Chasing Warm Words

Chapter 25: OFFICIALLY LABELED

CAROLINE's POV

"So you mean Doni loved Arethusa out of guilt?" tanong ni Hideo habang pinapapak ang pangatlo na niyang bag of chips. Hindi na lang siya nagkanin eh. Halata namang gutom.

"Mm-hmm. Parang ganun na nga." tugon ko.

"Pagkatapos? Anong ginawa ni Arethusa nang malaman niya?"

Napakunot ang noo ko dahil maging ako ay nagtaka sa naging reaction ni Arethusa. It's not unusual but it was so unlikely of her. I mean considering her situation right now, she should've done something about it.

"'Yun nga ang ipinagtataka ko. Wala siyang ginawa."

"At paano mo nalaman lahat ng 'to?" nakataas kilay niyang tanong.

Teka. Bakit parang may gusto siyang tumbukin?

"Paano ba sa tingin mo? Edi sinabi sa 'kin ni Arethusa."

"Sinungaling."

"Ano? Ako sinungaling?"

Umirap siya tapos inilagay sa table ang bag ng chips bago sumagot.

"Hindi naman nagkukuwento si Arethusa. Alam kong wala siyang sinabi sa 'yo. Hindi mo 'ko maloloko kaya aminin mo na."

"Tsk. Fine. You clever."

Wala naman sana akong balak sabihin sa kanya kung paano ko mismo nalaman lahat ng sinabi ko sa kanya pero nahuli niya 'ko kaya sasabihin ko na lang dahil kung hindi, hindi na niya 'ko titigilan hanggang sa masabi ko kung paano ko nga nalaman lahat ng mga nasabi ko sa kanya.

Ngayon, ilang ulit kong sinabi ang mga salitang may sabi?

"You know I'm in a gang, right?" tanong ko. Sa pagkakaalala ko, nakuwento ko na sa kanya dati kung paano ako napasok sa gang at nakilala sina Klyre, Jasper, at Volk.

"Yes."

"So, uh... we have a strict rule in the gang only for us vampires and only vampires know about it too that we can never expose ourselves to any human no matter what."

"And?"

Napakaatat naman nito.

"And so I took it as an opportunity to torture Klyre, literally, to speak up. I called some humans in the gang to get and tie him up on our headquarters. I'm the empress so Prime can't do anything. I know he just recovered from what Doni did to him but since Arethusa won't tell me what's going on, he's the only one I can count on but his mouth was zipped as hell so I did it the hard way. Don't worry. I didn't kill him."

Tumawa siya. "He deserve it. He made his family threaten Dolos to keep his mouth shut. He made his sister zip her mouth too and do nothing which pained her so much. He made his stepbrother, Doni, to make Arethusa fall in love with him because he might've thought it was a good did to get away with the guilt which was none of the sort. And, he got so many chances to come clean but he never did. Klyre's family ruined Arethusa's family. He deserves something more than you guys beating him up."

May galit sa tono ng pananalita niya. Alam kong nag-aalala rin siya kay Arethusa. Her parents once hired him as an undercover security for her alone. Of course they hired another one for Tash but I didn't ever knew the name neither did Hideo. None of the twins knew they've had an undercover security up until now.

"Don't make me think you're going to do something worse than I did." ani ko dahil mukhang may binabalak siya.

Gusto ko namang maparusahan si Klyre pero sa tamang paraan at ang kaparusahan na 'yun ay dapat aangkop sa kasalanang nagawa niya.