Chapter 95 Chapter Ninety Five
Sydney’s POV
Those words ran in my head as if a sledgehammer was being slammed against the strongest iron. wall in my head. Dong!
The ringing wouldn’t stop. I would have held my head but I was still bound.
The forest was thrown into a fit of silence,even the music had drowned out. It was as if they were waiting for me to take it in.
I started to think back to when Doris introduced Mark to me? Does Doris know about this? I wondered.
Besides, how? How the hell was it possible that he wasn’t Lucas. He looked like him, he spoke and behaved like Lucas, everything about him was as I remembered!
I snapped my gaze to him and my voice quivered as I asked, “You must be lying!” I let out between gritted teeth at the both of them. “If you don’t want me again,Lucas, just f**king tell me. Why come up with such a sick story.”
I could feel Luigi’s gaze drilling into my temple and as I looked up at Lucas who was glaring at me, and a corner if his l*ps twitched from time to time..
“Look, it’s okay, okay? It’s alright. I prepared myself for your rejection when I was coming here. So you should stop being a f**kin coward and say it to my face. Tell me you don’t want me anymore and let me go!”
Lucas burst out laughing boisterously and as much as I hated to admit it, now that I was equipped with the knowledge that he might not be Lucas, as I watched him, I could see some if the signs and my heart shattered.
Lucas never laughs so hard. He never did.
No, he’s not Lucas, I admitted within myself. But I didn’t want to believe it. I desperately wanted. to cling to the belief that Lucas had only changed and that was it.
“And who told you that I’d let you go?” He stepped forward, “You see? You’re a joker just like this
friend here?” He nodded toward Luigi who was glaring at him.
my
“Dylan, this is enough. We’ve done enough damage, just let her go!”
Dylan, Lucas, whoever he really was blatantly ignored Luigi and squatted before me, “Syd, I have a story to tell you.”
He stuck the gun in his pants and started to untie me. “And to enjoy this story, you have to be free.
In mere minutes, he was through. I flexed my wrist and my ankle as I rested my back on the oak tree and perched on a raised platform on the ground. Sand must have gathered there during a storm or something. I thought tiredly.
He turned to Luigi, “You too, old friend, let’s tell a story, shall we?” His l*ps pulled into a sick smile as he untied Luigi too..
As I watched him untie Luigi, I had many ideas. Hit him with a stone and flee, stab him with my nonexistent knife….several means but he had a gun and with one pull of his finger, he could send the bullet straight into my head. Besides,I actually do want to hear the
story.
What happened to my Lucas?
Then he started, “Before I begin, I want you, my audience, to know that Lucas was the sweetest soul I’ve ever met, be smiled and even in the dim rays of the moon that illuminated the midnight, I could see his smile and it was genuine.
He perched down on a small rock before us,his gun firmly in his grasp. He opened his m*uth to start speaking then he shook his head.
He pointed his pistol at Luigi. “You know what?” My eyes widened, so did Luigi’s as we waited fir
Chapter 95 Chapter Ninety Live
whatever he had to say. “Come tell the damned story”
Luigi refused but later agreed when Dylan pressed the gun to my temple..
“Hesitate one more time and I promise you I’d blow the b**ch’s brains off, he said and just the sound of those mere words elicited a whimper from me.
Begrudgingly, Luigi started the story, while Dylan kept the gun pressed to my head, with a sickening smile on his face.
“Dylan and I both worked in a hospital as night shift caregivers.
My brows involuntarily rode up my hairline. It was really difficult to picture either of them as a caregiver.
Lucas was admitted to the hospital where Dylan and Luigi worked.
Lucas‘ wealth was known to everyone in the hospital. And this coupled with the fact that he was young caught their attention.
They deliberately got closer to Lucas intending to swindle him of some money. Lucas, who had been sick and lonely since childhood quickly bonded with Dylan and Luigi who were also around his age. So it was easy for them to get to know things about him.
My heart ached at this knowledge. If Lucas had had more friends, he might have been able to snill theat Luigi and Dylan weren’t really interested in being his friends but wanted his money. But then, Lucas was smart and very intuitive. Maybe he had just overlooked it because he was desperate for company, even though he never showed it, he always yearned to have someone to
talk to.
“At first, we didn’t have any plan. Luigi went on, still refusing to look me in the eyes, “we just went with the flow, hoping an opportunity will present itself. One morning, after our shifts, we had said our goodbyes to Lucas and were going home when Dylan proposed an idea. He had recognized the family ring on Lucas‘ finger and it belonged to the Esposito’s family here in Naples. So he made it seem like he was suggesting,” Luigi threw an unguarded glare at Dylan and he chuckled, “That I had a say. He said he would take on Lucas‘ identity so that we could attain a lot of wealth to set ourselves up for life. As Lucas illness was fatal and his death was inevitable. anyway. The-
Dylan suddenly interrupted Luigi with an irritating laugh, “You remember what I said at that part?” He asked amidst laughter. “I said what use was wealth when it belonged to the dead, he finished and laughed even harder.
