II. She has been living in the same town he has been living in all along.
“W-what?” Dan is not sure he heard her clearly. Maybe he's being extremely anxious from her previous torture so much so that it translates stuffs against her words.
She sighs. “Amid is your enemy. He's taking every information about your steps to Jamal and, privately investigating you and I. So you must get him off the way. I took some pictures of Myla and the stupid dude meeting up in a restaurant. I'm going to start the fire of claiming to have caught them meeting in a coffee shop talking romantically. And then I'd tell Jamal that I came to you and threatened you and you confessed to me-”
Dan stops her before she completes her statement. “Just hold it there. Are you trying to claim the ‘good one’ while I tug myself into the mud?”
She shrugs her shoulders and he chuckles sarcastically. “Now I can confirm you've gone MAD. Because there's no way your crazy ass will seat there and talk shit”
She brings herself up to seat upright. “I am not crazy Dan. I'm very intelligent. If only you follow my lead, you'd know what I'm saying is true. I'm not going to make you expose yourself for giving me full access to his business. All I'm saying is that you will acknowledge that you used the advantage of what Amid ‘did’ to have what you've always wanted. That's his enterprise.”
“And to confirm everything . . . you would just tell him that Amid came to you asking for a pen. But you didn't know what he did with it. That's when I'm going to bring out the mark of pens I used to get Eliza's finger print claiming it's yours. Again, telling him that you loaned money from the company to him will clarify his ideas on who paid Eliz's bills.”
Dan relaxes a little. Her proposal is not bad.
“Another thing are the photos. I'm going to insist that the person in the photos is Myla.That you followed her personally with Amid just so that y'all could film them together.”
“What? No-No I-I won't agree with that” he stunts
She scolds. “Shut up and let me finish!”
“You were oblivious about the whole thing because actually he claimed that the photos where just for admiration. You later found out that it was him who killed Eliz. And the worse part of it was . . . that Myla knew it was Amid who murdered her friend but she couldn't expose him because they loved each other.
She pauses and proceeds. “Well, you just wanted to say this to clear my conscience. He was less at work and didn't know what was happening in his absence. You knew the company will fall if you didn't take things at hand. So you started being the boss in his absence. You saved his company. So he better be grateful. Because his greatest enemy has been his assistant from the start.”
He narrows his eyes at the lady in front him. How can she formulate all these words like it is nothing?
...
“He was so fast to featuring you like . . . he's never gonna find someone like Myla.” Ms. Grayson teases and Myla ignores what that means.
“OMG I'm so happy for you!” Tiffy squeezes her so tight that she feels her lungs crinkling due to their proximity.
“Ok. Ok. I heard you. Can you just-please . . . let me breathe”
Tiffy twitches her arms away, feeling blameable. “I'm so sorry.”
Myla struggles to compose her breath then forces a smile. “Yeah. I'm fine now.”
“What dress are you putting on for tonight?” Brenhilda interrogates.
“We'd be going shopping in a minute” her Manager tells.
“Is that really necessary? I have cloths in my dresser that I've never worn.”
“Look at you. Who cares? You're a celebrity now. You need to act like one. Let's get you new cloths. Maybe next you'd ware the others” Ms. Grayson answers.
“When? I'm already tired of all these. I've only repeated a dress twice but someone does my laundries. Where are all those dresses going to?”
“Calm down” Brenhilda rest her hands on her friend's shoulder. “It's not a big deal. Besides, you're queen. What will you do with all the money you have?”
“Many things.” she responds shortly. Not sure if she has other ideas on investing her money.
She has gone through every investment. Orphanages, church, personal enterprises, etc. Which make her kind of sound like the Sadueces and Pharisees.
“You see? You don't even know what to say. We're not spoiling you. You're a good girl. We're just bringing to your understanding where you ride on”
”I understand that . . . I need to look good and elegant for this occasion and several others but . . . this shouldn't be sort of a habitual act that may lead to competition when I may not be able to afford.”
They nod and her Manager says. “If you girls are done with your lessons can I take her now? It's not getting any earlier.”
“Sure.” they respond in synchrony.
Myla stands and her friends seat back with pale faces. “Ain't y'all coming with us?” Myla asks after waiting to see them stand too.
They look at each other knowingly while Myla raffles her mind as to what they are doing.
“What? What are those faces for?”
They burst out laughing. “We thought you won't offer us the ride” Brenhilda says.
Myla cranes her eyebrows in awe. “Why not? Why will both of you think like that?”
They shoot up on their feets and Tiffy responds. “You know . . . you're not the same person anymore. So we thought coming with you will be weird”
Myla ices. What the fuck are they talking about? She will never treat them unlikely because she's known now.
Myla places her hand over the left side of her chest, her brows creasing as she tightens her grip. Her Friends rush to her remosely.
“Myla! You're ok?” her Manager inclines.
She squints her close eyes, uttering. “I felt my heart stop. Then beat-after wards . . . very rapidly.”
“Is this because of what we said? Forgive us” Brenhilda apologizes.
Myla slowly opens her eyes still on her feet. Her breath getting heavy.
“No it's not your fault. It's just . . . I feel this way only when I think of Jamal”
They look at each other completely perplexed. But her Manager is already aware of her case.
“Is this true?” Brenhilda askes Ms. Grayson and the older lady nods.
“She's always like this. Feeling as though she's having a heart attack but when she sees her doctor he finds nothing wrong with her.”
Tiffy speaks. “How come we never knew about this? She's our friend”
“Will y'all stop talking about my health. I'm fine. Just never say what you said. He once made me feel different. And I'd hate to hear any of you feel that way because of me”
They just stare at her speechlessly. It's all because of him she's this way.
“Do you want to stay back” Her managers questions.
She shakes her head. “No. Let's go”
They walk her out and before they know it they are in the mal doing shopping.
She got herself some clothes and got more for her friends. Due to the spaciousness between the girls in choosing what fits, Myla finds herself somewhere else.
Her surrounding is not familiar and she can only see men marchandise around her.
She ogles her environment, trying to find out from where she got in but it only leaves her more perplexed.
“Tiffy?” she calls and not even an object seems to move at the sound of her voice.
“Ms. Grayson?” she says louder and something moves around her, a familiar scent hitting her to complete recognition.
She quickly turns around impulsively at the owner of this ancient deodorant and her world goes dark when she sees the man standing ahead of her.
Her eyes stop blinking, her heart ceases to beat. Her vision becomes blur. Every other thing around her is irrelevant.
She just saw the least of people she expected to see on planet earth. She just saw Jamal.
She breathes in after a long time of day dreaming into Jamal's golden orbits. He's even more handsome with clean beards, white Sweatshirt and a gray pair of shorts.
He can't believe his eyes right now. Is he so obsessed about her that he now sees his memory in physique?
His countable long eyelashes bath themselves to intake more of what he is grimacing. And his thick eyebrows crumble in total disbelief.
Understanding knocking him at once. She's in the same town he has been all along. They ran away from the past but the future held both of them captive.
She's just with a fitting gown and a pair of white sneakers. Her hair is covered with a wig that is tied up in a bun. Simple but very beautiful.
Her heart beat rises again more than earlier at home. Painful so much that she fears she wouldn't handle this ache. Tears slip down her cheeks as her eyes shut down. Her body going in along.
“Hey” his voice cracks as he speaks which comes out muffled.
His hand is wrapped around her back to pin her into him.
“What have you done to her?” A voice breaks from a corner and Jamal cranes his head to see Brenhilda, Tiffy and her Manager standing by the way with wide eyes.
To be continued...