Until Death (Despairful Love, #1)

Three

The dreary grey overcast looms heavily against the sky as thin, dark clouds move somberly in the air, moving too slowly for one to be able to tell which directing they're heading. For a few mere seconds, a beam of sunlight would claw its way through the depressing clouds, attempting to lighten the somber sky, but the dense gray clouds would always push the sunlight away, returning the environment to its dark appearance. Chicago is cold. There's no warm beans sunlight caressing my body, no refreshing, tranquil smell of saltwater from the beaches, no palm trees dancing in the light breeze, hell I'm pretty sure there's no vegetation whatsoever. There's just thousands of huge and intimidating skyscrapers that seem to disappear in the grey clouds. There's cold, unforgiving winds slapping my skin and forcing goosebumps all over my body, annoying cries of city birds, cars honking, and people screaming into their phone. Oh, and it smells like shit.

Welcome to Chicago.

"Woah..." Lalia breathes "This place is amazing! Don't you think so, Val?"

"Yeah...it's just effin' peachy," I mumble unconsciously as my mood continued to deteriorate.

"What peaches? I don't see any peaches." Lalia replies, looking out the window in confusion.

I sigh, not bothering to explain my meaning to her as I watch the monogamous buildings fly by. My parents haven't said a word to me since we entered the sleek black SUV that was "conveniently" waiting in the private lot when we arrived in Chicago. For about an hour now, they've been speaking to each other in hushed whisperers, exchanging secrets that only made me increasingly nervous the closer we got to the Cavanaugh's estate.

What are they hiding?

Why are we going to our enemies house?

Are we in trouble?

What are they-

"We're here" Lalia whispers, distracting me from my internal turmoil and motivating me to curiously look up. Lalia never whispers. Not unless something has completely stolen her breath. The SUV suddenly slows down as we enter a large, golden gateway. In the middle of the gate is the same golden 'C' emblem that was on the private jet.

"Woah...." she whispers "It's a castle."

I look out the window of the SUV and...

Well, she's not wrong about that.

The Cavanaugh's  estate is huge. Huge as in Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos combined all their overall incomes to pay for this mansion alone.

The first thing that catches my attention is the giant water feature positioned perfectly in the middle of the pristine yard for all guest to marvel at. A fearless gold lion stands proudly in the middle of an elegant white porcelain fountain. Surrounding the fountain is a perfect arrangement of light pink peonies, white lilies, and orange begonias. They're all organized in a perfectly symmetrical circle with not one flower positioned improperly. Hell, every flower is even trimmed and leveled to the exact same length.

God damn. They even have their plants under marshall law.

Behind the fountain, a curved pathway weaves it's way to the two-way steps that lead to the mansion itself. My mouth drops open.

Literally.

My father's right.

These people are flashy fuckers.