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The beginning of deception
The next morning, Carol woke up very late, around a few minutes past ten, and was not surprised to see that Sebastian was not around. She looked for a note but did not see any, after which she laughed at her foolishness. When did she and Sebastian begin to have the kind of relationship in which he left a note for her when he was to go out? Realizing that she was famished, she ordered some food to be brought to her and then devoured it hungrily, after which she took her bath and headed out of the hotel, leaving a note for Sebastian that said she was going shopping.
Carol did not know where she was going to go, or what she was going to do, but she was damned sure not going to stay closeted in a hotel room while in Paris. She was almost at the elevator when her phone rang shrilly inside her bag, so she paused and rummaged inside the bag for it to see that it was her sister who was calling. Carol stared at the phone screen warily. The last time that she had heard from her sister
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By the time Carol came back in the evening, famished and sweaty from all the shopping that she had done, Sebastian was nowhere to be found, neither did it look like he even came back at all in all the time that she had been away. She dumped the parcels she was holding on a nearby chair and proceeded to take off all her clothes before having a much-needed bath. The day had been rewarding, albeit stressful. She had visited a lot of tourist attractions and shopped a little. Now that she knew that the money that Sebastian had sent to her was hers to keep, she could use it freely. Some days ago, she had sent the money that her mother had requested from her but did not even get a thank you for it. Carol sighed and shook her head. By the time she was done having her bath and had eaten dinner, Sebastian was still nowhere to be found. Carol was beginning to become a little worried. What sort of business meeting was this that kept him out till nearly ten in the night? “I’ll ju
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I don’t believe you.” Jessica said quietly after Charlotte dropped her bombshell. Charlotte had just told her that Sebastian’s uncle, Mr. James was the one who ordered her kidnap, torture, and finally, death. “Yeah. I know that you won’t believe me. You never believe anything I say unless I give you proof. Tell me, which one is harder to believe? That Sebastian got married to another woman five months after you disappeared, or that his uncle, who used to be a notorious drug dealer wanted you tortured and killed after you cheated on his beloved nephew? These people kill for things that are way less than that. Everyone knows this.” “I know, but Mr. James loves me very much.” “I think 'loved' is the word that you’re looking for. People like this do not care one bit about whatever relationship they had with you in the past once you mess up your loyalty to them, and you messed up big time.” “So you’re saying that Mr. James asked you to do all this to me?” “Tell me one thing. Why on ear
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Jessica nodded in the affirmative, that she understood everything that the woman had said. She would be damned if she let herself get killed when she had a chance to get free after Sebastian’s uncle had ordered that she be killed. She still did not understand any of what Charlotte’s mission was, and frankly, she did not give a flying fuck. All that mattered was that she got out of the whole thing alive and well... or as well as could be, considering her current state. “Of course, I don’t need to tell you that when I said you are to keep a low profile, I meant that you are to stay away, not just from Sebastian and his family, but also from everyone that you know, your family included,” Charlotte said, watching Jessica intently as though she would be able to decipher from her face if she would follow these instructions to the letter or not.
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“Soon after that, Sebastian was discharged from the hospital and James took him and his wife and disappeared without a trace from the city we lived in then. My mother was heartbroken because she had come to fall in love with the bastard, plus her family disowned her when they found out that she was pregnant, so she was all alone, pregnant at the age of twenty. After she gave birth to us, we really suffered. I remember us being homeless for the better part of our lives before we turned seven when she managed to track the bastard down. He was living large and was extremely rich while we were living in squalor with not even a roof over our heads. After months, she managed to get an audience with him and begged him to take my brother and me even if he wanted nothing to do with her. Do you know what that bastard did? He sneered in her face, called her a harlot, and told her that he wasn’t the one who fathered us and that he now has a son…Sebas
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The days passed in pretty much the same fashion for Carol. Sebastian left the hotel most times before she woke up and came back after she had gone to bed. As such, they hardly ever saw each other, not to talk of talking to each other. Carol did not mind though. Since that night that she had called him to check up on him and he had yelled at her for no reason, she had begun to dislike him even more than she had before. It was such a pity that she still had such a long time to spend with him. She spent her days painting the different places that she had visited, deciding that when she got back home, she would send them to some of the homeless shelters in which she volunteered while she was still single. It was the evening before she and Sebastian were scheduled to leave Paris, and she had packed up all her things and was now seated and painting the Eiffel tower. As usual, Sebastian was not around and
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Carol’s mouth remained open in shock as she processed Sebastian’s words. The almighty Sebastian had just apologized to her? Perhaps she was dreaming and was not lucid because it was too surprising for words. Sebastian took her silence to be that she was not satisfied with his apology and tried again. “Look, I know that you do not believe me, but that’s the truth. You called at the wrong time, that was why I answered the way I did.” “It’s fine. It’s fine.” Carol said hurriedly. She disliked it when people thought she was mad at them and since Sebastian had already apologized, then it was cool. "Alright. From what just transpired, I’ll take a wide guess and say that you’ll rather not have come on this trip with me.” Sebastian said, moving away and starting to pack his stuff. “Well, I did get to see Paris for the first time and I’ve always wanted to do so, so there’s that.” “You’ve never been to Paris before?” Sebastian asked incredulously.
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The fleeting camaraderie that Sebastian and Carol shared the night before they left Paris disappeared as though it had never been when they got back home. Carol never saw much of Sebastian in the months that followed that time, and when she did see him, he acted as though they were strangers. The only time that there was a semblance of normalcy between them was whenever his uncle called and they had to talk to the man together. As time passed, Carol began to hate this arrangement with a passion. If he wanted to act like she did not exist, then it was better that he did so all the time, and not just when it suited his purposes. He made sure that she got her monthly allowance at the end of every month, and even doubled it, making it a hundred thousand dollars from the fifty thousand that it was when she first started to live with him. When Carol asked him about it, he told her that it was a reward that he thought that she should have for playing her part in trying to convince his uncle
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That night, Carol sat up past her bedtime, waiting for Sebastian to come home. He entered the living room where she was sitting at eleven on the dot, looking so weary that her heart went out to him immediately. “Hey. Good evening.” She called to him, wondering to herself why he always looked so tired. He looked surprised to see her, and she realized that he did not see her there at first. “Carol. How are you doing?” “I’m good, and you?” “I’m fine. What are you doing up so late?” he asked, moving over to the minibar and pouring himself a glass of whiskey. He downed the contents of the glass in one go before pouring another drink and sinking heavily into the closest chair to him. “I wanted to talk to you,” Carol told him hesitantly. She was alway
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