Scars

Chapter 2

There was a couple on the beach, lying on the white sand with the girl’s head resting on the boy’s chest and his arms wrapped around her waist. Their legs were tangled and their breath was peaceful. It was serene, them enjoying the sound of the water in the sea, as the girl sigh in pleasure. Her eyes snap up to the boy’s face when he tickles her lightly. She rolled her eyes at the mischievous glint in his blue eyes. Her heart filled with love for the boy and before she knew it, she placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “Thank you love, for coming after me.”

His blue eyes softened as he looked at her, the love of his life and queen of his heart, “I will always come after you, my princess.”

The girl’s heart soared with warmth, though she tried to hide it as she huffed, looking away while muttering, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

He tightens his hold on her, securing her to himself and kisses the crown of her head. “That is just not a promise, it is an oath.”

I blink, shaking myself out of the reverie. I quickly finish the fish tail braid and leave my room. I pause for a second once I reach the living room, my heart faltering for a second as I took in the tear filled doe eyes of my best friend. It hurt me to know that however unintentional it was, but I did hurt her enough.

Ace was the first one to see me, he shook his head firmly before standing up and helping Abby out of the apartment, the other boys following the duo out, till it was just me and Ryker.

“Ash?”

His gruff voice broke the silence. I sighed, knowing what he wanted to talk about.

“Let’s support Abby first Ry, we can have this conversation later.”

He nods stiffly, his hazel eyes staring intently at me.

The funeral of Professor Kane was a closed casket one, probably done to spare his followers with the gruesome image. The ceremony passed solemnly, everyone in the town was in attendance to pay their respect to the man they adored. The only family members he had, his brother, the brother’s wife and daughter and his own daughter, Camille were all standing together, the others leaving the group alone to grieve together. Abby and his parents doing their level best to provide emotional support to Camille.

The most affected one by his death was Abby. Being his only niece, she had always idealized him much like the rest of this town, except, her idealization ran deeper. Kane had been her godfather and guide all her life and for her, losing him was like losing her safe haven.

The daughter of the now dead man seemed shy as well as too in shock of his death to talk to the others, but if seen closely, anybody could see that grief is not visible in her eyes. They held relief and happiness, her arms wrapped around her chest and tear stained cheeks looked full of life.

“She is happy to be finally free, don’t you think?”

Mason asked, his voice lowered as to not draw attention to our little group. I took a quick look at the people around us before turning to face my three friends.

“As she has a right to be. I can’t imagine how her life must have been, getting physical, mental and sexual torture from the man who was supposed to be the hero of her life.”

I reply as neutrally as I can, carefully trying to not get angered again.

Keith snorts quietly, “And to think the whole town has no idea how disgusting this man was.”

“All they know about him was the image he created. The generous man who is polite and kind.”

“Ace is right,” Keith replies, his eyes trained at the mourning family, “his own family had no idea how he treated his daughter. But we have done well. As you guys expected, the pig didn’t have a will. So I hacked all the property accounts and bank accounts and changed the name of his nominee to Camille.”