The Trap Of Ace

Read The Trap Of Ace [by Eva Zahan] Chapter 56 - Sweat trickled down his strong back along the tensing and flexing of his muscles and shoulders as he was lost into k*¥***g his huge punching bag.

Only the sound of his ragged breathing and punches echoed around the gym.

But what hadshocked was the b****y spots on the punching bag. And | knew where they were coming from.

Rage boiled inside my veins as my fists clenched. He was doing it again.

“Ace! Stop it!” His movement stilled with his hands gripping the bag to halt its swaying. The broad shoulders of his moved up and down with his every heavy breath as he moved his head to me. Dark stormy grey eyes met mine flaming turquoise.

striding closer, | snatched his hands from the bag. A gasp leftat the sight. They were worse than I'd ever seen before. They weren't just bruised, they were b*+#xy.

“What the h**| you're doing!” | snapped, my eyes burned with tears as | held his gaze. “Have you lost it? You're bleeding! How many times do | have to tell you not to do this! You're hurting yourself again!” But my outburst didn’t seem to reach his ears. His eyes were too busy to watch me, roaming onto every feature of mine.

But when a tear slipped down my cheek, he got back into his senses.

“Rosebud? What happened, baby? Why are you crying?” He cupped my cheeks, grey pools alert. “Are you hurt?” Didn't he even realize what | was talking about? Something squeezed inside my chest. Where was he lost into so much? What was bothering him to that extent that he didn’t even realize his own pain? “Yes, I'm hurt.” Concern etched into his beautiful face as they searched for any injuries on my body. “Hurt? Where? How did you get hurt?” “You hurt me,” | whispered.

He stilled, watchingin silence. A pain flashed across his eyes as if even the idea of hurtinghunted him. “I could never hurt you, Rosebud. I'd rather d*e before doing that.” “But you did. Not physically, but emotionally. You're hurtingby hurting yourself.” Taking a hold of his bloodied knuckles carefully, | held them before his face. “You lied to me. | thought you toldit'll stop once I'm in your arms forever. But it didn’t. | guess, I'm not important enough for you to soothe your pain.” Shaking his head, he tried to touchbut | stepped back. A grimace touched his face.

“Rosebud, there’s nothing more important than you for me. You're the sole reason I live for.” He gulped, pain flashed across his eyes as another tear rolled down my cheek.

“Then why? Why do you torture yourself like that?” | sniffled.

Glancing down at his knuckles, a muscle of his jaw ticked. “Pain makesforget, Rosebud. It helpsescape my fears and insecurities. And intense working out helpswith my frustration and the storm that rages inside me.” Fear? Insecurities? Hearing those words from Achilles Valencian’s mouth sounded foreign. What fear this powerful man beforecould have? “What fear?” My voice cout as a whisper.

Grey eyes met mine. “Fear of losing you.” For a moment my heartbeat slowed down as | stared at him, speechless.

“Why wouldlose me? I'm not going anywhere.” He averted his gaze. With fists clenched, he turned away. “It's late, Rosebud. You should go and sleep now.” “Do not change the topic!” Grabbing his arm, | made him face me. “I'm not accepting my questions being unanswered anymore! You're definitely hiding something fromand that’s eating you alive! What is it? Tell me. Please, Ace. Don’t keepin the dark anymore.” “I'm not hiding anything from you,” his reply cout cold.

“Of course, you're! I'm not a kid you could just lie that easily,” | snapped, my temper rising.

| couldn’t let him torture himself like that. There was something that was ruining him from inside, and he needed to let it out. And | definitely needed to know why he had this fear of losing me. Because | wasn’t going anywhere.

“You're still hiding something fromabout your past, aren't you? You didn’t tellthe entire truth.” His whole stance tensed as his dark eyes snapped to mine. His hands shook at his sides, the unreadable emotions swirling around his orbs were unknown to me.

“I told you everything that you needed to know.” | titled my head. “So that means the things you hid fromweren’t important enough for you to tell me?” His lips pressed tight, eyes flashing. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” “No! You have to! | won't let you torture yourself like that! Nor will I let you keepin the darkness anymore!” “Why do you have so much interest in my past!” His voice boomed across the room, makingflinch. “I've been hearing these questions the whole f*****g day! Can't you get this one thing that | don’t want to talk about it? Leave my past the f**k alone!” | stood still. Shock, surprise and hurt ran throughat once. He had never talked tolike that.

