< Ashton

(Ashton's P.O.V.)

"How's everything at work?" Theo asked before stuffing the last slice of pizza into his mouth.

"Good," I simply said, giving him a short nod. I didn't want him to talk. I just wanted him to go back to his room and fall asleep.

I wasn't mad at him or anything. It's just that I had decided to sneak out again, this time without him, back to the Rossett mansion. I needed him to be asleep for that.

I couldn't believe that I had sat back and waited for an entire span of two fucking weeks. Not anymore, I was not going to wait any longer.

Anastasia had sounded so respectful of my parents' dying wish that I was going to take it as a sign that the Rossetts won't be putting a bullet in my head anytime soon. This was exactly what was giving me the motivation to return back to where all this stupidity had started.

Theo huffed in annoyance at my short reply and got off the couch. "I'm gonna go sleep. Night," he grumbled, heading towards his room. I could tell he was pissed with my response because he made a point of loudly slamming his door shut.

I stayed there, staring at the T.V. screen, not paying any attention to whatever shit that had been playing on it for an hour or so.

When I was sure that he was asleep, I grabbed my coat and the spare key, just in case he woke up and decided to lock me out. I shut the door behind me as quietly as I could, cringing when it creaked slightly.

The street was empty. There was no sound other than that of an eerie silence ringing in my ears as the stars illuminated the sky mesmerisingly. That's what I loved about this time of the night: the stars. I had always loved how the stars sparkled like a million diamonds in the sky; it was simply priceless.

I bet every kid, at least once in their lifetime, had tried to count the stars. I had too. But when I realised that they couldn't be counted, it had given a new meaning to them for me . . . endless possibilities.

That's what the sky was. A collection of countless possibilities, each star marking one. Just as some stars keep disappearing and new stars take their place, possibilities too keep disappearing while new ones take their place. Countless, endless, neverending. There's never a dead end in the sky, always a new star to count.

I stopped walking when I was a short distance away from the mansion. I could make out a very small figure of a security guard sitting in a tiny booth in front of the gates of the mansion.

Shit, I cursed, how am I supposed to get in?

I had just assumed that the booth would be empty again, just like it had been on the night of the masquerade.

I glared at the guard's form, mentally begging him to go away. I looked around to find some other way when I noticed his head drop to his side. He was asleep.

Stupid.

One would think that these night shift guards would know better than to sleep, considering all an intruder needs is their five minute nap time to sneak in.

Do they not watch movies?

Climbing up the gate was easy, except for that one mini heart attack that came when the gate jiggled under my weight. I got off on the other side and hid behind a rose bush in their oh-so-vast garden. Seriously, I wondered how people didn't suffocate from such a strong scent.

I pushed away some of the roses that were blocking my view, accidentally pricking myself while doing so. I glared at the blood red rose and watched as a drop of my own blood fell on it, disappearing in it's petals.

Weirdly enough, Anastasia's image popped into my mind at the thought. It was a little unsettling how roses perfectly described her. Beautiful, strong . . . and prickly. Well obviously she was beautiful, especially with those piercing blue eyes that promised to cut you into pieces if you stared too long, and only a fool would waste his time in arguing otherwise. Strong because I had no doubt she could cut you into pieces if she wanted. The only time she had seemed fragile was when I had seen her sleeping, while all the other times she looked like a mafioso on a mission. Prickly, because, look, I had just gotten close enough to be in the same room as her, and now everyone's life around me was a complete and utter mess.

Stare as much as you want, but touch it and the thorns stand ready to prick you.

I shook the thoughts out of my head and peeked past the bush. Another stupid guard was busy playing games at the entrance door. Clearly, that way wasn't an option.

There's a very useful saying that goes, "When all doors are closed, there's always an open window."

So that's exactly what I looked for, an open window. And true enough, my eyes landed on an open window to the left. Sure, I'd have to climb to reach it . . . but that wasn't a problem. Ivory didn't make it a habit to call me a monkey for nothing.

Now, guess who's room I landed into? If you guessed our charming princess, you guessed right. Not that she was there, but it was evident that the room was hers by the large self portrait that hung over the bed. I could bet she stared at it before she slept.

Talk about self-obsessed.

