LOGIN"Caramel... Caramel!"Messi knocked on the guest room door again, harder this time, and heard nothing. He pulled out his phone and dialed the number he had given her but no response.His eyes landed on the time 12:02 p.m. It had been 11:58 the last time he checked, and he had spent every one of those minutes pacing the hallway and telling himself there was nothing to worry about.Was she really still sleeping at noon? Or had she slipped past him and the guards with nothing but a ruined dress and a card he had pushed into her hand? Or was she...He cut the thought off, but it stayed. His chest tightened and he could hear his father's voice in his head as clearly as if the man were standing behind him. He had been twelve, holding a school report with every grade at the top, and his father had barely glanced at it. "At your age your cousin Boney used to score 100% in all his subjects. You'll never be good enough, Messi. Not for anything that matters."Now it came back with a different e
The door of Room 1108 stayed closed, but Caramel could not stop staring at it. She just made a deal with a stranger and her heart was pounding hard. “I need to know something,” she said, turning to the man beside her. “What is your name?"“Messi.”“Messi who?”“For now, it's just Messi,” he started walking towards the elevator. “Names are easy to find but trust is not and I need you to trust me.”Caramel followed him. “So, why do you hate Boney?”“Let's just say he took something from me too.”“That’s not an answer.”“Well, maybe not. But that is all you should know for now.”The elevator opened and she stepped in beside him, her eyes caught a reflection of herself in the mirror wall; her hair was messy, eyes red and swollen. She was still wearing the birthday dress with a dark stain near the hem. She looked away fast.Her phone buzzed inside her hand bag: she had forgotten it was even there, she took it out and frowned looking at the screen. [Your account access has been suspended
Caramel stood there long enough that he almost turned to leave. Then she took a step forward. "Fine." She looked at him and held his gaze. "I'll go with you. But..." She paused and Messi eyebrow lifted."If this is a trap," she continued quietly, "you'll regret it. I promise."He smirked then his face turned cold at once. "Noted." He turned and walked toward the street while Caramel followed. The car was parked beneath a streetlight. She hesitated before getting in, then forced herself into the passenger seat.Neither of them spoke during the drive. Caramel sat with her arms folded across herself, staring out of the window. She was exhausted. Her body still felt weak from the hospital, and her head was full of things she couldn't make sense of.The car eventually slowed in front of a large hotel. Caramel looked through the windshield. She had never been here before.She turned to look at Messi "Why are we here?"Messi turned off the engine. Then he looked at her for a moment through
Boney stood alone in the empty ballroom long after the ambulance lights had faded from the windows. Chairs lay overturned. Someone's abandoned phone still blinked on a table, forgotten in the rush. The silence hit him differently now than it had an hour ago, when he'd imagined this moment as something closer to victory.He hadn't expected the blood or the way she'd looked at him right before her knees gave out, like some part of her was still waiting for him to say it was a mistake.A door suddenly opened behind him."You look like a man who just lost, not won." His uncle's voice was calm, almost amused, as he stepped further into the room, hands folded behind his back.Boney didn't turn around. "She was pregnant."His uncle nodded. "So I heard.""You don't sound surprised." Boney turned and held his uncle's gaze."I'm not." His uncle came to stand beside him, studying the wreckage of chairs and spilled wine glasses like it was art. "Does it matter?"Boney's jaw tightened. "She lost t
The first thing she saw was white.For a few seconds she only stared, her breathing uneven and her mind struggling to catch up with her body. Everything felt heavy, like she'd been dragged out of somewhere deep and dropped another place, she didn't recognize.Then everything came rushing back, at once.The stage. The crowd. His voice against her ear. Her chest tightened, and her hand moved instinctively to her stomach. The chair beside her bed was empty.She was alone.The door opened and a nurse stepped in, followed by a doctor."What... happened?" Caramel's voice came out dry."You were brought in after collapsing," the doctor said. "And I must say, you lost a lot of blood."Her fingers curled against the sheet. "And... my baby?"The silence lasted only a second, but it was enough. "I'm sorry. We lost the baby."Everything in her stilled. Her hands pressed harder against her stomach, like she could hold onto something already gone. Tears slipped down her face, silenty. Afterwards, t
Boney straightened and watched Caramel's face carefully waiting for a crack. Caramel didn't move at first. Her head was lowered and her hands was trembling badly. Gradually, she lifted her head and looked at him.The man in front of her didn't look like the person she fell in love with. He looked like a total stranger. Before she could speak, Boney gave someone a small signal and a screen lit up behind her.She didn't turn immediately. But the room wasn't the same anymore. Chairs scraped and her parents looked up sharply, their faces filled with shock as they stared past her. Slowly, she turned and saw it.Apparently , everything she'd just read was projected for the whole room to see. Her breath caught and the paper slipped from her fingers to the floor. "No..." she whispered.Murmurs rose around her."What is that?""Divorce on her birthday?"She turned back to him, eyes heavy with tears. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" Her voice shook. "What's going on?"He didn't answer. Cameras







