Chapter 96: You are not allowed to leave me
Alaric
Nico burst into wild laughter that bounced off the high bamboo screens of the private deck. His brown eyes locked onto mine, dilated and gleaming with a wicked, erratic brilliance.
"Oh, really?" he purred, lifting a thumb to casually wipe away the smear of dark crimson trailing from the corner of his split lip where I had struck him.
The moment I saw the cut on his skin, a sharp jolt of regret pierced through my anger. The reality of what I had just done hit me hard. I wasn’t a violent person and shouldn’t have reacted that way, so I braced myself, expecting him to scream at me or throw a punch back to reassert his dominance.
But he didn’t do any of that. He just stared at me, his face twisting into a manic, mocking grin as if he were deriving some twisted, intoxicating pleasure from the pain.
"Oh, princess... I love it when you punch me," he whispered, leaning so close I could feel the alcohol-laced heat of his breath against my skin. "It gives me exactly the kind of satisfying joy I want. Honestly, I don’t care how many times you strike me—I will always want more from you."
He let out another sharp chuckle, wiping his bleeding lip once more.
"So, now that you’ve finally laid a hand on me, do you feel happy about it? Are you glad you did it? Is everything going well for you?"
My fists clenched so tightly that the fresh cuts in my palms throbbed, and I felt the urge to hit him again. But the memory of my father’s voice echoed in the back of my mind, reminding me that violence never truly solved anything.
Forcing the explosive anger down, I decided that it was entirely useless to argue with Nico Park. He was an annoying prick, and he was never going to change.
"Va te faire foutre, toi et ton attitude de merde (Fuck you and your stupid attitude)," I spat, the venomous French cutting through my anger. "I completely regret ever coming out here. A man with an ego as fragile and monstrous as yours doesn’t deserve to work alongside me. Whatever is between us is completely over. I am never speaking to you about this anymore, and I am never even going to try to talk to you again."
I turned sharply on my heel, desperate to put as much distance between myself and his suffocating presence as possible.
Then I heard it.
The sudden, violent shattering of crystal against the wooden deck made me jump, chills running down my spine.
I forced my legs to keep moving, desperately trying to pretend I hadn’t heard it.
Then came a sound that made my entire world freeze.
It was the slow, wet, sickening slice of sharp glass cutting through skin.
My eyes widened in pure horror. I turned around immediately and let out a gasp.
Nico hadn’t thrown the glass at me.
He had smashed his cognac glass against the floor, and right now, he was standing over the fragments, a jagged shard held firmly in his hand.
He had just slit his own wrist.
There wasn’t a single trace of agony on his features. Instead, his face was fixed in a wide, terrifying grin. As our eyes met, he deliberately pressed the shard down and slit it a second time.
"What the hell do you think you’re doing?!" I demanded, completely losing my mind as I rushed toward him, desperately trying to grab the broken glass from his grip.
Nico let out a breathless, manic laugh and fell to his knees right among the shards of glass. Before I could forcefully get the weapon from him, he brought the blood-slicked edge of the glass up, placing it firmly against his throat.
"If you try to forcefully get this from me, I’ll slit my throat right here," he grinned wickedly, his eyes boring into mine. "And I’ll hunt you in your sleep forever, princess."
I froze, paralyzed by absolute disbelief.
How could he even think about that? Has he gone insane? Was he out of his crazy mind?
I wondered in pure shock. I always knew Nico was crazy, but I had never imagined he was this suicidal crazy.
"Why... why the hell are you doing this?!" I screamed, my voice trembling violently.
"Did you mean what you said earlier about leaving me?" he demanded, his eyes pinning me in place. "Are you truly going to leave me, Alaric?"
Whenever he dropped the mocking titles and used my actual name, I always knew that he was being dead serious, and I absolutely hated the kind of position he was putting me in right now.
His wrist was actively bleeding, and he was threatening me with killing himself—a scenario I hated so much it made my chest tighten with deep, agonizing panic.
"Why the hell are you doing this to me, Nico? What the fuck is wrong with you?!" I screamed so loudly that my voice mixed with the roar of the ocean behind us.
He chuckled lightly, the sound hollow and broken, as he pressed the sharp glass harder against his neck.
"Everyone keeps leaving me. Everyone I loved kept leaving me. I thought I found someone who wouldn’t leave me, and now you say that you don’t want to speak to me anymore."
A cold sigh escaped me immediately, and I rolled my eyes angrily.
Wasn’t he the one who said he didn’t want to work alongside me the first time? Now why was he acting like I was the one at fault?
"Are you bipolar, you piece of shit?"
He just grinned.
"I asked you a question, Alaric. Are you also going to walk away from me like everyone else?"
I grabbed a handful of my own hair, pulling it angrily in a desperate wave of frustration. He was getting on my nerves.
"You said it first! You’re the one who said you didn’t want to work with me, so why the hell are you changing your mind now? What the hell is wrong with you? Ugh!"
