Ch. 281..285: Fatal Kiss Of The Vampire Chapter 281-285

Chapter 281: Shame On You

Ethan got into the car first, on the driver’s side, and Kylie got in beside him. Looking at him, she’d thought everything was alright, but he pulled out of the parking lot so quickly that she hadn’t even been able to do up her seatbelt, and her body was thrown against the door – and it was only then that she realized that his cool demeanor was nothing but a façade.

“What the fuck?” she growled. “You could have hurt me!”

Ethan’s lips were pressed thin. His eyes were cold, and there was no indication that he intended to answer her question, so all she could do was a guess. Her first thought was that it had something to do with his visit with his father being ruined, but she hoped that that wasn’t the reason. If it was, she thought that it was a very selfish and petty reason to be angry. They needed to be looking at the bigger picture. Even though Khloe had always been a bitch, the story of her life remained a tragedy – and nobody, once they were dead, deserved to be judged by their likes.

For better or worse, Khloe’s life had come to an end, and by now, she had likely already been judged by a power much greater than them.

***

When Stephen arrived back at the hotel where he lived, he decided to take a walk through the garden before going up to his apartment. He had barely made it to the gazebo, though, when he saw a figure dash in and out of the darkness.

Stephen stepped off the path and froze. A few minutes later, the figure appeared and disappeared again, this time closer to where he was hiding. A moment after that, the figure passed right by him, and his shoulder checked the phantom to the ground. Stepping back into the path, Stephen held the man down with his knee and pulled out his phone to alert the hotel security. Before he had a chance to dial, though, the man grunted. “It’s me,” he gasped. “It’s Ken!”

“What are you doing here?” Stephen hissed.

“Where the fuck else could I go?” Ken snapped. “Look at me. I have blood all over me. Almost everyone hates me now, and the police are looking for me!

“I am freezing out here,” Ken added. “Won’t you welcome me in?”

Stephen shrugged noncommittally. “I don’t know,” he said. “I still can’t figure out what you were doing in the hospital. The only thing I can think of is that you were looking to start trouble. There was the porn on the screen, and it was featuring you and Khloe, then you appeared. The next thing we know, Khloe was dead. Why were you even there? If you hadn’t been there, Khloe would still be alive. Do you understand what I am saying? This is your fault, and there is no good reason for me to offer you refuge.”

“I understand,” Ken replied, “and you are right to be suspicious of me. I didn’t come to the hospital to cause trouble, though. Ethan asked me to come. I wish that I’d asked why, but I didn’t. Now, even if I accused him of setting Khloe up, it would be my word against his… And who would people believe? Certainly, they would not believe me!

“Is Khloe truly dead?” Ken wondered. “She seemed to still have so much life in her when I left… She and I, we never saw eye to eye, but I never once wished to do her harm… ”

“Nevertheless,” Stephen replied coolly, “she is dead, and if only inadvertently, the blame is on your hands, and you deserve everything you get.”

Ken’s face went pale, and he began to cry. “Help me,” he begged. “At the very least, come with me to the police station and help me turn myself in!”

“You’re on your own,” Stephen hissed as he pulled out the business card one of the officers had given him, and he threw it at Ken. “I will give you a thirty-second head start for old time’s sake, and then I will alert the police to your whereabouts.”

***

As soon as Nate arrived home, he went straight for Fannie’s room. He knocked, and when she didn’t answer, he admitted himself. The room was small, simple, and clean. The bed and drapes were pink.

Nate took one glance around his sister’s room and saw that she wasn’t there. He stepped into the hallway and called her name, but no one answered. He dialed her phone number, and she picked up, but she sounded drunk. “You need to come home immediately,” he shouted. “We have a family emergency.”

“It’s late,” Fanny replied. “I’m busy. I will see you when I see you.”

“Where are you?” Nate snapped. “I will pick you up.”

Nate checked his pockets to ensure that he had his car keys and turned in the front door direction. Before he had his shoes on, though, Fannie said, “My friend and I are going to a club later. You don’t need to worry about me. Even if you found me, I wouldn’t leave with you anyways.”