I rolled my eyes and snuck a quick look at the rest of the bedroom. The room was huge, obviously it was, what in this mansion wasn't? But contrary to what I had expected, it was far from organised. Clothes were thrown all over the floor, her bedsheets and pillows were falling off the bed, loads of papers sat messily on her desk, mixed with wrappers of chocolates.

Damn, to be honest, I had just assumed her to be the super organized person who needed to have everything in place . . . but this . . . such a mess she was. If we weren't on bad terms, I would have asked her out.

I peeked a little at the papers on her desk . . . my eyebrows shot up in surprise when I saw they were music notes. I didn't know she could play . . . but then, what did I know about her?

But I wasn't here to study the environment Anastasia Rossett spent her time in, so I walked straight to the door. I pulled it open just a bit and peeked out into the hall to check if the way was clear.

It was. As quietly as I could, I slipped outside and tiptoed through the halls, trying to find my way back to Xavier's study.

It wasn't proving to be easy to find. I swear all the doors and corridors looked the same to me in this darkness. It was ridiculous, I couldn't even see my hand as I held it in front of my face.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw light seep in from a different hallway and followed it. A thin strip of light leaked into the dark corridor from under a door. Slowly, I made my way towards it, my curiosity getting the best of me.

As I got closer I could hear small voices, growing louder with each step I took.

I planted my feet right in front of the door and leaned my ear closer to hear what was being said on the other side. A loud scream rang in the air, making my heart jump and my feet stagger backwards.

Jesus, what the heck was that?

I placed my hand on my chest to calm down my now racing heart and took a deep breath, leaning in once again.

"Non lo so!" someone shouted from inside.

I used the sound of his scream to mask the faint creaking that sounded as I pushed the door open, just enough to see what was going on.

My eyes widened when I saw the horrific scene that was presented in front of me.

The room was dimly lit from the silver moonlight as it flooded in through the partially open window. The room was empty, save for the chair that sat unoccupied in the far left corner.

A man hung from the ceiling upside down, swinging in the air, right in the center of the room, his hands tied together as blood streamed down his bare chest, creating a disgusting pool on the floor. It resembled one of those torture rooms that they showed in movies.

The man's scream rang throughout the room once again, accompanied by the harsh cracking sound that came when a black leather belt was whipped against his back. The skin on his back peeled with the contact, allowing fresh blood to stream down his back and join with the pool on the floor. The man whimpered when his head was forcefully jerked back.

I leaned closer to the crack between the door and the wall to see who the cause of the man's suffering was. My eyes widened when they settled on, Anastasia. Droplets of blood were splattered on her face and a deadly scowl sat upon her lips.

She pulled at the man's hair, scratching the edge of a knife into the soft flesh of his abdomen.

"Ho chiesto, dov'è Ace Angelo?" Anastasia seethed, her voice full of malice.

The man spit blood on her face, letting out a weak laugh. "Torture me all you want, you'll never find him. You're going to die, your dear Daddy is going to die and those new friends you seemed to have made? Moriranno anche loro."

Anastasia pulled back her hand and took a step away from the body that hung in the air. "How the hell do you know anything about them?"

"Ace sa tutto, Anastasia. Even if you can't find him, he's watching your every move. Per esempio, he thought it was very undignified of you to kiss Emma Lycaris' son. He didn't expect you to stoop as low as to the level of an enemy's son."

For a second I thought I had misheard the man. Theo and Anastasia had kissed? For some reason, the very thought made me feel uncomfortable. A sick feeling grew in the depths of my stomach. Is that why Theo had barely talked about her since their date?

All I knew was that I wasn't very happy with the idea of Anastasia Rossett kissing my brother. She had blood on her hands, and I wanted her hands nowhere near Theo.

"They'll all die Anastasia, you're all running on a clock, you'll all die just as your grandfather, Gerardo Rossett did. Ashton will die, just as his precious parents did. Oh, Ace was so happy to know that their child had lived, he wants to personally carve patterns in his skin once he gets his hands on hi—"

He didn't get to finish. Cameron, who had apparently been standing at the other end of the room, had snatched the knife from Anastasia's clutches and threw it across the room. The knife spun in the air as it flew towards the man who was suspended helplessly in the air. The blade caught the moon's rays, glinting right before it sunk straight into the man's throat.

