The press run went well enough. Steve answered the questions that were asked of him in a calm and confident tone, even though he felt anything but calm or confident.About halfway into the press run, his composure shattered like a fragile piece of glass that had been suddenly dropped onto hard tiles.His phone, which he had kept on the table in front of him, suddenly buzzed, and he picked it up out of habit and glanced at the screen.There was a new message, and the simple word in that message was a replica of the same word that was contained in the dozen or so messages that he had received in the past few days since all of this began.It read, CONFESS.Who was this and why was this person doing this to him? Why had this person, who clearly knew all about what he had done, kept quiet all these years, only to spring up out of the blues now?It made no sense at all. What did they want from him? It would have been easy and perfect if they wanted money because he would have gladly given i
"Calm your titties, Steve, dear. Also, open your little gift, and tell me what all of this is about. It’s clear enough what it’s about, but I’d like to hear from the horse’s mouth … so to speak." She drawled. She was clearly enjoying herself immensely.Steve slowly dipped his hand into the parcel and brought out some of the papers it contained, his hands shaking.The first paper was a newspaper cutout of the news that reported the mysterious disappearance of the two hookers that he had killed while at the university.The second one was a somewhat clear picture of him carrying the body of one of them into his car, and the third one was the picture of him carrying the body of the second one into his car as well.He shuddered, unable to believe his eyes. How was it possible for the picture to be so clear that if someone knew what they were looking for, they would know immediately that he was the one in them?This picture had been taken over a decade ago and had been taken close to dawn t
"So what's all of this about?" Amanda asked after Steve dumped the pictures on the chairs and sat down heavily."What do you think? You know very well what it's about. There's no need to pretend. So what now? Are you going to tell everyone?" Steve asked, bowing his head and sighing deeply like a man who carried the weight of the whole world on his head.Amanda stared at his bowed head, not feeling sorry for him in the least. It was what he got for choosing several different females over her over the years, before finally realizing what a gem she was."I don't think I have to do that. From the look of things, you already have someone who seems quite eager to do it. Did you really kill those women? One of them was the girl you were dating back then, wasn't it? It was because of her that you were arrested back then. You actually did it? Oh wow! You really are something else!" Amanda exclaimed, but she didn't sound particularly worried or scared that she was sitting with a cold-blooded mu
It seemed to Steve that she was right and he had no other choice than to own up to what he had done, so he did just that, knowing that this meant that he was now indebted to Amanda for life. But if she could truly help him, then he sure as hell wouldn't mind. At least, it was better to be indebted to her than to spend a significant part, or even the rest of his life in prison for a crime that he had almost forgotten he committed. A crime that he had committed when he was young and stupid. He didn't deserve to go to jail for that. Amanda sat quietly and listened to him speak, nodding where necessary and mulling things over in her head. "Well, I think I only visited your house a few times, so I'm not exactly familiar with and won't remember the place, especially since a lot of time has passed. I'm not sure even you would remember the place that well again." She said a few minutes after he was done talking. "You're right." He replied humbly. There was this calmness and bravado that s
Steve never complained outwardly to the man though, but assisted him whenever he requested financial help, which was beginning to be more frequent as time passed.A few days after Steve was discharged and acquitted of the crime of killing Victoria, he sold his house and moved away from that neighborhood without even informing the man, and he hadn't seen the man since then.So while they hadn't been the best of friends by any means, in Steve's opinion, he had been of immense help to the man, and it seemed highly unlikely that the man would be the one behind all this, but the fact remained that no one could be trusted nowadays."Tell me what you're thinking about. I can practically hear the wheels turning in your head." Amanda said, peering at him, and so he told her all about the man and what he observed from the way the pictures were taken. "Hmm. You're sure that the pictures that were gotten from the CCTV videos were taken from the side of your house that is beside his house?" She
As far as Ava was concerned, she had to be the most confused female on God's green planet. There was no other explanation for her behavior and whatever the hell it was that went on in her mind and made her act the way that she did after Derek confessed his feelings to her."I love you, Ava. I just thought that you should know that." Derek had told her.From the hopeful expression on his face, it was clear that he would have liked a reply from her, but there wasn't one to be had.How could it be that all this while, she had longed for Derek to say those three magic words that she had never heard from him, and then when he finally did say them, all she could do was freeze and stare at him like a deer caught in headlights?He was a good man … she knew he was, and for him to open his mouth and actually say those words, then he most probably meant them, so why was she still afraid to accept him back and tell him how much she loved him too?Apparently, the tables had turned and whereas Dere
Early the next morning, Amanda called Steve to find out if he was ready to leave, so that she could meet up with him at his place. When he replied in the affirmative, she set off for his place and not long after, arrived with a hefty man in tow.“Um … who the hell is that?” Steve asked as he and the stranger sized each other up.“He’s my friend, Logan. He’s going to be of big help to us.”“What the fuck is this, Amanda? It’s him I’m doing the job for?” Logan asked, clearly displeased.Amanda had some nerve. How dare she bring him to meet her boy toy with his pretty face without first giving him a warning.“Well, do you want the job or not? He’s going to pay you quite handsomely, aren't you, Steve?” Amanda asked Steve, smiling sweetly.“Uh-huh.” Steve replied non-committally, wondering what ‘the job’ was and deciding immediately that he was better off not knowing. Whatever it was, as long as it got him out of the predicament in which he found himself, then it was perfectly fine by him.
