Chapter 4

Ramon was still scared looking at Emma's image. He had promised that he would never tell Sebastian about what had happened to her, but with no way out, he had to speak.

Now, her greatest challenge and also her greatest pain lay ahead of her.

"Did you tell him?" Emma's voice is shaky, and she still looks severely hurt. His entire body was devastated. Facing Sebastian was too much for him, but facing Ramon hurt him more. "You promised me a secret! You promised you would never tell!" her voice was choked.

Anyone who saw Emma there would know how much she wanted to yell at Ramon. However, she was so weak and haggard that her voice came out as a lifeless whisper.

Inside, it felt like everything had died. Part of what she had still built, all of it, had broken. She felt ashamed, dirty, small and helpless.

"So does that mean this is really true?" Sebastian asked.

Just like Emma, the man was also completely defeated. His mind was a mess, he constantly wondered how this could be real when Emma never showed it.

Or had he just never noticed?

His rage was almost perpetual in that second.

His desire was to scream, punch and kill Malak slowly. Make him feel so much pain he'd hear him beg for his own death. I wanted to see him cry, bleed, shake with fear and finally die. Sebastian wanted to kill him with his own hands. I had thirst and desire for it in that second.

However, in front of him there was no Malak, but there was Emma and also Ramon, who, in his opinion, now also deserved to be punished.

To be punished for keeping something like that from you. To keep him from protecting the woman he loved from a loathsome man. Of not giving him even more reason to want Malak's head on a s***e more vehemently.

"You should have told me! You should have told me..." Sebastian pointed at Ramon's chest. His feet took a few quick steps towards the man, and his hands again curled around the collar of the shirt Ramon wore. Sebastian squeezed, so hard he might have been able to tear. "Son of a bitch, why didn't you tell me!" He cursed. "You should have told me! You should have! You should have told me so I could have done something! You were disloyal! Disloyal to your only boss! I want to kill you right now for this!"

"You can't threaten him like that!" Emma still wouldn't look at him, but she spoke anyway. "Ramon was disloyal. But he was to me" His eyes went to Ramon. "You shouldn't have said it! You promised you'd help me! That you'd keep it a secret!" Emma was now crying, and like Sebastian, she was accusing Ramon. "I asked you! This isn't about anyone, it's about me! About my body and how I feel after what happened."

"Wasn't that supposed to tell? What the fuck?" Sebastian looked at her. Like Emma, he shed his own tears. But unlike hers, his tears were pure hate. Hatred by everyone, the whole world. guy who's supposed to protect you!"

"What do you mean? The only one to touch my body?" she sobbed, denying it, "Are you implying that I was raped because I wanted to? Why did I look for it?"

"No…" Sebastian looked more broken in that instant "it's not that… but I'm aware that if you'd let me protect you more, this wouldn't have happened."

"No?" she laughed humorlessly, full of bitterness. His eyes, even blurry, looked at Sebastian now. "Do you think this happened now? A week ago? A month ago? No, Sebastian, it wasn't. It's not recent... this happened four years ago. Four years! When I still I was your girl, back when I still cared about my dreams! When I was just at the damn university entrance waiting for Ramon to pick me up."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" he persisted, pressing her. "Why did you ask Ramon not to tell me, when you know that loyalty is the main point of our gang?"

"because I felt ashamed!" she wanted to scream again, but the catch in her voice made her border on despair. "A man I don't know if he wants the name, even where he came from, where he was born... an unknown man raped me, Sebastian. You weren't there ..." she swallowed back her tears, new ones were falling again. in that place, I ceased to exist."

Pietro and Ramon were still keeping an eye on the couple. Sebastian showed his anger as well as his pain. But Emma was the one who most demonstrated feeling everything, as if she was slowly returning to the past.

Her hands shook, her tears did not stop and flowed like a river in a flood.

Ramon worried about her. He approached slowly, and touched her on the hand, asking next:

"you don't need to talk."

"it is not necessary?" Sebastian again glared at him, angrily. "She's my wife and she's going to explain to me everything that happened."

"Are you blind that you don't see how she is now? Do you think remembering or talking about it is easy for her? It wasn't me who was violated, sir. But it hurts me like it did that day. So please leave it alone for at least today."

