The Price of Love

◆ 17 ◆

I took the gun.

The weapon felt cold in my hands, dry and deadly, like paper waiting to catch on fire. My father's company had its foundation built on guns. A company that made profit on war, one day to be mine. 

Rifles, grenades, ammunition, smart technology-based clothing, and many other weapons of every sort in large metal crates were a permanent fixture of our mansion's basement, but I never had any reason, or desire, to go down there. I understood the moral crime of what my father did, of what made us rich, but I had learned to turn a blind eye to it. My life could only be called mine because recent graduates of high school now had access to machine guns, but who wanted to focus on that when Fashion Week was coming up?

I never had any moral conscience either.

But I could learn.

I could grow from my mistakes. I could pluck out valuable life lessons from my experiences. I could be something other than the vapid pretty Barbie I was meant to be. As a person, as a human being, I could learn  to be better.  I could be taught the difference between right and wrong, but only if I was exposed to the wrong. Caius's dogs were cruel because they were treated cruelly. But couldn't they change? Couldn't I?

My father derived his fortune from bloodthirst- I would derive my humanity from experience.

And that experience was the choice between life and death. My father ignored the people being killed by the guns he supplied to armies, but I could not. I refused to play God. 

And the life lesson I learned? It came with the realization that I loved Tommy- really and truly loved him with all my heart. He was my only true friend, the only person in this entire world that ever did something good for me, not because someone was watching, but because no one was. He risked his life to suggest an escape, let alone go through with it. It was a foolish, foolish decision, but it was one made out of love. I owed him better than to destroy his life.

If, after 19 years of being told everyone was out to get me, I could learn to love, then perhaps Caius could as well.

"Don't," A hoarse whisper escaped my lips. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't feel a heartbeat in my chest. My mouth was as dry as cotton, but the liquid pool of fear rising from the fingers that gripped the Beretta was everywhere. I could barely hold onto it, let alone my forceful attempts to shove down the urge to panic. "Don't do this."

"You kill him," Caius pointed to Tommy, and then turned his head to motion towards two dark figures standing behind him that I hadn't noticed before. "Or I kill them. I know you don't always have a choice in things, Daphne, so today must be your lucky night. I also know that you understand what the better choice would be in this situation, so let's get on with it. I will not stand here all night." He growled. "Him or them. Hurry up."

I stared at the two figures huddled over in the background, feeling a wave of horror crash into the very center of my heart when I realized it was Lee and Phoenix. 

I unstuck my tongue from the roof of my mouth and tried to swallow. "Him, them....or me." Despite the little voice in my head cursing me out, I stepped closer to Caius. Tommy's hand fell away from my back, like a blanket slipping off the bed. The comfort went with it. "I have a third option, and I choose me. Tommy's loyalty is still to you. Loyalty out of fear, yes, but loyalty all the same. They're all afraid of you, Caius. No one will double-cross you if no one is there to make them cross. This was my mistake, this was all me-"

"If you want to waste my time," His voice was like venom, ensnaring the senses and stopping the blood flow through veins. "I'd be happy to take matters into my own hand and kill all three of them. You wanted an adventure...well, here it is."