Legitimate Clue

Chapter 8

Gloria's screams echoed the whole Donovan mansion. Her palms were wet and her nostrils were achy from the foul smell emanating from her husband's lifeless body. She was down with pain and regret, if only she had stayed with him he wouldn't have done such a thing to himself. She cried from an inner pain and injury_one which she wasn't even sure existed, one which for the sake of revenge and anger was embedded in the deepest part of her heart. Being tough was to blame for it_because being tough means inability to love and be loved back. Her heart was totally ramshackle, and her eyes utterly achy from the gruesome gross sight of the dried blood shredded over his pajamas. Why did he do that to himself? Was it because she couldn't bring herself to love him. Couldn't he just understand it was beyond her, couldn't he know she was doing all that she was doing for his good. Couldn't he just see how much danger and harm her love was going to bring him. The foul smell from the gradually decaying body couldn't even stop or reduce the immense love that was radiating inside her entire system. He wasn't dead, he couldn't be dead_oh God! It can't be, "Jake!!" She screamed, as she caressed his lifeless cold cheek. "Jake please, I just needed one more year to sort all this out_why couldn't you just wait....Jake !!!! Jake!!!" Gloria cried insistently for the first time in her miserable tough life, she didn't mind looking weak and sober. Because it was the love of her life that was lying dead, gone and lifeless just in front oh her. Of what worth was living and fighting without him. And there was Lilac, Jake's Apple. She owed him her safety, she owed him her survival. "Jake please" she wanted to turn back time rewind, just to make him know how much she thought about him. How much she was ready to sacrifice for him.
"Madam please", bunch of security service, few from her department tried to pull her away from her husband's body as they carried his body away. "No!, don't take him away! No! Jake!! Jake...." She choked on her last mention of him. He had broken half of her heart_leaving the rest to bleed for the child she never loved or should she say show love. She needed to pull herself together if she still wanted to be on the chessboard. Because this was not the chance to let her king down. She had just lost a very significant player_her Queen. Pulling herself together was going to be part of the whole game_the game she was starting to loss interest in and would have given up on if not for the sake of her rejected daughter.

THE NEWS OF JAKE DOOVAN'S suicide filled the whole country with dread. The man was a living legend, a very good and generous one for that matter. The newspaper and television stations would not stop mentioning all his charity programs and intense hard work. Everybody seemed to be missing his presence in the business world including his first daughter Hillary who wouldn't stop pacing Phillip's room.
"Sit down and take it easy on yourself, this pacing of yours isn't going to bring him back." Philip scolded the depressing looking Hillary.
"I can't, can't you see_he is gone. He is dead and it's all my...." She stopped herself.
"See! I know how you feel, but .."
"But what? You don't know anything. So just shut up and watch me sulk and wallow in my on grief."
Philip couldn't believe she was still being bitchy about the death of a man she was even never even fond of. Hillary had always made it clear to him right from their childhood she wasn't a fun of her father, but he couldn't blame her with her father's preference for the youngest Donovan which he hadn't yet even met or laid his eyes on. That lady according to the news and gossip was really antisocial and simple. Lilac, he guessed that was her name. Anyway Hillary had told him it wasn't necessary to see her after seeing their mother countless time, he heard she was a complete direct clone of Agent Gloria Donovan. He wondered if she was also extremely tall like her as well as tanned. He dismissed the direction of his thought when Hillary picked up a handbag and was about to vacate the room.
"Where do you think you are going looking all party-like like that?" He paused, "your father was announced dead just minutes ago and you are already looking like someone who...."
"Who What? " Hillary grimaced, "can't I have a break because my father ended his own life. Is it a crime for me to go about my own normal life."
Philip couldn't believe his ears, the woman was spoilt, totally spoiled to the core it broke his heart. "its not the issue. No one is begging of you not to continue living your happy life, but all reality and normalcy is asking of you is to act and look mournful and bereaved."
Hillary chuckled, "whatever! I can't go and see my boyfriend in black and dark circles. I have to look my best."
Philip hissed and frowned at her outburst, she was a complete selfish person. She messed and played with everybody's feeling except Nick Firestorm. She kiss and seduce him anytime she felt, and just spit it all back on him when she thought she couldn't stand him anymore. And now when she was supposed to be consoling and finding and offering solace from her grief mother, there she was thinking only of herself and happiness. He doubt the love she claimed she felt for Nick Firestorm was even true. People as heartless as her weren't capable of love, in fact to be straightforward shouldn't be capable of love.
"What about Gloria? She needs you"
"I don't care, she is going to be fine. After all, she is the one who has a profession which dead body and death was nothing surprising or fussy."
"The death of a client or a stranger is incomparable to the death of a spouse or close relative. Are you human at all." Philip spatted distastefully.
"Whatever, I am not anybody's babysitter. Be a good person by going to seeing her in my place, 'cause as for me Nick is all I want to see right now. I can't loose him, don't you get it. He is the only real thing that had ever happened to me. He is the only reason why I haven't killed you already. You know why?"
"Yes! Because you are cold and skinny and insane and heartless and self centered." Philip uttered gingerly.
"Good boy!" Hillary disappeared from Philip's room afterwards.

