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Carla's POV

I'm laying on Zander's comfy bed staring up at the ceiling as if its the most interesting thing and listening to him rant about a girl he did the deal with who was supposed to be a blonde but turned out to be a brunette.

Yeah. Typical Zander.

"What, do you sleep only with blondes?" I pass him a lazy glance where he's laying on his back beside me with his arms folded under his head before looking back at the ceiling.

The ceiling is kinda pretty. It's a shiny black colour with a splash of silver spray paint on it. There are stars of different sizes and shapes dangling from the ceiling through transparent strings.

His whole room looks like a beautiful night view. The walls are painted like the night sky—stars and all. And although it's kinda dark, the crystal chandelier in the middle of the room does the job of brightening the room in a hauntingly beautiful way.

"It's not that I sleep only with blondes. I don't mind other colors. But reds and brunettes are a no no." He shakes his head with a frown and I turn my head sideways to look at him.

"I love your room. Its beautiful." I mutter out of the topic.

"Ofcourse, its my room. It should be beautiful like me. Although nothing can compare to my swoon-worthy beauty." He grins rougishly making me roll my eyes.

"Why is reds and brunettes a no no? As far as I know, they're equally beautiful. Even more." I ask him ignoring his previous words.

It dulls his mood but he looks away from me back at the ceiling.

"I know. It's not about the beauty. Everyone is beautiful in their own way. Its just that. . . It reminds me of someone." He mumbles seeming lost in his own thoughts.

That piques my interest.

Propping on my elbows, I scoot closer to him and stare down at his face blocking his view, "Who?"

Zander looks back at me with those green eyes, "Someone." He retorts plainly.

"What's this certain someone's name?" I'm not giving up so easily.

"Her name is someone. Now get away from my face or I might just kiss you." He says with a smug look.

Giving him the bulls-eye, I flop back onto the bed on my back again.

"Let's play 20 questions. I'm bored to death." I say because well, its the truth.

"Sure." He mumbles again.

Something is definitely off with him. He's hardly so quiet. And Zander hates 20 questions.

"What's wrong with your mood?" I go with my first question and see him raise his eyebrows in a frown.

"Nothing's wrong with my mood. I'm perfectly fine. See?" He gives me a boxy smile and I roll my eyes.

"You can't lie, Zander. Its part of the rules of the game."

He mumbles something about the game being annoying before telling in a single blank tone, "She killed my Dad. I can feel it."

My hand stills on my sides. He doesn't need to say who she is. I know he's talking about Charlotte.

"Then what the hell are you doing here? Go to your dad! Confront her!" I sit up on the bed giving him a flabbergasted look.

He just lays there with a frown etched to his face, "I don't know, Carla. I should be sad, hurt or feel anything at all. But I seriously don't. I knew this would happen. I warned him. But he didn't listen. He bought this upon himself. After what he did to mom, I just don't care anymore. I did my part, he was warned but he still chose his doom—his death. Besides, there's no point in confronting Charlotte. She knows she has something I crave the most. She knows it's the only thing keeping her alive. And the moment I find it, she'd be a dead meat. And that's exactly why she'd never tell me about that thing."

"What's this thing you crave so much?" I ask yet again and he narrows his eyes at me.

"My chance to ask, ma chérie. Not yours."

Pouting at the reality, I huff an 'Ask away'.

"How did you feel when your mom died?"

Well.

That was unexpected. Really really unexpected. And sudden.

"Like you said. She choose her own doom. I couldn't really do anything. She hurt a lot of innocents. And although I would like to believe she loved me since she didn't sacrifice me for magic but what she did to all the countless other people couldn't be overlooked. I did feel hurt after her. Afterall, she was my mom. But that doesn't rectify what she did. And Daniel and Ariel were always there for me so I never felt like I had no one. So that's that." I look back at him.

By the troubled expression on his face, he knows I'll ask my previous question and somehow his mood seems really sullen at the thought of answering.

Aww. Fine, I'll let you off this time, dear friend.

"What's your name?"

The surprise on his face tells me he didn't expect this but was relieved at the same time.

"Why my name?" He gives me that amused look.

