"How's the meeting?" Zech asked me with a smile as he entered my workshop room.I dropped what I read, one of the books of Leonard Goldberg’s Daughter of Sherlock Holmes, I turned my back on him."Good! They believe the lie I told. And I'm part of them," I replied, then returned my eyes to the pages of the book I am reading."That's good; they're impressed by what you said, regarding all is fair in love and war," he slowly said the last line.I heard his footsteps approaching me and sat in the chair opposite me. The witty smile was on his face.Then I chuckled when I remembered that I said it. "Isn't that nice? I just now remembered that I said that. Anyway, why are you here?"He leaned back in his chair. "Let's choose a wedding cake today along with our wedding planner."I looked up at him. "Do you know who killed Jackson?" I stare in his face that he knows who but wonder registered there."He died?" his voice rose slightly. So, he doesn't know. I eye him suspiciously, and it seemed
"Are you sure?" I asked him because it's hard to believe that Miguel Karmi killed Jackson. From the information I got, they called and treated each other like brothers. It's impossible. What might be the reason to kill him? I straightened my sitting position and met the gaze of Zech standing at the left corner of the square table of my working table."I'm sure, here's what I got," he handed me a flash drive.It's an ordinary flash drive, and I snatched it, felt the metal's warmth, and immediately plugged the flash drive into the USB port. Only one video was there. I clicked to play the video. And it's CCTV footage. A few minutes, exactly 10 minutes into the video, Miguel, and Jackson arrived; they talked seriously until they were fighting. There's no sound, so their actions showed both were angry. They seem to be in a port. The two were a few meters away on CCTV, and they didn’t seem to notice it was there above them. And what followed was Miguel shooting Jackson unexpectedly, the fac
I clutched the door of my pad, and it seems I drank a lot. Good and Mr. Javinas brought me home. I couldn’t help but smile because of the information I got. And also, I failed to get information on who their big boss was. Soon I'll know.I pressed the number pad for the password. Frustration rose in my blood when I hit the password wrong. Who changed the password? I have a hard time maintaining my stand, placing my hand on the side of the door to prevent me from falling. I wanted to sleep, my body was too tired, and my surroundings started to spin. How good I acted like I can't quickly get drunk. Next time, I will refuse to drink, but the duchess does not object to that. The part that was hard to act.I didn’t expect the door to open, and I let my body fall and was about to kiss my face on the floor as well as my body when Zech grabbed me on both shoulders. It's his idea about duchess, how does he know her? I wanted to ask him about it before, but it disappeared from my mind.I smiled
My uber taxi stopped in front of a two-story building house with a red slanting roof and a balcony on the right side, seeing various hanging plants on the porch. I am not expecting her to live in this grand house alone. Did she have a family? She kept her private life a secret, and no one got any information about her real identity; that's how good she was. I was about to ring the doorbell when the gate suddenly opened; an older woman wearing a simple dress stared at me, eyeing me from head to toe and nodded."She's been waiting for you for a while; follow me," the woman said to me immediately.I followed inside the house until we reached a room at the end. She opened it effortlessly. The first thing I noticed was a beautiful woman doing yo-yoga in the middle of the room. She stopped bending backwards when she saw me and giving me a wide smile."You can leave us now," she politely said to the woman who left immediately and closed the door."Long time no see, Pigeon," she greeted and a
I slowly opened my eyes, and my vision was spinning. Where am I? I looked around me, noticing the window a few meters away from me. It was made of grills.My breath was ragged, I tried to touch my face, but only now I felt my hands tied to the back of the wooden chair I was sitting on. And my mouth was taped. Even if I try to shout, I can’t.Even my two feet were tied to both feet of the chair, barefoot. I looked around, but I could see pure white walls surrounded me, nothing else. Where am I? I tried to untie my hands, but I was the only one hurt by what I was doing, and I gave up when I feel the pain in my wrist. It didn’t seem like they were casually tying my hands.What do they want from me?Anger and worry welled up in me as I remembered what the man had done to Athiya. Please, God, that Athiya was fine. I prevent myself from crying and being emotional. It's not time for me to be weak. I need to get out of here.Think self!I was then hearing the door opened and steps coming from
Zech threw the phone loudly at the wall after the naughty Maverick called him."Relax, Zech," Cailon butt in, sitting on the couch of his office.He sat in the seat he had been sitting in before the man called, facing Cailon. When his sister Athiya called that she was in the hospital, and a man took Queenie he didn’t expect that to happen. His Mama was furious that she went to the office earlier when she found out what had happened. And his mom even threatened her that if he couldn’t get his fiancée home safely, her mom would tell her dad what he was doing behind him. The secret he kept from his father.Of course, He'll do everything to save her. This was how Maverick wants to pay him. His hands clasped as he took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch.The fake wedding of the two of them with Queenie should be tomorrow, which was according to his plan, and now trouble came. Dad will not give him the position as the company's CEO if he knows what happened and the wedding was postp
