Fillip's POV:
Luc's laugh filled the air as we sat in our hotel room, drinking after the party. It was a good one, but for some reason, Luc, Leo, Christian and I decided to leave early and instead came here and just kept getting drunk.
To the point that Christian was lying on the carpeted floor, Luc was losing it on the bed, and Leo was almost passed out from being awake so early this morning. Watching them, I got reminded of the good old days, when our laughs came out so carefree, just like we were exchanging cards.
I regretted ever taking any of their smiles for granted—taking Marie's for granted in a world where the thing that's close to you is always in danger. Always at risk of being taken, being snatched away from you. I didn't realise that at the time. So I deeply relish this moment, knowing we won't have much like it any time soon; we won't even have the luxury of time to enjoy it. Not in the mansion, not when we are around other people.
Then this kind of magical moment is ruined by the vibrations of a phone.
"Whose phone is that?"
"I thought we agreed on keeping them off."
The boys talked, and then I answered them. "Well, you kept yours off; I keep mine on all the time in case of anything. Also, it's Enzo; there must be something."
They ignored me midway and just started drinking and talking again while I answered my phone.
"What do you want?" I didn't know why he was calling, but at that hour, ruining our "vacation" I had the right to get mad.
"Boss, she ran away."
"What-" Rage and disbelief filled my voice. The small chatter in the background immediately went silent as Luc, Leo, and Christian all turned to look at me the instant they heard my perplexed voice.
"Boss, don't worry-"
"The fuck do you mean don't worry? How did she run away from you?"
The boys exchanged startled glances with each other.
"I've got it under control," Enzo answered.
"Oh, you fucking better," I told him, my voice deadly. Then I hear shooting in the background.
"DON'T you dare kill her," I warn him.
"It's just to scare her."
"Enzo I swear if I get back home tomorrow and she is not in that basement, you'll be in her place, and trust me, what you'll get for it would never be something you even had nightmares about. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, boss."
"Good," I close the line and look at the three men staring at me in almost horror.
"Get up; we are going home."
"What happened? Did she run away?" Christian questioned
Rubbing my hand over my face, I ignore him, but they won't just listen.
"Did she, brother?" Luc tried.
I look up at them again. "Yes, she did. Enzo said he's got it under control, and I trust him. We are still going home; get up."
"Now?" Leo looked mortified.
"Yes now. So we would get home in the morning." I reply already putting on my jacket as well as being halfway through the room.
Someone will collect our things and come back with them. We took my car, and the driver drove us home to our mansion in New York since every one of us is drunk. And I need to get back there as fast as I can.
"How could she just run away from them, though?" Luc exclaimed.
"I mean, brother, if you forgot what she did to you—" Christian starts.
"Fuck you, Christian, I get reminded every day," Luc interrupted him, making everyone laugh except me. I was fuming, and they were chilling. Yes, it was the alcohol, but still. How dare she even think she could do it? Think about it. I thought I was clear enough yesterday.
I've been way too easy with her.
The first day with Luc, her fights with Agnes, her attitude, actually giving her a room. That made her think everything was without consequence, but it wasn't, and she'll see.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I answer it without even looking at the caller. "Talk."
"She is in the basement now, boss."
"How is she?"
"Well, she got shot, but it's not dangerous; it's in her lower leg. Sebastian is looking after her right now."
"Good. Don't let her get too comfortable; don't give her painkillers." I close the line without awaiting his next words, but he better listen. I'm glad he's looking after her because I have other ways to break her. Not just physically.
"How is she?" Christian said the first words after I closed the line. Staring at him through the rear mirror, I asked, "Does it matter?"
"No, You asked Enzo I just wanted to know."
"She got shot."
"She got what-"
"She got shot, Luc. Can't you listen?"
"Oh wow," Christian declared.
"What's so surprising?" I ask him.
"I didn't think you'd be so ok with her being shot."
I turn to glare at him once more. "Why wouldn't I be? Plus, that's definitely the reason she actually tried running away. She thought it would be alright. Well, it's fucking not, and I'm ok with her being shot because she betrayed my trust. Anyone who does doesn't deserve it, and neither do they deserve my empathy."
Christian looked at me absolutely dumbfounded as my words shut him up, along with Luc. It was Leo, though, who was looking at me differently, not with shock but with a look of despise taking over his face. Yet he didn't speak a word; he didn't mouth his thoughts.
That was Leo. Since he was a kid, communicating with his eyes was how he did it. And that's how he spoke the loudest. Right now, the look in his eyes spoke volumes about what I just said, and it made me feel an unwelcome weight in my chest, but I wouldn't go back on my words. I don't care how much he judges me, she brought it upon herself by betraying my trust, and she is going to pay for it.
—————————————————————————-
The next morning, when we arrive, Enzo is waiting for us on the mansion's patio.
"Where is she?"
"The basement."
Good," I reply simply, walking into the house. I make my way through the living area, and just as I was about to pass the dining room, I'm met with high-pitched screams coming through the kitchen doors.
"FILLIP. FILLIP."
An irritated breath left me, and I turned around, looking at Nina. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want."
"I don't."
"I want her out. Out of that dirty, filthy room."
"That filthy room is what she deserves."
"It's not. It fucking is not, and you out of all people should know that." She continues to scream, and I take a confused look at her.
"Why the hell should I?"
"Isn't that the whole reason she's here anyway, to be treated well? Because you, again, out of all people, know how Alberto treats women." She says it a little more calmly this time, still extremely angry, however. I Can tell from her wide green eyes and the thin line drawn perfectly horizontal on her face.
"She was treated well, and she did not appreciate it, Nina; it's not my fault she didn't." I start to walk away, but she stops me with her hand around mine.
"Christian, you better get your sister away from me."
