Eva’s grip tightened, her eyes gleaming with a terrifying light.
The door swung open with a violent thud, followed by the clatter of dropped dishes as a servant froze in the doorway.
“What?” a voice thundered, thick with disbelief.
“Michael?” She gasped.
Michael’s heart plummeted into his stomach.
He stood paralyzed for a fraction of a second, the heat of Eva’s grip feeling like a brand against his skin.
As Cathy stepped into the light, his face twisted in a mask of betrayal, Michael finally found his voice.
“Miss Cathy, it’s …. it is not what it looks like!”
Michael gasped, thrusting his hands up and palms out, desperate to show he wasn’t touching her.
He recoiled as if burned, stumbling back until his heels hit the shattered glass of the vessel Eva had kicked.
“She grabbed me! I was only delivering Alphab’s message!”
Eva let out a choked sob, collapsing against the overturned chair, her hair disheveled and eyes brimming with calculated tears.
“Are you now saying that I forced myself on you? How’s that possible?” She said , then took few steps near Cathy years rolling down her chins.
“He… he wouldn’t let me go,” she whimpered, pointing a trembling finger.
“I told him not too, I tried to push him, and he just…
he lost his mind!”
“You lie!” Michael’s voice cracked with a rare flash of anger.
” Why don’t you tell her the truth?”
He turned to Cathy.
“Look at the room, miss Cathy.
The chair, the glass—she threw them.
I haven’t moved from this spot.
Why would I risk everything?
My loyalty is to Alphab!”
“What is she she trying to achieve by doing this to us?” Cathy thought, ” first it was me, now Micheal, I wonder how many others are in the same situation, just like us.
Hump?
Damn werewolves!” She cursed.
Cathy might be knowing the truth, but what can she do?
Bid by the promise, she has to do anything Eva tell her.
She just quietly turned a round and left.
“Listen now Micheal, I make the rules here , and you follow them, you get to live.” She paused .
But what evidence do you have?” She said, her voice filled with malice.
“But I have the evidence to show that you tried to force your self on me and with a eye witness.”
The silence in the room was heavy, suffocating.
Michael stood over her, his face filled with pain of betrayal and disbelief.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, his voice shaking with a mix of fury and pain.
She didn’t look down.
She looked right through him, her eyes cold, indifferent, and entirely devoid of the warmth.
“To survive!” she replied.
Michael quietly, yet furiously, turned around.
The door slammed behind him.
She watched him go, not moving a muscle until the sound of his footsteps faded.
Only then did she whisper to the empty room,
“The world needs a villain to hate. Then I will be what they made.”
One month and a half.
That was how long it had been since Eva was sold to Alphab, a detail that barely registered in the opulent parlor of the Hudson mansion.
Here, the air smelled of expensive perfume and triumph.
Cathy lived there now.
She sat on a plush velvet sofa, basking in the pampering of Ms. Isabella Hudson.
Cathy’s stomach was visibly rounded now, a tender, growing pregnancy she used to manipulate her way into the heart of the family.
Atleast that’s what she believes, but it’s the other way round.
Ms. Isabella stroked Cathy’s foot, massaging it with a possessive tenderness.
But it wasn’t love, it was ambition.
Ms. Isabella saw Cathy as the key to securing the sprawling Marklyn properties, a merger of blood and greed that would make her son, Charles, a titan of industry.
“It’s such a blessing that you came into our lives, Cathy,” Ms. Isabella cooed.
Cathy smiled, “Come on, Ms. Isabella,” she said smoothly.
“I’m the lucky one here, to have Charles as my future husband.
Such a loving man.”
“Am happy that you realized it, unlike that good for another Eva who never appreciated my son.” Ms Isabella sneered..
“But where’s Eva? I haven’t seen her in a long tyme.” Cathy curiously asked, not because she cared, just curiosity.
Ms Isabella’s face turned pale for a moment, the smile on her face faded, Eva’s name felt like a jinx in her ears.
“Just focus on your future husband, whether she’s in hell or heavens how’s that your concerns.” She replied.
“Mother, I am the luckiest one here, to have a woman like Cathy.”
“Oh… my son, how was the meeting?” Ms. Isabella beamed.
“The deal is sealed,” Charles said, looking triumphant.
“I just signed a multi-billion project with the A and D group of companies!”
” And….this calls for a celebration.” Ms Isabella said.
Charles strode to the bar corner, pouring three glasses of the finest wine they owned.
He lifted his glass high.
“All thanks to Mr. Marklyn who helped me finalize the deal.
And cheers to the luckiest woman ever!”
“Cheers!” Ms. Isabella smiled.
As their glasses clicked in a harmonious melody of impending wealth, Charles’s phone buzzed aggressively on the glass table.
He saw the caller ID—his secretary—and picked it up, expecting applause.
“Yes?”
His face went from triumphant to utterly blank, and then, in a terrifying transition, to paralyzed horror.
The phone slipped from his hand, clattering against the marble floor.
His eyes widened as if looking at a ghost, and his knees buckled.
He stumbled backward, barely catching himself on the edge of the table.
“No…” he stammered, his voice raw.
“This can’t be! This can’t be…..no…”
Cathy’s smile froze.
Ms. Isabella’s hand stopped in mid-air.
The champagne bubbles seemed to die in their glasses.
The two women curious exchanged glances.
“What is it, Charles?” Cathy asked, her voice tight.
“What’s going on Charles?” Isabella pressed.
Charles didn’t answer immediately.
He was staring at the floor, the world he had just toasted shattering around him.
He was shattered into a million pieces.
Well, what goes around comes around…..
“The Marklyn deal,” he whispered, a tremor running through his voice.
“They didn’t just back out. They… they sold everything to her.”