Love and Deceit

Chapter 12: Wedding.

Things had happened… secrets were discovered… lives were lost. I had fond out about the people who had killed Nathan. They were young men, maybe a little older than Chris, but younger than me. They seemed kind and innocent. It was a wonder how they ever became hitmen, and why they would choose such a path to follow.

I had found out which hotel Nathan had stayed during the trip, and who was working the bar on the night he was killed. It didn’t take much for the bartender to leak out the information about the men he had made a deal with to put something in Nathan’s drink, mainly because he was so frightened of the men I had brought along with me to interrogate. Not to mention, he was also frightened of my abnormal eyes.

We got a description of the men who had made the deal with the bartender, and the bartender in turn only suffered a minor beating for having played a part in the murder of my lover.

The hitmen were easy to find. When we came to see them, they were shocked to say the least. They hadn’t expected me to be able to find them so soon after the murder was done and the incident was all too fresh in their minds. They knew exactly who it was that they killed as well as who I was the moment they saw me.

They were like frightened boys when they saw me. It made me almost take pity on them… almost.

It didn’t take too long for them to confess to having killed Nathan. They were smart. They knew that by telling the truth right off the bat, they were spared the pain of torture so that they could confess. But they were not spared torture all together.

The men I had brought with me were faithful to me and would do all that I had asked. They had no problem if I would ask them to take care of a man or woman, in terms of killing, or sex. I, on the other hand, did not lift a finger in the job; I merely sat on a chair and watched.

The two young men who had killed Nathan were watching me intently. “Are you Carter Welland?” One of them asked.

“Yes. I am.”

“What are you going to do to us?” The other asked. The one who asked that question seemed a little more frightened than the other.

I looked at him intensely. My eyes made him shake even more than he had been already. “I’m going to see to it that you suffer in the exact same way you made my lover suffer. And then, I’m going to see the two of you die.”
The two young men were kneeling closely beside each other, looking up at me in my chair. After I had spoken those words, they slowly garbed each other’s hand. The gesture was not lost to me.

“Are you two special to each other?” I asked them.

A blush crossed each of their cheeks as they both turned away from my prying gaze.

I heard a couple of my men smirk, but they were immediately silenced when I shot them a death glare.

I got up from my chair a kneeled down next to the young man who had asked me what I was planning on doing to them. I cupped his chin with my thumb and index finger and lifted his head to face me. His partner had caught the motion and looked at us.

“Do you love this man?” I asked the frightened assassin.

He turned to meet the other man’s gaze. The other man seemed to be just as interested in hearing the answer as I was.

The trembling young man closed his eyes and nodded his affirmation.

“I thought that the two of you never did men. You were only familiar with women. Or so you wrote in your letter to me.”

“We were always special to each other.” The other man had said. “We just never knew our feeling could go any further than that. That is, until we were hired to kill your lover. We then found out that it was possible to explore our relationship.”

“I see.” I told the man. “Then some good came out of you killing my lover, did it?”

One of my men gave that young man a hard kick to the gut. A loud grunt and cough were followed by him toppling over in pain.

His apparent lover looked to him with wide eyes, a tear seeming to make its way down his cheek. I took the opportunity to tilt the boy’s head to me once again.

“You weren’t the one who wrote the letter, were you? It was him, wasn’t it?”

The younger man didn’t respond.

“Hmmm. So I was right. Well, I will tell you this. You are going to experience the exact same thing you did to Nathan. My men will ravage you repeatedly, and cut your body as well. All you did to my lover, you and your lover will experience. However, I will grant you one thing.”

The boy looked to me.

“You will tell me who it was that hired you, first of all. And then, I will allow the two of you to die in each other’s arms. I will allow the two of you to be together when you die, something that you didn’t even allow me to do. Is that fair?”

The younger man’s tears ran freely down his face as his lover slowly got back up onto his knees.

The name of the person who had hired these two young men to kill Nathan was uttered to me by the very person whom had written the letter.

“Very well,” I told him. “The two of you will die in each other’s arms. I will grant you that release.”

“Thank you.” He said back to me.

It was a strange sight, to see those two scared young boys accept their punishment. They cried out in pain, of course. But to them, they seemed to forget every thing once they were back in each other’s arms.

