Chapter 34 Out of my life
Amrah
Just as I was about to call Edison, Daphy's phone buzzed loudly on the table beside the laptop. She grabbed it and glanced at the screen.
"Unknown number," she muttered with a light frown.
"Hello?" she picked up anyway.
Her eyes widened almost immediately. "Yvonne?" she called out in surprise and relief.
My eyes widened as well, I leaned closer as Daphy fumbled to put the phone on speaker, her hands shaking slightly.
"Yes, it's me" Yvonne's voice crackled through the speaker, sounding tired and strained.
"Yvonne, oh Jesus, where are you?" Daphy interrupted anxiously.
"Are you okay? We have been so worried about you especially after the email." Daphy rushed out.
"Yeah, are you okay? Where are you?" I echoed not knowing what else to ask.
"Is that... Amrah?" Yvonne asked in surprise.
"Yeah," I said, moving closer to the phone.
"Yvonne, where have you been? What's going on?"
Another pause. "You have also seen the files," she said quietly. It wasn't a question.
"You both saw them together."
"Yes," I confirmed, my voice steadier than I felt.
"Daphy couldn't watch it alone especially with the strange timer thingy. Yvonne, what happened? Why did you disappear? Did Chris—"
"I'm fine," she cut me off, though her voice didn't sound entirely convincing. "Really, I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me."
"Don't need to worry?" Daphy's voice pitched higher with disbelief.
"You've been missing for days, you send me these insane videos, and right after you vanished! How can we not worry?"
"I know it looks bad," Yvonne said, and I could hear the exhaustion seeping through her words.
"Are you sure you're fine?" I pressed, studying the phone as if I could somehow see through it to where she was.
"Yvonne, if someone hurt you, if Chris did something..."
"He didn't," she said firmly.
"I'm safe, Amrah. I promise. And if I need help, if things change, I'll reach out to you."
"Oh... okay" Daphy and I said at the same time even though we were not convinced.
The way she said it made it more unsettling. Why does she even have those videos?
"The files," Yvonne continued, her voice dropping lower. "Daphy, you still have them, right?"
"Yes," Daphy answered immediately. "We just opened them"
"Good. Keep them safe," Yvonne instructed.
"That's the only existing copy. Please keep them safe"
"But why.."
"Just do it. I will definitely need them later"
"These are... dangerous Yvonne" Daphy let out fearfully.
"I know, and that's why I sent them to your ringer e-mail account"
That was the email Daphy used to read her spicy BL manga and all, I know that because she sends me recommendations even though I hardly check them out.
"I understand," Daphy said, glancing at me with worried eyes.
"But Yvonne, why? Why did you gather all this? What were you planning to do with it?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.
"Insurance," Yvonne said simply. "Just... keep it safe. Don't do anything with it yet. I will explain everything when the time comes, I promise."
"When will that be?" I asked.
"When are you coming back?"
"I... I don't know for now. But you two have to pretend you know nothing about this"
"Of course" Daphy replied anxiously.
My heart pounded with suppressed rage and sadness.
"Yvonne—" Daphy started, but the line had already gone dead.
We stared at the phone in silence for a long moment. Daphy's face was a mixture of relief and lingering concern.
"At least she's alive," she said quietly, as if trying to convince herself. "She's okay."
"She sounded tired," I observed, leaning back against the couch. "And scared, maybe."
My head was aching from the clashing thoughts, Chris... fucking Chris! What had he done to Yvonne?
"But she said she was fine," Daphy insisted, though I could hear the doubt in her voice. "She said she would reach out if she needed help."
"I know." I rubbed my aching forehead "I just hope she knows what she's doing."
Daphy nodded, then glanced at her phone again before looking up at me. "I should probably get ready for the day. I have that economics lecture in an hour."
"Yeah," I agreed, suddenly feeling the weight of exhaustion settling over me.
"Thanks for... for showing me everything. For being here."
"Of course," she said softly, standing up and gathering her things. "Are you going to be okay?"
"I will be," I said, but I don't know if I meant that.
"I will see you later"
After Daphy left, I sat alone in my room, the silence pressing in around me. I stared at the curled chandelier hanging down, letting the quiet settle over me.
Chris...
At least Yvonne was safe—for now.
And... Zayd... I would deal with Zayd later. Or never. I should have listened to my heart and avoided him right from the beginning, but I didn't.
I know I shouldn't blame him for not telling me, but I felt played, like he was toying with me... like he was in a kind of agreement with Chris.
Who knows what sort of things they have been saying about me! I felt used, so annoying to even think about!
Right now, all I wanted was to finish the sketch on my desk and pretend, just for a few hours, that the only thing that could make me crash out was a mistake in my blueprint.
Shopping for the presentation model is another nice therapy.
I kept thinking about anything to take my mind away but it kept circling back to the videos, to Chris's face, to the casual way Zayd had walked through that room like it was nothing.
How stupid had I been?
All those times Chris had left for days without reaching out to me, without responding to my messages or picking up my calls.
I had made excuses for him, convinced myself he was just busy with his shoots or his family obligations or whatever other lie he told me.
I had been so blind, so pathetically naive.
The guilt I had felt over kissing Zayd now seemed almost laughable. I had tortured myself over it, avoided him, pushed him away, all because I thought I was being unfaithful to Chris. Because I thought I owed Chris my loyalty.
What a joke.
Time to delete trash from my life! And out of my mind.