The Dark Secret of the CEO by Sofia de Orellana

Chapter 12

I can’t help but cover my mouth to not shout out. I can’t believe it. It’s really him. My heart just goes insane, beating like a drum and threatening to jump out of my chest. I have to be wrong, why the hell would Rick be in New York?

“Hera?”

I don’t react. I’m just completely stunned, in shock. A wave of memories suddenly takes over my mind, driving me insane with melancholy and bitter, stinging feelings I had buried deep before they drowned me. Rick’s gotten older by a few years, but there’s no way I’d forget the face of the only man I ever loved. On the screen, he looks like any other cop standing perfectly calm in his NYPD uniform. Since when the fuck did he even become a New York City Cop?

“I was about to leave,” Abe answers the question I already forgot.

Rick nods, and lets him walk away, while Charles still seems suspicious. My God, those two on the same screen is like a nightmare come true. What the hell is Rick doing at my funeral? Abe walks away, but then, he suddenly darts to the side, to stay behind and witness the scene. The camera goes dark, and we can’t see the two men’s actions nor faces, but we can hear them just fine.

“…Long time not see.”

“Agent Rivera,” Charles comments. “That’s funny, I don’t remember you being part of the NYPD?”

“I moved departments recently.”

“New York is quite far from your hometown.”

“I had personal interests here.”

The shots are being fired and my heart’s being cribbled with bullets. Someone amongst the female vampires chuckles, visibly excited by the tension, but I’m not quite the same. It’s horrible for me to listen to this, and I’m just glad I can’t see it. I want to scream, but instead, I just muffle it behind my palm.

“…My condolences,” Charles mutters. “I know you had some feelings for her too.”

“I did.”

The answer’s angry tone clearly means he held more than “some feelings” for me, but Charles pretends not to hear it. He clears his throat.

“I understand you’d want a minute,” he calmly says. “After all, you didn’t get to… see her again.”

He tries to walk away, the brunette’s heels right behind him, but before we hear more than three steps, Rick’s voice echoes in the church.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?”

Charles stops.

“…Excuse me?”

“How she was alone, the night of her death?”

“I’m very sorry, Agent Rivera. I was attending a Charity Party on the other side of Manhattan. I should have had someone stay with her, but June barely accepted anyone but me by her side in the… last weeks.”

That’s not true. I just didn’t have anyone else to turn to.

“So you left her on her own, in a hotel room?”

“She chose to stay there herself, she felt safe in the hotel. You can ask her manager, she’d picked it hers-”

“There were lots of blades in that room.”

“…Excuse me?”

“There were razors, kitchen knives and many other dangerous things.”

lived there, agent Rivera. June didn’t get out, she needed the things that are used in an actual apartment for

state, and you had no issue leaving her alone

We’re all eyes riveted on the screen, despite it being completely dark. Wherever Abe hid, there

at, Agent Rivera. I recognize I may have underestimated June’s state, I didn’t think she’d actually go ahead and… commit such an atrocious thing. However, your colleagues from forensics confirmed it was a suicide, as you probably know. I’m not really sure what you’re trying to do here, but I’d suggest you deal with your grief in a better way than accusing me of neglect. I was her fiancé, you were her ex-boyfriend. For you to come into the picture now to accuse me of not caring enough for her is a bit out of line,

of people walking out, Charles and that dark-haired woman. From what we hear, Rick stays behind, and the

was interesting,” says

dude?” Cecily

and stand up, turning around to

this? What was the point?! Show me how little people actually cared about my death?

you that, Darling,”

you have to do this? Even if some people cared about me, it’s too fucking late now! I can’t just go back, June Starr is dead! She chose to kill

“Hera, stop it.”

look at Richard, furious, crying and even madder that I can’t just keep screaming my agonizing feelings out. His ice-blue eyes are just so calm, like a prison forcing me to stay under his control

didn’t choose to kill

I just mishear that? I glance around, but the other vampires are just about as confused as I am. My emotions at their wits’ ends, I nervously laugh, hysteria knocking right behind that already wrecked

say?”

death was

my head. Perhaps Richard’s mad, or

I’m… grateful, if you’re trying to console me, but I remember very precisely what I did. I

remember your

there’s a whole room of vampires waiting for me to answer him as if his question made any sense. I close

it. I wanted to, but I always just wanted to cry, to disappear. It was like that every day, for weeks. Nothing could make me smile, I just felt

my cheeks. The mere memory of that… horrible turmoil, the maze of sadness, loneliness and pain trapping me all over again. It’s not just my actual death; I remember days and days going by without me seeing anything that could end my torture. The depression kept

I know anything about it,” mutters Benedict, crossing his

all do,

you woke up

throws me right back into

suppose. It was

make any

me as if I’m some confusing problem. She tilts her head, and

“There’s no way, right?”

you talking about?”

“You don’t just get rid of it within two days, certainly not because you’re transformed. Most of us took days, if not weeks, to get over whatever trauma caused our deaths, Baby.

Richard, but he’s also staring at me,

I’m… better,” I mutter. “Because my troubles are gone, I

isn’t

the Agency sent a psychiatrist, and that’s how they… got me out of the

have

just meds. …I’m sorry but I still don’t get it. Where

could have helped you, a therapist or

just now, no, I didn’t. I literally saw no one but him and perhaps a couple of staff for

“Everything.”

out a piece of paper, and hands it to Rebecca. She raises both eyebrows, but stares at it, quickly

what is this?” Bart asks, glancing over her shoulder and for once, about as confused

proof that our Baby didn’t commit suicide of her

more confusing by the minute. While most of us are still

an interesting mix of Beta-blockers,

mutter, recognizing only that word. “Like drugs?

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