Marrying my high school bully

Melissa

There were two reasons I came to the police station, none of which I was comfortable with- to visit Leonardo, who was arrested after the assault against Mr Han, and to have a word with Inspector James.

“Thank you for visiting, Melissa. You don’t know what this means to me.” Leonardo said after I waved at him.

I almost chuckled, because if he had any idea of the real reason I was here, he wouldn’t hesitate to strangle me to death. If not for the layout of my plans, I’d have liked him to stay here for a longer time. But I could always achieve that.

“You don’t have to thank me, Leonardo. I came here as soon as I could.” I replied, putting up a sympathetic facade that I hoped he wouldn’t be able to see through.

“I shouldn’t be here anyways, it’s just that Han doesn’t know how to keep his stupid mouth shut. How could he accuse me of spending the staff’s salary on myself?” He flared up, and I rolled my eyes as he looked away.

My recorder was on as I needed every evidence I could get against him. Knowing that I’d gained his trust by being kind to him, it wouldn’t be hard for him to spill his secrets to me. At least the less dangerous ones.

I advanced closer to him even though the iron bars stood as an obstruction. I darted my gaze around, then signaled for him to come closer as well.

“Leonardo, you know that I’m the only one that can help you out of here. So tell me, did you do all those things you were accused of?” I whispered.

His eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at me intently. “Before giving you a reply, I want to know if you’re truly on my side.”

“If I wasn’t on your side, I wouldn’t be here looking for a way to get you out of here. The fact that you doubt my sincere intentions is quite offensive.” I feigned anger and hissed.

“I’m really sorry. I just have issues trusting people, that’s why I asked.”

I rolled my eyes as if I was genuinely pissed, but I liked that he was scared of getting on my nerves. It would be easy to manipulate him.

“That’s fine. Just tell me the truth.”

“Look, being a CEO was the last position I expected to attain after my late wife blatantly told me that she didn’t want me to have anything to do with her business. I wanted to work. I wanted to be in control, but the bitch didn’t allow me all because she had this stupid company.” The words rolled out of his mouth freely, but within me, a volcano was threatening to erupt at the degrading choice of words he used against my mom.

“So when she died, you got the opportunity?”

He shot a surprised gaze at me, then shifted to the other foot uncomfortably. “How… how did you know that?”

“It’s general news. Wasn’t I supposed to know about it?” I shot back, making him feel unnecessarily queasy.

“Yeah, that’s right. So after I took over, I discovered that the business wasn’t as yielding income as before, and a lot of money had been squandered already by the previous CEO. I didn’t know much about running a business, so I just went ahead to take a fair share of what was left.” He explained nonchalantly.

Bastard. He spent lavishly at the detriment of people’s hard work.

“You didn’t do the right thing, Leonardo, but you have the chance to make things right, you know,” I suggested.

He huffed and leaned closer to the bar. “I don’t have any plans of doing that. The reason I’m still holding onto my position is because I’m yet to finalize the last big plan.” He grinned cynically.

“And what could that be?” I asked gently, hoping to God that he would spill it.

He shook his head and let out a dark chuckle. “You’ll see it soon, just help me get out of here. This place stinks and I feel like shit.” He lamented, sniffing his crisped shirt and trotted back to his little bench.

Ripples of shock jolted through me, but I composed myself so that he wouldn’t see how shaken I was.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll get you out of here as soon as I can.” I turned away and headed to Inspector James’ office.

It was too much of a coincidence that Leonardo was in the same cell that Liam had stayed in for the duration of his arrest, but I guess fate made it that way.

“Hi, inspector.” I greeted him after getting his permission to come in.

He looked away from his computer, his eyes lighting up after he saw me. “Good day, Miss Rogers. You came quite on time.” He commented. “Were you around the premises?”

“Yes. I came to visit Leonardo, who’s in Liam’s former cell.”

“Emilia’s father?” He asked and I nodded.

“I wish he could rot here for a while, but it will be against our plans.” I sighed and dropped my phone on his table, which started playing the recording.

He listened to it raptly, then paused it after he was done. “You mean he said all this?”

I shrugged with a smirk. “Why are you so surprised? You thought that I was joking when I told you that Leonardo wasn’t as innocent as you thought.”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“I see that you are right, but what made you think of him in that light? Have you both had issues before?”

‘Yes, he’s my stepfather and he killed my mother. He also killed my sister-in-law and separated me from my husband with the help of his useless daughter.’ I wanted to tell him all of that and demand that he swung into action, but I held back as my emotion was coming into play.

“Not really. I’m just a board member fighting for the workers who worked day and night to push the company to where it is right now.”

He said nothing but nodded absentmindedly to my response as if he didn’t believe me. I hoped that he did because I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.

“We’ll begin some investigation on him and I hope that the board members of the company have arranged for a thorough auditing because that will help a lot in the investigation.”

“Yes, we have,” I replied flatly, though I was already giddy with excitement. “So why did you call for a meeting?”

He shut the laptop and propped his folded arms on the desk. “We’ve discovered the person who tried to kill Liam.” He announced and I froze.

“Who could it be?”

“Emilia. We found her fingerprints on the syringe she stabbed him with, lying carelessly on the floor just after Liam fell.” He stated.

“That means I was right all along.” I smiled.

“Yeah, you were. But what I want to know is how you were able to know that Liam would be attacked that night by Emilia. I want to know how you got such accurate information.” He probed sternly, his expression stoic. “And don’t give me that bullshit about instincts, because I have them too, but it doesn’t work just like that except you’ve had a negative experience with the person you suspect.”

“I happened to overhear some conversations, so I put two and two together.”

He banged his fists on the table, springing to his feet. “I want the truth, Miss Rogers or we’ll start an investigation on you as well.” He threatened and I swallowed.

Though I was nervous, I still kept my gaze locked on him.

If he wanted the truth, he would get it. “Alright, I’ll tell you everything, but that’s if you promise to help me get back everything that I lost,” I said, jutting out my chin defiantly.