FIFTY-SIX
“How are you aunt?” Lauren asked aunt Laura. The lady sighed and looked out the window. When we arrived earlier, she was talking to a lawyer.
“I do not know. Maybe good, maybe not. Still moving on with the loss of Mona.” Lauren held her hand to calm her. Sadness and pain can be seen on her face. “I miss her. I spent more than half of my life as her best friend. It’s like I lost a part of my life.”
“Aunt.” Lauren caresses her hand as if trying to make her calm.
“What hurts me more is that the person who did it to her has not been punished yet. She was killed in a tragic way. She’s not deserving of those kinds of devious acts.” She looked at me and then looked at Lauren.
“The police keep on working on it, aunt,” Lauren said. “Aunt Mona will have justice.”
“My brother helped the investigation too.” She just nodded at me and then looked back at Lauren.
“Whoever did that to her, I hope he will rot in jail.”
“Surely, aunty. We’re hoping too. Aunt, you want me to stay here with you for a while?” I want to disagree with her but I remain quiet. I noticed that aunt Laura seemed to be in a bad mood toward me. Since we came she had a bad view of me and was not paying attention to me properly.
Is she suspecting me? Does she believe I had something to do with what happened to Carmona?
“I am ok. Don’t worry about me Hija. You, are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Dale taking care of me.” She smiled at me so I smiled too. But aunt Laura ignored me.
“How are you and Hendrick? are you ok?” Oh fuck. Dragging that asshole’s name irritates me.
“Yeah, we’re good.”
“Good. I am glad to hear that you two are still together and he’s taking care of you.”
I didn’t participate in their conversation anymore. Aunt Laura doesn’t seem to be treating me very well. I don’t need to act like a saint here and be numb.
“Excuse me. I’ll be outside?” I said.
“Where are you going?” Lauren asked back.
“Outside, I think you two need time.”
“Okay.” Aunt Laura didn’t say a word and let me go.
I go outside where Carmona and I often talk. This is her spot where she always does is look at our picture. I can’t help but get hurt. She has a space in my heart and somehow became important. So I am affected by what is happening to her.
I look around the place without leaving my seat. I wanted to know if I can get any leads here. But I think, nothing. I don’t know, I’m confused. I don’t know where to start and what to do. All I know is I need justice. I want justice. She needs justice.
“Hubby.” I turned around when I heard Lauren.
“Hmph.”
“Let’s go.”
“Are you finished talking?”
“Yeah.”
“Shall I say goodbye?” I asked, asking her if it was ok.
“I think—–” I sighed when she didn’t finish what she was going to say.
“I get it. Let’s go.” We were about to leave when my eyes caught the helpers who were carrying their belongings. One of them was carrying Carmona’s folded wheelchair.
“Aunt Laura decided to put aunt Mona’s things in the basement.”
“What?”
“She doesn’t want to see her things. It hurts her to see them.”
“Isn’t it respectful to throw her things? It hasn’t even been a month since she died?”
“Hubby, let’s respect aunt Laura. She lost her best friend. They also spent a long time together, you can’t blame him.”
“Respect her, but not the things of Carmona?”
“Hubby, she’s in pain and seeing aunt Mona’s thing can’t help her to move forward. Especially now that her killer has not been caught. Maybe, who knows, when the criminal is caught she will return it too. Because she will be quiet and she has given justice to her best friend. As of now that she’s in grief let her do what she wants to lessen her burden.”
I wanted to get her things. It hurts me to see it just left somewhere. Those things are important to her. It’s her personal things. She cherished them during her lifetime. So it should not be ignored. All her memories are there.
“Hubby.”
“Is that why she doesn’t treat me well? Because she thinks I killed Carmona?”
“She just thinks a lot. She had one problem after another. The bank is about to take her house. Her business in the US went bankrupt. Aunt Mona died and all the expenses were hers. And now the lawyer’s fee for aunt Mona’s case.”
