Chapter 12: I don't like Her
WHILE DRYING HER hair, she got a message from Clarita. 'He's home, it was a false alarm.' After reading it she checked what time was it. Six in the evening, she swiped her phone and texted Lora. 'Good Job,' just that. It was laced with sarcasm and partly genuine. She was thankful that she did what she was asked to but she couldn't let the part that Lora betrayed her by informing Fred too. She was already in her apartment, their driver send her home at three in the afternoon. As her eyes fell on her painting materials, she seemed hypnotized by them. She put her blower down and got her paintbrush and started mixing paints. While dipping her paintbrush into a bloody red shade of color, she was staring at the white Oslo paper on her painting stand. She was already imagining the image, she carelessly stroked the red paint on it. There has no definite direction it was messy in the center. After drying it she got her black ink, using that ink for her pen she did a heart outline. Then she started making lines in the heart. The next moment it was a bloody red heart that is broken like a mirror. But she didn't stop there, she made thick curve lines horizontally in the center, which became torn eventually. Then she started making blood drops from it. While the wild stroke of red, which overlap the heart shape became the smudge background. She turned to her phone when she heard it tweeted, she was expecting a reply from Lora but she instead received a message from an unknown number. 'You gave your number to Lola Clarita while I am your classmate.' She realized who was it instantly. 'And?' she replied. 'You should have given me your number first.' A small smile formed on her lips. He seemed childish that made Fera smile. 'Did you ask it?' 'I was thinking you might feel uncomfortable about it!' he instantly replied which made Fera smile more. She copied her previous reply and pasted it on the message bubble then resend it. 'I didn't,' his reply was together with an annoying emoticon. She already bites her lips to suppress her laughter. 'There you go,' she typed. And he only replied with an angry emoticon, which made Fera giggle. But she accidentally elbowed a container of paint. "Shit!" she harshly uttered and took everything away from the paint. "Bloody great," she weakly murmured while looking at the red paint on the floor. She moved her carpet away from it. "What a great life." She tossed her phone in her bed and started cleaning it. But smudges stayed, she couldn't remove them anymore. After a few attempts of scrubbing them off, she decided to give up. 'I will buy an acid for this, my floor is ridiculously ugly.' She finished her painting and faced her school works. While bitting her pen, and formulating the answer. Her hand find paper, a clean paper, and started scribing letters. 'Blood runs down your vein, Faith scribes on your palm, Even your body is full of numbness Life goes on when it seems lifeless.' The poem was fuel to her. Every poem she wrote was a hidden story she kept. To avoid it from building up, she let it out through the ink of her pen. Then Nick’s face suddenly appeared in her head. She flipped the page and unconsciously moved her pen. 'You are as fine as the sun, As strong as its heat, As bright as its light. And you made my day, quite gay, as to how sun used to be.' She reread it and her eyebrow turn into colliding which made it one line. From emo to hopeless romantic real quick. "Something must have knocked my head. When on earth did I start writing this kind of genre?" She unbelievably reread it once again. It was weird but I was making her smile. 'I never thought I will be writing something like this,' she mentally confesses. She stood up and climbed into her bed. Going to sleep was not as bad as how it used to be. That was the truth that she couldn't lie. And the weekend ended that way. SHE WAS TYING her hair into a tight bond and making sure it was smooth and flawless. Exactly after fixing her hair up, someone knocked. She opened it Nick’s face showed up. "Yes?" she asked. "I only want to say sorry for what happened yesterday, you were supposed to have fun not to witness that one." "You can text it, you know?" She let him in and she started filling her bag with her notes. "I can't sense your sarcasm through text." He took a juice from her Fridge and drank it. "Feel at home," she spoke fiercely as she witnessed his feel-at-home attitude. "See?" he asked. "We're running late," they both got out and started walking. "So what does jail looks like?" he smiled in embarrassment and shook his head. "Not cool, I would cry if I spend a night in there. Let's not bring it up, hahaha!" and he laughed. To his surprise, Fera laughed along. "Good