Chapter 61 Chapter 60:
Arya:
Liam thinks it’s a good idea to wait for Devon, Xander and Leto to get here before we officially start. Liam is on the couch, munching on the burger. I don’t think he has had any good food for hours and Wanda just informed me that he has been glued to his mother’s journals.
Clara is sitting on the armchair, looking as nervous as fuck; Wanda has expressed her disapproval with her facial expressions, I get that Wanda and Clara aren’t on the friendship terms but I figured we should give her a break. In a sick way, I know what it is like to be in Anna’s grip, it’s something you can never quite come out of unless you have the confidence to.
I approach Clara gently, sitting on the edge of the chair. “It’s terrifying, isn’t it?” I start and she stares at me in surprise. “Not having to obey Anna’s words.”
“Oh. Right.” She places a hand on her lap and sighs, “I just despise it that she somehow finds a way to get to me. I should have listened to everyone who was telling me not to fall into Anna’s trap, but I guess I was so blind.”
“No.” I sigh. “Anna has a way of making you feel like you are nothing without her. When Kevin cheated on me with Anna, I felt devastated and pissed mostly at Anna. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate Kevin and want to murder that bastard.” Since we’re being honest, then I sure am going to talk my mind.
“But I was so pissed at Anna; it got me thinking for a long time, are friends even allowed to do that to each other? They planned on taking my estate and back then, it really hurt because I am not quite sure friends do that to each other.” I sigh heavily and that moment, the door opens and Devon, Leto and Xander walk in.
“Finally, you guys are here now.” Wanda blows a heavy breath, squinting her eyes at me. She really doesn’t like me talking to Clara and I guess considering their very rough relationship, it’s what it is.
Xander flops himself on the couch, unzipping his bag and bringing out his laptop. As he powers it on, Devon comes over to me and places a kiss on my forehead. I smile at him warmly.
“Not heading back to the office today?” I ask him.
“No, I figured we would go home later after this.” He winks at me, his eyes dropping to a very nervous looking Clara. “Miss. Hilton, nice to meet you.”
“Same here.” She says.
Leto sits beside Liam. “Does anyone have a can of beer here?” Everyone stares at her quizzically. “Like seriously...okay fine....nobody should look at me like that.”
“Let’s just start.” Xander looks at his work partner and fights his smile. “Shall we start with Liam’s theory?”
Devon gazes at his twin brother and everyone seats while Liam stands.
“As you all know, I was looking through my mother's journals today and I found something. Last time, we were talking about Barbara’s child but we decided to not look into that because we don’t know where the child might be now. I think I might have found the father.”
Everyone inches closer.
“Well, just his name, not even his surname. She only wrote Julian there...Guys, who’s Julian?”
“That’s the only piece of information you’ve got?” If anything, Leto seems really pissed. “We can’t just work with a name, we need more concrete information.” Leto face palms herself.
“Maybe it’s Julian Ford.” Clara speaks up and everyone stares at her, because she hasn’t really said anything ever since Liam started speaking. “The father of Alisha Young Ford.”
“No way, I refuse to believe that. You are telling me that multi-billionaire Julian Ford might have cheated on his wife and the possibility is that he and Barbara have a child together? This isn’t solid enough; he could get us arrested if we barge into his office and demand to know about his marital affairs.” Leto shakes her head.
“It wouldn’t hurt, would it? It’s a simple conversation we can have with him, just you and I. We are the leaders of The Nexus, there’s no way he’s going to get us arrested. I say we talk to him tomorrow.” Xavier suggests.
Devon remains quiet, but then he speaks. “What if we got the wrong Julian?”
“We just have to try,” Xander says. “Okay....Miss. Hilton, what do you want to talk to us about?”
I encourage Clara with my eyes and she stands up slowly, before facing us all. “I know some of you might know me, and you don’t particularly like me but I have something to say about Anna. I know she fooled you all that her husband, Kevin, checked into rehab because of his addiction, but that’s wrong. He is dead and she killed him.”
Silence falls on the room and I think that everyone’s too stunned to speak, including me. I’m shocked, I have known Anna for a very long time, she’s a manipulator, she’s a cheater, she’s everything but a murderer? Anna Lere is a murderer?
“How sure are you about this?” Xander says calmly, I’m pretty sure he deals with these sorts of things every time.
Clara is shaking, her shoulders are quaking.
“Sweetheart, we just want you to know that you can be completely free with us. We just need you to tell the truth; don’t let this person, Anna right? Don’t let her get to you. You’re better than that.” Leto says.
