114. Why Not Me?

“Now tell me, what the *fuck* did he say to you?” 

I stare at the man standing before me, completely undone by his senses, and like a programmed robot, he questions me only one thing in a loop. 

“I have been treated nothing but like a bet between the two monsters. All this time, you were acting nicely for this day. To show your bestie that you are better than him with your success and having me parade around like a trophy in your arms.”

“I *am* better.” Dakota corrects me, gritting every word cynically slow. “And I don’t need to show that to any motherfucker!”

I shake my head, after finally seeing the concealed mask of his fake arrogance. 

“No, you are pathetic. If you think you are better than Ryan, then you are wrong!” I say, jerking my hand away from his clutch. 

“And honestly, I wish Ryan had won that night because for sure he would have not treated me like a whore and forced me on the bed with him every *fucking* night, and then discard me like a used fuck toy, without even caring to look back.”

I turn around, tears roll down my cheeks as I storm towards his two-storey building right after spitting the words I have been holding back. 

“Why can’t you *fucking* see that I care too?” Dakota burst out in anger, chasing after me. The chandlier above the living room glows automatically, sensing our presence.

“Why the *fuck* it always has to be Ryan in your eyes?” He growls furiously, slamming the glass door behind him with such a force that it shatters into a thousand little pieces of glass right before my eyes. 

A sharp-piercing sound echoes through the house, and I gasp in horror, closing my mouth as I watch those tiny shards of glass scattering across the floor like twinkling stars in a dark night. 

“Why not me?” Dakota demands psychotically. 

His nerves pop dangerously from his neck, while he blindly crushes the glass pieces under his shoe as he strides towards me.

“I am willing to provide you everything. Home, dresses, jewelries, every *fucking* thing you could ever want. Yet you would still run back to your lover for even a slightest chance!” 

*What?* 

“I don’t want your shit!” My look at him in disbelief, still not believing this ignorant man.

How could he even think that these luxury items would work like a bandage for all the emotional wounds he inflicted upon my soul?

“And if you think you bought me with a dress or thi-this necklace..” My hand reaches for the pearl beads around my neck, the one he gifted me tonight. *The one I loved the most!*

“You are delusional!” I yell, ripping it furiously off my neck like chains of bondage.

His eyes follow as the string of pearls snap and scatters across the floor with a sound like raindrops hitting a window in a beautiful, yet tragic melody. 

“The only thing I want from you is GOD-*DAMN*\-RESPECT!” I shout loudly, hoping it would get through his thick skull. 

“No girl wants to be treated like a whore, or a slave, or even a fucking object to be won or replaced.” I scream at him, feeling the pain of humiliation and degradation I have gone through my life because of these men. 

“All I ever wanted was some respect and love.” I say brokenly, with heaving breaths and a bleeding heart, that has been torn apart countless times. 

I squeeze my eyes shut, but the tears won't stop pooling down my cheeks, nor does the pain in my chest.

*It's unbearable!*

I hear crunch of glass and my eyes open up to see Dakota walking towards me. His warm hand slowly reaches out to me and gently lifts my chin to look at him.

His eyes are still a chaos of dark clouds and storm, as he leans in to my tear-streaked face and whispers calmly, “It hurts, doesn’t it?”

I stare at his heartless gaze. 

“To be fucking treated like an object, when you actually cared.” 

More tears fall down, as he brushes his thumb on my chin with a gentleness of a lover while his words laced with acute accusation, cuts through me mercilessly.  

“You knew I liked you..” Dakota raises his voice, unleashing his darkness. 

“Yet, you *fucking* threw away my life like a trash to save the love of your life, who just wanted to sleep with you.” Dakota spits every word venomously, as he glares at me with ragged breaths and clenched fists.

*What?*

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about.” I blink at him with teary eyes, not understanding since when Ethan became the love of my life, or worse wants to sleep in my messy room.

“Don’t play innocent now, Emara.” 

I gulp under his murderous gaze as he lowers his face inches away from mine. 

“I know you planned it all out with Ryan to get me arrested. That’s why you called the police on the night of fight to trap me in, while you smartly sneaked out with that bastard!” 

What?

“This is absurd! I never once called the police on you.” I retort, raising my voice in frustration at his non-sense allegation. 

“Do not lie to me, Emara!” His thundering voice pierces through me like glass shards, sharp and merciless. 

“I know you were present at the fight ground that night. And I know you were the one to call the cops, then cleverly sneaked out to act like a witness and framed me behind smuggling for every drug deal ever happened under the wing.”

*What?*

“All for that Ryan, who just wanted to get into your pants!” The darkness within him breaks free as he growls at me inhumanly. 

“I have no idea from where you got this story.. But I never in my life conspired anything against you, with or without Ryan.” I stand on my ground, protesting against the accusations he is storming upon me. 

“Stop *fucking* lying!” Dakota yells, releasing his fury at me.

“I am not lying!” I assert firmly, against his dark physical presence which is overshadowing the room.

“It’s true that I was on the fight ground with my friends, but suddenly police came and it was my dad who caught us and took us to the police headquarters for interrogation.” 

The memory of that dreadful night rushes back to my skin, cutting me deeper than any blade. *That awful night-vicious fight-blood shed-chaos-cops-my father!*

“I didn’t plan any of it, and just so you know.. Ryan and Daniel were the first names on my father’s list!” I meet his gaze squarely, in an attempt to convey the truth in my eyes. 

“Then why the fuck you framed me?” Dakota growls inhumanly, his voice like a violent roar of betrayal and hurt, that seems to shake the very walls around us. 

“To protect my brother!” I shout back.