Fannie hung up the phone, and Nate was left impotently holding a deadline. “This is all Kylie’s fault,” he hissed. “Since they started hanging out together, Kylie’s taken her out drinking every night…”

Nate threw his car keys onto the table and walked into the kitchen. The maid was in there already, and Nate asked her to make him some soup. “You look troubled,” she replied. “Why don’t I teach you how to make soup,” she wondered. “It will distract you, and you will learn something new. What do you think?”

Nate nodded, and together, they started the fire, prepared the green bean, red beans, and licorice. It was a simple soup, but purposefully so. After today, Nate was certain that he’d be able to make his own soup if he wanted.

After the soup had simmered for more than half an hour, they took turns testing the soup by taste. “It’s done,” the maid said, and Nate proudly put out the fire. Now that the soup was done, Nate ladled a bowl out for himself, brought it to the living room, sat down, and covered himself with a blanket in order to make himself look sick. Next, he had the maid take a picture and send it to Fannie. Underneath the picture, she wrote, “Shame on you. The young master is sick, and instead of taking care of him, you are out partying, as if you couldn’t care less about your brother’s health or safety.”

 

Chapter 282: You Wouldn’t Understand

When Fannie arrived home, she saw that Nate was no longer on the couch, so she went from room to room, calling his name, and it wasn’t until she reached the kitchen that she found him. He was wearing an apron around his waist, holding a rag in one hand, and a mop in hand. Fannie looked at him, and she was confused. “What are you doing?” she wondered. “I better not have come home for nothing!”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Nate hissed. “This house is a mess, and the mess is all yours. There are make-up and bottles all over the place!”

Fanny picked up a bottle and laughed in his face. “This isn’t garbage,” she said, “It is a beautiful art. Postmodern. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Don’t make a joke about this!” Nate snapped. “This is not funny. Some of your cosmetics contain lead, which can be poisonous.”

“Alright,” Fannie said. “I will check my make-up, but I will not clean up!”

“All make-up is poison!” Nate growled.

Fannie’s face turned red as her good humor turned to anger. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” she shouted. “All women wear make-up. It is not poison. You should see how beautiful Kylie looks with her make-up on. Her skin is smooth. My skin is dry, but she is showing me what to do so that my skin is moist too!”

“Where did you learn this nonsense?” Nate cried. There was an underlying context to her words that he did not appreciate hearing about from his sister.

“Nonsense?” Fannie chucked. She was half-drunk, and her inhibitions were mostly gone. Suddenly, she embraced Nate and kissed him on the mouth. “If you want,” she chuckled. “you could moisturize my skin in the way that God intended a man to moisturize a woman’s skin. If you do that, maybe I won’t need Kylie to show me anything at all.”

Nate felt like he was going to throw up. “Get away from me,” he said.

Fannie did not let him go through. Instead, she looked him in the eye and said, “If you are worried that I might fall in love with you, don’t. I won’t!”

Hearing her words, Nate’s heart began to beat fast. Her words were completely unexpected. Surely, there were times when he’d gone out of his way to peek in on her when she was changing or bathing, but that had been pure fantasy, upon which he’d never hoped to act.

“It would be mechanical, but pleasurable,” Fannie added. “We don’t even like each other that much, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t get off on each other and get some practice in for when we find true love. Can’t you see how good this could be for both of us?”

Without waiting for a response, Fannie went up on her tippy toes and kissed him again; this time more passionately than the last, and once he started kissing her back, she forced her tongue into his mouth and sucked his tongue into her mouth.

As Nate kissed Fanny, his eyes noticeably drooped, his head became dizzy, and he found himself lost in the moment, a moment that suddenly meant more to him than any other that had come before. He had his hand on her back, but as they kissed, it slipped down under her pants and panties, and he cupped her soft buttocks in his hand; gave it a good squeeze.

Nate pulled Fanny closer to him until he could feel her pert breasts pressed against his chest. After a few more minutes, Fanny pulled away. Nate was about to protest, but then he saw the intention in her eyes. He smiled as she took his hand and led him to her room. His cock was as hard as a rock and any inhibitions he’d had quickly wasted away.

Once they’d reached the top of the stairs, Nate scooped Fanny up in his arms and carried her over the threshold that opened in her room. He gently laid her out on the bed, and then he went back to close and lock the door.

