The Heiress's Revenge - A Bloody Affair - Chapter 45

[45 – It’s a Story of Revenge]
Elijah had always been a law abiding citizen. He never ever broke any rule until and unless the situation was dire and it was absolutely necessary for the rules to be broken. There had never been a time in his life where he had overspeed any vehicle that he ever drove. He would always drive at the right speed but today was different.

Today, because Seraphina was sleeping on the passenger seat of his car, Elijah drove at a speed even lower than the approved speed. He deliberately driving at the slow speed so as to not wake up Seraphina. The soft hum of the engine and the gentle rocking of the car seemed to soothe her, and Elijah wanted to preserve this moment of peace for her as long as possible.

The distance that could have been normally covered under half an hour took over an hour to cover. Once they arrived at Seraphina’s mansion, Elijah gently opened the car door and stepped out. He was just as careful while opening the door to the passenger seat and gently unbuckled the seat belt.

He was about to put his arms around her to carry her inside but stopped when he heard, “You know that I didn’t actually fall asleep, right?”

Elijah’s eyes widened while he remained frozen, his hands hovering over Seraphina’s body as she continued, “I was tired for sure, and slightly dizzy but I wasn’t asleep.” she chuckled and opened her eyes.

Her gaze meeting that of Elijah who was still frozen in his spot, It were the innocent, deer caught in the headlights look that made Seraphina burst into peals of laughter. He looked so genuinely surprised and concerned that Seraphina could not contain in her laughter.

Before she could think what she was doing, Seraphina raised her hand to pinch Elijah’s cheek sweetly and said, “Aawwiiee! You are shhoooo cute!” she spoke in a baby-ish voice.

“Why didn’t you wake me up? We would have arrived sooner that this.” she giggled and sat up straight, grabbing Elijah’s hand and snapping him out of his daze.

A sheepish smile curved upon his lips as he replied, “You looked so peaceful, I did not want to wake you up.” he finally managed to say, his voice soft, “But you should have told me that you weren’t sleeping! Why didn’t you?” his tone had slight accusation to it.

“Well,” she caressed the skin of his hand with her thumb, “I was just enjoying your concern for me.” she said, her gaze shy and soft as she gazed at him, “It’s been so long that someone showed so much concern for me.”

Elijah felt his heart flutter and skip a beat or two as his gaze met that of Seraphina’s. In that moment, everything seemed to have slowed down and the only sound that he could hear in that moment was the sound of his own heart pounding inside his chest.

The tenderness in her eyes, the softness of her touch, and that alluring smile on her lips, had his heart in a vice like grip whose strings stretched taut, pulling him closer to her with every breath. He was entranced, completely and utterly captivated by her presence. Each second felt like an eternity, an endless sea of anticipation and longing.

He was so overwhelmed by the explosion of feelings that he was feeling at the moment that he did not realize when tears filled his eyes. It was only when a tear trickled down from the confines of his eyes and down his cheek that he snapped out of the daze that he had been momentarily trapped in.

“Elijah?” Seraphina frowned in confusion as more tears rolled down his cheek, “What happened? Why are you crying?” her sweet voice was laced with concern as she raised her hands and gently wiped away the tears that he had been unknowingly shedding.

Raising his own hand up to his cheek, Elijah felt the wetness on his cheek, his eyes widening slight with shock, “What happened?” Seraphina asked again.

“I don’t know.” Elijah replied, genuinely confused, “I just, shh, ah! I don’t know.” he himself did not know why he was feeling so overwhelmed. He could understand the happiness, the joy, the fluttering of butterflies, and all the good feelings that he was experiencing but he could not understand the reason behind the pang of longing, the subtle ache of yearning that clawed at his inside amidst of his newfound bliss.

══════ ∘◦♛◦∘ ══════

After comforting Caroline and making sure that she ate something, Asher gave Caroline the headache medicine as she was complaining of a severe headache. He stayed there with her until she fell asleep.

The he went to his room and closed the door behind him. Making sure that it was locked, Asher walked towards his walk-in closet and unlocked the safety locker that he had placed in the corner of the closet.

Inside the locker were some documents, a few files that had the name of a hospital engraved on its cover, a couple of pictures and multiple, similar looking, small sized bottles that were transparent in color and contained medicinal capsules. The bottles did not have any label of them.

Asher took out a bottle and then locked the safety locker. He walked out of his closet and came to stand in the middle of his room. Raising the bottle to his eye level, Asher smirked, “I am not holding just this bottle, dearest sister. I am holding your life in the palm of my hand.”

══════ ∘◦♛◦∘ ══════

On the other side of the city, Seraphina and Elijah were in the family living room area. Seraphina was seated on the couch, her legs propped up on the ottoman that Elijah had placed in front of her so that she would not aggravate her wound again.

Meanwhile, Elijah was serving lunch that they had ordered because Seraphina was in the mood of having Chinese food from her favorite restaurant so they got their food delivered at home. Elijah piled up a generous amount of chow mein on her plate and handed it to her before bringing all the side dishes that they had ordered.

They enjoyed their delicious meal while talking about all the random topics they could think of until Seraphina brought up a topic that he had almost forgotten about.

“By the way,” she took a bite of the orange chicken and munched on it before continuing, “why did you stop asking me about where we met for the first time?”

“Huh, what?” asked Elijah not realizing what Seraphina was talking about for a moment. Seraphina shook her head and asked the same question again.

In response, a shy and adorable smile curled upon his lips as he replied, “It doesn’t matter now.”

“What? Why?” asked Seraphina, pouting, “I was totally enjoying that ‘Guess where?’ game with you.”

Elijah chuckled and gently tapped at her nose, “I stopped asking you about it because it’s in the past and my present,” he said while directly staring into her eyes, “my present is much more beautiful than my past.”

“I have forgotten about the moment but I want to focus on my present, our present, and create memories that would forever remain imprinted on my soul, my heart, and my mind.” his voice held so much sincerity that if Seraphina did not know about Elijah’s true nature that she might have believed him.

“But now that you have raised the topic again, so why not give me the answer as well.” Elijah urged her to tell him about their first meeting.

Seraphina rolled her eyes and took a sip of water before saying, “Fine! I’ll tell you.”

Placing her plate aside, Seraphina continued, “About 4 years ago, you and I met at my first ever painting exhibition in Canada.”

“What? Really? Also, you paint, you are a painter as well?” asked Elijah.

Seraphina nodded her hear in positive, “Yes, I am a painter as well but my work isn’t that famous. A curator saw a few pictures of my paintings that I had uploaded on my social media sites. he contacted me and that’s how I ended up setting an exhibition for my paintings.”

“Coming back to our story, well, you came there at the exhibition and there was this one painting that attracted you the most -” Seraphina was not able to finish her sentence as Elijah did it for her.

“The Crimson Vow – Retribution of the Fallen Throne!” he exclaimed recalling the first time he met Seraphina, “Oh my God, I cannot believe that I forgot about it.” Elijah smacked himself for forgetting about that memory.

“Exactly!” exclaimed Seraphina in a complaining voice, “I spent half an hour explaining to you the details of the theme behind that painting and your forgot about it.”

It was as if the fog covering that section of his memory finally cleared and Elijah recalled every detail of their first meeting at the Radiant Tranquil Art Gallery that was owned by the wife of a business partner of his, and had gotten the invite for the gallery opening.

An appreciator of art, Elijah visited the gallery and had decided to buy a painting. The one that caught his eye was a painting called “The Crimson Vow – Retribution of the Fallen Throne”, a painting that told the story of revenge.