The Truth Behind It All

Chapter 4

May 4, 2007

            There was no funeral. Or there was but Ana Marie wasn’t able to go, it was going to be in London. It made sense, his family, his friends and his co-workers were there. But she hated that she wasn’t able to go. It left everything unfinished. Perhaps that was one of the many reasons Ana Marie had those nightmares, that was the last memory she had of Adam. There had to be some kind of closure. Maybe if she did go to the funeral, seeing him so peacefully lying in his coffin, would’ve left a different impression on her, instead of seeing him lying on the floor with a dark puddle underneath him.

            “Ana Marie?” her mother was in the room with her, back in her apartment, forty eight hours since Adam’s death, and Ana Marie felt miserable. “A man is here to talk to you.”

            “I don’t want to see anyone.” Ana Marie’s eyes were locked to the birds outside her window.

            “Come on, it might be important.”

            “I don’t want to see him,” Ana Marie said knowing exactly who the man was.

            “But you haven’t heard his side of the story,” her mother insisted.

            Ana Marie doesn’t reply, instead she sits up and takes out a red small box from under her pillow and handed it to her. Her mother held it puzzled and as she opened it, Ana Marie felt her eyes water. He mother gasped at the sight of a ruby surrounded by diamonds, making it seem like a flower.

            “Brian gave it to me, Adam’s partner. He said that it was found on Adam’s body . . .” she felt her throat turn into knots. “And he thought I should keep it, since . . .” Ana Marie’s voice broke. “Adam was going to give it to me anyway.” Her mother didn’t reply. She shut the box and gave it to Ana Marie. “Believe it or not, Adam was going to be my best friend, my husband and the father of my children. And to have that taken away from me like that . . .” Ana Marie placed the box back under her pillow. “It’s so cruel.”

            “Ana Marie, you have to listen to me,” she heard her father, she rolls her eyes, didn’t he ever knock? He was dressed in good designer clothing. To be in his late forties, he looked nice. He was tall and handsome with a very masculine posture. What once made Ana Marie proud to call him her father, made her sick.

            She had no idea what her father did for a living. She knew he was successful, but she didn’t know how he got there. Her mother tried explaining it once, back when she was little. He was a scientist, she said, he helped create medicine that helped people. Lies, she then knew. He was a scientist, but he wasn’t helping people at all, if he was helping people, would he have sent his men to hunt Adam down?

            “I know you think it was me who sent Jack, but it wasn’t,” her father said. Ana Marie laid down on her bed and turned back towards the birds, he was lying again. “Jack acted on his own, that is why I fired him.” He could’ve fired him, but that didn’t mean that her father had no idea about the attack. Ana Marie didn’t want to hear him, not anymore. “I am very sorry about his death, but it’s time for you to move on— “

            “You want me to move on?” Ana Marie said as she sat back up. “When you tore a part of me and without any consideration to me at all, you decided to go and get him killed!”

            Her father didn’t speak. She placed her head back on her pillow and pulled the covers over her head.

            “Come on, Jose. You better leave,” she could hear her mother say. After a few seconds, she felt her hand caressing her hair. That is when Ana Marie found that her mother knew something that she didn’t.