Page 96 of Darkest Deception

Ms Ambrose Torre,

Thank you for the drive. I will be working on it for the next week to retrieve the CCTV footage you have asked for from that specific date. It may take some time as it was very skilfully done and little to no mistakes are shown, but we are confident we will succeed.

I release a sigh of relief, sagging against my chair in my bedroom.

As soon as I saw my stalker in the corner of the picture taken on the day Dad died, I went home, retrieved the CCTV security footage and hard drive. As I went through it, I realised the stalker wasn’t shown on any of it, and I knew someone had tampered with it. So I had tried to find a good enough hacker to recover the deleted footage.

I’m not sure what my next step will be, but since Dad was brutally killed, and the case has now gone cold, it’s not that I am seeking justice for him but rather answers as to why I saw my stalker in that picture and exactly how long he has been meddling with the CCTV footage of my home.

Since Remo visited Helia in his office, there has been a change in him. He has been mostly at home instead of the office, but Remo’s presence here has me on alert. That man is powerful, and even if Helia and he have the same power and authority, Remo feels more like the patient predator that pounces all at once, the one that seems to think carefully, who plans and sits and watches his chess pieces fall just as he forced them to. While Helia, he is one that does it all based on his own mood, reckless, dangerous, rogue, and quite literally unpredictable. Both are vicious in their own way, both commanding.

There is something striking, something alluring in Helia that keeps pulling my eyes back to him.

I hate to admit it, but Helia has been on my mind a lot these past few months. Somewhere along the hateful looks and arguments, something is cripling inside of me.

And I fear this change.

I fear it could ruin me once my secret is out. I fear I’ll be ruined and left with nothing, not even my company if Helia finds out my secret about Aurora, and because he wants me gone, he will use any means to get rid of me. Even if that secret is a wrongfully manipulated situation.

Helia is teasing me day after day, catching me off guard. The small confession from me that day about when I dreamt of him changed something within me. It snapped a small string of control, and now Helia looks at me like he knows everything about me.

Now that we have crossed a line, there is no going back.

There is absolutely no forgetting what we have done, what sin we keep committing.

Why am I risking it all? Why do I feel my heart pound inside of me when he is near me? Why do I want to hold on to a small hope that can only mean I want him when I cannot have him?

Then there is the problem with the stalker.

I don’t know what to do.

Should I tell Helia? Could he get rid of him? Could he do it?

Something in me tells me he could. Maybe I should tell him. This small part of me trusts him, and even if that burning hate for him has diminished, the small ounce of trust he got from me is there. He didn’t use what happened in the elevator that day against me, nor did he use how I pushed him away against me, either. He stayed the same. I need to tell him something about me.

Maybe… maybe he could look past it and we can both trust each other enough?

I’m so confused about how to go about this.

He won’t think I am doing this to get back my company, will he?

What I feel for Helia is different from wanting my company back. I will do that myself, but what if… what if he thinks so? What if he rejects me because I was a ploy to him?

I fear it.

I need to be clear about myself if I ever want something from him.

I’ve never hoped for a partner, for love, affection, or anything.

Not until Helia has done such small things for me that really left me thinking for days. Giving me better tasks, making me eat lunch with him, looking at me like he actually wants and desires me.

And being there at Aurora’s birthday party when I felt left out, watching the consequence of my actions break me apart. He was there, in silence, his presence a blanket of comfort.

Not long ago I found out that he sent an email to all the staff of Glamorous telling them to respect each other just the day after the interns were mouthing me off, and he excluded me from that email.

His threat was very obvious, hinting at the fact that he knows who did it and to whom.

I sat at my desk in silence for ten minutes when I found that out.

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