Charles' POV
"How dare he?"
The words slipped from my mouth before I could even contain them back in, fuming with the rage building inside me.
Beatrice came running out of the room, surprised by the outburst of my voice.
"What's the matter? What is it?" she asked quickly, her eyes wide with concern and confusion.
I didn't speak. I simply just turned my phone towards her and showed her the different photos one of my informants had sent me as a report.
Her lips opened, but no words came out.
The first photo showed Roman entering his house, while Seraphina right beside him, both of them dressed professionally.
The second one showed Seraphina outside, taking out the trash like it was her own home.
The third?
It was her, adjusting the curtains of a room on the top floor.
That room.
That position.
That kind of familiarity with the house.
It could only mean one thing.
Roman had taken her in.
"How dare he? My own friend, go against my own orders?" I shouted, my voice bounced through the walls.
I wasn't talking to anyone in particular, just letting my anger flow out as it came.
Beatrice opened her mouth to speak, to say something, maybe to calm me down, but I didn't let her.
"I disowned her!" I snapped even more. "I don't want anything or anyone around me speaking to her. Wasn't that clear?"
I threw the phone in my hands onto the table, my hands balled tightly beside me.
"How dare he?" I repeated, this time lower...even darker. Carrying something he had brought out in me.
The betrayal burned me. I didn't expect this from him.
"Please calm down, please," Beatrice finally said, her voice trembling as she spoke with care. "You sent her out of the house, you disowned her…..isn't that enough?"
"Roman picking her was his choice. It's his own load to carry."
What the hell was she even saying?
I turned to her sharply, my cold glare silencing her almost instantly.
"What the hell are you saying?" I snapped.
"I want her to suffer, not get picked up and have her life back on track….." I paused, breathing heavily, the anger in me almost choking my words.
"I'm not letting this go. He must explain."
Without another word, I stood up and grabbed my car keys.
Beatrice followed me closely behind, maybe thinking her presence there would keep me in check. Would stop me from doing anything wrong.
But she was wrong.
Her being there wouldn't stop anything.
This…..this was betrayal.
And a war like this?
It was best we started it all with a conversation.
I didn't take any man with me. This wasn't a show of power…..yet.
This was personal.
I tightened my hand on the steering wheel, and started the engine, and drove out of the compound. Beatrice beside me.
I drove with speed, I drove aggressively with each turn I took, completely ignoring the road limits.
I didn't care.
I wanted to see Roman. I wanted to face him….now. To know the reason.
Beatrice said something beside me, her voice filled with panic. Something about me slowing down, something about the speed, something about being careful.
But I didn't listen.
Just as we came around a curve, another car, almost the same car model as mine, suddenly came into view.
The driver must have realized I was on the wrong side of the road and both of our cars swerved violently on the road, tires screeching loudly as we narrowly avoided ourselves.
We passed each other by just inches.
When everything seemed to stop, my hands were still gripping the steering wheel, my car now facing the opposite direction, while the other car also faced the wrong direction.
But that wasn't what angered me.
It wasn't the near accident that almost happened.
It was the moment I looked through my window and saw Roman step out of the other car.
And in the front passenger seat was Seraphina.
Seraphina's POV.
The car had barely missed us, only by an inch closer, and we would have collided and who knew what would have happen.
But what truly stunned me wasn't the accident. It was the car itself.
My foster father's car.
Mr. Charles Hayes.
Roman noticed it too and I saw the change in his expression and without so much as a glance at the way the cars were or If they had been damaged, he turned to me and said, "Stay put."
His voice left me no room for me to argue with him.
I didn't feel safe sitting there, in the car just like that, not with both cars awkwardly parked in the middle of the road, but still, I obeyed his voice.
Through the window, I saw Mr. Charles step out.
And then it began.
Roman and my father stood in front of their cars, both of them staring at each other like they were about to tear each other to pieces.
Their mouths started moving at first, low at first, but the anger in their voice made it clear.
Then the yelling started.
Their voices rose, loud enough to be heard in distance.
I couldn't catch every word they said, but I didn't need to.
The anger in their voices said it all.
I reached for the door handle, my heart pounding, but Roman's earlier words played in my mind, and I froze on the chair.
Beatrice stepped out next from the car, still visibly shaken from the near car crash. She walked forward, trying to put herself in between them, her hands raised in an attempt to calm things down.
But it didn't work.
They weren't listening to her.
The something happened. Something none of us expected.
Beatrice fell on the ground.
And I knew it instantly.
The way she held her chest, the way her breathing stopped in sharp and panicked gasps.
It was an asthma attack.
Without thinking, I quickly opened the car door and rushed straight to my foster father's vehicle, ignoring the curses he rained on me.
Beatrice never went anywhere without her inhaler. It was always in her purse...always.
I pulled the passenger door open in an instant with all my strength and went straight for her bag, and looked through it until my fingers touched the familiar shape of it.
I didn't even look at Mr. Charles.
I just rushed back to her side and put the inhaler in her hand.
She took it, shakily, barely able to raise it to her mouth….but she did.
One shark puff. Then Two.
After a few seconds, her breathing started to flow freely, her shoulders coming down.
Eventually, I helped her back into the car.
Then Mr. Charles turned, his eyes landed on Roman and I.
"Know this, Roman," he said, his voice low but sounded deliberate. "You took her in, even when you were aware of what would befall you. You know what this means."
Roman didn't even move a bit.
He simply nodded, a small smile growing on his lips.
"A war...." He said softly.