Ransom

•• Chapter 38 ••

Angelica assures me Ransom never visited her apartment in the city, she always went to her clients and kept her own private business ultra-private.

She let's me stay in her guest room in her cozy two-bedroom apartment. After hearing my story she was beyond disgusted that her clients were involved in the slave trade. She was determined to bring back my identity and secure my freedom. The best way to do so was to have leverage that would never go away.

Our plan was surprisingly simplistic. Apparently Cheryl Evans still existed. It was simply a lie that she had been erased. Being their sister was the leverage. I had two IDs. Angelica wasn't helping me officially, it was all below the table.

I would be both identities. My leverage was being their sister. Including my testimony about what happened to me, which I recorded and left with Angelica in confidence. To use if I ever disappeared or if they threatened me. She also asked if I wanted money, and I simply said I want money I can control and they can't shut down. She helped me access a Trust in Cheryl Ransom's name. Five million. Emergency funds that their sister had put away and no one knew about but Angelica.

So, now I'll also have my own money flow. Money. Check. Place to live? Almost sorted. Angelica would not be involved in this. This wasn't representation, this was friendship. She advised that I go no-contact and never deal with any of them again.

This was the only part we couldn't find a common ground on.

I still wanted vengeance and justice.

I had been spying on the brothers, gathering intel. Emmett wasn't leaving the penthouse. He wasn't going to work. But I saw his mother visiting regularly.

Slade was dressing up more, meeting with Edgar in the street. I don't think they knew each other very well, but were getting to bond and they seemed to click.

Which meant, as suspected, Emmet fucking Ransom was the diabolic mess in all this.

The only event on his list right now, was an upcoming solo performance.

Angelica said I should absolutely not go to that.

But 3 weeks on my lonesome helped me sort out my own feelings. Emmett was fucking beautiful chaos like me.

Fuck. My heart – my heart ached. For Emmett. I missed him. I thought I'd grow to hate him, but I missed him. How strange a thing love was. Every single hurtful thing he said, about needing to marry someone else, about using me against Edgar, putting business before me – I didn't fucking believe a word of it. After I sorted my own head out, after I realised Emmett wasn't leaving his penthouse after my disappearance? I knew. I knew it wasn't about business anymore. Emmett Ransom had a fucking heart. And I broke it. Deserved.

I tie my hair back in a tight bun, wearing a black slim dress and black heels. I look classy and a silver diamond bracelet I bought for myself is my only accessory.

Tonight, I was Cherry Ransom, his step-sister. With all the glitz and glam. I had strangely come to love the identity, like I was protecting it as much as I was representing it. I was also Cheryl Evans. In public I was their sister, but with them, and with Emmet I was and would be Evans.

The crowd is enormous in Symphony Theatre. There are multiple solo performances. Emmett gets the last spotlight.

He had dark rings under his eyes, wearing an off-white suit, slightly grey like concrete, his tie is a crimson red and every note he plays is precise and sometimes precisely off. Strange notes that fail in the unique song, that has everyone's hands lurching up to their hearts, thinking he might collapse with the masterpiece he created.