II. You should stop compromising Jamal.

“Should I come in?” Patricia inclines after knocking over her brother's door.

“No”

She rolls her eyes and opens the door. She drops dead her tracks at the sight of her brother watching Myla's videos.

“So this is what you do out of every eye”

He shuts his computer. “I told you not to come in”

She laughs. “Oh please. I'm not mom. Or Latif . . . Or Gabriella. I'm your sister. You can talk to me about anything”

She settles on one of his couches. “Let's talk about last night”

“Patricia I'm not in the mood” he wakes up from his seat and walks towards his bed.

“You still haven't explained to me what got you so upset yesterday” she wiggles her eyebrows towards his direction.

“If you're here to tease me you can have the door”

She sighs and springs up to seat close to her brother. “I'm sorry. But I really want to know what you feel about her. She's my friend you know. And I want her to be happy. And the same goes to you.”

“Why don't you just stop doing all these and meet her. Y'all should talk things out.”

Jamal looks at her and she nods. “We all know that you've never believed in all the accusations about her. And last night I can really tell that you have feelings for her. Stop hurting yourself. She's a pretty woman. If you don't stop all these she'd find someone like . . . Shae. Who knows?”

Jamal gives her a dreaded look and she apologizes at once. “My apologies again. But truthfully you're loosing her to him or to some other man out there”

Jamal shuts his eyes and leans his back on his bed. “She decided to take that part. There's nothing I can do about it.”

Patricia reflects for a second. “So this is about-the proposals?”

He doesn't respond to her. She smiles and says again. “Is this about what she told you on her graduation party. All these time you got mad at her and said all what you said to her because you refused to support her for being independent”

“That's not true.”

She shifts on his bed to looks down at her brother's figure. “Yes, it is. You don't want her to be where she is because you've been insecure.”

“I wanted to support her. I wanted to be there for her. But she was not ready to do the same for me. I told her how important my enterprise was to me. And all she could do was tell me she wanted to accept the offer of her acting career! I was there for her in all her shootings. She was ready to give up our relationship because of her dreams. Who does that?”

“Don't be hypocritical Jamal. Can't you see you're not any better from her. She wants to archive her dreams and you want to do same. Were you expecting her to give it up for you? Did you give your company up for her? No. So why are you complaining?”

“This goes back to my first statement. Y'all need to talk things out. You can't continue like this. You need to support each other. That's what love is. If at all y'all ever accept your love for each other.”

He opens his eyes and Patricia jerk from his bed. “Actually, I plan on seeing her myself. And you won't stop me this time”

He creases his forehead but doesn't say anything. She just walks off his room living him ruminating about what she said.

...

“Yes? Who's on the line?” Myla replies.

“Myla? It's me Patricia”

Myla takes the phone off her ear pinae, stares at it in bewilderment before bringing it back to its normal position.

“Patricia?”

“Yes. I'm sorry I had to reach you out personally. I really needed to talk to you. It's been a whole while”

“Um . . . Yeah. I-I'm happy hearing from you”

Patricia smiles broadly. “Me too. I really miss you Myla”

Myla keeps quite over the phone. She doesn't know what else to say.

“I saw your new songs and gush I can't stop listening to them. I was also present in your performance with Shawnee. That piece y'all released together was fire. I'm so happy you're achieving your desires.”

“Thank you Patricia. It was a miracle” She climbs out of her bed and walks towards her window.

“Indeed. Tell me both of you have plans for another song” she teases.

Myla giggles a little. “Well, he proposed for us to do more but we have not spoken much about it. Certainly we'd come out with another song”

“Good. Because someone needs to get more jealous to know how important you are”

Myla freezes. “Mmm?”

“Nothing. I'd love to meet with you. I've been wanting to spend time with you so we could talk things”

“Of course. I'd arrange for you to come to my house. But . . . you know your bro-”

“Forget about him. He knows I'd be seeing you. And he won't stop me”

“Okayyy. Besides, how was England?”

“Did I ever tell you I was going to England?” Patricia scratches her head.

Myla suddenly comes to her senses. It was Amid who told her about Patricia's travel. But then no one needs to know she's meeting up with him.

Not even her Manager knows he's her private investigator. She just knows she hired someone.

“Well, I guessed after seeing your pics on Instagram”

“Oh yeah. Those were my memories of there. It was fun. I got to meet other designers and even favorites. Very soon you won't have to order cloths because I'd be your personal designer for all your outings and celebrity shows”

Myla laughs. “I can't wait for then-”

‘Stay away from my sister’

Jamal's words keep crossing over her mind.

“You know . . . we wouldn't be keeping our distances if not for your family. Talking about that how's mom?”

“Mom is fine. And I've told you not to worry about that. I know some day everyone will understand. And whoever did that to your friend and my brother will be jailed. Jamal is searches for proves. Trust me he never believed you killed your friend and hacked his computer. Jamal can be very stubborn. You know that so well. Whatever things he said to you back then, he didn't mean them.”

Myla clears her throat. “Could we talk about when you'd be coming over. Because I can't wait to see how grown you are now”

Patricia sighs. Myla is just like her brother. No one wants to accept the truth this matter.

“Yeah. Let's talk about that. I will come and we'd continue this discussion. Besides, I've not changed a lot like you have.”

“No. I disagree with you. You are very matured and prettier now. Maybe you found someone over there?”

“I'm not going to answer to that until we meet”

Myla fools with her nails. “Means I'm right”

“Whatever Myla.”

They laugh and go on with their conversation.

...

“Change of plans. You'd tell everyone on Patricia's birthday” Latif instructs.

“Why on her birthday? You can choose any other day soonest” Dan grumbles.

“You're so stupid. Can't you think? If I tell everyone on that day it'd go viral. I'm sure the young girl will invite Myla over. And I too have someone to invite over.”

Dan hisses. “You need to be careful of what you do. I won't be held responsible if anything fails. Besides, that girl has done nothing to you”

“Shut your mouth Dan. You have no idea how aching her name sounds to me. As long as she is free I won't be at peace. So do not mess this up!”

“Understood”

“Good. We'd talk more later” she turns around and pumps into Gabriella.

The young lady is wearing a white fitting gown and her dark hair is loose and wavy over her shoulder as she fixes some strands of it behind her ear.

“Excuse me. I didn't see you” Gabriella apologises.

“You witch!” Latif insults holding her chest to compose her breathing.

Gabriella doesn't show any sign of shock because she has once leaved with the woman in front of her. She pulls back and crosses her arms.

“I said I'm sorry. Isn't that enough?”

Latif takes three steps towards her. “I know what you came for Gabriella. Stop pretending to have lost your memories. Because I know you haven't”

Gabriella unlatches her arms. “What is the essence of all these? Are you scared that . . . I may finally understand that you did everything possible to steal Jamal from me. Well, you don't have to worry about that because mom told me everything. You were once my good friend. But suddenly after my ‘accident’ you took my place.”

She steps close to Latif. “I'd tell you something. If I was in your shoes, I'd be scared too. I've not fully recovered but . . . as soon as I saw you I felt as to murder you. I have nothing to hide Latif. I don't know if my memories play tricks on me but I am very sure you have something to do with the accident I had years ago.”

Latif gulps staring around them. “What? There's just us here. No need checking around. What you should do now is run for your life. I won't kill you. But what will happen to you will be worse than death”

“And a little advise. You should stop compromising Jamal. I've been here for just few days. But I kind of know what he's capable of doing to those who stand against him. He won't have mercy on you once he finds out you plan on ruining his sisters birthday party because of some selfish reason.”

To be continued . . .