***

Hours later, as Kylie and Ethan were watching television, she suddenly realized that he was still in a foul mood. She turned to him, took his hands into her own, and said, “Something is bothering you. Won’t you tell me what it is?”

Without saying anything, Ethan picked up the documents that had been sitting on the end table. He shook them in her face and put them back where they’d been. Kylie frowned as she tried to think of some way to help him out of his funk. Without warning, she kissed him.

Ethan’s scowl deepened. “It is late,” he said, “and I am not in the mood. Just watch the TV.”

“We don’t have to have sex,” Kylie admitted. “Could we at least talk? You told your dad today that if he rejected me, that you would leave him and take the family business with you. Did you mean that?”

“It is bound to happen eventually,” Ethan sighed. “Garcia entertainment is almost done. Eventually, I will have to take the reins and negotiate a merger between our company and Peak Pictures. Let’s not talk, though, ok? Why don’t you rest your body against mine, and we can simply enjoy each other’s company?”

Kylie adjusted her body, and Ethan wrapped his arm around her.

“Shouldn’t you have spent some time with Dora today,” she suddenly wondered. “Your three days with her must be nearly over…”

As soon as she’d said it, she regretted saying it. In retrospect, she now knew that he hadn’t spent the day with her because of his foul disposition.

Ethan sat up suddenly. He looked at Kylie and said, “Why don’t you go to bed? I will have a cigarette on the balcony, and then I will join you.”

Kylie watched Ethan as he stood and walked out onto the balcony. The moonlit up his body, and his outline oozed confidence and strength. He hadn’t lit a cigarette yet, though, which Kylie found somewhat odd. After a few minutes, she went to bed, and not long after that, he joined her.

By then, Kylie was already asleep, but as hard as he tried, it took Ethan hours to fall asleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened between him and Dora. He wanted to tell Kylie all about it, but he didn’t dare. He didn’t want Kylie to be hurt.

He hadn’t wanted Dora to undo his belt, and yet she had. He wanted to vomit at the thought of someone other than Kylie touching him. He knew, though, that Dora made her nervous. She didn’t understand their relationship, and so she saw it as a threat.

***

The next day, everyone was back to work as normal. After being shut down for two days, though, everyone was specially prepared for long days. Kylie, though, after everything that she’d been through, was one of the few people who’d been commanded by the boss to do it easy. When she was too tired to work, she lay down in the staff lounge, texted Ethan, and had Dinah massage her shoulders. Occasionally someone would suggest that she should just go home, but she was a trooper, and she refused to go. “If you can stay and work,” she’d reply as Dinah hand-fed her grapes, “then so can I!”

 

Chapter 283: Be Grateful

A little after noon, Sally joined them in the staff room. Dinah and Kylie had just finished a late lunch, and when Kylie saw Sally, she stood up and greeted her with a hug. Sally and Kylie quickly sat down and, after a few minutes of harmless gossip, Sally asked Kylie if she’d tried the injections that she’d suggested.

Kylie touched her face and laughed. She said, “We consulted a few beauty salons, and one of them was even called Gold Queen, but I got a bad feeling from each end of every one of them.”

Sally smiled, and she said, “You are young, you have a man, and your skin is very good, so you have nothing to worry about anyways. You may want to keep it in mind, though, for when you’re older. We women, we hold our beauty in high esteem, and we all want it to last for as long as it is possible.”

“That being said,” Kylie countered, “even in Hollywood, there is a need for women who look their age. An actress that is sixty-five could never play the part of a grandmother if she looked forty-two. In the end, I may just allow my age to overtake me. Even if I look at this age until the day I die, by beauty will not stay Death’s right hand.”

Hearing this, Sally’s jaw nearly hit the floor. She had never heard a woman speak like this. She had to admit, though, that Kylie had a point.

Am I really running from Death? She wondered.

As they chatted, Dinah got up and came back with tea and cookies. “The tea is peppermint,” she said, “and the cookies are Scottish Shortbread.”

“I am afraid of death,” Sally supposed. “If I have to die though, I want to go out looking like a million bucks. What is this all about, though? Why the sudden interest in beauty for beauty’s sake?”