I was surprised to open the door, even though I wanted to look behind me, I couldn’t. Who are they? In the heavy footsteps, three men entered the room. I could not understand what they were saying.I looked at the three in front of the corpse, they were talking, and in one’s voice, it was angry as if he was going to do something he didn’t want to do. The three were wearing black leather jackets and jeans, with a red hood on the head, another tied up its long curly hair, and the other had a large tattoo on the face of a tiger. The two were tall and massive. Only one was black African, and two were ItalianThey talked for a few minutes before the black African looked at me and motioned for one to approach me. What will they do? I felt like an innocent child staring at them as the two of them came to me."We will tie you to get you out here, bring you to another place, the boss said," said the man with the tattoo on his face."Just don't do anything. You can't escape us. Just follow what
It was as if I was a rice that had been thrown inside the van again, my head hitting the side of the seat. And Maverick violently closed the door. I stood on the floor, I wanted to touch my forehead that looked like a lump, but my hand was behind me. I will not cry. I can handle this too.I straightened up, and my treacherous tears came out of my eyes. You unfaithful tears, why are you excited to come out? The man operated the vehicle. Where are his companions?I looked back, and just now, I noticed the African on the ground, bloody head. This guy slew the poor man! Pity and anger haunted me. Compassion for the African teenager and anger at the man driving. How could he kill his men? How could he? Doesn’t he think of the families of those he killed? What if he still has children? Waiting for their father to come home, they didn't know he was dead. What if that african’s mother is waiting for her son? Isn’t how painful it is for a mother to lose a child?I looked at the tattoo on the m
The snow fell gently, blanketing the ground as I trudged through it, a basket of lilacs clutched in my hand. Each step felt heavier than the last as I made my way to Theoren's grave.It had been a week since the tragic incident, and the headlines had finally brought some semblance of justice. It wasn't just an accident, as the truth had been revealed, bringing closure not only to my friends' deaths but also to Theoren's.Yet, despite the passage of time, I still couldn't wrap my head around how Maverick could have done such a thing. The CCTV footage I'd seen didn't seem to match up, but Zech had explained that the police hadn't shown the actual footage. Jackson wasn't the culprit behind my friends' deaths; he'd merely played a part in the events. Why, Zech hadn't disclosed. And Jackson wasn't deceased, as they'd made it seem. It was all a setup.As I approached the grave, the chill in the air seemed to seep into my bones despite my thick attire. It was my fifth visit, and the flowers
I raised the handgun, pointing at him, and a wicked smile appeared on his countenance, and those eyes with no soul on them eyed me. “Vara Samonte...” he mumbled my name, hearing his graveyard voice, seeping a chill in my entire body. There's nothing he was holding, and his arm crossed. “You fool me once but not twice. But how smart are you, Vara, such a nice name in your fake identity. I thought you were the Duchess, but then, someone came to me and told me you were not her. I hated a liar,” he shook his head, and he tilted his head on the left side. “Upon knowing you and Zech, there is something wrong in here. What will he feel seeing your lifeless body covered in blood? How I enjoy seeing the light of him fade. Such a pretty face, perfect family, and perfect life have you ever thought about it?” I don’t know why he says those, but does it benefit him? “Killing me? I am not letting you do that to me, Deathwish. Don't you think you are ahead of me? I suppose you might be wrong. I
I looked up and stopped eating the soup. I lower the soap spoon I am holding. "Do you mean he brought the information of who did it?"Zech nodded, and hope seemed to fill my heart. "What time?""Exactly 2 pm," he replied."I'll be doing Karmi's favor at that time," I exclaimed. "But he can stay until five, right?"He nodded without even glancing at me. What is he doing on the phone, and there is his gaze focused? I forcefully dismiss what happened last night. I need to forget it."I won't follow any man to you, Vara, and if you went home safely, then Catherine won't be overlooking you anymore."I continued to eat. "That's good to know," I just said, and the silence and the awkwardness between us resounded again."Are you alright?" he broke the silence as I finished eating. I took the croissant and bit into it.“Yep,” I replied. "Are you?" I throw the question to him.He just nodded. "When you talk about last night, then, let's just forget it."I just nodded.“Don't you have anything t
