Life after Death: The Afterlife of Hezekiah Chamblee

Chapter Thirty-One: Who is Rosalia Domingue, Catalina Slade?

Hezekiah's POV

Back in the Nexus...

"Chamblee."

Looking up from my yardwork, I soon came face to face with one Catalina Slade with the femme-fatale in question dressed in Daisy-Dukes shorts and a revealing bikini top that left a lot to one's imagination. "Catalina," I said, keeping my voice calm even though I knew that she was ready to let me have it regarding my bond with Chance.

"I thought I made things clear with you when I told you to back off from Chance," she said coolly, taking off her sunglasses. "I had high hopes that you would be courteous enough to at least keep your distance from what's rightfully mine."

I arched an eyebrow. "And what makes you think that Chance is rightfully yours?"

"Because he was the one that I saw first when he arrived," she explained, her tone exasperated as if I was the town dunce. "Darling, I know that he's a fine looker and all, not to mention that you two shared history together. But that doesn't excuse you from getting too close to him. He should only have eyes for me, no one else. If I see what I want, then I don't want anyone else to have him. And that means you."

Without warning, she swung her arm as if ready to give me another backhand to my face...before the saint of a seraph named Catia arrived just in time to hold her arm back. "Slade," the seraph said in a menacing tone just as Louis and the arch-demon twins arrived. "Slow your role."

Catalina wrenched herself out of Catia's grasp before finally landing that slap on my face. "You're on my list, Chamblee," the Brazilian beauty hissed, eyes lit in anger. "If it wasn't for those arch-demons, those blood roses might've made sure that you remained unconscious while I finally made Chance into my husband."

"You heartless harlot," Louis spat angrily. "Leave now."

"Gladly." She turned on her heel and sashayed out of my yard while a small crowd of onlookers watched on, some with confusion and others with contempt.

Abaddon came to my side. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Peachy," I replied just as I saw the arrival of the others. "Looks like we know who sent me those flowers."

"Yeah, and it's all the more reason for us to come over," Azrael commented. "We got some surprising news about Miss Catalina Slade...or rather, Miss Rosalia Veronica Domingue."

"Wait, what?" Eva, fresh from her modeling gig, piped up. "Who's she?"

"She, Miss Sinclaire, is the young woman using a living woman's name to escape the fires of hell," Louis, ever the professional mediator, replied. "And she has quite a backstory."

"Let's head inside," Chance, in his bellboy uniform, said. "It's time that we got to know more about this Brazilian beauty and why she's been after me."

I couldn't agree more.

*************

Minutes later, everyone was gathered in the backyard as I finished serving some leftover sandwiches that came from a small party that I held yesterday. "Rosalia Veronica Domingue is one young woman with a thirst for murder and a hatred for men entirely," Louis began after everyone was settled in their chairs. "She was born in favelas of Belo Horizonte, the middle child out of seven from a homemaking mother and a factory worker of a father. Her childhood was relatively normal until she turned eleven and was sexually abused by her older twin brothers. It didn't help her much since her parents blamed her for being too promiscuous and she being an early bloomer in puberty. The abuse lasted for five years until she had enough and poisoned her brothers. Then she killed her parents and other siblings save for the youngest brother Artem whom she adored."