“I know that you’ve had some help,” Kylie admitted. “and I’ve worried. When I saw the small bumps on your face, I was so distressed. I thought they might be tumors. I talked to my friend who specializes in this kind of thing, and he said that they are tumors. You could get surgery though, but it would leave scars…”

Sally nodded and said, “I will seriously consider your suggestion.”

Sally put her cup on the table, got up, and turned in the direction of the door. Before she was gone, she turned her head and said, “Thank you.”

Kylie smiled and said, “You’re welcome.”

***

On their second day back at work, during their break, Kylie left to attend Khloe’s funeral. For a while, she’d wrestled with whether she would go or not, but it seemed like the right thing to do in the end. When she arrived, though, she almost wished that she hadn’t. Other than herself, Laurence and Alice were the only other people in attendance.

Walking into the church, she approached them and gave them her regards. Laurence was crying, and when he saw her, he hugged her tight and thanked her for coming. Alice, though, was angry to see her. She glared at her and said, “How dare you show your face here when you are the one that killed her?!?”

If looks could kill, then Kylie would have been dead by then. Laurence grabbed his wife by the arm through and hissed in her ear, “Stop it! This is the only person who showed up to pay their respects. Be grateful!”

Alice could not stop, though. It was outside of her power to stop. “Why don’t you die?” she cried. “You should die. You colluded with Ken to kill Khloe. It was you! Otherwise, how could Khloe have been being raped by that bastard, Ken!”

“Alice!” Laurence shouted loudly. “Enough!”

Alice turned to Laurence. “And what about you,” she moaned. “You are just as responsible as anyone else is. You are her father. It was your job to protect her, and you failed miserably!”

The sound of flesh contacting flesh filled the church as Laurence’s hand slapped Alice’s face. Alice staggered a few steps backward and fell next to Khloe’s coffin. Turning, she placed both hands on her daughter’s coffin and began to wail. “Why did you have to leave me?” she cried. “Didn’t you know that I can’t live without you… my dear, dear daughter…”

Not wanting to be of any more trouble, Kylie handed Laurence a red envelope and began to walk away. Unfortunately, Alice had been watching their exchange, and she rushed out to grab the envelope. She ripped it open and money scattered all over the ground. Alice looked at Kylie and sneered. She looked at Kylie and said, “This isn’t the end. You will see it. This is not the end.”

Not wanting to hear his wife go on, Laurence wrapped his hand over his wife’s mouth. Quietly and calmly, he told her to “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Laurence looked into this wife’s eyes and found that they looked like those of a rabid dog, and her mouth was foaming. She looked like she had absolutely gone cold for Cocoa Puffs; that is to say, her brain had checked out.

Laurence glanced at Kylie from time to time, who was standing to one side of him, but Alice didn’t care. “How long will you keep your secret from her?” she hissed. “I heard that her biological father had been released from prison. Even if she doesn’t look for her father, her father will look for her.”

Kylie stood still, with no expression on her face. She had no idea what Alice was talking about, but she instinctively knew that she was talking about her. Alice turned to her and laughed. “You are such a fool,” she said. “There is so much that you don’t know, but there is no one to tell you!

“But I will tell you,” Alice hissed. “Laurence is not your biological father. Your biological father traffics women and children. He should be dead, or you should be dead, or even Ken, but not my precious daughter!”

“That is enough!” Laurence shouted as he grabbed his wife and drugged her down the aisle. All the while, Alice cursed, screamed, and scratched at his arms – and, as the sound faded away, Kylie contemplated the things that Alice had told her.

Did Laurence know the truth about her lineage, she wondered. If so, then she would need to arrange to speak to Laurence in private and ready herself just in case Alice had spoken the truth.

***

Dinah met Kylie as she came out of the church. Kylie had said she wanted to go alone, but Dinah thought she might need a friend when she came out, and she’d been right. Dinah embraced Kylie, and once Kylie had told her everything that had gone on, she wanted to chase after Alice and teach her a lesson. Kylie calmed her down, though. “This is not the time or place,” she said.

“Does Laurence ever bully you?” Dinah wondered.

“He does not,” Kylie replied.

Dinah nodded as she helped Kylie into the passenger seat of her car. “Don’t worry about your car,” she said. “We can send someone to pick it up.”

