Breaking Mr Ambrose

4.) The Truth

This is dedicated to @brokenbeauty133 for motivating me to finish what I started. Thank you. This is for you. :D

[The Next Day]

Yesterday, the body of the esteemed Lord Daniel Eugene Dalgliesh was scandalously found within a building located in the East End of London. Authorities received an anonymous tip about illegal trade items stashed within the building before his body was discovered, along with several soldiers of his private army. After further investigation, it was revealed that His Lordship not only owned the building, but two other establishments. It is quite a national shock that such a seemingly honorable English nobleman was secretly indulging in the lifestyle of a criminal. Other than the bodies of Lord Dalgliesh and his soldiers, there is no further evidence of another party despite the police's conclusion of homicide. Additional investigation will continue in order to reveal who exactly killed Lord Dalgliesh.

Setting the article down on my desk, I nodded at my men's success in erasing any evidence of my presence in that room, as well as retrieving her body for a proper burial.

Other than the occasional shuffle of paper, the office was deathly silent. For once in my life, I couldn't bear it. After nearly two years of listening to her angry grumbling from the office next to mine and the swish of shuffling feet against the stone floor as she moved, the now deafening silence was suffocating without her company.

A painful ache ripped through my chest and my breath shuddered as a familiar burn started behind my eyes. I gripped the rough edge of my desk and squeezed, not caring about the sharp sting that followed from the bullet graze on my arm. Desperately, I attempted pushing away the wave of emotion, but it demanded to be felt, crashing down and washing up the raw memories associated with Lilly.

A single gunshot. Her crumpled body lying limp on the floor. Pain-filled, chocolate brown eyes glistening with tears as they bore into mine.

"I l-love you."

I snapped my eyes closed, mentally dispelling the images of her and the despair that came along with it. A knock erupted from the other side of my office door, thankfully shattering my tormented thoughts.

"Enter," I called out unsteadily. Clearing my throat, I adjusted the papers on my desk as I tried to regain some form of composure over myself. I didn't look up as whoever it was walked in and shut the door silently behind them.

Seconds passed with only the whisper of paper sliding across my desk stirring up sound in the room. The visitor shifted and I glanced up, impatiently wondering why they hadn't immediately begun speaking before I halted at the sight in front of me.

Muddy brown eyes swollen with deep bags peered down at me guiltily. He was clothed in the same attire from yesterday, his turban held askew upon his head and a blood-stained cloth wrapped securely around the wound on his left forearm. He appeared weaponless, his hands hanging limply by his sides and his beloved saber missing from its place by his hip.

"Sahib," he whispered brokenly.

That one word triggered an immediate response within me. Without giving a thought, I erupted from my chair and pulled out my newly loaded revolver, aiming directly at the betrayer.

"Karim," I bit out through gritted teeth, my voice echoing sharply within the enclosed space. "You must have a death wish showing your face to me again after everything that happened."

"What I have done cannot be forgiven, but I came to repay you for the life I took with my own." His eyes didn't waver as they gazed into mine.

"You truly think that killing you would make up for the fact that she is gone because of you?!" Nothing he could do or say would change that he murdered the woman I love. "Your life isn't worth a tenth of the one you took."