“I can help, she doesn’t need to take everything about Carmona.”
“Hubby, you are the prime suspect remember? How can you help her if you are her enemy?” I just shook my head. She is right. I am the prime suspect so how can I help financially? It just turns out that we are bribing her.
Carmona has no family so aunt Laura became her family. I wanted to help but I don’t know how. Of course, that’s really criminal.
“Come on and let’s go home. We will be on our way.”
I drove home. And since it was late, we had dinner outside. After dinner, we went for a walk in the nearest park. Talking some random. About business, about her, about us and everything. Hoping that she remembers something somehow. When it’s getting late then we go home.
She said that her cell phone is a low battery and she forgot to bring a charger. When we got to the house, I immediately saw Hendrick’s car outside. In front of her was also a car that was not familiar to me and was also parked not far from us. I think he even brought a chaperone.
“I knew it. Maybe I can’t be contacted,” Lauren said to which I only gave a small smile.
“Alright, come down and talk to your sweetheart.”
“Huh?”
“I said go down and I’ll park.”
“You said something else.”
“Nothing.”
“Hubby.”
“Are you coming down or can’t you get close to him now?”
“Fine.” She could do nothing but go down. I parked the car and ignored them. I went straight inside. I didn’t even look at them anymore and I didn’t care about them. I am fucking annoyed by that ass.
I go to the kitchen and take some water. I just drank water to get rid of my irritation. I waited for her here. I don’t know how many hours they have been outside and I want to go out to them.
Almost three hours when Lauren came in. She also came to me to the kitchen.Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.
“Hubby, are you here?”
“Why, I want to.”
“Hubby?”
“Did your ass boyfriend leave?”
“Hubby,” she scolded me. “Are you angry with Hendrick?”
“No.”
“You are angry. He didn’t do anything bad to you, why are you angry with him?”
“I’m not mad at him. I’m just annoyed because he keeps interrupting. He’s so mean and he’s done nothing but defame me.”
“Deface?”
“Yes, isn’t what he told you about Carmona and me insulting you? Should it really come from him? But why did he tell you? To make you doubt me, is that so?”
“Hubby what are you talking about?” She asked in surprise. That’s why I frowned.
“Wasn’t that dumbass the one who told you about Carmona and me?”
“Hendrick doesn’t say anything bad about you to me. When we are together we only talk about ourselves. If we’re talking about you, he only says nice things. Like, we have a good friendship. That’s why he’s recovering now because he thought about how much he missed me and you were the one who filled it. He is ashamed of you and—-ok, something like trigger him that I might like you. But he doesn’t say anything bad about you.”
“Then how did you know about me and Carmona?”
“It wasn’t him, hubby. It’s aunt Laura. She told me when we found out that you were the suspect. Honestly, I also asked Hendrick but he didn’t want to admit it. But he already knew something because aunt Laura had mentioned it to him when we went there. Aunt Laura even told him also about something—–about a son I guess—– but I am not sure. That’s what I want to ask if you and aunt Mona have a child.”
“No, nothing. We don’t have children.”
“I didn’t hear that much because they stopped talking. I asked Hendrick about it, but he said it wasn’t important so I shouldn’t find out. So I didn’t bother because I knew that he wouldn’t tell me either.”
“Are you telling the truth?” I ask.
“Of course. Hendrick is not a bad guy hubby. Maybe you just don’t see that because you hate him.”
We both turned around when we heard something like a crash outside the house.
“What’s that?” she asked me. The three cats ran at the same time and meowed at the same time followed by an even louder crash as if something had broken. “I forgot to lock the door.” She added.
I went to the secret vault behind the fridge and took something from there. A gun that Dylan gave me.
“You have a gun?”
“Shh! Stay here and call Dylan.”
“Hubby.”
“Stay here. I’ll check it. No matter what happened, don’t go anywhere.” And I go to the living room to check what happened there.