'Marriage?', I asked, shocked she was so involved with someone to contemplate it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she was always careful, dainty. I never thought in that direction about her. Why would I? She left me.
'Well, sort of. I think so', she blushed.
'Huh? I don't get it. Either you are getting married or you are not', I questioned the fact.
'He hasn't proposed yet', she mumbled.
'Then how can you be sure he is going to', I asked astonished. Trust my Sister to plan the names of her children even before the marriage proposal.
'I'm 100% sure he is going to propose and soon', she exaggerated stubbornly.
'Whatever you say', I mumbled while eating my sandwich.
I tried to think of something to divert our current discussion. I don't want to be the one to lift the veil from her eyes.
'How did you know my number?', I asked, recalling the call yesterday.
'Jack hired a PI', she replied.
'PI? As in Detective? Does this guy follow me or something? You had me followed? Wait, who is jack?’, for that matter I don't know what happened to her after she left us.
'My boyfriend and no I haven't done anything like that. It's just to learn your number', she said faster as if to end the discussion.
'When am I going to meet him?'
'Umm, it's just that no one knows we are seeing each other. We want to keep it a secret for a while. You know, getting to know each other, being cozy', she said wiggling her eyebrows.
'Ok. It's your life. If you are safe', I said not mulling over my sister’s coziness with her Boyfriend.
I wondered what happened to her after she left us.
'What were you doing with yourself these 6 years? Where have you been?'
'I completed my degree. Got a job. Nothing much. There were ups and downs in the beginning but now I'm in a good place’, she smiled her Ray of the sunshine smile.
It's as vague as anything she can say. Not like her, but I let it rest for now. I don't want to spoil her mood yet again. There is time for interrogation later. Chatting with her like this made me realize how much I missed her. I buried myself in anger against her all this time that I didn't realize missing our late-night chats.
'I missed you', I said.
'I missed you too', she added tearfully.
There was a lulling silence in our conversation which helped to clear my thoughts somewhat. Though I'm not sure about my emotions. Should I be happy that I met her? Or sad that we lost 6 years? Or guilt and remorse for not trying to know what's happening here. Guilt won at the end. Thinking about the past I asked suddenly, ‘Why did she let you go? Why not stop it? It's obvious that you were a source of income for her.'
The look of guilt intensified on her face. She looked down at her hands and said, 'she tried'.
'Tried? How?'
'She threatened me with you', she said quietly.
'Ya, I know. Kidnapping and all you said before'
'No. That was to stop me from taking you, not from me leaving'
I thought about it for a moment and asked, ‘What did she threaten You with?'
'Giving you to bob', she stuttered slowly.
I couldn't stop puking this time. I rushed to the washroom which was thankfully next to our booth and puked my guts or what was left of that sandwich. I should have left the eating after we cleared the air. Washing my hands and face I came out of the washroom and sat on my chair feeling no longer hungry.
This explains the look of guilt she wore since the beginning of the conversation. Here I thought... I don't know what anymore.
'I was over my head. First, Bob and then mom started threatening me with you and I had enough. Why should I take that? Why should you remain ignorant? I couldn't do that anymore. She thought I won't leave you. I thought of staying too. But the thought of another minute in that 'situation' suffocated me', she started explaining or should I say talking about her frustrations?
'To leave me to my fate, knowing what will happen to me is correct?', I asked carefully, anger building inside me.
'Nothing happened to you', she whined. She 'Marriage?', I asked, shocked she was so involved with someone to contemplate it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she was always careful, dainty. I never thought in that direction about her. Why would I? She left me.
'Well, sort of. I think so', she blushed.
'Huh? I don't get it. Either you are getting married or you are not', I questioned the fact.
'He hasn't proposed yet', she mumbled.
'Then how can you be sure he is going to', I asked astonished. Trust my Sister to plan the names of her children even before the marriage proposal.
'I'm 100% sure he is going to propose and soon', she exaggerated stubbornly.
'Whatever you say', I mumbled while eating my sandwich.
I tried to think of something to divert our current discussion. I don't want to be the one to lift the veil from her eyes.
'How did you know my number?', I asked, recalling the call yesterday.
'Jack hired a PI', she replied.
'PI? As in Detective? Does this guy follow me or something? You had me followed? Wait, who is jack?’, for that matter I don't know what happened to her after she left us.
'My boyfriend and no I haven't done anything like that. It's just to learn your number', she said faster as if to end the discussion.
'When am I going to meet him?'
'Umm, it's just that no one knows we are seeing each other. We want to keep it a secret for a while. You know, getting to know each other, being cozy', she said wiggling her eyebrows.
