CARMEN“Run away with you?” I asked Dave, my brows coming together in a frown. “Where could we possibly go?”“Anywhere. Heck, we could even go out of the country. I don’t want to remain like this. I don’t like how close but far apart we are. Just tell me you’ll go with me, please.” He took my hands and gently squeezed them as he looked at me with the same desperation he had looked at me with earlier in the bathroom.“And how would we do that?” I raised my brow.“I have a mature fund. I could pull it out and take us anywhere. It’s more than enough for us to start a new life together.”I do not doubt that Dave had enough money for our survival if we ran away, but the running away part was scary to think about. It had never crossed my mind and, now that Dave brought it up, it didn’t sound so bad an idea, but I knew it wasn’t the best one.I sighed with a nod.“I’ll run away with you…if telling them doesn’t work out,” I gave him my condition.“Telling who?” He knew that I was talking abou
CARMEN“What… What are you talking about? That is absurd.” I frowned and stepped away from Jasper just as the camera clicked and took a picture of us. “Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”Jasper laughed, walking towards the photographer and asking to see the pictures taken of us.“Look at your face,” he laughed, showing me the picture taken of my confused face when he had asked me that question out of the blue.“I’m sorry, Carmen. I just wanted you to make a funny face so that I could have it made into a portrait. It make for an heirloom of sorts. I just saw you staring a little too much, and I know it’s because you miss Kate. I heard you two haven’t really hit it off in a long time.”He said something in a low voice to the photographer, who nodded with a smile and left.“How about I distract Dave for a while and you go talk to your best friend?” he suggested, slinging his arm over my shoulder and pulling me towards Dave and Kate.“No, I don’t think that’s a very good idea. We c
CARMEN“I don’t think I understand.” I shook my head, confused. “What do you mean you didn’t find a video like that?”“It’s not on the phone, Carmen,” he attempted to confirm once more, but I wasn’t buying it. It was just not possible.“But she…” I paused, my mind taking me to a place of near impossibility. “Do you think she deleted it?”Dave sighed, shaking his head. “If she’s using it against you, I don’t imagine that she would have deleted it so soon. Then again, you’re engaged to Jasper. If she has nothing to worry about anymore, maybe she did delete it.”I looked towards my mom. She was going around, hugging people and sharing air kisses. If I tried to test her…“I’m going to get information about it,” I informed Dave, heading for my mother before he could stop me.“Mom,” I said to her just as she was picking up a glass of red wine from the tray of a butler.“Oh, my darling daughter,” she mused, hugging me and laughing. She smelled like coconuts and wine, a contrast that seemed t
CARMEN“We’ll be having a double wedding between Carmen and Jasper with Dave and Kate in one month. The invites will be getting sent out from next week. We would love to see you all there on that special occasion,” Mom announced, and the crowd cheered and clapped.I looked at Jasper, wondering if he knew about all this since he would have talked to his father about it, but his expression was just as confused as mine.“You didn’t know about all of this, did you?” I questioned, just to be sure that I wasn’t being deceived.“This was not what my father and I discussed. We talked about holding it off for a little over four months. I don’t understand. Wait here, I’ll go talk to him—”“I’m coming with you,” I interrupted him, walking with him to where Frank stood, accepting the congratulatory greetings from whoever would give them to him. It took a while of us waiting in line with the people who wanted to say a thing or two to even reach him.“Dad, what is this?” Jasper asked his father wit
CARMENBefore I could comprehend the heaviness of what this person had just said to me and how to handle the situation, the person hung up, and a text which said the exact things that the man over the phone had said popped up on my screen.My eyes skimmed over the text I had just received from an unknown number, wondering if my brain was starting to make things up.I looked behind me to see my mother and Dave – the only people who knew about the incident. They couldn’t have possibly sent the text; I was with them.A floating bar showed on the bottom of the screen; a sure sign that the person behind the unknown number was typing. Then, another text came in.‘I’m quite curious, though; why did you do it? Why did you kill him?’I gasped, my hand going up to cover my mouth.Someone else knew, and it was either because my mother had told them about it, or they had found out about it coincidentally.‘Who are you?’ I texted frantically, sending it and biting my nails nervously.“This is bad.
