"Lost in Love"

Chapter 31: Help Me!

[Jimin]

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As soon as I saw the white tulips I knew they were for James. My mother had white tulips covering my sister's grave as well as all over our house the months after Jane's death up until her own. As a matter of fact, each of our 'death' letters from her had a white tulip placed on top of them. To show she was sorry. Everyday there were more things happening to me that linked back to my mother and the reasons for her taking her life. Unfortunately now wasn't the right moment to be thinking about her because Jungkook and I, along with Al and his team of Navy SEALS were trying to hook a fish. A very big, strong, handsome and wealthy fish, who with all those attributes on the outside, it didn't do him much for the inside. For although Travis was well put together, he was as rotten as the deadest fish ever.

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I saw how he had his workers. They were more like slaves. Their eyes looked like they were being kept doped enough to do his bidding but also for anyone to take advantage of them too. My heart broke for them. This was not the likes of a virtuous man at all and I wondered if James knew about this side of him. What was he really into and why did he want Jungkook and his company to be a part of his unscrupulous empire? When we sat down, I only began eating when Travis himself ate from the plates before us. You could never fully trust someone especially if that someone seemed bad to the bone. But the food was excellent and I did thoroughly enjoy Jungkook's and I acting a bit amorous in front of Travis. It was all part of our plan and even though we were 'acting', I couldn't stop melting at Jungkook's touch. For although his lips covered mine in a sweet kiss, it was his hand that was under the table, caressing the palm of my hand that drove me wild. God! I wanted him so badly but we would have to wait. I knew we only had a few days together but I was willing to sacrifice a few hours to helping us find out more about the circumstances surrounding James' untimely demise.

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I couldn't help but ask about the flowers. I knew they were for James but I needed to hear it from him. We needed to hear him talk about his late lover so I mentioned them, "White tulips are so beautiful. They are a symbol of unconditional love and forgiveness." Both Jungkook and I saw as Palmer nodded silently. Kookie realised too. Thank God! So I continued, "My mother had them all over our house after I lost my sister to leukemia." My mother's obsession with the tulips would've been news to Jungkook too and I saw as his eyes softened at me. I never even thought about the flowers until now but I had read a few years back that they are the blossoms to show love and also to say sorry. I wondered if Travis was sorry about something. Hmm...

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"That's really sad, Jimin," Travis answered me, "I lost someone too. Someone very special to me," and with that he bent his head and took up a blossom. He caressed it and smelt its fragrance.

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I almost felt sorry for him. Maybe he did love James after all. Maybe it wasn't his fault that James was killed. We needed him to confide in us about anything that we could get. In one of James' journals he mentioned about his breakup with Travis in detail. It really hurt him to break things off but James wanted to live his life. He even compared Travis to having a hold on him worse than his parents. And believe me, those people were terrors. Not in a bad torturous way but in an overly empowering with affection kind of way. They were almost to the point of being obsessed and I could understand fully what James would've been going through. When he thought he found someone to love him and support him with his choices in life, he found himself stuck in the same glue as with his fixated family. He needed a way out but the bludgeons that were used in his murder, sealed his fate for him.

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I looked at Travis' face and saw a bit of sadness but then he took the flower and crushed it. I sat with my eyes open wide. He watched me and smiled a wicked smile. I heard the raspy sound from his voice. It was almost demon-like, "This is what happens when you defy me. I crush you to get the true sweetness out of you. How do you think they make perfumes? They take the petals of these very flowers," and he did what he was speaking, "and they crush them till they don't look like themselves anymore to make a new product. One that smells a thousand times better and even more profitable than the actual flowers themselves. Do you know how much a gardener makes with his floral garden? It's actually not a bad figure. Roughly about $30,000 per acre in profits. But do you know how much money is made in fashion houses with perfumes alone? Billions. In one year, Chanel's worldwide brand profit was a total of 13.2 billion US."