Athena
A low sigh slipped past his lips as he saw me. His gaze softened, all the rage in his orbs melted away and I found him looking at me in the most gentle way he ever had. There was a strange serenity that radiated from him instead of the darkness of the curse. Instead of resistance, I saw love and devotion in his eyes.
There was no doubt left within me that he left the curse.
He slowly walked inside the room. His gaze never moved away from me nor did it bother to look for any signs of approaching danger.
Don't step inside! Please don't!
I shook my eyes, trying to tell him to not step in. Unshed tears gathered in my eyes. My throat hurt as I tried to scream despite the gag being wrapped around my mouth but not even a single sound managed to make it out.
"I know, you must hate even seeing the sight of me," He let out, his voice filled with guilt, "I know, I broke my promise that you'd never have to see my face again and I know you'd prefer nothing else than staying miles away from me."
He knows about our child?
He walked even closer, closing the distance.
I began to desperately try to free my hands, struggling to move or somehow warn him.
He did not know about the danger. They would hurt him!
"But nothing in this world matters to me more than seeing you safe," He sighed, he had mistaken my struggles as my reluctance to be close to him, I could see it on his face and the pain in his eyes, "I'm sorry, Athena. I failed you as a mate. Instead of choosing to love you, I chose my curse and it destroyed everything."
A shadow began to lurk from behind. It took me less than a second to recognise that it was Vincent. I panicked, trying with my everything to tell Sebastian what was going on but nothing helped.
His mind revolving around only the mistakes he made, did not succeed to see the message I tried to convey— All he saw were the things that said he was guilty and perhaps would always be.
"I am not going to force you to stay with me, but..." His voice trembled, and he looked shattered from inside, I had never seen him like this— The sorrow he never showed until now, the pain he always kept hidden, the love he never let me feel— He was like an open book today but Alas! The situation left me with no time to read it, "Please stay. I can't live without you."
Vincent approached from behind, slowly and with light steps to not let his presence become obvious at all, taking Sebastian's distraction as an advantage. He had a gun in his hand.
Please look behind! Please look!
My scream got muffled, my tears made a mess, and I could not even breathe at this point.
"I know you don't even consider me worthy of being the father of our child, I understand why you think I'd destroy the life of my child but trust me, I would never do that. If you had told me about our baby, I would have let go of my curse that very moment," He spoke, his words pouring cold water of realisation all over me.
He knows about our baby?
"I never intended to be the same as Elijah, but I don't know how I ended up becoming the same as him. Believe me, I could be a monster but I could never be the reason for an innocent soul becoming just another Sebastian Valdez. I could never...." He looked at me through his tear-filled eyes, before he moved to remove the gag, "I love you, Athena and the decision to stay or leave is all yours."
The moment he removed the gag for me, the shout left my mouth, "Watch out, Sebastian!"
His head shot to look behind, and Vincent's finger moved to press the trigger.
For a moment it felt like, it was the end for either of us but at the speed of the wind, Sebastian grabbed Vincent's wrist and snatching the gun from his hand, kicked him in the stomach causing him to fly to the other side of the room and hit against the wall that was instantly covered with cracks at the impact.
"Fucking hell," Vincent cursed and approached Sebastian at full speed.
It all happened in a blink— One moment, Vincent was seen pouncing at Sebastian like a hungry vicious animal, the next moment it was the sight of blood that covered his face as he landed on the floor and his body slid away until it hit the leg of the old broken table set at the corner.
It took me a few moments to realise what had happened. But as I took a glance at the blood dripping down from the corner of his forehead and reaching his jaw, the event unfolded and appeared as clear as water to me— Sebastian, very smartly, charged at the same wound that I had given this man hours ago; Now, it was nearly a gash that reached the corner of his lips.
Vincent promptly gathered himself from the ground. I could see it, I could see it on his face— He knew it was nearly impossible for him to fight Sebastian's strength but.....it was the blind and dire want of revenge that would not allow him to stop and find life through defeat.
"You fucking bastard," Unexpectedly, he chuckled as he wiped off the blood from the corner of his mouth.
This time he made no move to attack Sebastian again making the situation even harder to understand.
"I have got many reasons to kill you Vincent but I have no intentions to do so," Sebastian said, "Put an end to this enmity and live your life. I'm willing to hand you back, all your business, houses, cars and everything you have lost. Just walk away from my and my family's life."
"Family?"Vincent laughed as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard, "I see, you have indeed left that bloody curse. Good for you. Really good for you, Sebastian Valdez."
Confusion drew upon me, watching the sudden change in his demeanour. The way he was laughing made it seem as if all his anger has faded.
However, suddenly after a few moments, his laughter died, and rage burned in his eyes as he looked at him once again.
"The word sounds rich coming from that damn mouth of yours, Sebastian. And, ironically, you are here, telling me to let you and your so-called family live happily ever after when you have destroyed mine right before my eyes."
"I did not destroy anything. It was you and the deeds that have brought you to where you are standing right now. I had given you multiple chances in the past, I even tried giving everything back to you, but you always decided to find a way to destroy me. Your only motive was my destruction and when you became sure you couldn't do that, you decided to fix your mind on killing me. It was not me who wanted to ruin your life, you did it yourself."
"You sick fuck," I could see how disgusted to even hear what Sebastian had to say, he was riled, nearly unwilling to understand anything other than his want to see death and blood, no matter whether it was his or Sebastian's, "First that sick father of yours kills my father, snatches his properties, business, and everything that belonged to us, leaving us roaming on the streets then after years of hard work and struggle when I start my own business, you come and ruin it for me with your so-called no business ideas being shown to the investors, and after snatching everything from me, you snatch the last...the hope of mine— My mate and child. And now you fucking claim that you didn't ruin my life? You fucking piece of shit!"
"I did not ruin your life, Vincent neither did I kill your wife. It was an accident for which only you can be held responsible. I wanted to give your properties back, that you lost due to debt and several business losses against my company but you had your own agenda. It was all a part of your damn plan that you solely made to kill me and amidst the hazard you created yourself, you lost your wife and unborn child," Sebastian raised his voice, but he did not look nearly as enraged as Vincent.
This was the first time I was seeing him so much in control.
"Don't blame me for the consequences you brought by your own mistakes. What happened was an accident that only took place just because you decided not to make amends and waged a fight. You never wanted to make things right, all you ever wanted was revenge from me, for the crimes that my father committed and eventually, you made me your biggest enemy for no reason and ended up losing everything."
Slowly but the realisation began to draw upon me profusely.
Sebastian did not kill Hailey.....
It was an accident and Vincent couldn't accept the truth.
"I don't give a fuck about what you say, you can't change the truth with these stupid, flimsy tricks of your words. You killed my mate and child," His tone dropped a few octaves, sounding dangerously sinister, "Now, I am gonna do the same— My child didn't get to see the world, and yours won't get the chance too. My mate was shot dead...."
Vincent's stare slowly moved to look at me, "There's your mate's name written on the bullets of my gun."
He reached for the gun laying beside his feet and aimed for my stomach.
"Vincent, NO!" Sebastian's shout buzzed in my ears, but everything else just froze still like ice.
And he pressed the trigger.