The looks on their faces, the smiles they managed to produce despite all that was just done to them. They were ravaged repeatedly as well as cut and stabbed. All that they had done to Nathan was done back to them, and yet… they could still smile so warmly when they were back together.

Hmph, Carter Welland wasn’t back. Carter Welland was as much of a mere man as he had always. I couldn’t do it. As much as I hated the two for taking my lover away, I couldn’t be the heartless fiend I so desperately wanted to be. Not to them. They were brave, and so, I gifted their bravery.

I got up from my chair and walked over to the bed they laid on, holding each other close.

When I looked over them, they began to tremble, their eyes shutting tightly and their arms holding one another with all their might.

“I forgive you for what you’ve done.”

At that, both their eyes shot open as they saw my own tears fall down my face.

“Forgive me. I will allow you too to live if you promise to leave this city and not come back. I will let you live. Go live together and be happy. And I hope that you will regret every day that you took away someone special to me. I hope that you will thank me for not tearing the two of you from each other like you tore him away from me.”

With that, and with much protest from my comrades, I left the room. “Those two will not be harmed. I have what I’m looking for. When I find this man who hired them to kill Nathan, I will kill them myself.”

***

It was the day of my wedding and every thing was set up for the ceremony. But there wouldn’t be one.

I had traced the man had hired the two young assassins to kill Nathan, and I made true on my promise. I made that man suffer, but not before he gave me some very revealing information.

I did wear my tuxedo just to give others the illusion that I was still intending on getting married. My appearance even managed to convince Chris and he had remained, the whole day, with an adorable pout on his face. The boy was becoming more and more charming, and I found myself falling for him as days went on.

Chris himself was wearing a lovely black tuxedo that made him look even more breathtaking than normal clothes would allow. The only thing that made Chris even more breathtaking than in that suit was when he was wearing nothing at all. I don’t think he noticed just how beautiful he truly was, but I could tell that many other men, and women, could.

Since early in the morning, whenever we would be in the same room, the boy would try to avoid my eye, his own eyes displaying hurt and betrayal.

I was walking briskly into Miriam’s bridal room and shooed all of her bride’ maids out. They were all appalled that I would dare go into the bridal room before the wedding but I didn’t care. This was going to be something I needed to discuss with that cobra I was about to call a wife.

“Carter?!” She said. “What are you doing here? Its bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, you know that.”

I smirked at the comment. “There isn’t going to be a wedding Miriam.”

“What? What do you mean?” She asked.

“Tell me Miriam, do you have any idea who killed Nathan?”

“Nathan? Why would I?”

“Because, a little birdie told me that he was asked to hire two men to kill Nathan from someone you know. So I will ask you this… you had something to do with his death, didn’t you?”

“I- I don’t know anything about this.” Miriam began to tremble now. I’m guessing I looked quite fierce since I had put an extremely angry expression on my face. Her eyes were wide as she began to back into a corner as I advanced toward her.

“You knew about my relationship with Nathan, and you told someone about it. Either that or you asked the man I had seen a little while ago to hire two young assassins to kill Nathan. Isn’t that right?”

Tears began to well up in her eyes. “I don- I don’t know Carter! I don’t know!”

“You know SOMETHING Miriam. I know you do. Tell me! WHO DID YOU TALK TO?”

“I only told my father!” she cried out. “I knew about your relationship, and I only told my father about it. I don’t know if he talked to anybody about this, but I swear, the only person I ever talked to was him. Carter I swear.”

She was crying freely, body trembling, sunk into the corner of the room. It was quite a pitiful sight for the once proud cobra. It made me laugh inside.

“Your father… heh. Your father. And, of course, your father would probably go to great lengths to make sure that his company and that of my father’s would merge with out any problem. Unfortunately for him, Nathan was a crack in the plan wasn’t he? Considering the fact that I loved him and not you.”

I took a moment to breathe deeply. “Your father never knew about my and Nathan’s relationship before you told him, did he?”

“No.” Miriam squeaked, her body still trembling and her eyes fixated on my own.

“Hmph. This wedding is off Miriam. I’m not going to marry you and tough luck for your father who so desperately wanted our companies to merge.”

I turned to leave but was stopped by Miriam’s words.

