Sleeping With The CEO-Chapter 366: Dream Void

After Jasper’s death, Sebastian’s nephew had suffered from insomnia, something that Sebastian had done the bare minimum in pretending to worry about. The truth was back then he had been laughing manically on the inside.

Happy that the trauma from being there while his father died had caused his nephew to forget. Sebastian had been so busy laughing that he had not realized that he too had come away from the accident missing something.

In killing his brother and Peter Molson, Sebastian had somehow lost the ability to dream.

Twenty years and there had been nothing for him when he closed his eyes to go to sleep at night. No sweet dreams, no nightmares, just an abyss swallowing him night after night, and releasing him in the early hours of the morning. At least until Sebastian found himself coming awake early in the morning, drenched in sweat. His brother’s name on his lips, Jasper’s disappointed face burned into his eyelids.

It could have been nothing, but Sebastian had known even as he had thought that, that he was lying to himself. Twenty years he had not seen his brother. Now Jasper had just shown up in his dreams out of nowhere. Doing so in the early hours of a morning that was supposed to bring in what would be a new dawn for Sebastian.

Was this it?

Was he dying? Sebastian wondered. He’d heard that if you suddenly saw the faces of the dead, then your own time was near. But he could not believe it. Would the universe really be so cruel to him, handing him everything that he had ever wanted, and then ripping it away from him?

The thought followed Sebastian as he went through his day, getting ready for the celebration ahead but unable to enjoy a single moment.

"Why now Jasper? Why show yourself now after all these years?" There was no answer. How could there be? Jasper was dead and Sebastian was alone in his office, suddenly feeling unbearably cold. And the cold did not go away no matter what he did from that point onwards. It was there when he left work to go change into the suit that he’d had custom made for the occasion. The chill followed him to the party, refusing to let him be. It clung to him even as he had two voluptuous young women hanging off each arm, their touch hurting him instead of soothing.

He shook off their hands and did rounds around the room, trying to get himself into a better mood by talking to fellow like-minded people. People who were happy for him, even if it was not purely selfless. He knew he could trust their joy in his success because it meant that they were going to be successful too.

But that did not help. The one-armed hugs felt like a noose, and the cheers sounded like a death toll in his ears.

’No! No! No!’ Sebastian wanted to scream. What was this? Something was wrong.

This was the day that he had been waiting for, for the majority of his life. It was his time now. He was supposed to be happy, but Sebastian felt so... empty. Why could he not feel the happiness that was supposed to come with the accomplishment?

Where was the joy?

Had Jasper poisoned him in the dream? Stealing all of his happiness? What was going on? Sebastian wanted to tear into his chest, rip his heart out. Hold it in his hand and ask it personally, ’why can’t you feel joy?’, but he could not do any of that.

Instead he forced himself to smile like a puppet on strings. The action mechanical, not even alcohol managing to make him feel more relaxed. free𝑤ebnovel.com

He tried to find his spark, his fire, but there was nothing there. When it came to giving his victory speech, he did not feel triumphant, instead it sounded like a eulogy in his ears. Was he dying? Was that really why he had seen Jasper?

Catching sight of his sister-in-law and Jane Molson in the crowd did not help matters at all. The two women wore black, standing out amongst the sea of colour.

But even scarier than their sombre clothing was the looks on their faces. Cassandra and Jane did not look defeated as Sebastian had expected. They also did not look like people in mourning as their clothing would suggest.

They looked happy, genuinely so.

In looking at their joyous faces, Sebastian realised that whatever it was that dreaming about Jasper had been a sign for, it was about to happen. And sure enough, within minutes of him giving his speech.

Sebastian still up on the stage, listening to the claps that reminded him of wails instead of anything cheerful, watched as the doors burst open. Two ghosts from the past waltzed in. The nephew that he’d thought he’d killed, and Emily Molson.

I was king for a minute. Sebastian found himself thinking as he watched his nephew walk forward, all eyes in the room unconsciously turning to him.

"It’s Derek Haven!" Someone yelled, and chaos broke out...absolute chaos.

His nephew and Emily Molson had not come alone. They brought with them an army. Men and women in tactical gear, throwing themselves at Sebastian’s guests with a vengeance. There were guns fired, tables and chairs broken over heads and helmets. Stilletos turned into knives, and bottles of the most expensive alcohol in the world were wasted, used as weapons instead. From his spot on the stage, Sebastian watched it all go down.

All of his sacrifice, his hardwork, burning just like all of the table cloths he was currently watching go up in flames. Over by the door, his nephew and Emily had been joined by their mothers. The four of them as removed from the violence as Sebastian was.

All of the other people on the floor still had something to fight for. But among the five of them, there was nothing left to do.

Sebastian had lost.

They had played him so good, that he had walked into his own prison. Giving up his little peace of paradise for a fool’s gold. Jasper’s visit to his dreams made a lot of sense now. His brother had come to gloat.

"Sebastian Haven, you are under arrest for..." Sebastian blinked at the white haired woman suddenly standing before him. He remembered her, she was the one who had refused to retire. Lurking around Haven Group headquarters like a bad smell, he had laughed at her pigheadedness. But it seemed she would be having the last laugh.

He did not hear the rest of her speech, and he did not care. His attention on the four unharmed people by the door. To get to them, Sebastian, hands cuffed behind his back, had to walk on broken glass. His shoes stepping on blood, and alcohol. Those who still had fight in them moaning and groaning as he was pushed forward.

It felt as though Sebastian had been judged, and found wanting. The officer leading him to hell, the chaos that he had just walked through, nothing more than a path on the way there.

There was so much venom in his heart, so much rage. But walking past the people responsible for his downfall, Sebastion could not find the words to say what he wanted. So he carried on walking, never stopping, his head down.

For the first time in his life, Sebastian Haven had tasted true defeat, and he did not think he would be bouncing back.

...He was done.

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