I thought that day would start in many ways, but meeting Jack Bailey with his ass exposed and Becca's best friend with one of the legs on her shoulder was not the way I would consider possible."Shit" grumbled Becca's friend, pushing Jack and trying to hide his plump body with a blanket thrown on the couch. For Jack, it only took to try to get out of our focus of vision as soon as possible, sticking behind the couch, probably in search of his clothes. The woman named Elizabeth needed a moment to recover, so she opened a wide smile and stood up to meet Becca. “Friend! You finally left home! I can't believe I'm seeing you without that bunch of hospital wires. How are you? How do you feel? Are you eating properly? Do you have any news?”Becca was confused by the bombardment of questions, and didn't know if she looked at her friend, or if she tried to ignore Jack's curses when looking for her own clothes. There was a shirt hanging on the coffee table, and the jeans with a belt were thrown
"In the same way you think you know about mine, Fred," he laughed at him. "It is not new to anyone the amount of relationships you have had with international models throughout your life. Unlike you, I keep my important relationships secret.”"Is there a window in this place? "I asked to change the subject, and keep pinning Jack. "This one full of fuck is complicated to keep feeling.”With grumbling, Jack pushed the curtains behind the sofa and opened the window, then left the room and went to the kitchen countertop, which divided the space into an American standard. He took a bottle of water from the stocked refrigerator and filled two glasses. I wouldn't drink, I hated drinking things in a house other than mine, so as not to make them undone if the taste wasn't what I expected. Even so, I leaned back on the counter and pulled the glass close."How is she? "He asked, clearly referring to Becca.“Well,” I simply replied. "Didn't you see it with your own eyes?”"Oh, no, I was distracte
"You're shaking," I told Becca, when she leaned against me as she hurriedly walked out of the building where she lived. "What did you talk about?”"There's something wrong," Becca said, looking over her shoulders. "Not with this marriage story, but with the time when everything is happening. As far as I remember from college, Elizabeth didn't refuse to go to a party and flirt with people. Since we lived together, she never told me about a possible fiancé or any kind of relationship she had with my boss. Besides, even if their relationship is open, it seems very strange to me that I only know that now. How did they hide for eight years?”It shouldn't have been more than half an hour since we had arrived at that address, but the sun was already punishing the few who passed through the streets at that moment. Becca wore shorts and a simple shirt, but still made a face when she felt the heat on her skin. My security guards followed us, and those who remained in the cars started and remain
"I thought you would never see me again," my mother grumbled, like an eighty-year-old lady and embittered with life. She was lying down, with a sheet covering her lower body, and her hair so armed that she seemed to have just woken up. "I've been knowing that you're recovering very well at Hanson's house. I'm happy about that, baby.”"Be happy, but I barely get there and you already want to curse me," I complained with a giggle.My mother snorted and threw a pillow at me, which just hit the wall and fell. Fred was in the living room with Raphael. He had given us that privacy because he didn't want my mother to curse and curse him in the corners. Apparently, he had already endured a lot of that in the months of my disappearance and in the weeks of recovery. Now he was much more preferring to stand in front of the man he trusted the least, than to face my mother.The security guards still took almost an entire street to park and check the surroundings. Tyler and Donovan were the only on
"Honestly, I don't even know why the fuck I invent to ask for help from any of you! "Med Maddie shouted, even before Becca and I passed through the door of the little room where she was being kept to have testimony collected. The police station was in full uproar, and they were even more when they saw me entering through the door with a fleet of security guards. "I've been calling since early in the morning, when I was entitled to a phone call. I've just been calling for hours and no one answers me. Everyone refuses, everyone drops it in the fucking mailbox, and no one helps me! I'm being kept in this horrible place, and you guys are playing house.”"Maddie, keep calm," I asked in a harsh tone, because Becca shrank when she saw Maddie in that state. She wasn't used to my sister's new personality type, which looked like a caged Pitbull most of the time. "If you keep screaming like that, Detective Stuart won't allow this conversation.”Madeleine laughed out loud, hysterical. She was sit
"Stop talking to her like this, Madeleine," I spoke harshly, keeping my hand against my sister's shoulder. "Becca is not to blame for you frustrations.”Madeleine laughed loudly, looking so upset that I would say she could very well have drunk for hours before being arrested. Or she was so exhausted last night in jail, that she didn't even know what her true personality was anymore. Becca, however, did not seem shaken by Maddie's harsh and cold words. Deep down, she understood that stress was dominating my sister, and that under normal conditions, she would never want that.Not only because Becca was who she was, but because she understood what had happened, and would not wish it for any other woman. Anyway, the simple fact that she said that made the mood in that small room unpalatable. Even the policeman at the door exalted himself, looking from Maddie at Becca, not knowing if he would need to call reinforcements or expel us from the place."I'm upset, Fred," said Madeleine, raising
