Till Death Do Us Part | ON-HOLD

Chapter 24 : Qismat

this chapter is 6,500plus words. do let me know how it goes :')

【 24.

Twenty-Four

Qismat 】

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[ Qismat • fate ]

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      ZACHARY RUNS HIS hands through his hair, knowing that he’s probably worsening the dishevelled state it must already be in. He can’t help it though, despite wanting to put up a fearless front and remain cool during the interrogation.

He’s in over his head—he can feel it. But he’s just so adamant against admitting that and doing something to help his situation.

It took him by surprise, really, how thorough these detectives have so far been in their investigations. If another suspect was sitting where he is now, Zachary would have appreciated the obvious efforts and hard-work these cops put into Dahlia’s death within the first week itself.

The rational part of him says that he should still be able to appreciate all their work, despite him being the primary suspect—because they’re only prioritising justice for Lia above his comfort—but perhaps he’s just not that capable of being the bigger person and letting it go.

He wonders what that must say about him as Lia’s husband to detective Romero.

The thought leaves him a little unsettled. Does his attitude come across as someone who’s ungrateful for all the dedication and commitment that’s being shown towards the murder of his own wife? Won’t that only make him appear guiltier in the cop’s eyes?

It doesn’t help that Juanita Romero makes a terrible lot of sense too.

Because Zachary has snapped back at media figures, competitors, and politicians in the past.

So why not Charles goddamn Davenport? The answer is simple, really. Zachary just happened to grow as a person. Over the course of building his brand and climbing up the ladder of success, he has come to understand that there will always be critics. That there will always be a handful of people who will never bother to see from his perspective. That even if some out there are able to understand his views, they still adamantly disagree with it and refuse to accept those ideologies.

Charles Davenport just happens to be someone who began his endless tirade against Zachary after the latter learnt how to tune out opinions that don’t help him grow. No matter it was coming from someone with influence. No matter it was coming from someone in a position of power.

Not that any of it matters now. How do you tell a detective you didn’t do something because you ‘grew’ as a person and ‘matured’ since certain things you’ve done in your past?

Because, at the end of the day, Zachary has set the precedent for the detectives to believe he had every reason in the world to look into Charles Davenport. It was a fair and logical thing to suspect he was bullshitting when he denied ever bothering to look up the Senator.

Years ago, when he was first thrown into the spotlight, it’s what Zachary would have done. He would have checked which company the person attacking him belonged to. He would have checked who they associated themselves with; friends and family. And then he’d have checked which political parties these people were affiliated with, wanting to determine whether that party’s policies influenced those opinions and perspectives.