Chapter 45

The floor smells nice. Faintly woody. Guess most people don't have a reason to sniff it. A foot to the neck is plenty of reason. Of course, I kicked at the other leg, and of course, its owner falls, but heavy blows as swift and plentiful as the shooting stars were supposed to be last night remind me it was not a fair fight. The explosions of pain forced me into a fetal position, for what little solace it provides me. Couldn't smell the floor anymore, only taste blood.

By the time they left, I got barely stood up on my own. My hand slammed on the wall beside me, on which my backside was smashed before the beatings I got. My hands were all bloody and I noticed a bloody handprint on the same wall. I was having trouble breathing, my bag was lying on the floor, and it looked more peaceful than I ever was. The moment I fully tried to stand up, my legs gave up on me, making me fall back to the ground. It was around 4 p.m., the basketball field was always empty at that time, the reason why no one was around and the reason why the jocks easily beat me up. I touched my forehead and felt something wet on it, I brought my hand down closer to my view and saw blood, a lot of blood. It must have cut badly when they stroke me on the face with a compass. Should I be thankful it did not touch my eyes? Or should I be thankful I was not stabbed in my throat with the sharp tip of the compass?

I did not know. My brain could not comprehend so much as it could only focus on the sharp pain that I felt all over my body. I tried to distract my mind, distract myself enough to regain the strength to get up and walk to my home. I know I should have thought about going to the hospital but I did not want to. I wanted to go home, lie on my bed, and sleep.

My mother would be worried if she saw me like that, so I decided to go home late when she would be out of the house. She had an important event to participate in, and the starting time of it was 6 o'clock. I chuckled to myself as I figured out, that I needed to wait there a few more hours till I could go back home. I got out my phone and texted my mother that I would be staying at the school to study for the test I had next week. She replied to me with an "okay" and several 'heart' emojis beside it. The next text I got from her was her telling me to be safe. I chuckled darkly if only she knew how safe I was. But I was not going to tell her, I did not want to worry her. I wondered if my father would feel the same about me, or would he tell me to get the fUCK up and fight back?

My vote goes to the second one, from my childhood that was all I heard from him. He never wanted me to be weak in front of others, I still remember his words.

"You are now the son of Xander King. And my son can never be weak. Forget who you were before, you are not Carlos anymore. You are Alexander."

What he did not tell me was that, the devil that I had to conceal deep inside of me.

June 27th, 2009.

The cries and screams of those four boys were like an elegy to my ears. But, I was not empathetic toward their pain. I was pleased. The room smelled like blood and metal, there was no light in that room, the small bulb that hung from the ceiling was only the source of light the room had. Otherwise, there was darkness everywhere. I liked it. I always liked to be in dark, when I could conceal myself from the outside world when I could be alone with my devil.

My eyes fell on the four boys who were passed out from the pain I inflicted.

Ross.

Marcus.

Ricky.

Andy.

All four of them were lying unconscious on the floor, looking so helpless and damaged. I smirked. Damaged because that was how I wanted them to be. They thought they could get away after hurting me for no reason.

I remember the other kid Jonas. These four were friends with him. I wondered if Jonas had told them about me and that led them to beat me black and blue. I quelled their protests; I did not want to fight that time and ruin the fun time I planned to have with him.+

My foot connected with Ricky's body, jarring him awake. They needed to wake up. They needed to see what I wanted to do with them, just like they did to me. The pain had been carried in me for such a long time. I wanted to let all of those anger, all of those pain in those little bastards. They took the wrong person as weak. How would they even know if I was weak? They were a bunch of stupid teenagers anyway.

I grabbed his hair and made him stand, he cried out in pain but I didn't care. I landed another punch on his face, followed by blows after blows on his face and stomach. I repeated the same thing with the others. If I wanted I could have done a lot worse than that, but I didn't want to raise any more suspicion. Although I was certain none of these lapdogs would utter a word, I didn't want anyone to know about this now. Not yet. I could not reveal this side of mine so early.

The four of them were unconscious and barely moved a muscle. I picked up the bucket of cold water from the corner of the room and poured it on them. I noticed Marcus moving his hand and a loud groan from Ross rang in my ears. I smirked and whispered to myself.

So, they are alive.

The feeling of an unknown satisfaction erupted in me. The pain I had caused them, the blood that splashed out of their face when my fist connected with them, I felt something that I had been longing to feel...

Peace.

Alexander P.O.V.

