"Why do you even care?" I spit back, frustrated by his repetitive interrogation.

"Because, I.. care." Green eyes pierce through me, raw and sharp, while he lowers his voice, "Now tell me."

I shake my head in disbelief, "I don't understand your crazy obsession with Ryan, or why does it even matter to yo-"

"I am not obsessed with Ryan." Dakota interrupts sharply, like my words speared him.

"You may not realize, but you are!" I retort, raising my voice in frustration.

"All you care about is what he said to me, and that bet you made with him years ago. I even saw his pictures in your drawer, I don't know why you are still holding on-"

"You did WHAT?"

My heart tightens with fear as Dakota unleashes an animalistic snarl, as if I stabbed a nerve I wasn't supposed to even mention.

"You went through my stuff? Without my permission!" His eye blaze with a fury I have never witnessed before, a dark, swirling rage that would even terrify a grown up man.

"You are speaking about permission? When you violated me every-damn-night without mercy, leaving permission aside!" I shoot back, despite the terror knotting in my gut.

His jaw tightens, and I clearly hear his teeth grinding. A silent storm of control and anger.

I turn away as hot tears rush down my cheeks, remembering how cutely he was flirting with me all evening, holding me so dearly, staring at me intensely, only to shatter it all with his brutality.

The car slows down, and I spot his villa right across the gate. Without hesitation, I swing open the door, not waiting for the vehicle to come to a complete stop.

I can't tolerate his presence even a second now!

I clutch the end of my dress and stride across the driveway when I hear the sound of car door shutting behind me, followed by heavy ominous footsteps.

"Emara! I asked you something." Dakota barks, catching my pace.

I can't believe he is still stuck on it!

"We didn't really talk about anything." I yell back, quickening my steps towards the house. I just want to lock myself inside a bathroom and cry all night.

"You are lying!"

A hand grips my elbow and I am jerked back, colliding into a wall. I look up to find Dakota breathing hard and glaring at me down with his pissed-off gaze.

"You were with him for four minutes and thirty-two seconds. He touched you. I saw it. Then he said something, and you ran away." He states precisely, like reading from his pictured memory.

I observe how his eyes are narrowed, eyebrows scrunched down with his lips thinned into a line, as if he is..

"You are jealous." I watch his envious expressions getting darker every second as I conclude, "You are jealous that he touched me. That he talked to me."

"Yes!"

"I am fucking jealous."

"Because he touched what's mine!"

A shudder passes through me as Dakota admits directly, taking a step closer with his unflinched gaze locked down on me like a psychopath.

"Now tell me, what the fuck did he say to you?"

I stare at the man standing before me, completely undone by his senses, and like a programmed robot, he questions me only one thing in a loop.

"I have been treated nothing but like a bet between the two monsters. All this time, you were acting nicely for this day. To show your bestie that you are better than him with your success and having me parade around like a trophy in your arms."

"I am better." Dakota corrects me, gritting every word cynically slow. "And I don't need to show that to any motherfucker!"

I shake my head, after finally seeing the concealed mask of his fake arrogance.

"No, you are pathetic. If you think you are better than Ryan, then you are wrong!" I say, jerking my hand away from his clutch.

"And honestly, I wish Ryan had won that night because for sure he would have not treated me like a whore and forced me on the bed with him every fucking night, and then discard me like a used fuck toy, without even caring to look back."

I turn around, tears roll down my cheeks as I storm towards his two-storey building right after spitting the words I have been holding back.

"Why can't you fucking see that I care too?" Dakota burst out in anger, chasing after me. The chandlier above the living room glows automatically, sensing our presence.

"Why the fuck it always has to be Ryan in your eyes?" He growls furiously, slamming the glass door behind him with such a force that it shatters into a thousand little pieces of glass right before my eyes.

A sharp-piercing sound echoes through the house, and I gasp in horror, closing my mouth as I watch those tiny shards of glass scattering across the floor like twinkling stars in a dark night.

"Why not me?" Dakota demands psychotically.

His nerves pop dangerously from his neck, while he blindly crushes the glass pieces under his shoe as he strides towards me.

"I am willing to provide you everything. Home, dresses, jewelries, every fucking thing you could ever want. Yet you would still run back to your lover for even a slightest chance!"

What?

"I don't want your shit!" My look at him in disbelief, still not believing this ignorant man.

How could he even think that these luxury items would work like a bandage for all the emotional wounds he inflicted upon my soul?

"And if you think you bought me with a dress or thi-this necklace.." My hand reaches for the pearl beads around my neck, the one he gifted me tonight. The one I loved the most!

"You are delusional!" I yell, ripping it furiously off my neck like chains of bondage.

His eyes follow as the string of pearls snap and scatters across the floor with a sound like raindrops hitting a window in a beautiful, yet tragic melody.

"The only thing I want from you is GOD-DAMN-RESPECT!" I shout loudly, hoping it would get through his thick skull.

"No girl wants to be treated like a whore, a replacement, or even a fucking object to be won." I scream at him, feeling the pain of humiliation and degradation I have gone through my life because of these men.

"All I ever wanted was some respect and love." I say brokenly, with heaving breaths and a bleeding heart, that has been torn apart countless times.

I squeeze my eyes shut, but the tears won't stop pooling down my cheeks, nor does the pain in my chest.

It's unbearable!

I hear crunch of glass and my eyes open up to see Dakota walking towards me. His warm hand slowly reaches out to me and gently lifts my chin to look at him.

His eyes are still a chaos of dark clouds and storm, as he leans in to my tear-streaked face and whispers calmly, "It hurts, doesn't it?"

I stare at his heartless gaze.

"To be fucking treated like an object, when you actually cared."

More tears fall down, as he brushes his thumb on my chin with a gentleness of a lover while his words laced with acute accusation, cuts through me mercilessly.

"You knew I liked you.." Dakota raises his voice, unleashing his darkness.

"Yet, you fucking threw away my life like a trash to save the love of your life, who just wanted to sleep with you." And spits every word venomously as he glares at me with ragged breaths and clenched fists.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about." I blink at him with teary eyes, not understanding since when Ethan became the love of my life, or worse wants to sleep in my messy room.

"Don't play innocent now, Emara."

I gulp under his murderous gaze as he lowers his face inches away from mine.

"I know you planned it all out with Ryan to get me arrested. That's why you called the police on the night of fight to trap me in, while you smartly sneaked out with that bastard!"

What?

"This is absurd! I never once called the police on you." I retort, raising my voice in frustration at his non-sense allegation.

"Do not lie to me, Emara!" His thundering voice pierces through me like glass shards, sharp and merciless.

"I know you were present at the fight ground that night. And I know you were the one to call the cops, then cleverly sneaked out to act like a witness and framed me behind smuggling for every drug deal ever happened under the wing."

What?

"All for that Ryan, who just wanted to get into your pants!" The darkness within him breaks free as he growls at me inhumanly.

( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)

Finally.. the revelation that everyone is waiting for is right there.. in the next chapter :P

Go ahead.. Like every chapter if you didn't coz the update will be posted at 41.5K votes ⭐️

Here is a picture of me if you wanna get obsessed to someone too ;)