Kylie nodded. After what happened in the church, she was completely drained, and she found it hard to care about such mundane things.

 

 

Chapter 284: The Cost Of Your Prank Was Too High

Kylie had a hard time processing the idea that her biological father might be a human trafficker. If it was true, she couldn’t believe that it had been kept from her. Kylie leaned her head on the window and said tiredly, “Take me to Faith’s house. I have something to tell her.”

Dinah didn’t ask her for a reason. She simply obeyed, and when they arrived, she instinctively knew that Kylie wanted her to stay behind. As Kylie opened the door, she looked at her and said, “If you need me, this is where I’ll be.”

“No,” Kylie sighed. “I will stay with Faith this evening. You should go find Stephen.”

Dinah smiled and thanked Kylie.

Seconds later, Kylie was at Faith’s door, and Dinah was gone. Kylie knocked on her door, and when Faith opened it, she was completely surprised. Before she asked any question, though, she invited her friend inside. Faith led Kylie into the living room, brought her a drink, and asked her what brought her there.

Kylie was silent for a moment, and then she said, “You stole my DVD.”

Faith frowned and said, “What DVD? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The other day,” Kylie explained, “I forgot to lock my safe, and you were the only other person there. You took it, copied it, and returned the original.”

“Why would I want your DVD?” Faith wondered. “I wouldn’t even have known what was on it!”

“You wouldn’t have needed to know what was on it,” Kylie replied, “If you were doing it as a favor for someone else.”

Faith sighed, and she said, “I admit that I did it, but I was helping you as much as I was helping Ken. We all know that you dislike Khloe more than most. You should be thanking me for not interrogating me!”

“That may be true,” Kylie admitted, “but I am no murderer!”

“What are you talking about?” Faith laughed. “The DVD may metaphorically take Khloe’s career, but she will live. She is like a cockroach that way. It is about time that her true nature has finally been revealed, and I do not regret what I’ve done – and, as a double whammy, Ken will also get what’s coming to him.”

“I also wanted them to suffer,” Kylie said, but the cost of your prank was too high. I never wanted anyone to die.”

Faith curiously looked at Kylie and said, “That is the second time you’ve mentioned death. What am I missing here?

“That day that your safe was left open when I saw the DVD, my curiosity had gotten the best of me. I took it, played it, and I was completely shocked by what I saw, and, almost immediately, a plot began to form in my mind. I burned the disk. Later, I hired a computer hacker to assist me so that, when the moment was right, I had been able to stream the DVD on all of the hospital’s televisions.”

Kylie stood up and began to pace to the room. “I see what you were trying to do,” she said, “but Ken showed up, and the shit hit the fan. By the end of it, Khloe was dead; Ken had fled the scene, so now there is a warrant out for his arrest. The police say that they just want to talk to him, but he could be charged with manslaughter in the end. He could go to jail because of you! Everyone assumes that he was responsible for the DVD!”

Faith sat down cross-legged on the floor and said, “I would like to be of some assistance, so long as it doesn’t shift the blame to me. So far, no one is looking in my direction, and I would prefer to leave it that way. That being said, Ken is innocent, and I don’t want him to go to prison either…”

Before Kylie could reply, her phone buzzed. She pulled it out, checked the caller ID, and saw that Ken had sent her a text message. It said, “Kylie, I want to see you.”

“I’m at Faith’s house,” she wrote back.

Ken replied, “What’re you doing in that fat old woman’s house? Forget her. This is more important!”

“You’re a wanted man,” Kylie said very calmly, “Why don’t you come here. The two of you have a terrible relationship. No one would suspect that you would go to Faith’s!”

“You won’t tell anyone where I am?” Ken wondered.

“I won’t,” Kylie replied. “And besides… What other options do you have?”

Ken replied, “All right. Tell that bitch that I’ll be there in half an hour. If she dares to betray me, though, I’ll kill her whole family! People already think that I’m a murderer, so I may as well start to behave like one.

Kylie frowned and wrote, “Quit acting like a child!”

Once Kylie’s phone was in her pocket again, Faith asked her if Ken was on his way. Kylie said that he was, so Faith rushed to her room to change her clothes.

