Chapter 4

"So, tell me, what do you want to tell me?" Maria's uncle stopped by the wooden chair and confronted me.

"Oh! Yeah," I said, showing him the bat.

"Whoa, what the fuck?" He got scared and began to withdraw his feet from the chair.

Maybe he thinks I want to beat him up with the bat in my hand, but even though I would want to talk with him.

"Calm down, now tell me about Maria," I came and placed the bat on the table, thinking it might help him speak more freely.

"W... What do you want to know?" He stammered.

I told him about the bruises on Maria's body and asked how it came about. Maria's uncle couldn't stop staring at the bat I intentionally kept on the table, which seemed to make him nervous.

He kept on stammering before his wife arrived. She saw the bat on the table and almost fled out of fear, but her husband called her back.

She moved to where her husband was and stopped beside him.

"Okay, let me ask you the same question," I looked at her face, "Have you perhaps been harassing Maria and beating her up?" I repeated my question to both of them.

They couldn't utter a single word, and that's how I understood that whatever Maria was going through was because of both of them.

"I'm sorry, sir, please forgive us." Maria's uncle knelt and begged for mercy, while his wife stood, her legs firmly on the ground, and didn't say a single word.

"I understand! But then again, how do you make up for your ill behavior towards your niece?" I questioned them.

Maria's uncle looked at his wife's face, and she turned back to me and asked about Maria's whereabouts.

"Where is she?" She asked me like a boss.

Her husband saw that and intentionally smacked her hand.

"Shut up," he reprimanded and then sent her out of the office.

I had a mature conversation with Maria's uncle, and afterward, he was generous enough to allocate some cash to his niece.

From there, I went back home, and Maria was just coming out of her bedroom, and we bumped into each other.

"Oh! I'm sorry," she stepped back and looked at me.

"How are you feeling? Is everything good?" I questioned her.

"Yeah! I'm better," she nodded her head and smiled.

I brought out the envelope and gave it to her.

"This is for you," I said.

"Me? From who?" She inquired before slowly reaching out to it.

"It was given to me by your uncle; we met, and he is sorry for everything," I related everything he spoke to me about her.

Maria took out the cash and counted it.

"$20,000." She was stunned by the huge amount.

"Yeah! Take this and make sure you invest it wisely," I gently rubbed my hand on her head and left for my bedroom.

I showed up and then came downstairs, and Maria had already taken care of dinner.

She called me over with her sweet and tender voice, which reminded me of Gena, so much so that I almost didn't remember.

I sat on my chair, and she came with a plate of hot soup, placing it in front of me along with a glass of ice-cold water.

"Here you go," she said, her hair almost pulling out from her bunnet.

I picked up a spoon and had a taste of her dish. It wasn't as expected, not because it wasn't tasty enough, it exceeded my expectations, and as much as I didn't want to say anything, I couldn't hold back my compliments.

Dinner was over, and I went to sit on the front porch of my apartment. Mr. Chase, my neighbor across the street, came back from work with a girl accompanying him. He isn't married, but with the number of girls that flock in and outside of his apartment, anyone might think that he runs a brothel.

"Hello, Mr. Elijah?" He saw me across from his house and greeted me.

"Welcome," I raised my voice and replied.

At the same time, Maria came outside and was wearing Gena's nightgown. I remembered I had hidden it inside the storage room, and only I had the keys. How come she was wearing one of Gena's clothes?

"Hey! I saw something," she sat on the wooden chair opposite mine.

"What did you see?" I became curious and wanted to know.

"Oh! Nothing much, but you've got a lot of female outfits, mind if I take some?" she asked me.

I would never allow anyone to wear Gena's outfit, but it would be like having Gena wearing them, even though Maria isn't her but someone who looks just like her.

"Sure, knock yourself out," I faked a smile, only then was I able to turn my head away and look across at my neighbor's house.

Maria rushed back inside, saying she wanted to go through the clothes and pick out the ones she would wear. Do I want this?

I came back inside, and a few hours later, I went upstairs to my bedroom. I passed Maria's room and saw her admiring the clothes she took from the storage room.

"How do I look?" she asked me after noticing my presence.

"Good!" I said immediately. That was all I could say because I was overwhelmed by seeing her in the dress of my dead mate who happens to resemble her.