Chapter 38

"How does Europe sound?" My uncle asks. "Huh!" I find myself sighing. I apologise after realizing how unprofessional it sounded. For the past one hour, he has been talking about expanding La Cooper markets until he brought up the idea of transferring me and I froze, I wasn't ready for that. "Why me?" I ask I want to undersell myself until he rethinks that stupid idea. "You are the whole package this company has been waiting for." He states. I shake my head flattered, "I am sure what I do is not extra, it lies within my roles and duties." "Then you execute them perfectly, you do remind me of myself." I am glad when he redirects the attention to himself, I have been looking for that opportunity. I feign a blush, "You look so collected, I admire that. " I look up and point at the picture above him, "You were close with your brother?" I ask. He stands and brings the photo to me. "Until his demise, we were not." He states. I give him a pass for his honesty. "I have always looked up to him, he is my inspiration," I say. "That was my brother." He agrees. I take the photo and pretend to be interested in it. I tap on it pretending to be keenly invested in it. "You both look so close, I can't imagine not being on good terms," I say. "You are young, life can get messy." He rubs his brow not uncomfortable to share such details with a stranger. I nod, I have a pretty good idea of how messy life can get. "It must have been hard for you losing him and his entire family." I see a flicker of a smirk that disappears quickly. "It was hard, those children didn't deserve any of that." He picks up a folder. I look away and there is a stretch of silence I have many burning questions but I don't want to raise suspicion. Nonetheless, I am afraid if I don't that door is locked forever. When I turn to face him again his gaze holds me like a prisoner. "Your eyes remind me of my niece." He states and I look down at my hands fighting not to fidget in front of him. "Really? No one has ever told me so." I say. "You bear so many similarities to her. First, your first name, your maiden and surname are familiar to my sister in law." "I noticed. Such a lucky coincidence." I say. "What do your parents do for a living?" I take a sharp breath, "I lost my parents at a young age." "I am sorry." He mumbles. I don t like the direction the conversation is taking. I have now become the target of questioning. I don t like it one bit, I bite my bottom lip trying to think how to escape the trap I can see my uncle is setting. We are alike, we smell fear in others, we play the scared victims and manipulate it to our advantage. "I checked your records, how did you manage to pay for your college? Not many rich people can afford Primeton." "I worked and learned at a young age how to invest," I say. "I am an investor in that school, how is that possible bearing in mind your humble background." I realize this is a war that I cannot win especially if I fall right into his to pretend interest in my family trap, " I have made decisions I am not proud of, it is no secret the world knows the kind of work I did to survive." He intertwines his fingers together and leans forward, "Europe is a great decision, I hope you see it that way too." I take a sharp breath before I speak, "Could you give me time to think about the offer, sir?" He turns to his stack of papers, nothing is interesting about them, he just pushes them further to the edge of his desk. I don t know if his agenda of this meeting was to see how uncomfortable I can be. "I should have mentioned earlier that we earlier reached an agreement with the board of directors that due to the scandal with Mr Nickel. We either fire you or transfer you. So don t take that long in making your decision." The nerve! I stand and assure him I will think about it. I look down at my phone as I read the comment from people about the latest scandal of Quinn and me. I had to deactivate all my social media accounts. People can be cruel. I now have several pseudo accounts. Few can openly defend me. The rest both women and men are ready to prosecute me in whatever manner. Quinn as usual is just a victim of a gold digger. " you should stop reading that nonsense." My brother, Oliver pulls the chair beside me. We are supposed to have lunch together we catch up. I look around and I sigh that he didn t bring along his girlfriend. "hi,?" I say. He responds and reaches for the menu. I worked here so I know their dishes by heart. Kelly comes over to serve us. She looks exhausted and in a bad mood. "kill me now!" she grunts. I have worked here so I know how waiting tables can be hectic especially with horrible bosses and customers with stinky attitude. "I will have the usual," I say. She turns to Oliver, "and you, pretty boy? Where did leave Cinderella?" she sarcastically says? "whatever my sister is having." He says. "Good choice." She winks at him. They have grown extremely close for the short period I have known Kelly. Once Kelly has left, I tell Oliver about the Europe offer. It comes as a shock although he is quick to hide it. "I can t go to Europe," I say. "why not? It is a good thing. You will be away from Quinn, you can forget about the idea of revenge, you can build a good career, start a family" I am not surprised by his opinion. I know he means well to me. However, I cannot stop fighting even though the expression Oliver holds is that of lack of faith in my mission. Someday he will appreciate not giving up. He stated I already lost when I got involved with Quinn sexually. It is just that my stubbornness can t see that. I am doomed if I choose to go to Europe, I am doomed if I don t. I need a miracle. Kelly brings over our meals. "did you know that Ryan and his family and friends are holding a meeting at the conference room for his mother's burial that will be tomorrow?" Kelly informs me. Ah! The miracle I needed. I immediately text Andre, I need to get that ceremony tomorrow to talk to Ryan's father. I decide to keep our meeting on just talking about we have been rather talking about the same old thing, my revenge. time becomes irrelevance as we talk. It is comforting, at that time I am always myself. After our meal, I pay for it and leave a tip for Kelly. She I the reason I come to eat at La Copper despite their exuberant prices. I remove a wand of cash from my wallet and place it in front of Oliver. "I will get you more for rent," I say. He pushes the money back at me. "I am no longer a kid I can take care of myself." "you are just nineteen. You lost your job how are you going to do that?" I remind him of his job that burned down to the ground. "I got a better one." He says. I raise my eyebrow asking for more details, "just some work." He shrugs and I know he is either lying about securing another job or the nature of it. For the past months since the mechanic burned down, I have always had a bad feeling something wasn t right, I just can t prove it. I still have a few minutes left on my lunch break. We walk out so that each one of us can go on with tour businesses. The valet brings over a car, it a Maserati. I assume it as I wait for mine until I see him hand over the keys to Oliver. He turns to meet my surprised face, he expected the expression. "where did that come from?" I ask him. "the car shop, I suppose." I get agitated, "don t play dumb with me." "don t worry, like I said I can take care of myself." He gives me a peck and walks to his new car. "take care." I am left dumb folded as I watch his car drive away. I don t realize someone else is standing next to me. "Cara Black" I turn to find the lead detective on Ryan s mother murder case. "I think I was proven innocent," "yes, you are innocent, but not all that innocent." He says. "I am sorry to say that, all that you see is what get." "yes and what I see is a mystery and I have a theory." "good for you." I nonchalantly say. The valet arrives in my car. "Have a nice day detective." "And I will be seeing you soon, Cara." He softly says my name. I get in my car and in for a while, I decide to ask Andre if he has any leads on who murdered Ryans mother. I check through my side mirror and see a familiar SUV. It is exactly the one that had been watching my apartment. I remember it too well. I watch as the detective get in. he has been following and watching me.