At Last, I Saw My Body

Lucian’s car.

From the back seat, a long-fingered hand rested outside the window. A cigarette burned between his fingers, smoke drifting around them.

There wasn’t an ugly inch of Lucian Blackwood.

Even his hand looked like a work of art. Just the way he held a cigarette was enough to make a person’s imagination wander.

A few young women took conspicuously casual detours, trying to catch a glimpse of the man it belonged to.

I wanted to see his expression too.

When he gave Hayes the ring, he had said he wanted the results as soon as they were available.

He had rushed over so quickly. Was he that afraid I might survive?

I smiled bitterly and looked away, following Julian to the car.

The instant I bent to climb inside, white light flooded my vision.

It swallowed me whole.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a cave.

Everything was damp and dark. A rotten stench hung in the air.

There was firelight ahead.

Hesitantly, I approached.

Torches surrounded a stone platform. A naked body lay on top of it.

The smell was coming from the corpse.

I drew close enough to see the woman’s face.

And recognized myself.

Even with the skin of my face removed, even with nothing but two bloody holes where my eyes had been, I knew at once.

That was my body.

Rage overwhelmed me.

Taking my heart and draining my blood hadn’t been enough.

Julian had stripped my face and taken my eyes too.

Heavy footsteps sounded behind me.

I spun around.

The man approaching seemed to carry violence with him. I recognized him from the photograph I had just seen at the station.

Victor Slade.

He held a bone cleaver.

He walked up to my body, raised the blade, and brought it down hard.

“No!”

I screamed and lunged to stop him.

Before I could reach him, white light swallowed my spirit again.

The world slowly came back into focus.

I was in the study at the Whitmore family estate.

Richard was roaring at Julian.

“Lucian Blackwood took Southbank! What did you promise me? You said he was in Switzerland. You said he wasn’t bidding. And what happened?”

His fury grew with every word.

“He even used Stella’s name to do it. What am I supposed to tell the board? Admit that without Stella, my own son is a useless piece of shit?”

He snatched up an ornament and hurled it at Julian.

In the past, I would have thrown myself in front of him without a second thought.

But I had just seen what was left of my body.

Now I only wished Richard had thrown a knife.

Something that could kill that animal.

Julian stood still, not even daring to dodge.

His head stayed bowed.

“I’m sorry, Dad. My information about Blackwood was wrong. I’ll apologize to the board myself.”

He was still Richard’s biological son.

At the sight of blood running down Julian’s head, some of Richard’s anger faded.

His face remained thunderous. His shrewd eyes shifted as he calculated something.

After a long silence, he spoke again.

“Have you and Stella had a falling-out?”

Julian hesitated.

“Dad, I don’t understand.”

Richard gave him an increasingly impatient look.

“That girl’s full of schemes, but she’s always done whatever you tell her. She just married you. She’d want the whole world to know. Why choose now to disappear?”

“Dad—”

Richard cut him off.

“I think she found out you’ve been screwing that assistant of hers. Anna.”

Even Richard knew about Julian and Anna.

I was the only one who had been kept in the dark.

A fool from beginning to end.