Mistakenly Eaten

128. Trust when broken...

They say, trust is a very fragile things...

To be earned, it requires great hard work, indemnity, kindness, wellness, established positive behavioral patterns and, above all, dignity.

But once earned, it doesn't always remain so.

Because it only takes a second or a moment of betrayal or at least a sense of betrayal, that could ruin and deminish trust for once and for all...

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“Who are you people?”

She asked, screaming on top of her lungs, as more tears streamed down her cheeks and her cries became louder and heavier.

Nicholas’s heart felt shot with a sharp dagger, as he saw the love of his life, the woman who brought him back to life, crying in such a horrendous manner.

“Althea…”

He reached out to touch her but she only slapped his hand off and away from her.

“Don’t f*****g touch me.” She cried even more loudly and almost screamed.

At the same time, a flashlight went off behind her, that illuminated her face through the broken windows of the office room but Althea wasn’t scared of the lightening anymore.

In fact, she didn’t even care about anything around her.

As the sound followed after the lightening, she didn’t feel afraid or shaken by the sound.

Her mind and her body was too numb to even feel any fear, since the worst of the worst had happened to her.

She was witnessing a different kind of pain, a sensation that she had never experienced before. The blinding and stinging pain, toppled every other sensation in the world that could’ve ever be felt.

Multiple thoughts, reasons and questions circulated her mind but above all what really pounced on her head was the thought of betrayal that she had received at the hands of everyone else.

But was she really that heart broken by everyone else’s lies?

No! what really panged her soul and broken her heart in to million little pieces, just like the broken glass of the window, was Nicholas’s betrayal.

She had loved the man with her heart and soul and knew that he loved her as well but she did not see the need of him to orchestrate such a big lie only to entrap her.

He couldn’t have loved her or known her before she was brought to the island under the pretense of a cooking competition.

Everything was just confusing her nerve wrecking.

Althea’s mind seemed to split open, as all the anxious thoughts ran through her brain, threatening to burst open a nerve in her head.

She grabbed her head, pulling and tugging on to her hair strand and Nicholas grabbed her shoulders, in the awe to calm her down but she only grunted in agitation and pushed him away.

“I told you, do not touch me!”

She yelled at him again and Nicholas’s eyes filled with tears, as his own heart felt like breaking.

The moment he feared the most, about Althea finding out the truth and hating him was reckoning upon him and it was tearing his soul apart.

He knew he should’ve told her the truth sooner but instead, kept on pretending to be someone he was not. He feared the very reaction that Althea was giving at the moment and in that moment he realized that maybe, had the truth come to her from his side, it wouldn’t have hurt her that much.

It only made her feel that he intended to lie and play with her and was never going to tell her truth.

“Tonight, I was going to tell you everything.”

Nicholas spoke up softly and seeing that Nicholas had not lost all hope and was keeping his cool and calm, Salva sighed softly, as he was the first one to step inside the office, leaving the rest behind and by the door.

Andrew, who also discovered that Althea had found out the truth, instead of staying back rushed out of the mansion and made his way towards Fiona and Garry’s safe house.

Back inside the office, Salva took careful steps towards Althea, who heard Nicholas’s words, that only sounded like a mockery to her innocence.

“After the so called, final cook off?” she scoffed, with tears resting over her cheeks, smudged all over her face.

She sniffed hard, as her breaths remained shaky and her mind still clouded.

“I only bought the Hunters’ Society, so that at least something I would give you would be authentic and you winning this competition would mean…”

“Bought this? Who the hell are you?” she asked, her voice turning low and squeaky as the realization dawned upon her that the man that she had loved with all her heart and soul was someone she didn’t even know.

His reality was far more contagiously hurtful and staggering. He was not whom she thought would be. He was not the man she fell in love with.

“I loved you, Nick!” Althea stated softly, as a breath escaped her lips, along with the truth, “Is that even your real name?”