***

When Faith opened the door for Ken, he was so startled at first that he thought he might have knocked on the wrong door. Due to a fair amount of self-improvement, Faith looked utterly different then she had the last time that he’d seen her.

“Don’t dilly-dally,” Kylie called as they stared at each other. “Get in and close the door.”

“You can’t be Faith,” Ken hissed as he stepped inside. “What kind of joke is this? The Faith that I know is a disgusting fat pig!”

Ken grabbed Faith by the hair, dragged her across the room, and threw her onto the couch. Faith hit her head hard on the armrest and began to cry. “Kylie,” Faith sobbed. “Help me!”

Ken stepped forward with his fist raised, but Kylie grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?” Kylie shouted. “You may not recognize her, but this is Faith, and she is the only person that is willing to take you in, so you should treat her better!”

Ken was so taken aback by Kylie’s words that he didn’t know what to do or say. Finally, he took a few steps back but said nothing.

Faith got up, wiped her tears away, and said, “I’m going to make coffee. You guys can talk between you. I need some time to myself before I return.”

As soon as Faith was gone, Ken asked Kylie how her appearance had changed so drastically. “Did she have an abortion?” he wondered.

Kylie scowled at him and said, “Don’t be stupid. If you want to look and feel better, the solution is no secret: Eat less. Eat better. Get more exercise.

Ken’s face turned red as if he’d been scolded, and he was embarrassed by what he’d said.

When Faith came out with coffee and cookies, Ken stopped talking and waited for Faith to leave before he took a cigarette out from his trouser pocket. He looked at Kylie seriously and said, “I made love with Khloe… there is irrefutable video evidence, but I was set up. I was drugged, and I didn’t know what I was doing. Furthermore, I don’t think that Khloe knew what she was doing either…

Hearing this, Kylie’s jaw nearly hit the floor. Fannie and Nate had prepared the wine they’d drunk. She knew that they didn’t like Khloe, but they would never have guessed that they’d go as far as to drug her.

Ken lit his cigarette and took a drag off of it. Then, as he drank from the coffee Faith had prepared, he sighed and said, “I should never have treated Faith the way I did, even when she was fat and ugly. It was wrong of me. I’d like to make it up to her if I can.”

“Just don’t get her into any trouble and be kind to her from now on,” Kylie said, “and I think that that will be enough.”

 

Chapter 285: I Hate Him

After finishing his cigarette, Ken pressed the butt out on the coffee table. The smell of burning hit his nose, and then its smell was overwhelmed by the food that Faith was cooking in the kitchen. She was just finishing up. Kylie was setting the table and, before he knew it, it was time to eat.

Ken’s eyes lit up when he saw everything that had been prepared, and Faith said, “Look at you. You must be very hungry. Ken nodded and said, “I am, and everything smells so good!”

Faith put the food on the table, and when Ken sat down, he found that he was even hungrier than he’d realized. Everything looked delicious. The fragrance practically made his mouth drool, and it took a real act of will to wait until the women were seated before he started eating. Once they were finally seated, he set to the task with relish.

Suddenly Ken looked up shyly. His plate was empty, but the ladies had only taken a few bites. “Can I have some more,” he wondered, and without a word, Faith took his plate and brought it into the kitchen. As soon as she was gone, Ken turned to Kylie and said, “It’s very good, isn’t it? It is a little bit salty, but very good nonetheless.”

Kylie nudged him with her elbow and whispered, “Be thankful for what you’ve been given. There aren’t too many wanted criminals that have it half as good as you do!”

When Faith returned with a second plate of food for Ken, she saw that he was rubbing his arm and glaring at Kylie. Even though she didn’t know what had happened while she’d been gone, something about the scene amused her, and she couldn’t help but smile. Without a word, she placed the food in front of Ken, and he thanked her meekly. By his tone, she could tell that Kylie had spoken to him about the right way to behave when you are in someone else’s house.

After eating three plates, Ken turned to Kylie and said, “I’m going to ask you one question, and I don’t want you to beat around the bush. Was Ethan Parker the one who set Khloe and me up?”

“What do you mean?” Kylie wondered.

“You know what I mean,” Ken scoffed. “I meant what I said!”

