Page 43 of Delirium
This girl, this woman, thought that she could swoop in and take everything away from me. And judging by the papers she was going through, she was reporting to Belladonna about my pregnancy, which also meant that my children weren’t safe anymore.
And it was all thanks to her.
“So, this is how we’re gonna do this, darling.” I grinned, lifting myself up and turning her around. Her eyes blazed with anger, but I paid her no attention. I pressed the blade to her shirt, right above her heart.
“You’re stupid, Ophelia.” She laughed. “They all believe me. They all love me. Not you! You’re not the favorite anymore.”
“Oh, boy.” I smiled. “You really are completely and utterly crazy.”
“I’m not crazy!” she bellowed. “I’m better than you. Better than all of you.” She nodded to herself. “Better. I’m better. Daddy told me I’m better.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
Nikolai really did a number on her. Or maybe it was more than that. Maybe the insanity lived in his blood, destroying everyone slowly over the years. Maybe genetics had more to do with this than the environment the person lived in.
And for the first time in my life, I was glad we didn’t share the same blood. I was glad my children would never be touched by anything related to Nikolai.
Before Lazar came back into my life, I believed I was just like Nikolai. I believed I was a psychopath who didn’t care about other people, because he made me think so. But not anymore.
Seeing Nova like this, her mask completely off, brought some clarity to me. I would fight anyone who tried to take these children away from me, or to harm them. I thought I had nothing left to fight for, but the mere thought of Belladonna getting her hands on them made my blood boil.
“Who is Belladonna, Nova?” I asked her, my blade ripping open the T-shirt she wore, revealing the lacy black bra underneath. “Who is the bitch that’s trying to take what’s mine?”
“I will never tell you.” Nova laughed. “She will kill you. She will take everything from you. Your life, your kids, your pathetic existence will stop.”
I lowered my upper body toward her, dragging the blade of my knife between her breasts, to her collarbone, and all the way to her ear. “Oh, really?” I chuckled. “She will do all that?”
“Yes, yes!” Nova yelled out. “She will take it all.”
“And how’s she gonna do that, huh? How’s she going to destroy me, Nova?”
“Easy,” this fucking idiot answered, completely unaware of the game I was playing. “She has it all planned. All of it is planned.”
“What is planned, Nova?” I whispered, keeping the tip of my knife to her throat. “How am I going to die?”
“Painfully,” she panted, closing her eyes. “And all will be well in the world.”
“But how? Am I going to bleed out? Is she going to kill me herself?”
“She will separate you from everybody. She will get you when you’re at your loneliest, because you won’t have Storm, you won’t have your friends. She already told him. Yes, yes, yes, she told him.”
“What did she tell him, Nova?”
“She told him.” She laughed maniacally. “She told him to choose. He had to choose. And he did, he did, he chose. He didn’t choose you. He will never choose you. He loves you. He wants you, but he will never choose you.” That we could both agree on. “He let you go. He let you go. And she knows. She knows.”
For fuck’s sake.
“She knows you wouldn’t wait. She knows you wouldn’t understand.”
“What won’t I understand?”
“Why he didn’t choose you. Why he chose the Club.”
A-ha! Now we were getting somewhere.
“So she told him to choose?”
“She did. She did. And he didn’t choose you.”
