CHAPTER 83: GIVE ME YOUR PHONE

She snapped at him, shoulders rising and falling in heavy breathing. "Don’t you ever touch me again, or come close to me. Don’t you ever! Psycho!"

She turned and began to hurry her steps towards the door to leave the place. All the while she was fidgeting for her phone. She grabbed it and the first number she tried to dial was Zayne—

"Make that call and none of this night will be funny, Evelyn."

His voice brought her to a stop and she slowly turned to look at him. "What...?"

Valerio now stood, head tilted to the side and the cruelest smile on his face. "Behind you."

Evelyn quickly turned, horrified at the two broody men who stood behind her. When they’d gotten there, she didn’t know, but they were armed.

"If you’d just acted like a good girl and accepted me, I wouldn’t have had to resort to this. I can only tolerate the push and pull game for so long, you know. This is all your fault."

She took a step back, tried to run, but the two men grabbed her, pulling her right back.

"Valerio, stop this. This is not funny. This... It’s not funny at all. S-stop it."

Valerio grinned. "But it was never meant to be funny, Eve. And it’s not going to be."

——

Amber spun around on her heels as someone banged loudly against her door.

Who...could it be?

It definitely wasn’t Evelyn because Evelyn wouldn’t be banging on her door like that. Besides they’d agreed she would pick her up herself once her meeting with Valerio was over.

The more she stalled, the louder the banging got.

She swallowed and slowly made her way into the living room where she walked over to the front door.

She didn’t open it just yet, but peeked through the mirror knob to find that the person who was actually outside was...Zayne Mancini.

Huh?

What was he doing at her house?

And how did he even know she lived here?

Biting her lip, she hesitated for a few seconds, before eventually opening the door and leveling his gaze.

"Why are you here?"

"Where is Evelyn?" Zayne questioned.

Amber scoffed under her breath, clearly not happy with him. "And why should I tell you?"

Zayne sighed under his breath. "Not to offend you, but what is your name again?"

That for some reason offended her even more.

"Ya!" She stepped in his face. "You don’t come to my house and pretend you don’t know me. If you could find my house all the way here, I’m sure you would remember my name." She glared into his face.

Zayne resisted the urge to roll his eyes, pressing his index finger against her forehead and shoving her forehead back. "Blame your parents for giving you a terrible name."

"Hey!" Amber turned around, following after him as he barged into her house.

"Evelyn!" he called. "Evelyn!"

From the tracking Alessio had done, this was the last place her location had been. Nowhere else.

"Evelyn! Please come out. I need to talk to you. We have to talk."

"Why do you want to talk to her now?" Amber asked.

He turned to find her, staring at him with a cocked brow, arms folded.

"What do you mean?"

"You know you’re a very shameless man, right?" She slowly began to approach till she could stand in his face. "After crushing her heart to pieces, now you want to talk to her? All these weeks she’s been a mess because of you, Where were you? All these days she’d been crying silently and to me, where were you? Now you want to talk to her?"

Zayne stared at her and slowly sighed, lowering his head in defeat.

"I know I fucked up, and I have no excuse. It’s why I’m here because I need to talk to her. Amber, I can’t lose her."

"Oh, so now you know my name?"

He blinked rapidly. "Why are you so mean to me?"

"The first day I met you, what did I tell you?" she smiled crazily at him. "I’ll kill you if you ever make her cry again. And I mean it this time around."

"Yes, ma’am."

Zayne nodded obediently.

"It won’t repeat itself. May I know where she is now?"

"Don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m not done with you."

He looked desperate.

She snatched him by the collar of his shirt. "Do you love her?"

"What?"

"I asked, do you love her?" she repeated. "Note that if your answer is negative, you are getting no information from me. And if it’s positive but insecure, same consequences. Don’t try me, Mr. Mancini. Don’t even think about it."

Zayne ran his fingers through his hair.

He stared dead into her eyes, saying, "I love her."

"Again."

"I love Evelyn."

"Again."

"She’s everything to me."

"Again, Mr. Mancini."

"I can’t lose her."

Before Amber could repeat her words, he said, "I love her. I love her with everything I have. So please...tell me where she is. Where I can find her. I need to find her. I need to speak to her."

It took a few moments, but Amber finally relented, saying, "She’s not here right now."

"What do you mean?"

"She went to meet with Valerio. He’s been bothering her a lot so she—"

"WHAT!?" Zayne snapped.

She blinked at him. "What’s...wrong?"

"Give me your phone! Now!"

She was confused, but picked up her phone from the sofa to give to him. "I don’t understand. What’s going on? Why are you—"

Before Zayne could make the call, his own phone began ringing, prompting him to quickly take it out.

It was Evelyn calling.

He didn’t hesitate, answering.

"Evely—"

[Zayne! ZAYNE! Help me—]

[You fucking bitch!] he heard on the other side of the phone, before the call ended forcefully.

"Evelyn!" He tried so hard to call back, but it wasn’t going through. In fact, the phone was now switched off.

Amber blinked rapidly. She’d heard it, her voice. What the heck...was going on?