DARK SEDUCTION

chapter:33

Ethan was furious. The anger in his voice was palpable as he stormed into the room, his eyes blazing with a fury that Nancy and Diana hadn't anticipated. "You told me you could handle it!" he snapped, his voice low but dangerously controlled. "You convinced me not to erase her memory completely, saying you'd take care of everything. Yet look at her now! Leila is melancholic and depressed, hanging by a thread. She’s almost dead because of your incompetence!"

Diana flinched at the sharpness in his tone, while Nancy remained impassive, though her eyes betrayed a hint of guilt. Ethan wasn’t done. "I want you to fix her," he continued, his voice dropping to an icy calm that was more terrifying than his previous outburst. "I will meet with Leila personally to confirm that she’s okay. But let me be clear ,if you don’t fix your mess before the fortnight is up, I will make her my bride, and there won’t be anything either of you can do about it because i would behead my old one and burn her and of course her witch treason both women were shaken as color drained from their cheek."

The room fell into a tense silence, the weight of Ethan's ultimatum hanging in the air. Nancy and Diana exchanged glances, both knowing they had underestimated how deeply Ethan cared for Leila or perhaps how possessive he had become because she was the only one for centuries capable of giving him an heir. His threat was not one they could afford to ignore.

As I sat in my room, staring blankly at the mirror, Nancy’s words from earlier echoed in my mind. "Today, you're going to paste a big smile on your face and go downstairs for dinner," she had instructed me with a cold certainty. "When you get there, you’ll smile at Diana and apologize for being so nasty. It doesn’t have to be a real smile; it’s called play-acting. Just make your audience believe it. Isn’t that what life is all about anyway?"

I hadn’t argued. Deep down, I knew she was right. Life was nothing but a series of performances, each one more convincing than the last. And I was tired,tired of resisting, tired of pretending that things could be different.

Nancy’s voice had softened slightly when she mentioned Max. "If you still want Max, you’ll get him eventually. After all, nobody knows you ever had a child or an abortion unless you tell them. Even if you do tell them, there’s no record of that fact it’s been wiped clean."

I had nodded in understanding, feeling a bitter acceptance settle over me. Yes, I had a knack for messing things up, but once again, Nancy had come to the rescue. Finally I had something to look out for Max, my crush, I had almost forgotten him, with all the gloom and melancholy I had undergone this past few weeks. As Nancy left to get me a new dress a sunflower yellow one, she had decided for, I took a long, hot shower. The water cascading over me felt like it was washing away the remnants of the person I once was. But when I stepped out, I realized that the person who had entered that shower wasn’t the same person who came out.

The girl who emerged was a fake, a master of disguise who had learned to pretend, to lie convincingly. I was ready to have fun, dangerous fun, to live life on the edge and to the fullest. That was who I had become—a girl who was willingly ready to kill rather than give up on what she wanted.

My love had become dangerous and obsessive. My tongue was now sharper than a razor’s edge, my movements more deceptive than those of a snake. The change was imminent, and my heart had frozen over it might as well have been a glacier. I would have Max, not because I loved him, but because I wanted to possess him. Never again would I allow myself to love or trust anyone.

When I finally came downstairs, Diana’s surprise was evident. She wasn’t the only one who noticed the complete transformation. I flashed her a dazzling smile, a smile that had been perfected in front of the mirror moments before. I had learned to play the part. We all sat down to dinner, much to Maya’s amazement, and I smiled at her, launching into the sob story Nancy and I had concocted, adding a bit of extra sauce to spice up the lie.