Nick closed his eyes tightly, as a lone tear escaped his eye and he could feel his heart breaking apart entirely.

Althea’s words were acting like a dagger to his heart but he knew that he had every right to question his integrity and everything that came out of her mouth in that moment, was purely and sheerly due to hurt, that must be immense and unbearable for her.

He wished to take all of her pain away but who was he kidding. That was supposed to happen one way or the other. But it still happened in the worst way he could’ve imagined

“What is all of this? Why go to all of these lengths? This stupid set up to fool me? Pretend to carry a normal competition and eliminate contestants that you kept on the island, who were all those people? Some paid actors? Who are you people? Is this some sort of joke? Did you guys play me as a joke? And all the cook offs that were filmed, was it some sort of joke that you played on the dark web on me? Why do all this?”

“We never intended on hurting you!” Nicholas spoke, trying to keep himself as composed as possible.

“Then why did you hurt me, then? Why does it hurt to know the truth that you are not the real Chef Society or at least you weren’t when you brought me here.”

Althea’s voice screeched as she screamed on top of her lungs. Her voice louder than the thunder that the skies screamed, mirroring Althea’s cries.

Nicholas tried to pull himself together along with his thoughts. He caught his breath and composed himself but before he could’ve opened up his mouth, Salva spoke up on his behalf.

“None of this is his fault. I was the one who lied and forced him to lie along as well.”

Taking the entire blame on him, Salva tried his very best to control Althea’s anger on Nicholas.

“I was the one who lied and brought you here. I needed you. Your food cured Nicholas! He once had your pasta in Gragnano…”

Salva began narrating the story to Althea, as he sensed that Nicholas was too flabbergasted to speak anything at all. So he immediately began speaking and narrated the whole story to Althea.

“He refused to eat anything at all and he only demanded your pasta. So, I visited you, still not knowing if you were the chef that had cooked that pasta. So, when you got enthusiastic and told me that you had applied for the Society, I lied to you and brought you here. just one spoon of your food and the man was back to life. Please, Althea, you have to listen to us as well and especially Nicholas.”

Althea remained stagnant for a moment, impasse, as she simply looked at Salva, with tears continuing to brim down her cheeks.

She softly scoffed as Salva put forth his narrative.

“As if I would ever trust you.” She spat bitter words at Salva, shaking the ground underneath his feet.

He couldn’t believe Althea would ever become this senseless and cruel towards him.

“You were the one who lied about everything, do you think, I would ever trust a word that comes out of your mouth? I would rather die than to ever trust you again. You started fooling me and then everyone just jumped in.”

“They did for me.” Nicholas finally mustered up the courage and spoke up.

Sensing who hateful Althea had turned towards everyone, he decided to take the blame as well and he wouldn’t be wrong if he said that everything was done for him.

“I was suffering and alone and they lied and did everything just for me and I know I should’ve told you the truth earlier and I wanted to but a part of me became selfish. I lived and survived on what you cooked and I ate every meal cooked with your hands. Without you, I wouldn’t be alive today.”

Althea fell in to complete silence, as the truth this time didn’t break her heart but divided her morality and her heart, that wanted her to be selfish for at least once in her life.

“Your food cured me and that’s why they continued lying and I continued lying. I never thought, I would ever fall in love with you. That was the only unforeseeable factor in this entire situation that no one even imagined. It just happened and I…”

“We have been together and in love for over a month now. Nicholas, there were multiple times and chances when you could’ve told me…”

Althea whimpered, as she felt even more hurt over Nicholas’s adamant lying, where he continued lying to her even after he told her that he loved her.

“Did you even love me?”

She asked, throwing the question blatantly, right on to Nicholas’s face, who was left astonished by her bitter attitude.

“Be careful with your words.” He warned her, not wanting his feelings for Althea to be challenged. “You know I love you and I love you more than I love my own self.”

“How would I ever trust you? Do you even realize how much of a big of a lie you have told me? Everything was fake. A hoax. I feel like such a fool, how easy was it for you to play with me?”

