The ring of Reyona's phone jolted her out of a restless sleep.
She raised her head and squinted briefly before groggily reaching for her phone.
She had fallen asleep at her desk in the home office she had fashioned out in Sylby's place.
Her sleep pattern had become seriously messed up in the past few days, and she was not surprised to wake up with a slight burn on her cheek from how she had lain it right on the file she had tried to work on before sleep caught up with her.
The call was disconnected before she could pick it up.
And she briefly wondered if it was Toria calling, as she tap-tapped her hands around the sheaves of paper under which her phone seemed to be buried.
Her sister had been the last person she spoke with the night before.
Right after she spoke with the contractor.
They were done with the renovation of her house, including the few additions she had discussed.
She could move in anytime now.
Reyona sighed as she finally unearthed her phone and moved her hair away from her face to see the number.
It was an international number.
Reyona sat up and quickly dialled the number back.
The person picked up on the first ring.
"Oi, como vai você?" she said in flawless Portuguese. "Hi, How are you doing?"
"I not doing well at all" replied Agueda, Fiona's mother-in-law in her not-so-smooth English.
Though Reyona had informed the woman the first time they spoke that she was versed in Portuguese, the woman had mostly conversed with her in the little English that she could speak.
It seemed there was not going to be a difference this time.
"What…?"
Reyona was interrupted as the woman blew her nose loudly on the other end. She cleared her throat, then blew her nose over again.
"Fiona, she is good girl." her voice sounded thready to Reyona but she heard her.
Her heart thumped as she asked immediately. "Is she awake now? Fiona?"
"Awake? Who awake? Oh! You mean…" Her meager English was nowhere to be found as she passionately relayed what happened to Reyona. "Ela não acordou. O médico acabou de me dizer que ela está morta. Eles tentaram o seu melhor, mas ela se foi. Aquela linda menina estava tentando seguir em frente pelos filhos, agora um acidente estúpido tirou o tempo que ela pensava que tinha! Morte estúpida! Perdi Adriano e agora minha doce nora. O que vou dizer a essas crianças?!"
Reyona spent the next few minutes pacing the room as she consoled the woman in the best way she could. After the call finally ended, she sank into her chair as the woman's grief-streaked words replayed in her mind.
"She did not wake up. The doctor just told me that she is dead. They tried their best but she was gone. That beautiful girl was trying to keep going for her children, but now a stupid accident took away the time she thought she had! Stupid death! I lost Adriano and now my sweet daughter-in-law. What am I going to tell these children?!"
As much as Reyona felt for the woman; she couldn't help but think of the prominent thought that popped into her mind.
Those children were gone for sure.
Reyona had reached out to Fiona earlier so that she could ask her, being the direct family to the children, to write a waiver that would make it possible for the children not to be taken away from Mary and her husband. That was even before she had forced herself to call that conceited man and ask him out to a dinner that turned out useless.
Agueda had been the one who picked up the phone that day and had informed her that a day after Fiona got back home, she had slipped while getting out of the bath, hit her head against the wall and was still unconscious when Reyona called.
Reyona had no choice but to think of the next person who still had any say. Since she had no intention of going to face the woman whom her husband cheated on her with, she had thought her damned brother would do it.
Who knew it was going to be a futile effort? She even had to force herself to tolerate his presence and endure his caveman behaviour!
Reyona's annoyance grew at the frisson of warmth that swept through her at the thought of his strong, warm arms around her calf that day.
"Bastard" she muttered as she stood up to go get some water.
She took the water from the fridge and just stood there as she thought of how he had been trying to reach out to her since that day after he had forcefully taken her to the hospital.
She disconnected his call every single time, deleted his messages without checking and eventually blocked his number after telling her secretary to never make the mistake of passing his call to her.
She had meant what she said.
She wanted nothing more to do with them all!
"Why then have you been unable to think of anything else since that day?" her subconscious reared its head suddenly.
Reyona finally realised that she had been standing there with her water in hand while staring at the interior of the well-stocked fridge.
She swore to herself and closed the fridge door none-too-gently.
All of a sudden, she just wanted to get out of the house.
It was a Saturday, and she had promised herself to stay off work that day and take all the rest she could since her sleeping pattern had become whacked in the past couple of days.
Of course, she had intended to finish going through the Nepsol Holding documentation the night before, so she could have that free day without any guilt.
She looked over at the file which still had her cheek print on it but the urge to do any work that morning was certainly not there.
"Some exercise," she thought to herself with such excitement as if it was a revelation.
She was already on her way to what used to be her leg-exercising space when she stopped.
She had started doing her light exercises there after the chiropractor stopped coming.
But that morning she knew it wouldn't be enough.
She didn't want to stay cooped up in there for a moment longer. She needed air.
She quickly changed into loose jogging pants, a tank top and running shoes.
After that, she strapped a soft flask filled with water to her wrist strap.
It had been a while since she went for a run, and she had a feeling this might take a while.
Reyona heard the sound of a car as she got close to the door.
She was just stepping out of the house when she saw someone slowly jogging past.
That hair!
She just turned to lock the door when the person jogged past again.
Then the person slowly backtracked and said cheerily, "Hey there! Going for a walk?"
"A run, actually," Reyona said as she walked towards Celia, who was beaming from ear to ear.
"Really? Isn't that just perfect? I do the same. I just wanted to get some exercise before those two woke up. Which way?"
Reyona got to Celia just as the car she had heard was taking a turn towards the direction of the mansion.
A very familiar car.
"Isn't that…?"
"This way!" Celia said as she jerked her thumb towards the opposite direction. "Lots of places to run this way, we can even take a rest in that square and watch those old ladies try to dance," she said with a mischievous grin. "The other way only leads to the same route I saw while…jogging down here. It gets boring."
There was no single sheen of sweat on her face that indicated that she had been jogging that far.
The Jordan mansion was far away from the main neighbourhood and someone who jogged that far shouldn't look as fresh as Celia looked at the moment. Reyona thought.
But then she felt she must be overthinking things, so she nodded and said "Alright then."
Though unexpected, she didn't mind the company anyway.
"How is my goddaughter doing this morning?" she asked as they started a light jog down the path.
"Wrapped up in her dad's arms. Those two only see me as the milk factory," Celia said, with an exaggerated sigh.
Reyona smiled "If it is any consolation, you are one classy milk factory though. Look at you, you didn't even break any sweat from jogging that far," she said as she looked directly at Celia.
"Uhn? Uhm, yeah. I…" she looked at her body like she just realised that. "... see that."
"Race you!" she said suddenly as she took off.
"Oh, you are on!"