Page 14 of Cruel Heir

"But—"

"Are you with me or not?" I asked, starting to get annoyed.

Sam’s hesitation was gone in a mere second. "I am always with you, Miss Castillo,” he replied.

"You're too loyal for your own good. You know that, right?" I handed a kerosine bottle to him.

"A man is no man if he is not loyal,” Sam uttered. “That's what my father always said.”

"Your father sounds like a very wise man," I commented, walking towards the entrance.

Sam nodded. "He was."

"What happened?" I couldn't help but be curious since it was possibly the first time that I saw Sam speak openly instead of fidgeting and looking nervous.

"Loyalty took him," he answered.

"I'm sorry."

Sam shook his head. "It’s in the past now. What are we here to torch?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "We'll have to see about that now, don't we? I was thinking—" I almost jumped up in the air at the sudden blaring sound.

"Please calm down, Miss Castillo,” Sam said. “We’re in a rail area. Are you okay?"

I must've looked stupid in this boy’s eyes. Here I was, wishing to burn down a factory, but a passing train scared me easily.

I took a deep breath. "I'm okay. Start torching this place down."

Sam looked uncertain, and I understood what he felt. However, I was frankly too focused on taking my revenge and double-crossing Keith Carson that I stopped thinking of consequences.

As I watched Sam pour kerosine on the ground, I lit a matchstick with one hand and covered the flame with my other hand. But then, it licked my palm accidentally, causing me to drop the matchstick in surprise before the boy was done with his task. The fire started at once, and I had to pull Sam away as he seemed rooted on the spot.

"Oh, my God," he muttered when the fire spread towards more factories and the entire vineyard. He tried to make a run for it instinctively, but I pulled him back.

"Watch it burn," I ordered him.

"It's not like they don't deserve it, but—"

Before Sam finished his sentence, I realized what he was trying to say. I understood the slight difference between the good and the bad, the righteous and the evil. The two existed in every person equally – it was just that some people were most likely to be more controlled by the latter than the former. Right now, I felt calm as I watched the most important business hub in Bilbao burn down.

As the fire continued to consume everything, it continued to erase every trace of the woman who was willing to believe that people could change.But they never change, do they?

With Keith, I remembered thinking about how he did not deserve any shit I had given him or the way his father treated him after talking to him for hours. I refused to see the side of him that killed people for the sake of adventure and thrill – the side that wanted to hurt and toss aside someone who had no use to him.

I had done nothing but let myself fall for Keith.

Not anymore.

*****

Keith

The shooting pain in my back woke me up. It took me a minute to realize where I was.

Holy fucking shit.

God, this bed was so horrible.I wonder how Eloisa looked so happy and chirpy in the morning after sleeping here.

---