Seven

Deborah Liner

February 15,1989—April 20, 2015.

The continuous flow of air around her made her wavy brown hair fly away from where they were before. On her hands are violet flowers wrapped on a rough paper, her sister would usually request everytime she would go out and run her some errands. After carefully placing it on top of a white marble, she closed her eyes.

She miss her so much, she really do.

Though from all the wealth that their family had, she always hear her bicker of things that she can not do, how she could not take herself out just like her or even have usual parties that she usually attends. Still, she understands and help her on getting through.

They were a happy family, living with their parents and grandmother was a gift that they consider a blessing, but everything became a nightmare in just a snap when time decided to take everyone from her—her grandmother, her parents and now, her sister.

What is the use of owning one of the top performing company, when you, yourself cannot fill the hole that has been eating you since you lost everything? Everyone says that she was lucky for taking over that company, but somehow, she considers it as a burden.

"Miss, we have been here for an hour. Are you sure you don't want to return yet?" one of her most loyal guard, Keith, asked her.

"Really? It felt like just a couple of minutes." she finally opened her eyes, after reporting everything to her sister silently, "Do you think Diego found anything?"

"Nobody have called yet. I think, he's still checking."

"How about the arrangements for tommorrow? Did Lisa told you that they are ready?"

"Yes, everything is set."

She nodded and pulled herself up. She grabbed her heels but decided not to wear it yet.

Becca took her final glimpse on her sister's tomb and left, the guard opened his black umbrella and followed her to the car beside the grassy field full of fallen humans.

Becca is the youngest between the two, three years to be specific. The company that she is handling, was the same company that her parents made from scratch, so up until now, she is thriving to put the company on a more secure state.

Lisa, on the other hand, have been trusting her for years now and Becca was pretty sure she have analyzed her, more than she knew herself. She is a good friend for her, and she thanked her for trusting her a couple of times.

Other than Lisa, Keith and her former driver are the only family that she have. It really sent her to hell when she realized that she have to let her driver go, he have been serving their family since they were kids, and she was pretty sure that his life would be in danger if she would keep him. Besides, it is time for him to retire.

It took an hour for them to reach their home, Becca did not bother putting her heels on, so she ran as fast as she can inside her house, ignoring the soaring pain of the hot ground. She removed her coat and gave it to one of her bodyguards before walking to the kitchen and grab a cold bottle of water.

"Where have you been?" she could not admit to the man that he shocked her so she had to endure the pain on her chest when she tried to grasp air while drinking.

"I had a date." she chased her breath.

"Yeah, funny." she looked at Diego who was carefully turning the pages on the log book he have in front of him. It is his second book now, but he still could not find a name matching to the guy.

"Do you have a specific date?" he asked.

"Check five years ago." she walked to him, looking over at what he was doing.

"Why didn't you told me that before you left?" he asked her slightly raising his voice.

"I need to be here when you find something important. We don't want you running around screaming." she nonchalantly grabbed another bar of chocolate from her body, this time coming from her back.

"What are you? A hoarder?" He looked at her after she opened the wrapper.

"You did not let me finish my breakfast Diego, don't look at me like you are not hungry yourself." she pointed to a box of donuts in front of him, then she realized something after looking at a logo on top of a donut figure, "You are a sneaky bastard."

"I need to see her." his voice became serious in just a second, "Your guards allowed me, I don't think I'm breaking a protocol."

"I just said you're a sneaky bastard. Why explain?" she sat on a chair in front of him and pulled the box of donut close to her, inspecting every flavors available.

He scoffed, closed the log book that he was checking before and checked another one. This time, he will check the persons who bought things from Artisan five years ago.

"So, who's the guy?" she asked out of the blue.

"Cliff?"

She just moaned while munching a piece of chocolate in her mouth. She pulled a laptop in front of her and started typing random things that he could not tell what.

Diego thought that she was just creating a conversation between them, she does not really care who that old man is, why would she?

"I'll tell you who he is, if you tell me what is this for."

