CHARLOTTEThe drive back home was slow and excruciatingly painful. I had to park by the side of the road a few times to convince myself that I would arrive at the estate in one piece. My body trembled slightly as the recollection of seeing Rogerio propose to his ex-girlfriend remained permanently etched into my memory.I barely knew her, but from the conversations we had when our relationship was still hopeful, I knew she had shattered his heart into a million pieces with her disappearance. I had thought our marital issues stemmed from an issue between both of us, one we could work on, but this was something different.It wasn’t a marriage that was done because one or both of us had issues that could not be fixed or tolerated. He had simply returned to the woman he truly loved. For the first time since we were married, I truly comprehended what unrequited love felt like.My thoughts shifted to the first night we met at the bar. He had walked in looking dejected, and I knew that he nee
CHARLOTTEBefore leaving the courtroom, I stole a final glance at Rogerio. He looked perfect in the three-piece suit he had on, and I yearned to tell him that, but I knew better. He seemed excited about the outcome of the proceedings and did a fine job of avoiding my stare.As he spoke with his lawyers in the most enigmatic fashion, I smiled wistfully and walked to the parking lot. My lawyer offered to follow me, but I declined. I thanked him for his role in the hearing and made my way towards the car with slow, steady steps. Thankfully, the lot was empty, so I got into the car and sat in silence for a few minutes.Everything I had dreamed of having for almost two years had gone up in flames in a few hours. I had no more zeal to fight for anything left inside me. I could wish to turn back the hands of time or try to find a light at the end of the tunnel, but I knew those options were pointless.No matter what I did, nothing would change. I tried to come to terms with what had happened
CHARLOTTEIn the middle of the hallway stood men hammering the walls. I looked on in terror as my head throbbed from the noise. A draft blew into the room, and my eyes watered as I sneezed. When my vision cleared, I saw a woman standing in the middle of the room. I broke into a grin as we locked gazes. “Elena La Guerta...” I muttered.“You’ve heard of me,” she sneered and she walked towards me through the rubble that had been created.“Who hasn’t? Why are you here? And who are these people breaking my walls?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest. If this was her idea of a first impression, she was doing a wonderful job of pissing me off.With a mocking face, she uttered. “You call it yours, but it belongs to the Thuthais. It’s Rogerio’s house.”I swallowed at the mention of his name, and my resolve crumbled a little. She chuckled and turned around. This triggered a memory from the engagement party. I smiled wistfully as Maria walked into the hallway. She had been cleaning the stud
ROGERIO“Signor Rogerio, you’ve got to do something about this,” a familiar voice said into the phone in a hushed tone. I blinked in confusion and looked around me. I was in my bedroom, and slowly, the events of the previous day started to come back to me.I had spent the day at the office handling the appointments that had been rescheduled to fit the court proceedings and moving out of the estate. I also spent hours in meetings with the accountants, investors, and other shareholders.The company had experienced a loss, and someone was trying to undermine our activities on the island. I wasn’t prepared to hear that gold was being stolen by the miners as well.I needed to schedule a trip to the island, but had decided to take a day off. I needed some time alone to rest and clear my head. The sound of the voice speaking through the phone speakers pulled me out of my reverie. I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock on the bedside table, then shifted my gaze to the phone’s screen.The ca
CHARLOTTEI spent most of the day in the establishment, which did me a lot of good. It was warm. The atmosphere smelled delicious, and I felt safe. My head still throbbed, and my body trembled slightly; this reinforced my need to sit still.The restaurant was located in the city’s hub, and sitting next to the window gave me a vintage view of the world outside as well; it felt like a movie I had been missing out on. Elena’s visit roused something in me, possibly fueled by the possibility of losing shelter, but it was there nonetheless.It was a thought that had been creeping into my mind slowly, a voice I hadn’t been paying attention to, but recent events had given it some credence. “The world’s moved on without me,” I muttered, staring at the people on the street.I had spent time engulfed in my grief of losing my parents, going between numerous foster homes, and finally being too old for that, then coming to Milan to work. I had been so focused on myself that I forgot to see the worl
CHARLOTTE“You have two options, Signora Thuthai,” the lawyer started, but I interrupted him by shaking my head slowly. While I understood the mistake, hearing myself referred to as Rogerio’s wife felt like a blade cutting through the open wound in my heart. I swallowed and stopped myself from wrapping my arms around my body as a chill ran down my spine.He stopped to listen to me with rapt attention, his eyes holding an interesting mix of empathy and curiosity. I stared at him with a blank expression, slightly impressed that he remained unfazed by the silence or the stare. It was impressive, really; he reminded me of Maria. They had a certain protective aura about them. Being in the room with him, I could tell that he was willing to help me in whatever way he could.I wondered how many court hearings and private sessions with clients it would take to pull it off, silently contemplating if being a lawyer was something I’d want to do. I started to consider the possibilities, but my tho