thing your grandmother saved your ass from it." And his laughter fell into deep thoughts. "Her lawyer promised to free me soon as they can but they hadn't done something and the police let me go. Lola even jumped in surprise to see me, and lolo asked me if I escaped from jail. "According to them it was a false alarm, the case turned out for Constancio." She smiled and nodded. "Good to hear that." The weak voice hadn't failed to make it grateful as it should be. "But I think something is up, why would arrest Constancio instead of me when he had more legible proof than I. And more influential than my family." And she felt a sudden strike of the lump in her throat. "Is that matter?" she couldn't make it visible to him. He was observant and after one mistake he'd got an idea that it must be her. "Of course, something major happened that made the police officers decide that way. Someone may be helped me." She could feel her neck start burning and sweat started building up. "And?" "Why would he or she help me?" "Why not?" "No, that's not what I meant. He might have something to Constancio, maybe he is one of his enemies." She gave him a slow nod as if she agreed with it. "Thanks to him or her you hadn’t spent your night in jail." She remarked but Nick seemed to have something in his head. "He has eyes everywhere if that is true, when I got arrested only a few knew about it. My grandparents forbid it to happen but he still got the information, and he promptly took action. For an outsider, they would take a few days to learn about my trouble." Once he finished explaining those they reached the school gate. "I don't get it." She didn't get why would Nick react that way, and how did he know someone helps him which was Fera. "Forget about it," he dismissed the topic but it keeps running in his mind and Fera knew that. "Chill, there's nothing big about it," Fera told him but he only looked at her. "He greatly made things work and it seemed flawless, he got the information that quickly and did the best timing. This is a big deal, who is this powerful man behind this?" His critical thinking led him to overthink simple things. "Calm your thoughts," before they entered their room. "Nick! Are you alright? Oh, look at your face I was so worried." A girl jump onto Nick and gave him a tight hug then kept checking his wounds and bruises. Fera walked straight to her chair as if she hadn't seen it. Some of her classmates were eyeing her but she only got her cellphone and started surfing the internet. The girl was new to her sight but she keep on looking at her phone to wait for the teacher to come. "I'm fine Mika," she heard him answer. "What happened? Why do you have all of this?" She started harshly scrolling but restrain herself to make it too obvious. Almost everyone was watching the three of us. "Nothing much," Fera thankfully sigh when she heard their teacher arrived. She slipped her phone into her pocket and face the board. "Nick, let's sit over there." "I prefer here," and he pulled a chair next to Fera. The girl disappointedly walked to the nearest chair. The discussion started and Nick hit her arm using his elbow. "Did you notice something unusual on that ride last Saturday? That ride to my grandparent's house." He whispered while they both face the front. "No, I didn’t," she mumbled low as she could. "Just drop it for a moment, give it a rest." She annoyingly said too. "Alright-alright, calm down." He immediately noticed her annoyance. During the whole discussion, Fera was in her usual quiet mood, just like the normal days. "I don't like her," a bitchy voice did its way to her ears.Chapter 72: Epilogue“Wow, the beauty still falls in love with the beast?” Little Laire amusingly said after her father finished reading the story. “Dad had read that story for a millionth time,” Laike the other little girl boringly whined and pouted. “Like, it’s the love story of our parents.” She exclaimed and Nick cringed his forehead. “Dad isn’t a beast, that’s not true.” Laike pushed her which made Nick nod and agreed with her daughter. “Mom is, it was just a little twisted.” Laire and Nick’s eyes widen and turned to his wife who was busy cooking for dinner. “Did I hear that right, Laire!” “I would very much happy to be excluded from this narrative,” Laike said and jumped down the chair. “Shut up, you’re not Taylor.” Nick only crossed his arms looking at his children. “Well, at least I’m gorgeous as her,” Laike said and placed her palm on her hip. “Well, we’re twin, what a shame.” Laire rolled her eyes with her twin’s nonsense remark. “You copied my face whe
