Bitter Sweet

Chapter Twenty two: Realization

Chapter Twenty Two: Realization

I'd woken up expecting to be in heaven. It's alright, it isn't the first time I expected to be dead. But like every time, I wake up surprised to find myself alive. Only instead I find out that Dylan wasn't. It was Damien who'd broken the news to me. That there was a bullet injury in his head and he was slowly bleeding out to death.

Waking up after two days, I realized that it was too late to even talk to him.

Dylan was gone.

There was many things I regretted. Like how maybe I should've received the second bullet in my head or that Marina should've just dropped dead at that moment. But I mainly placed the blame on me and for that regretted most for not saying good bye to him. He'd loved me to the very end, taking his kindness for me to the very end while I neglected his caring act as a facade.

It wasn't a surprise that I cried. And cried. And cried. And well cried. And just after Dylan had died, Boss had a stroke and died as well. Jesus, so much death.

Everyone else didn't know what to do.

A day before Boss died, Rose left the syndicate. Probably because she was sick of Boss. The three Asians-Olivia, Carter, and Orion-were still there but mainly bored to death. Of course they felt sympathy but without a Boss or a Leader, what good were they for. I felt pity for Damien the most, I could feel his constant sadness that Rose had left and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Just like me, Damien had lost the one he loved and didn't even get a chance to say good bye.

With Dylan gone, I took the liberty to care for Polly and Peter. They were sober of all of the misfortune and was appreciative that I still cared for them. But with two main people in their lives gone, I could still feel the children's pain in my heart.

My gun shot wound wasn't doing any better. As I sat there, bed-ridden, I kept thinking about the pain of them gone and then my shoulder would start bleeding. And with that pain taking over me, I started dealing with physical and emotional pain all at once.

It hurt like fucking hell. But I'm a big girl and I took it all, with or without tears I went through all of the pain that hurt and shuddered me like vicious shaking from fate.

One morning when the pain on my shoulder was running even closer to my heart, I heard someone knock on my door. I'd stayed at the syndicate in case Marina came back to my dorm to kill me. But with me staying here, it didn't make it any better especially because she knows where we're hiding.

"Come in." I whispered and the door creaked open and Damien had stepped in.

"How're you holding up?" he asked filling the empty silence with noise.

I gave him a small smile. "Fine." I lied.

Damien rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen Emma-

"I want you to go find Rose." I blurted out and his brows knitted with confusion.

"What?"

"Wasn't that what you were going to ask me?" I asked him.

"Yeah, but there was also something else."

I stared at the nervous look on his face. "I want you to take over the syndicate."

Confusion washed over my face. "Why?"

"I'm sure that's what Dylan would've wanted."

My throat tightened and I soon went a bit cross-eyed afterwards when he'd said his name.

"Oh." I answered and he nodded looking at the ground.

"I'll do it." I answered him after.

He looked up at me with surprise. "You will?" he said smiling widely.

I smiled back and nodded.

"Just promise me you'll find Rose." I told him and nodded rapidly.

"I have an idea on how to find her." Damien said and came over to my bed side.

He'd taken out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and unfolded it multiple times then laid the paper on my lap. It was a map of the world.

"Rose and I've been planning this," he explained "we wanted to leave the syndicate once Boss died and traveled the world."

He pointed around the pin points marked with a red marker. "We were going to go to Vegas first, normal stuff but mainly illegal." he chuckled a bit and it warmed my heart.

"If that's where you think she is, then go for it." I said with a full grin.

Damien looked surprised and happy. Excited that he was actually going to do it. "Thanks." he said in a sigh.

"You'll be alright here in charge?" he asked before leaving and once again I lied.

"I will."