The Deal

Forty-Imani

The ice towel Bill handed to me feels so soothing on the back of my head. I even find it distracting from Jabar's confession.

"So, what was the original plan?" I ask him.

"At first, we planned to fake her death," Jabar continues. "Then we'd let her flee with a new identity. That was my suggestion before you came along. I planned to secretly marry her once she'd go into hiding, and probably talk her into divorcing Thabo. I'm so glad I didn't. Now Bernadette is the bane of my existence."

Suddenly, I get an alarming thought at the back of my head. "Wait. Are you sure it's even safe to have this talk in here?"

"Why?" Bill asks.

"What if Thabo and Baduza had this place bugged? They could be listening right now."

"Nothing to worry about," Yvonne blurts out. "I checked every corner of this house. No CCTV or bugs were found in sight."

"I'm glad you know," Jabar says. "Judging from the minimum times you've slept in your own house."

"I'm sorry, but are ya trying to provoke me now?"

"I'm stating a fact," Jabar replies, shrugging.

"Not by your tone. Ya going to jail, need I remind you?"

"Shut it!" Bill snaps, ending their useless bickering. "Both of you!"

After the silence, Jabar goes on; "Well, this madness started with Bernadette's depression. She was very suicidal as well, but I was always there to stop her. I still remember the day I stopped her from jumping over the bridge. Or cutting her damn wrists in my bathtub. After her father tortured and raped her for a year, the trauma effed her up. She'd hate anything associating her with him, especially being an actress. It was her dad who made her famous, anyway. The trolls on the media, fans sending her letters still thinking she's Aneska, the paps harassing her everywhere, it made her sick. Because Thabo and I loved her so much— "

"So did I," Yvonne cuts in, making us stare at her. "Love her. I loved her until now."

"Yeah," Jabar continues. "That's why we wanted to do anything to help her stop the suicide attempts. We wanted to make her happy." He shoots a straight look at me, and I've only noticed while he's been letting the cat out of the bag, he's avoided eye contact with me. Like it's hard for him to look at me as he reflects on the past decisions he made. Decisions that would harm me physically, emotionally, and mentally. "We did our homework on you. Learned almost everything about your background using our connection with the law and police. Even your abusive relationship with your ex-fiancé, Ivan. Since Bernadette grew so damn obsessed with switching identities with you, she'd been spying on you. Doing her little stalking as well. Entering your home when you and the kids left. We didn't think she'd pull it off, but it went well."

"What happened after Bernadette drugged me?" I inquire, now realizing the ice has melted on the towel.

"Baduza used the guise of a taxi driver to give you a lift. You were dazed. 'Cause of the amount Bernie put in your water; the effects of the pills kicked in quickly. That's when Thabo, I, Bernie and Baduza moved on to the next phase." He sighs. "We needed to put you in a coma in order to have your memories wiped."

"Was the car accident real?" I ask. "How sure were you the accident wouldn't be fatal enough to kill me?"

"Yeah. This was where my brother came up with his idea, see? Thabo used hypnosis to put you in a...deep sleep. As part of the command, you were to forget your past and the night of the encounter. The effect of the command would work as soon as you woke up. So, meanwhile, we needed to lie to the public. So we created the car accident. We put a dummy in the vehicle. Right before the paps and local reporters came swarming in, we were able to hide the— "He finger quotes, "' Dead body'. Our connections with the police, doctors, and nurses worked well here. They were paid handsomely for their roles in faking the incident. But then, it seemed your painful past with Ivan still left you traumatized. It was the only part of your memory Thabo couldn't fully erase.