"There you go, it isn't that hard to shut up."

I should have felt horrible at the sight of the man dying as he choked on his own crimson blood. I couldn't. How the fuck could I? His words had risen a million questions in my mind.

None of what he had said made any sense to me. What did they know about my parents' death?

I put a hand over my mouth to prevent any sound from escaping. Hadn't my parents died in the car crash? Oh god. They hadn't, had they? Of course, their bodies were never found. I should have known something was wrong.

So many questions, it was like everytime I tried to find an answer to one, more questions found their way into my head. Ironic how I sneaked into the Rossett mansion to find answers, yet both times it had given me more questions than ever.

"We have to do something, we have to keep an eye on all of them. I don't want Ace anywhere near any of them." Anastasia pinched the bridge of her nose. "I can't have their blood on my hands Cameron, I won't."

"We can't protect Theo Lycaris, Anastasia. He is the son of the enemy. Have you forgotten how Emma slit the throat of Vincent's son and wife in cold blood?" he argued.

I placed my hand on the table nearby to keep myself from falling to the floor. Emma? Our sweet, harmless, caring Emma who helped me pick up my broken pieces? Surely they couldn't possibly be talking about her. I mean, the idea in itself was ridiculous. I would have laughed if I wasn't trying to keep silent here. Emma couldn't possibly hit someone let alone kill them, no fucking way.

"And neither are we eligible to extend our hands to any of the others, unless they swear their allegiance to our family. Xavier won't allow it and no matter how much you argue or how right you are, he is still the boss here."

"I need to protect Theo, he's my responsibility. He has no clue, Cameron, he shouldn't have to pay for his mother's deeds. He's innocent. Besides, dad did give an oath to protect Asht—"

"Which doesn't hold if he doesn't pledge his allegiance to us after his twenty fifth birthday," Cameron reminded her.

"I don't know Cameron. He hates us, he hates dad, he hates me. Why would he possibly want to pledge his alliance? All he'd want is to run. Not to mention Emma has probably only let him live all these years just so Ace can recruit him on his side, which I have a strong feeling if he doesn't comply with, she might finally kill him. Why would he choose us, the people he barely knows, over the mother who's been there for him all those years?" Anastasia groaned in frustration, harshly hitting the chair, causing it to fall on the floor.

Emma? Kill me? Clearly Anastasia had gone mad. She didn't know shit about Emma. Emma could never, she had been there for me more than my own mother could.

I couldn't stand there and listen any longer. I just couldn't. All her words, her lies, were driving me mad.

I stumbled back to get away from the room but my hand slammed into the vase beside it. The vase fell to the floor with a loud crash and broke into tiny pieces. I stared at the shattered clay that laid across the floor, mentally wishing that the sound hadn't been loud enough to interrupt them. But I knew it was.

I looked up. Anastasia was staring directly at me.

I ran. I ran before she could say anything. I ran before she could spin anymore lies.

I ran away from the Rossett mansion as fast as I could. I ran to my home . . . home . . . was it my home? She had said Theo didn't know anything. But was that true? How much did he really know?

But then I scolded myself for even considering that there was even a minuscule bit of truth to whatever she had said. There wasn't, there possibly couldn't be. Emma raised me alongside Theo. They were my family. They were where my trust should lie.

But no matter how hard I tried to empty the horrid thoughts from my head, as I ran through the empty silence of the street, everything I had overheard kept running in my head in a loop.

Every single thought in my head came down to one thing.

Either Anastasia Rossett spewed the greatest lies in the world or I was living one.

And I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

🥀

You're just like me, you're out your mind
I know it's strange, we're both the crazy kind
You're tellin' me that I'm insane
Boy, don't pretend that you don't love the pain

-Sweet but Psycho
(Ava Max)

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• 'Non lo so' means 'I don't know'
• 'Ho chiesto, dov'è Ace Angelo?' means 'I asked, where is Ace Angelo?'
• 'Moriranno anche loro' means 'They will die too'
• 'Ace sa tutto' means 'Ace knows everything'
• 'Per esempio' means 'For example'
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(WORD COUNT: 2720)

QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER:
Which has, so far, been the most shocking moment in the book?