I walked straight towards Jack who literally looked more bored than disturbed by the fact that I actually heard him planning my boyfriend's kidnap and assault, if not murder.
"Easter..." I heard Eric's uneasy voice as he walked in front of me.
"What's all this Eric?" I asked in a weak voice.
"Easter please listen-"
"You promised me, Eric-"
"No Easter wait-"
"-you promised me no dirty business. How can you-"
"Please understand East-"
"Understand?" I frowned hard in incredulity. "You're gonna kill him!"
"Wait Easter-" Jack made way to me and pushed Eric aside. "Calm down okay? Nobody is killing anybody." He said extending his hands towards my arms to calm me down like it was all a simple game to him.
But it was, wasn't it. This was all a game. First extending a hand of friendship and then using the same hand to strangle an innocent person to death.
"Shut up Jack!" I slapped his hand out of my way. "How dare you corrupt my brother like that?"
"East please, first hear us out," Eric said just when I thought he wouldn't say another word in the support of Jack's satanic plan.
"Listen what out Eric? Why can't you just let him be? Why can't you just let us be?" My voice came out broken and the anger started sounding like pain.
"Because he's a fucking threat. To us, to our company. To your company." Jack exclaimed pointing a finger at me.
"No Jack, he's not. I've talked to him. He won't do anything if you don't instigate him."
"Oh, Easter-" Jack chuckled humourlessly. "That right there sounds like a fucking threat. That's the whole problem, he thinks he can do it. He thinks he can throw threats at us and we'll take 'em."
"No." I shook my head in utter disagreement. "He's not a threat to you. You are a threat to him!" I hollered at him but he didn't even wince.
"Your shouting isn't gonna help Easter. This is happening. The guy needs to be reminded of his place. Which precisely, is out of our lives." He seethed in a dirty manner and I gulped.
"You're not gonna touch him," I stated as I took a step towards him, trying my best to keep myself together.
"I'm gonna teach him a lesson, that's all," Jack replied in a cold voice.
"No. No Jack please." I begged but he turned away from me. I felt broken and helpless. I had no idea how I was supposed to save him. Considering the life I've lived with these people, I knew one thing for sure, that they do what they determine and if Jack had decided to hurt Daniel, I hardly thought he could be stopped.
"Eric, please tell him."
"Guys please, this is wrong. Hannah, please tell him no, this is not right. Please,-" My continuous baseless pleading was interrupted by Jack's four-word sentence.
"Actually, there's one way." He said in a calculating voice. Everyone in the study started sharing curios and alarming looks.
"You see-" He started in a cunning voice and more fear crept into my bones. "He is only involved with us because of you. Because you've made him into your boyfriend."
My ears waited dreadfully for him to completely spill whatever poison he was holding on the tip of his tongue as he started walking around me dramatically.
"So if we want him to keep his butt out of our business, we just have to keep you away from him." He suggested.
A shudder escaped my lips and when I gulped my throat was deserted. It wasn't very difficult to understand but I still couldn't get a grasp of it. He couldn't have been saying what I thought he was saying.
"What do you mean to say?" I asked.
He smiled a creepy smirk and I frowned. "It's simple, isn't it Easter? Breakup with him."
The land under my feet was no longer there. It just slipped away. All of a sudden my weight felt too much for my legs and feeling terribly weak in my knees I fell.
"EASTER! Oh my God, Jack!" Eric caught me and tried to seat me on the sofa but I stood up again.
I looked up at Jack but there was nothing that I could say to him.
"I love him, Jack."
Jack chuckled to himself on some private joke which made me want to go and slap him.
"That's exactly why you'll break up with him because you don't want him to get hurt." He said slyly in contrast to the deepness of his words.
I walked up to him in angst.
"That's not how love works."
"That's exactly how love works baby, stop kidding yourself. You know how our dark world operates. Any outsider who gets involved with us is only digging their own grave slowly to only fall in it." He'd started circling me again and his words attacked me from all sides.
I had no escape.
"Today, he's irking in our eyes, tomorrow, someone else will see him as a problem. Anyhow, he'll be picked up and thrown away like a dirty fly from a cup of coffee."
He stopped in front of me and scooted to come to my eye level.
"If you actually love him Easter, you'll want him to stay away from you. If you want him to stay safe, you'll have to break up with him."
His words had by then created unpenetrable walls around me and they were all hitting the right places. Although I'd heard it all for the first time, it felt as if this was all already buried somewhere deep in my heart. And now that Jack said it out loud, it started resurfacing.
