❝ A DANGEROUS GAME ❞ ── Marta Cabrera ¹ ✓

❝ CHAPTER 1 ❞

▌Chapter 1 ─ Sweetheart ▌

      ━━━━━ IRIS PULLED INTO the driveway of her grandfather's house, she couldn't bring herself to go to Harlan's funeral. The brunette lowered her head to her steering wheel, she didn't want his death to be real but she knew it was.

She hadn't talked to Fred since the fight and she dreaded seeing him because she knew he was going to be there. Turning her car off she pushed the door open and grabbed her bag, sliding the strap of the bag onto her shoulder.

Climbing out of her sparkling red Camaro, she lifted her hand placing it on the glass window as she stared at the house that was surrounded by the trees that stood tall towering over the house.

Her eyes then fell onto the door, where she saw her mom standing in the door frame with her hands resting on her hips. Iris scanned her features not entirely sure if her mother was mad or upset. Sucking in a breath of air she moved forward, closing the door to her car.

Before she could begin walking forward both Harlan's dogs ran up to her sitting down. Iris smiled, kneeling down in front of the dogs, picking up her bag she placed it on her knees. Digging around her bag she finally found the treats that she always kept in her bag.

Pulling two treats out she held them in front of the dogs who seemed to get excited. She moved her hand forward handing each of the treats to the dogs, she then proceeded to pet the tops of their heads.

"Such good babies." Iris said standing up from the ground, placing her bag on the side of her hip.

She proceeded to walk forward heading towards the house. Her mother's eyes were still on her, Iris suddenly became panicky as she moved closer to the house. Iris hoped that Marta would come in today so she could talk to her about what had happened at the party.

As Iris moved up the steps she placed a bright smile on her face even though she wasn't feeling the smile in this instance.

"Hi, mom." Iris said coming to a stop in front of her mother.

"Hi, Iris." Linda responded, pulling her second child into a tight hug. After a few seconds Linda pulled away from Iris staring at her, Iris could see the change in her face. "Why weren't you at your grandfather's funeral?" Linda asked her daughter.

"I was really upset, I went into work to get some stuff done to keep my mind off of things." Iris said, lying to her face. The truth was that Iris had been hiding something and she feared that the police would get it out of her.

"I know you were close with him. You get that from me. Everything will be okay." Linda said, pulling her daughter inside the house.

Iris walked around the house, ignoring the steps that led up to her grandfather's room. Her eyes soon fell onto Meg who had come walking down the hallway. She looked around noticing that her mother had slipped into another room to have a talk with her father.

Meg pulled her into a tight hug, "how are you holding up, Ris?" Meg asked, soon pulling away from the hug.

"I'm okay, I just don't want to see Fred." Iris announced, looking down at her shoes.

"Well, he's not here yet. So that's a good thing I suppose." Meg replied, sending her a bright smile.

Iris nodded her head, "I'm gonna walk around." Iris told her cousin, the young teen only nodded moving past her.

Iris really didn't want to be here, especially after what had happened. She came to a stop at the end of the hallway, looking into the room she noticed two police officers, and someone sitting in the shadows.

Iris jumped at the sound of her phone buzzing, turning around as she walked back down the hallway. Pulling her phone out she looked down at her phone to see Fred's name on the screen with his picture that she had taken when they first met.

She lifted her head, hitting the decline button and shoving her phone back in her pocket. A small smile fell onto her face when she saw Marta standing with her mother. She walked over to them, pulling Marta into a side hug while her father screamed on the phone.

Iris assumed it was her dickhead of a brother, deciding that he wasn't coming to the house. Iris and Ransom were two years apart, and they shared a love-hate relationship, ever since Iris was born.

Some days they hated them, and other days they were on good terms. Their most recent hatred had started the night of their grandfather's birthday, and while she didn't want to talk to Fred she didn't want to talk to Ransom either.

"Richard." Linda called out, looking over at her husband.

Iris looked towards her father, a disgusted look resting on her face for she finally knew the truth to what he was doing.

"He's not coming." Richard said, staring back at his wife, both Marta and Iris exchanged looks. "Little shit. Missed the funeral, just like you." Richard said, placing his eyes on his daughter.

"Yeah, I know dad. I wasn't up for it." Iris mentioned, once again looking down at her shoes.

"Excuse me." A voice called out, Iris turned her head looking back towards the hallway she had come out of.

"Uh, we're ready for you, now. We'd like to see you one at a time." He announced, Richard looked towards his wife, who had been looking at her watch.

"Alright, I'll go first." Linda said walking forward slightly she tapped Richard's arm. "I'm assuming this will all be wrapped up before the memorial tonight." Linda said as she walked down the hallway moving past the officer.

Iris jumped at the sound of the vibration, she pulled her phone out looking to see Fred's face and name popping up on the screen once again.

"Excuse me." Iris breathed out.

She walked over to the door, opening it and heading out of the house to stand on the porch. Iris then pressed the accept button placing her phone up to her ear.

"What the hell do you want, you son of a bitch?" Iris asked, trying not to raise her voice.

"I just want to apologize, that argument shouldn't have happened and I feel really bad, especially because you didn't come home last night. Or the night before that. In fact you haven't been home all week." Fred informed his fiancee.

"There is nothing to talk about, and there is no need for an apology." Iris told him.

The brunette lowered her free hand, bawling it into a fist and pressing her nails, into the palm of her hand. Whenever her and Fred got into a fight, instead of screaming or throwing things at him she would bawl her fist and press her nails into her palm.

She had been doing it since she was a kid and her parents tried to fix the solution to why she had been doing that but they never figured it out.

"Sweetheart, come on. I love you, and I want to marry you because I love you, not because of the money." Fred went on to tell her.

"Don't call me sweetheart, don't call me again." Iris said, ending the call.

Iris shoved the phone back in her pocket, then she lifted her hand looking to assess the damage that had been done to her palm. It wasn't too bad and she didn't see any blood so she knew that was a good thing.

Iris lowered her head allowing the tears to fall down her face, everything that had happened had been too much for her, in that moment she ran down the steps moving over to the bushes. The brunette threw up what she had eaten for breakfast.

She had been feeling this way for about two weeks and Iris didn't know why or what was going on. Moving away from the bushes she wiped her mouth off, then she headed back into the house.