Althea was not ready to back down either, as she spat her words out at Nicholas, who could feel the heavy stinging pain of guilt taking over his mind and consuming him entirely.

“This thing, it was sacred to me. It was everything for me to be a part of the society, that I leaned on to the hope of. In my most miserable times, the hope of being a part of it, was what kept me going and you guys made the biggest joke out of it. I feel like such an i***t. I loved something more than myself and you ruined it. And the worst part is that I fear that you guys could’ve hurt me more and I trusted you blindly, you guys played me because I was stupid and that hurts me. It is embarrassing for me to see how easy it is for me to get fooled.”

Althea cried even more loudly, as she slipped down on her knees and reality hit everyone.

Not even for once, did they assume that Althea’s realization would be so deep that she would go down the spiral of self scathing and hate herself for being easy to fool.

“It is not your fault. You were very meticulous. You only challenged us and kept us on our toes and we were afraid that you would catch on to us any given minute and we feared that all of this would go down for nothing. We never wanted to hurt you.”

Anthony spoke up, stepping inside the office and Althea looked up at him, from across the room.

“You were the oldest one here, couldn’t you have stopped them?”

Anthony fell in to complete shame and taciturnity was all he had to give Althea in return.

“We know we have hurt you and…” Martha tried to defend her husband but Althea only shook her head.

“Each and every one of you knew what you were doing. All of you knew that the lies that you were brewing and the entire set up that you orchestrated was going to hurt me but none of you cared.”

Althea concluded the truth, getting up on her feet.

Even though her limbs still felt weak, she realized that she couldn’t share her misery and tears with people who were responsible for it.

She wiped her tears away, but her breath still hitched and her chest still fell full.

“Everything was a lie…” she turned and spoke up, looking at Nicholas, whose eyes were full of tears.

“No…” he mouthed slightly, shaking his head and more tears escaped Althea’s eyes.

“I wish it was not true.”

With that she turned and ran out of the office.

Everyone simply stepped aside and gave the girl her space to be left alone.

She had just disinterred the biggest and most horrifying truth of her life. She deserved her time alone.

As she jogged towards the main foyer, she paused, wiping her tears off her cheeks but stopped when she saw Fiona and Garry walking in through the main door along with Andrew.

Althea wasn’t even surprised anymore.

Disappointed, hurt and obviously shaken to her core that not just Nicholas, her love but her best friend, Fiona also betrayed her.

She cried her eyes out when she was eliminated and yet she was there on the island all along, lying to her and betraying her, just like everyone else.

Everything that Althea was happy about and was living her life full of zest and zeal, over the happiness of what she had thought was the biggest achievement of her life, turned out to be the biggest scam ever.

It was all a sham! A farce that broke her in to pieces.

Fiona stepped ahead to console Althea but she simply shook her head with disappointment and sprinted up the stairs, getting as far away from Fiona and everyone else as possible.

As soon as she got inside the room, she immediately locked the door behind her and stood against the door, trying her very but a feeblest best to prevent anybody from getting inside.

She regretted being so open, generous and kind that people were able to fool her and manipulate her.

She felt used and exploited, as if a part of her heart was chewed, masticated and thrown in to garbage.

She felt exposed and hurt.

She didn’t know whom was she the most angry at.

Herself? For being so easy to be fooled or everyone else, who were making her hate herself.

Not even a single straight thought convulsed her mind as she rested her back against the door and pulled her knees up against her chest bawling her eyes out with sorrow and regret of ever trusting those people and stepping on that island.

Everything that she ever believed in and clung on to for the hope of a better future, that made her so desperate and easy to be fooled, had come crashing down, zeroing in to nothing but complete dust and everything that she built up, with love and hard work, turned out to be nothing but a hallow and an empty dream, that before its completion, got ruined entirely by the strike of reality.

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What do you think will happen now?

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