I grasped the file tightly in my hand as the wave of memories from my past rushed into my mind. No matter how hard I tried to forget them and get rid of them, they would never leave my mind. Every single day of my adolescence, I could remember all of them as circumstantial. All of them felt as if it was yesterday.

I was not a good person, and I am still not. I was a troubled child, and I was a troubled teenager. I did not regret being like that, after all that was what made me how I was in the present.

Strong and powerful.

I never liked being weak, Xander made sure of that. He was not my father, he could never be the father of mine. Surely, Liam always considered him as his father, and Sofia and Lucas were his own. But it was different for me, I could never see him as my father, he was never a father material to me. I was just his tool to get a powerful heir who would carry on his family business. I was very young when Xander and Arabelle adopted us, and so was Liam, and that was why he barely remembered anything. He has always considered them two his real parents.

I did not have any complaints about my foster mother, she was the opposite of Xander. I pitied her. How did she manage to live with Xander for so many years?

That man was solely obsessed with himself. He thought about none but himself, he would step on anything if he noticed himself benefitting from it. I could say he was the reason I grew up cold-hearted and ruthless. He never taught me to be good towards anybody, he only taught me to show everyone who I was.

Alexander King. The son of Xander King

My new identity. It matched his name. The name itself had a strong character, a character that was built in me. A character that was all I knew.

My old self, my old name was long gone. The scared, weak little Carlos was gone, replaced by what I am now.

Alexander.

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"Congratulations Mr. King! Your wife gave birth to twins!"

The nurse informed us. I looked over to Xander and noticed a pleased expression on his face. I knew he was finally pleased to have children of his own since I and Liam were foster kids. We got to get inside the cabin where our mother was. We had to wear safety masks and gloves before getting inside. When we finally got in, I saw my mother on the hospital bed, lying peacefully with her head gently resting on the pearl white pillow. Her brown blocks were scattered all over the pillow. I looked closely and noticed two figures in her arms. She was holding the babies in her arms.

"Carlos! Liam! Honey, come see your new brother and sister." She said with a big smile on her face. Liam squealed in excitement as he ran towards her and jumped on the bed beside her.

"Liam! Don't disturb your mother like this. Come down." I clenched my teeth when I heard Xander talking to my brother like that.

Now that you have your heir. You don't give a fUCK about us.

I could only think that, but never said it to him. Mother calmed him down and told him it was okay for Liam to sit there. He grinned and looked at the babies in her arms, he reached to them and softly touched one of the babies' cheeks.

"It's so fluffy mom!" She chuckled at his comment and he looked at me. "Alexander look! We have a new brother and sister! Now I won't ever be alone when Alexander is always busy! I'll play with them." My heart hurt for him. How much he wanted my attention and wanted me to be with him but I could not even fulfill this one dream of his. What kind of brother am I?

I looked over to Xander and caught him staring at me. What? What did he want now? It was not like I was going to request him to free me from all of his strict schedules needed to be a perfect "heir". I never 'requested' him to stop.

"Honey, come here." I heard my mother call me. Without questioning her, I walked toward her and stood there quietly. She adjusted in her bed and told Xander to take one of the babies from her arms. After Xander did, she was only holding one baby in her arms, she looked over to me and I immediately knew what she wanted me to do.

I was having an inner battle with myself. I was not a loving boy, I didn't even talk to anyone in a gentle voice unless it was mom and Liam. How could she expect me to love that baby?

I, once again, did not question her and took the baby from her hand. I did not even know if it was a boy or a girl.

"It's a girl. Your baby sister." I stared at her. She passed me a warm smile and said nothing after. I only looked at the little life in my arms. She was so tiny. Her fingers, her feet, her face, and even her nose were so tiny. I instantly remembered my brother's childhood. She reminded me of the bitter childhood my brother had to go through along with me.

"What do we call her, mom?" Liam asked her.

"Hmm. What can we call her? Let's we think!"

She stated as she began to think and suggest several names but also rejected them all. Xander on the other hand was busy with the other baby which I heard was a boy. Of course, he was happy because it was a boy and he even selected the name for him.

Lucas King.

It was not even an hour that the babies arrived in that ruthless world, and Xander had already begun to plot their life.

"Lucas! Yay! This is our brother Lucas! But we did not get any name for our sister." Liam's lips were formed into a pout and sad face. "Aw don't be sad honey. We'll find a name for her too."

"Sofia."

This caught their attention and their eyes were focused on me.