"Do you think this is a wise thing to do? I mean, what are …” Steve began a little fearfully as they made their way over to the house, but Amanda shushed him.“Shut up, Steve. I didn’t peg you for a wuss. I’m almost convinced that the person who took that video used to live here. We’re going to find out information on where they could currently be. It's as simple as that. It's not as though we're doing anything illegal or dangerous.” Amanda replied in that same bossy tone that she had had since she found out about all of this.The tone failed to calm Steve down this time around though, and his heart pounded a mile a minute as they walked together towards the closed front door of the house.He had a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach ... like all was not well, and death was imminent, but that was crazy and he was just being paranoid.Soon enough, they were in front of the door, and Amanda raised her hand and rapped on the door a few times. There was silence for a while, and then
He led her back to his room, walked over to a drawer by the side of his bed, opened it, and brought out something from inside it.When he turned towards her and she saw what it was that he brought out of it, Ava gasped out loud.It looked like the black box in which her engagement ring had come several years ago.Derek had always had a taste for good things, and he had the money to support his taste.Thus back then, even when he wasn’t really into her, and was only marrying her out of pity, he had gotten her a beautifully crafted and expensive engagement ring.As he opened the box in his hands now and got down on one knee, she could see that it was the same ring that was inside it.He had kept it even after all these years! Tears sprung to her eyes, filling them as he professed his love to her and asked her to marry him again, promising to treat her right this time around and make up for all the lost years.“Yes, yes, Derek. Of course, I’ll marry you! There’s nothing I want more.” She
Ava wasn’t about to take any chances though. After hugging the living daylights out of Derek, while he hugged her back just as tightly, she insisted that they had to visit the hospital right then.“But it’s already late. Besides, I don’t think there's anything they can do or will have to do. We can wait until tomorrow to go there and celebrate this night instead.” Derek suggested, his voice rife with meaning as he threw a suggestive wink Ava’s way, but she didn't allow herself to be swayed.“No way in hell. We’ve waited too long for you to regain your memory to just take it so lightly now that it has finally happened. We’re going now, and that’s that!”“As Her Royal Highness wishes.” Derek joked, making a small, formal bow that made Ava smile.Yes, he was back. She could see in his eyes that he truly recognized her, but even better, he had the same look in his eyes that he used to have before he went to the conference and everything changed.The look that told her that he was in love
She picked up the papers with the slowness of a very old woman and scanned through them, her hands shaking.She was not surprised to see her name, as well as Derek’s name on the papers because she had recognized the papers the minute they fell out of the book.It was the same ones that Derek had handed to her on that night several years ago, which she had had no choice but to reluctantly sign, while crying her eyes out and swearing never to forgive him for everything that he had done to her.Except that he hadn't really done anything in the sense of the word ... at least, not in the way that she thought.Why on earth were these papers still with him? She had signed them and left that day without giving any thought to what he was going to do with them.Her signature was there on the paper, right where she had signed it haphazardly. In fact, she thought that she could still see a tear mark or two on the papers since she was crying when she signed them, but she couldn’t be sure since th
They walked in companionable silence to Derek’s room. Once they were inside the room, he led her to his walk-in closet where he had stored the journals, making sure to keep a respectable distance between them.Ava knew that it was because she had complained about the scent of his cologne, and now, she wished that she had kept her wide mouth shut.“It’s all in there. Here, let me look for the specific one you asked about.” Derek said, picking it out and handing it to her.“Oh, thank you. Are you sure that you don’t mind me reading it?”“Not in the least bit. I feel like I’d be doing the guy who wrote all that stuff a huge solid by letting you see for yourself all the things that he wanted to say to you for so long but was too chicken to say. He might want to kill me for doing it, but I think he’ll be better for it in the long run.” Derek replied, shrugging.“Okay then,” Ava said happily.Derek, for his part, suddenly became self-conscious. What if she thought that he was a sappy fool a
