Page 84 of The Hate We Breathe
“What are you doing here? I told you to go home.”
This from the man—I recognize his voice immediately. Morpheus Calloway.
“I miss you. I thought we could spend the night together…”
The second voice is definitely feminine but there’s something off about it. It’s airy-sounding, as if the woman speaking is trying to sound softer than her natural tone, almost childlike.
“As you can see, I already have company. Get out.”
“Company?”The woman sniffles.“It’s just her—she’s already half asleep. She can’t do anything for you that I can’t do.”
Morpheus’ low chuckle is caustic, cruel.“You will never be Juliet, baby doll,”he says.“You were simply a good stand-in. Now, I have the real thing.”
For a moment, quiet reigns, then the woman responds. This time, when she speaks, it’s clear that she’s struggling to maintain the youthful breathy quality of her tone.
“She doesn’t want you. She never has. She doesn’t see you the way that I do! She’s too stupid to know?—”
A sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh is followed by the camera's lens tilting—shadows shifting as it falls from its owner's hands. Unfortunately, it seems to land face down and the darkness continues. Feminine crying rises, soft and delicate even in pain.
“Juliet Donovan is mine,”Morpheus snarls.“She’s my future wife and I will not have you insult her. You are nothing more than a fucking toy. Do you understand?”
Morpheus Calloway had been delusional if he ever once thought that Juliet belonged to him or he’d ever own her as his wife. If he weren’t already dead, that single statement would have sealed his death warrant.
More crying from the woman and then, in a shaky voice, she replies,“I gave you my virginity,”she sobs. “Canshesay the same?”
The camera shakes, more light and shadow—the flash of a side table against a pale cream wall and an ornate painting, like the kind hung in expensive hotel rooms, flies over the screen.
“Ow! Morpheus, you’re hurting me!”
“She’s waking up,”Morpheus growls.“I already told you to get the fuck out.”
“She’s stealing you from me!”the woman cries.
The sound of a door opening pierces through the speakers and then suddenly, the camera is flipped, facing Morpheus where he stands in the doorway, a robe covering his already mostly naked frame. Vomit threatens to come up my throat as I stare at the pixels and colors that combine to create the recording.
“She can’t steal what was never yours,”he snaps. “Now go home. If I need another fuck toy, I’ll call you.”
He slams the door and a beat later, the video ends.
The only thing I can think as the three of us stare at the now blank screen is… thank fuck it didn’t record the worst fucking moment of my girl’s life.
Minutes pass in the silence and then, without a word, Nolan reaches out and takes the mouse from my iron grip. Moving it over to the side, he shuts down each and every monitor until there’s nothing left save for the black-and-white security feed of the area that surrounds the carriage house.
Nolan’s face is a hard mask, partially encased in shadow. It makes him look like half a skeletal monster and half human. “I… fucked up,” he admits quietly.
“What?” Gio frowns, stepping closer, but Nolan holds up a hand, the human half of his face creased with guilt.
“Weeks ago…” he begins, voice hoarse as if it’s hurting him to speak. “I was alone in the locker room at school. Someone came in while I was showering—I told them to get out, but they never answered. When I got out, they were gone.”
“What does that have to do with—” Gio tries again, but then shuts up as Nolan turns and throws a fist into the wall. His knuckles sink right into the thin barrier, dust and debris skittering to the floor. I glance to the opposite wall, where the house’s only bathroom acts as a room barrier between us and where Juliet sleeps. If that little burst of violence woke her up, we’ll know soon enough.
“There were photos of her taped to my locker,” Nolan grits out, drawing my attention right back to him as he pulls his hand from the fresh hole in the wall. “Same shit. Spray paint across the door—‘whore.’ I thought it was some asshole trying to get under my skin. Nothing else happened, so?—”
“Nothing else happened?” Venom drips from my voice. A muscle behind my right eye begins to pulse. “Are you fucking insane? Why didn’t you fucking say something? This—” I toss my hand towards the now blank monitors. “Could have been figured out by now if I’d fucking known.”
“I had Viks looking into it,” Nolan snaps back, his temper finally breaking through. “He suggested that Gio’s phone had been hacked—that someone had stolen his old files. It was only pictures from that video he took for you. It made sense at the time. Not everything has to be fucking connected.”
“But it is,” Gio says. “Isn’t it?”
