I turn to open the door, before hesitating with my fingers on the handle.
“But if you insult them again, it’s me who won’t hesitate to shoot you between the eyes, Reuben Taiga.”
Chapter 10
‘Christian’
Reuben doesn't stop me from leaving the room. For that at least, I'm grateful.
My emotions have jumbled together into an indecipherable mesh beneath my skin and I'm having trouble picking them all apart. As though I've kept them tucked in too long and now they're screaming for air.
He sees me breaking, huh. If what he's saying is true, then my initial suspicions were right. Reuben is the greatest obstacle to my mission. Deceiving him is the only way to continue living as Christian Adler.
I release a soft sigh. I'm too tired for more thinking and feeling, so for now I'll just focus on tonight. Now that we’ve left the harbour, most of our roles are really just supervisory, so I take a corner of the deck and do exactly what I'd been doing every day for the 571 days before Christian's death.
I watch.
It's easy to feel like I've reverted to that time with a role like this, but I've successfully distanced myself from all the bad memories. Like snipping away a single thread that hosted all those heavy feelings.
I'm grateful for it really. It helps me to forget small things.
Like the fact that Lucia is nowhere to be seen.
There are a lot of people dancing across the deck, but my eyes draw naturally towards Camille’s light laughter as she takes the hand of an unfamiliar young man. His crisp grey suit complements dusty brown hair but there's a warm nervousness to his smile. A nervousness that only seems to exist under Camille’s gaze.
She calls him Josei and even that tumbles from her lips with an affection I don’t think she’s noticed. It fades into something much more relaxed throughout their dance but everyone can see the gentle shyness they have for each other. In the way his smile lights up his eyes and her cheeks colour slightly.
Strangely enough, watching them doesn't trigger my usual bitterness.
Instead, it makes me feel... warmer. Much more at ease than before. As if trying to convince me it's not all so bad.
The moment midnight arrives, the skies explode with sparks of colour, of reds, blues and yellows that start up a wave of applause and the beginning of a birthday song, weaving the voices of the guests together.
It’s captivating, seeing it with my own eyes, and this… this is the closest I’ve ever been to it.
The moment the fireworks subside, someone with a microphone steps forward to introduce the birthday girl—though I doubt she really needed introducing—and the mic is passed around the deck as the people closest to her say a few words, wishing her well and ultimately unveiling the gifts they brought for her.
It is a moment centered entirely around Camille.
By the time the mic gets to Josei, the atmosphere has changed into something light and comfortable and even the audience has fallen into easy laughter and relaxed smiles.
Josei is beaming nervously as he takes the stage to present his gift and I can’t help but notice Camille is beaming too, a telltale new blush to her cheeks as he begins to speak.
“I know you said you don’t like expensive things… which we all know is a lie by the way, this boat is fantastic,” the guests chuckle, “but I wanted to get you something that is just as priceless as you are. Something I could never afford to lose… or own for that matter, and which mimics you in every sense.”
The entire crowd waits with bated breath and even I can’t help but wait too when he swallows visibly. Even from my place in the crook of the passage, that leads to the lower decks, I know he and Camille are only seeing each other. That nothing else possibly exists in their little bubble.
Josei calls one of his attendants forward with an intricate box that sets off a cacophony of murmurs and wide eyes. The air immediately becomes restless and people look frozen to their spots until the servant opens the box.
The atmosphere on the deck immediately freezes over, shattering the light-heartedness and chilling it with new unease.
Shocked cries fill the space. There are a handful of people who step back in alarm and others who are frozen. Some even start to look around with wide eyes.
And I hate that I don’t understand.
The jewel that sits inside the gorgeous box is a spherical mirage of blues and violets. Even from here it is pristine and easily priceless, just as he said. But Camille and all the other guests have turned as white as a sheet.
Reuben’s voice breaks the silence in the comms, “Thisfuckingkid! Tobias, secure Camille!”
