Chapter 100: White Room
>Eleina
"So, what should we do now?!"
I shouted the question at the empty air, my voice bouncing off the sterile white walls. I couldn’t stop moving. My heels clicked a frantic rhythm on the floor as I paced back and forth, my thumb pressed against my teeth. I bit my nail until it stung, the metallic taste of anxiety filling my mouth.
The room was a bright, windowless box.
There was nothing inside but a single table and the woman I had kidnapped. I gripped the burner phone in my hand so hard I thought the plastic casing might snap.
"Calm down and stay wherever you are," the deep voice ordered from the other end.
"How am I supposed to calm down?!" I screamed back. I stopped pacing and nailed my feet on the floor and shot a look of pure hatred at the unconscious woman sitting so peacefully in the wheelchair.
"I’m the one stuck here! I’m the one who did the dirty work!"
I felt like my skin was crawling. I was hiding in a hole while the richest, most dangerous man in the country—and my own fucking sister—were probably tearing the city apart to find me. If Archeval caught me, death would be the mercy. He would make me wish I had never been born. I know him.
Fuck! I thought, my chest heaving. Is it really the right move to trust this guy?
I looked at the phone. He was family to them. They wouldn’t suspect him, would they? He is his own brother, they probably wouldn’t even look in his direction.
At least, that was the plan.
I marched toward the wheelchair, my heels sounding like gunshots in the quiet room. Mallory sat there, her head hanging low, her breathing shallow and steady. She looked so peaceful, and it made my blood boil.
"This is all because of you!" I growled. I swung my leg back and kicked the wheelchair with everything I had.
Clang!
My foot didn’t hit her directly. It slammed directly into the heavy metal frame of the chair.
"Argh! Dammit!" I cried out, doubling over. I clutched my leg, hopping on one foot as a sharp, stinging pain shot up to my hip.
"Stupid chair! Stupid woman!"
I rubbed my shin, tears of frustration pricking my eyes. I looked back at Mallory. Even unconscious and kidnapped, she was still causing me pain.
"What’s so special about her anyway?" I murmured to myself. I leaned in close to her face, looking for some secret, some magic glow that made everyone obsessed with her. I didn’t see it. I just saw a woman who ruins everything, a daughter of a lowly mistress.
I put the phone back to my ear. "What am I supposed to do next? You’re not expecting me to just sit here and rot, right?"
I heard a low, heavy sigh on the other end. It made me scowl. Is he seriously the one stressed right now? I was the one in the white box with a body!
"Did you throw away the envelope like I told you to?" he asked. His voice sounded tired, like he was talking to a child.
"Of course! You think I’m stupid?" I snapped. I walked over to the brown leather bag sitting on the small table in the corner. "It’s right here in my bag. I’m going to get rid of it as soon as I leave."
"Check it again," he added.
I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. Seriously? He was treating me like I couldn’t follow simple instructions. I didn’t even want to do it now, just out of spite, but the tone of his voice made me nervous.
I reached into the bag, my fingers brushing against the smooth paper of an envelope. I felt a small wave of relief wash over me, but as I pulled it out, my heart skipped a beat.
It was just one envelope. A single, piece of paper.
"Huh?" I muttered. I dropped the phone on the table and used both hands to dig through the bag. I turned it over, shaking it. A lipstick rolled out. A compact mirror. A bottle of expensive perfume. But no second envelope.
"What’s wrong?" Vale Chesten asked from the speaker.
I didn’t answer him. I was too busy tearing through every pocket of the bag, my breathing getting faster and louder. My hands started to shake. I checked the lining, the side zippers, even under the table. Nothing.
"I’m missing one," I whispered. My shoulders slumped, and I felt like the walls were closing in. I slowly picked the phone back up. "It’s gone. It’s not here. Does this mean we’re done? Are they going to find us?"
