Chapter 2 Chapter Two

LILA’S POV

I'm not human. The thought ran through my head and I instantly opened my eyes.  “Urgh,” I grunted, getting off the ground and noticing that it was morning.

Was I here all night? In the middle of the woods and no one found me?

My eyes widened as I stared around. “Father and his guards didn't find me either?”  I stared down at my naked body. 

My dress had been ripped apart by whatever had happened last night. The memory burned into my head like a bad dream I couldn't wake up from. 

I was dirty and unkempt. I couldn't go back to the house like this, especially after what happened last night. Tears prickled my eyes, threatening to fall. I had nowhere to go. 

I got myself together and got up from the floor, dusting what I could and going back to the house. Or at least the direction I thought I came from. 

I spent hours walking aimlessly till the house came into view and luckily for me, the multiple cars that were there last night were gone. 

There was a quilt outside the house, probably a dirty one but I didn't mind. I wrapped it around myself and headed to the house. 

I trudged up the front stairs and slightly pushed the door open but the moment I stepped in, the people in the house froze. 

Then, as if I was a monster, they all scurried away. My heart ached but I forced the emotions down. “Dad?” I called out but he didn't answer me. 

His men that I had seen around the house had disappeared the moment they saw me. 

I searched around the house but I didn't see him. 

It was like he had vanished. My head felt heavy and my eyes dizzy and I collapsed to the ground, the darkness swallowing me whole again. 

A few hours later, I woke up to feel a sharp pain on my side. I had passed out again. I groaned softly before heading to my room. 

I removed the cover and walked to my bathroom. Then I soaked myself in hot water. 

Flashes of last night came into my head and I almost slipped on the bathroom tiles in horror.

It wasn't a dream… all that actually happened and I wasn't…I wasn't human.  A shiver ran down my spine as the water pelted my skin.

I needed to see Caelum.

I wasted no time in getting dressed and running out of the house to one of my father's cars. Since there was no one to drive me, I drove to his penthouse myself.

Caelum had lived there mostly since he didn't like his family. He gave me a spare key a year after we started dating. I never would have guessed that a day would come when I would need to use it because I was in a huge dilemma. 

The door was unlocked when I got there. I put the key back into the pocket of my jeans and pushed the door open, stepping in. 

The house was silent. 

“Caelum?” I called out to him but he didn't respond. 

Something began yelling in my head to turn back but I refused to listen. If there was one person I could trust with my entire heart to listen and believe me, it was Caelum.

I walked further into the house and climbed the stairs. Somehow, my senses were heightened and I heard voices but I couldn't place the words. 

I finally heard his voice and a calming wave washed over me. The voice in my head only got louder with each step I took towards his room. 

“Leave, leave, leave. You will hurt, leave!” The voice screamed and it began to make my heart hurt. 

My vision blurred a bit and I stumbled, almost losing my footing but I pushed on. I finally got to his door and his voice was a bit clearer now.

“Why don't you do it for me, huh?” He said clearly while talking to someone.

“Who could he be talking to?” I wondered and I grabbed onto the knob. The voice in my head suddenly got silent and my head felt much better.

I twisted the knob and the door slowly opened but nothing would have prepared me for the sight that I was greeted with.

She lay sprawled on the bed, her hair everywhere. Her eyes were hooded with lust and worst of all she was naked and had my fiancé inside her.

He was hunched over her figure, thrusting vigorously, without a care in the world, even unaware of my presence.

I stood frozen, watching the scene of my fiancé and soon-to-be husband having sex with my half-sister, Seraphine. 

She was supposed to be abroad and now…now she was right here. Her eyes traced to mine and instead of remorse, she smirked. Caelum, still unaware of me in the room, kept pushing inside of her. Seraphine only got louder and held tightly onto his back, leaving scratch marks on his skin. 

“W-what is going on here?” I finally let out and Caelum paused. He removed his body from hers and turned to face me in all his glory. 

His face went from surprise to indifference and fear in the span of a second. “Well, you were going to find out eventually,” he said in a bored tone and my palms balled into fists.

“I was going to what?!” The tears that I had been holding all morning began to flow freely down my cheeks.

“Oh, sister.” Séraphine gasped, moving closer to Caelum and acting all innocent like I was going to hurt her.

Caelum raised his hand in front of her face, protecting her.  “Don't even think of doing anything stupid.” He warned and I could feel his anger and hatred flash through his eyes. 

“Why?” I muttered, staring at the ground as my tears fell. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!” I screamed and they both flinched.

Caelum didn't flinch but his eyes held no indifference, only fear and I stood, rooted to the ground as he looked at me the way the staff back at the house did. 

Like a monster. 

“Why?” He asked, scoffing and looking at me with fear and disgust. “Are you seriously asking me that?” 

I didn't answer. I couldn't bring myself to. But I knew he would tell me the truth. 

“You don't know, do you? You don't know that the video of you turning into a monster was uploaded to the media last night?” His words made me freeze. So it did happen. 

“I…I…”

“You can't seriously think I was going to still marry you after that embarrassment. You're a monster, Lila and I'm sorry but I can't be with a monster.”

“Caelum, please,” I begged him, hoping that the man I fell in love with was still inside there somewhere and that Seraphine had cast some spell on him that made him speak to me this way.

“Our engagement is over.” He whispered and then he turned to Seraphine. “She is the one I want to be with now.”

No. No.

“No, no, no.” I yelled, rushing forward and going on my knees, grabbing his leg and holding on to it tightly.

“You're the only one I have, so please. Don't do this to me. Don't abandon me like this.” Tears and snot dropped down my face but his look of disgust only intensified.

He kicked me off of him and I rolled, hitting my head on the wall. A sharp ache filled my head but I wasn't going to give up on the man I loved.

“Get the hell out.” He said through gritted teeth but when he noticed that I wasn't going to, he grabbed his shorts, put them on, walked over and grabbed my hand, dragging me out of his house.

“Caelum please... You said you love me.”

“I never did, Lila. I never would either.” He shoved me and I fell close to the open road. 

“I don't want to see your face, ever.”  He went back into the house and I just lay there, a crying mess.

No one loved me. No one wanted me.  I got up slowly and walked aimlessly, not caring that I was on the road. 

My head felt dizzy. I felt pain throbbing in my heart and I tried my best to stand but I couldn't. The world was already spinning. 

I couldn't brace myself and I hit the pavement and a loud crack was heard. 

People were yelling and screaming and I tried to stretch my hand out to the man I loved and thought I saw staring at me with sympathy.

I blinked and he was gone.  Oh. He didn't love me. He didn't and that hurt more than anything else.