Femme Fatale: The King’s Deadly Temptress - Chapter 650: In the Dark

“K-K-Katherine…” Deborah croaked, her throat bobbing against the sharp blade and she gasped. “P-Please d-don’t.”

“Funny,” Katherine gritted her teeth. “I never thought I’d hear you say that. It’s a shame I don’t care about your plea.”

Footsteps sounded behind her. She didn’t have to look to know it was Damien, followed by Styles and Felix. Deborah’s eyes widened at the growing number of people surrounding her, a tear sliding down her cheek. “I’m going to scream!” she said. “Higgins just left. He’ll hear me!”

“Go ahead. Even if he does, there’s nothing he can do. There’s more of us out there.”

More tears fell down Deborah’s pale face. She didn’t dare to move, too afraid of what Katherine might do to her.

Amelia moved behind Deborah and started binding her wrists with a heavy-duty zip tie. Only when Amelia gave Katherine a signal that it was secured did Katherine withdraw her knife from her aunt’s throat. Deborah gulped in a lungful of air as if she hadn’t breathed for a very long time, but her momentary relief ended abruptly when Amelia held her by the neck and dragged her deeper into the church.

One couldn’t see the inside of the church while looking from the outside because all the windows were bolted shut. The only light illuminating the place came from a single oil lamp on top of an old wood square table with two mismatched chairs stowed under it. The pews were stacked and moved to the sides, giving the area a bigger space. The altar was used as a makeshift kitchen counter where there was a kettle and a few plastic containers which must’ve contained food.

Katherine scoffed. She really made herself at home in this place. It smelled of dust and wet earth there. It was so dark, save for the only lamp on the table. And to top it off, there was a graveyard right outside. How long had Deborah been hiding in the church? Katherine refused to believe that she had been there since the beginning and none of the security found out. She figured Deborah hadn’t been here that long.

“See if you can get the lights to turn on,” Damien asked Felix, who immediately went to work.

Styles pulled out one of the chairs from under the table and set it in the middle of the room. Amelia then pushed Deborah down on it and the two started tying her to the chair, uncaring if the knots were too tight that it made Deborah whimper. She hadn’t stopped crying since, and she never took her eyes off Katherine either. Her stare was full of malicious intent, a far cry from how she looked just a minute ago with a blade pressed on her throat.

Damien slid his hands into his pockets as he leaned against the wall, watching from several feet away. This wasn’t his revenge. It was Katherine’s. He wanted to give her the satisfaction, allowing her to quench her thirst for the long-awaited face-off between her and the woman who had her parents killed.

The sight before him made him think about that tragic night. The undeniable fact was that he was with the group his uncle sent for the assassination. A deep sense of guilt gripped his heart at the reminder. What would’ve happened if he wasn’t there that night? If he was braver to refuse being thrown into that incident?

So many scenarios ran in his head, but the only thing that really stuck to him was that: Katherine wouldn’t be here right now. She could’ve died along with her parents. They wouldn’t have met. He wouldn’t have gotten to know her. He wouldn’t have loved her. It wasn’t the first time that he had thought about these things, but he needed the reminder.

It was indeed a tragic night, but it was also the night he met the only woman he truly loved. That gray area had him balling his hands into fists inside his pockets. He had to take deep breaths to calm himself down.

For a moment, the church went quiet. Katherine stood a few feet in front of Deborah. She didn’t do anything. She only stared at the older woman.

A lot of things were going on in her head. The things she could do with her knives…or with her bare hands. Staring at Deborah, she felt the hatred and pain that the woman caused her all the years since the night her parents died.

But there was one thing she wanted at that moment as she glared at the vile woman. “Why did you do it?”

Deborah sniffed as she pressed her lips tight in a line. She panted as if she had just run a marathon.

The room brightened all of a sudden when Felix found a fix on the electrical wiring. They seemed to breathe easier once they were out of the darkness, but Katherine barely noticed the difference. She hadn’t looked away from Deborah, her vicious stare burning into the woman’s face.

Deborah winced at the light assaulting her eyes. She instinctively looked at the ceiling for a while before meeting Katherine’s stare again.

“Why did you kill my parents? What did they ever do to you?” Katherine pressed.

“Why not? They were the bane of my existence!” Deborah spat.

Katherine’s hands tightened around the handles of her knives until they shook, and Deborah shrunk in the chair as if that would help her state at the moment.

“How were they a problem for you? They were good people. They were good to you. My father treated you like you were his sister by blood.”

“Ha!” Deborah scoffed. “Mason was too full of himself. He’s just like Father.”

“Are you hearing yourself?” Katherine’s voice raised an octave. “Grandpa loved you like his own!”

“You know nothing!!!” Deborah roared. She looked around the church, making sure to see the eyes of all the people around her. “All of you! You don’t know anything! You don’t know the truth!”

“Truth?” Katherine strode forward until she was a foot away, her teeth baring as she gritted out the words: “The only truth in this family is that they made a mistake taking you in and raising you like you were family—when really, you’re nothing but an ingrate!”

Her nostrils flared and she was so close to slicing Deborah’s throat with her blade.

The door to the church opened, causing their heads to turn in that direction. They watched as three men from Team Beta brought in Mr. Higgins. The old man looked gray. He now only had one shoe while his other foot was soiled and had cuts on them. Actually, there was mud all over his clothes and face as if he had fallen on the ground. His hands were tied behind his back. The robe had slipped off one of his shoulders, and red soaked through the sleeve of his shirt, indicating that he was wounded.

Mr. Higgins slowly looked up. He took in the room, his eyes growing wide when he sensed the violence that radiated off of Katherine and the others.

Deborah gasped so loud upon seeing the old man. And what came out of her mouth next was something none of them ever expected. She cried out, “Uncle!!! What have they done to you?”