The Devil's Favourite Obsession

”At least those people will know it isn’t you,” Bill insisted.

Cixi looked at him, yet her unease did not soften. ”Will that stop those men from looking at me in ways I never wanted? After it is revealed... will things truly become better for me?” Her fingers tightened faintly around each other. ”What if it only makes everything worse?”

Bill said nothing and let her continue.

”Officer Bill, I don’t trust my fate.” Her voice trembled, and for a moment, she appeared to be holding herself together through sheer willpower. ”What if they start searching for more about me? I... I am so confused that I don’t even know what I am supposed to do. Why is that video still circulating? Why can’t that video simply vanish and never surface? I desperately want to know who created it. Until now, I thought I could ignore it and move on, but it keeps haunting me over and over. I need to understand who hated me so much that they would go to such lengths to destroy my life.”

Seeing the strain written across her face, Bill placed his hand gently over hers.

”No one is forcing you into anything,” he responded. ”We will find out who did this. I am here, and you do not have to decide everything this moment. Just breathe. If you know the names of those men, I can try to find out more.”

Cixi shook her head. ”I don’t know their names. I only remember one of them — Andi and his was with some mafia guy. I met him at the club in Casanova, but that is all I know.”

Bill withdrew his hand and gave a small nod. ”I’ll see what I can dig up.”

Just then, the server arrived with their warm food. Cixi and Bill allowed the matter to rest there for the time being and turned their attention to lunch, though neither of them was truly at ease.

They ate in quiet, each lost in separate thoughts, each pretending not to notice the worry still lingering between them.

When they finished, Cixi reached for her wallet, fully intending to pay since she had asked him to join her. Bill stopped her at once and insisted on covering the bill himself.

”You can pay next time we go out.”

After a short back and forth, Cixi finally relented and slipped her wallet away.

After coming out of the restaurant, ”I know a few reliable, illegal hackers,” Bill said, unlocking his car. ”I will ask around and see if they can track the video’s footprint down.”

He gave her a brief nod before pulling out onto the street, heading in the opposite direction of Marion’s apartment.

Cixi walked to the nearest bus stop. As she waited on the curb, entirely unaware of the two large men sitting at an outdoor cafe across the street, keeping their dark eyes locked directly on her every move.

The bus arrived within five minutes and she rode it for forty-five minutes across the city, stepping off near Marion’s apartment block.

She walked straight up to the familiar door and rang the bell.

It was Melisha who opened the door.

Cixi instantly smiled, dropping to her knees to pull the little girl into a gentle hug.

”I missed you so much, Melisha,” Cixi said, standing back up with the child secured in her arms.

”I missed you too, Cixi,” Melisha replied, hugging Cixi, her voice soft and inherently shy.

”Why are you so cute?” Cixi asked, poking her side.

Melisha giggled, hiding her face. ”I don’t know.”

Hearing Cixi’s voice echoing in the hallway, Marion stepped out of the laundry room.

”I am officially adopting Melisha,” Cixi announced, looking up at her friend.

”Sure. If Martin agrees,” Marion shot back smoothly.

The moment Martin’s name hit the air, Cixi’s bright smile vanished entirely. Her expression turned dead serious.

Seeing the stark, instantaneous shift in her friend’s face, Marion laughed aloud. Cixi narrowed her eyes into a sharp squint, but Marion merely shrugged off the judgment and motioned for Cixi to follow her.

Cixi set Melisha down, letting the girl run back to her bedroom to finish her homework.

She followed Marion into the cramped laundry room, where a washing machine squeezed tightly against a dryer and a heavy wooden rack hung from the ceiling. Cixi leaned against the doorframe, carefully watching Marion as she pulled dry clothes from a basket and folded them.

”You look remarkably relaxed for someone who witnessed what we saw last night,” Cixi pointed out, stopping at the halfway point of the sentence. And Marion understood the implication behind the statement.

She stopped folding the blue t-shirt and looked back at Cixi, melting off her calm face.

”I have been working non-stop since I woke up,” Marion confessed in her tight voice. ”I have been scrubbing every single corner of this apartment with such precision that you will not find a speck of actual dirt left. I have to keep my hands busy just to keep my mind out of that club. I could not sleep for a single second last night. The scene just kept playing on a continuous loop behind my eyelids.”

Her eyes glazed over, turning distant as if she were actively replaying the slaughter right now.

Cixi completely understood her friend. That’s why she came here to talk not only about herself but also to check on Marion. She didn’t need to worry about Lily so much. Because she was with her ex-boyfriend, engaging in the activity she loved the most.

In the beginning, following the brutal shootout that had supposedly taken Cassian’s life, Cixi had nearly lost her absolute mind. The horrific screams of the victims and the dark, guttural laughter of the assassins had haunted her every second. For two months, she barely ate and had cried silently in the corner. The only singular, desperate thought that kept her functional was her pure drive to find Cassian’s body.

And now she knew it was a complete waste of grief. He possessed an immortal constitution, apparently. He had survived the attack not once but twice, and instead of hiding or relaxing somewhere at the beach vacation, he had been actively slaughtering people. As well as he had completely forgotten about her existence.

That specific realisation pinched Cixi’s heart harder than anything else.

”It will take someone time. But it will get better...” Cixi tried to reassure Marion. ”Did Martin notice anything?”

Marion shook her head slowly. ”No. He thought I was trying to act like a young girl going to a party.” A hollow laugh escaped her. ”He even joked that no one would look at me anyway, not when I was standing next to two young women. He said he bet absolutely no one in their right mind would be interested in a mother of three when there were young females around.”

She sighed, yet the faint tremor in her eyes betrayed more than her words allowed. Cixi could almost feel how tightly Marion’s heart must have clenched hearing her own husband speak of her like that, comparing her to younger women who were neither married nor ever carried three pregnancies.