It was no lie that I was responsible for all of it. Had I never pulled him forcefully into my horrible life, he wouldn't have ever threatened to destroy the company's secrets and he wouldn't have been in this death trap. I was the only one to blame. From the beginning till the end, however, it might come out to be.
Now it was my responsibility to make sure the end is not as awful as I've made his life. I had to save him and push him out of our dark lives. I had to close my eyes to his light so that I don't end up darkening him too.
Perhaps, I did not deserve light at all.
"I- if I agree," I the already silent room went more silent. "Will you not hurt him?"
I did not have the courage to look up into his eyes but I could tell there was a jubilant smile of victory dancing in them.
"We won't have a reason to." He simply said.
I breathed deeply at the resoluteness of his voice.
"What do I have to do?" I said lifting my eyes up to him, only to meet a cunning smile on his face that made my skeleton shiver under my skin.
"Don't go on the school trip. Let him go without you." He declared like a monarch ordering a life imprisonment.
"He would never go without me."
The words made their way out before I could think to stop them or at least soften my tone. I sounded disgusted and it really didn't do good in the situation.
"Well, that's your job to make sure he does. Seven days without you and with so many other people, other girls, he will get used to it. And he'll also be sure that you're actually breaking up with him."
Every word, every phrase that Jack said sounded completely thought out and planned. As if he'd been rehearsing them all his life. It only made clear how dark and inhumane a person he was.
Maybe, he was waiting for me to say something. I opened my mouth too. But nothing formed in my head.
"It will be the perfect 'The End' to your perfect love story." He cooed looking straight into my eyes.
I had lost the ability to talk so I just kept listening. He walked closer to me and placing a hand on my shoulder, he leaned into my ear and whispered.
"Think about it Easter. You have 24 hours to decide."
The decision was already made and it was the right decision. It didn't need me thinking twice.
It was the last day of my planning a happily ever after with the guy I loved. After that day, I had to start planning a happily ever after for him, without me.
Sunday was almost my favourite part of the week. I used to spend the whole day with him without caring about the world for a second. That Sunday was to be spent in that manner too. Except that, it wasn't the same at all.
I'd booked a private diner in one of the most expensive hotels in the vicinity which was, of course, owned by one of our business friends. It was on the other side of the town.
I'd told Dan to come and pick me up early as it was a long drive and he arrived just in time.
He was wearing his leather jacket. The black of which perfectly synchronized with the black of my dress that only ended up near my lower thighs. My hair was pulled up in a sophisticated bun with not a single strand in the wrong place and my makeup was exactly on point. I clearly looked like The Johnathan Brown's daughter.
Daniel raised an eyebrow and his lips formed a pout as he checked me out.
"You look different today." He commented as I placed myself in his car's passenger seat.
"Yeah. I know." I said already regretting the next few words that were about to leave my mouth. "Actually the hotel we're going to is like a five-star thing. Very expensive and high profile. And they know me too, so I really cannot show up in a poor state."
He frowned, but he didn't let it show. Nodding to me he turned to the steering wheel and brought the car to life.
The drive was long and awkward. And the fact that we didn't talk was only making it longer. It was weirding me out. That wasn't at all how I behaved around him and that wasn't definitely how he behaved around me.
"Ah. That was long." I said walking to the entrance of the luxurious building with Daniel walking next to me.
"Yeah. We could've gone to any of the hotels near our place." He said in a tired voice. There was no awkwardness in it and I wanted it to stay like that.
But I had no choice.
"No, we couldn't have done that. Because you see. It's a small town. People know who I am and if anyone recognises you then it won't really look good. You know, 'Easter Brown having lunch with a local bartender'. I mean it would really sound terrible right?" I chuckled.
I did not have the courage to look into his eyes. And I didn't have to. I knew it was all working.
We entered the place and the entire ambience changed. The surroundings smelled different and rich. The space was huge and the interior was extravagant. A huge glittering chandelier declared the centre of the roof which was several metres high.
The way he stiffened next to me, I knew he'd never been to a place like this. I felt terrible for doing this but I knew I was doing it for the right reasons.
"Hello, Habibi!" A warm and loving voice met my ears and I replaced my frown with a smile.
"Hello, Barique." I replied with similar warmth.
Walking towards me with open arms was Barique Al Mana, the owner of one of the biggest hotel chains in the world. His eyes were a rare green and his beard was just the right size. Dressed perfectly all the time with gold and diamond accessories, he was the definition of filthy rich.
"How are you, Habibi?" He asked sweetly.
"Mashwa-Allah." I tried and he laughed hilariously.
"Come one introduce me to this young man." He said gesturing to Daniel who stood there in silence like he didn't exist at all.
