𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐎𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬 [𝟏𝟖+] ✓

32

4.9k words chapter. Grab your tissues if you're a crier lmao

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Katrina Diaz

As soon as I heard his approaching footsteps, I had fished out AirPods from my shorts' pockets and plugged them in pretending as if I hadn't just heard something that ripped away every carefully woven thread of trust. When his eyes met mine and he had reminded me about our plan to hike the McLean Cliff, I had faked a headache. If Hayden had suspected my scepticism, he hadn't called me out on it.

What would any sane person do when they know that their partner was hiding things? Confront them? Or wait for them to open up? I didn't know. Considering I was never sane in most matters, I withdrew from Hayden, and started doubting every ounce of comfort he had offered me. Cynical of his motives, I pondered over why he wanted me — a nobody who was given away as an infant.

Why me?

The question brewed in my mind and danced on the tip of my tongue even as I had watched him pack his clothes to return to London. The fact that this trip was unhurried only fed my scepticism, making me withdraw from him more and more.

It was after three days of conflict; I had decided to go back to London — not to confront Hayden, but to get the answers I wanted. Answers to my biological family.

Since Hayden had already started walling me out, I hadn't bothered with telling about my visit either, just to keep me on the other side.

The last time I had met Matilda Diaz without telling Hayden, I ended up in a hospital bed. Ironically, this time, Kendra was in the hospital bed being treated for the side effects of a very lethal drug. Kendra's flawless skin began to rot on its own. Strange wounds, like patches of flesh turning dark and scaly, like a crocodile's skin, covered her skin. After running the test, Ken's doctor had announced it was the effect of taking "krokodil", a cheap replacement for heroin. A drug that was banned in Russia way back in 2012 because of its life-threatening effects.

"I told her to stop," wailed Matilda, tears slipping down her cheeks as she gazed at Kendra's nearly dead body on the bed.

Her warnings wouldn't have saved Kendra, though. Because there was no escaping Hayden's wrath if he put his mind to it. It didn't take a genius to know this was Hayden's job. A drug that was banned years back had been prepared in the laboratory and had ended up in place of Kendra's heroin packets because Hayden orchestrated it. Because Kendra blew a drug in my face, knowing I was ill-tolerant to smoke, he had given her a taste of her medicine. Making her snort something she didn't want to.

Worrying my lip, I stood out of Kendra's hospital room, trying to chase off the traces of guilt. I couldn't find any. And that lack of empathy terrified me. But remembering how my ribs hurt from just breathing, remembering how I wanted to end my life, remembering how she wanted to physically assault me when I was suffering a low blood pressure, I hardened my heart.