Chapter Three: Dark clouds after the storm

The house became so calm after Helen and her mother left but it felt like her presence remained. Her perfume refused to depart with her. 

The silence we experienced wasn't peace; but suspense. 

Benjamin and I barely spoke for the rest of the day. The words were too fragile to carry out what was hidden in our heart. Instead, we passed each other like strangers that were trapped in a cage. 

By evening, he went to his study leaving me by the window, watching the sun drown into the horizon, red as betrayal. 

Helen began to resurface in my thought. Her arrogance, her evil smiles. But what frightened me the most, was the flicker of fear that flashed in her eyes before she left. 

"Fear of what"?. 

        --------

The tires screeched as Helen's car came to a halt outside an old abandoned building, behind it were tall fences and wild hibiscus bushes.

Helen! , this is a risky place which we ought not to be in. Her mother spoke in a fidgeting tone. 

"I'm trying mom!. She replied.

She got out of the car, trying to take a look at what is happening when she noticed something else.

"You look like you've been slapped", Melanie said dryly, her eyes scanning through Helen's cheek.

What really happened back at the house? She asked.

"I was," Helen replied, her voice trembling with restrained anger. "By her".

"Her?" 

"Audrey." 

I told you, you play with fire too soon, and you'll get burned."

Helen's composure broke. " I did everything you said! I got close to Benjamin. I made her doubt him. She was supposed to walk away. Just like you planned. But instead,he chose her!"

Melanie smiled faintly, slow and venomous. " Men rarely choose logic my dear, they choose guilt. And she makes him feel guilty. That's her only weapon."

Helen clenched her fists. " Then we'll take that weapon away from her."

Her mother's eyes narrowed.

" Pedphas. But next time, we don't attack through the heart. We strike at the past."

   -----

Benjamin and I sat across each other during dinner. The clinking of the cutlery was louder than words.

He finally broke the silence. "I know you might think I let her in because I wanted or needed her. But that's not the reason." 

I looked up slowly. "Then what is?".

He hesitated,his fork froze mid-air. 

"Helen wasn't just meddling for pleasure but also blackmailing me." 

This word dropped like stone between us.

"Blackmailing you for what?.

 He ran his hand through his hair, his eyes became clouded.

" Something happened years ago. 

"Benjamin..." I said softly, "what did you do?"

He sighed. "It wasn't just me. It was my father and Helen's mother." My father had a business deal with her years ago. But the deal went wrong. Money was misplaced, a man got missing, and Melanie blamed my father. When he gave up the ghost, she turned her attention to me." 

"Why?" 

"Because she thinks I know the secrets behind everything.

I blinked. "Do you?"

His silence already gave me an answer I wasn't willing to accept. 

------

That night, as Benjamin went to his study again, I galavanted the hallway, unable to sleep. The moonlight pooled across the marble floors,and I heard a faint sound from the study . Papers rustling and the clinking of metals .

I moved closer, peeping through the half- open door.

To my greatest surprise, Benjamin wasn't alone.

He was on the phone. His voice was very low, and urgent.

"Yes, I got your message...

No, she has no idea yet ...

I'll make sure I get it before she finds out... But please make sure you stay out of this Melanie, at least for now." They were words I heard that sent shivers down my spine.

 I froze, my heart panting more than the usual.

" She doesn't know yet.

Who was he referring to? Me?

When he turned and noticed me, he flinched. " Audrey," he said quickly, faking a smile. " You should be in bed by now."

" And who were you talking to?"

" No one important. Just a client."

" Then why did you say Melanie should stay out of it, stay out of what exactly?".

His face paled.

" You heard that?"

" Yes"

He ran his hand through his hair frustrated."It's quite complicated." 

"Try me." 

He opened his mouth, but before he could utter any word there was a loud sound that echoed from the front porch. 

We both froze. 

He rushed out, and I was right behind him. On the porch we found a white envelope sealed with crimson wax. There was no address, no sender's name. It only bore a symbol. 

A serpent around a rose.

His hands trembled as he picked up the letter. He refused to open it immediately.

"Who sent it?" I asked.

He looked at the symbol, his eyes filled with dread.

"Melanie," he whispered. "That's her symbol." 

      ~~~~~

Helen watched as her mother filled a glass with red wine, her smile not fully satisfied.

"What did you send to him mom?" Helen asked.

"Just a reminder," Melanie said, swirling the glass slowly. "A secret he thought died a long time with his father. The kind that could possibly destroy everything he's trying to rebuild." 

Helen wasn't happy with the idea at all. "You're not really going to ruin him, are you?" 

Melanie smirked. "Oh, darling. We're not going to ruin him. We're just setting the stage. And when the truth finally unfolds, it won't just be Benjamin who falls. It'll be Audrey who breaks".

  ~~~~~~

I stared at the letter on the table where he had abandoned it unopened. The wax seal glistened in the dim light. My instincts couldn't help but scream for me to touch it.

So I reached for it.

And as the wax cracked under my fingers, I said my prayers silently. That whatever truth hid inside won't

be the kind that destroys. 

But deep down, I already knew that truths like these never saves. It only revealed more dangerous secrets.