Game Over

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

The rest of the ride was awfully quiet.

No one was talking... yet the tension was so thick that I was practically choking on it. Gustung-gusto ko ng bumababa kahit na nasa gitna kami ng traffic. But I knew that I shouldn't. Kasi kapag bumaba ako ngayon, mas lalala lang 'yung pangyayari... kahit na sa totoo lang, hindi ko maintindihan kung bakit.

Lui pulled over in front of my condo. At least nagka-intindihan din pala kami kahit hindi kami nag-usap. He didn't go to the basement parking like usual.

Hindi pa siya tuluyang nakaka-tigil, pero natanggal ko na agad iyong seatbelt ko. I was so ready to get out of his car. I just wanted some air. I needed to fucking breathe.

Pero agad na napa-tingin ako sa kanya nang i-lock niya muli iyong pintuan nung bubuksan ko 'yon.

"What are you doing?" I asked, looking at him.

"Let's talk first," he said.

I pressed my lips together. "Not now," I replied.

Lui was still looking at me like he was telling me to give it up dahil hindi ako aalis sa sasakyan niya hanggang hindi kami nag-uusap muli.

"You're the one who's always asking me to talk," he shot back. Lui's usually level-headed... and that has always made me wonder... kung marami ba siyang tinatago o talagang isa lang siya sa mga ma-swerteng tao na walang masyadong dinadalang problema.

But I was wrong—so wrong.

Lui's just like everybody else—he's just way better at hiding the skeletons in his closet...

"Well, excuse me for wanting some time to wrap my head around the fact that you just lied under oath," I snapped back at him.

"You talk like I was the one who killed him."

"Conspiracy—act of one is act of all. Did you conveniently forget what we learned in Criminal Law?" mabilis na sagot ko sa kanya.

I watched as he pressed his lips together and as his jaw clenched. I knew that I was pushing his buttons... but he's putting me in an impossible position, too!

"Conspiracy must be established, not by conjectures, but by positive and conclusive evidence," he said as he stared directly into my eyes. "Or did you forget that, Prosecutor Tali, because you want to believe in the worst in me?" he continued, sarcasm dripping in his voice.

Agad na napaawang iyong labi ko. "Are you being serious?" hindi makapaniwalang tanong ko sa sinabi niya sa 'kin.

I had given him all the opportunities in the world to come clean to me, but he had always chosen to lie! He lies about everything that I was starting to wonder kung may totoo ba sa mga sinabi niya sa 'kin.

"Yes, I was there, but no, I didn't participate in the hazing," sagot niya sa 'kin.

"Then why didn't you just tell me?"

"Because it didn't matter."

"Well, it matters to me!"

"No, it doesn't—"

"I just told you," I said in anger, quickly cutting him off. "I'm being blackmailed to dismiss a rape case, Lui! A rape case! Naiintindihan mo ba 'yon?"

Humigpit ang pagkaka-hawak ni Lui sa manibela. Naka-tingin lang ako sa kanya habang sinasandal niya iyong ulo niya sa may headrest at saka sandaling pinikit ang mga mata niya.

"I'm not asking you to do anything, Tali," sabi niya nang buksan niya ang mga mata niya at muling tumingin sa 'kin. "I never asked you for anything then, and I'm not asking you for anything now."