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Once I left the airport, I found myself driving until I could stand it no longer. I didn’t know how long it had been, but it was now dark, and I knew that if I didn’t fill up the car soon, then this journey would come to an end a lot quicker than I first anticipated. Now, that was the problem with stealing a twin turbocharged V8 engine that kicked out 986 horsepower...it was damn expensive to fill up the tank!
Now, if only my father had parked one of his electric sports cars nearer to the entrance then this little getaway of mine would have been a lot cheaper, as the electric part of this engine gave you all of about fifteen miles and that was it, although it did help air in making it go faster, so that was something at least. Damn it though, why couldn’t I have stolen a Tesla, his two-seater roadster could do about 600 miles on one charge.
Which meant that it was time to form the next stage of my plan. To be quite honest, I had been surprised I had even made it this far, knowing that by now my father had no doubt called the cops and reported the theft. Which meant that I needed to ditch the car as soon as I could, and to do that, I needed first to use it as collateral. Which was why the second stage of my plan was admittedly an insane one. But then again...
What did I have left to lose?
My heart was shattered.
My life was in pieces.
My future gone.
All I had left was my mind and before I would allow it to fully submerge in the self-loathing, self-pitying, bitter hatred, pathetic part of the night, I first had to use it to get the Hell out of Dodge. Which was why I had been ignoring all the tears that escaped, trying instead to focus on the road and not the sight of my own heartbreak in the mirror.
I barely knew how my mind had even managed to get this far, but it had. It had all started when I had run back into my room and just found myself standing in the centre of what had once been my entire world. But all I found myself saying over and over again whilst looking up at the ceiling was,
‘Lies, lies, lies...nothing but lies.’
I had then looked around the room and in the end knew I had no time to take any of it. I had no time to pack. I even grabbed my bag but then realised that I wouldn’t have been able to use anything inside it. Not my phone, not my bank cards, not even my passport...everything could be traced.
So, in the end, I grabbed the only thing that I knew was worth enough for me to make it as far as I did. Then, I pulled the map from my bag and placed it on my desk in plain sight, knowing that it would be found. Doing so in hopes of fooling whoever found it into believing that the last thing on my mind was anything to do with the problems we faced. After this I had run out of there and doing so to the sound of destruction as my father and Lucius obviously fought it out.
In fact, it brought me so much pain that I found myself falling into the wall and crying out in agony, knowing that I had caused the fight. Gods, but what if my father really hurt him...surely he wouldn’t go too far...surely he wouldn’t risk my own mother’s life? Because although I hated them both that didn’t mean I wanted either of them hurt by my own doing.
They could suffer with the knowledge of what they had done to me. From the knowledge that they had broken our family apart and hurt those they had deceived. But that was the extent of the pain I wanted them to suffer. Which was why I looked to the library and took a few steps towards it before stopping myself. I did this twice more before crying out in anger, hitting the side of my fist to the wall before running in the opposite direction, ignoring the pain to my hand or to the side of my head. I knew the cuts I had suffered, thanks to the deception of the witch, had already started to heal and it sickened me to know why.
Lucius’ essence was still a part of me.
After this decision was made, I continued running until I got to my father’s garage and stole the keys to the car nearest to the door. After that I had broken every speed limit and thanked whatever luck I had left in my life that I wasn’t pulled over by the cops on the way to the airport. But this wasn’t all I did. As after I had angrily swiped away my tears it then took me all of about two minutes of driving to form the first part of my plan.
Because I needed to disappear. I needed to leave once and for all. I could no longer be a part of that world...my father’s world...the world Lucius belonged to. It pained me to think of my parents splitting up or my father being in the same amount of pain as I was feeling. But then no matter how much I loved Lucius, I knew deep down that for my father it would be worse.
So much worse.
Which was why, after the first part of my plan was out of the way, I knew that I needed to call him. Just the once. I needed to know he was alright before leaving for good. But before that call, first came the one to my father’s pilot. A number that was thankfully still in the history of calls in the car’s fancy system. So, a few taps later and I was making plans with him to take me to London, knowing that his next call would be to my father asking his permission. After that I was relying on only one factor left and that was greed.
Which then meant that I had no time at all before I was pulling the car close to the plane and running on board ready to make a deal with the flight attendant, really hoping that she had a thing for diamonds.
I hated myself for doing it, seeing as it had been a gift from my parents on my twenty first birthday. The necklace was called a Pluie de Cartier and was a collar of twenty-one vertical and horizontal lines of diamonds equating to 27.7 carats. Each line was framed by even more diamonds that were all set in 18K white gold. Naturally, I had only worn it once, being utterly terrified of losing it or damaging it in some way. Or even worse, having it stolen, which was why it had remained at Afterlife with all the other jewellery my family had bought me over the years.
But I told myself that one day I would get it back, no matter how much it would cost me. Even though, knowing my father’s taste, then I would no doubt have to sell my flat to do so! However, it was my only ticket out of here, so I used it to gain my part time identity. So, I took one look at her and sent up a quick thank you to the Gods that she was at the very least a brunette, because if she had been blonde then this might have a been a little harder at the whole convincing thing.
After this I took out the necklace and quickly began to explain, telling her time was of the essence. Of course, she had asked me if it was real, making me tell her,
“Look outside and take a look at what car I just arrived in and you tell me if its real or not.”
“Okay, good point,” had been her short answer. After that she didn’t take much convincing to swap clothes, even though I first had to convince her it was red paint on them not the dried blood it looked to be. Although to be fair, her wide eyes were more focused on the necklace anyway, so I think it was more a case of her conveniently wanting to believe me.
