Chapter 5.1

Her Little Secrets

"That was your lover!?"

Kitty exclaimed. "You're married?"

Leah looked around, with her eyes, to see if anyone she knew was around the nearly empty parking lot in front of the store. She sucked in the remaining half of her cig and nodded.

"Seventeen years, "She exhaled, smoke exiting her triangular nostrils. She flicked her cigarette butt, scattering the ashes in the wind.

Kitty grabbed Leah's forearm; a mix of concern and panic was on her face. She jerked Leah's arm so that the cigarette fell in the cemented lot. She immediately let go of the older woman's arm and took a step back when Leah looked at her offended.

"I'm so sorry I did that-but, please. D-don't smoke. It's bad for your health", Kitty said, blushing; the older woman's face softened. "I know it isn't my place to intrude in your life, but what would your family-"

Leah smiled, "What they don't know won't hurt them. Besides, it's just a game."

"Men aren't the only ones allowed to play, Kitty."

Confused, Kitty's brows furrowed. "I don't expect you to understand," Leah sighed.

"Of course, I don't get it," Kitty said internally.

Kitty knows well enough that Ken had been kind to her before and throughout the five years of their marriage. True, there are many instances that Kitty felt left alone with the hamsters in a small apartment, but he makes it up to her on the weekends.

Ken even manages to mail her chocolates in the late mornings. It wasn't anything significant, just a bunch of mini chocolate bars wrapped in red or sometimes pink crepe paper in a small fancy paper box.

It wasn't every day, and it wasn't much, but she was happy that he knew she had a sweet tooth. Kitty even thought it was a sexy move for Ken to leave a one-sentence message for her, and the card always ended with love K.

Not "Your Husband," not Kenneth or Ken; it was just the initial K.

With that gesture alone, Kitty has confidence and trust that Kenneth wouldn't cheat on her. Kitty dispised cheaters very, very passionately. Leah doesn't look uncompensated.

Yes, Kitty admits that her physical appearance doesn't hold a candle to Leah's photogenic beauty. She can't wrap her head around the idea of someone married for more than a decade, who has a beautiful smile and ageless beauty to be in a knot of infidelity.

Kitty didn't want to be Leah in this situation, she didn't want to be stuck going to the police station as a witness, but she had no choice since she walked into a dead end. Her only move now is to help Leah, given that Leah could testify that she stole at her job. Kitty chewed on her lips, thinking of the best way to put it.

"What can I do to help," Kitty said.

"First thing, get in the car," Leah smirked and dug her heels into the still-burning butt on the parking space.

She opened the driver's seat door and cocked her head, signaling Kitty to sit on the other side. Kitty followed, and they buckled; soon after, Leah maneuvered the car out of the parking space and out the exit to the main road.

---

It read 4:00 pm on Leah's dashboard clock.

The ride to the police station from the supermarket was a good fifteen minutes, twenty-something when cargo trucks are in transit at night. Thirty or more if an ambulance was on the road due to a car accident or pedestrians take a tumble. It took longer when there was traffic.

They managed to make it past the first intersection with no two cars blocking them. When Leah and Kitty reached almost half of the way to the second, the vehicles stuck together like magnets. Bumper to bumper, Leah's red Vitara was five cars away from the overhead traffic light. Lucky for them, it was rush hour, and the traffic was all they needed to plan their actions.

Kitty had her eyes fixed out the window most of the time, trying her best to calm her nerves, and this seemed to work given the situation. Although Kitty never cheated when she was a teen, she now felt like a cheater running to the comfort room to peer at the cheats in the middle of an exam.

Yes, Kitty felt like she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. It wasn't like she was under adult supervision but being in the car with Leah felt like she shouldn't be there, and at the same time, she felt guilty enough to turn herself in.

The outside was all blue, with all clouds, and no sun. The stores, buildings, and condominiums that cross paths within the intersections were bustling with strangers in their own independent lives. As a whole, each building had its own life, as it was alive. Anything can happen, especially when the sun's going down.

"They would have looked beautiful at night," Kitty mused to herself.

There was silence in the car. Not one of them dared to speak. Both women have tuned to the noises inside and out of the vehicle. The only sound came from the engine, how it hummed and the clicking sound of the dashboard turn signal now and then.

Leah felt like she was driving alone since her companion hardly ever spoke. She could tell that her passenger had spaced out, gazing out the window. When Leah met the rear end of another car, she took it upon herself to plan their alibi.

"So-" Leah began. Kitty jumped and turned to face her. "-before we can plan our little excuse, what do you want to know?"

Kitty cleared her throat before she spoke. "Who was he, and what drove him to beat up your brother?"

Leah rubbed her semi-dry painted lips together and reached for her bag. She went straight to a side compartment and brought out her phone. She unlocked it and opened the dating app; she closed it this morning and went to her messages. Leah checked her blocked list and found her brother's attacker. She clicked his profile before handing the phone to Kitty.

Kitty felt cringy looking at Leah's ex's dating profile. Kitty used the same app during college a few years back, but it was just for fun. She never really met anyone there in person, just a few friendly chats here and there. Kitty had seen and swiped a few profiles before, but this one, in particular, made her teeth grit.

