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.”

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

state, and you had no issue leaving her alone with

heavy silence follows. We’re all eyes riveted on the screen, despite it being completely dark. Wherever

as you probably know. I’m not really sure what you’re trying to do here, but I’d suggest you deal with

slightest bit happy about this. We hear steps of people walking out, Charles and that dark-haired woman. From what we hear, Rick stays behind, and the video suddenly stops. I let out the air

interesting,” says Rebecca,

Agent Cutie for the stuck-up dude?” Cecily

all of them, and stand up, turning around to face Richard

about my death? Or to show

that, Darling,” says Cata, looking genuinely

cared about me, it’s too fucking late now! I can’t just go back, June Starr is dead! She

“Hera, stop it.”

screaming my agonizing feelings out. His ice-blue eyes are just so calm, like

didn’t choose to

I just mishear that? I glance around, but the other vampires are just about as confused as I am. My emotions

you just say?” I

was not

my head. Perhaps Richard’s mad, or he

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

remember your

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

remember that… void. That deep, overwhelming sadness that just kept me in 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

all over again. It’s not just my actual death; I remember days and days going by without me seeing anything that

it,” mutters Benedict, crossing his arms.

all do, Bene,”

about when you woke up here, in

question throws me right back into the

fine, I suppose.

doesn’t make any

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

“There’s no way, right?”

talking about?”

not because you’re transformed. Most of us took days, if not weeks, to get over whatever trauma caused our deaths, Baby. You

to Richard, but he’s also staring at

mutter. “Because

sense. Clinical Depression isn’t just

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

have

but I still don’t get it. Where are we going

someone who could have helped you, a therapist or a psychiatrist, and you

saw no one but him and perhaps a couple of staff for weeks, so now, can you tell me what the hell that has to do with my

“Everything.”

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

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

our Baby didn’t commit suicide

minute. While most of us

an interesting mix of Beta-blockers, Corticosteroids, isotretinoin, carbidopa,

recognizing only that word. “Like drugs? What

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