Nothing was more comforting than the smell of her perfume and Maria’s cooking. It quickly dawned on him why he liked her scent so much, it reminded him of childhood. She smelled floral and sweet, a scent he counsels really place his hands on but he liked it anyway. Everything seemed normal, the clanking of pots in the kitchen signified that Maria was at home. Maybe Ruby was at home too? He thought.He stood, rooted to the ground for a minute. He was scared to call Ruby’s name with no answer. “Nate” Maria said, a little startled by his presence and joined him in the living room. “How are you?” “Where’s Ruby?” He asked, his voice unstableMaria had lived with him for years and he knew all her tricks. When something bad happened, she tried to distract him by talking about something irrelevant. “I need you to calm down” she said soothingly “Ruby left, she wasn’t in a good mood” “What do you mean she left?” Nate cried. “You should have stopped her” “Nate, it was beyo

Ruby smiled as she waved excitedly at Mark. She watched his car pull out of her parents driveway, his car revving up some dust as he drove.She was thankful to be back at home, she didn’t want to become an inconvenience to Mark even though he didn’t complain much.She placed her hands on her waist as she breathed in fresh air and then sat on an empty chair on the porch.She rubbed her forehead as she tried to soothe her throbbing headache. Nate had called her a couple of times but she didn’t answer. He sent roses to Mark's house before she had left and he had sent some notes with it. It hurt that she couldn’t speak to him or feel him but she wasn’t sure she was ready to have a conversation with him yet. If there was a chance or shot for something worthwhile between them, she wanted him to know the truth, to know that she had loved him for years even though he had constantly hurt her. “Honey, are you good?” Her mother asked softly as she joined her on the porch Ruby nodded

“Hunny, are you good?” Esme asked for the thousandth time that afternoon Mark had given Ruby a week off to heal from all that had happened. There wasn’t a better way for her to spend her weekend than with her best friend. Esme’s tummy was now twice the size it used to be, the doctors had said she was due soon but the good side to it was that she wasn’t as emotional anymore. It felt like all the pregnancy symptoms she used to have during her first trimester were now gone. “I’m in shock, I’m drained emotionally” Ruby admitted sadly A new ramen spot had opened in town so they decided to try it out. Ruby had noticed that somehow , she was always excited for good food so she thought it would make her feel better. It had been a week since she saw Nate and she felt empty. Everyday got worse than the previous one.At first, she had spent a couple of days in bed crying her eyes out, stuffing her face with ice cream and chocolates and then watching sad romance movies. “Tell me a

It was the first time she had an opportunity to meet with Doris after months of her hiding. Ruby smiled as she brushed her hair into a bun. For some sort of reason, she was excited to see her old friend as it had been long since they met each other. Doris used a couple of burner phones to text her, each time she texted her, it was a new number. A week ago, she had asked Ruby to get a journal for her. The journal belonged to Wesley and it contained business transactions and some proof of Wyatt’s involvement in major frauds. Ruby had been skeptical about it, she knew Nate kept most of Wesley’s belongings in the basement but she knew it wasn’t in her place to go through his late fathers stuff also, it wouldn’t make any sense for her to surprise Nate by telling him that she had been working with Doris who was wanted by Wyatt and had been labeled a dangerous woman. On the spur of the moment, she decided to get the journal from the basement and other things Doris had said she’d

Ruby pulled out the journal from her bag and handed it over to Doris. She had been tempted to take a look at it but then she suffered so much guilt and decided not to. She knew how angry Nate was going to be when he found out that she took it without his permission. Grace had told her that he single-handedly moved some of his father’s belongings to his house with the intention of looking at them, to know what kind of man his father was but he never really had a chance to do so as it hurt everytime he tried. Ruby sighed as she watched Doris and Roberta go through the book, she wished Nate had gone through the book by himself, that way, he would have discovered more. “You have to return the book immediately you’re done” Ruby said, she wasn’t feeling as enthusiastic as she felt in the beginning. “I would,” Doris replied. “Wyatt has been waiting for my publication for a while and I’ve delayed because I needed more things to use against him. At first, I wanted to reveal what real