Sebastian's jaw tightened. That feat was what displayed his wrath at the highest level. But he shifted his eyes from Ramon to Emma, and saw how also in the girl's eyes, she looked disappointed with everyone there.

It wasn't difficult to understand the tight skirt the three were now in. It was a delicate situation, of course.

Emma had been raped and Ramon had been the only one to know. Sebastian felt betrayed, just thinking about what he could have done to change everything that had already happened.

"lets go in." Pietro called out. "It's getting cold and this conversation may continue at a better time."

Sebastian took a deep breath and turned around. He took a few steps to the edge, kicking some wooden boxes there.

Ramon removed the coat he was wearing, approaching Emma again without asking her permission. He enveloped her in the play, making Sebastian look at that scene and think about how different everything really was.

"Take her home." Sebastian asked Pietro, he couldn't face Emma anymore. He was angry, as well as sorry for her. He blamed himself for her suffering. "Leave her safe and make sure today."

"As you wish, sir." he agreed.

Emma squinted at her boyfriend, wanted to ask why he didn't do that himself, but the answer already seemed obvious, Sebastian didn't want to be close to her at that moment.

Hurt, Emma turned and led the way. Pietro followed her, ready to accept the order given to him.

Alone with Ramon on the roof, Sebastian thought about how difficult everything was becoming for him.

"What are you going to do with me, sir?" Ramon dared to ask.

Without saying a word, Sebastian drew his gun and aimed it at Ramon. The man didn't react.

Sebastian then approached and placed the barrel of the gun in the center of the assistant's chest, looking deep into his eyes.

The silence between them spread.

Sebastian's gaze asked "Why?"

While Ramon's said "I'm sorry".

Sebastian's hand came up and the shot that came out of the gun was aimed upward. Ramon's body froze, both still continued to stare at each other.

"I want that motherfucker's head." Sebastian spoke, low and angry.

"It's something we want together then, sir."

Sebastian took another deep breath and turned away from the man. He walked outside, down the stairs.

When he arrived in the main hall, everyone was attentive and scared, wondering the motivation of the only gun shot they had heard. But when just a few seconds later the elevator opened and Ramon's image appeared there, they were calmer. At least Sebastian hadn't killed anyone.

Searching for Emma, Sebastian realized that perhaps she was truly gone. He left the HQ alone, not looking for any other protection than his one and only weapon.

His fate was certain, there was only one.

The club he'd been to twice before was open and its sign was lit in neon green. Maybe it was a special show that could happen, but Sebastian didn't care about the likelihood of having enemies too, he just walked in, sat at the bar and asked for a straight whiskey on the rocks.

The waiter served and in silence he drank all the liquid again. A second drink was served and as before Sebastian drank it. The third was more challenging, he ordered it without ice and enjoyed it slowly. But when the room arrived, his breathing was already calmer and he knew that if he thought too much about what had happened, he would start crying again. For his heart felt heavy, ill… Sebastian was so torn apart that he feared what might happen to him as well.

"Hm… if you came here looking for Sofia." the bartender said, making him look up. "she didn't come today."

Sebastian laughed, denied and waved his hands, already feeling dizzy from the drink, but reached for his own gun, showing it to the man.

"Did I ask you some shit?" he wanted to curse, but the man's scared face alone was amusing, so he didn't have to strain. "Pour me some more shit like that and shut the fuck up!"

"As you wish, sir." the man said, lowering his head, reaching for Rivera's glass to make another drink.

And when he was served another drink, Sebastian thanked him with a deceptive smile, covering up how broken he was. He drank and looked around, there was indeed a band and some scantily clad girls dancing on the stage, but nothing there really interested him.

He drank, the hours passed and his confidence was already nil. His head was lying on the counter, his hand was swirling the ice in the glass, and he couldn't stop thinking about how he should have done more.

How he was so critical of Emma's change when, in fact, it had such a painful meaning.

Gradually Sebastian drowned in alcohol.

The music had already stopped when the bartender tried to call him over. Sebastian had drunk about three full bottles of whiskey on his own and the man wondered if he was still going to make it out of there.

But with no answers, he had to call the only person he knew knew Sebastian.

Sofia.