"I already said I didn't know Rebecca Smith," said Elide, looking exhausted, but still with that air of superiority when talking to one of the police officers in front of her. She was wearing a totally white outfit, which highlighted her blonde hair stuck in a bun. But what really caught the eye was his skin tone. We were informed that Elide had been found on an island in Miami, while all the chaos was happening in Seattle. She was perfectly tanned. "We never met before the charity party that the Hanson family had given. The whole high society was invited, and it was only there that I learned that the two had resumed the relationship. As far as I was aware of the situation, in Fred's own words, he had ruined everything and didn't know how to fix it.”"And what was your orientation in the face of Mr. Hanson's outburst? "Asked the lower police officer, sitting to the left of Elide.The cynical woman shrugged, as if the subject didn't even matter to her. In fact, it seemed that Elide was
"Now, now" Elide sneed, opening a viper's smile, in that way that only she knew how to make anyone's bones freeze. "I was waiting for your visit, but not here in an interrogation room, Fred.”I pulled a chair and put it in front of it, away from the table. Elide didn't disguise it at all by watching me from head to toe. Her little smile said a lot about her approving what she was seeing. But I knew I judged myself internally by the loss of weight and muscles. She knew very well what had allowed to happen to me and Rebecca in that accident, even so, she made no point of showing remorse or guilt."It wasn't my intention to visit you," I disappeared without softness. "But since you don't want to cooperate with the police, I thought it would be necessary to intervene.”Elide giggled."Oh, Fred, I've already said everything I could have said. I can't stand talking and talking anymore. I would much rather be lying on my beach chair, watching the sun and the waves.”"And why did you let your
I had woken up all sweaty and panting. I had had a nightmare like that.I found myself again in that terrible basement, and the smell was so putrid that my nose burned. The men who tortured me had faces. They were well-known men. Some good, others naturally bad. And they knew me too. They smiled when they tortured me, they screamed and laughed. And I, sitting in that chair, just wanted them to be fast, because I needed to sleep and wake up in a good place.There were days when nightmares didn't happen, but lately, they were constant. So, when I woke up in panic, I didn't need to count my fingers. I simply looked out the window and saw the landscape moving, felt the soft swing of the bed, and looked in the direction of the portraits that were glued to the walls so as not to run the risk of falling. I saw the child smiling with teeth still being born, with blond hair fluttering through the wind, and eyes similar to his father's. So I knew I wasn't dreaming.That day, I got up and looked
When I finally got to the hospital, I learned that even Tyler was fine. My mother was in a panic, but taking care of Madeleine, who seemed to be a reality show star who had just had one night like that. Raphael was with Becca's mother, because his family was still on their way to Seattle. Meanwhile, whether she wanted to or not, Rebecca was only accompanied by Pauline. My cousin's girlfriend left the room when I arrived, throwing me what seemed to be her first look of pleasure. I was surprised, but I thought it was just an effect of the madness of that day.“How are you? “I asked Rebecca.She was sitting on the bed, with her hands crossed on her lap and staring at the emptiness."I'm fine, just trying to absorb.”"Do you want to know his reasons? “I asked.Becca denied it with her head."I know they will never be enough. I've never done anything against him. And I should never have gone through what I went through.”Becca's voice became trembling at the end of her sentence, and I felt
Madeleine and Raphael were really at the place where Finley had sent me, but unfortunately the damn Donovan had set traps around the place. That day seemed to be the day I would die, or that the son of a bitch planned to be my end, but it wasn't. Luckily, or perhaps because they got tired of being incompetent, the police did their job of protecting me before I reached the destination that was supposed to be my end.As they found me, it would take me a while to know that it was because Mark was tracking me clandestinely. The damn investigator was suspicious of my steps "he still had that ridiculous idea that me or my sister were behind Joana's murder and trying to cover everything up," and that's what ensured that he would send a car to the scene. But I found out about the bombs in the worst possible way, watching the death of more innocents.If he were put on a paper, that day, Donovan would take at least a life sentence for the amount of deaths he had caused. In fact, it was those de
