knew what promise he wanted from me. The same one he asked me to do when we arrived here. He was asking it again. A promise of never leaving him, a promise of not to giving up on him ever. A promise to love him for the rest of our lives.
Pulling him closer, I pressed my lips against him again while moving my hips against him, trying to show him my every emotion through my actions.
“I promise.”
Keeping me in his arms, he got us out of the pool and took me directly to our bedroom. To show me his love, his passion, his wildness, his tenderness, and his promises.
Opening my eyes slowly, I squinted into the dark room. My hand reached for him beside me on the bed, but his warmth was missing. There was only coldness.
Where was he?
The bathroom’s light was off, and the balcony’s door was closed.
“Ace?” I called out. But I didn’t get any reply from the silent dark room.
Getting up, I grabbed the shirt he left at the end of the bed earlier before going to the pool and put it on. Running my fingers through my semi damp hair, I padded out of the door.
He didn’t give us a chance to dry ourselves off before he…and I didn’t complain. Why would I when I was getting what I wanted?
A blush rose to my cheeks, remembering the way we were relentless. And he was insatiable, as always. He didn’t stop until I couldn’t take it anymore. I was glad we were alone in this whole house. Otherwise, my screams and loud moans would send us to jail for sure.
And after tiring me out, he took care of me. He cleaned me up and towel dried my hair well so I wouldn’t fall sick. After he was assured I was well taken care of, he returned to me under the blanket and pulled me into his chest.
Only for me to wake up to a cold bed in the middle of the night.
Where is he?
After checking the whole floor, I climbed down the stairs and padded into the living room. And there he was.
Before the fireplace, he was seated on the single couch. With his elbows resting on his knees, his gray eyes were lost deep into the fire crackling around the burning timbers. The hot amber glow descended on his beautiful, hard features.
But the tightness of his jaw, icy gaze, and clenched fists weren’t appealing to me at that moment.
The sudden feel of the tense air around me made me cautious.
“Ace?” My voice came out as a whisper. As if afraid to break the silence.
He didn’t respond, not even moved a muscle. The only answer I got was eerie silence, except the crackling of the fire.
When I almost thought he didn’t hear me, his deep voice echoed throughout the room. Low yet powerful.
“I always looked up to him as my role model. I always wanted to be like him. Powerful, successful, and dedicated to his work. A nice and humble person,” he paused. “Until I saw him raising his hand on my mother.”
A gasp slipped through my lips.
He used to beat Ophelia? I never thought he’d stoop so low. But if he could cheat on his wife, then hurting his wife physically wasn’t impossible for him.
But I didn’t speak my thoughts out loud, not wanting him to stop.
“I always ignored their conflicts and arguments, thinking it wasn’t my business to interfere. I thought every couple had their disagreements sometimes. I didn’t pay any mind to Mom’s suspicion about him. Until I caught him with his secretary in his office.”
A muscle of his jaw ticked while I listened to him silently. Nor did he turn to look at me yet.
“My whole opinion about him changed right at that moment. Instead of respect, I only felt disgust about that man. And my disgust turned into hatred when he found me standing there at the door and kept his secretary on his lap. As if his own seventeen-year-old son didn’t just catch him cheating on his wife.”
My heart tugged for him. I couldn’t imagine how broken and shocked he was when he found out his father’s real face. And I felt bad for Ophelia. Though I didn’t get to spend much time with her, she was a great woman. She didn’t deserve it.
“Did you tell her about it?” I asked, not moving from my place.
He shook his head. His eyes were hard as stone. “I didn’t have the courage to. Even though she had her own doubts, she was never sure about it. He never let himself get caught. She was already drowning herself in alcohol. I couldn’t give her more reasons to increase her misery.”
“If she wasn’t happy with him, if he was treating her that way, then why didn’t she just leave him?” I queried, curious to know more. “Even after the doubts, why did she stick around?”
“Because of love.” Those dark stormy gray orbs met mine. “She loved him, Emerald. Even after he threw her out of the board members when she had equally worked hard with him to raise the company to success, even after he started manhandling her, even after he disrespected her every day, she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay with the man she once fell in love with hoping that he’d magically become the same charming man she once knew. She didn’t want her family to get shattered. So, she stayed. Tolerating everything.”
I gulped the tears that threatened to spill. She loved that man so much, but the only thing she got in return was heartache. “And she found solace in alcohol to forget her pain?”
He nodded, staring hard at the fire that flickered so high, as if it just needed a bit more air to spread its destructive wings into raging lava. The rage in his eyes matched the zing of the flames in the fireplace.
