30: Elise (i)

30: Elise (i)
“Elise?”
I turned around. Gian was standing by the door. He came in entirely when he saw my wet eyes and hugged me.
“I’m so sorry this happened,” he murmured near my ear.
“Me, too. Poor Tootsie.” My voice trembled. I sniffed as I wiped the wetness on my cheeks with the back of my hand. 
He kissed my forehead before we looked down at the puppies again.
“Those two look like a puppy Tootsies, so Anna will have them,” I said. “Mom wants two of them to stay here. I’ll take one of the males. Alia and I will take care of him between us in Manila,” I added softly. “Jason asked to have the other one for his sister.”
“So they already have owners. That’s good to hear.”
I tried to smile.
“How are you doing?” he asked gently.
“I’m not really okay. I still can’t believe this happened—” My breathing hitched.
He pulled me closer, and I melted into him. Then I faced him as my tears started flowing again.
“Tst. You’re crying again…” he said, rubbing my back. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m sorry.”
“I can’t help it. Terrible things seemed to be happening in Manila—I got beaten up. I came home to take a break and look what happened here, too? I feel like I’m being followed by—”
“Shhh! Don’t think that.”
“Maybe Charis hexed me or something—”
“Charis wouldn’t touch a witch doctor with a ten-foot pole, much less know what that is. She also is definitely inside a rehab facility. I’ve confirmed it myself. I wouldn’t let them get away with it, and she has no contact to outside, even her family, for the first months. Don’t worry about her anymore, okay? She’s beaten down.”
I laughed through my tears. Then I got serious as a thought crossed my mind. “Gian?”
“Yes?”
“Last night… I was just thinking—”
I was interrupted by the sound of cars arriving outside. We broke apart. I was wiping my tears when a newly awakened Dad Jess peeked inside at us from the door.
“Aling Celia is letting the police in. They’re here for our formal statements. They need you in the living room.”
“We’ll be right there, Itay,” I said. “And I’m fine,” I added because I could see that as his next question. “Gian and I were just talking.”
Dad Jess nodded at Gian before leaving.

We gave our statements to the police in the living room. It didn't change much from what we had already said last night. Of course, I had to lie by omission about what Gian and I were really doing on the beach. We were asked if we had been in any altercations with anyone in recent days. This brought up what Charis had done to me. Honestly, even though Gian wasn’t convinced and thought Charis was too haughty to do something like this through an anonymous person, I didn’t close myself to the possibility that she could hurt me this way. That woman hated me to the core.
But there was something that had been nagging at me since last night.
Did the perpetrator see us on the beach? Gian and I, while we were doing...
I closed my eyes. I didn’t really want to think it. It was just too invasive, the possibility that while my date was giving me mouth down there, a pervert was watching us in the dark.
"Are you okay?" my inay asked, concerned, as she sat next to me on the sofa.
I opened my eyes. "I’m sorry. No, I don’t feel okay." I felt violated. The feeling was the very opposite of pleasant. It was like dirt having its own life, and it was crawling all over my skin. "Can I please go back to my room now?"
"Officer, my daughter is done. She went through something horrible in Manila and she’s here to rest. Can she go now?"
The two police officers looked at each other for a moment. Then one turned back to me.
"Actually, we still have a few more questions for Ms. Soler. It won’t take long. We’ll just finish with Mr. Verrazzano."
My inay and I exchanged glances. Then I nodded. "Okay."
When the officer finished with Gian, he turned to me again.
"For the clarity of our investigation, Ms. Soler, aside from Ms. Charis Lopez, is there anyone else you might have had an altercation with before you came home from Manila who could be suspected of doing this?"
I shook my head. "I didn’t have an ‘altercation’ with Ms. Lopez because that implies I quarreled with her. She attacked me. I had no reason to fight with her. Or even talk to her. Or think of her. She wasn’t a friend, a co-worker, nor was she in my circle." Well, I had no circle to speak of but I didn’t say that anymore. But I was still so angry about what happened to me, that was evident to me now. So I shut up. 
"Okay, but is there anyone else you’ve had a conflict with?"
Well, there was someone, come to think of it. But this was impossible, yet it’s still considered information. So, after a moment of deliberation, I mentioned Brandon. "I just broke up with my boyfriend—ex-boyfriend. His name is Brandon Schultz. I don’t think this is… it was a breakup. People break up."
"May I ask why you broke up?"
I took a deep breath. "He was cheating, has been engaged to someone else while we were together and I found out about it—so I broke up with him." I answered. I shook my head. "Brandon isn’t angry with me—I’m the one who’s angry at him and liable to beath him up." I paused. “Which I have no plans of doing. At all. Officers.”
The officer tried to hide a smirk and managed it. But on my periphery, my mother was shaking her head and hiding her face.
"So, aside from Ms. Lopez, is there anyone else who could be angry with you for any reason?"
I shook my head. "No one else that I have knowledge of. Only Ms. Lopez."
He nodded while still writing in his notebook. Then he looked up at me again. "If we have more questions, we’ll call or visit, Ms. Soler."
I nodded. "Of course."
The police left, promising to return later in the day for Anna’s statement, as we had requested that she be allowed to rest.
"Why do they keep asking about Charis Lopez?" my inay asked, puzzled.
"I don’t know, Inay."
"Nothing was stolen. This could be an act of malice," my itay said from where he stood behind the sofa, his arm around my mother’s shoulders.
My mother looked at Gian and asked the question I had asked him earlier. "Gian, you know that woman better. Is she capable of doing something like this?"
Gian shook his head. "I don’t think so, Auntie. Charis doesn’t think complicated thoughts nor plan that way. She could be spiteful, but the most she could do are petty quarrels. She’s obsessed with attention but she wouldn’t get any of the attention she wanted from what happened here."
My mother sighed. "What’s happening? Why did someone do this? Poor Tootsie. Why did someone do this to us?" she said, starting to cry, prompting my stepfather to lead her to their room to rest.
Gian excused himself to my parents before they went inside, and we stepped out to the veranda.