Elisa was restless. She couldn't get much sleep and the guilt was eating at her. What was she thinking?
She didn't even need to put herself in Mira's shoes to understand exactly how she felt. She was so hell bent on making sure that there was no loop hole in her plans that she forgot that she was dealing with the emotions of someone..
She thought of Mira. The courage she must have gathered coming to tell her that she agreed to spy on her, only to receive such heart shattering realisation that she put them up to it..
"God, I'm a monster." Elisa muttered audibly without even realising it.
She picked up her phone, contemplating if she could apologize by text. But then she kicked against it, after putting herself in Mira's shoes. She wouldn't want such an apology.
She decided to let her be for now, and so as her plans. She let them all rest.
Meanwhile, Jake received a call from the station, telling him to come in. He was pre-informed two days ago, and he had asked Bella to sort it out as he wasn't interested, but it seemed she did nothing since he got a message of reminder and there was no way out of it except going.
Across the city, in a sterile, fluorescent-lit room, Jake sat uncomfortably on a metal chair. The case was meant to be closed but an anonymous sender revealed an important piece of information and it needed to be confirmed. "Mr. Miller," the detective said, leaning over a folder. "You were at the party the night Elisa Ausborn was awarded, right?"
"Ye..Yes" Jake stuttered. 'Shouldn't I have a lawyer?' he wondered.
"So at 1:25, where were you?"
"I…was downstairs, in the kitchen" he cleared his throat.
"How well do you know Mrs Elisa Ausborn?" the detective asked, narrowing his eyes at him.
"she's … uh.. she's an acquaintance"
"An acquaintance " the detective's eyes glittered. "But these pictures say otherwise" he said, pulling out a brown envelope and pouring out the pictures. Jake grabbed one of them, his heart beating loudly against his chest. In the photo he held, he was kissing Elisa. And others showed them in a romantic position.
"Why did you lie to me, Mr Miller?"
"I…she… nobody knows about our relationship. I just thought you… I… "Jake kept shut. He was stuttering a lot and it was clearly putting ideas in the detective's head.
Jake's pulse hammered against his throat, but he maintained a practiced, somber face. "Around 1;25, I was looking for her. I thought she had gone to get some air. We were… we were planning our future that night."
"And her sister? Bella? She says she was in the restroom, yet your phone records show a call between you two exactly three minutes before the fall. Why call someone in the same house?"
"I… I was checking if she had seen Elisa," Jake stammered, his cool facade cracking. "Is it a crime to be worried?"
"Not a crime, Mr. Miller. Just a coincidence. You're free to go, for now."
As Jake left the premises, a call came through for the detective. He answered the call. "You were right. Something is indeed fishy"
Jake didn't go home. He drove straight to Bella's penthouse, slamming the door so hard the glass vases rattled.
"What is the meaning of this, Bella? Why is there still an investigation going on?"
"I can't close the case yet. She was a public figure. It needed to be handled delicately to avoid matters flipping out of my fingers. This could easily be pushed as a public case and it would make everything worse" She got up, catwalking toward him. "One interview wouldn't hurt. Besides," she placed her hands on his chest. "It made you come all the way here. We haven't seen since that day" she slid her hands down his crotch, and squeezed gently.
Jake grabbed her hands and pushed them away. "I am serious, Bella. You should have seen the way I was stuttering."
"All those questions hold no meaning, babe. It'll be over soon" she said, her voice cultry as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down for a lingering kiss.
"You haven't touched me in a while, and I'm aching down there" she slurred, taking his hands and leading them under her big polo. She wasn't wearing any panties.
It was as if she was expecting him. Jake slid his fingers inside as he began to get hard. He lifted her by the ass and threw her on the sofa. "Godddd. You make me so hard" he said.
She bit her lips as she waited for him to come and devour her.
"Open your legs" he said, as he began taking off his shirt and trousers.
"MMM, yes daddy"
....
In the mahogany-paneled silence of the Walker corporate headquarters, Daniel stood before Ethan's desk. The city lights flickered behind the CEO, casting him in shadow.
"Sir," Daniel said, his voice low. "The report you asked for regarding Mr Byrns' whereabouts"
Ethan didn't look up from his tablet. "Speak."
""He met with your wife, Mrs Ashley Walker. They met in a private lounge for nearly an hour. She appeared to be the one leading the conversation."
The room seemed to drop ten degrees. Ethan's pen snapped in his hand. Anderson Byrns and Ashley?
Why was his wife, Ashley, meeting with him? And how did she get them to meet?
"Keep watching him. See if they meet again"
"Yes boss"
Elisa had given Mira the amount of space she felt she needed.
Four days later, Elisa found herself in a cramped, peeling hallway of a public apartment building. It was a world away from the marble floors of the Walker mansion.
She had tracked Mira down. When the door opened, Mira looked exhausted, holding a coughing toddler in her arms. Her eyes turned to stone the moment she saw Elisa in her wheelchair.
"Go away," Mira said, starting to close the door.
"Wait!" Elisa reached out, her hand trembling. "I'm not here as your boss. I'm here as… someone who is lost."
Mira paused, looking at the high-society woman sitting in a dingy hallway.
"I spent my life—my entire life—being betrayed by the people I loved most," Elisa said, her voice breaking. " I trusted the wrong people. When I woke up from the accident, I promised I would never let anyone close enough to hurt me again. I turned into a monster to protect myself, and I ended up hurting the only person who was actually kind to me."
Elisa looked up, tears streaming down her face. "I don't want the nurse, Mira. I want a friend. I'm sorry I used Richard. I'm sorry I didn't believe in the good left in the world."
She held out a small envelope. "This isn't a bribe. It's a trust fund for Richard's treatment. Whether you come back or not, he gets the surgery. I don't want anything in return."
Mira looked at the envelope, then at the raw, broken expression on Elisa's face, and her heart was filled with pity.
With a heavy sigh, Mira stepped back, opening the door wider. "He's sleeping in the other room. Come in. The tea is cheap, but it's hot."
Elisa let out a sob of relief. She had won her first real ally.