CHARLOTTEIt felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and the drive back to the estate was the best I’d had in a long time. I rolled down the windows, and the evening breeze blew through my hair. Surprisingly, my headache had stopped throbbing.The sweet taste of the bun still lingered on my tongue, and I craved more. I contemplated the distance I would have to drive to get them and forced myself to move in the direction I had chosen. However, as I drove past the gates, I had a grand idea.Maria and I would eat out. Why not? It made sense; we were two women in that gigantic house and equally big estate. We needed to get out for a bit. She’d pick the restaurant, and we’d have a great time. I drove the car to a halt, and when I alighted, she was walking through the door holding a piece of paper and a pencil in her other hand.“Whatever that is, I don’t want to hear it,” I announced. She looked at me with a puzzled expression. “Don’t look at me like that; we’re going out.”“G
CHARLOTTEThe following weeks were a whirlwind of activities, mainly focused on renovating the house and interviewing new staff. Initially, I had decided not to be involved in the selection process, but Maria insisted on consulting me about everything. So, this morning, we found ourselves sitting in the study with a group of applicants waiting in the hallway.Setting up seating arrangements for the fifteen candidates who had applied for the position was a challenge, but we managed to get it done. Amidst the chaos, the handymen Maria had hired to fix the wall called to reschedule, and she was visibly miffed about it."Think about it like this," I whispered as I rocked our chairs gently. "It would've been terrible to interview in such a noisy environment."“But still, we needed to get it done today.” Her face morphed into a frown. “I could find a different firm to handle it.”“Didn’t you say they were the best you knew?”“Yes, but I’m sure there are others equally capable,” she answere
ELENARealizing that I had made such a grave mistake kept me on edge. I hadn’t heard anything implicating from the media or Rogerio, but I was still nervous.I had stayed away from the public eye and ensured that my return to the city hadn’t made any headlines. It was enough that the topic had shifted from my disastrous wedding to the attack on the Thuthai estate and Maria’s death.The news hadn’t mentioned anything about Charlotte, and I started to wonder if Rogerio had brought her up just to rattle my nerves.“Well, if that was his plan, then he succeeded,” I muttered to myself, wondering if I had gone too far in ordering the men to attack his vehicle.I hadn’t wanted anything serious to happen to him, just enough to make him come back home and give up his search for his ex-wife. But the silence from his end over the past few days was starting to bother me.I didn’t want to show up at his mother’s estate uninvited; she must be irritated with all the chaos surrounding her family, and
ROGERIOThe sun’s rays beat against my face and I put out an arm to block it, then looked around. The last thing I remember was getting off the plane and the car somersaulting several times in the air.I didn’t know where I was or what exactly had brought me here. I got up from the ground and tried to brush the sand off my clothes when I realized that I was injured in a few places, but it was nothing serious.The car, however, lay turned on its back, tires rolling in the air, which smelled of petrol and something else. I looked at the car and realized that there were people trapped inside. I wasn’t sure how I had gotten out, but I had to help them out too.I tried to move and realized that I had sprained my ankle. I didn’t realize how terrible it was earlier because my body was still recovering from the shock.As I tried to move my limbs, my body let me know that it had gone through much more than I could reckon. I couldn’t move as quickly as I wanted to, and I wondered if I would be
CHARLOTTEHe started by explaining how he had sent the plane to the last destination where I had been dropped off, but when his guards searched for me, they couldn’t find me.He made them comb the city from the airport to the outskirts, and when the results were unsatisfactory, he decided to take extra measures to find me.“Why was it so important for you to find me?” I asked, trying to conceal my irritation.“I was worried when the pilot reported that he had dropped you off in Milan. At first, I was comfortable because it was a familiar ground. But when the guards couldn’t find you, I started to worry. When I called and we spoke, you didn’t seem fine, which made things worse. So I asked my… detectives to trace the phone signal.”“That feels like a breach of privacy, Thiago,” I responded, and he shrugged.“It is, but you left me no choice. Ignoring my calls made it worse. At that point, I had to do something.”“How…” I began but decided to rephrase my question. It suddenly dawned on m
