BEAUTY IN THE BEAST

Rage Is Black

Ch 89: Rage is black

Ace

I descend the stairs and stop short when all I see is flurry of emerald green and Viktor right at her heels, she runs out of the doors, leaving to the same balcony which started it all.

For a moment I just look at the doors, lost in thoughts when my gaze shifts to where my family, or my supposedly family stands looking at the same doors and then at me. The whole room is quiet, all eyes on me, but my gaze is locked on my cousin, Ronan stands there, clenching and unclenching his hands as his jaw works, his tell, for he is angry, his gaze is transfixed on the double doors and it's like he doesn't even realise I am standing here looking at him.

He starts towards the door, and I just know, he knows. He knows of who she is but that's not what stops me right now, it's Semenov's wife who looks like she has seen a ghost.

"Ronan." My voice cuts through the air like a whip.

He turns around, narrows his eyes and opens his mouth to I am sure tell me off, but whatever he sees on my face, falters his steps. Good.

I slowly descend the stairs, my eyes still locked on Ronan's.

I start walking towards Ronan when Viktor comes beside me, "She needs you, Alec." He says quietly.

I look at my second in command, my best friend and in his eyes is a seriousness which tells me he isn't fucking right now, his lips are pinched tight and it takes everything in me to not run out of the door and hold Katherine in my arms. I subtly nod my head and he gives me a understanding look.

I move towards the door while Viktor marches off to Ronan. He will handle him, he knows I need to be with her now.

Reaching the door, my guards open the door and cold air hits me on the face, the same place where it all started almost four years back, the same place which snatched my black heart from me and gifted it to the woman who is now looking blankly at the sky. I stop and look at her for a minute, it looks like someone has snuck the life out of her, like someone has replaced my vibrant wife who was there just a few minutes ago with someone who is so haunted by the past that she couldn't even breathe.

I walk to her, slowly.

Leaning against the railing, I watch out the skyline quietly along with her, I watch the city, my city shining like little lamps and wonder what is going on my pcholka's mind.

It takes minutes when she speaks, softly, hollowly like the broken strings of a guitar, "Isn't it alluring Ace? The darkness, the night, yourself alone? The first drops of tears when you realise you can't take it anymore? The.." she asks numbly.

I look at her then, her eyes fixed on the dark skyline, I know I need to bargain now, decide if I want her distracted or hurt as she is now. The choice is as simple as taking a bullet for my wife.

"Mornings are for the brave. If you continue to live in the dark, the sunlight after sometime stops coming to you and you get trapped in the shadows." I say quietly.

I could feel her eyes on me now, but I don't turn, I have to tell her, start giving her crumps of our tale, she may hate me. Hate me for doing whatever I did, but her hate is better poison than seeing her in agony.

"But what if it becomes pointless after sometime?" she asks softly but with some venom wrapped.

There's a long pause after that, I can't see her eyes now so I give her the time to control her own emotions, taking out the handkerchief from my tux I pass it to her silently.

"Don't you just hate yourself at days when you just couldn't gather the energy to wake up and do a basic task as eating or showering? What do you do on those days?" She asks me softly sniffing. I still, no... I did not hear her right, she can't be in that loop, surely not or I would have known, I would have known if she was on that path from Naomi or I would have observed something, anything.

It takes me a minute while I regroup my thoughts, her eyes slide to mine, they hold many questions but it's the numbing emptiness that haunts me.

"I had those days for everyday for 14 years but then this girl entered my life in a red gown and looked at me like I was a trash bag and not the most feared person in the mafia... she just waltzed into my life and made a home in my heart... she shouted on me when there was a guy literally shooting her because I killed him." I say looking into her eyes. her brows furrow and then her eyes widen. Oh, she remembers that night. She suddenly looks around and a gasp falls from her lips.

"She just made me alive suddenly and pushed me into the light while she still remained there." I say softly, her eyes tear away from mine.

"T-t-that night... you... the mask... it was you." She says with a gasp.

Her eyes are big and round and she looks at me with a strange expression, but before she opens her mouth though, the door behind opens and Viktor's voice comes.

"They're ready for you Alec."

Katherine shuts her lips, gives me a long look before nodding her head a little to herself, then I see the woman who made a fool of me, the smile on her face lights it up, but I could see the crinkled corners and I see the little twitch of her lips and I understand the actual difference between her real and her fake smiles, fool me once, I'm naïve but fool me twice and I'm an idiot, never again, after this night, there'll be not one thing about my woman which I wouldn't know, I swear on it.

My man is back!!

-love rky xoxo.