The sound of the gun going off makes me close my eyes instinctively.“What the hell?!” Chad asks loudly as he enters the house running.I finally open my eyes and I see confetti flying around me. It was not a real gun, it was a confetti one.But that sure looked like it could blow my head off. “You should have seen the look on your face!” Naomi says loudly as she doubles over with laughter.“Not funny, Naomi.” Chad says, and he walks purposefully to his ex girlfriend.When he reaches her, he takes the gun out of her hands and throws it on the ground.“Now, what’s all this about?” He asks her, and she tries to catch her breath due to how much she was laughing.“Isn’t it obvious?” She says as she waves her hand around. Chad and I both look at her blankly.“Come on guys, didn’t the confetti gave it away?” She adds.“Look here..” I begin to say as I walk close to her. When I’m close enough that I’m only a few inches away from her, I lock eyes with her.
Chad snickers and I smack him behind his head.Believe me, I’m annoyed that this Russell guy just said that! But I placed myself in this kind of position.“Sir..” I say his name with a sigh.“Let me have the contract.” I persist.The line goes silent for a while and Chad looks at me. “Is the call still on?” I whisper to him, and he nods.As I am about to speak, Russel finally begins to talk.“Okay, Jen. What I can help you do is to give you a preposition. As I said, this is a delicate mission and I want the job done professionally.” He explains with poise.“I will not withdraw the contract from Naomi..” He begins and I sigh in frustration.Russell hears my sigh and speaks, “Hold up, hold up. I’m not done.”“I will include you, meaning that you and Naomi will either have to work together or work apart, but with the same endgame, which is killing the Lieutenant.” He clarifies.That doesn’t sound so bad. Being a part of the contract is better than not
“I know, I know.” He says as he walks past me and into the kitchen. He looks ridiculous with his white shirt tied around his waist like a towel.“Don’t you ‘I know’ me.” I say as I follow him into the kitchen.He has gotten an empty glass and he is filling it up in the sink.“How dare you bring her in my house?” I ask him as I try my best not to yell or raise my voice.After Chad fills his glass, he drinks the entire content of it and then places the glass down on the countertop.“Jen...please don’t make this a big deal. I don’t say anything about Mr. CEO that comes here.” He replies me and I raise my eyebrows.Is he for real? “Are you seriously comparing Robert to Naomi?!” My voice booms in the kitchen loudly.“You don’t need to raise your voice.” He says and I scoff.“I am not raising my voice!” I say even louder this time, wholly contradicting myself.He runs his hand on his face and then lets out a sigh.“I’m sorry, okay?” He finally says what h
“No, you can’t die on me. Wake up, Chad.” I say as I sob. I shake his body, but he seems lifeless.There is so much blood pouring from his head that I don’t even see the wound.“Ma’am, are you okay?” I hear someone’s voice call from the side of the car.The car isn’t too banged up, for it only climbed up the sidewalk and almost hit the entrance of a small cafe.There may only be scratches and scrapes on the paint job.“Can you hear me?” The lady asks me again and I finally look to her.She walks towards the door and opens it for me, but then she releases a small gasp when her eyes land on Chad.Her hands fly to her mouth as she looks in shock.“He’s going to be okay, right?” I ask the lady as if she knows.She looks at me with a look of pity and then she extends her hand to me, helping me to get down from the vehicle.I feel so numb. It’s like I’m in a dream and all this isn’t real.“I
I swiftly try to reach for my dagger, realizing with regret that I didn’t wear my leather jacket today.Which means that I am weaponless. “Crap.” I say under my breath.“I said hands where I can see them!” The security guard yells at the top of his lungs.“Now that’s enough.” Everyone turns towards the voice that speaks.It’s my uncle, Charles.“She’s my niece, you guys can get back to work.” He says authoritatively as a small smile lingers on his lips.He looks so glad to see me.I walk towards him with a stony look and the security guards walk past me and enter the elevator.In a couple of seconds, the entire floor is cleared. I am now alone with Charles.“I’m so glad you decided to see me.” He says and I scoff.“You bailed on me concerning my proposal for a dinner.” He starts to say but stops.He then studies my facial expression. It must be the puffiness in my eyes that g
Charles is right. My picture would definitely be placed in the newspaper and on social media by tomorrow.I have to stay low-key. I can’t avenge my best friend if I am thrown in prison or at worse, sentenced to death.“I hear you.” I tell Charles as I nod.“I’m being serious, Jen.” He says as he looks at me. I study his face.He looks truly concerned, but what confuses me is that how could he be? Howcould he be concerned about me when he just met me a few days ago?I know I’m his family and all, but I don’t want to be used as some way for him to redeem himself from the terrible choices he has made in his life.“Charles, you’re not my father.” I tell him with a straight face and he recoils.“What? I never said I was.” He says, and I can tell that he’s hurt by what I said.“I do hear you though, I truly do, but I just need you to back off a bit.” I say. Somehow I feel triggered and images of my