Clara nods, “I promise to say the truth. It was raining, I got a call from Anna saying she needed me immediately; I dashed there only to see a dead Kevin, bloodied and battered. Anna said Kevin has been abusing her throughout the course of their marriage, she basically said it was self defence.”
I pause, thinking. Is Kevin an abuser? He never quite showed any signs, then I guess, we really don’t know people much more than we claim.
“So Kevin’s dead and Anna lied about checking him into rehab?” Wanda asks, amused and well, utterly quite shocked.
“Knowing her true colours, she lied about a lot of things, which I am thinking her pregnancy is one of them...I don’t know what she did with the body or who helped her, I just know that Anna is dangerous and she needs to be stopped.”
“Can we see a picture of this Anna?” Leto asks, “A recent picture, if you have one.”
I am still shocked as hell. Anna is a murderer, she killed Kevin. Kevin is an abuser, my head is throbbing and hell, I think I’m going to be sick or something.
“Of course, she’s very active in her socials.” Clara pulls out her phone and taps at it. “The last picture was posted yesterday,” she flashes the screen towards us and we stare at Anna posing inside her car. I shiver just by staring at the picture. That used to be my friend, now she’s just a liar.
“Wait...” Liam squints his eyes, “Zoom closer, please, the hand side.”
“What?” Clara is confused, but she does as she is told.
“Devon, are you seeing what I am seeing?” Liam asks in awe.
“I’m seeing it.” Devon says under his breath.
All I see is just a bracelet on her wrist.
“That’s not just a bracelet, that’s a very antique bracelet. It used to belong to our mother but then she gifted it to Barbara, it was made by our mother. Look, there’s a letter ‘K’ on the bracelet.” Liam points at the screen and we all stare at it, truly, there’s a ‘K’ on the bracelet.
“It’s one of a kind, it can’t be duplicated. That used to be Barbara’s signature bracelet,” Devon explains, “how did Anna end up with Barbara’s bracelet? Could she have given it to her?”
“Come to look at it, they both have the same hair colour, how common is thick blonde?” Xander asks.
“Are you thinking what I am thinking?” Leto asks us.
“Anna has parents, I’ve visited them before.” Clara defends, scrolling through her phone. “Guys?” She looks up from her phone, shock washing through her face.
“What?” Leto says.
“Here, it says that Anna’s parents have been dead for three years now, it was a car accident, I remember the month Anna told me she was going to visit them.”
“So Anna was visiting her parents, and the accident was ruled as careless driving? It seems like there’s more to this than we know. Clara, please forward the article to me and I’ll take a look.” Leto says, standing up. “For now, I think we should all take a breather, let’s all go home and rest. We will meet tomorrow after Xander and I have visited Julian Ford.”
“I can’t believe she has been lying to me about everything, she told me last month she was going to visit her parents soon. She has been lying about everything. I don’t want my family and Axel to get hurt.”
“And they won’t.” I say in determination. “Let’s leave them out of this; we are going to take down Anna and Barbara once and for all. Just go home and have some rest, Clara.” I can’t begin to imagine everything that she’s going through. Too many revelations in a day, I am not even sure which is the truth and the lie anymore.
For now, all I just know is that Anna is a very dangerous woman.
\--
Anna:
My car makes a sudden halt in front of Julian’s villa, I step out of the car and check my phone, of course, I don’t want to be mixing up the address, today is a very important day for me, after all.
The moment Barbara told me I could have a father-daughter time with my father, I was so excited but they wanted me to pick a place, so I chose somewhere quiet, just him and I exclusively, no workers, no single person and he offered his villa as our meeting place. The cool evening breeze blows on me and I sigh. Life can be very complicated.
I lean on my car, still staring at the huge villa in front of me. This place is too perfect, even for me. I go to my contacts and dial Theo’s number, he picks up after the second ring.
“Hey baby,” he says under his breath and I can’t tell if he’s tired or if he is just trying to make himself look sexy, I am neither interested in either of them. “I am working, I am not even out of the office yet and you know the CEO election is in a few days.”
“I know, baby. It’s just that, there seems to be a problem.” I say, staring around. The only sounds in this exclusive villa are the sound of the leaves of the palm trees and some birds chirping nearby.
“A problem?” Theo seems confused, but his voice is sharper now. “What is it? Tell me and I will find a way to fix things.” Theo’s one of those kind of people who thinks they are the problem solver, they can do anything to save the day, however his mostly draws on obsession.
He always wants to fix things, quite disturbing, if you ask me.