CARMENMy stomach turned, and I felt all of the wine and the small bits of food I had taken that evening travelling up my throat as I stared at the picture that was taken of me by someone I had to regard as a danger and a threat.“You look shaken up,” Dave said as he approached me, causing me to almost jump out of my skin in fear as I hugged my phone close to my chest.“Dave, I’m in big trouble,” I announced, walking towards a less crowded area of the room as he followed closely.“What’s wrong? Is it the wedding? Our parents are already considering moving the date, so—”“Someone texted me. He has the video that we have been looking for,” I said, cutting him off.Dave creased his brows in a frown of confusion. “What do you mean? I thought your mom had the video. Why would someone else have it?”“I don’t know. I don’t know if she’s in on it with him, but it doesn’t seem like it. He threatened me, Dave. How could she have trusted a stranger with a video like that? Do you think I should c
CARMEN“You’re the blackmailer?” I stood in place, not sure whether to walk forward or turn around and leave. “But… You saw the video.”I shook my head in disbelief as I was starting to piece it all together.“When you said you didn’t find the video on my mom’s phone, you lied about that?” I asked him, waiting for his confirmation even though I already knew what the answer would be.“Hold on, Carmen.” He walked towards the boarded-up windows of the house, peeking through a small opening. “You brought your mom?”“Of course, I brought my mom, Dave! I was genuinely scared for my life, and I had to tell her about it. Couldn’t you have approached me and just told me that you wanted to see me in a place like this?”“That was supposed to be a part of the plan. I had to get a voice-changing app to call you. I wanted you to tell your mom about it, but I wasn’t expecting her to come with you. Come with me.” He took my hand, leading me into the kitchen area of the abandoned house. There was a si
CARMENI followed behind my mother and the worker who was leading her to the master bedroom, where Steve was.“The doctor said his health should have been bad for so long for it to get to the stage that he’s in now,” the worker informed us, opening the door to the master bedroom.Steve Wilmer lay in bed, an IV hooked to his arm, his eyes closed and his breaths shallow and unstable. A doctor stood over him, injecting even more liquids into his IV bag. The worker left us in the privacy of the room.“What happened to him?” Mom asked the doctor, who only picked up a piece of paper and started to take notes.“You’re Mrs. Wilmer, correct?” He raised his eyebrows.“Correct.” Mom confirmed with a nod.“And your husband, has he ever complained about any pains lately – heartaches to be specific? Any dizziness? Difficulty in breathing, perhaps?”“Steve has never complained to me about a thing. If anything, he’s the healthiest person around. He would tell me if he had a problem with his health. H
CARMEN“Are you sure about this? Maybe you heard him wrong the first time. Besides, I just got out of prison. I highly doubt that he’ll want to get to see me just yet,” I said to Dave as we slowly walked towards the front door of his father’s house.“You just have to relax for me, Carmen,” Dave said, placing a hand on my lower back. “I didn’t hear him wrong. He clearly said it after his divorce with your mom that he would feel better about giving us his blessing now that he’s not married to her.”We got into the living room, where Steve sat with his legs crossed as he took note of something from a piece of paper.“Dad, look who’s here,” Dave called for his attention, making him look up at us and stand up to give me a good look. I almost laughed at his reaction, but I was too consumed by nervousness to make a sound.“Carmen, what… Come here, my sweet child,” he said, walking towards me and meeting me halfway with a hug.“What happened to you?!” he asked as he pulled away from the hug a
CARMEN“How may I help you?” the woman who stood at the doorway asked me, and I had half a mind to apologize and tell her I had the wrong house before walking away, but I decided to stay instead.“Is Dave home?” I asked.“Mr. Wilmer is home, but he didn’t tell me he was expecting anyone,” she answered, looking down at my hands which held the small box where the wristwatch was. “You can tell me your name, so I can go tell him—”“You really don’t have to,” I said, stopping her from walking back in. “Just let me in, please. I have something important to talk to him about.”“I understand that you probably know him, but I don’t want to get into any trouble. It’s my first day at work, and I don’t want to mess this up.”“You won’t,” I assured her. “You just have to trust me.”It took a moment of hesitation before she finally sighed and stepped aside for me to walk in.I glanced at the little girl she had in her hand with a smile on my face as I got to see just how much she looked like Kate.