“Don’t look too surprised, miss Davis.” The driver says as he watches me. He seems amused.I gently angle myself back into the car and I close the door. I turn to him with a straight face and he gulps.“How do you know me?” I ask him.“I—I.” He stutters and I click my tongue on my teeth, making a small sound.“Look here, buddy. If you don’t tell me how you know my name, you will not be leaving here alive.” I threaten him and he chuckles nervously.“You’re all over the news.” He says in a matter of fact tone.Something about the way he speaks and his body language tells me that he knows more. “The news was just aired a hour or more ago. I highly doubt that you watched the news in this cab.” I tell him and I can see that he’s getting really nervous.Beads of sweat begins to form on his forehead, causing him to wipe it with the back of his hand.“I can’t do this. It’s Robert, he’s the one.” He says and no
The guard who is known by the name James falls to the ground and instinctively reaches for his nose, which is now leaking blood.It is clearly broken.“James, what the hell?” Robert speaks to him in anger and shock.“Among all the people I hired, you were the one I least expected to do some crap like this!” He adds.His chest heaves up and down as he speaks. Man, he is really angry.I am fully expecting James, the guard to speak but he only gets up from the ground and wipes the blood from his nose with the back of his hand.The same stoic look lingers on his face, but a hint of regret can be seen. Robert walks away from him and walks towards me purposefully. I watch his every step, playing in my head, what he may do when he reaches me.And believe me, I am not scared or nervous a bit.“And you.” He says between his teeth when he reaches me. His fists are balled up and he looks like he is going to burst
My eyes widen and I immediately try to open the door of the moving car so I can jump out but all the doors are locked. Adrenaline floods every part of my body, it is like it is all happening so fast and I have no control.“What are you doing? Stop that! Do you want to get yourself killed?” Russell shouts as Usman increases the speed of the car so jumping out would seem more painful to me if I decide to do so.“Stay the hell away from me!” I reply to him aggressively when he tries to reach out to me and he raises his hands in surrender.“Okay, okay,” He says and then he settles back into his seat.“What the hell is going on?” I ask after a full minute of silence. I am much calmer right now, I was acting out of instinct when I realized that the person that was sitting next to the driver was Russell.How is that even possible? Was he not in an induced coma a few days ago? “Are you finished with trying to jump out of a speeding car just to avoid me?” Russell replies to me and I hear Usma
“Natalie is smart, I will give her that. She had all the video evidence cleared before we could get our hands on it,” Taylor explains and I at everything else in the room but her.“May I ask, who are you professionally?” I ask her, and she smiles lopsidedly.“I work with the police department in Russia, I am the police chief,” She informs me and I nod slowly. “As I was saying, Natalie made the investigation a lot more difficult for us. Her skills in covering evidence are impressive, but I believe that she got some inside help,” Taylor continues what she was explaining.“And?” I beckon her to explain more. If Natalie covered up our tracks so well, how does she know that Natalie did it? That she was the one that pulled the trigger and not me.“I know you want to know how I know that she was the one who pulled the trigger, and I am going to explain just that to you,” Taylor tells me.“Okay,” I drag the word as I wait for her to tell me what she knows.“I am Russell’s third wife and it h
What in the world is happening? Why am I even being arrested? Even if this is about Russell Marshall’s investigation, the person they should be arresting is Natalie, I was not the one that shot the man in the head.“This has to be a joke, right?” Chad laughs but when he sees that the military guys are not even smiling, he realizes that this is serious.I gave the piece of document that they handed to me, I read it quickly and it authorizes them to arrest me, but what I don’t see is the charge.“Your hands, please,” One of the military guards says a bit softly and I do as he says. I place my hands behind my head and I hear Chad scoff.“Do you want us to do something?” The guards that we have at the entrance ask me but I disagree by wagging my head. It would only make things worse, from experience, going peacefully with the authorities is always the best thing to do.“I am calling Robert, and then the lawyer. We would get this settled in no time,” Chad tries to comfort me as he makes a
Yes, we certainly need to talk. I put Jake down from my arms and he protests that he wants to tell me secretly. James, Natalie, and Cara watch my exchange with him with smiles on their faces.“Okay, what is it?” I ask him as he gets close to my ear.“I love you,” He whispers in my ear and I can not help but smile. Some people say having kids is a nightmare, and the truth is that it is at times, but most of the time, it is the greatest joy anyone could have.“Mommy heats you right back,” I reply to him in a whisper, and he giggles before he runs onto James.I stand upright and I bid James and Jake goodbye as I join Natalie and Cara in the living room.“We have a serious hiccup in our plans,” Cara begins when we have all sat down on the couch.“I know,” I reply to her, and Natalie chuckles but I can hear the worry in her voice.“Of course you do, it is all over the news,” She tells me and I stay quiet, not knowing exactly what to say.“So what are doing?” Cara asks no one in particular
