Chapter 15
1016 Words
My heart flew out of my chest the moment I heard the name “DanielBlackwood”. There was only one person bearing that name in the entire country, and even if that part of my intuition was wrong, the next part of the conversation I heard wasn’t.“He owns the popular Blackwood company”, a lady with a brunette hair said, with eyes that sparked with hate and disgust. I swallowed hard as I inched closer to them, slightly losing track of the factthat I came to shop for some things.“He’s such a loser! How could he have done something like that?” Another said, throwing me into more confusion. I knew that to get to the root of their conversation, I had to act as though I were interested in what they were saying as well. At this, I wore a smile and walked over to them, with a look of curiosity in my eyes.“I heard you both talking about Daniel Blackwood”, I explained, and theyturned to me immediately. Since I knew they didn’t like him, I had to chip in something that wouldmake them free and open with me.“I know him! And trust me when I say that I don’t like him at all. I mean,I’ve heard bad things about him”, I lied, hoping that my voice didn’t giveme away. My voice was currently trembling since I had no idea of what they weregoing to divulge about him. “Same thing with us! He is one person we can’t stand among the other successful businessmen in the country. He is so authoritative and doesn’tmind making use of his influence and power to trample on others”, the firstwoman said, wrinkling her face in disgust.There was certainly more to this. She felt this pain on a personal level, although she had been a victim to his hate or authority.“You sound like you’ve had a close contact with him. Tell me about it”, Ichuckled calmly and took a seat beside the other, wishing that it wasenough to prove to let them know that I was invested in the topic “Themurder of his ex-girlfriend about two years ago. It’s a mystery no one triedto unravel because he suppressed it”, she explained and for a minute, it feltas though I’ve just heard wrongly.I gulped down hard and blinked my eyes severally, trying to be sure that Iwas currently hearing her correctly.“Really?” I gasped in shock.I could feel cold shivers running down my spine. My heart beat was on therise, and my palms felt sweaty. Still, I would rather not give them a hint that the information they currently have had a sort of effect on me.“Of course, you won’t hear the story because you are just a mere citizen.People like me know about every single thing that happens”, she boasted and let out a deep sigh.“She was merely a young girl, the daughter of my best friend. Her life was so bright until she became his girlfriend. And then, one day, they found herdead, and he was there”, she dropped, and immediately, my head startedswirling.I made to talk, but the words got stuck in my throat. A fresh set of sweats broke out on my forehead and shook in fright.“The news never saw the light of the day because he made use of his wealth to suppress it”, she said in conclusion, and my heart dropped.I couldn’t think. I turned numb as my heart raced with countless thoughts.“Are you okay? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost”, she asked, while Inodded and swiftly stood up.My brain lost track of coordination, and I found myself stuttering and missing steps. Once I got back to the house, I went through all what I hadheard.The news was so devastating that I didn’t know when tears started droppingout of my eyes.How could someone be so cruel?It felt as though a part of my heart was ripped up, and I felt every bit ofemptiness. My heart thumped heavily as I slowly made my way into thehouse.Sitting there in the living room was Daniel. He jerked up immediately Iwalked in and made to pull me into a warm embrace, but I took a step back,throwing a dead glare at him.He squinted his eyes in surprise and made to hug me again, but I shook myhead negatively and lifted my hands to the air.“Can we not do this now?” I whispered, holding in the entire emotions that were threatening to pour out of my soul.He looked startled for a start, but that transitioned into a loud round of laughter. He probably thought that I was pulling a prank on him.“Is this a prank? You don’t have to pull such pranks on me. Come here, Imissed you…”, he was saying when I started walking towards my room.I couldn’t bear standing before him anymore because each minute I stoodwith him reminded me of every single thing I heard from the store I wentto.I grabbed my bag the minute I stepped into my room and started throwingin all my things. The last thing I wanted was living in the same room with amurderer.A part of my heart tried to kick against the idea, but I was greatly convinced that it was the truth. He had a domineering aura and was able to push orenforce something on someone against their wish. Knowing these traits about him convinced me greatly that he was capable of doing such.Daniel was also quite secretive. He barely shared things about his past.There was something dark about him, each time I tried to peek into his lifeand get some information that wasn’t in light.Tears poured out of my eyes as I grabbed a paper to pen down my final noteto him. I was going to leave once it was daybreak, and nothing was going to stop me…
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