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.”

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

as being in an extremely depressive state, and you had no issue leaving her

We’re all eyes riveted on the screen, despite it being completely dark. Wherever Abe hid, there isn’t a hint of light, just a crazy good

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

I’m not the slightest bit happy about this. We hear steps of people walking out, Charles and that dark-haired woman.

that was interesting,” says

Agent Cutie for the stuck-up dude?” Cecily frowns. “Is there something

them, and stand up, turning around to face Richard

“Did you really have to put me through this? What was the point?! Show me how little people actually cared about my death? Or to show how stupid I’d been to commit suicide? I get it! I get it, alright? I’m a fucking failure and

one called you that, Darling,” says Cata, looking

some people cared about me, it’s too fucking late now! I can’t just go back,

“Hera, stop it.”

out. His ice-blue eyes are just so calm, like a prison forcing me to stay under his

choose to

just about as confused as I am. My

just say?” I hear

was

head. Perhaps Richard’s

I remember very precisely what I did. I remember every bit of it, it wasn’t a dream. I did it.

remember your

hesitate, but glance around, and there’s a whole room of vampires waiting for me to

that dark place. It… it was like I couldn’t laugh or smile ever again. Like I’d never get out of 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 completely… void. like there was a heavy,

days and days going by without me

anything about it,”

all do, Bene,”

about when you woke up

me right back into the rollercoaster. I shrug,

suppose.

make any

to Anna, who’s staring at me as if I’m some

“There’s no way, right?”

you talking about?”

Cecily rolls her eyes, as if it was obvious. “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. You getting up depression-free makes

but he’s also staring at me,

I mutter. “Because

gets better about dying, Baby,” says Rebecca. “It just doesn’t make sense. Clinical Depression isn’t just a

the Agency sent a psychiatrist, and that’s how

you have a

I still don’t get it. Where are we

the means to get someone who could have helped you, a therapist or a

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

“Everything.”

hands it to Rebecca. She raises both eyebrows, but stares at it, quickly reading the lines with her eyebrows slowly tilting from upwards to downwards. I barely saw anything, but it looked like a lot of numbers and

her shoulder and for

Baby didn’t commit suicide of her own

While most

mix of Beta-blockers, Corticosteroids,

recognizing only that word. “Like drugs?

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255