“What do you mean that he’s alive?” I ask Robert as he stands to his feet, he looks worried but that is in no way compared to how I feel right now. Gosh, does Natalie know this? I need more information.“Which news channel did you learn that from?” I fire another question at Robert, not giving him the chance to answer the first. “Here, take a look, it is all over social media, and all the big news broadcasters are airing it,” Robert says as he hands his phone to me. The last time I held it was when I found out that he was partially cheating on me.I can not say that he was actually cheating because he did not sleep with Amanda, but he did receive nudes from her and whatnot. In my book, that is cheating, but I am just going to call it partially cheating in light of what Robert and Amanda explained to me.But that is not the issue at hand right now, we have a huge freaking problem. I need to get dressed and let Natalie and Cara know what has happened.I take the phone from Robert and I
Some might say that we are moving a bit too fast, but I have known Robert for close to a year now. Still, it seems like such a limited amount of time to decide to spend your entire life with someone, but why wait any longer?Robert and I have had our fair share of storms and problems, but we have weathered everyone one of them, plus we have a great support system. Chad, James, Carlos, and Jake are sure to be there for us if we happen to begin to feel the storms of life raging again, and of course, we will.The amount of crazy that I have been through individually is insane, my entire life has been far from normal and I am starting to stop wanting normal. Besides, normal is a bit overrated. Marrying someone you have known for only almost a year is not very expected, or should I say, normal? But that is the thing, I am not normal and do not even want to be anymore.“Well?” Robert asks me as I drag my body off the unmade bed. He suggested that we should get married next week after I ment
I can not believe that this just happened, Robert proposed to me! This is amazing and I feel so good, but I also feel like this is too good and I don’t deserve it. But I am just going to sum that up as insecurity trying to present itself in the form of me not being worth it enough to get proposed to.After I said yes, I think Jake was more excited than everyone else. Chad and the others came out soon after and I have a strong feeling that they somehow knew that Robert was going to propose. Robert placed a very expensive ring on my finger and he rose from his kneeling, I placed Jake in the chair where I was sitting and Robert and I embraced. We then shared a kiss and everyone joined Jake as he clapped. As soon as the applause died, the rain ceased gradually and the sun began to shine through the dark clouds. It seemed too perfect that I literally had to pinch myself two times to make sure that I was not dreaming. Good thing I was not, because I would have been so mad at myself.We e
It is usually sunny here, but today is different, and besides, it is a Saturday. I think the weather chose the best time to be like this, I don’t have to drive Jake to school and I get to spend the entire day with him.Yesterday was so eventful, I had to explain all that happened to me in Russia to Robert, James, Carlos, and Chad about three times before they finally could grasp it all. I also had the responsibility of explaining why I have suddenly decided to trust and forgive someone that caused me so much trauma, Cara was quiet when I took my time to make them all understand that I have finally decided to bury the hatchet concerning what she did.I am not going to pretend like I don’t feel a stab of emotional pain when I look at her, but I am going to try my best to move on. I am currently sitting on the porch alone while listening to the beating of the rain on the ground and roof, it is very soothing and I have never felt so relaxed in my life. Everybody else is in the house and
I open the door of the house and I walk in as Cara follows behind me slowly and tentatively. We are out of Russia and in Cyprus, though only Cara came along. Natalie took a later flight because she wanted to come with Susan, her grandmother.It took us a couple of hours to fly from Russia to Cyprus, especially because I did not have my passport on me. Cara had to pull some strings and call in some favors at airport security, and to my pleasant surprise, it all worked out smoothly.“Are you sure that they would want to see me?” I hear Cara’s voice as we walk further into the house. Everything looks pretty much the same, but I don’t see anyone here. “Where is everyone?” I say to myself in a low tone as I continue to explore the house.Suddenly I hear heavy footsteps and I look toward the source, someone is walking down the stairs. As soon as the person's eyes meet mine, they stop in their tracks.“Whoa, am I tripping, or am I seeing Jen Davis?” Chad asks me and he continues his descent