"Nina-"
"You don't talk. You have nothing to do with this." She cuts Christian off viciously, and before he can recover, she has already turned her head back, scowling at me.
"So what? She didn't appreciate it. What are you going to do kill her? Hit her?" I glared at her.
"You know I wouldn't—" she cuts me off too, continuing on with her rant.
"She has a bullet in her leg. Because of YOUR men, and she refused to take it out because she refused YOUR HELP. Instead of keeping her in that room forcefully, how about you treat her leg forcefully?" It was her turn to glare at Enzo, and when she mentioned the bullet part, he raised his hand in surrender.
"And what exactly didn't she appreciate? You making her your personal servant? Something to amuse you, to toy with? Since when, Fillip, did you even have one? Agnes has treated her like shit since the day she came here. How many gardeners do you have?" She questioned me, and the moment I had the chance to speak, I couldn't answer her.
"Exactly. You don't even know the number of gardeners you have employed, yet you let Agnes humiliate her every day. Then tell her to stop making trouble because she's fending for herself. Your men have been looking at her up and down since the day she came here. Your fucking brother, for god's sake."
"Hey, what do I have-" Luc tried to defend himself, but I raised my hand, stopping him while gazing down at Nina's fury-filled face. She isn't that much shorter than me, but somehow, somehow, she looks taller now with all that anger in her. I calmly open my mouth to finally answer her, but she stops me again.
"Save it. I know you. Since we were kids. I know how stubborn you are, what you are going to say, and your excuses for keeping her in there. Just know that you are wrong. And that you didn't treat her as well as you think you did, so she could appreciate it. She wasn't given Queen Marie treatment, for fuck's sake. A bed. A mere bed, and you call that nice."
Nina turns around after she's finished. Leaving all of us standing in the middle of the dining room.
"NINA." Christian rushed after her; he knew what she just said. What it meant.
And I stood looking at her back, staggered. Then she walked through the kitchen door and disappeared, and I kept staring. Taken aback, thinking.
She had to bring her up. She fucking had to.
Then I looked around and saw people still standing there. What the hell are they waiting for? "Go do your work," I order them, and they all scatter away to wherever they should be, like little scared animals on fast feet.
Afterwards, I walked to the basement, going down those steep stairs that I always hated, as Nina's words stuck there in my head. Never leaving me. Not as I went down every step or when I opened her door and turned on the lights.
That's when I saw Fleur lying there on the foul floor. Back to the wall, head rolled backwards. Incarnadine-covered bandages were wrapped around her arm and leg. She looked like she'd been here for ages, but she's only been here since yesterday. Sweat-drenched, her dress was sticking to her uncomfortably. Fatigue was evident on her face. Sweat beads were rolling down her face as she squinted her glassy blue eyes, looking up, trying to make out who entered the room.
That heaviness in my chest from Leo's earlier judgement struck again. Along with Nina's words. They were just too much; I almost screamed from how trapped I felt. I need to show punishment to someone who disobeyed me, but how can I? To her. Who could blame her? Trying to run away and chase what's left of her life with so little left of her. How can I blame her when I once wanted nothing to do with this too? When I wanted to run as far away as possible, but now I'm here.
Why am I pulling her into this? Forcing her to stay.
But I was good to her, wasn't I? I treated her better than Alberto ever would. Fleur belittled me when she lied to me, and I don't appreciate liars.
Not being able to think anymore, I walk up to her, slowly crouching down to her eye level. She squints her eyes even harder, and the moment they seem to make me out she instantly jumps away from me. Quick enough, I grabbed her arm. Not the hurt one and I hold her in place.
"Let go of me." She says it frantically.
"I'm not going to hurt you," I said calmly, studying her pale, sweaty face.
"Yeah, sure." She replied sarcastically, trying to pull her arms out of my hold.
"I'm not Alberto."
"Yeah, I forgot. You are even worse." She said it instantly, then immediately stopped trying to get away for a second. As if just now realising what she said. My hold on her tightened as a response, and that made her pursue trying to get away, but now she was staring at me dead in the eye.
"I won't hit you." I repeat, then continue, "You know, Fleur, I'm trying hard here to forgive you, and you're making this unbelievably challenging."
"I didn't ask for such forgiveness. For all I know, I did nothing wrong; why is it annoying you this much?"
Why did it? I didn't know.
"But you did something wrong, sweetheart," I said.
"Don't call-"
"You lied to me. You actually thought you could run away from here."
"I almost succeeded, Fillip; you don't seem to know that. All thanks to your crazy men, though, I got shot."
"You stabbed one of my men."
"I had to. I knew it wasn't fatal, and I apologised to him."
"Oh, how nice of you..."
"And don't interrupt me again," I added, applying more pressure to her hand, which made her struggle against my hold more.
"You betrayed my trust."
"No no. What trust? What are you talking about? I never asked you to trust me. I don't want to be here. Can't you possibly see that?"
"I don't care what you want."
"Then there is no trust to begin with. There never was Fillip."
"Sir. From now on." I corrected. Bafflement filled her face as she stared at me. "It should have always been that, and since you want no forgiveness, you get none, but just remember that you asked for it yourself, Fleur."
"I will."
"Good," I said, getting up from beside her and then call for one of my men.
"No food. At all. Only enough water to survive until I decide what I will do next. If Nina even comes close here, I don't care what you do; remove her. She does not enter this room."
"Boss," he says, then gets out.
"And here I was thinking you were actually better than Alberto," Fleur exclaimed in a tired voice.
"Oh, spare me the guilty-conscious talk. I told you, Fleur, but you wanted nothing to do with my forgiveness, so don't come complaining now." I went out of the room, I declared, not sparing her a second thought. At least not until later.