Chapter 132

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Hadassah POV**

Plush couches and armchairs are arranged around a marble coffee table, and a bottle of unscrewed bottle tops of champagne awaits, chilling in a silver bucket on the side.
She takes us on a brief tour and explains that we have our own butler detailed to us. And that if we need anything done or delivered, we can just summon him in. Weird. The three bedrooms are equally stunning. Each is its own oasis of calm, with king-sized beds draped in soft linens, rich fabrics, and pillows that seem to invite rest. The master bedroom is especially grand, its bed framed by an intricately carved headboard and flanked by regal nightstands. Soft lighting and warm wood tones make the room feel inviting and serene, while a private balcony overlooks the vast ocean, promising peaceful nights and breathtaking sunrises.
The host bows her head again in farewell before she leaves the double story room. And that allows us to trade glances, our smiles flourishing as we are now permitted the chance to fully take in the opulence surrounding us.
“I think this calls for a toast.”
Calum slides off his glasses to prop them on his head. He goes for the champagne, he picks it up and gives it a quick inspection before nodding with a downturned smile, impressed by the ice-chilled vintage. He opens the bottle and pours a portion in each flute that is standing readily on the tray beside the bucket. Filled to the brim, he takes them each and goes back to us, handing us each a champagne glass.
I take it with a faltering smile. “I think we need to circle back to our previous topic,” I say with a serious, no-play tone to convey that I won’t allow any elusive techniques or whatever excuses he prompts.
Emilia hides her smile behind the rim of the glass as she takes a dainty sip.
“I started an online business.”
My BS detector is going haywire. “Really?” I muse.
He nods confidently. “Quite lucrative actually, if you didn’t know tech is a billionaire industry.”
Emilia nearly chokes on the champagne holding her laugh as she tries to swallow.
“So is crime,darling. He’s been stealing from rich people online.”
I set him with a wide-eyed stare. “You’re scamming people?”
“No,” he says defensively. “It’s a lot more sophisticated than that. I access overseas accounts and I skim from there, a hundred grand here—a quarter million back there.”
I stare back at him speechless and his eyes bounce between me and the floor a couple of times.
“Okay, no—I’m not about to be judged by the two of you, who were comfortable killing innocent patients so we could escape.”
Emilia grimaces and I throw back an equal look of despise. “It was never going to come to that. The whole point was getting them away from the mass-murdering men.”
“Is Ellis one of them?”
An emotion has searing as fury but as cold as betrayal. It burns through the chest like molten fire. With something else, something that is colder, sharper, laced with the cutting edge. And I flick the flute in my hand so the champagne drenches his face, splashing him, and soaking into his Dolce & Gabbana silk shirt. He has his hands raised, appalled with his mouth rounded like Emilia gaping at the both of us.
Rare and raw anger flickers through him as he pierces me with a look of fury that simmers beneath the surface, sharp and white-hot, but the wound it feeds on is cold.
“That’s it.”
“Calum?” Emilia shrieks.
He surges at me. In one swift motion, his arms wrap tightly around my waist, muscles tensing with intent. The force of his momentum drives into my midsection, catching me off-balance, my breath hitching as he rams forward like a battering ram. The glass slips and explodes on the ground—shards scattering everywhere. Both of our sunglasses crash on the ground as I start pounding on his back with a fierce yell with more than half my body nearly draped over his shoulder now, struggling with my heels lifting off the ground.
Then, with a final burst of strength, he slams me down hard. The ground reverberates with the impact, my body crashing onto the Kashan rug with a thud, the air forced out of my lungs. My legs flash out the slits to latch around him before I pull a sharp maneuver that whips him around so he hits the ground beside me and I climb on top of him to exact my revenge. A tangle of limbs as we each fight for an advantage and then he strikes my left boob by accident and I scream.
His hands jump to his mouth with his eyes comically wide.
“I’m so sorry!”
Clutching on my boob with pain pulsing as I clamber off him.
“But you had it coming.”
I throw back a glare… and seconds later, I burst into laughter. And he breaks until the vast breadth of the luxury lounge fills with the raucous of our half-scream laughs as Calum falls back flat on his back. And Emila watches with a horrified expression with the confusion of someone who grew up as the only child.
“You two really are like siblings,” Emilia flatly remarks.
I massage the last lingering aches before I go over to extend my hand. Calum rises high enough to clasp my forearm as I help hoist him up to his feet with a growing smile. I let go and he pulls me into an affectionate side hug, keeping his arm slung around my shoulders.
“We’re on a cruise ship,” he announces. “We might as well enjoy it. If anyone deserves a vacation, it’s us. We've all been through hell and we deserve a slice of heaven. Besides, not everyday you get the chance to party on the ocean. Do you know this ship has more than one nightclub?”
“I don’t think I'll ever be able to hit up a club again,” Emilia says and I can see immediately after that she regrets letting that much out.
“Why?” Calum questions with clenched brows.
Emilia glances at me as if asking me to bail her out.
“Because we’ve been traveling for hours. We need to sleep for at least a day, Calum.”
His eyes dart between us quizzically, but doesn’t probe deeper. “Yeah okay, but I ain’t leaving this ship without doing jello shots off someone’s stomach.”