Chapter 7: High

Instead of tugging her onto his lap, Santi made her sit beside Eliazar. She wonders why, and she knows why: he wants to mess with this girl.

She crossed her arms over her chest, while the blonde girl smirked stupidly.

"I hope you don't mind that I brought my third wife," Marco explained.

"What?? Third wife? f*ck, how many wives does he have?" she thought to herself as she watched them closely; that woman was laughing like an idiot, he wasn't even saying anything humorous, yet she seemed to laugh at everything Santi said. While Santi flirted with his wife, the man appeared to be very calm. Arianna couldn't keep a straight face as she witnessed her long acrylic nails run down his arm.

"If you scrunch your brows any further, they might fall off," Eliazar says, leaning in closer so she can hear him better.

She raised the wine to her lips, nodded, and said, "This is just how I always look." She rolled her eyes at him.

Eliazar then looks her in the eyes and says, "He's just trying to make you jealous."

"Or he likes her," she replied quietly.

Eliazar then opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it down, taking a sip of his water before returning his gaze to her.

"That woman pales in comparison to your beauty and strength."

She was taken aback; had he just said she was beautiful? His gaze lingers on her face, and her cheeks flush.

"Thank you for coming, Marco," Santi said again, shaking his hand.

"And you, Sofie," he says while trying to kiss her hand; the sight of it made her want to vomit.

After they said their goodbyes, everyone left except Santina, who claimed to know him. While Arianna was trapped between Eliazar and Santi. She sat in the backseat, with Eliazar as a passenger and Santi as the driver.

"How did the transaction go?" Eliazar inquired of his cousin.

"Pretty well, Marco agrees that I should be in charge, not Alexis," Santi responds.

"Marco wishes to assassinate Alexis Santallian."

Eliazar regarded his cousin with concern. "But you won't let him, right?" But Santi remained silent for a moment before speaking.

"With him out of the picture, I was able to finally, in command, perform my vengeance-"

"You can't. He's still your father's business partner, and he helps a lot with your father's company. " Eliazar interrupts his sentence with his own.

"This man is really dangerous," she thought to herself as she listened to their conversation.

When they finally returned to the mansion, Santi unlocked the doors before looking straight ahead.

"I won't be home for a week, I have some business to attend to," Santi explained as he looked at her. Arianna and Eliazar then exited the car.

Santi dashed into the night, leaving Eliazar staring at the empty street ahead. She won't know why, but she feels like she wanted to comfort him but couldn't; all she wants is to escape.

"Goodnight, Eliazar," she said quietly as his gaze met hers.

"Goodnight, Arianna," she said before leaving Eliazar outside to contemplate Santi's plan.

~

She was asleep upstairs until she heard shattering glass and jumped out of bed, drenched in sweat. She stood up, wiped her brow, and then decided to follow the sound of glass breaking.

She walked down the stairs, tiptoeing carefully and quietly, to the hallway where Santi's office is located. The door was slightly ajar, the lights flickered on, and the sound of more glass shattering made her heart skip a beat. She pushed open the door further to see what was going on; the sight in front of her made her cry.

Eliazar swung the tennis racket at the frames on the desk, shattering the glass all over the hardwood floor. He then swung it into a million pieces against the computer. His eyes were swollen, he was sweating, and his entire chest was red when he found her. His bare torso was exposed, his button shirts untucked.

She notices surgery scars between his wrist and upper arm at that point. He dropped the tennis racket and began punching the glass cabinet containing the alcohol, throwing it all over the floor. "Stop it!" he yelled.

He wasn't paying attention to anything she said because he was too high on whatever narcotic he was on. He grabbed the only bottle of alcohol that had survived his hatred, almost taking a big gulp of it before she managed to grab his wrist and stopped him from mixing alcohol and drugs.

"Are you insane? You're high on drugs and you want to mix alcohol into that formula," she snarled as she poured the liquid into the trash can.

Eliazar collapsed to the ground, his knees raised to his chest. Since the sight made her feel bad, she gradually lowered herself to his level. She placed her hand on his knee, and his gaze was drawn to hers.

"I can't forgive myself; it's all my fault," he says, his eyes bloodshot red.

"Eliazar, what's the matter? It's the drug-"

"She was only eight years old when Santi told me that I was the reason why our enemies got her; it's been 15 years and we still don't know if she's alive or not," Eliazar sobs.

"I can't even look at her parents because then I see that I'm the reason they lost their precious daughter," he said as Arianna didn't realize she was crying until she noticed the wetness of her tears trailing down her cheeks.

Eliazar then began pounding his fists on his head, a sobbing mess. She snatched his arm and compelled him to look at her.

"You don't need to feel guilty or blame yourself because, as you said, you were just a child at the time, too innocent for what was going on around you," Arianna said.

"This is still my fault. If I hadn't become a coward at the time, and I'm so sure she's happy with me now, she'd be my finance now," he cries.

He rested his chin on her chest. She clung to his shoulders, hoping to provide some solace. She didn't realize she was feeling his pain as she traced soft circles on his back while he cried softly into her arm. He smelled strongly of alcohol and cigarettes. He was one of his kidnappers, but she always felt safe with him, as if she knew him very well. They sat there for a few more minutes until she was able to get him up. He balanced himself on her by placing his arm across her neck.

They walked up the stairs, and she dragged him into her room, where she placed him on her bed. She made certain that he was covered with a blanket and that his shoes were removed.

"Did Santi not know his cousin was using drugs, or does he simply not care?" she wondered.

She turned on the kitchen light before filling a cup with water and grabbing a trash bag in case he vomited. As she walked back to her room, she felt someone grab her wrist and turn around to see Santina rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Where is he?" she inquires.

"He's sleeping in my room," she explained.

"Is he that high?"

"I don't know, I saw needle marks on the back of his arm; is this something he does all the time?" Arianna's voice was low.

She drew her hand back to her side and closed her eyes for a few seconds before reopening them. Her eyes were watering and her mouth quivered slightly.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, "I'm just worried about him." Santina chuckles dryly.

"No, they kidnapped you; you probably want them both dead." Her gaze was drawn to the hallway behind her, where the door to her room was located.

"You can sleep in my room, and I'll take yours," Santina says quietly.

Before she could continue to walk away Arinna stopped her. "You must care so much for him," she said.

"He's my cousin and he means a lot to me," She then handed her the trash bag and cup that she was bringing for Eliazar.

"He cares about you as well," she says as she walks away, having watched her enter her room.

She turned around to walk back to her room, and when she got there, she noticed the picture frames she had. It wasn't her concern, but she wanted to look at them.

She discovered a photograph of a man and her when she was much younger and they were hugging on the beach. That had to be her father, they looked so similar, she thought as she looked into his brown eyes. "He looked familiar as if I'd seen him before," she thought to herself.

She finally lay in bed after a few seconds of staring at the picture, pulling the warm sheets over her.