“Even though most of the time she used to be lost in alcohol, she sometimes used to come into my room at midnight to kiss my forehead and whisper goodnight.” His voice cracked at the end.
Not being able to stand there anymore, I walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. But he didn’t look up at me. Maybe because he didn’t want me to see the moisture in his eyes.
A tear slipped down my cheek. His pain was slicing through my heart. I wanted to hold him to my chest and tell him everything would be all right, that I was here with him. But the stiffness of his shoulders and rigid posture stopped me from doing so.
“She tolerated everything even after she was dying inside. She kept smiling at the fancy parties he took her with him, so no one could raise a finger at our family. She took his insults every fucking day without relent. But everything had a breaking point. Everything had a line.” His lips curled in distaste, his nostrils flared in rage. “And the line broke that night.”
I straightened. My heart pounded. I knew my answers were just a few moments away. I knew it was the night that became the worst night of his life. The night that still haunted him.
“After a long time, Caleb and I decided to have a family dinner outside with her. That was the night of Thanksgiving. We thought we could at least make her mood brighten a little. Even Tobias and Tess joined us. We were supposed to leave for your home afterward to spend the rest of the night with your family.” Looking up at me, he held my gaze. “I was eagerly waiting to meet you and give you the gift I bought for you. But…Mom couldn’t control her urge and got drunk. So, we had to cancel the plan and return home.”
His voice turned deeper and rougher as he continued. His jaw clenched and unclenched. I squeezed his shoulder to provide him some comfort.
“The moment we reached home, we…heard them. Him and one of his mistresses.” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. “I still remember the way she stood frozen before her bedroom door. I still remember the tears that formed in her eyes. She…found him with a woman on the very bed they shared. With her very best friend.”
Another gasp left me as I stood there, shocked at the new revelation.
“And that night her patience broke. I never saw that side of my mother. She was shaking with anger and hatred. Tears were rolling down her eyes from the betrayal she got from the two people she loved a lot. That night, she lost it.”
The way the anger in his eyes slowly turned into fear unnerved me.
“Tess and Tobias left immediately. Caleb stood at the door, frozen. And that man didn’t have a bit of shame to even show a bit of remorse. Instead, he was mad she entered the room with the children. He accused her of wanting to demean him before us.” He paused, gulping. “I stood there listening to them scream at each other, their curses and shoves. I didn’t know what to do. Nor did Caleb. I wanted to console my mother, punish my father for his deeds. But all I could do was stand there in a corner. For a seventeen-year-old, the situation was very confusing and traumatic.”
Without warning, he stood. Away from my touch and closer to the fire. His shoulders rose and fell with every heavy breath he took. His curled fists shook at his sides.
“I-I didn’t know what to do until—until Mom got out a gun from her closet. The same gun he bought for his protection,” he said while I stood there frozen in my place. I didn’t expect everything to turn out like this. “She was so drunk and hurt that she didn’t know what she was doing. She went to shoot her friend, screaming at her for betraying her in that way. And he loved his mistress enough to snatch the gun from her and raise it to his wife.”
My heart pounded in my chest as I waited for his next words to come. My hands and feet turned cold out of anxiety and nervousness. An ominous feeling rose in my chest.
“He was mad. I still remember how red his eyes were. I still remember how much hatred he held in his eyes as he watched Mom. But even if he held the gun at her, she didn’t stop screaming at them, shoving him, and grabbing that bitch! And then he lost it,” he murmured. “I saw him curling his finger around the trigger. His words still echo in my head that he spit out, staring right into Mom’s eyes. ‘I’ve had enough of you. You’re becoming a nuisance for my professional and personal life now. I just wanted to remove you from the company, but now it seems like I have to remove you from my life as well. So I can live in peace. And this is the perfect time to do that.’”
I let out a shaky breath. Not even a word left my mouth.
“He was about to pull the trigger. And that’s when I jumped in between him and Mom. I requested him to put the gun down. But he didn’t seem to care that his son was standing before the deadly nozzle. He just pushed me aside and went for Mom in rage. But I couldn’t let that happen. I tried to snatch the gun from his clutch, but he didn’t let me. He just wanted to kill his wife at that moment. And I had to do something, Emerald. I had to stop him. And I…did.”
He slowly turned to me. Dark eyes held mine. Not even a trace of emotions was on his face. Something churned into my stomach.
“You were right. I didn’t tell you everything. I hid two things from you. One, he didn’t commit suicide, he was murdered. And two—” Greek voice was dense as he stared deep into my eyes, “—he was murdered by his own son. The trigger set off by my hands during the fight. I killed him.”
