26. Maricela
“You have to marry me!”
Lila shouts from Killian’s office while I work on rearranging a desk with Bertha.
After the little lesson I gave Connie about cleaning up after herself, I want to behave accordingly and maintain order as much as possible. I’m still one of the messiest people on this planet, but at least I try.
“Killian! Killian, I am your fiancée!”
Bertha gives me a look of compassion. We all heard his orders the last time Lila showed up at the office.
Killian ended her tantrum by ordering she return to the hotel and stay there. I don’t know why that’s where he wants her, but I don’t interfere in his decisions.
A month has passed since we started to plan for his father’s demise. I’m still not brave enough to say the monster’s name, but I am brave enough to act against him behind his back.
“You dirty whore. It always has to be you. You’ve ruined my life!”
Turning, I stare at the creature who just came stomping out of Killian’s office like a child.
“Blaming the victim? Lila, it’s not something I would expect from a bitch like you.”
It took me a long time to understand this and to accept it myself, but I was a victim. My father’s, my sister’s, the bitch standing before me, Killian’s, and most certainly his father’s. At least I’m doing something about the monster now.
“You, a victim?” she scoffs.
“Feel free to take a seat and listen to everything you did to me in the name of your fiancé’s little revenge, as you like to call it. You made the entire school think I had lice. You called everyone to put bugs in my locker. You used to steal my clothes. If it weren’t for Raven looking for me the whole time, I would have been without clothes for days at a time.”
Bertha sits there with her mouth hanging open, and Lila only glares, not saying a word. So, I continue.
“You made one of the students... Who was it? Oh, right, your lover. I think his name was Benji. Yes, it was Benji. Benji the kleptomaniac. He stole all my clothes and all the money I saved to buy a new hair straightener. You tried to oxidize my hair with a substance that could have burned my scalp, and if I hadn’t heard you and your friends plotting in the bathroom, I would have been left without any hair altogether. Remember... Oh, what did you claim? Oh, yes. That you could be the only redhead in that college.”
“Shut up!” Lila screams, looking anywhere but at me.
“Why? You were the one who started and finished it all.”
“Go on, Maricela,” Maddox says in an easy tone that has the woman in front of me climbing into herself.
“What else did the fake Barbie doll do?”
“Go on, I want to hear it too,” Killian announces from his stance across the room. He must have entered the space right after his brother.
“I need a break,” I say, leaving without another word. I will not rehash the past.
“Maricela, wait,” Killian calls out and runs after me.
“I’m proud of you,” he says the moment he catches up.
I must look as confused as I feel because he adds, “You stood your ground. I wanted you to return to being who you were, but the woman standing before me is much stronger than she was. And I’m proud of you.”
“You don’t know everything and wouldn’t think like that if you did.”
“Then tell me. I’m not a fragile thing. I can handle it.”
I keep walking and refuse to give him the information that will make him hate me. I don’t know who we are other than people who look after two children. People who fuck because they once loved.
Liar, the annoying voice returns. Liar, liar, liar, she sings in my head, almost dancing.
“Maricela, one day you won’t be able to run away anymore, then you’ll tell me who hurt you more than I did, and I’ll crush them.”
I wonder if he will destroy me, too, if he discovers the whole truth.
“I heard from Maverick,” Ronen says after I swallow a piece of the new chicken dish he wants to introduce to his restaurant. The dish is excellent, but it seems to have gone down the wrong hole, causing me to choke. “He says you’re not returning his calls, and he needs to talk to you.”
“I sent him a letter of resignation. I paid him compensation for my loss. I have nothing to talk to him about. And why are you even in contact with him? Ugh! No, Ronen.”
“He has a good cock.”
I sigh. “And he fucks his wife with it.”
“Okay, enough. I’ll deal with Maverick and his wife, but you need to call him.”
“I don’t have to do anything. It’ll only drive Killian crazy, and once I found out what kind of person Maverick was, I didn’t like him very much.”
“And what kind of person is he? Tell the class.”
“Can’t you see? What’s in his cock, anyway? Never mind, I don’t want to know,” I say the second Ronen opens his mouth.
“Maverick Hope is a hypocrite. He says he hates the rich but takes pictures of the poor to be rich himself. For him, it’s neither art nor the pursuit of the truth. He never wanted to know the painful truth about people, not really. He goes after stories to get awards. The truth and pain of those people doesn’t interest him in the least.”
“Nice to hear what you think of me.” Maverick, my former teacher and now former boss, walks into Ronen’s restaurant like it’s his house.
“What are you doing here?” Ronen asks, probably to show me he didn’t invite him here while I was visiting.
“I came to see you,” he says in his posh accent.
He looks my friend up and down, and I give them that moment. Ronen has become only hotter with time, even if he doesn’t think so. He might be on the thin side, and his face is not model-like, but his warm eyes and honest smiles make him more than appealing, much more than he thinks he is. I wish he would find himself someone worthy and not be with someone like this asshole.
“You came to fuck him, Maverick? Are you sure Sonya would want to hear what you’re doing here all the time?”
“Mari, chica, enough.”
I look at my friend, really look at him. His face is full of love, and I see that he loves this asshole. Fuck me.
“I’ll stop because you asked, Ronen. But you deserve better than this dirty creature. And why are you calling me non-stop?” I ask, turning my attention to Maverick.
