CHAPTER 15
1143 Words
I was taken aback at Ruby’s suggestion that we should do it, and I was almost tempted; however, I had no idea how to proceed. “Are you out of your mind, Ruby?” I scolded her for being vulgar. Even if it was just the two of us in the kitchen, her suggestion could cause a rumor, and I would hate it. Philip wouldn’t like it as well.
“What’s wrong with my suggestion? We are both single and mature about it,” she insisted.
“My god, Ruby, are you that desperate to get laid?” I questioned her motive for suggesting to have s*x with me. How gross! I couldn’t imagine myself making out with a woman. It’s unacceptable!
“With you, yes,” she replied nonchalantly.
I was dumbfounded at her response, but I couldn’t scold her with any harsh words, so I just stared at her and laugh. “Shall we do it now?” I asked her, but when I leaned closer to Ruby, she flinched. “I told you so, and you can’t do it with me or anybody else.”
For a moment, she became silent and stared into nothingness. “I thought I could,” she said after a moment of silence.
“Don’t force yourself so hard about it, Ruby. Time will come when you’re totally healed from your wounds,” I told her while patting her shoulder.
“Thank you, Tyler. If it wasn’t because of you, I don’t know if I’m still alive now,” she said a teary-eyed as she reminisces her past.
“Why are you talking about the past? You and your mom are both okay now, so forget about it.”
“I’m trying, but I still have nightmares at night,” she admitted.
“Oh darling, I feel so bad for you. Why don’t you revisit your doctor?”
“I still remember the boy, Tyler. He was asking for help, but I was also in pain at that time. I still remember how sad he was that night when his family was massacred,” she stated.
“I hope that he’s also okay,” I muttered.
“Every night, I prayed that he’s okay and happy somewhere. He was just a little boy who witnessed his parents' death, and if he’s alive right now, I don’t know how he would manage to cope up with his bad memories.”
“Oh Ruby, I wish I was there to help him,” I said.
“I just hope that he’s alive and someone was kind enough to adopt him.”
I stared at Ruby and studied her face. She’s pretty, gentle, and smiling, but behind her beautiful smile, her dark past threatened her peaceful life. When Philip found Sandra and Ruby in the streets, they were bloody. Philip didn’t hesitate to take them to the chateau, and to cut a long story short, Sandra helped raise the other boys and me after she recovered.
“Time heals everything, Ruby.”
“I hope it will. By the way, I think I saw the killer yesterday,” she mentioned suddenly.
“Are you sure? It happened too long ago,” I doubted her claim because so many years have passed already.
“How can I forget his face Tyler when he nearly violated my mother and me that night? No, I couldn’t be wrong. He was clearly the same person that I saw twenty years ago,” she insisted, but I suspected that she only imagines things.
The horrible crime happened twenty years ago, and in fact, there was no news article about it online. It wasn’t recorded at all! “We will discuss it tomorrow, but for now, we have to take a rest. You have to work tomorrow, remember?”
“I quit,” she replied.
“What? Why?”
“I can’t keep on working while knowing that the killer is our VIP,” she answered.
“Should we inform Philip about it?”
“No!”
“Alright, if you so.”
After the late-night snacks with Ruby, I had a hard time sleeping. Sleep was elusive, and my mind wandered to Enrique. Did he think about Ava? I liked the attention that he gave me when I was going out with him as Ava, but Ava was just a lie that I created. She was just an alter ego and nothing else!
So why should I feel jealous about them?
I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I jumped up when my phone beeped. I thought it was Philip, so I answered the call without checking the caller id. “Yes, hello?”
“Do you care for a drink?”
I tightened my lips upon recognizing Enrique’s voice on the other line. “Coming,” I said, and then I get ready to go to the bar. After checking my appearance, I whisked some perfume on my body, and then I was ready to meet him.
His invitation for a drink was nothing special because I knew that he was aiming to get drunk to forget about Ava. Damn Ava for bewitching my man!
“Are you heartbroken?” I inquired as soon as I joined him at the bar.
“I missed her,” he replied, and I blinked my eyes several times in disbelief.
Ava wasn’t a different person, but Enrique’s statement that he’s missing her hurt me! I was supposed to ignore it, but I was hurting inside! “She’s not someone you can have,” I reminded him about the difference in his status compared to Ava.
Enrique didn’t respond and just focused on his whiskey. Suddenly, I felt bad for tricking him, for making him believe that Ava was real. As I watched him suffered in silence, I wished I could turn back time and didn’t allow Ruby to coerce me into becoming a woman for a night. Then, another night followed until it was hard to stop pretending to be Ava. I already loved the character of Ava, especially when Enrique couldn’t get enough of her.
“I shouldn’t have fallen for her,” he murmured, and I felt like I was stabbed in the center of my heart!
“What about me?” I dared to confront him about my feelings, and he just stared at me as if I was nothing but a piece of s**t.
- Writer