CHARLOTTEThe past few days had been harder than I expected. I spent most of my time awake during the day, and at night, I wandered through the city streets.It felt strange to be outside without Sonia’s watchful eyes monitoring my every step, but at the same time, it was freeing. I was in a new place, a different city where I didn’t know anyone, and no one knew what I was up to.Not that there was much to know. I was grieving.The walks helped, if only temporarily. They took my mind off the image of Maria’s lifeless body, an image that seemed permanently etched into my memory.For fleeting moments, the thrill of being somewhere new replaced the weight of my sorrow.I realized I hadn’t made any plans beyond securing a place to stay, and to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to doing anything special here.“She’d want you to be happy,” a woman’s voice said from behind me.I spun around, startled, my heart skipping a beat at the unexpected interruption.My eyes met hers, and my face tw
ELENAI decided to call Rogerio. With the way things were going, it was evident that I couldn’t go back to Milan right away, and staying in contact with him was the only way I could make sure things hadn’t been blown out of proportion.But I knew I couldn’t show how I was really feeling. It was important to maintain a nonchalant facade and hope he said something that would give me a hint or let me know what was going on.He picked up on the first ring, but the background noise was too much, so I hung up and decided to call back after a few minutes. I paced the room, thinking about what could’ve possibly happened in the last few hours.After he called, I reached out to my father’s men, the ones who handled work he didn’t want linked back to him, to clear up anything that could put me in the middle of the mess Rogerio said was brewing. But they hadn’t gotten back to me yet.I sighed, picked up the phone, and called Rogerio again. He answered immediately but seemed a little distracted.“
ROGERIOSpeaking to Elena had infuriated me more than I anticipated. She didn’t admit to being responsible for what had happened at the estate, which was expected and smart. It would be foolish to say, “Yes, I sent people to harass innocent people,” but I knew that if she was truly behind it, she would try to cover her tracks.Perhaps being in Mauritius was the first step in removing herself from the suspect list. She had an alibi; she wasn’t in the city when it happened. And if I knew anything about her relationship with Keisha, it was that her friend would stand solidly behind her, swearing she had nothing to do with it.Now that I had gotten that conversation out of the way, I had to make sure this wasn’t linked to my family in any way. I also had to find a way to see Maria. I knew she was angry that I hadn’t paid the issue any real attention when she pointed it out to me, but I knew her, she could only stay angry for so long.I’ve never taken her forgiving heart for granted, but I
CHARLOTTEI was in a daze, unable to fully process what had happened. All I felt was the detective’s hand on my arm, pulling me away, and my feet followed him until we reached the car that had brought us to the restaurant.He opened the door, told me to get in, looked around, then entered and instructed the driver to move as quickly as possible.Our driver, pale and visibly frightened, obliged as I kept looking back at the restaurant. The sound of the ignition starting and the engine revving pulled me back to the present, and I stared at my hands in shock.There were droplets of blood on them. I could feel something sliding down my forehead, but I was too terrified to check what it was.“Maria,” I muttered, turning to look at the restaurant, which had faded into the distance as the sound of police sirens grew louder.I lowered my hands, turned to the detective, and swallowed hard. I wanted to ask him if this was all just a dream, but his grim expression gave me the answer I was too af
CHARLOTTENo matter what I did, my mind always wandered to the picture of Thiago and me. I couldn’t place the feeling I had upon seeing it, but I knew that the night he had taken me home, I saw him take out his phone to do something.I had been drunk from the party and thought it was just a fuzzy memory at the time, but the more I thought about it, the clearer it became. Thiago had taken a picture of me, and then he had taken another of both of us.I could bet that in both pictures, I had been too inebriated to stop him.That was in the past now. The question that lodged itself at the back of my mind was, why?I desperately wanted to confront him about it, but I knew it was neither the time nor the place to do so. There were more pressing issues at hand, and I needed to attend to those first.We had gone through the gifts that had been sent earlier, and just when we thought it was over and things had quieted down, more gifts poured in.It irritated me as much as it fascinated me. I ha
ELENAThe day was going better than I had anticipated, and I hoped nothing would change that. I hadn’t spoken to Rogerio in a while, and quite frankly, my mental health had improved.I was still annoyed about being stood up at the church, that was a grudge I intended to carry for the rest of my life. If he wanted me to feel what it was like to be made a fool in front of everyone, he had succeeded.But now, it was time to stop playing games and actually set another date for the wedding.He seemed reluctant to do that, and it made me angrier by the minute, at least until Keisha suggested we take a trip out of Milan for a few days. She had some business to attend to in Mauritius and felt that a change of scenery would do me a lot of good.I reluctantly agreed but asked for two days to put some things in place. When I was certain that everything I wanted was going according to plan, I packed a few bags, and we left on her husband’s private plane. Well… it was hers now. He was dead, and ev