"Her name. Sofia." Both Liam and mom smiled at the name. They both loved it. Xander, on the other hand, said nothing about it. All he cared about was the baby boy in his arms.

I never thought I would be an older brother to two more siblings. But, I was pitying them. They, unfortunately, were born in a family where their father was the primary villain. I could imagine their whole childhood and adolescence being like mine.

******************************************

Alexander had always taken care of the twins, Arabelle made it clear that it was his responsibility to discipline them. He knew she wanted her husband to stay out of this so that the twins also would not end up like him. But, Xander's shadow never left them. He wanted them to be like him and he succeeded. Sofia grew up to be a spoiled brat and Lucas was a different case, no one knew what was wrong with him. He was not an introvert, he used to go to parties almost every weekend. But, he could never blend in with his family.

However, Alexander had enough thoughts about his foster family. It was his third day in Japan and the work was almost done. His company got the business deal and the next day he would be flying back to his house.

Oh, how much desperate he was to go back...

He could not wait to see her again after spending days away from her. He could not wait to ravish her again and taste her soft plumpy lips. He smirked when he thought of his fingertips caressing her lips. What blissful feelings this gives me...He could never imagine any other woman having this effect on him.

He did not want to wait any longer. He hurriedly opened his laptop and opened the files where the recording of his CCTV camera was. He clicked on one of the recent files and began to watch it. He did not have it everywhere but only in the areas where the security was needed more and in the areas where he could see her. One of the cameras was right outside of her room and she had no clue about it.

When he opened the recent video, he was flabbergasted to see the recording of the kitchen, the light was on and he could see two figures there. He clicked on it and zoomed in.

Two people were standing inside the kitchen and cooking something. He knew exactly who they were.

Ethan and Emma.

His blood boiled in pure rage when he saw them together. Did I not tell her to stay away from every man? Does she not take my threats seriously?

He thought he needed to teach her a lesson this time. However, he did not close his laptop, he wanted to observe what they were doing. After watching ten minutes of the clip of Emma smiling and blushing at Ethan's snarky jokes and comments, he noticed that he was going close to her...

No. FUCK no! I will fucking kill him.

He leaned down to connect his lips with hers and she stood stiff. She did not move a muscle, neither she kissed him back. She was too shocked by his action. Why would he kiss her? She was a goddamn maid! What was wrong with the men of this house? She frustratingly thought as her eyelids were pressed against each other tightly and her hand found the way to put them on his shoulder, pushing him back. She thought they were having a friendly conversation. How did it change so fast?

Her breathing was heavy and she kept backing away from Ethan. The kiss... reminded her of her master. Alexander. Although Ethan's kiss was nothing like Alexander's kiss, it was gentle and not rough. But, she still did not want it. She did not want any man to come near her! It made her feel no men cared about how she felt about something. He did not even ask her if she wanted it. Tears pooled in her eyes as she ran away from there ignoring Ethan's voice calling her name.

Once she reached her room, she shut the door behind her. Her back was pressed against the cold hardwood door as she slid her body down and finally, her body felt limb on the floor.

She hated it! She just hated it!

Moreover, Alexander was fuming with extreme anger. If only he was not so far from his home, he would've ripped Ethan apart...he got up from his seat violently and kicked his chair, it slid to the wall and broke. The next nearest thing in his hand could be a coffee cup placed on his table. He picked it up and threw it on the wall, once again shattering it into pieces and the dark brown stain of the coffee was visible on the wall.

He was growing impatient. He could wait another day. He dialed his assistant's number and after two rings the call was received.

"Arrange my private plane. I'm going home now. Right NOW. Tell the Japanese f*stickers, their deal will not be finalized if they do not sign the contract within ten minutes." He did not even give his assistant a chance to speak and he ended the call. He sat on the couch and tried to remain calm.

Calm down, Alexander. Just a few more hours.

It was enough now, he did not want to play around anymore. He did not give a fUCK if she did not want him. He wanted her and she had no choice but to submit to him.

She either submits to me with her own choice or I will force her to do so.

He took out his phone again and texted his friend, Adrian, telling him to arrange for some workers to clean the penthouse in the countryside. It was his private penthouse and only went there when he wanted to be alone. None of his family members had been there. He did not use it for two years but now seemed to be a perfect moment to use it.

He was getting excited about what he was going to do. She would never disobey him again. She would always be his. His Emma.

Resting his head on the couch, he closed his furious eyes, putting his eyelids into peace as he drifts away into another flashback.