Chapter 33
Blood on the Moon
In a way, Sion was right. From the beginning, he had a bad feeling about Soren, a cold knot in his stomach he couldn't explain.
“Safia, I had your boyfriend investigated. Are you in your right mind to think of marrying that beggar from the streets? You must always remember you are the sole heir of Best Wines, the most famous company in all of Northern America. Guild neither holds the status we belong to, nor will he be able to breathe in this high-class society. You put a dog on a throne and ask him to rule the kingdom, he will piss on it and run away because he doesn’t realize the importance of kingship.”
“Dad!” Safia cried out in alarm, but Soren continued, the words a barrage of callous indifference.
“His father is an ordinary wine dealer, and his mom, a house help. They belong to the status of our servants. You give him a napkin, he’ll clean one of our cars and be ready to be your driver to take you to places. That’s his status. Of all the capable and wealthy businessmen in the world, why do you want to marry a man who struggles to buy even his two-course meal? Is this why I sent you to London School of Business to study Business Analytics? Let me make this clear: I will not marry my daughter to rags because I can’t bear to see her running pillar to post for a piece of bread.”
“Stop it, Dad!” Safia fumed at Soren. “I didn’t fall in love with him because of his financial status. What are you going to do with all the wealth you’ve amassed all these years? Are you going to carry it with you to your grave when you die? There’s no end to earning, Dad. You will always find someone above you, so we must be happy with what we have. Besides, Guild is an intelligent, hard-working guy. He got into the London School of Business by merit, not by bribing officials, unlike me. I’m confident he can rule our wine empire and take it to the next level with his intelligence.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. I want my son-in-law to have his own status and support my daughter in her business, not take away what belongs to her because he has no other place to back on. Forget about this boy. Erase these few years from your memory. I will marry you to a smart and famous businessman. You will own immense wealth, he will be an asset to our company and will help you in our business whenever you need it,” Soren said firmly.
“If that’s your decision, Dad, then I will give you mine. You have no right to control my future. I’m over 21 years old and I can marry the man I like. Be prepared to hear the pathetic news: If you don’t accept Guild into our family, you will lose your daughter too,” she threatened venomously.
Soren snickered. “Then, my princess, you don’t know your father fully. I can guess he’s soon going to propose to you. It seems you already bought a promise ring and exchanged them. That engagement shouldn’t happen if you want the Guild to breathe peacefully on this earth. I think you know me very well. He will, anyway, not be yours because I’m not going to let that happen. Additionally, he will lose his life too if you go against my wish.”
At once Safia’s threatening features turned to fear. Her face went red and fingers started to tremble. She was about to have a panic attack. “Please don’t do anything to Guild. Allow him to live. I will do everything you want,” Safia cried.
“Calm down. As long as you keep your word, I keep mine.” Soren pacified Safia and walked away. Little did he know the man in question (Sion) was hundred times more powerful than him. That's why his wealth stayed hidden even under Soren's surveillance cameras.
Just as Soren wished, nothing Safia planned could happen. Sometimes God intends to do different things to us, and Sion and Safia were no exception.
“Pick up the phone, damn it!” Sion growled and threw his phone when the call went to her voicemail again.
That evening, he called her at least a hundred times when she didn't show up at their usual spot. All sorts of scenarios crossed his mind. Sion anxiously went around the entire university campus and hostel, but there was no clue of Safia.
It was their prom night, and he was supposed to propose to her. Sion held the twenty-two-carat uncut diamond ring, a silent prayer escaping his lips for Safia to accept his proposal. He kissed it. “Please forgive me for my deception, sweetheart. I have lied to you about my identity, and I know it is a mistake, but my love for you has always been sincere. Tonight, after the prom, I will tell you everything about me. Positive or negative, whatever your decision, I will accept it wholeheartedly.”
With a rush of eagerness, his eyes went around the thousands of students gathered in the hall, searching for Safia. Finally, when he found her, the happiness in his eyes was unparalleled.
In hasty steps, he reached her. “Where have you been? I searched the whole college and hostel block for you. You have no idea how worried I was.” He took a seat beside her and kissed her cheek, not minding the audience.
Safia didn’t reply. She sat there with no emotions, but Sion didn’t see through her morose features. He was too excited, rehearsing the lines in his mind to propose to her.
Finally, the moment arrived. He got on his knees with the ring in the velvet box. “You make my heart race, my soul soar, and my life complete. From the moment we met, I knew you were my missing piece. Every moment with you feels like a fairytale, and I never want it to end. Will you be my forever, Safia Jose Blacksmith?”
The crowd cooed and clapped. “Say yes!” they said in a chorus.
But unlike everyone’s wish, Safia kept silent and stared at Sion for long moments with no emotions.
With passing moments, the happiness in Sion’s eyes was replaced with pensiveness and, finally, melancholy. Safia took the ring from the box and threw it. “How could you think that a millionaire’s daughter like me would marry a guy like you from rags? Can you at least afford a two-course meal every day? Everything we had in the past was only a drama. If I need to survive in this university, I must have good grades, and that’s where you came into the picture. I used you. Now I no longer require your services. My dad hired a tutor for me. So it's time to say goodbye.”
Everybody noticed Sion’s lugubrious features but not the tearing eyes of Safia, who ran away from the scene like a bird which lost its wings to a gray-haired man.
Soren had no trust that Safia would break up with Sion. She was deeply in love with him. So he came all the way from California to London to personally monitor everything about their love coming to a finish.
He was standing at the end of the hall, watching her. Making a heart of stone, Safia decided she had to hurt him so badly that he would not turn back and see her again.
However, if he had turned, their story would have been different.
“That was a stellar performance.” Soren congratulated her, and they both got into a white Lamborghini that was waiting outside.
“I wonder if you really fell in love with Mom and married her. Because if you did, you wouldn't have threatened me to break up with Guild to keep him alive,” Safia spat her words with venom on Soren.
“Do not talk nonsense. If I didn't love your mother, I would have another wife by now. It’s been fifteen years since she died, and there hasn’t been a single day when I didn’t think of her. Everything I do is for your own good. I was a very young man when we lost your mom. If I remarried, I would have had a wife, but you wouldn’t get your mother back. I didn’t want you to suffer at the hands of a stepmother, which is why I stayed unmarried.”
Soren scoffed defeatedly when he saw no emotions in Safia for his timeless sacrifice. “Stop seeing me as your enemy. That guy is bad news in your life. He will not only continue to stay there but also bring you down to his begging level with his sweet words, and you will stupidly follow him because you are blinded by his love. As your father, I want to see you go higher and higher in your life. I want to see you even more prosperous than me. But you’re a fool. You aim to choose the contrary. Thus, being your well-wisher, I had to step in and eliminate that cunning fox from your life.” Soren spoke bluntly to Safia.
“I see.” Safia rolled her eyes in sarcasm, a reaction that Soren did not like. After dropping her in the waiting room, he made a call, a call that would change everything between Guild and Safia. “I don't trust my daughter regarding that bastard. I want him dead.”
“Sure, sir,” the other person replied.
“Showcase it like an accident, though it would be a murder.”
A heavy grin was heard from the other line. “You will see it in the news by tomorrow morning.”
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