This was absurd. No one counts down. When she stood with her hands fisted at her sides defiantly, he ground his teeth loudly.
“Fucking say it, Elsa!”
“Don’t you mean Eight?”
“You lying, little cunt!” he yelled, causing several passersby to look over. “How fucking long have you known?”
Elsa lifted a hand to slap him for having called her something so despicable, but she stopped mid-air making Mr. Black laugh loudly.
“So I guess you are trainable after all.”
Not caring what the consequences would be, Elsa lifted her hand again and pulled her arm back as far as it would go and slapped him with such intensity she split his lip.
“I’m the fucking liar?” she shrieked. “You unbelievable hypocrite! I told you that if you showed me honesty you would get it in return! My God, you were going to allow a serial killer to read about me! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
He stepped back and spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground and growled in such a terrifying way that Elsa suddenly felt like she was going to pass out. The look on his face was murderous. She suddenly remembered his written words and what his mother had done to him and though she didn’t know the details, she could only imagine.
“Oh, God, Victor…” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“That’s Mr. Fucking. Black.”
“Fine, I’m sorry, Mr. Black,” she swallowed hard.
“For what?” he ground out between his teeth. “For lying this whole time or for being a nosey, fucking bitch?” he belted out loudly.
She shook her head and tears filled her vision when she saw more blood begin to ooze from his mouth. “I’m not sorry for those things…”
“Fuck you, Eight,” he spat out.
“I’m sorry for hitting you when I promised myself I would never do that again.”
His eyes narrowed with confusion.
“You don’t deserve that. I’m sorry. I…” she couldn’t take anymore. “I just wanted to be the one to help you.”
His look of hatred changed to horror. “I don’t need to be helped.”
“Tell me how I can make this right. Tell me what you want from me,” she squeaked out.
A group of people walked by and Mr. Black quickly changed to Victor.
“We’ll finish with this later and by finish, I fucking mean finish.”
He walked double-time ahead of her and straight to his car, leaving her at the entrance. Her mother came out shortly looking for her. Elsa wiped her tears and explained that Victor had work to attend to. Her mother clearly knew she was lying, but let it be.
Her mother slept that night on her bed while she slept on the couch. As she lay there wondering what wrath she would suffer next, she couldn’t help but feel like she had let Victor down by not explaining herself from the beginning.
The cat was out of the bag and if she made it out of this thing alive, she promised herself two things: she would never allow any other man to treat her the way Mr. Black did, and no matter what, she would never give up the hope that people can be helped.
Elsa didn’t rest at all that night and drove in a sleepless daze to the airport on Wednesday with her mother. She bid her a bittersweet goodbye, wondering if it would be her last.
It would be another missed day of work.
Not bothering to change or freshen up, she drove directly to 2500 East Grace Street. She would prepare for her punishment there.
***
Victor sat at his desk staring at the wall. He had been there most of the night. His office was in shambles. He had torn it apart in a rage when he returned home the previous night. He hadn’t moved from his chair in six hours and he still couldn’t believe that he hadn’t seen the signs of her deception. He had gotten lax and was so blinded by work and Anthony, that the signs that kept popping up were completely ignored. Her smell in his house, things slightly out of place, the disappearance of his key that was perfectly placed in plain view... She had even found the spare key to his home. He had to give it to her, she had done a fair job at hiding her tracks, except for the video footage at the brownstone and the missing journal notes from the envelope. He had simply tossed the envelope into a drawer when he arrived home without looking inside of it. He had no reason to. But surely she knew she would be caught. Maybe she wanted to be caught.
She knew everything about him. Every. Fucking. Thing. All his deepest, darkest and most repulsive secrets. No one knew everything. Not even Anthony. Victor had limited what he allowed Ant to read, but Elsa read it all and knew every single ugly detail of the horrible person he was. He didn’t understand her. He never would. She had read all the ghastly minutiae of his debauchery and cruelty, and still she had stayed and came back for more. She was no masochist, he knew that. But then what was she? Fucking insane like he was? She knew he was a sadist who had murderous nightmares and still she was asking him how she could make it right…
The inner voice that he thought had died long ago reared its sentimental head. She’s fallen for you. Hell, she all but admitted it.
His phone chirped with a message.
C8: I’m waiting for you.
He laid his head over his crossed arms on the desk. What the hell was she waiting for? What did she think this thing with him would lead to? A fucking happily ever after? There was no such thing. All things ended eventually, some of them amicably, most miserably, and in the case of Chapter One – horrifyingly.
She wanted to know what would make it right? He would show her. And then she would see once and for all who he really was, whether he wanted to be or not: Mr. Black.
***
Elsa showered and dressed in only her silk robe as she waited on the staircase. When she heard the key in the lock, she stepped off the bottom step and disrobed quickly and kneeled by the door.
When he entered, his movements halted and she heard a sharp intake of air. When she looked up, she immediately noticed his swollen lip and grief almost overcame her. His eyes were wide as he stared down at her and he appeared scared. But scared of what? Her?
He promptly recovered and moved past her without saying anything and put his briefcase down. She stood and followed him when he still didn’t speak.
He sighed loudly when she brushed up against him.
“Wait over there,” he pointed to the chaise.
She seated herself and wrapped her arms around her body for warmth.
He settled himself in the duchess chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
“First things first: I didn’t know Chapter Five owned Juniper’s. Not that I need to fucking explain myself….” he grumbled under his breath. “And I never intended to mail those notes about you to Anthony Bruce.” He sighed irritably and pushed his hair off his forehead. “Nevertheless, it wasn’t my intention to include your mother in this game. I do have standards, however fucked-up they may seem to you.” Barely keeping his anger in check, he continued. “That being said: I want to know why you did what you did.”
Elsa shrugged to hide her embarrassment and guilt at having assumed the worst. She swallowed tightly and licked her lips. It was confession time. “I just wanted to know more about you.”
Victor’s malachite colored eyes darkened as he held her gaze. “So you thought breaking into my house and stealing an extremely personal item was a reasonable way to make that happen?” he said louder, his temper flaring.
“I tried to do things the right way by asking you questions and you made a ridiculous rule about not asking you anything. And what about you? You’ve been stalking me and watching me since the very beginning. You know absolutely everything about me.”
“That’s how I work,” he answered without really addressing her statement logically.
His stare drilled into her as he sat motionless. “Did you learn everything you wanted to learn?”
“No.”
“No?!” he huffed and sat forward. “So you fucking read my personal journal files and you still didn’t learn everything you wanted? You greedy whore.”