JohnylovesCougarz

"Oh, Gawd," Kitty groaned in disgust.

"I know right," Leah giggled at her reaction.

Kitty continued to scan his profile; there wasn't anything much on there. It just said in his short bio that "he loves women 30-49 years old". Leah glanced at Kitty, who was wide-eyed. She knew that Kitty was scanning the exposed penis photos one by one. The shots were in different angles, but all images made his penis look more than average length.

"Those are fake. It doesn't look like that in person," said Leah; Kitty nodded. She handed Leah's phone back. Leah intern hurriedly placed it in her bag.

"Is he the only one?"

"No."

"Unfortunately, this one was hard to shrug off."

Leah loosened her foot on the brakes, making the car crawl to a stop. She paced the car before her; Leah hit the brake pedal again when the driver stopped. They were three vehicles away from the traffic light.

"How did he end up in the parking lot with your brother," Kitty asked.

"I don't know. All I knew was I felt like someone was watching me when we were having a chat in the cafe across the street from the store."

"Okay, what do we tell them?"

Leah rubbed her neck, "Let's say; we're friends. I regularly visit you in the afternoon, and we don't have any affiliation with him."

"Yes. Let's make John sound like a stalker instead of a crazed lover," exclaimed Kitty. She had to have an idea of how to pull it off.

"Oh Kitty, they're the same," Leah thought, exhaling sharply. "Kitty, we have to make it believable."

In the middle of the intersection, the stoplight turned green on the lane where Leah's Vitara was. One, two, now three cars accelerated out of the crossroads. The two ladies were soon out of the intersection. They soon reached the station; Leah turned the car around and parked in a vacant slot across from the building.

Kitty tried her hardest to relax; the fact of the matter was she was anything but relaxed. She went on to fix herself. She reapplied tinted vaseline on her lips and finger-combed her hair. Beside her, Leah was retouching her plum lipstick while using the sun visor's mirror. The older woman could sense the younger one's nervousness.

Leah pushed the visor back up; it snapped with a sharp click. "Look-" she began to say.

"I can tell you're not entirely ready, so let me do all the talking. Just answer when you need to."

"Okay," Kitty nodded.

The two stepped out of the car and walked to the station.

---

The inside of the station was dull and lifeless; it felt as if it came out of a random action movie or detective setting. The walls were all white, gray, and some hints of black. Once Keanu and John arrived, the officers pulled them out of the police car forcefully, up the steps, and inside the front door.

Officer Miller and his partner Officer Smith-the one who put John down when he was squirming, followed behind them to fill out the report.

The two officials lead the bound men to a room by the end of a short corridor. Looking around, it seems like an interrogation room. There wasn't much in there but the table and a few folded metal chairs leaning against the wall and a few lockers on one side. The inside was pretty clean.

Keanu and John sat down on foldable metal chairs with a solid metal table in between them. When Keanu was seated, Officer Miller freed Keanu's right hand and snapped the cuff shut through a hoop in front of him.

Keanu didn't mind this. He played it cool, remembering he had a fake ID in his wallet, just for situations like this. While John was struggling, Offer Smith had to call in another officer to help pin him down and tie him to the opposite side of the table.

"Officer-" Keanu said. Officer Miller was attentive. "Is Leah, my sister, coming?"

"Yes, sir, she'll be right over." the officer patted Keanu on the shoulder.

"Alright, boys, we'll be outside in the front office. If I hear shouting, the furniture moving, or any sound whatsoever, coming from this room, consider checking in overnight at the cells at the other end," Officer Miller warned.

Officer Miller left and shut the door behind him, leaving Keanu and John bound to the table as Officer Smith and another Officer took their details.

---

The women reached the front of the station.

Leah went inside ahead of Kitty, her heels clicking against the tiled steps. Kitty was left to follow behind. At that moment, her brain isolated itself to wander in thought. She hasn't entirely recovered from her shift. Admittedly, Kitty wanted to go, leave Leah at the station and take a cab home. She couldn't handle being in the station; Kitty felt she might go mad in paranoia.

But she didn't leave. She knew that sticking around was her atonement for what she did.

The office didn't look particularly busy that afternoon; some desks were empty while others had an officer typing reports on a desktop.

Leah headed straight to the front desk to ask about her brother to a female officer on duty. Kitty followed behind her until her phone rang. Leah noticed his and held Kitty's shoulder.

"It's fine, go take the call," Leah smiled casually and quickly made a gesture sealing her lips.

Kitty mouthed an ok. "I'll be right back."

The woman at the front desk asked Leah to fill up an information log while Kitty went out to take the call.

She went outside and looked around. Kitty found a cafe on the other side of the police station, opposite where they parked. The establishment had a colossal neon coffee mug as its sign. The establishment had fancy iron chairs outside under cream parasols; to Kitty, it was perfect. She decided to sit there and answer the phone.

In her tote, the phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing in her ear to no end. Kitty searched her tote for her phone. She found it and saw the caller ID.

Husband

"Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy!" Kitty froze for a second before answering.