Chapter 155

Layla

“What the fuck is this?” I whispered weakly.

My entire body grew numb. It was like my blood had been replaced with ice water. The only part of my body I could move was my thumb, allowing me to ongoingly scroll through the dozens of photos that showed nothing but taken pictures of me.

It was violating and so, so sickening.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to literally run all the way back to New York and into Aldo’s arms where I knew I’d be safe.

This was utterly abominable.

I’d been taken hostage. I’ve had guns pointed at me. Hell, I had been literally shot—but for some unfathomable reason, this was so much worse.

The pictures I was seeing of myself dated back years ago. Way before Eli was even a toddler. Agent Carter had managed to capture pictures of me the time after I had just started out as a surgeon.

“How is this even possible?”

“After Stasia and I found these, we immediately checked into his medical records.” Well, that explains how they knew his blood type. “Agent Carter had been a patient of yours,” Eva said calmly.

My bottom lip trembled. My first reaction was to deny such a claim. But I couldn’t because it was entirely possible that I could have treated Agent Carter way back when...

I didn’t have it in me to glance up and actually look at him. As much as those photos repulsed me, they were my own anchor from having a total meltdown.

“I...I don’t remember.”

“And you wouldn’t,” Stasia said. “Back then, he was still just an officer, not an agent. You only treated him for a minor laceration on his upper right arm.”

It still didn’t make sense. How could a simple stitch-up lead to something as grizzly as this?

“How long have you been stalking me?” I asked him.

I still refused to look at him. Carter let out a frustrated breath.

“I was not stalking you, Layla,” he said.

Eva narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “Really? All these pictures, you wouldn’t consider that as stalking? Interesting.”

“No, I was looking out for her,” he claimed fiercely.

“Is that what you seriously believe?” Stasia pressed. “Carter, the amount of photos you possess of Layla, alone, should have you placed into some kind of psychiatric care.”

“Shut up,” he snarled through his teeth. “Of course, none of you would understand.”

With all the strength I had in me, I tore my eyes up from the phone screen. I stared back at Carter and fought back the nausea that threatened to take over.

“Make me understand,” I told him. The shakiness in my voice was too beyond me to control. “Tell me how you could possibly think that any of this is okay.”

Agent Carter kept his hold on his weapon firm. As long as Stasia kept her own gun aimed at him, I knew that his stance wouldn’t break.

“You were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Yes, the cut on my arm was minor. It happened in the midst of a robbery gone wrong. At first, I didn’t think anything of it until my partner told me I needed to get it checked out at the hospital,” he explained.

There wasn’t a single moment of his retelling that I could recall from my own perspective. I knew I would have felt more guilty had it not been for the obscene amount of recovered photos of me.

“When I got there, I was placed in this tiny room. The door opened and you came in. I felt like I’d been struck upside the head. I couldn’t stop staring at you. You were kind, efficient, and so caring. You even made a comment that I should consider getting my head checked for a concussion.”

“All I did was my job.”

He shook his head. “You did so much more. You made me realize just how badly I wanted to be with someone. I wanted someone with all of your qualities and then it hit me. Why try to seek someone like you when I could just as easily be with you?”

Oh, God. This story wasn’t making things any better.

“You never approached me after that time in the hospital,” I said. “I never saw or heard from you again.”

“I hadn’t given up. I quickly came to realize that you had a child which made me easily assume that there was already someone in your life. But no one ever seemed to be around when you were raising your son.”

My skin crawled from just the fact that he was speaking about my son. At least, none of the pictures involved Eli. If they had, chances were I probably would have attacked him myself.

“You were putting your family first as opposed to getting involved in relationships. I well respected it and meanwhile, I worked harder at my own job. I strived to be better so that one day I could be considered worthy of being with you.”

I gently shook my head. “For Christ’s sake, I may not have been open to dating at the time, but why didn’t you just properly re-introduce yourself to me? We could have, at least, been friends,” I said. “Why the hell did you have to collect these damn pictures?!”

Carter fell silent. Even his gaze dropped to the ground. He refused to answer.

“How did you feel when you found out that Layla was in love with Aldo Marcello?” Eva asked.

I could hear him physically tighten his hold on his gun. His features pinched with vexation.

“I refused to believe that Layla would lower herself to someone like him. A fucking criminal. A goddamn cold-blooded killer,” he snarled. “I made sure that I got placed on the Marcello case.”

“Let me guess, you were hoping to find a way to expose all the misdeeds of the family but were going to try and find a way to save Layla from facing the horrible legal fate that awaited the rest of them?” Stasia said, tauntingly.

Again, Carter kept quiet. His silence was only making this worse for him. I think, deep down, he knew that his plan was unraveling at the seams. Clearly, he never anticipated those photos to be discovered.

What was truly startling was that based on the amount of pictures that had been collected over time, they seemed to hold a great deal of value to him. Little did he know that his most prized collection would end up being the reason for his downfall.

“I hate to break this to you, Agent Carter. But Aldo Marcello was and always will be the only man I love.”

“You’re making a huge mistake,” he said bitterly.

“No,” Eva said pointedly. “What she’s about to make is a choice.”

“A choice? What choice?” I asked dubiously.

Eva turned to glance at me. “This is going to be your last question for the day, alright? Does Layla want to possess the ability to decide who lives and dies?”

“No one should have that ability,” I hissed back.

“Naturally. But for a time, you did. Remember?” she prompted. “You were more than ready to blow out the candle on the Rossettis—to kill Vanessa with your own hands. This new foundation you’re building, does this factor have its own place in it?”

I’d be deciding upon Agent Carter’s fate.