Chapter 71: Clearing OperationShe went back to the car and found that Lora was out of nowhere. “Where’s Lora?” “Brought a coffee for you.” He said and she opened her laptop. A smile instantly formed on her lips. “Gotcha.” She whispered when she saw the one who was following her. “Did Fred stop following me?” “Yes, you’re on your own now, according to him,” Bald replied to her. “Prepare yourself, we’ll conduct a little clearing operation.” Soon as Lora got into the car she threw the coffees out and Baldo drove fast to chase the one who put poison in her drink. “Who’s that? Is it Constancio?” Lora asked but Fera shook her head and change her clothes. Prepared her gun and wore combat shoes. “I think it was him who killed Nana Felly.” She dropped and Lora started changing her clothes too. Baldo used to see Fera change but Lora was a little distracted. “Eyes on the road!” Lora shouted when he almost bumped a car in front. He traces the other direction to corner the motor
Chapter 70: Terms and ConditionFera’s POVShe was looking at his text message, it said ‘Our flight will be today eight pm, will you be there?’ She didn’t reply whether she’d be there or not. He called but she only watched it ring and didn’t pick up. She looked out of her window, she was in her pajamas still even though it was noon. When she promised ‘all yours,’ she meant it. Still, it didn’t mean that she’d be active. She was all his by heart and by soul not by her, the whole she. “The word us has ended when Fera Luzares has fallen.” She knew that no one, not even herself could love her. She opened her laptop and she saw an email too. It was from Lora and quoted, Nick, wants you to read this.’ She didn’t open the letter and proceeded on checking the data. She checked the company's situation. Two of her stakeholders pulled their shares. Didn’t want to get involved in any issue. “Good to see you, Lora.” She greeted before Lora could address her. She was visibly surpris
Chapter 69: ConfrontationFera’s POV“Good morning, Miss Fera.” Baldo greeted her as he stood beside her bed. “I want to leave now.” She dry voice has returned, the chill that it brought was there too. I little glee Baldo felt when he confirmed that she was finally back. “I have arranged the bills, should I wait outside?” He answered and she nodded, he walked back out of the room and she change her clothes with the clothes he brought. She was wondering, why Lora didn’t come to get her. Without further orders, they drove away from the hospital. “I want to see, Fred.” He immediately turned to the other lane and drove to Fred’s penthouse. It seemed quiet and calm in his pad. “Are you he’s inside?” “He knew that you’d come for him.” She went out of the car and entered flawlessly into his penthouse. As she reached his room, she didn’t bother knocking and harshly opened it. She stepped back enough to reach Baldo’s gun behind her. “Miss-”“Shh, wait outside.” And she enter
Chapter 68: Left OutBen’s POV(Before the hearing)He went to his car and watched Lora open the main door. He could drool over the Fuentes mansion, if a white house was full of white then the mansion was all black. They used to stay here and this house was off limits to anyone, it was a privilege for him to see. Their penthouse used to be the show house but this one. Only the Fuentes and their servants could enter here. He fixed his shirt as if he was about to meet the president. “You won’t see anyone in there, don’t be nervous.” She said and opened the house. He was greeted by a spacious living area with a grand stair beside him. The gigantic chandelier above was unbelievably huge. The black wall and black glass walls around were overwhelming. The crimson black couch was inviting and black glass center table with a black flower vase on a gray mat. “Aren’t you going to investigate, Ben?” She asked which snapped him back to reality.“Right, I want to see her room.” The f
Chapter 67: Night Full of GriefFera’s POVA hard slap planted on her left cheek, ‘Shameful! Haven’t I told you to take care of our name?’ That memory would never leave her alone. She would bow her head and say sorry. ‘Protect our name,’‘Make our family proud,’‘You are Fuentes, act as it.’ Words that she had been holding since then, she was tired of those rules and limitations. Deafening her in her dreams. “I’m sorry, dad. I should have protected your name. They dug up all that past we hid.” The angry face of her father was in her head. She could hear her father’s voice all over again, he was mad, very mad, and would slap her across her face. ‘Careless,’‘Weak!’‘Does crying will fix a thing?’ His words were hunting her, she buried her face in her pillows. The annoying beep beside her added frustrate her more. The pain still felt the same, it was the same pain when she realized that her mother was dead and her father died. Fate had been playing her life too much.“F