“Remind me why again you want to go to the beach on a Christmas?” Melvin Romero asked as he watched his sister wrap her winter scarf around her neck and pack her hair into a pony tail, before she turned to face him.“Because it’s Christmas, stupid.” Came her response as she bent down and threw on her shoes.He scoffed at her answer. Funny how she was calling him the stupid one when she was the one who woke up around six am and began announcing that she was going to the beach. Obviously their parent’s had thought something was wrong with her sudden determination to go to the beach, on a Christmas. They had tried stopping her, but Leonica was set and after an hour or two of back and forth banter, they gave in, granting her the permission she needed to leave, but with one catch. He as her older brother had to come along.Protection, they called it, since she had also refused to allow any of the guards tag along.“Beaches are for summer, not Christmas, stupid.” He muttered and huffed, ben
Leonica's office buzzed with the hum of fluorescent lights, a stark contrast to the unease settling in her stomach after seeing Owen’s troubled expression."What's going on, Owen?" she inquired, her eyes narrowing with concern. “Talk to me, what’s wrong?” She asked again after he had remained silent for far too long, too long for Leonica’s liking.Taking a deep breath, Owen began, "After Ashley’s birthday party, I had my doubts on the present Angelina gave him, so I had a chat with my friend, the designer of that very same figurine. He testified to a few of the figurines going missing and thought that was all, but I didn’t. From what I saw, Angelina wasn’t the friendliest of person towards you; her acting may have deceived a few people, but not me. So it didn’t make sense for a woman who clearly doesn’t have good intentions towards you to go out of her way, purchase a stolen figurine, all because she wanted to give YOUR kid a present." He paused and stared pointedly at Leonica waiting
Earlier in the day, while the sun still bathed the city in warm hues, Angelina paced the space of her room, chewing on the tip of her nails as she concocted a sinister plan.It had taken a few days, but soon she had Recognized that Leonica must have kept the figurine away from Ashley because till this day, she was yet to hear news concerning Ashley’s life being in danger.In shorter sentences, her plan had failed and she was possibly screwed.“F*ck!” She cursed loudly, kicking her coffee table with her leg. The poor furniture suffered the wrath of her anger and toppled over, transparent gl*ss on the top shattering into small piece the moment it hit the floor, creating a loud bang.In seconds her maids had rushed in, worried for her safety. “Ms. Fernandez, is everything okay?” Her head maid asked as her eyes trailed from the broken coffee table on the floor to her messy wardrobe, broken vanity mirror and toppled over makeup chair.Without another word, she knew exactly what was happeni
“I’m going to send you a location and I want either you or that wh*re mother of his, to meet me there. Alone. If either of you tries to play smart and bring anyone else along, your son will suffer the consequences. Oh, and Gabriel, whatever your choice is going to be, I suggest you hurry up, after all, I’m not the most patient person. You should know this, right?” Angelina said and the last thing Gabriel heard before the line went dead was the sound of her laughter, which he once considered beautiful, sounding like that of the devil's.With the room once again falling into silence, Gabriel was left with his thoughts. They slowly began to spiral, picking up from where it had been left off minutes ago, cursing and blaming himself for the current situation.At some point, he felt like laughing at his very on stupidity. Leonica had seen through the witch's true color, heck, even a whole Megan, someone who wasn't as involved in him and Leonica's life as Anastasia, had seen through her faca
Leonica eyes remained glued to the burning house, frozen shut in place, even after Owen tucked Ashley in the back seat and came back for her, leading her towards the p*ssenger seat and whispering to her that everything was going to be alright and for now, he’d drive she and Ashley some for safety. The moment his hands released her to pull open the door, the spell had broken and the world around her began to make sense again.Owen was about to open the door, intending to lead her in when Leonica’s hand caught his. He turned to look at her with a confused gaze.“What are you doing?” He asked."He's still in there." Came her reply. "He's in there. I'm sure of it." She repeated sternly and broke out of his hold."Leo... Leonica, where are you going." Owen said and chased after her, standing in her path to block her.At times like this, Leonica cursed the fact that the younger boy had somehow grown taller than her."Get out of my way." She demanded."You're not thinking rationally." Owen c
“Mr. Bryce seems to have suffered from a concussion caused by the explosion, resulting in partial amnesia.” Doctor Bailey explained to Leonica as they now stood outside of Gabriel’s hospital ward.After hearing the news, she had rushes to the hospital for more detailed explanation and intake. Upon arriving at the hospital and walking in during one of Gabriel’s physical examination, she was shocked that he didn’t make any effort to speak to her. He had only stared at her like some weird statue and after a while, he said.“I think you’re in the wrong room, Ms.”Three months ago, Leonica would have killed to hear those exact same words and watch Gabriel stare at her with those exact same unfamiliar yet familiar eyes, but that was three months and now was now, the present and hearing those words, pulled at a string in her heart.“Gabriel…” she had begun, still finding it hard to believe Doctor Bailey’s words. For some reason, she believed that Gabriel, the Gabriel she knowns, was just too
The one time Leonica found the most gripping each time she settled down to read her favorite books, were the pin drop moment.Suspense, silence and uncertainty. Those three went pleasant well during that particular moment and made the story all the more interesting and gripping to her as a devoted reader. But heck, she had never for once sat down and thought about how she’d handle such a situation if it was her faced with it, rather than the Mary Sue female leads in the books she read.Thus, a minute after Gabriel had asked the question he did, Leonica still remained silent, unsure of how to answer the question.Who was she to him? Even she wondered, but right now obviously wasn’t the time for her to seat back and indulge herself with the pleasure of trying to figure that question out. Right now, she needed to answer the question which had been asked.But even with that mindset put at the forefront of her mind, Leonica still couldn’t bring herself to answer, after all, if she wasn’t s
“We once were, but now, we’re divorced.”Gabriel stood by his window, glancing down at the small meaningless p*ssing figures, all the while allowing Leonica’s words to replay in his mind as if it had been set on repeat.Not a secondly longer had gone by after the last repeat, when he sighed and stuffed both of his hands into his pocket, leaning his weight slightly on the back of his heel.Why was Leonica's words disturbing him? No, why was he allowing her words disturb him?Was it because of the familiar aura that surrounded her, prompting him to believe that they had indeed been married, but now divorced as she said? Or was it the fact that he found it challenging to believe that he had actually settled down with the very same woman his grandmother had picked for him?That’s right, he remembered Leonica, at least he remembered what his memory allowed and that was the fact that she was the woman his grandmother had picked to be his wife in an arranged marriage between two families.He