Page 63 of Scent Of Obsession
Ashamed, my face went blank, and I brought my hand to my lips. The haunting tale of the woman who died at the cliff. All those times, it had been his mother. I had stupidly provoked him, tormented him, unaware of the pain he had suffered. Tears glimmered in my eyes. It must have been awful for him.
“It’s my fault.” I blinked away the tears, a tightening in my throat. Radcliff cared more than he had let on. He fought his demons for me. “I need to see him.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.” Hugo scooped down and handed me a note on paper. “I’m sorry.”
I wiped away my tears, eagerly opening the note.
That was it.
I deserved only five words.
A fresh swell of irritation grew inside me.
“What does that mean?” I shook the note in front of Hugo.
“It means he’s expecting you to leave the manor. Your debt is paid. You can go back to your life. He doesn’t want you to work on the aphrodisiac anymore.”
“But I—” I stopped halfway.
I had no desire to create his aphrodisiac. I didn’t even know if it was even possible. But if it was, and he used it for destructive means, I couldn’t live with myself—he’d break me. I had a chance to leave. But would I be truly free if I did?
Radcliff might have given me a golden cage, but it was a greenhouse whose door opened the kingdom of my dreams. With my uncle, it was a dusty cage with no hope to escape the boredom of my life.
I had to take a leap of faith.
Could I go back to a life without Radcliff? In such a short amount of time with him, I’d learned more about myself than in my entire life. He’d saved me in so many ways. I felt like I belonged. I was convinced from the bottom of my heart I’d be able to save him from the hidden scars he was carrying.
We were fated.
And most importantly, if I left, I would lose everything.
I couldn’t let my perfume slip away. This was my only chance. I was so close to getting everything I’d ever wanted.
“I don’t want to leave.” I pierced Hugo’s stare with dismayed eyes.
“Maybe you should. He’s offering you a way out. That’s not given to everyone.” Hugo’s voice was edged with malice. “He’s a monster, after all.”
“Maybe that’s precisely the reason I should stay.”To let him see he isn’t.“I want him, Hugo.”
“At what price?” he asked.
“The price of my soul.”
He’d taken a leap for me; I was ready to do the same. I’d prove to him that love wasn’t only an invented fairy-tale fable. I’d sacrificed my soul to make his aphrodisiac and my dream come true. The final choice would be his, just like it was mine right now.
“Radcliff will do everything to push you away at the price of destroying himself.” Hugo’s voice was laced with worry. “He spent all of his life learning how to not feel. You’re a weakness he doesn’t want. I think he needs something that clicks, a big awakening. An ultimatum in a way—which is what you’ve been torturing him with since the moment you met,” he snorted.
A man was defined by his actions. Radcliff had created his reputation to hide his true self. The human one that I’d learned to get to know. I needed to fully accept myself to confront him. Radcliff was right about me. I was lying to myself until my deepest emotions caught me back, and my Pandora’s box shattered on the floor, freeing small parts of my darkness.
I had to be his own Pandora’s box—but this time, I’d liberate his heart.
“There is more to him that he lets us know. I can get to his heart.” I swallowed. “You told me Radcliff saved lost souls. That he saved you. Can you tell me what happened?”
Hugo hesitated, drifting his gaze away from my pleading eyes.
“Please,” I added.
“I was a troubled young man,” he started with a smirk, shifting his body in front of me. “Got in many fights, used drugs, you get the picture. One day, Radcliff saw me waiting outside his club with a stupid knife. I was ready to kill some rich supreme white man who took everything from my family. He fired my old janitor dad after abusing my sister. I reported him to the police, but to the eyes of the world, I was just one more screwed-up nigger. No one believed me.”
