Chapter 4. Echoes of Broken Bond

Ellie's POV

Silence seems to be the only unnerving sound ringing around us for the longest time. And I hate it! I hate how he is acting all dumb and mute on me after what he has done to me. "Leo, for the sake of the alleged love that you claimed to have for me for the past two years, answer me! I need to understand where I went wrong. What did I do to deserve this? That is the least you owe me, at least." I fume.

He takes a deep breath and speaks with a flat tone. So empty, and so are his facial idioms. "Sorry, Ellie, but you and I both fully knew well that this love was doomed from the beginning. Perhaps we were simply not meant to be."

That plainly simple! Looking at him, I don’t see a single etch of love or care for me on his dry face. It’s like he moved on from this a long time ago. Like I was the only one holding on to ‘us’.

"Why?” I utter, trying as hard as I can to scan his face and look for anything that can prove me wrong. That he did not do what he did with my sister deliberately. It ought to be a mistake. I continue when he takes forever to formulate any response: “Because of the fact that I am engaged to a stranger, whose name I do not even know?”

He sighs a deep sigh.

That may be it.

“We have discussed this topic a thousand times, Leo, and I have made my stand on it quite plain to you from day one." I approach his hazy vision slowly as a result of the tears welling in my eyes. I take his hands into my trembling ones. "Leo, I am fighting for us. I care for you, and I love you so much that I would do anything for us, even defying my own father. Leo, we can work this out. We can resolve this."

"No. Ellie!” His response rolled so fast, like it had been formulated a long time ago and waiting at his lips for the right time, making my heart sink. Everything in me is shaking the fear of where this is heading. “We have to stop deluding ourselves. We have no control over what is inevitably bound to happen tomorrow. We are powerless against your father. We can't go against him. There is nothing we can possibly do."

No! That is not true. There is something we can do. I am prepared to fight my father and the entire world on this one.

I tighten my grip on his hands to assure him of my bold stand. For us. "Yes, we can!” I stand, a bittersweet smile brightening my drenched face as a sense of hope courses through me. “Let's flee! To a different city, a different country, or abroad if possible. I don't mind moving to another continent. Just you and me. Take me far away from this unfair insanity, Leo. Take me away. Let's..."

"Sh.." My ranting is interrupted as he places his finger on my lips.

Our eyes lock, and in the long moment that we stare at each other, I don’t see that spark that I usually see in his eyes. I freeze. Even before he starts speaking, I can tell from the way his hazel eyes are staring at me that what I just ranted a while ago rings with the sound of absurdity in his ears.

"Ellie, wake up already, will you?” His voice is raw, devoid of any sympathy or love. He wants to make a point, not to console me or listen to my nonsense. “Your father has the power and influence to turn this world upside down and move heaven down to this cursed earth to get what he wants, especially if that involves her only daughter and her poor idiotic boyfriend. He never liked me from day one, and he did not even try hiding it. Ellie, as much as I love you, this won't work. We should not have come this far to begin with."

We shouldn’t? Wow!

My hands slip from his, and we take a step back from each other. A breaking sign of the rift that has been established. My heart is bleeding badly, but I suck back all the tears. "This is it, then?"

"Ellie, it's for the best! You have a carved-in-stone fate awaiting you tomorrow. You will start a new life and I have to do the same. We’ve got nothing to fight your fate, and that fate does not include me."

Sure enough. "I was fighting for you, Leo. For us. Because of the intense love, I believe we shared. If you knew you wouldn't support me to the very end, why then did you allow us to come this far? Why did you have to humiliate me this way, make me feel like trash, and hurt me this much? Is screwing that whore—that bitch—on my bed your greatest idea for getting me to see sense? Did you have to disrespect this much just for you to prove a point?"

"The deed is done, ELLIE! And we don't stand a chance against your father." He is even yelling at me now. He is so done with me.

I weep. Bitterly! And all he does is just stare at everywhere in the room but my direction.

Today, unlike other times, he has absolutely no desire to console me at all. He is not my kind, gentle Leo who couldn't stand to see even a tear or a hint of despair in my eyes. Despite the fact that he caused me this anguish, he is watching me cry from a safe distance as I think of all of the wonderful dreams we shared and the future plans we made—dreams that he has just trashed like they meant nothing. Plans that he has fucked deep into the deepest corner of that hole he was drilling earlier and stuck them there. Dreams that he has not only stained but killed as well.

Turning around, I glare at the bed. The white sheets are still covered in the fresh wet stains of their cum. Their abhorrent act's foul odor is still permeating the space. I'm still replaying the disgusting scene in my head, that cursed moment when I heard him pounding gloriously into her and her moaning his name with equal glory.

How immoral can this world get? No, how immoral can they get? If I had landed them in a hotel or some other place, it wouldn’t have hurt this much. But in my bed? If it had been some other filthy bitch, I could have understood, but my stepsister?

"How long has it been going on?” I snap, searching his eyes. “Is she a better f*cker than I am?" I am not really a bitch to talk this dirty. That accidentally rolled off my lips as I was just thinking, and perhaps the pain that I am nursing inside is partly to blame. I wipe away my tears as I wait a decade for his response. Shouldn't he be prepared with the answers considering the hard balls he has to bring her into my bed?

"Some months back."

Flat. He is not even ashamed.

Months?

Months! They have been screwing each one for months under my nose? How did I not notice it?