"Well, my best friend didn't have the decency to tell me his real name." I say with a glare emphasising on 'real'.

"Oops. My fault." He raises his hand in mock surrender.

Rising on his spot, he gets off the bed to walk around it over to my side where I'm laying. Standing in front of me on with his six feet height,

"Zander Hellion, my lady. It's a pleasure to meet you." He does a dramatic bow in the old-fashioned way and takes my hand from beside me to give a kiss to my knuckles.

"Wow. Look at you being a gentleman." I laugh getting up from my laying position to sit on the bed.

"Did you ever fall for anyone after Anthony?"

His question takes me offguard.

I raise an emaculate brow, "Where are these questions coming from?"

"I don't know. I am just curious." He shrugs, turning around so he isn't facing me anymore.

"This is about that certain 'someone', isn't it?" A coy smile makes it's way on my lips as I see my friend heading towards his closet giving me a blank look.

"Who's she, Zander Hellion?" I ask in my most innocent voice and hear him scoff at the tone.

"It's your turn to answer, ma chérie." He smirks realizing he has the upper hand here.

"Okay fine," I groan loudly, "But promise me you'll tell me who she is if I answer."

At his reluctant nod, I sigh. There's no point lying.

"I never did." I answer truthfully, a dull ache making its way to my heart, "Gio was a much safer option but my heart was reluctant to let go of Anthony and I knew that I was hurting Gio in the process. Sometimes I'm glad he rejected me. Atleast there's nothing holding me back—"

"—from getting back to Anthony." He cuts in with a smug smirk earning my deadliest glare.

If looks could kill, he'd be six feet—no, make it ten feet—below the ground by now.

"As if." I roll my eyes.

With the amount of rolling eyes I do around Zander, I'm surprised they haven't popped out of their socket yet.

"It stings because it's true." He says matter-of-factly but I don't miss the hint of bitterness in his words.

His back is facing me so I can't see his expression but something about his gesture tells me he isn't a least bit pleased with my answer. Well, talk about mood swings.

There's a long moment of silence as he rummages through his clothes in the closet.

"What are you searching for in the closet?" I break the silence being done with his strange behavior.

Instead of answering, he pulls out a photo frame from his closet and walks over to me.

Settling himself on the bed beside me, he passes me the frame, "Here."

Throwing him and then the frame a suspicious glance, I receive it from him.

My eyes go round like saucers when I take into the woman in the picture, "Oh my goodness! She's so pretty!" I practically squeal looking at the beautiful woman in the picture.

She has dark maroonish red hair that almost looks brunette. Her eyes are like pools of green glacier. With a serene smile stretched on her pale face, she looks almost like a goddess.

But there's something.

I don't know why I feel like her face is somewhat familiar. Not exactly. But she looks kinda similar to someone I know.

"Is she—" I intend to ask him whether she's that someone but he cuts me off instead,

"She was my wife."

Adoration is written all over Zander's face as he gazes down at the woman in the frame.

He said was? Not is?

"What happened to her?" I ask carefully.

His face contorts into something akin to bitterness and pain, "Charlotte killed her." Each and every word of his filled with barely controlled fury.

Before I can react to what he said, there's a knock on the door.

"Who's it?" Zander yells but there's no response.

After asking the same question two more times and getting no reply, Zander grumbles under his breath and walks over towards the door with annoyance brewing his face.

I look back at the picture of the woman, skimming my fingers through the golden edges of the frame. She definitely didn't deserve to die.

Charlotte hurt Anthony. She hurt Anne. She hurt Zander. She killed Zander's father and his wife. She almost killed Anne too.

The hatred I have for Charlotte grows even more stronger.

"What—" Zander's words are cut short as a loud thud noise echoes through the room the moment he opens the door.

My head snaps towards the door in shock.

I realise the sound is caused by Zander who's now unconscious on the ground. And the person responsible for his state is standing at the doorframe with a heavy wooden object in his hand.

"Gio?" I ask the man in question flabbergastedly.

_________

Boom!

Looks like Zander is filled with secrets👀

How are you liking the story so far?

Next chapter will be updated on Sunday :)