So, I handed over the diamonds and in return she handed me her purse that she admitted only had a credit card with a $1500 limit that half of which had been spent and a current account that held another $756 and $245.61 in cash. Which meant she just got the bargain of the century seeing as the necklace she now wore underneath the sweater was worth at a guess well over a hundred thousand dollars. She did at least offer me her overnight bag, that she explained had a change of clothes and some toiletries in it, meaning that she felt bad enough to add a little extra onto my side of the deal.
Then, after giving me her details for accessing her money, I thanked her and ran back to the car with what I could only assume was minutes to spare. I knew this as I had already been told upon my arrival how the plane was being ‘delayed’ for some bogus reason or another. This then meant that my dad had been told and was trying to get them to stall for time until one of his men or even he himself could get here.
Either way, my time was short, so I had dropped my new cabin sized luggage in the seat beside me, unsure whether it would fit in the trunk space or not. Then I made for the highway, but an hour later, I found that couldn’t stand it any longer,
I had to call home.
So, I pulled into a rest stop, happy that it was pretty much empty that time of night. Then, after dashing inside, I found an ATM and drained as much as I could get out of the flight attendant’s accounts before I ran back to the car. After which I took a deep breath and made the decision who was safe to call at Afterlife.
In the end, there was only one.
“Hey, it’s me,” I said the second he answered.
“Gods, Fae! Where the Hell are you!?” Theo asked before anything else, telling me that they were most definitely still looking for me.
“That’s not important right now,” I told him making Theo scoff,
“The fuck it isn’t! Look, just tell me and I will come and pick you up...Hell, I will even drive you to an airport and get on a fucking flight with you, just don’t do this alone...come on, don’t be a pain in my ass, sis.” The sound of his pleading tone made me wince a second, bunching my shoulders before forcing my muscles to relax with the release of a sigh.
“Well, you are always calling me little lost girl, so...” I said trying to sound a lot more lighthearted than I felt.
“Yeah, and it’s so not the time to give that nickname new meaning,” he responded dryly.
“Look, I appreciate it, Theo, but really, this is just something I have to do alone...yeah.?
“Fuck no, but do I get a choice here?” he asked sounding frustrated and I could understand why, seeing as Theo would most definitely be struggling with this. I remembered the day we first met. The way he had wanted to help me even then, even before he knew who I was to him. But that was Theo, he was everyone’s hero and no matter how much I loved him for it, simply put...
Now was not my time for heroes.
“Not really, no...I just rang to...well, I just need to know how bad it is there?” I asked wincing before pushing through and just getting it out by asking.
“Well, Lucius is still alive, if that is what you mean?” he said sarcastically.
“Not really what I meant, no.”
“Fuck, I don’t know...what do you want me to say, Fae? The library looks like a war zone and mum hasn’t stopped crying since you left.” I tensed at that, holding myself ridged and closing my eyes against the pain.
“And dad?” I asked before the question got too hard to ask thanks to the heavy emotions I could feel trying to drown me under the weight of my heartbreak. But then he delivered a shocking blow,
“Well, that’s the kicker, as soon as they realised you were gone they both left together.”
“What!?” I shouted in utter shock at even the thought of it. For one why would Lucius even bother now that the pretense was over and secondly, why would my father even allow him to tag along? None of it made sense.
“They are both on their way back from the airport now, which I can guess they won’t be too pleased about seeing as you weren’t there...were you?”
“That’s not a bad assumption to have there, Thor,” I replied making him scoff.
“I can’t believe they are together after what he did,” I muttered mainly to myself.
“Yeah, well, it’s true dad lost his shit after learning about you and Luc...” Theo started to say making me shout out, interrupting him,
“He knows that?!”
“Wait, Fae, why do I feel like I am missing a big piece of what is really going on here?” he asked making me realise that my time was up and now was the time to end the call. I had involved him too much as it was.
“Theo, I am sorry, I have to go, just do me a favour and tell dad that I am sorry...okay.”
“No wait! Look, please just let me help you...you don’t have to do this alone... fuck Fae, you don’t need to do this at all! If you need a place to crash, then come stay with me. I will protect you, I will keep that shit stain away from you and...” I closed my eyes against just how tempting it was not to have to do this on my own, but then I knew that it wouldn’t be me running, it would just be me hiding from the inevitable life I would have to go back to.
“Thanks, but I...I can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?” he snapped.
“Because I can’t involve you in my problems and besides, I am pretty sure after this I will be the black sheep of the family even more than I already was,” I told him with a shrug of my shoulders he couldn’t see.
“Don’t say that! Shit Fae, I don’t know what has happened here other than dad finding out about you two, but surely running is not the answer, not when there is a fucking threat out there and...” I cut him off once more,
“I dealt with that...look, I will be fine, don’t worry okay and...” I froze the second I heard the other voice in the room, making me tense all over.
“Is that her...is that Faith?!” My mum’s desperate voice invaded the conversation and it nearly broke me.
“Look, I have to...” I started to say when suddenly she was there.
“Faith...oh, thank God you’re okay! Sweetheart please, you need to listen to me.” I closed my eyes once more and held them tight as tears started to seep from beneath them, telling her in a hard tone I felt cracking,
“No mum, that’s where you’re wrong, I don’t need to listen to anything...”
“It’s not what you think, you’ve got it all wrong. Me and Luc aren’t or never have been anything more than just friends...please believe me, I don’t know what you heard but it wasn’t what you...” This was when I hit my breaking point and snapped,
“I can’t listen to this! I have to go... just tell dad I am sorry. Goodbye Mum,” I said quickly hanging up just as she shouted on the end for me to listen and before she could say anything more. Because I didn’t want to listen to it right then. Maybe one day I would ring and listen to what she had to say, but I knew what I had seen. I knew what I had heard. They had kissed, they had shared a moment, spoken the words.
What else could it have been?
There was no other explanation than the one I had witnessed.
The reasons behind my breaking heart...
The confessions of their affair.