She did not stopped typing, "Okay, then shut your mouth."

He knew it, she would not bother knowing any history of a guy she does not even know in return for any  information about her.

They sat there in front of the sun dipping in horizon, without talking to one another, he was busy reading all the names, while she was busy on something. There was one time that she left the table, returning with a bottle of wine and a glass on her hands. He remembered her stretching her arms in the air, before opening the bottle, pouring halfway on the glass.

Why was I watching her?

Becca inserted a pair of airpods on her ear after couple more hours, of them, not talking to each other, and after a couple more minutes, he closed the log book, letting out a tired sigh.

"I could not find him." he frustratingly scratched his eyelids as he let the pencil go.

Surprisingly, Becca removed one airpod from her ear and talked to him, "You sure you checked?"

"I have been looking for hours, Becca."

He noticed himself use her nickname instead of her name, then he thought of something.

"Alice and Lisa are the only person allowed to call me Becca."

"What if he used another name?" he murmured to himself.

She sighed and pushed the airpods back to her ear. He opened a laptop and searched Alexis's name on the interface. He also looked over people who are related to him.

He started checking the names on the books and one by one, he typed them on the interface at the same time. Meanwhile, Becca grabbed a paper and pencil to write down some things then left Diego cramming on the table.

She ran to her room, grabbing her card.

"Kieth!" she called the attention of the nearest guard to her. She gave him the paper and her card, "Make someone buy all of that, then order something for you and all of your buddies. Go."

Kieth did not forget to say thank you before leaving.

She hummed to the tune of her music and looked at the pool from an opened door, "Maybe I could use some me time."

She walked to her closet and started stripping off the remaining clothes on her body. She slipped on her favorite swimsuit and her robe on top of it before walking out of her room. She grabbed her drink and phone from  where Diego was working then walked on the pool.

Two guards stepped off the pool area and turned their heads away from her, for them not to see her body. They closed the sliding door for her, and let her blast her playlist on the speakers on the pool.

First song to come is Melt Into You by Wendy Child, again, not that famous artist and music but she loved it the first time she heard it.

She removed the robe and dipped herself in the pool. Her eyes scanned what is in front of her—she enjoys everytime she will catch a glimpse of the dark sea and the bright lights of people having campfire dances on a beach quite far from where they are but near enough for her to see.

Diego, on the other hand, jumped off his chair when he entered a name on the laptop and it matched a name on Alexis's profile, "Rebecca!"

She was not able to hear him so he walked to the other side of the house with a laptop on hand. He finally saw her swimming on her pool again, "I need to talk to her."

She's on her fourth song when she heard a knock on the glass door and a voice saying Diego was calling her. Much to her dismay, she was forced to get out of the pool and put on her robe.

The guards let him enter when she finished, "Hey."

"So, what name did he used?" she reached for her wine on the glass table and sipped it.

They both sat on two inclining beach chairs facing each other. He rested the laptop on his hips and let her see the profile that he used, "Gilfred Daho, that name was from one of his dead syndicate member. He used it just to get the watch, now, his address on Cliff's log book is old, but I was able to check it and yes, someone is living on that address. He might've used a random one but there's no harm in trying."

He gave her the log book and encircled his name, "So, we have to go to Berlin?"

"Yeah."

She grabbed her phone and started dialing someone, "We need a plane to Berlin the day after tommorrow."

After saying thank you, she dropped the call.

"That's it?"

She moaned drinking the rest of her wine, "You can go now, have a good night sleep." she smiled, then turned her look away from him.

"He was my father by the way." Diego told her, not knowing why, but his mouth started spitting truths when she started smiling at him.

Becca looked at him, finally realizing that it was about Cliff, "He got me out of the streets and raised me as his own."

She nodded, "You telling me this now?"

"Yeah, I just want to." he was getting ready to leave when she talked.

"There will be a party tomorrow, we have to attend."

"I don't like attending those. Thank you."

"Well, before we go. I think you need a closure with her."