NICK LEFT MANUELA and Manuel in the care of Lilac at the counter. They objected on watching a movie_so he just damped them on Lilac to do whatever she wanted with them. He had to clear things with Hillary before things got out of hands, aside that, he hated lying and not being completely honest with people.
"Nick! My love!" Hillary rushed to hug him before he could make it to the alley. She held on tightly to him as she brushed her hand through his hair. He hated the gesture_he found it very inappropriate and childish albeit he wasn't about to make things complicated now that he was going to end things with her.
"Hillary" Nick tried to pull himself away in a very gentle manner so as not to hurt her, but she wouldn't budge, as she only tighten her grip on him. Women, women, they never learn_always teaching.
"Uncle Nick!" Manuela shouted directly in front of him before he could realize the three of them had joined Hillary and him. His face met the frozen body of Lilac and he felt something very strange inside him, he felt like she was trying to push him farther away from herself. Her lilac eyes turning entirely blurry blue and her hands covering her tummy. Her eyes never left his through out the thirty five seconds she had appeared with his nephew and niece, and then it struck him_she was wearing a totally vulnerable and hurtful look on her face.
"Wait!" Nick tried to stop her from running away, "where do you think you are going?" He wasn't sure how and why her wanting to leave concerned him, all he knew was he just wanted her to be there_thats around him. Just so their eyes may meet again even if they were oppressing each other with it.
"Lilac!" Hillary spelled out immediately she released her grip on Nick and met eyes with her younger sister.
"You know her?" Nick inquired from the shocked Hillary tracing his eyes back to Lilac to verify the relationship between the two of them. He couldn't imagine Lilac being Hillary's friend let alone mate from school. Lilac didn't look like someone who could afford such a luxurious extravagant life as Hillary.
"Dady is gone!" Hillary barely muttered.

Lilac heard what her sister said_but she didn't want to think about what it meant. It was only two days ago since she spoke to her father and now Hillary was telling her he was gone. How could that be, he was fine and healthy and sound minded, unless someone killed him. She was insanely pissed and angry at the thought of her father being strangled to death or probably shot to death.
"I know you don't like me_but faking daddy's death is farfetched and too out of ...."
"Dad is really dead! Lilac Dady is dead. It's all over the news. Jake Donovan is dead." Hillary yelled.
"No! Shut up...!!! Shut the hell up! He can't be dead. My daddy can't be dead. He...loved me...he promised to stay with me...." Lilac groaned from utter misery and pain. She couldn't take it anymore, her throat was suddenly feeling very sultry and painfully dry. She wanted to die too, she wanted to be with the only person that cared about her in the world. "Liar! Liar! That's what you are Hillary! You just want to make me suffer_you know how much it is going to affect me that's why you are saying that..." Lilac growled, moving towards her sister instantaneously, "you are such a big terrible liar...." She roared and just as she was about to hit her hands aggressively on Hillary's shoulder, was grabbed by Nick bringing her whole torture to a halt. She found solace in his strong chest and hard body. And the way he kept on rubbing her hair and back only made her want to die in his arms and buried within him if the world was going to allow her. She craved for love, she was thirsty and hungry for it. And now just when she thought she could be free of that yearning and feeling there she was loosing it and wanting it once again like she never had it.
"It's true!" Nick gasped knowing the consequences of his actions, "Jake Donovan is dead! It's all over the news. It was a suicide." Nick didn't complete before he felt her loosen her grip on him_and almost falling to the ground if he hadn't held on tightly and caught her in a haste.
"Is she dead?" Manuel asked sympathetically.
"No! She's is alive, just sleeping."
"No! Uncle Nick, let's take her to mummy, mummy can save her before she get worse. Please!" Manuela cried grabbing the leg of her uncle to get things going.
"Leave her to me." Nick carried Lilac away from the alley through the hallway to the parking lot with his nephew and niece closely following after him, crying and yelling for him to hurry up before their best friend finally loss herself in her deep sleep. Manuela run to open the car for him while Manuel helped him adjust Lilac_they loved her, they were fond of her. And he knew that because he had watched them watch their mother in a similar situation and even didn't see them act so much concerned like this. Not like they didn't like their mother, but the love and affection they were growing for Lilac was just maturing their young mind faster. If they could trust her, then he too could let himself do the same, after all, the three of them were very much alike.