"Fuc—!" he started to curse, then caught himself. There was a long silence where I could only hear his heavy breathing. "Anyway, I’ll do what I can. I’ll send a cleanup crew. A few men will be there an hour from now to assist you." he paused for a second, his voice turning dark.
"You can do whatever you want to her for now... just make sure she’s sober when the time comes. It’s not fun playin with an unconscious woman."
The call ended with a sharp click. I stared at the screen for a second before remembering his previous orders. I fumbled with the back of the burner phone, breaking my nail in the process, and ripped the battery out. I threw the pieces into different corners of the room.
"Remove the battery. We have to keep my ’cousin’ away."
That’s his exact order.
"That’s right," I whispered, trying to steady my heart. "There’s no way Archeval would doubt his own blood brother. Vale is the perfect shield. And this place... this place is in the middle of nowhere. No one knows this building even exists."
As the panic started to fade, replaced by a cold, numbing anger, I turned my attention back to Mallory. I walked over to her slowly, my heels clicking softly now.
"We finally get to meet face to face, Mallory," I said, my voice echoing. I reached out and grabbed her chin, forcing her head up. Her skin was soft, and it made me want to scratch her. "This revenge took a goddamn long time to start. But don’t worry. We’re going to have so much fun together."
A mean smirk curled my lips. I imagined her crying, pleading, and realizing that her perfect life was over. I studied her face. I was a luxury influencer. I had millions of followers who called me the "Nation’s Darling." I was prettier, richer in spirit, and more famous.
So why was she the one who got everything?
"Fuck! This makes me so angry!" I shouted, letting go of her chin. Her head flopped back down like a rag doll.
I grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer from my bag and sprayed it over my hands, rubbing them together until they were red.
This whole thing would have been so much better if I had managed to grab her son, too. If I had the kid, I could really make her crawl. l
But Vale wouldn’t allow it. He hated the idea of his nephew getting a scratch on him.
"Geez," I said, talking to the walls again.
"He’s so overprotective of his family, but he’s so cruel to the people he hates. Men are so weird."
I kept talking to myself because the silence was driving me crazy. Since I wasn’t allowed to have any internet connection—to keep Archeval’s tech experts from finding my location—I had nothing to do but think.
But I had prepared for this. I pulled out my tablet, which was strictly offline, and scrolled through my saved photos. A slow, wicked smile spread across my face.
Even if I was stuck in this room, the outside world was about to explode.
I looked at the photo on the screen. It was a shot I had worked very hard to get. It showed Mallory with a handsome red-headed man. In the picture, they were leaned in close, their lips inches apart. It didn’t matter that they weren’t actually kissing. It didn’t matter what the context was.
Once Archeval saw this, his possessive, crazy mind would fill in the blanks. He would lose it.
"Gosh, I’m a genius," I giggled to myself.
I had already scheduled the post the day before using a timed uploader. In just a few hours, the article I had written—full of lies and "eyewitness" accounts of Mallory’s affair—would be published for the whole world to see. Her reputation would be ruined before she even woke up.
"Let’s see that obsession of his come back and bite you in the ass... Babe," I whispered to myself.
The next hour felt like a century. I checked my watch every two minutes. I paced. I sat. I kicked the wall. I was about to start screaming again just to hear a sound when I finally heard it.
Knock. Knock.
A pause.
Knock. Knock.
A pause.
Knock.
The pattern. My heart leaped.
"They sure took their goddamn time," I muttered. I stood up, smoothed out my outfit, and walked to the heavy door. I punched the code into the keypad and pulled the handle.
"Oh?" I smiled as the door swung open.
Standing there were the men Vale had promised. The sight of that pristine white doctor’s robe made my smile grow even wider.
"What are you waiting for?" I asked, stepping aside and gesturing to the woman in the wheelchair. "Go ahead. Take her. Let’s get this show started."
The men moved into the room in silence. This was it. There was no going back now. My sister could have the hospital and the police—I had the prize.