I woke up to the sound of my phone ringtone. With my eyes closed, I groped the phone on the nightstand, and when I touched the phone, I immediately answered the call without even looking at who it was.“Hello,” I tried to sound like I was not awakened from a deep slumber.“Miss Vara, I need your help,” a raspy and deep voice of a man in the line. My eyes widened, and I lifted up the phone from my ear to see who was calling.It's Miguel Karmi. Did he call me early this morning asking for help? What a miracle, and he called me. His voice was full of concern and trouble. Why is it?"Yeah, sure, what's that?" I answered, pressing back the phone in my ear.I got up from lying down, and I realized the time on my phone. 11:47 am? Did I see it right? I looked again and covered my mouth so I wouldn't scream in panic.I clicked the speaker on and went to my messages. There's an email from Mr. Javinas asking it's time. It's Pigeon time to hack the system. I sighed as I got out of bed, holding th
I went down to see who was ringing the doorbell to find out it was food delivery, and the delivery man told me Zech couldn't come home because of an urgent business meeting.I waited for him until ten at night, and I ended up eating alone when the clock struck 11, and he was not home. Maybe he wants to be alone, so perhaps he doesn’t want to face me first.When I couldn’t sleep, I decided to dive into the internet and read the news of Football captain Theoren Consenza. I browsed his picture on the internet to see if he had changed. The man had a clean-shaven face but his picture, I am seeing him he had a beard which pleased him well. Why didn't I find him? I am one of the lists of not a fan of those sports, but I never thought he would tell me that he would be the best football player in the future. Why didn’t I ever think of that? He achieved one of his life goals, but I was not there to be proud of him and support him.I watched myself watching his video interview clips, closing my
At first, I thought it was easy to forget a friend like a brother to me, and it was easy on the brain but difficult when you are going to do it. He's the keeper of my secret and the world I should never take, but I did. I tried to find him, so I stumbled upon one of the Duchess’s members, but it was very vague. He left no traces for him that I could not even find him. He left me in the one thread of hope that someday I would see him and did my best to beat him in hacking. Maybe, when he knows, he’ll be proud of me, and he’ll show up to me suddenly like the way he’s gone.But it never happened.I blinked away the tears that would fall in my eyes. I miss my friends, and I miss him so much.“Maybe this isn’t the right time to tell you, Queenie. Yes, you are right, I am that nerd guy you never dare to look at,” he stated firmly, with a bad feeling, or maybe I just understood it differently.He's right; I know him as Theoren's college friend. But, the size of him changes, so maybe I didn’t
"So you can't really find the Duchess?" I bit the nail of my right thumb as I paced back and forth in the living room.It's early in the morning, and that's the news he'll tell me. Yesterday I tried to trace him, but I remembered then that he used to use a phone and not the one he uses now—even CCTV of the airport and even the seaport. I haven’t seen a single image of the Duchess riding at all.But she can use a private plane. However, there's a CCTV area in every airport for those who use private aircraft. She decided to be far away, in a place where she could not be seen. But that was sudden. She didn’t even tell me.“Those people I know did their best. But Aunt Leonore was nowhere to be found,” he added.I stopped and faced him sitting on the couch, one of his arms at the upper of the backrest of the couch, leaning his back, and the other one tapping on his lap, like a piano chord forming his fingers as he tapped. Is that Clair de Lune? I don’t know much about piano other than the
What does Mr. Javinas mean? He didn’t answer me, and it was as if he was testing me with that question. Is Jackson dead? The police will not lie or make a mistake with the body, and Zech confirmed it.I stared at the computer screen; I was at the edge of the CyberCafe internet, to the part that I would overlook. Everyone here at this time was a teenager, and I didn’t notice an adult other than the caretaker.I leaned on the seat while waiting for Mr. Javinas to click the document I sent, not knowing that once he clicked and opened it, I could go through his laptop system.I tapped my lower lip while waiting. Maybe he thought I wouldn't notice that he was hiding something from me. Trust? A man like him doesn't trust anyone but themselves. Too bad we were the same. Trusting is a thing you can't bestow to anyone unless you earn it.I arranged to sit down when I got a notification on my phone. I plugged in the phone using the USB port cable, and through the link I gave, I copied the app I
I entered the restaurant what Mr. Javinas told me in his message, and I wore the same clothes when I arrived in Paris. I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful place, it’s classic and modern in two, and there's a square table on my left and on the right the round one covered in an article of white clothing. Only a few people were present, and the beautiful music added to the appetite of the place.I found Mr. Javinas, who stood up from one of the tables near the glass windows and approached me. He wore an aquamarine turtleneck sweater paired with brown-black trousers and boots that better suit the man.“I am pleased that you are here; shall we sit?” he asked when he got closer.As we sat at the round table, the waiter came with the menu. I looked at the menu for a moment and said to him my order, braised ox cheek in red wine and the same to Mr. Javinas.“I thought you were with Mr. Vakhram?” I asked when the waiter left. I was blown away by the painting on the wall, people in Victorian