'Ok. It's your life. If you are safe', I said not mulling over my sister’s coziness with her Boyfriend.
I wondered what happened to her after she left us.
'What were you doing with yourself these 6 years? Where have you been?'
'I completed my degree. Got a job. Nothing much. There were ups and downs in the beginning but now I'm in a good place’, she smiled her Ray of the sunshine smile.
It's as vague as anything she can say. Not like her, but I let it rest for now. I don't want to spoil her mood yet again. There is time for interrogation later. Chatting with her like this made me realize how much I missed her. I buried myself in anger against her all this time that I didn't realize missing our late-night chats.
'I missed you', I said.
'I missed you too', she added tearfully.
There was a lulling silence in our conversation which helped to clear my thoughts somewhat. Though I'm not sure about my emotions. Should I be happy that I met her? Or sad that we lost 6 years? Or guilt and remorse for not trying to know what's happening here. Guilt won at the end. Thinking about the past I asked suddenly, ‘Why did she let you go? Why not stop it? It's obvious that you were a source of income for her.'
The look of guilt intensified on her face. She looked down at her hands and said, 'she tried'.
'Tried? How?'
'She threatened me with you', she said quietly.
'Ya, I know. Kidnapping and all you said before'
'No. That was to stop me from taking you, not from me leaving'
I thought about it for a moment and asked, ‘What did she threaten You with?'
'Giving you to bob', she stuttered slowly.
I couldn't stop puking this time. I rushed to the washroom which was thankfully next to our booth and puked my guts or what was left of that sandwich. I should have left the eating after we cleared the air. Washing my hands and face I came out of the washroom and sat on my chair feeling no longer hungry.
This explains the look of guilt she wore since the beginning of the conversation. Here I thought… I don't know what anymore.
'I was over my head. First, Bob and then mom started threatening me with you and I had enough. Why should I take that? Why should you remain ignorant? I couldn't do that anymore. She thought I won't leave you. I thought of staying too. But the thought of another minute in that 'situation' suffocated me', she started explaining, or should I say talking about her frustrations?
'To leave me to my fate, knowing what will happen to me is correct?', I asked carefully, anger building inside me.
'Nothing happened to you', she whined. She made a whining noise. I'm serious.
'That's because I protected myself', I shouted. I looked around us to see no one heard. It's like taking one step forward only to drag two steps back. We were making progress only to start where it began, her feeling guilty and me angry at her.
We sat there staring at each other, each of us lost in our thoughts. I tried to control my anger. God knows nothing comes out of it when I lose it.
I shouldn't put blame on her, who knew what I would have done in her situation. Maybe with time, we could let go of the past. At present, it's too fresh in my mind to think. Too raw.
'Why did you shift?', she asked, trying to change the subject.'I hit bob. He got mad and threatened us with his friends. This time even mom was scared because she knows his friends are much shadier. So, we ran that night itself''But what about the mortgage? Our home?', she asked.'Didn't you get that from your PI?''No. Like I said I don't dig your closet full of skeletons''Haha funny'I thought about that night and what followed. Our home was the only thing we owned. It was built by our grandparents from our Mother's side. We never met them. They died when Mom was pregnant with Sophie. We never knew our Father. Mom said he left us when I was a 3 months old baby. We believed her, there is nothing to contradict it. After Bob threatened us, we left the home. We stayed in the next city not far from our old one. We don't have money to go far. We thought it was better to hide near while he was left searching for other states.We must st
I rushed to the office knowing I'm going to get a talk down. As I pressed the number on the elevator I thought of my Sister. There is so much said today, I don't even know where to start. My emotions are jumbled right now. One thing I noticed is the difference between our looks which was subtle at best when we were younger has become prominent. She is willowy with auburn hair, amazing tan and at 5.5', she could be called petite to my Amazon stature. I'm not fat, just curvy, you could say like Kylie Jenner and my skin gets red when I attempt tanning, emphasis on attempt here. We have the same eyes and similar jaw structure, other than that we are as opposite as we could get. It's natural as we have different fathers. The elevator made a ding sound making me come out of my reverie.I peeked my head out to catch if the dragon was there. It seems luck has finally turned my side today as the coast is clear. I hurried to my station and busied myself looking as if I had something im
