Chapter 15
1292words
He stood there, across the street, like a ghost from a forgotten world of sunshine. The color drained from his face, replaced by a deep emptiness of betrayal.
He saw that Bentley. He saw the expensive coat she was wearing. He saw that damned, intimate, possessive gesture as Elias opened the car door for her.
"Emma!"
He shouted, rushing across the road regardless of everything.
"Bang!" Elias closed the car door, shielding Emma between himself and Liam.
"Emma! Are you okay? Is he forcing you!" Liam rushed in front of them, his rationality burning away, but he didn't dare touch Elias. The humiliating "crushing" at the café was still fresh in his mind.
He could only turn to Emma. "Tell me! Emma! Why are you..." his gaze fell on the deep blue scarf, "why are you dressed like this? Why are you going with him?!"
"Liam, leave now!" Emma's voice was trembling, she tried to get around Elias, but Elias's arm blocked her like iron.
"Don't touch her!"
"I didn't touch her." Elias spoke, his voice terrifyingly calm.
He didn't look at Liam, but turned his head to look at Emma behind him. He could feel her emotions fluctuating violently due to guilt and fear. Through their blood bond, her panic was transmitted to him like an electric current.
This displeased him greatly.
"Emma," Elias said softly, "this 'trouble,' how do you plan to handle it?"
Emma was stunned. She thought Elias would take action immediately.
"I... I don't know..."
"Emma! Come with me! I'll take you away right now!" Liam grabbed her wrist.
The moment he touched Emma's skin, Elias's golden eyes instantly turned cold.
But he didn't make a move.
He just gently, yet firmly, placed his own hand over Liam's.
"Let go." he said calmly.
Liam felt that inhuman, icy power, and reluctantly released his grip.
"Sir." Elias finally looked directly at Liam, his tone devoid of anger, only a kind of... almost arrogant "tolerance." "You seem very agitated. Shouting in the street is very... inappropriate."
"You bastard! What did you do to her!"
"Elias, please, let him go..." Emma begged.
Elias looked at Emma's devastated face, then at Liam's face full of "righteousness" and "despair."
He suddenly smiled.
He knew that the feeding had forever changed Emma. He could feel the newborn, irresistible "connection" to him in her blood. This mortal was no longer a "threat," just a... "past" that needed to be cleared away.
And this "clearing" had to be done by Emma herself.
"Go?" Elias said, "No. He cannot go. Emma, don't you see? As long as he remains 'ignorant' like this, he will forever buzz around like a fly until he gets himself killed."
He turned to Liam, making a decision that surprised everyone.
"Mr. Liam, is it?" he adjusted his gloves, "You seem to need an answer. And I need 'peace and quiet.' So, you will be joining us for dinner."
Liam was stunned: "...What?"
"Get in the car." Elias opened the other door to the back seat for Liam, "We'll find a quiet place to clear things up. Like civilized people."
This was a kind of... invitation. An invitation from the devil, one filled with supreme confidence.
…………
Elias didn't take them back to the penthouse apartment. He chose a top-floor private room at an exclusive club he owned.
Dinner was served, but no one touched it.
Liam sat across the table, like a trapped wild animal. Emma sat beside Elias, completely rigid.
"Well then." Elias cut into the steak on his plate that he had no intention of eating, "Emma, tell him."
Emma suddenly looked up: "Tell him... what?"
"Everything." Elias wiped his mouth. "Tell him what I 'am'. Tell him why you 'sell blood'. Tell him about our 'contract'. Tell him why... you can't go back anymore."
Is this... allowed?
Emma trembled as she looked at Liam. Liam was also staring at her intensely.
"Emma... what is he talking about?"
Emma took a deep breath. She knew this was the only chance, and also the final judgment.
"Liam..." she began, her voice hoarse, "Leo... my brother, he's dying."
She told him everything. From the hospital bills, to Sanguine Solutions, to the two hundred thousand deposit, and then to the treatment in Switzerland.
Liam's expression changed from anger to shock and pain. "Emma... why... why didn't you tell me..."
"Then," Emma avoided his gaze, "I met him. He... he's not human, Liam."
"What do you mean?"
"He is a vampire."
All expressions on Liam's face froze. He was first confused, then erupted into an absurd, cold laugh mixed with anger.
"Vampire?" he repeated, "Vampire? Emma, are you crazy? What on earth are you talking about? What nonsense has he been feeding you!"
"I'm not crazy! It's true!"
"So what?!" Liam slammed the table violently, "Even if... even if he is! Does that give you the right to... to sell yourself?!"
"I didn't sell myself..."
"Didn't you?!" Liam pointed at the scarf around her neck, then at this luxurious private booth, "Emma! Stop deceiving yourself! You did it for the money! You despised me for being poor! You couldn't bear that kind of life, so you'd rather follow a... a monster!"
"That's not true!" Emma cried out in despair.
"Mr. Liam."
Elias's icy voice suddenly cut in. He put down his knife and fork, wiping his lips with a napkin, though they hadn't been stained with any food at all.
"You keep claiming you love her." He looked calmly at Liam, "But you never thought about how desperate she was, alone in the hospital hallway, facing the death notice of her brother."
Liam froze.
"Your so-called 'love,'" Elias's voice carried a hint of contempt, "is that when she confessed to you about the 'hell' she fell into to save her family, all you heard was 'money.'"
He stood up and walked behind Emma, gently placing his hand on her shoulder.
Emma trembled but didn't pull away.
"If your 'love' means using your shallow past to 'judge' her, to say these things that hurt her the most, Mr. Liam. Then I'm glad it's 'me' by her side, not you."
Liam was so choked by these words that he couldn't say anything. His face turned bright red, not from anger, but from shame.
Emma's heart gave a painful twinge.
That monster...actually understood her "sacrifice" better than Liam who kept claiming to love her.
The atmosphere in the private box was suffocatingly oppressive.
"I... I need to use the restroom." Emma finally couldn't bear it anymore. She stood up and fled from this table of judgment.
Elias didn't stop her. He leaned back confidently against his chair. He knew that in this war, he had already won.
Emma rushed into the restroom and splashed cold water on her face. Her mind was in chaos. Elias's words, Liam's accusations, that damn blood-drinking incident...
She took a deep breath and pushed open the restroom door.
"Snap."
A hand suddenly reached out from the shadows beside her, grabbing her wrist.
"Liam?!"
Liam's eyes were bloodshot, filled with a kind of crazed obsession she had never seen before.
"I don't care what kind of monster he is!" He lowered his voice, almost forcing the words through clenched teeth, "And I don't care what you said! He's brainwashed you! I'm taking you away right now!"
"No! Liam! Let go of me! He will kill you!"
"Let him try!"
Liam wouldn't listen at all. He grabbed Emma, violently yanked open the nearby "Staff Only" fire door, and dragged her into the dark stairwell.
"Hel—"
Liam quickly covered her mouth.
"Don't make a sound! Emma! Run with me!"
