Chapter 5: Death?

Tamara’s heart skipped so hard upon seeing Eloise, but she maintained her elegance and composure, rolled her eyes, and got off Mason, who also stood up.

He cleared his throat and nonchalantly grabbed his white shirt, avoiding Eloise's gaze.

“What are you doing here?” he threw at her, angry that she ruined their moment.

Eloise felt no anger, no pain, just a racing chest, hotness behind her eyes, lips that threatened to be unsealed, and coldness that washed over her.

“Can't you speak? He asked, What are you doing here?”

Eloise's heavy eyes became blurred with tears as she glanced from Tamara back to Mason. Her hands trembled, her knees grew weak but she supported herself by grabbing the door knob, slightly shaking her head, blinking her eyes heavily before turning back to them but it wasn't a dream. And hot tears streamed down her cheeks.

Her mind couldn't find a word to think of.

“Since when have you been unable to speak?” His cold voice shows no remorse or guilt.

‘Why?’ the question rang in her mind, tearing her soul apart, ‘ why?’

But when she forced her dry, pale lips open, the question that came out was,

“ Alisha is mine, right?.”

Tamara and Mason exchange a glance. It dawned on them that she might have found out, though they couldn't say how and when she found out.

“ Please,” she pleaded desperately, feeling her world crumble to ashes. She balled her hand to hit her chest, to stop the pain that's crunching the life out of her, but her hands felt too numb to move.

Tamara hissed and looked away with a soft chuckle while Mason sniffed and brushed his nose with a finger.

“ Did something happen?” he asked, feeling awkward but wanting to confirm if she truly knows.

“ Just. Answer. Me,”

“ Well,” he shrugged, not knowing how to tell her exactly, but Tamara glared at him, hating the way he was not slapping her with the truth yet when it was clear to both of them that she knew already.

She hates Eloise's gut with everything, how she always acts all high and mighty, bratty because she has everything she wants, always turning down men with no reason, like she's the most beautiful lady in the world.

“ The child…,” Mason dragged, and Tamara became impatient.

“ She's not yours,” Tamara threw blatantly.

And Eloise's knees gave out.

“ That's not true,” she wept desperately, “ there's no way she isn't mine, please tell me that, tell me all these ain't…,”

“ Remember when I traveled to Italy, for months?,” Tamara cut in, “ well, it wasn't for vacation, it was because I was pregnant, and we can't risk you knowing because of our plan, I arrived two days before you gave birth, though I did not tell you, but we gave birth the same day, your baby was a boy, not a girl, and he died, so Mason suggested we give you mine, atleast, till we get everything we want,” she said shrugging like it was nothing.

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks, looking at them like a doll. No blinking, no moving.

“ It's a win-win, you know,” Mason added, “ and we didn't mean for you to find out this way.”

‘We?’ she glared at him, ‘We?’ she repeated in her mind.

“ You weren't supposed to find out, not yet, not until everything was in place,” Tamara said, loving the moment, enjoying watching her fall apart and so she decided to spill everything, “ Mason never loved you, you know?,” she moved closer to him, trailing his shoulder with the tip of her finger, and a smile of victory plastered on her face.

“You were the one always throwing yourself at him, I met him first, but you snatched him away like you always do,” she eyed her in disgust, “ but it was me he loves, though, he was swimming in a lot of debts that time so he had no choice but to play along, not until we came with a better plan.”

Eloise's lips parted, but no word came out; the lips felt too heavy to move.

“ to take everything you don't know how to cherish, your money, your wealth, your company, and you were quite easy…..”

The rest of Tamara's words fell on Eloise's deaf ears. Her vision became hazy.

‘ All lies?’ she asked in her mind as a memory of them laughing together flashed across her eyes, ‘ all lies?’ another memory of them taking care of each other flashed.

‘They were not real?’ she asked in her mind, unable to open her mouth and speak as a memory of them doing silly things together came rushing in, the days they gossiped together, the days they lay under the sky, grinning and staring at the moonlight together.

Her head spun heavily. Eloise managed to carry herself up, her legs retreated, not wanting to stay in the same room with them for another second. Uncontrollable tears gushed out of her eyes as she staggered into the elevator.

‘ Why?... Why?... What wrong did I do to you? What offense must I have committed? What forbidden word must I have said? Did I love you wrongly? Did I trust you with fault?,’ she gasped for breath as she stepped out of the elevator.

Not caring about her environment, she wept profusely as her legs hastily carried her out of the vicinity.

‘Stop. Stop.” She pleaded with the unbearable pain till her legs couldn't move anymore, ‘make it stop, please, make this stop.’

She bawled out her eyes.

A heavy desperation washed over her, a desperation to make the unbearable pain stop.

She barely made it to the street, disoriented, her legs weak. Her heart heaved, the world spinning.

She didn’t see the speeding car turning the corner.

The tires screeched.

The car slammed into her, throwing her into the air.