Page 30 of Oblivion
“Dammit! Answer me! I deserve that much. I deserve to know what I did wrong.”
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “You did nothing wrong, but I was never yours to begin with, Storm. That’s the truth.”
Somebody shouted at him, the sound of a glass crashing came through the line, making me wince, but I kept the phone line open.
“I will find you, Ophelia,” he said, breathing heavily. “I will find you, and when I do, you will wish you were never born.”
The line cut off with those words, but didn’t he know? I already wished I was never born.
8
OPHELIA
The momentI stepped outside of the cabin, Cillian started throwing gas all over the walls, covering the entire place. Numb after that phone call, I could only watch as he opened a trunk, dragging a girl that looked so much like me inside the house, before coming back out.
He didn’t need to explain, didn’t have to say anything.
I knew what was happening right in front of my eyes. As much as I wanted to be happy about the way things were about to unravel, I mourned the loss of happiness I thought I could have. Cillian was right—I was the happiest with Storm.
To know that I would never be able to look into his eyes without seeing all the hatred he had for me burned more than anything else in this world. How could you grieve a person that was still alive? It was almost impossible.
Cillian pulled out a box of matches from his back pocket and lit one up, then threw it right inside the cabin. It landed inside the hallway. It didn’t even take a second before the flames started traveling all the way from the hallway, through the cabin and all over the place.
The blazing inferno burning in front of me was symbolically a new beginning for me, but I couldn’t shake off the ugly feeling of doom spreading through my gut. I had a feeling that this was just the beginning of everything fucked up that was about to resurface. As I said before, we were poking the hornet’s nest, and someone was going to get hurt in the process.
I just hoped it wouldn’t be any of the people I cared about.
Storm’s words reverberated through my head as the fire burned the last pieces of the cabin, leaving only the concrete floor. I believed him when he said he would find me, and I only hoped it would be after I’d dealt with Belladonna or whoever else was involved in all of this.
Cillian’s hand slipped into mine, holding me tight. I had no idea if he was holding me or if he was trying to give himself strength.
“We need to go,” he murmured, and I could feel his eyes on me. But I couldn’t move.
“Firefighters are going to be here soon, and I want us to be as far away as possible once Storm finds out we were hiding here.”
“Why?” I asked and looked up at him. “Who was that girl?”
“Someone who died, trying to find a better life for herself. Someone who looked just like you and who would be a good stand-in. Both of us died today in this fire, Phee. You from the bullet wound through your head, and me from the torture.”
“Vincent—”
“Authorities will think it was me. I removed their teeth and left our IDs.”
Sirens echoed somewhere in the distance, and he pulled me toward the car. “Come on. Tristan is waiting for us in Ventus City.”
“You’re coming with me?” I asked him as we walked toward the car.
He opened the passenger side door, and I got in, going on autopilot. He put the seatbelt around me and closed the door before going around the car and entering on his side.
“Kill?”
He nodded. “For now. I’m going to help you settle in and then I’m going to Emercroft Lake.”
“Why the fuck would you want to go there?”
“There’s a lead there.” He turned the ignition on and started reversing the car. “Tristan thinks that Belladonna has a base there and I want to check it out.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
