Chapter 10
1284 Words
So Emrys'd been the one to share that post? He actually agreed with what Elara said?
Calista staggered, her legs turning so wobbly she looked like she'd hit the floor any second.
She fumbled for the wall to prop herself up, bleak despair swimming in her eyes.
Online, Emrys's share had sealed the scandal's official narrative.
To all the online users, Calista was definitely the homewrecker who'd ruined Elara and Emrys's relationship.
A tidal wave of insults and harassment crashed down on her, and her business partners blew up her phone one after another, roaring about terminating their contracts.
First she was blacklisted, then fully canceled.
Overnight, she'd turned into public enemy number one, with everyone out to get her.
When the debt collectors caught wind of her situation, they decided she'd never pay up on her own and showed up at her door.
They looked like feral thugs, yelling at the top of their lungs, "Calista, pay up! If you don't hand over the money, we'll dump your body in the harbor!"
Calista clapped a hand over her mouth in terror, cowering inside the apartment and not daring to make a single sound.
Even though she'd been reborn, she was still only in her twenties. She'd never dealt with a nightmare this intense before.
The room was pitch black.
She huddled in the corner, her whole body shaking in time with every deafening bang against the front door.
At that moment, all Calista wanted to do was beg for help.
Her first instinct was to dial Emrys's number.
But then it hit her. She was in this mess because Emrys had planned the whole thing.
All the strength drained out of her right then.
She stared at her glowing phone screen, her hollow eyes filled with nothing but bitter self-mockery.
In her past life, she'd trusted the wrong man and ended up falling to her death from a building.
Fate had given her a second shot at life, and she'd gone and fallen for the wrong guy all over again, ending up in this living hell.
She clenched her fingers so tight her nails dug into her palms, white-hot rage and resentment boiling in her chest.
Just then, there was a deafening bang. The front door was bashed open.
Seconds later, several blinding flashlight beams cut through the dark.
Calista slammed her eyes shut, and she heard a gruff, menacing order barked out.
"Find that b***h fast. If she can't pay up, she pays with herself!" a voice shouted.
"Got it!" another voice replied.
What followed was the chaotic racket of drawers being wrenched open and furniture flipped upside down.
Calista was curled up under the cabinet, her breath caught entirely in her throat.
Her blood ran cold. She couldn't bear to imagine what those monsters would do to her if they dragged her out of that hiding spot.
She heard their footsteps drawing closer and closer, and a single thought burned bright in her mind. Run.
*****
Meanwhile, at the Calder Group, Emrys sat at his desk, lost in tangled, heavy thoughts, his fingers brushing over the cold metal of a ring carved with Calista's childhood nickname.
When she was little, she'd trail after him everywhere, her soft little voice calling, "Uncle Emrys, Uncle Emrys," on repeat.
She was terrified of thunder. Every time a storm rolled in at night, she'd pad into his room clutching her stuffed toy, big eyes glistening as she mumbled, "Uncle Emrys, I'm scared. Can I sleep with you?"
Tiny little Calista would curl up right next to him, quiet as a lamb, as safe as could be.
As the years passed, she grew up, blooming into a young woman so stunning she took the breath out of every room she walked into.
On the night of her debutante ball, she wore a custom designer gown flown in all the way from Italy, worth a small fortune. But even that lavish dress couldn't outshine her beauty.
Emrys had stared at her that day and found he couldn't look away.
But the weight of his family's old grudge still clawed at him, raw and unforgiving. He would never forget that Aldric was directly responsible for his parents' deaths.
Driving the Ellery family to bankruptcy wasn't even full-on revenge. At most, it was just giving them a taste of their own medicine.
He'd never expected Calista to find out the whole truth.
The memory of her screaming accusations in the hospital, her eyes blazing with unbridled hatred, stirred an odd, sharp restlessness and unease in his chest.
He dropped his gaze and tucked the ring into the very back of his desk drawer, out of sight.
None of that mattered anymore. Aldric was dead, Gideon also passed away after a complication from his existing illness, and Calista was the only one left of the Ellery family.
She hadn't done a single thing wrong. It was time to put all this hatred to bed.
He was just reaching for the internal phone to call his assistant in when the office door burst open first.
His assistant spoke in a rushed, harried tone. "Mr. Calder, the debt collectors found Miss Ellery's location. She ran," he said.
"The people we sent to protect her? They lost track of her," he added.
Emrys never let his feelings show on his face, but he shot to his feet so fast his chair scraped loudly against the floor.
He slammed his palm down on the desk hard enough to rattle everything on it, white-hot fury boiling over.
"How the hell did you lose her?" he demanded.
"The debt collectors broke into her place. Miss Ellery must have been terrified. She just kept running," the assistant explained. "And you told us we couldn't let her know we were watching her..."
His voice trailed off, smaller and smaller under his boss's furious glare.
Glancing at Emrys, whose thick brows were pulled into a deep, tight furrow, and whose fists were clenched so tight his knuckles went white with obvious worry, the assistant asked cautiously, "Mr. Calder, you clearly care about Miss Ellery so much. The debts she owes are just pocket change to you. Why haven't you paid them off for her?"
'Why?'
Because ever since the moment he realized he was in love with Calista, he'd started second-guessing every choice he made where she was concerned.
He'd turned indecisive, wishy-washy, completely unable to pick a side with any confidence.
Part of him ached to keep Calista by his side forever, but the other part, the part that still carried the weight of his family's grudge, wanted to push her as far away as possible just because she was a member of the Ellery family.
Emrys fell silent for a long beat, then finally gave a sharp, decisive wave of his hand. "Pay off all those debts, and bring her back to me," he ordered.
"Understood," the assistant replied.
The assistant nodded and hurried out of the office.
Emrys assumed they'd track down Calista in no time flat.
But he waited. And waited. Three whole days dragged by before the assistant burst through his office door again.
Cold sweat was dripping down his forehead, his eyes wide and wild with panic. "Mr. Calder, something's wrong..." he stammered.
Emrys's heart gave a violent, lurching twist. The signature pen in his hand crumpled into pieces under his crushing grip.
He snapped his head up, his voice coming out rougher than he realized, thick with a dread he wouldn't even admit he felt. "What happened?" he demanded.
The assistant stammered, "W-we found Miss Ellery, but... but she was running from the debt collectors, and she accidentally fell to her death!"
- Writer