“Wait, Carter. We don’t have to get married for the sake of the companies but, at least, for the sake of our child.”

“Ah yes, the child. If you are indeed pregnant Miriam, that child isn’t mine.”

I turned to look at her. Her face displayed utter shock. “What do you mean?” She asked. “I am pregnant. I wouldn’t lie about something like that. Even I wouldn’t sink so low as to lie about a pregnancy for the sake of marriage. I even went to a doctor to confirm it.”

A grin spread across my face. “So, who is your lover?”

Miriam’s eyes went even wider, this time, at being found out. “Wh- what?”

“I went to a doctor myself for a check up and found out some very interesting information. My sperm is infertile. There is absolutely no way that the child you are carrying is mine.”

“But… it was just… one night” Miriam whispered.

“Hmph, to think that one night could do such a thing. Why, I should have your lover killed like you had mine.”

“I didn’t! You can’t!” Miriam threw herself on the ground pleading. She was wearing her wedding dress considering the ceremony would have begun in only ten minutes. There was knocking at the door from her bride’s maids to see if we were ready. Seeing Miriam on the floor, pleading, while wearing her dress made me sick to my stomach. It was such a pitiful sight.

I turned and was about to leave when she stopped me once again.

“You know. I had gotten a letter from the assassins with the details about Nathan’s murder. It said that when he was being raped, he started to enjoy it. It said that he moaned like a whore when they took him again, and again, and again. I never knew he was such a masochist. He’s sick”

Those words made my blood boil as I turned around, walked towards her to kneel right in front of her. I looked at the despicable woman in the eye. My hand came up to her and wrapped around her throat. The smirk that she had when she said those words was gone as she began to gasp for breath.

“Miriam,” I began to say in a voice as cold as liquid nitrogen. “I suggest you leave this country and never come back. You can leave with your lover, I don’t care. But let me tell you this.”

My hand clenched tighter around her throat. “If I ever find out that what you told your father was what caused Nathan’s death, make no mistake, I will come looking for you. And when I find you, I won’t hire anyone to do the job… I will kill you myself. Child or not, I will kill you.”

I let go of my hold on her neck. She looked at me with wide eyes. No doubt she was scared. I got up from my kneeling position, turned and left the room. My ice cold eyes shifted their gaze to the bride’s maids that were waiting outside the door. “This wedding is off.” I told them and then walked to the church where the ceremony would be held.

Once there, I walked to the front and stood before a crowd of hundreds. Chris was sitting in the front row, a tear trickling down his face. Adrian wasn’t there. He was on a school vacation.

Everyone in the church looked to me, most of them smiling, still unaware that there would be no wedding. Music had been playing but I had gestured for it to stop.

In front of the entire crowd, I began to remove the bow I had on my tux, as well as the Jacket and vest.

I could hear people begin to murmur, as even Chris, who had been staring at the floor all this time, shifted his gaze to me, eyes widening at what I was doing.

I looked over to Chris, smiled a little and then began to remove my white shirt, exposing my upper torso to all who had come for the wedding. More murmurs broke out and I could see many grins appear on the faces of women. Many eyes were scanning my body, but I didn’t care. This was an affect I was trying to create.

I looked at Miriam’s parents who were shocked to say the least, and then I looked at my own parents. I was expecting my father to have a shocked look on his face as well, but to my surprise, he didn’t. He wore an expression that made it seem like he knew exactly what I was doing and what was going on in my mind. My mother, Nathan’s mother if you want to be more accurate, had the same look on her face as a tinny smile tugged at her lips. A smile that said “I’m proud of you.”

“This wedding is off.” Was all I said to the gaping crowd. With that, I walked down the isle towards the doors of the church, not looking back.

As I made my way down the isle, the murmurs were all over the place. I couldn’t really hear what people were saying, and frankly, I didn’t care. All I knew was that, at that moment, I was walking away from my duties as the next head of the Welland Corporation. I was escaping my fate. Maybe if I had done that sooner, Nathan would still have been alive. Maybe the two of us, and even Chris and Adrian would have been like a family. I don’t know. But as I thought about it, a small smile tugged at my lips.

I was free from my fate. The tugging smile turned into a large one as I exited the doors of the church.