Yesterday's Future 2✔️

38. The system is broken.

8:37pm,
D'Hotel Royale.

Ada, with her mouth agape and eyes lit up with fascination pulled a seat beneath the gentle glow of flower lights, positioned beside Simi by the terrace of the stylish rooftop bar atop the five-story hotel. Stretching her neck, she looked down the glass railing, captivated by the sight below—the expressway was a ribbon of light, cars zooming past like shooting stars in the night. Ada grinned as she perched on her seat in her short lacy dress.

"Just wow. I've been here for what...four days now, how come I never knew there was a  rooftop with a view like this back here? This is crazy. This hotel really has it all. How'd you find it?"

Sipping her iced spiked drink, Simi replied, "I got back from the exhibition and Teng and Yara called me up here, but they left some moments ago. It's pretty chilled up here, don't you think?" In a fitted designer white top paired with sleek green pants, and her dreadlocks flowing freely across her face, she exuded an air of effortless coolness.

Ada, still absorbing the breathtaking scenery and observing other guests in the open space, felt a refreshing breeze tousle her hair, sending shivers down her spine and goosebumps on her light skin.

She raised an eyebrow, excited. "What? This is exactly what I need right now. I've been alone in the room all evening eating and sleeping and waiting for you," she relaxed in her seat and faced Simi, her tone more serious. "How did it go? The meeting and the exhibition?"

Simi's lips curled into a wry smirk, her fingers gently tracing the rim of her glass. "The meeting thing was a bad idea. Honestly, if I knew other people were going to be there I wouldn't have gone. It was traumatizing for me," she sighed, releasing the tension with a puff of air. "But the exhibition...it was an interesting twist, to say the least. Tari and his babe had the good stuff and it helped get me over this whole Adam thing."

Ada paused, her expression shifting from curiosity to concern. "'Adam thing?' What's that?"

Simi rolled her eyes with exhaustion. "You know...his mission to reopen the case behind Stone's death. After the meeting today, he got mad at me because I told him straight up that it was a bad idea."

"But Simi, come to think of it. Is it really a bad idea? I mean, I thought you of all people would want that Jagga bastard behind bars too. He killed your best friend and soulmate—"

"Soulmate?" Simi interrupted, surprise all over her face.

"Don't look so surprised. I've seen that book, the one about the singer, Nina Simone with the...the 'From your soulmate' inscription on the front page," Simi's brows arched even higher. "It's not like I was snooping. It was on your reading table for months. Listen, my point is, Jagga put you and the Coker's in this whole mess in the first place. If I was you, I'd be doing anything I could to find that criminal and make sure he answers for his crimes."

Simi's eyes met Ada's momentarily. She leaned back in her chair, the cityscape serving as a backdrop to their conversation. "You really think I don't want that? Hell, I'd wish him dead if it were that simple. But it's easier said or wished than done, isn't it? Back in uni, Jagga was never an easy mark. He was a gangster, not someone you'd dare to cross, and certainly not now when he's probably evolved into the gang leader. You can't begin to imagine the kind of person he's become now, or the kind of people he has at his disposal."

Ada nodded solemnly, her expression mirroring the gravity of the situation. "Well, it seems we're cornered into sticking to our plan then— we get the party over with, you tell Adam the 'truth' truth afterwards, and we head back home, away from all this chaos as fast as possible. Right?"