Filed To Story: The Trap Of Ace Book PDF Free
“That’s it?
Nothing more I get to hear?”
He raised his brow.
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re looking good.”
“Just good?”
I glared at his mischievous gray eyes.
Though he teased me, I could feel the change of mood in him after the dinner.
His shoulders were tense, eyes were disturbed.
“What happened?
You look tense,” I asked.
The smile slipped off his face.
He shook his head.
“Not now.
Later, Rosebud.
Let’s enjoy our dance first.”
With a sigh, I nodded and allowed him to pull me closer to his chest and hug me.
I placed my head under his chin, closed my eyes and enjoyed our slow dance, the music, and his warmth without objecting.
Just as he said.
“Check mate!”
I said, lining my soldier right before his king.
With his hands adjoined before him, he just stared at the chessboard in silence.
After our dance, he led me inside to play chess, just like old times.
In the first match, he won, as always.
But in the second match, I won.
Same went with the third one.
Not because I was better than him on the chessboard, because he let me win.
His mind was somewhere else.
The more time that passed, the more his stance got tense.
Those gray eyes grew more anxious as our game came to an end.
He was stalling, I was aware of it.
And even I was now afraid to ask questions.
What happened in the past to make him this agitated by the revelation?
What terrified me most was the fear in those gray pools.
Tonight was the night I discovered his many faces.
But I didn’t ever expect I’d see fear in his eyes.
“Ace?
You again let me win.
It’s not fair!”
I pressed my lips together.
He used to do it in our childhood.
He’d always let me win and even after I was aware of the fact, I’d be jumping up and down on my seat out of excitement.
And he’d just watch me.
But I wasn’t the little Emerald anymore.
“No problem.
We can play another match,” he said, rearranging the board.
I stopped his hand.
His stormy gray met my turquoise.
“Three matches are enough for tonight.
Don’t you think it’s time to fulfill your promise?”
His jaw clenched, eyes looking away from me.
“You promised, Ace.
I want to know everything.”
My voice came out firm, though my hand fumbled with my bracelet under the table.
Hands balled into fists, he took a deep breath; gaze set on the board.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” I whispered, gulping.
“Everything that happened that night seven years ago.
If you claim you always had feelings for me, you always wanted me, then… what were you doing with Tess on the balcony?”
I let out a breath, finally asking the questions that have been nagging under my skin for so long.
Silence.
The only sound I could hear in the room was the ticks of the hanging clock on the wall, and my pounding heart in my chest.
His gaze drilled into mine as he sat there with an unreadable fa?ade.
Though the storm in his gray eyes was transparent.
“Ace?”
I probed.
“Before you know what happened that night, you should be aware of my past first,” he said.
“Remember, Emerald.
Before reaching any conclusions, know that whatever I did was for everyone’s good.
Especially yours.”
What good was in there for me?
But putting my question aside, I nodded, encouraging him to go on.
He closed his eyes before opening them again.
The muscle of his jaw ticked.
“After my father passed away, my… mom went into depression.
She couldn’t take the loss of her husband and drowned herself in alcohol and parties.
I was about to turn eighteen at that moment.”
The pain in voice was visible, though he tried to mask it hard.
“As you knew, my father was an idol for me.
Even if he never spent much time with us, I…
loved him a lot.
And after he passed, I—I was lost.
I didn’t know what to do with my life then.”
Something squeezed in my chest, imagining how much agony he must have gone through.
“With my mother never at home, I found myself alone.
Though Caleb was there, no one could take the place of my parents.
On the top of that, the company’s burden was falling on me.
For an eighteen-year-old, it became too much for me, Emerald.”
He looked away from me as if ashamed.
“Not being able to take everything in, I—I took the support of drugs.”
A gasp slipped through my lips as I sat there, shocked.
“I became a drug addict.”
His voice was as hard as steel, eyes flashing.
“There wasn’t anything I hadn’t tried to forget everything.
To get a moment of peace, not knowing it was only pushing me towards destruction.”
My eyes burned.
My heart pained at the emotional downfall he went through.
And I hadn’t had even any idea of it.
Guilt washed over me like a tsunami.
“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”
My voice croaked.
He held my gaze.
Different emotions swirled into those stormy gray pools.
“I couldn’t let my darkness taint you, Rosebud.
I’d never.”
“You could at least tell me.
I’d be there with you.
Maybe I could help you out.”
A lone tear escaped my eye.
A soft smile tugged at his lips.
“You were helping me, Rosebud.
You were the only hope in my life that didn’t let my darkness engulf me completely.
You were the only one who kept me sane.”
My lower lip trembled.
No matter what he said, I couldn’t help but feel the guilt clutching me in its grip.
Here I was fantasizing about him, not knowing what problems he was going through.
“Then what happened?
H-how did you get out of your addiction?”
“I couldn’t for two years.
Until…”
“Until?”
“Until I lost you.”
Taking a deep breath, he cleared his throat.
“I knew about your feelings for me, Rosebud.
I knew everything.
You were my princess even before you asked me to make you one.
But…” His features hardened.
“No matter how much I wanted you, I couldn’t let you wait for me and ruin your life when I didn’t even know if I had a future or not.
What I’d do with my life.”
Something churned inside me.
An ominous feeling rose in my chest.
“That’s why that night I took Tess’s help.
To…”
My heart pounded down my chest, breath came out harsh, eyes burning.
My nails dug into my palms.
“To push you away from me.”
THIRTY-SEVEN: HEARTBROKEN
T aking a sip of the tea, I ran my eyes over the newspaper.
The noise of Mom chopping vegetables and moving utensils in the kitchen rang across.
But nothing moved my attention from the paper, not even her curious glances.
“You know the Blackwood’s daughter ran off with her cousin’s fianc??”
Her sigh resonated from the opposite side of the counter.
“I got to know from the kitty party last night.
Children these days, I don’t know what runs in their head.”
I flipped another page.
“Your aunt called me this morning to inform me how she’s enjoying her vacation in Switzerland with her third husband and soon will be sending me some pictures of their little honeymoon.”
She snorted.
“As if I wanted to know, anyway.
I’m glad your dad didn’t go after his elder sister.
Thank God she’s not in the country right now.
At least I got some relief from her frequent visits.”
I stayed quiet.
Not warning her about Dad’s hearing her slandering about his sister to me, just like I did every time.
“Em?”
“Yeah,” I answered, my voice came out croaky.