NATEI felt cold to the marrow of my bones. Vivian was in danger. I could not process anything else but this information. I wanted it to not be true so badly that I closed my mind to the possibility, telling myself that there must have been a mix-up somewhere. Surely, Vivian was still in the living room where I had left her. I only had to walk down the stairs and I would see her bent over her laptop, with frown lines on her face alternating between reading two news articles. "What do you mean? Vivian is with me." I said, the doubt in my words evident even to my own ears. "Richard is planning to hurt her. In a very brutal way. Please confirm her location immediately." The voice of the spy I had placed on Richard echoed like a broken tape in my head. He was one of the very few guys I trusted because of his competence and because he was discreet, so I had entrusted the job of tailing and spying on Richard to him and thus far, he had done his money's worth. I did not wait for him t
VIVIANI pulled hard at the skin of my face. It hurt, so I knew I was not dreaming. Richard had been arrested and my mother was really awake. It felt almost too good to be true. Just a few hours ago, my life had been the epitome of anxiety and misery but the tables had turned so quickly and suddenly that I could not put my emotions to words. I let Nate lead me to where I had parked his car, still in a daze. I watched him as he spoke to the members of his security team, barely registering any of the words he said even though he continuously gestured towards me. I was itchy to go and see my mother and hear her voice. I had so many things, to tell her, so many things to do, we had so much to catch up on and the thought of it made my breath catch in my throat. The happiness I felt was not abstract. It was a heavy thing weighing on every vestige of my soul and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had not known it was still possible for me to feel this type of unbridled joy. Nate handed the key
NATEMy head throbbed painfully. I restrained myself from punching the dashboard of my car as I pulled into the driveway of my house. Vivian had made it painfully clear that she wanted nothing to do with me and while I had taken it with a coolheadedness that surprised even me, the reality was starting to dawn on me. I was alone in the car, there was no Vivian to shoot baleful glances at me from the shotgun seat, no Vivian to give me the silent treatment or start a fight about something I might have brushed off as casual. I hated myself for how much levity I treated her with in the past. I had always assumed she would always be by my side, unable to break away, unable to let me go for as long as I wanted at least. Why had I subscribed to put her through so much misery? I had never once in my wildest imagination imagined that I would end up falling head over heels in love with her. There was a time months ago it might have been easier to write this off as an unlucky and unprecede
VIVIANI turned on my bed and almost fell off. My eyes snapped open at once. Bright light was streaming into my room through the window. I sat up on my bed and yawned, taking a moment to really take in my surroundings. My room here was smaller than the one in Nate's mansion but at least I was free of the heartache that came with living in that house. I made my bed quickly while humming a tune under my breath before skipping to the bathroom to shower and wash my teeth. Now that I was pathetically jobless, I needed to work twice as hard or it would only be a matter of time before I tucked my tail between my legs and sought out Nate. The thought was so repulsive that I almost gagged on my toothbrush. I sat in front of my vanity, applying my ten step skin care routine while speaking words of affirmation to myself because a nagging fear kept gnawing at me that I might not be able to do well on my own. Just as I finished applying mascara, my phone buzzed from the pocket of my bathrobe.
VIVIANI could hear the sound of my heart pounding in my rib cage. I snatched my arm off Emily's hands and exhaled heavily. "What the hell, Emily." I breathed out when I had taken in enough air. But she wasn't listening to me. She peered out the corner, her eyes darting from side to side and when she had confirmed it was safe, she collapsed against the wall and took off her hat. Her hair spiralled down to her shoulders from the back of her neck where she had held it loosely. "What is going on?" I pressed, unable to keep the indignation out of my voice.I did not know what to make of the situation as everything had happened so quickly and I had a lot of questions to ask her too but I was too disoriented to even begin to gather my thoughts. "Those men were tailing you." She wet her bottom lip with saliva and looked to the ground. "I was not sure what they were after but I didn't want to take chances." I looked at her. The wounds on her face had lightened considerably but she still
VIVIANI stared blankly at my phone. Nate was calling yet again. How did he not pick up on the underlying nuances in my behavior when I spoke with him the last time? Had he always been this tactless or was he really clinging onto me, trying to wear me out with irritation? I sighed and picked up the phone, reminding myself that even though I did not want to talk, I had at least promised myself to be civil with him henceforth. "Hello." His baritone voice responded almost immediately I picked the call. "Hi." He said. There was a hint of caution in his voice and it puzzled me. Whatever he wanted to talk about must be pretty delicate. I just hoped it had nothing to do with the douchebag presently waiting to rot behind bars. I had made it explicitly clear that I wanted nothing to do with Richard's case moving forward and I was dead serious. It was time to live a life devoid of worries and to do that, I had to cut off the two men who were the biggest orchestrators of my problems. Not
VIVIANMy head throbbed painfully despite the aspirin I had just ingested. My body did not at all feel like mine. My palms were sweaty, my throat dry and my eyes itchy. I did not know what to think, did not even want to think at all. I just felt the irresistible urge to lie on my bed and sleep it all away. These days, it felt like I was being hit by ice stones of trouble every other day. It was either Nate, or Richard, or Emily and it was getting too exhausting for me to act like I was alright inside. I had thought divorcing Nate and moving out of his house would grant me the respite I needed but this far, I'd barely had a moment to exhale. It felt everyday like I was underwater, waiting with bated breath for something, anything to happen. I was simply going through the motions now, paranoid and bored and just essentially uneasy. It was not only sad, it was distressing. I had told myself multiple times that I had finally let go of every toxicity in my life but how could I when my
VIVIANI stood outside the hospital room trying to pace myself. It had only been a few days but it felt like an eternity since I last saw her. The image of her looking lost as she lay on the bed, extremely weak and unable to move filtered through my mind and sent a sharp stab of pain through my heart, I thought I might cry. But I knew I couldn't show my true emotions in front of my mother. I needed to be strong and be excited so she would be happy too. I took in three calming breaths in quick succession before I knocked and opened the door. The sight that greeted me was surprising in a pleasant way. My mother was seated on bed and being fed by a caregiver. She looked up and me with twinkling eyes and my heart melted. A wide smile broke out on my face as I inched closer to the bed. "Hello, good morning." I greeted the caregiver. She was a small woman with a kind face who looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. I had heard stories about caregivers who got violent with