He smiled at Baarique and extended his hand to him.
"Hello, sir. I'm Daniel Smith. Easter's-"
"He's a friend from school." I interrupted before Daniel could complete his sentence. For a split second my eyes met his and the darkening outlines around his transparent grey iris terrified my soul. If I'd looked at those for one more second, I would've melted right there.
We got seated in our private diner. It was luxurious, to say the least. Uncomfort was visible in Dan's body language.
"I am a friend from school?" He asked in a sharp tone. I gulped hard as my heart begged me to not say it, but it was all rehearsed.
"No. But what else could've I said?" I replied shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly.
"Right."
He said with a dead cold face and I suddenly flew back in time. Looking at him, it was like we were back to the beginning. Like we were back to being strangers. Him with his thick strong walls that he never let anyone to breakthrough. And I, well, I wasn't like before at all.
Because that was a mistake. Although, the most beautiful one of my life, but still a mistake. And this was me rectifying it.
The order was already placed and food was soon to come. Daniel was looking down at the menu to avoid my eyes. I was pretending to do the same while I prepared myself for the next act.
"And anyways," I started and he looked up at me. "I haven't really thought about our future."
"Mmm. Really?" He asked although the fakeness of his curiosity was evident.
"Yeah." I added with a shrug. "Like what are your future plans? I don't see you planning it. And I don't think you have one, apart from going to the local town bar daily and bartending there." I said with a wave of my hands.
He was dumbfounded at my words. I didn't expect anything less. I was equally shocked at my malignity. I'd never imagined I could say those things to anyone, rest aside the boy I love.
Turned out I did not miss the evil genes of my family after all.
"Easter, we're in high school right now." He said in an emotionless manner.
"Yeah but we're in junior year. Highschool will end, right? You should have it planned. Eric has, Jack has. Even Jacob has it all planned. But when I think about us, our future, it only looks blank."
I made sure I sounded as genuinely heartless as I could and with every other of my sentences, Daniel's face turned harder and the distance between us grew.
"And what makes you think I don't have a pl-"
His words were cutting through my heart as he stared at me with a sharp gaze. That was when two waitresses and a waiter arrived and our chain of conversation was broken.
The girls served us. Daniel only took a very insignificant amount of lasagna with one slice of pizza. There were other things on the table. Someone of which, I was sure he didn't even know the name of. But he didn't raise an eye at anything apart from the common things in his plate.
We ate in silence. The subject of our conversation had died and I couldn't come up with one. Almost all the food we'd ordered was left untouched on our table when the bill arrived.
The waiter extended the bill, Dan reached up to get it but I instantly grabbed it midway.
"No Dan. I'll pay." I said as the waiter still stood there watching us.
"It's okay Easter. You don't have to." He said from behind gritted teeth. I didn't want to anger him anymore but I had to.
"Dan-" I said awkwardly. "This is expensive, you can't. It'll literally burn a hole in your wallet." I chuckled and he didn't try to argue further.
What I'd done to him, was clearly visible in his eyes. The transparent grey that I was used to was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there were two darkening irises that were just as alien to me as my behaviour was to him.
I tried to feel happy. That it was all working. I'd thought it'll be difficult. I'd thought he'll doubt my behaviour. I'd thought he'll understand that something was wrong. But that wasn't the case at all.
But instead, it was only hurting me more.
The fact that it was so easy for him to believe that I can change like that in one night. That I can say those horrible things. I'd thought he knew me better than that. I'd thought he'll pull me in a hug and make me spill all my secrets. But instead, there he was silent and breathing.
I hated how convenient it was for him to put up those walls between us again. After all that I'd gone through to pull them down.
He was walking ahead of me towards his car as I silently followed. I'd figured it was enough for a day.
Drowned in my thoughts I kept walking and failed to realise when he had stopped and turned around. But fortunately, he cleared his throat before speaking which pulled me out of my trance and I halted my steps that left me standing just inches away from him as he stood in front of the passenger seat.
"Are you sure you want me to drive you in my car? Or will it hamper your image too?" He asked in a straight voice that went cutting through my heart.
But I recovered. I had to, if I wanted this to work.
"What?" I giggled faintly.
"Why would you say that?"
He kept looking straight into my eyes as his pupils dilated and went multiple shades darker. It was torture to keep looking at them, but I didn't budge.
Twitching his lips in a hard pout he nodded his head and walked around to start the car.
Despite all the tormenting emotions battling against me and my judgement, I closed my eyes and told myself above all those painful noises.
This is the right thing to do.