Page 111 of His Cursed Heart

The black diamonds engagement ring is still the most beautiful piece of jewelry that I've ever put my eyes on. The dark aura around it always makes me lose myself when I'm staring at it.

My heart skips a beat at the thought that he didn't pick this ring thinking about me. Maybe he saw the ring like I am.

Cold. Dark. Vicious.

I let myself fall into his net more and more knowing that we aren't going to get our happy ending. We are too twisted to even think of a fairytale.

And he'll hate me at the end of it.

I feel a hand touching my shoulder and I turn to meet Emmeline's soft eyes. The same green that her brother has and my new favorite color. They look so much alike. The structure of their face, the little bump on their nose, the soft dark brown hair that looks like silk.

They can be twins while me and Keres are so different.

Are.

She's gone, Althea. Get used to it.

I shake my head and concentrate on the girl in front of me. Emmeline says she came to visit her brother, but I know the only reason she's here is Vincent. My little brother charms everyone with one look into his blue eyes.

"Are you feeling okay?" Her feminine voice sounds like a song. Her eyes move to the panther that's growling at her and the only reaction she has is to growl back.

I bite back a laugh at the similarities she has with Everette. Her face is hard, looking at Scarface with dominance. She knows the only weapon to intimidate a wild animal.

That's interesting.

Scarface hides his sharp teeth and looks content at her. His big eyes are full of curiosity, lowering his head until it lays on his paws.

Emmeline looks at me again with a smile and stares at my left hand. She sits on the chair next to me and shyly touches my rings.

"Yeah," I answer her quietly. I don't really know how to talk with her or even about what. It's the first time I'm alone with her and my anxiety these past few days has been on a limit.

"Today is your one-month wedding anniversary." She smiles but still eyes the rings.

It feels unreal that me and Everette survived a month together. A month in which we had more downs than ups, but somehow we managed. Everette got his mafia, I got Vincent and the rest is just memories.

I'm more afraid of the future.

"I remember when Everette called me four years ago, high as a kite because of the morphine, saying he met the woman who will tame his beast." Emmeline starts and my breath slows. "I was fifteen at that time but I never saw my brother in that kind of awe." She laughs and locks eyes with me.

I remember too, I want to say to her.

I remember seeing Keres lean over his cold body, pleading me to call an ambulance. I remember Everette coming into our house a week later asking for Keres's hand in marriage.

I remember.

"Before coming to your house, he showed me the ring he made for his future fiancé." I raise my eyebrows in confusion. He made Keres's ring?

Seeing my confused reaction, she softly laughs and cups my left hand in hers. "When Everette woke up from the drugs, he stood a week to make this beauty. He sanded the gold to the perfect shape and I had to help him set the black diamonds into the gold holes because

his hands were too big."

My heart beats fast and painfully against my rib cage, feeling a lump form in my throat. What is she saying?

"But he didn't propose to Keres with this ring." I whisper and I look at my engagement ring that feels heavy on my finger.

Emmeline caresses my hand gently, her eyes giving me the answer that I don't want to believe.

"No, he didn't."