The Unholy Bride: In God's Name, I Kill

Chapter 18: Twinkle Star

"Holy shit," Enzo exclaimed, lowering his camera from his eyes as I suddenly appeared in the lens. "You scared the hell out of me, Mary."

"What are you doing?" I asked, still standing in the way of his shot.

"Just trying to snap some pictures of the wild animals around here." He shrugged, then with a raised brow, he added, "And you? What brings you here?"

I pouted slightly as I gazed past his shoulder, where Scarlette was playing with her cat. This morning, she was the first person I looked for, needing to know how much of my nightmare was true—if she had really had an accident on the slide. That part was real, because when I found her, she had a cast wrapped around her head.

"It's boring in the mansion," I told Enzo, also shrugging.

"Wanna help me out here?" he suggested, which I nodded at after a moment, realizing I might get some information from him. "Sit right there."

He instructed me to sit on a large rock beneath the pine tree near the cliff, so I did, my gaze locking onto his camera. He took a couple of shots, but I didn't move or even smile.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like the Mother of God? You even have the same name as hers," he remarked, adjusting his lens for a close-up shot.

"You're the first one," I replied.

"Really? They must be blind, because when I saw you for the first time, I honestly thought I was looking at Mary, the Mother of God." He chuckled.

I also laughed, shifting my position because he gestured to me to look at the mountains on the left side.

"Enzo, how much do you love Catherine?" I asked out of the blue, but I didn't think of taking it back.

"You're so random, Mary," he chuckled. "Why do you ask?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I just wanna know."

"I love her," he uttered, his voice mixed with the click of his camera.

"How much? To what extent?" I questioned one after another, returning my gaze back at him just to find his eyes already staring back at me.

"What's with all of these questions?"

I didn't avoid his eyes, trying to unmask him. Within the time I've spent with the Steels, I discovered that this man in front of me was the smartest among all of them. He wasn't stupid like his wife. In fact, he was observant, so I wonder why he hadn't still figured out that his wife was cheating on him.

"Catherine is my husband's sister, which makes her my sister too," I explained. "And I don't want her to get hurt. That's why I'm asking you."

"Look, Mary," Enzo sighed. "Are you thinking that I might cheat on my wife? I would never do that because I love her."

"But how much?" I insisted.

"How much?" he repeated. "I would kill for that woman. That's how much I love her."

Slowly, the side of my lips rose up into a smile, satisfied with what I've heard.

"How lucky of Catherine. I'm happy for her." I stood up from the rock and dusted off my dress. "Can I go back to the mansion now? I'm tired."

I didn't wait for his reply and walked away, but then I accidentally tripped on something I didn't notice and nearly fell off the cliff—thankfully, Enzo was quick enough to grab hold of me. He grabbed me by the waist while I clung to his arm, my gaze fixed on the drop below with my eyes wide and my palms drenched in cold sweat as the icy wind blew in my face, whipping my hair around.The cliff wasn't particularly high, but its sheer steepness was enough to cause serious injury if I had fallen.

"Jeez, Mary, Roman will have my head if something happens to you on my watch," Enzo muttered through gritted teeth as he tightened his grip on my waist to help me up, but I hadn't fully recovered and accidentally knocked down his camera.

"I'm so sorry!" I gasped, dropping to my knees to retrieve it, only to realize it had broken into several pieces. I muttered a curse under my breath when I heard his frustrated sigh while he knelt down beside me to gather the pieces of his broken camera. "I'm really sorry, Enzo."

"It's fine. This is just my practice camera anyway," he said, his tone strained as he tried to mask his annoyance.

"I'm really sorry," I murmured again, biting my lip as I handed him the pieces I had gathered.

"You don't need to keep repeating it. I'm not deaf," he muttered, his eyes briefly meeting mine before looking away.

The guilt tightened in my chest, and I offered quickly, "I'll replace it with a new one."

"I said it's fine, Mary," he replied firmly. "Just be more careful next time. For the record, I'm annoyed, not mad at you."

With that, he turned and walked away without another word, heading toward his car. I watched him drive away until he completely vanished in sight, still feeling a little guilty. Letting out a sigh, I turned to head back into the mansion, but a faint glint in the sunlight caught my eye. There, nestled in the grass, was a tiny piece of thin metal, reflecting the early morning rays—a microchip. I crouched down to pick it up, and that was when I realized that it was a memory card that must have fallen from Enzo's camera.

A chill ran down my spine and the hair on my nape stood on end, as though a cold whisper urged me to satisfy my curiosity, even if it would only lead to more confusion because with every discovery that came my way, a new wave of questions followed. It was a never-ending cycle, each answer adding layers of uncertainty. But this was what I wanted, wasn't it?

I bit my lip, torn between whether I should pry into the contents of this memory card, but in the end, I still did because I couldn't resist. It was a favor laid out before me, and I wasn't about to let it slip away. With anticipation building in my chest, I fisted the memory card in my hand and ran to the mansion, hurrying my way to the bedroom to insert it into my laptop.

As expected, it contained many albums since Enzo mentioned it was his practice camera, so I put the effort in to look at every one of it. I viewed every photograph and watched every video, figuring out that he liked to capture pictures of nature because I've seen countless photographs of wild animals, flowers, and the sky here. I didn't stop scrolling to look for whatever I was looking for, until I came across an album with the title, "Twinkle Star"

I clicked on it and as soon as the pictures loaded, my hands flew to my mouth to suppress a loud curse.

"Go to fucking hell, Enzo," I muttered as I scrolled through the album, which contained all of Scarlette's sexually graphic pictures and videos. I felt a wave of disgust rise within me as I scrolled, tears beginning to blur my vision, but I pushed through because I knew I had to keep going to find out how much Enzo had abused her.

There were at least a hundred pictures here, but only three videos, one of which I clicked to watch.

"Smile over here, Scarlette," Enzo said, gesturing his hand for the little girl to follow.

Another curse broke free, and I had to close my eyes to hold back the tears, but my mind wouldn't let go of the image of Scarlette, wearing nothing but a pair of lingerie that was clearly inappropriate for her age. My lips quivered as I finally let the tears stream down my face, until I just found myself silently apologizing to Thia in my mind.

I felt so responsible for all of this, even though I knew I couldn't have done anything at the time, since they were in the States and I was here, planning my own revenge.

Flashes of memories played in my mind, reminding me of the things I had done, including the time when I shoved cereal in Scarlette's face out of anger and frustration. I had even considered bringing her down along with her father, all in the name of the justice I had been craving for myself.

"Come on, little Scarlette. The clients will love this!" My tear-soaked eyes shot open when I heard the voice from the video, and my heart began to pound violently, because there was only one person who ever called Scarlette that...

The person behind the voice spoke again in that high-pitched tone I knew all too well, then before I could stop myself, my hands clenched into fists, overwhelmed by a mix of rage and betrayal—not only for me, but for Scarlette, who had placed her trust in a monster disguised as the person she considered her mother.