The Handsome Devil

Chapter 48 - The dinner

When she returned to her 'golden cell', Jessie was nowhere in sight and it forced a small sigh of relief past her lips. After what happened, she could hardly imagine the retaliation that's to come.

His boss sure didn't look happy to meet me.

The naked mountain of muscles popped back into her mind, and the whole fiasco made her cringe. Why didn't she stay where she was?

I might have even read a book or two before they found me in there.

Somehow, that realization made her more furious than getting caught, and so she decided to distract herself by preparations for the dinner.

Although this time there should me more clothes involved, she still despised the idea of meeting Celadon again. Nonetheless, it was possibly the only way to get some answers around here.

Like where the heck do I know him from..

The mysterious familiarity was getting onto her nerves. It felt as if trying to recall a dream. So close to grasping it, yet, it kept slipping through her fingers.

She angrily strode toward the wardrobe, her petty mind dedicated to picking the ugliest piece as if it was a great act of rebellion. However, deep inside, she knew the man frightened her way too much to seriously misbehave.

But why?

With the ink, piercings, and a dense cloud of dread surrounding them, Max and the stranger weren't that different. In fact, now that she thought about it, there was quite a lot they had in common.

Then why they don't "feel" the same?

In a second, she was about to find out their tastes in fashion didn't match either. The painful shopping experience with Max equipped her with a biker-slash-rocker look she didn't get to enjoy for long, but all her new closet held were silky dresses from Gucci, Prada, and a bunch of brands she couldn't even pronounce.

There was the distinct gleam of panic in her eyes when the memories of Gabriel's parents resurfaced.

No matter how much spite she had for them, and how horrible couple of human beings they were, she couldn't deny they loved their son from the bottoms of their cold empty hearts.

God, what have I done?

Her mind instantly pictured their devastated frames shaking in sobs at the grave of their only son, covered in the same expensive fabric she was just looking at.

Do they know?

A wave of shame overwhelmed her. There was no saying what Bulldogs did with the body. For all she knew, they got rid of all evidence and it never saw the daylight again, which would surely save his parents the grief for a while. With his lifestyle, it couldn't be that suspicious if he suddenly went no-contact.

But you haven't seen what exactly they did, right?

The tiny chance that somehow it was found... That somehow they knew it was her..

If life was normal, she'd simply check the TV or newspaper, but that wasn't an option. Not until she gets out of here.

And I WILL.

With trembling fingers, she slipped a random black dress from the hanger and proceeded to change into it. She was clueless as to why she thought symbolically honouring Gabriel's death with the colour would ease the guilt. It didn't.

Once she faced the mirror and let her eyes scan over the plethora of variously coloured bruises, it was as returning all the way back to Peckham when she starred at her miserable self in the dirty puddle's surface. If she only knew how life-changing would turning down the street be.