Not wanting to be involved in the conversation, Faith cleared the table and began to wash the dishes in the kitchen sink. Even though she was in another room, she still paid attention to what was being said.

Ken reached for his cigarettes and found that the box was empty. Feeling annoyed, he threw the empty box at the wall, turned to Kylie, and said, “Don’t fuck around. I know that Ethan has been trying to kill me. I don’t know whether or not he was responsible for the incident at the hospital!”

Kylie laughed, and she said, “If he wanted to kill you, he could have found an easier way to do it. You are nothing but an ant to him. If he wanted to kill you, all he would have had to do is step on you.”

Ken smiled, and he said, “You have misjudged me. I am not an ant. I am a cockroach. Cockroaches are much harder to kill.”

Kylie thought about it for a minute and finally said, “You are barking up the wrong tree. Think about it; even if Ethan wanted to do something like this to you, it is very improbable that he would spring the trap at the hospital, in front of his parents.”

Just then, Faith came out with more coffee. Ken looked at her and asked her, rudely, “Where’s my room?”

Faith pointed to a room, and Ken, without saying anything, got up and went to it. Once inside, he closed the door and locked it. Faith stayed behind at the door for a long while, and when she turned back, Kylie saw tears in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Kylie wondered.

“Even now,” Faith replied, “I am beautiful, but he still treats me as though I were hideous. It is not fair. I always wanted him to see me for who I was on the inside. Now my outside matches my inside, but he still doesn’t see me. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him…”

Kylie sat down beside her and hugged her while she cried. Once she had settled a bit, Kylie whispered words of wisdom into her ear. “You need to let go of your bitterness and hate,” she said. “These things can become cancerous if you don’t treat them right away…”

Suddenly Kylie pulled away and checked the time on her phone. She turned to Faith and said, “I’m sorry to leave you like this, but I really need to go.”

Ken left his room to go to the washroom at half-past ten and happened to cross paths with Faith, who was just leaving the washroom. She was wearing a housecoat, and her hair was in a towel, which told him that she’d just finished having a shower. As they passed each other, Faith stopped and said, “I put toiletries out for you in the bathroom. They’re all new.”

“I don’t deserve your kindness,” Ken replied, “but I do appreciate it.”

***

By the time Kylie returned home, it was well past the witching hour. She hadn’t had a good reason to leave Faith, but she’d felt overwhelmed suddenly, and even after she’d left, she’d driven aimlessly for hours with her windows open in an attempt to clear her mind.

Pupu greeted her at the door and jumped happily. “Did you miss me?” Kylie laughed. “I can tell you that you missed me.”

There was a noise from upstairs, and when Kylie looked towards the stairs, she found Lucy there, rubbing her eyes. “Is it really you, ma’am?” Lucy wondered. “I didn’t expect you home tonight…”

“I just came back to get some rest and take a shower,” Kylie said. “Where’s Ethan?”

“Lord Ethan is not home,” Lucy replied.

“Not at home?” Kylie scowled. “Didn’t he come home last night?”

Lucy shook her head and said, “Ethan hasn’t been home since you last left together.”

Kylie’s brow furrowed, and she went into the living room to take a rest on the sofa. She had no reason to believe that anything was wrong, and yet, something in her gut said that there was something wrong. Her first thought was to run everything by Lucy. Lucy had been a friend to her, but she thought better of it and sent her back to bed.

Once Lucy was gone, Kylie took a shower, dressed, and climbed into bed. Before she fell asleep, she thought about calling Ethan. In the end, though, she decided not to. She had been trying lately to trust him. Every time she got jealous, it seemed to blow up in her face.

It was almost morning, but Kylie couldn’t sleep for some reason, so she decided to check her emails. The first two emails were spam, and the third was from a stranger. She deleted the first two and opened the third. There was no message, but there was a video attached. Seeing it, her breathing nearly stopped, and her heart began to beat very fast. She looked up and stared at the ceiling; tried to hold back the tears.

After quite a long time, she forced a smile onto her face and turned to her dog. “Pupu,” she said, “would you mind going back to your room? I’m tired, and I want to have a rest.”

Pupu was very sensible. She got up, kissed Kylie on the face, and went back to her room.