CARMEN“Did you tell anyone? I told you not to tell anyone. Did you tell anyone?” I blurted to Evan as I found him standing and waiting for me on the day of my release.“Relax, Carmen,” he laughed. “I only told them that I was coming to check up on you. Why don’t you want them to know that you’re being released, anyway? Are you planning to live as far away as possible without them knowing?”“No,” I answered. “I just… I didn’t want them standing out here and waiting for me to come out. I still need to prepare myself for everything. It’s been a long three years, and I don’t know how they’re going to react.”“I’m sure all this is not what they’re thinking about right now. Trust me when I say that those people will wait for ten years if they have to,” he informed me.As much as it was assurance enough to hear those words from Evan, it didn’t make my heart beat any slower than the speed at which it was going.“Thank you for going through the stress of picking me up, by the way,” I told him
CARMEN“Cartier!”I flinched when I heard my last name being called by the prison guard as she stopped in front of the cell I shared with two other women – Reese and Naomi.She chewed her gum aggressively, using her baton to hit the cell bars, as she watched me so intently that I almost started to dig a hole to hide myself in.“You have been here for a while now, Carmen. It’s time you took the bull by the horns. Don’t let people like her intimidate you,” Naomi said, giving me an encouraging pat on the back to approach the prison guard and ask her what her deal was and why she was calling me.“What…what’s the matter?” I questioned, looking down at my feet to avoid making eye contact with the woman.“Are you ready for your board hearing today?” she asked me, leaning against the bars with folded arms.“I think so,” I said with a nod.“Well, then.” She sighed and took out the key to the bars, opening it for me to step out.“Good luck, Carmen! I’ve had two board hearings so far that have n
CARMENEvan was now standing in front of me with a silent reminder for me to keep my chin up and that I would be fine after the trial, but it was getting harder to do so.After the prosecutor finished asking me questions, I started to feel as if every answer that I had given had dug me into a hole that I would not be able to come out of.“When the victim was making those moves towards you, you called out for your mother, didn’t you?” he asked.“I did.”“Well, to demonstrate just how far her voice must have reached when she called out to her mother, we tested it. I called out to different sound experts to the house, and I was asked to stay in the farthest room from the kitchen. At 70 decibels, I could hear someone calling out to me from that room.”“From the footages gotten from the security cameras around the house, Mrs. Wilmer was not even in the farthest room to the kitchen. In fact, at the same time that Ms. Cartier is seen shouting for her mother’s help in the kitchen, we can see
CARMENMy mother stared at Evan with a shocked expression on her face as he submitted a flash drive to the judge as evidence.“The house where you left after you got married to Mr. Wilmer had a lot of security cameras, which Mrs. Wilmer here may have forgotten about when she slipped into the kitchen and put about ten pills of aphrodisiac into the victim’s drink,” Evan explained as the video on the drive was played for the whole courtroom to see.I had not thought that Evan would work that hard and go that far to get evidence, but he did. Was that why he had been working with my father the whole time? Even I didn’t know about that.“If we watch further, we can see that there was no complete and direct contact between my client and the victim that they were involved in any sexual discussions with each other. To further prove that an aphrodisiac was used in this footage, we have receipts from the pharmacy that she bought them from that week.”“Do the prosecutors have anything to add to t
CARMENDave and I shared a look of disappointment, and I could see that he had made up his mind to be with me no matter what his father said, but that didn’t stop me from feeling bad.“This whole thing between Bianca and I is not close to being over, and I believe she’s going to raise hell before everything is finalized. I have all of that in mind, and I don’t want anything to distract me just yet. Perhaps, after the divorce, we can revisit this talk,” Steve explained.I completely understood why he didn’t agree to the whole thing, but that didn’t mean I was not hurt by it.“You can take all the time you need to think about it,” I encouraged. “We wouldn’t want to put you under any kind of pressure.”“Carmen and I have something important to discuss. Thank you for giving us your honesty, father,” Dave told him as he took my hand and led me out of the room as he asked me, “Which of the bedrooms is yours?”“Here.” I took the lead from him and opened the door to my room, slamming it shut
CARMENBefore Dave could take me into the room where his father was staying, I pulled him back. I tried my hardest to hide my annoyance from him, but I could feel it coming off in waves, and I was certain that he could tell as well.“Is something wrong?” he questioned, and I raised my brow at that.“I should be asking you that question, Dave. I know you’re mad at me, and you should be mad at me for what I hid from you, but you haven’t spoken to me in a week. We can’t just leave things hanging and go in there to tell your father about us.”“I know, Carmen. We have a lot of talking to do, and I do have a lot of apologies as well, but I don’t want to prolong this. The more we keep him the dark, the less likely he is to be happy about the news. We can talk about everything else that we haven’t talked about during the week after.”“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked. “With everything that my mother must have planted in your mind against me—”“She planted nothing in my mind against
CÀRMEN“What…what are you doing here?” I asked, looking around to see if I could find out if someone else came with him – perhaps Kate or his father.“I wanted to talk to you about everything,” he said.“There’s nothing to talk about. We’re divorced,” I replied, wanting to turn around when he grabbed me by the wrist.“What are you doing?” Dad asked, finally bringing Jasper’s attention towards himself.“Who are…” Jasper trailed off as recognition grew in his eyes, and he took steps back as be looked between me and my father.“You’re… You’re her father,” he noted. “They said you were dead.”“If she doesn’t want to talk to you, don’t you think you should take a hint and leave her alone?” Dad asked him, ignoring his shock and refusing to give him any explanation.“I just wanted to have a short and important talk with her about something, that’s all,” Jasper defended.“Excuse us,” I told Dad, a little curious to know what Jasper wanted to say even after we had legally gone our separate way