fate | CL fanfic

twenty eight

"Susannah!" I shouted, adrenaline was pumping in my veins as she grabbed my wrist tightly, dragging me back to the cosy room. I lifted my leg, stomping it down as hard as I could muster on her foot, she groaned, arms loosening for a moment as I tugged away from her "Your dead!"

Her old wrinkly hand came over my mouth, for a moment I thought I could just tackle her or something but with Chiara to take care of I thought better of it, "No honey come with me."

"I'm not- your not- no." I replied, my head starting to hurt, a whimper almost escaped my lips, was I going crazy? She dragged me into the room and locked the door behind her, shushing Chiara and I in the process.

"If you don't tell me what the fuck is going on I'm going to scream," I spat "And the guards won't hesitate to help me."

"Eva Eva, it's me darling," she replied softly "I promise it's just me.."

"Please leave me alone," I begged "I don't know what I did to deserve this, I don't fuck with ghosts."

She snorted at that, which seemed rather unlady like for her "Oh I'm not dead!"

"You were killed Susannah- murdered- I mean, oh god I'm making you up, this isn't real this isn't real this isn't real." I repeated closing my eyes and rocking back and forth, my god did I need a therapist or something.

"No I wasn't," she shook her head reaching forward to grab Chiara "You've got to be quiet Eva, people can't know-

"Don't touch her, don't fucking touch her!" I shouted to her, holding Chiara in my arms securely as she began to cry. I didn't know what the hell was going on but there was no way she was taking Chiara from me.

She clapped a hand over her mouth, a deep sigh leaving her lips as she looked at me, "Oh god Eva, they've got you good."

I shook my head at her, Chiara still sobbing, "I don't know what's going on but your freaking me out- I can't- I don't know what's real-

"Look it's okay," she promised "It's just me."

"Your dead Susannah! I shouldn't be seeing dead people!"

"Did you ever see the body Eva?," she asked me, she didn't wait for an answer either "Exactly, nobody killed me darling. I'm still here."

"Then why would-

She looked around, it was like she was nervous, "Look you need to get out of this house Eva.." she hurried out in low tones. My heart was pounding out of my chest.. what was going on?

I shook my head at her, closing my eyes and opening them again like maybe she would disappear and I was making this all up, "What? What are you-

"Get out of this house and take all the money with you, okay?," she explained "Run back to your father and shut the joint account, take the money and stay in Paris."

"Susannah, what are you on about?" I asked her calmly trying to focus on what she was expressing to me. If I'd been 'dead' for a few weeks and suddenly came back into everyone's life I'd be a little nuts too.

She shook her head at me, she shared the same expression that Charles had with me since we came home, kind of like guilt, "The Leclerc's, they are plotting against you," she paused "The threats over the phone, the dog collar, all of it. Pascale and Lorenzo are doing anything they can to scare you out of the business... even faking my death."

"Why would they do that? I'm not a threat to them-

"They want your half of the money, think they thought you'd have left by now but you're still here and it's only a matter of time until they get their hands dirty," she explained "You need to take what's yours and run."

I wasn't sure I believed it so I continued to ask questions that were probably overstepping,"What are they planning...?"

"I don't know, something about a home invasion? Fake guns, fake kidnapping? I don't know," she shrugged "You need to get out now, they won't stop until you've given up."

"Why would they do this to Charles?"

I really couldn't comprehend why they would do that to their son / brother, scare his wife away from the business like that. Leave him with more money than he knows what to do with and just scar him for life.

Susannah held my hand in hers gently, her eyes filled with sympathy, "Darling, he's in on it," she whispered so quietly I thought I was hearing things, "When you were married again in Greece, you know the phone call where the they knew what chapel it was? Charles had been texting his family. It was Lorenzo on the phone. The dog? Pascale put it in his collar. The texts were from the pair of em."

My mouth gaped.

No wonder the note said what Charles and I had been discussing in regards to our honey moon, he fucking told Pascale.

"You know games night? Pierre grabbed your phone because Charles had told him that he wasn't sure the texts from his maman were going through he had to check they were," she continued and honestly I didn't want to hear it anymore "Obviously they had and Pierre presented them to Charles with you in the office, it's all one big plot against you."

there's a heavy gulp that breaks the powerful silence, "I didn't think he would do that to me..."

She sighed too, "Honestly darling me neither, watching you pair play with the dog in the garden that one day, I was sure he'd change his mind.."

"That's why you were so eager for us to get along huh?," I whispered "You wanted him to change his mind about traumatising me and sending me with my tail between my legs back to Paris.."

"Pretty much." She sighed, a sad smile on her face.

I shook my head firm, tears had been streaming down my cheeks since Susannah appeared in the hallway but now they were never ending, "I really thought he loved me."

"Mama mama." Chiara repeated.

"He does love you Eva, and I think he is regretting this whole thing, but he's a business man," she admitted "And everything always comes second to the business for that boy, Herve taught him that and it's stuck with him."

And they were close too, to getting me to leave, let them keep my money and run. Makes sense looking back why Charles was so stingy on the plane home when I asked him to quit, he was waiting for me to quit this whole thing. Fuck me.

"He's doing this for his dad.." I muttered, but maybe Susannah was trying to make me feel better about myself. That it's not that he didn't love me at all, he's just doing what his dad would've done but I'm not so sure about that.

"I want to see you win. I want to see you absolutely smash every single dream you have. I want to see you overcome all of the barriers you face and I want to see you succeed. I'm your biggest fan, your top supporter and I'll be with you every step of the way as your husband and best friend. If that can all be defined by love," he paused "Then I'm pretty fucking certain that I love you mon Cheri and I'm really sorry."

It was all a fucking lie.