"Why are you doing this? "I asked in desperation, knowing that my voice would come out absurdly loud on the phone. "Madeleine never did anything against anyone. Raphael doesn't deserve any of this. If you want me, come pick me up.”“Oh, no, dog. I can't. Did you forget that you put me in jail? "He made fun of him, giggling. "And don't do so much drama, you just have to choose a name, and then it ends. At least that part, since I have some surprises for you after that.”"How the hell are you calling me if you're still stuck?”"I have some privileges.”"And how are you planning things if you can't get out of there?”"I'm still just the spokesman, dog," he said, looking so comfortable on the phone, that I swore I would be sitting with my legs up, and not in a police phone booth. It was outrageous that he had time for that kind of thing. I was outraged, but I couldn't prove it. "And I'm calling so you can decide which of your close friends should survive. Think about it, I could very well
"Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on here? "I besieged no one in particular, and I didn't even have an answer, because everyone was giving priority to surround me and try to take me safely to the car. Unfortunately, many of my security guards were being hit at that act. Everything to keep me alive, because the intention of the men who opened fire on us was simply to kill me. "How could this be happening?”"Stay behind me, boss," Tyler asked, shooting mercilessly at men who didn't even bother to wear masks, since they were really planning to end my life that day. "We were betrayed in some way.”Betrayed because only my team knew where I was going or coming throughout my day, and that team was carefully chosen to maintain the secrecy of my routine. And if those people were linked to my number one enemy, or to the gangs that wanted my blood every day, they were there, then that meant that someone from inside had passed on the news. In the midst of chaos, I felt my cell phone vi
"But how can I have my period normally? "I asked in despair, my eyes could barely see the test lines in Pauline's hand. I leaned even more against the door, ending up sitting on the floor. Suddenly, my stomach seemed not to know what its function was, and I felt extremely nauseous and with blurred views. “Pauline, that can't be true. Fred and I are barely having sex... I mean, we are, but not as often as before. In addition, pain remedies and antibiotics are too strong for a pregnancy to happen. The doctors told me about it in the hospital. In fact, they made it very clear that due to the lack of menstruation, I wouldn't ovulate. That's why Fred and I rely so much on not using any condoms, since I couldn't use the pill either. This is simply impossible to happen.”"But you told me that your period is in a much smaller flow and on irregular days," said Pauline, tilting her head lightly. I hadn't even noticed that she was sitting next to me, staring at the test as if he were the child h
"What is your real doubt? " Pauline asked, separating my medicines by schedules inside plastic coconuts."Well, I have several, especially about this virus," I explained after a long sigh. "I don't feel well, I had to end the self-defense class earlier today. I just wanted to lie down and be silent for as long as possible, but someone is always coming in to know how I am and if I'm still alive. I don't want to do anything in my life today. I think this is a very serious symptom.”Pauline laughed, moving away from the nightstand where she had put the medicines of the day. She only offered me a glass of water and baking soda, because I had complained about a strange feeling in the mouth of her stomach. It wasn't nausea or heartburn, but something so weird that I just wanted to lie down and complain all day.Moura didn't like that I had said I couldn't stand the stride of a full class, and left grumbling with Elijah who didn't know why he put her in situations of training people who didn
August Spencil was the dumbest man I've ever had the displeasure of meeting on the face of the earth.The worst part was knowing that he had some shares of my company and claimed to be a partner, but if everything depended on him, I would be bankrupt before sunset. I didn't know how Maddie had dealt with him in recent months, but I was already planning to buy a new car for her in thanks, because putting up with August was not an easy job for anyone. The man had such big shitty ideas that he couldn't take it seriously."It's just that you're not listening to me, Fred," said August, for what seemed to be the thousandth time. And I wished I wasn't in that car with him, I wished I wasn't going on a two-hour trip with him, and that I didn't have the blessed idea of giving a ride to that asshole. But no matter how big my will was, I couldn't make time come back. "I've already said that Canadians are trying to pass us back. They are almost infiltrating people in our company, just to know wha
The months seemed to pass absurdly quickly. In the blink of an eye, two of them passed by. Two months in which Elide remained trapped and saying that he would only recognize his accomplice if he heard his voice. The men who tortured me kept silent. They did not have lawyers, unlike Elide, who hired only the best of the entire state. Fred was also committed to listening to what Elide had to say, so he continually visited her on the days when the police tried to interrogate her.Meanwhile, my health improved, at least, on the one hand. Around two weeks before, I started to feel tired and with a ringing in my ear that didn't pass at all. I visited medical specialists, and everyone said the same thing: that it was probably something emotional, that there were no infections and no reasons for me to get so upset with that strange sound inside a single ear. The point is that I barely slept at night, and in the morning, I woke up very early to train with Elijah and Moura.Moura was a former s