“It’s Clara.” I tap my boots on the floor. “I have a feeling that bitch is going around everywhere telling everyone I killed Kevin.” There’s a sour feeling when I mention Kevin’s name. Sometimes I think I regretted killing him, but if I didn’t, who would have? Assholes like him deserve to die.
“That’s what you are worried about?” Theo scoffs on the other end, “Baby. That is nothing to fret about. Just leave this to me, okay? I got it.”
“Okay, baby. I trust you.” I say.
“Good girl, now I want you to be a good girl for me and wait for me at home, let daddy claim you tonight, okay?” There’s something I don’t quite like about Theo, he likes to think he has the upper hand in everything, he likes being in control and he’s taking me as the fool in this. He better watch out.
“Alright. Love you.” I say, before ending the call. Shoving the phone in my pocket, I approach the villa. The hallway is long but Julian already texted me that he was waiting upstairs and so, upstairs I go.
The master living room is a wonder. Plush cream sofas are arranged around a black marble fireplace, flickering low with golden flames, the floor to ceiling windows let in the late evening light.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I hear a soft voice and I turn to see Julian Ford, my father, staring at me. His glasses are pushed up the tip of his nose giving him a professional look, dressed in a sweater vest and palazzo pants, I’m so fucking glad he didn’t dress in a suit to meet his own daughter.
For someone who’s soon to clock sixty, he looks quite good.
“Anna, isn’t it?” He looks at me, I wonder what’s trying to imagine. “You grew up so well, darling.”
I force myself not to scoff. Yeah, right. Did you even see me for once? Luckily for me, I have seen his face too many times on the internet to have memorized every feature in his face.
“So, what do you want to talk about? I am free for the whole evening. I cleared my schedule for you. I really want this to work, Anna.” Julian smiles, like he’s doing a favour by meeting with me.
I sigh, staring at the fireplace, just watching as the flame flickers into place. “My question is just why...why did you abandon me? Why didn’t you try to reach out? Wasn’t I important to you? Why do you love Alisha so much and not me?” I told myself earlier I wasn’t going to show any emotions, I’m better than this, for fuck’s sake.
He sighs, “Oh sweetheart, there is too much explanation.”
“Oh shut the fuck up.” He widens his eyes at my sudden use of language, “You know what? I don’t have time for this shit.” I bring out the gun in my pocket and point it straight to his head. He raises his hands up and stumbles backward, fear dancing in his eyes.
I have to come like that fear; it’s the same fear that flashed in Kevin’s eyes when I was batting life out of him.
“What are you doing?” His voice is pitched, like that of a little girl’s. Fear really does a lot to us. “Please drop the gun.”
“Shut up!” My voice echoes around the room. “For now, I do the talking. Now...You think you can just abandon me and get away with it, huh?” I scoff, stepping closer with the gun. “Do you know how much it hurts? Stalking you and your perfect family? Did you know how much it hurts just waiting, hoping you would reach out, but instead, you were scared of your perfect family finding out that you are a cheat and a liar.”
“It wasn’t like that, I swear.” He trembles, but I am not having any more of his lies.
“Why do people like finding ways to make up for their bad deeds?” I ask, “I have to get out of here. I really had no plan on making up with you because you don’t deserve that so I am going to tell you what I am going to do. I’m going to track, hunt down and kill every one of your perfect family including your wife, your daughter, your son-in-law and even my mother because none of you deserve to be alive.”
“Don’t do that, just kill me and leave my family alone.” He begs, sweat dripping down from his temples.
“That’s a very cliché line.” I set the trigger, smiling. “Go to hell, daddy.” I pull the trigger and the first shot hits his shoulder, he gasps, eyes wide with disbelief. I pull the trigger again and his leg buckles and he crumples to the floor.
Bang.
Blood blooms out across his chest. He stares at me, mouth open, eyes open.
Bang. Bang.
Those two shots are to make sure he never comes back.
“Bye-bye, daddy.” I smile at his dead body, not feeling an ounce of pity, reaching into my coat pocket; I bring out the cigarette and lit it slowly, before throwing it to the thick, luxurious and just dry enough curtains.
The spark catches immediately, crawling up the fabric, licking higher and higher until the room starts to glow in flickering orange. If there’s anything that this world has taught me, it’s that I should cover up my tracks pretty nicely.
By the time I am out of the villa, smoke billows out in thick, black clouds. The fire had already reached the rooftop, snapping and snarling.
I smile, not the kind of smile you make when you are posing for pictures, or the kind you make when you are trying to ask for a favour, this one is very real, laced with all the pain I have suffered as an abandoned child.
One down, more to go.