Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 246: Eighty times.

Leilani.

The moment I struck Clement or whatever his name was, silence settled in the room like a cloud of dark smoke.

The air was so dense and so thick with uncomfortable tension that you could literally cut through it with a knife. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Clement fell to the floor with a loud thump whilst clutching at his throat like I’d strangled him and not slapped his cheek, and Ashe cried out for mercy like the pathetic shit that he was, all I felt was an immeasurable amount of irritation.

I was disgusted. To no end.

I wanted to tie him up to the ceiling but in an upside down position and then shake him so hard until I got all the information I wanted out of him.

But I couldn’t torture him like that. Especially not here.

So instead, I could only watch him closely with my chest burning. My throat felt tight and my body shook with emotions— not pity per say, but anger. Anger after hearing what Chalice had to say about Clement. Anger at the things he’d put her through all in the name of attaining pleasure.

It took him a moment to gather himself together after the slap and when he finally did, he coughed hysterically, looked up at me from his position on the floor and croaked out;

"That wasn’t all that happened."

But I wasn’t willing to know what happened after that. Gosh, I didn’t want to listen to a word he had to say!

"Nothing justifies what you did to her! Nothing!" That was Maya, and as her voice tore through the atmosphere, something within me snapped tighter. My nerve endings felt stretched taut and my body shook slightly, probably due to rage.

"But she isn’t telling the entire truth! She’s talking like I made her do it all against her will!" He screamed back at Maya who snorted angrily before leaning downward to slip off her high heels.

And to my utmost surprise, as soon as she took off her shoes, she immediately tried to attack Clement, and maybe she would have if Gavin hadn’t stepped in quickly.

She cursed; "And how the fuck do you expect us to believe that she wasn’t raped against her will?! Do you not hear how stupid that sounds?"

"She wasn’t always raped! Gosh, she even did the raping a few times!" He clapped back; And goddess, maybe I shouldn’t have listened to that. Maybe I should never have paid him the attention he didn’t deserve because something about those words made my eyes widen.

I turned slowly to him and spat; "Then tell me, Clement, what was the entire thing that happened between you two?"

"She came to me!" He snapped quickly, dropping his gaze. "I know that our relationship has always been somewhat below normal human moral compasses, but she came to me first! She approached me and gosh, I don’t think you’ll understand but she’s a very good temptress!"

"And you decided to use her?" I spat, crouching in front of him until we were on the same eye level.

In this position, I could clearly see the way he trembled like a leaf in the wind. I could feel the way Chalice was looking at me strangely, like she was just seeing me for the first time in her life. She lowered her gaze and bit her lips. However, just as I turned to look at her, she frowned and away, her jaws hardening into a stubborn line as she seethed;

"Wonder why you’re acting all high and mighty!" She hissed under her breath and upon hearing that, my anger flared one more time.

I decided then and there that maybe my pity was the last thing she needed. Maybe compassion was the last thing she deserved.

Gavin probably thought so too because then he scoffed and looked away, but before he did, I didn’t miss the disappointment in his eyes. The confusion and the disgust.

I drawled; "She approached you and you took advantage of her. You made yourself her pimp and made her sleep with several different men..."

"Most of which she did on her own!" He snorted, interrupting me. "I only made her do it when I began to go bankrupt and I completely lost everything after she stole from me and fled!"

"So while we all thought you were in school, studying, Chalice, you were busy having the time of your life? You were jumping from one man to the other? Yet you managed to make people believe for so long that Leilani was the promiscuous one?"

When Caelum uttered those words, instead of feeling relieved, I felt disgusted.

Why?

Because he was one of the people who slut-shamed me the most.

He was the one who made me feel less and less of myself. Goddess, he even at some point, accused me of warming Jarek’s bed. Hence, the reason I could bag a job at Frostclaw. Inc.

I balled my hands into fists as I glared between him and Chalice and then I shrugged; "I don’t know who to believe between the two of them. I don’t know if Chlaive was indeed forced to do most of the things she did while under Clement’s protection. However, what I know is that he pimped her out a few times which is a violation of her rights as an individual—"

I stopped when he gasped and frowned when he clasped his hands together and fell to his knees.

"However, none of these changes the fact that she killed someone before travelling for school, cementing her status as a murderer and a thief. She fled because she had killed Grandma Aurora."

"And—" Louis cut in, speaking up for the first time in several minutes. However, just as everyone turned to him to listen to what he had to say, he suddenly stopped and went limp and goddess, a stifled gasp escaped my lip when he fell to the floor like a stack of books and began to convulse.

The colour drained from my face as I watched him struggle to breathe but after a while, he stretched and then went limp, his breath coming in short slow motions.

One of the healers who had helped resuscitate chalice earlier, leaned close to press her ear against his chest. She then plucked his hands into hers to check his pulse.

We all gathered quietly as we watched her do her thing and then she murmured. "He’s fine. He’s unconscious but he seems peaceful... like one who is asleep."

"His brain has been through too much. I guess this is its way of shutting down for the time being."

No one asked me directly but from the pointed stares they shot at me, I instinctively knew that they knew that I was behind Louis’ current state of health.

I do not know what I may have done to him— and I would find out— but it was all me. So to defuse the tension drawn to me, I shrugged and muttered;

"That’s all for today," then to Zevran, "that was the video I wanted to show you... the one where she was frolicking with Louis and plotting my death."

"Thank you." He said.

However, I was about to turn away, to continue with whatever was left of the party when suddenly Caelum spoke up. He barked;

"Is this it?"

"Is this what?"

"Is this how we would all sweep this under the rug? Chalice has been established as a murderer, a thief... and if this hadn’t been brought to light, she would’ve murdered and stolen her sister’s life! Yet we’re all just in haste to go back to what we were doing before the ruckus?"

"We’re not—" Kael began to say but stopped when Caelum waved in his face.

"Then she should be punished. Severely. And for a start, she has to kneel in front of Leilani, grovel for her forgiveness and slap herself in the face eighty times."

"Why eighty times?" Maya asked confusedly, but I didn’t rush to respond.

I didn’t.

Why?

Because my throat was clogged with emotions. And I could vividly remember how I had been flogged eighty times for a crime I never committed.

Goddess, I could never forgive these people even if I tried!