What happened years ago that made him react like that? Seeing my shock, guilt washed over his face as he let out a curse, rubbing his face in frustration.

“Rosebud, i- I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, baby!” His features were laced with agony. “I didn’t mean to shout at you.

| just- | lost it.” When he tried to reachagain, | took another step back.

“It's alright, it can happen sometimes. | don’t mind. As long as you tellthe truth.” Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Emerald, please stop it. | can’t.” Even | couldn't. As selfish as it sounded, but he didn’t know what dagger we had dangling on our necks. To truly start our life together and defeat Arthur, | needed the truth.

“I won't. You've keptin darkness for seven years and it made both of us suffer for years. | won't let you do it again. Tell me, Ace. Please, | beg...” “Oh, for G*d's sake! Stop it! Don't be so f*****g stubborn, Emerald! | can’t tell you anything. What you needed to know, | told you that. You don’t need to know anymore. So let's just keep it that way! It'll be good for both of us!” Before | could say anything else, he passedand stormed out of the gym, slamming the door behind him.

| just stood there silently. So many questions were swirling inside my head like a wildfire. But | had no answers.

He used Emerald two times today. And that wasn’t a good sign.

ork | padded inside the bedroom again. Leaving the door ajar, | walked towards the bed and sat on it.

Letting out a sigh, | glanced at the clock.

One in the morning.

After our fight, he left the penthouse before | could even cout of the gym. When | heard him slamming the door close, | knew he wasn’t returning for at least shours.

Where did he go? Now that | was calmed down a little, | felt how harsh | was with him. | knew how sensitive this matter was for him, but | continued to poke him. Nagged him for answers. | should've just given him stinstead of snapping like that.

How could I be so careless? It was the fear of Arthur's doing sharm to him and the desperation of removing him from our lives. And now seeing how much the truth is affecting him, | needed to know everything even more.

| wanted to heal his wounds. | wanted to give him comfort, tell him that | was there with him, that | understand.

But how could | do that if he wouldn't letin completely? If he didn’t open up tocompletely, it'd beca hinder between us for the rest of our lives. It'll always weaken our relationship.

| wanted him to open up to me. | wanted him to trustwith his secrets.

Maybe | should just give him stime.

And then | remembered that | didn’t bandage his knuckles.

Picking up my phone, | dialed his number. But it directly went to voicemail. | called again, but no vail.

Where the h*#| is he? His wounds are needed to be taken care of.

Frustrated, as | slammed my phone on the bed, it began blaring.

With a skip of my heart, | picked it up. But disappointment soon followed as Warner's nflashed on the screen.

Rubbing my forehead, | received the call.

“Hey! | called you earlier the day, you didn’t pick up. What's up?” Honestly, | didn’t have the strength to talk about Arthur right now.

“I was busy digging out sworms, but guess what? I've found a snake instead,” his voice spoke from the other side of the phone.

| frowned. “What're you talking about?” “Remember once you toldhow you didn’t know a lot of things about Achilles’s past. And knowing how sensitive it was for him, you were hesitating to ask him?” | remembered talking to him at Tess’s wedding. When he saw Ace andtogether, even though he didn’t look happy, he did congratulate me. And when he askedwhat was my next step in our relationship, | told him how | wanted to know more about Ace. It'd be our first step of our new life.

But seemed like it was turning out quite difficult.

“Yeah, but why are you talking about that now?” “Well, | thought | could help you a little. And guess what? | was right from the beginning. That man doesn’t deserve you. Because he never told you any truths. All he did was keeping you in the dark and manipulating you in his trap with his sweet lies!” he hissed through the phone.

| stood up from the bed. “What do you mean? What are you talking about? | thought | told you not to talk about him like that...” “I'm just stating the truth, Em. | just called you to tell you what a liar he is.” My eyes narrowed further. “Cto the point. What lie did he say to me? What do you want to say exactly?” “He told you his father did s*****e, didn’t he?” Something churned insideas | slowly nodded even if he couldn’t see me. “Yes?” “His father didn’t s¥**+*e, Em. He was m**++¥xd.” Share