Chapter 6 To confess or not to confess
“Why are you out here, Lilac?” he asked, “It seems you are seasick, let us go back inside.”
He picked her up very easily and brought her in to sit down. It took Lilac a while before she could breathe again.
“I never knew you usually got seasick,” he said, passing her a bottle of water.
“We don’t know anything about each other,” she commented.
“Why were you out there?” he asked.
“I wanted to go for a swim,” she answered dismissively, standing up to leave the room. But before she could take a few steps, he grabbed her arm.
“Lilac, what is going on? You just woke up this morning and started…” he trailed off.
“Stopped caring about your opinion?” she asked, and he looked away, making her scoff.
“You and I are could be considered an ill match. You have wanted this divorce for a while, aren’t you just bothered that I am the one bringing it up? You are just bothered that it seemed to come out of nowhere and you feel like you are losing control,” she smirked at his reaction. He looked like he had eaten something sour.
“Can we do this somewhere else?” he asked as he noticed the busy staff moving around them.
“No, we have nothing to talk about,” she snorted, attempting to rip her hands from his grasp, but he had completely lost his cool at this time. He held on and forcefully dragged her from the room. They walked for quite sometime till they got to her cabin. He practically dragged her into the room and shut the door. He would have thought that his anger would have dissipated with the long walk back, but it had only gotten worse.
“Is it because of what happened this morning? Is it because I got you injured a while back? What is it? What has come over you since this morning?” he asked.
“It is since the day I married you. It is either I do what you want or you ignore me, encouraging the staff at home to behave as though I do not exist. If I so much as want to move a thing, they will ask, have you asked Mr. Black? If I tell them to move this, they go and ask you for permission,” she scoffed as she talked. She thought her situation was utterly pathetic.
“I never knew, you never said anything,” Eric’s anger deflated.
“What was there to say? You obviously wanted to isolate me, and you succeeded. Don’t think too deeply into this. We are not compatible,” Lilac scoffed.
“Stop saying that!” Eric found that he was completely triggered by these words. He could not put his finger on why.
“So you just woke up this morning and realized this? Why did you wait this long?” he said through his teeth. “You have been acting odd all morning, is this truly why?” he asked. His question made her still. She had always known that for what she would need to do this night, someone apart from her had to know about it. She had always known she would have to tell him about what was happening to his family. She just did not know how to approach the topic without burning herself.
The gentle hum of the ship’s engine filled the air, creating a soothing background noise as Lilac sat at the small table in her cabin, a look of concern on her face. Eric stood frozen, waiting for her response.
Lilac’s phone rang, breaking the tense atmosphere. She picked it up and glanced at the caller ID before answering. “Hey, Cathy, what’s up?” she greeted, trying to sound casual.
“Hey, Lilac,” Cathy’s voice came through the phone, slightly muffled. “I’ve got some good news. I spoke to my contacts at First City Bank, and they’ve agreed to help us move the money soon.”
Lilac’s eyes lit up, a look of realization crossing her mind as she let out a sigh of relief. “That’s fantastic, Cathy. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
Cathy chuckled. “It’s no problem, Lilac. It was just a few phone calls. But hey, are you okay? Last time we talked, you seemed to have started quarreling with him your husband, are you okay? He did not hurt you, did he?”
Lilac hesitated for a moment, exchanging a quick glance with Eric before answering. “I’m fine, Cathy, really. Just a lot on my mind, you know how it is.”
Cathy seemed satisfied with her answer. “Alright, if you say so. Oh, by the way, has Eric ever been to the Middle East?”
Lilac’s eyebrows jumped into her hairline at the sudden change in topic. She glanced at Eric again, who raised an eyebrow in return. “Obviously, he probably has. Eric and his family travel a lot for work, Why do you ask?”
When Eric heard his name mentioned, he frowned. Something about the way Lilac answered this person was disingenuous.
Cathy hesitated for a moment before answering. “I met someone who claimed to have been in the Middle East with Eric on the 8th of March this year.”
Lilac’s eyes were still at Eric in front of her, a small smile rearing to slip from her lips. “Really? That’s strange. We had a work trip with some investors almost all of March, but we traveled between Asia and Europe a lot then, I wouldn’t really remember.”
Cathy brushed it off. “Hmm, must have been a mistake, then. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to your day. Take care, Lilac.”
“Thanks, Cathy. You too.” Lilac hung up the phone, a frown forming on her face. She turned to Eric, who was watching her with a curious expression. There are many tipping points in a game, and there are only two options on which way to fall. To your doom or to victory. Lilac considered a lot while staring at Eric this very moment. She was at a tipping point. She had no choice but to choose.
“You want to know who that was?” Lilac asked, and Eric raised a brow. “You know the answer, but the answer is also wrong.”
Eric slowly let go of her arm, a puzzled look on his face. “Cathy, your friend,”
Lilac nodded, “Cathy, an agent of the Federal Investigative Unit, pretending to be my friend for almost two years to gather evidence of the Black family,” Lilac answered and Eric froze.