Page 129 of Darkest Deception

It was just a hallucination, but I need to tell him.

I do.

Rushing towards the kitchen door, I walk through the hallway and bump into someone I didn’t see coming.

“Where are you rushing to?”

Mother.

I step back. She walks into the kitchen and grabs a fresh glass of water from the fridge.

This is my chance.

I need to set everything right. I need to do this.

I can figure out about my company later. Figure out everything else later.

I just need to tell Helia how I feel.

“Mum. I sent my written statement about breaking off the engagement with Erik. I’m not marrying him.”

Mum’s head snaps to me. “What did you say?” she grits out.

“You heard me. You force me once more? I will throw you out of this house. Enough from you. I had enough from you. You get yourself together, or I will not be so gracious anymore.” I walk up to her and bend down to her height.

“Raise your hand at me once more, and I promise you I will put you in jail for life. Don’t underestimate me. You don’t know who I am, it seems. Go ask your friends, your colleagues, anyone in your tea party, and they will know exactly what I have done. And I will not hesitate to do any of it to you.”

She opens her mouth, probably to scream at me.

“Shut up!” I snap.

Her mouth shuts.

“Not a single word out of your mouth, Leyla Torre. You have lost everyone in your life.” I step back, not trusting her to not attack me as I move away and walk back up to my bedroom to grab my car keys.

As soon as I am in my bedroom, I release a sigh. It feels as if the bricks that were weighing down my heart have finally fallen.

My laptop pings, and my eyes snap to it, the subject of the email freezing my world.

Result of the hard drive. Successful.

My hands lift to my lips.

They did it. They retrieved the footage.

As soon as I open the email with the retrieved footage, I sit down and watch it.

The first starts off on the day two figures walk into our house: Remo and Helia. I look at the date and see it’s the date… my father died.

The clip switches, and I see inside the office. Remo threatens Dad. Dad shouts and screams, but Remo stays silent until he grabs hold of his throat and gets in his face to say something that makes Dad’s eyes widen. The clip switches to Helia standing in the hallway with his gun raised as he shoots at every single guard that rushes towards him. My heart bleeds in heartbreak inside of me. It shouldn’t be feeling, bleeding, or calling out for Helia.

It’s a bloodbath, blood everywhere, as I had seen that day.

Remo starts to hit and beat Dad up, forcing him to sign a document that Helia takes and walks out with a manic smile and bloodied hands and face.

Remo shoots Dad, and he falls limp to the pool of his own blood.

My hands lift to my lips as I see the driveway footage of me and Mum walking up to Remo, who whispers something in my ear and walks away. They were both wearing black clothes, so I couldn’t have seen the blood.

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