“I want a scoop.”
“Go jump from a cliff.”
“You’ll give me the scoop I want, or I’ll tell him why you left.”
My whole body convulses, but only once. I don’t let him see what his words do to me.
“Go ahead. Tell Killian everything. Make it easy for me. Tell him what was done to me. You have the power to destroy more lives, so do it, Mr. Hope.”
I walk to the door, thinking I’ve won this argument, when Ronen calls out as he hurries after me, “Mari, don’t go.” I hear my friend’s hatred for his lover in his desperate tone and feel it in the hand that grasps mine.
“Ronen, I won’t let him blackmail me. Let him do it if he wants.”
“He knows everything,” Ronen reminds me as if I don’t know.
“And I’m still not going to sell my soul to the devil. I have two children to think about, and unlike this lowlife, I won’t blackmail him or threaten his wife and children!” I shout so Maverick can hear me. “I’m a human being who will do anything to protect the ones I love.”
“Maricela?” Bertha calls my name gently.
Everyone hesitates to approach me since I returned from my break. I thought a trip to see Ronan at his restaurant would be a respite. But that son of a bitch Maverick had to ruin it.
“Even I know he hates her and won’t marry her,” Bertha tries again. Her sweet perfume, which usually comforts me, is getting on my nerves.
“Hey, you.”
Lila suddenly appears, pointing at me with a long fingernail. How the hell does she clean her ass with that thing?
Now I believe there are people who tend her butt. “What do you have to smile about? Because of you, Killian isn’t marrying me and fulfilling his promises.”
“I have a name. And I’m not holding Killian back from doing anything. He’s in the office, and he refuses to see you, you crazy bitch. You know, you’re starting to annoy me, Lila. I’m no longer a young girl in college. My sister is gone. I live for her kids. Therefore, I’m crazy, so crazy that I might bleach your red hair. You said it yourself: there’s no room for two redheads here.”
“You won’t get to me, you crazy bitch,” she barks like an annoying chihuahua.
“You don’t want to try anything on me.”
I take the stapler from the drawer, get up from my seat, and menacingly approach her. It’s as if I’m an unhinged character from a horror movie. Or at least I think I look like that because she screams in a Binchy-like voice.
“Enough, Maricela.”
Madd steps up behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder.
“Our doll will believe we employ criminals.”
I turn and see he has a butterfly knife in his hands, and he’s rolling it by one of its wings. The blade makes a swooshing sound. I don’t want to know how crazy we look, him with a butterfly knife and me with a stapler.
Lila’s face falls, and she now looks like she’s about to cry.
“She wanted to... She wanted...” Lila points to the stapler as if it were a firearm.
“Yes, yes. This whole game of the victim doesn’t work on me, doll. Oh, and Mari, put the stapler down and do me a favor. I’ve got a client in a little while.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Of all Killian’s friends, Maddox is the most likable. He’s funny when the humor invites itself, but he also knows how to be serious. Ronen calls him the middle between Kai and Liam, but I think Ronen’s wrong. Maddox has anti-social qualities, but there’s much more to his personality. Maybe it’s his refusal to hide his scars.
He even refuses to grow hair as if by exposing his skin. He’s shouting to the world, “Look, I’m like this because of what that fucker put me through.” With his past and prison time, I imagine he’s been through hell.
“You’re going to hate me, but I forgot the new client’s documents in the car. The car is on the fourth floor in the parking garage, on the left side, right next to Killer’s car.”
“I’m not going to hate you for that. I need to move my legs, anyway. Otherwise, I’ll kill someone here.” Lila’s green eyes grow huge, and I shake my head.
“She meant me,” Lila whines. “I know she meant me.”
“Come on, Sherlock.”
I raise my hand, and Lila shrinks into Maddox’s colossal body. For his part, he looks like it was the worst thing she could have done. I chose to ignore them and do what he asked.
I get into the elevator, and as expected, it stops to pick up passengers at what feels like every floor. I tuck myself into a corner and wait to reach my destination.
At one of the stops, I look up only to see a face I never wanted to see again. No. No. It can’t be him. Our eyes collide once. I stare at him, letting him see that it’s me.
The elevator closes after him, but I can’t stop seeing that face. There’s a profound scar on the cheek because of me. Many people think it’s easy to leave scars on the face, but they’re wrong. A scar like the one caused is deep as I passed the muscles in the cheek.
Finally reaching my floor, I step out of the elevator, trying to remember the location Maddox gave me.
It must be a coincidence. He can’t be here because of you. He didn’t know where you were.
Now he does,I answer the annoying voice in my head. I keep walking, not paying attention to where I’m going and trying to start the car with the keys Maddox gave me until I see it.
The black car with our painting on it. He kept the car. He kept it. I get close to it, touching the faces on the car. The shadows on the painting are happy. They’re in love and content. I miss that feeling.
“Little Girl, what are you doing here?” That voice. It’s Killian. He’s here, and I’m fine. “Are you okay?”
“I need you,” I say in response. “I need you to fuck me. Please.”
“Are you okay?” he asks again, caressing my face tenderly.
“I need you. I need you to fuck me. Now. Please,” I beg. I need to feel, to experience, and breathe him in. To remember that he’s here, that he’s with me, and that he doesn’t hate me. Not yet.