My eyes landed on a man turned towards the view of New York. Glass walls cover the entire side of the room. He is talking on mobile unaware of me. I'm too far away to distinguish what he is saying. I took this time to watch the room. My entire flat can fit in this one room, it's that big. Two sets of couches are aligned on both sides of me. On my left side, there is a coffee table littered with documents. I can see his desk which looks so pristine, I'm afraid to think about what happens when some coffee is spilled.As I took notice of the room, Mr. Sinclair turned around and caught sight of me. My breath hitches, standing in front of me is the most handsome man I ever saw. Not that I haven't seen many. In New York, you can find every other block a handsome guy. I couldn't pull my eyes away from him, there is something more to him than just being handsome. Maybe it's his position, he knows how powerful he is and wielded that power into his persona.He is 6.3' or 6.4' in
'On what grounds, Mr. Sinclair?', I asked tentatively, all attitude gone.'I said I could, not would Ms. Anderson. Though I can say, we are cutting our most incompetent employees'Indirectly implying that I'm incompetent. I bristled at this suggestion.'You couldn't do that. I never gave any reason to. I'm competent. I always stay late. I complete the work given to me.''Exactly that Ms. Anderson, the work given to you, which is not much''It's not my fault I wasn't given much', I answered.'But it would be mine if I don't rectify this situation', he stated firmly.'What are you trying to say, Mr. Sinclair?''I'm not trying but stating the fact that you are on my payroll with nothing much to do. And I don't like that, at all.''Are you going to fire me?', I questioned directly, tired of the footsie we are playing here.'No Ms. Anderson''Then what?', I stared at him expectantly to no avail. One thing I foun
I stare at the screen trying to comprehend. This can't be true. There might be a mistake with the picture. I must go check with her. Shit, I don't even know where she lives. How pathetic that is. There is still no reply to my message. I don't have any other way of contacting her. I won't believe or rather I make myself not believe all that crap brewing on the screen. I must, the other option is too much for me to comprehend right now. I didn't get a lot of time to sort my emotions after our talk. I put everything in a metal cage in my mind. Now that box is about to burst. To divert me from the current event, I noted down the officer's name who is handling this case.I tore the paper after jotting down, took my keys and mobile, and left without even changing from my pj's. My mind is preoccupied with my sisters’ photos. They don't show any pictures of the body. I stopped hearing anything after I saw that photo.The street is bustling, and I join the fray, dreading
"he is dead Ms. Anderson', he stated proudly.'Dead? How?', mixed emotions churning inside me. Words swam around in my head, but none of them would coalesce to form complete sentences. I should be relieved that justice has been met, but I couldn't get myself to feel it. It's like it has been robbed and given to me. A ping of regret is also laced there for not getting to hit him myself.'I won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say that we found the trail leading to him. He tried to escape vigilantly, we are left with the option of shooting to constrain him, but unfortunately, we miscalculated. He died on the way to the hospital', he explained, showing me the details of the murderer.I read the file learning all the details that led to my sister’s death. He was obsessed with auburn hair. It all started with his cheating Wife who had auburn hair. He killed 4 girls before Sophie, all with the same hair color. He is just a psycho on a killing spree. I
Bracing myself I entered the office, ' Mr. Sinclair I can explain'Without my volition, my eyes flit over the contents on the desk. It is as immaculate as it can be.'Bring me the sales report for the January product. I want the finance team to set the estimated costs for the upcoming project. Make sure the Budget file is on my desk tomorrow. Also, a daily report on the progress of the project. I want it to be launched before the holiday season. Set a board meeting tomorrow. 'he says or rather rumbles.'What does your other assistant do?' I enquired listening to his demands.'Let me handle who works for me, Ms. Anderson. You are my indentured servant for as long as I want. Do not question me'I controlled the urge to not beat him over the head with my bag, no matter how much I might have liked to. Thoughts of quitting the job entered my mind, but I squashed it before it overtook my mind. He merely gave me a squinted look and continued,'Now,
'You got it!''No skin off my back''Did you get anything useful? What is in there?''Enough to put him behind the bars for 10 years''Yes!!’, I shouted.Looking at the displeasure radiating from the other patrons I mouthed sorry.'I would like to buy that file from you'He gave me a dirty look, shaking his head indicating ‘You want to go there?'I squirmed, 'What? I don't want it for free. No favors buddy'It’s already more than enough that Raphael is on my tail for currying favor from his Grandfather, I can't take it from Kade. Though Kade is nothing like Raphael.'How about a fight?', he finally answered after taking time thinking.'It's been 3 years since I entered a ring. It's safe to say that I'm a little rusty. Anyhow, in NY? When did you shift here?''2 years. Bought a bar. Join me whenever you're free', I raised my eyebrows hearing the name of the bar, wow, it's a cool plac