Several seconds passed, and then Derek rushed in the direction that she had gone.He found her in the restroom adjoining the living room. She was throwing up violently into the toilet bowl.Derek went over to her and moved her hair away from her face, providing support until there was nothing for her to throw up anymore.Once she was done, she slowly turned to face him. It was clear that she was reluctant to turn, andDerek remained immobile for a few more seconds before rushing after Ava.He found her in the restroom adjoining the living room, throwing up violently into the toilet bowl, and rushed towards her.He held her and moved her hair away from her face until there was nothing for her to throw up anymore.Then she slowly and reluctantly turned to face him, a fact that wasn't lost on him. In fact, she seemed to be inching awayfrom him so that there was a little space between them.He figured that it was because she had just finished throwing up the contents of her bowel and did
The next day, Derek arrived home from work with a huge bouquet of flowers for Ava and a smaller one for Harper. The two of them were in the living room, watching Harper’s favorite cartoon and looking all comfy and cozy. Their eyes lit up the moment Derek stepped into the living room, and this filled him with warmth. Harper in her usual fashion, bounded up to run over to him to give him a big hug. Her hugs were one of his favorite things nowadays, and he could never get tired of receiving them for as long as he lived. Ava, on the other hand, was more reserved in her welcome towards him, but she did smile at him in welcome. Her eyes were always cautious around him, which kind of made him sad because that emotion was definitely different from the one he wrote about in his journals after she warmed up to him. “Welcome home. Derek. What have you got there behind you?” Ava asked him. “Thank you. I got you both some flowers.” He replied, and brought forward the hand that was holding th
As the days passed and Derek's memory didn't return, he got more and more frustrated because it felt like things were at a standstill due to the memory loss.On the bright side, catching up with work wasn't difficult for him at all. In fact, it was one of the easiest things he had to deal with and he spent several hours a day at it while Harper was at school and Ava was trying to get back to work.Catching up with the rest of his life was what was difficult though. Nothing made sense, and so he had to go through all of his stuff, trying to find out more about his current than he already knew.He managed to find out a lot just by doing this. He had always been very organized and used to keep journals that documented his daily life.Apparently, he still kept these journals and they were all arranged neatly on a shelf in his library.He went through each and every one of them, trying to catch a glimpse of the man he now was. Going through them made him realize just how different he was f
She smiled at him and slowly came out from behind the chair. Derek had no idea for how long she had been hiding there, but it seemed that it had been quite a while.“Daddy…” She said and without warning, rushed at him and embraced him tightly with more strength than he would have expected a child to have.Derek awkwardly patted her back and embraced her too, not sure if he should pick her up, kiss her cheek, ruffle her hair, or anything like that.“How are you?” He asked her, wincing as soon as the words left his mouth. He sounded like he was having a formal meeting with some board of directors or something like that, not talking to a child.However, Harper didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she made his decision for him by raising her arms, indicating that he should pick her up.“I’m fine, daddy. The bad woman told me that you died, but I didn’t believe her.” Harper told him.Derek immediately did as she wanted and she rested her head on his shoulder in the sweetest gesture ever. To his
A few days later, Derek was set to be discharged from the hospital. Everything felt so strange to him, and he felt a tad lonely.He had spent the last days of his hospital stay catching up on his present life or what it was supposed to be like.Nothing made sense to him, and he tried not to dwell too much on the grief that plagued him anytime he thought about his dad or the fact that the other remaining members of his family had turned out the way they had.Reading and watching all the pieces of news that he could gather about the whole incident, as well as asking tons of questions, made him not hurt as much as he would have at Denise's or Blair's death and Amanda's incarceration.He could not wrap his head around anyone doing what they had done, especially the fact that they kidnapped and tortured two innocent children, one of whom was his own daughter.He still had yet to meet his little girl, but he was going to see her that day when he got home.He was nervous as hell, about the m