Asher's Core
News had spread fast to all the elites and middle class. Gossips scaled the lips of many — that was the power of wealth and fame. Newspapers flew with the headlines:
"Two of the most influential offsprings come together. Two elements no one dared to crowd…"
"Emerald" — the daughter of Louis; and "Simeon" — the son of Bruce.
Asher read the headline, and somewhere in his chest, there was a zing. After Emerald distanced herself, he only expected he would have to wait — knowing who he had fallen for. She wasn't the type to get over things easily.
And that's what made Emerald… the irony they shared.
"Why, Emerald? Why punish me in ways you know I will fold?" he asked aloud, horror flashing through his eyes like he'd just been hit with the devil's axe.
He launched from his seat and drove straight to her mansion — even though he knew that was suicidal, considering the fact that her father and his were anything but friends.
Upon arrival, he parked his car and rushed to the gate. But of course, security didn't let him in.
So he screamed her name — so loudly she had to come down, barefoot and breathless.
"Emerald!"
Yelling like a child who misses his mother.
"Emerald, you cannot do this to me… Emerald! Come down, Emerald!"
"Are you a mad man?" Emerald asked with annoyance.
"Mad?" Asher echoed, "Emerald, I thought my soul would switch into an entity — one where I'd have to be lost to be sane again."
"What do you want, Asher?" Emerald asked.
"It's not what I want, it's what I need. Emerald, you can hate me… loathe me… detest me for all I care. You can hold a knife and cut through layers of my skin — drain every last drop of my blood."
"You can tag me as your villain — but what you must not do is feed me with poison. Do not break my heart by belonging to another. I'd rather have you despise me… than see you with someone who isn't me."
"Nothing you say will change my mind. I am to wed Simeon," Emerald said.
"But do you love him?" Asher asked.
"I do not see a single form of love in your eyes," he continued, "neither do I see any signs that he may love you, too. So why? Are you being forced by your father?" he asked — because Asher knew the sides of Emerald that even she didn't.
"If that's the case, then—" he started.
"It's not. And excuse your manners for intruding into things that don't concern you," Emerald shot back.
"I am to wed Simeon. I only know Simeon. I refuse to be in the sight of any man alone who is not Simeon," she said, drifting her eyes as she spoke.
"Go home, Asher," Emerald ordered, then turned and walked back into the mansion.
This time, Asher didn't let his feet freeze to the ground.
He raised his voice, not in anger — but in something raw and breaking:
"Mark my words, Emerald — you will never marry anyone else except me. I will rather die the villain than give an excuse to be the hero and let you go."
"I will come for you. I choose to stay away — not to drift apart."