Luigi and I just stared blankly at him and wondered how I had not seen him for the maniac that
he was.
“Okay, go on,” he sobered up and cleaned the small tears in the corner of his. cyes.
“At first, I disagreed,” Luigi said quietly, “But Dylan was quite a persuasive person. He sweet- talked me, made me see the benefit in the long run and eventually, his voice was even quieter. this time that I had to strain my ears to hear him, “I agreed and we started to make plans. “Dylan began to imitate Lucas’s actions, everything about Lucas and since he had the same build and eye color with him, it was easier. We spent a long time preparing until we felt Dylan had completely transformed into Lucas. We even ran a test. We locked Lucas, who was on a drug induced sleep after another debilitating fever, in the bathroom and Dylan pretended to be Lucas on his hospital bed and wore some sheet mask that Lucas liked to wear and no one could tell that it was the wrong person, not even the doctor. Even hi maid couldn’t tell.”
Wow.
“That was lit, bro,” Dylan lazily commented.
“After then, we moved forward to another crucial step of our plan….” he trailed off and paused. “And that was getting rid of Lucas.
“We tricked Lucas into going camping with us in the forest. He was excited about the new experience. In the forest, we drugged him into a permanent sleep and buried his b*dy in the forest, Luigi’s gaze flicked to my side before he quickly looked away again. “It was the only way we could avoid a death report at the hospital.
upter Ninety Live
I let out an involuntary gasp at the sheer cruelness of these two
“Now, that was the day Lucas got discharged at the hospital. His maid had gone to find the driver whom we made wandered away Lucas found the idea of sneaking away very exciting so yeah He shrugged, “before the end of the day, he was declared missing For a week, I had to keep covering up our tracks as Dylan quickly underwent facial plastic surgery.
“When he was done, he was a splitting image of Lucas. Armed with Lucase family ring and his other belongings, he went to the Esposito family’s head, Tavon and was accepted back to the family”
“Incase, you’re wondering, we cooked up a cock and bull story of me getting lost and getting kidnapped, Dylan once again interrupted.
“With Tavon’s support,” Luigi continued without paying Dylan any heed, he planned that he’d get close to you so that he could take over GT Group but your final vote lead to the failure of everything we had planned for years.”
I sucked in a breath when Dylan cocked the gun and pressed it harder on my temple. “You b**ch! You were lucky we were on Mark’s turf,I would have killed you out of anger. You could have just worked with me, the man you claimed you love but mal, you chose your ex husband who treated you badly over me who treated you like the queen that you weren’t.”
My heart felt tight and my vision became blurry as my eyes watered. My heart was shattered, not because I had spent my time loving the wrong man, but because of the pain that Lucas must have gone through. It was unfair. He just wanted to make new friends.
My breathing came in shirt bursts and the anxiety I had been putting away for the past month resurfaced. I fell on my knees and grabbed my ch*st tightly to stop the ache,
I wanted to scream, I wanted to lash out hurtful words at both of them but I couldn’t, I could barely steady my strained breathing talkless uttering a word to anyone. I just knelt there, my hands clutching my ch*st as my tears slowly dropped onto the earth.
When Lagi looked at me, his eyes were filled with pain and utter regret while Dylan just watched me in amusement.
“Sydney, I’m sorry. I will pay for my mistakes,I promise…I regret every single second of it.” Dylan scoffed but said nothing.
Suddenly, in a blur, Luigi lunged at Dylan and pushed him to the ground with a thud. Dylan let out a grunt as his back hit the floor.
“You psycho! Get off me, Dylan tried to push Luigi off him but Luigi wouldn’t budge. He punched Dylan in the face to shut him up and started to wrestle for the gun in his hand.
Dylan was able to push Luigi off him. Instantly, Luigi sprang up to attack him again but this time. Dylan was more prepared and faster. Before Luigi could take a step toward him, Dylan pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger.
My heart dropped to the pit of my belly and a scream finally tore from my throat as I watched Luigi fall to the ground, his blood splattering on my face.
“Luigi!” I sobbed and scrambled to his b*dy. He didn’t deserve to end like this. Atleast, he regretted his actions.
Dylan walked up to me. I never liked him, he was too cowardly and good,” he hissed.
“Hey,” he kicked me by my side twice until I looked up. He looked down at me and pointed the gun in my direction. “Don’t waste your tears on this. The money he spent on F1 racing was also Lucas’s. He’s not innocent,” he said coldly.
Tears rolled down my eyes as I shuffled back to where I had been sitting by the oak tree, my heart filled with grief. I wrapped my arms around myself and asked, “Where did you bury Lucas?”
He smirked, “I thought you weren’t going to ask.” Then he casually pointed the gun in his grasp to the small mound by the oak tree. The one I had sat down on this whole time. “There, right next to you.”