What have we done?

six.

For so long, I thought I had this gift of painting a story for the others, a story that they desire and yearn to hear. But I find myself in a predicament, unable to fathom the hell is going on with Alicia and Paul. Two days had gone, with no news from either Paul or Alicia I thought it was gone for good-that I can finally go back to my ordinary life of telling lies. It was not.

This morning the phone buzzed and I knew, I knew something was wrong. I looked at the screen and knew that the caller is Alicia. It was a distress call about something that she found in the mailbox this morning. She refused to disclose what she found but she wanted me to be there immediately.

I remembered what Paul told me about Alicia. How she was not to be trusted and she was a ticking time bomb who is able to wreck me anytime soon. But why should I trust Paul? For all I know, Paul may just be a cheating, lying husband who has the intent to kill his innocent wife and planting ideas into my mind. I would not let him control my mind, embed all the lies he created just so he could deceive another woman. I am not one to be easily dismissed and deceived.

Moments later, I was in front of Alicia, my car was parked under the same shady tree. I rang the bell and waited patiently in front of the house. It wasn't long until Alicia came out to get me. She was there to open the door, immediately. Her face reminded me of the first time she came to see me, only darker and more depressed. But she was not frantic, worry, frantically worried like she was initially was. Instead, she felt cool and composed.

She handed me an envelope. She said she received it this morning, in her mailbox. Someone from Paul's office sent it to here. Apparently, "undercover police" Paul was working in The Times as a journalist, which was a news Alicia failed to mention the last time.

"You mustn't tell anyone, especially Paul."

"I don't even know Paul."

She nodded her head approvingly. She mumbled under her breath, I don't know him too. She started repeating those phrases as if they were mantras. But again, she wasn't scared or frantic. Instead I sensed some fury in the desperation of her voice. She took out the content from the envelope and as if she saw something disgusting, she turned her head and looked the other way.

It was a picture of Paul, hands around another woman. She was half naked, on the office table. Her legs wrapped around Paul's waist and her smile was seductive. Paul was looking around, afraid that anyone was there to witness his unfaithful act. Alicia lost her composed self and broke down, started crying again.

Monster. Alicia thought.

Paul is a monster to be feared. He was the one, messing around in her head, convincing her that Alicia was the evil mastermind when the truth is Paul was an unfaithful husband trying to get Lisa out of the way. She will no longer tell Paul anything. Why did I even tell him about Alex?

"Can you help me, Alicia? Get me out of this mess." She choked on her tears and words. She took my hand.

The envelope also came with a profile, the woman in the photo and all her information. Her name did not come across surprising. Her name was Margherita, that Margherita.

I went home after comforting Alicia and seeing her slowly went to sleep. Then, Paul the bastard called. He told me to check on my email. I went to log on my email and saw one new email entitled, "Busted" in my mailbox. It was the email Paul sent.

I opened it and there was an attachment. It was a link to a newspaper article about Alex, Alex Walker as I found out from the website. He was brutally murdered, 17 cuts across the body. But there was nothing regarding Alex's mother or father. His face was disfigured due to the fire that was set off in his house after he was murdered.

I shivered upon seeing the photo.

Not much information was given about the murder, no mentioning of any suspects or ongoing investigations. Paul written down below, check out Alicia's father.

So, I went to google Alicia's father, Greg Millstone. Apparently, the Millstone family was one of the wealthiest families in the countries. Their business extends to weaponry, apparels and media. I didn't get what Paul was suggesting initially. But as I thought about it, I realised that Paul was telling me that the Millstone family was capable of covering up this incident. This would explain why there were no reports on the death of Alex and no mentioning of suspects.

"Do you trust me now?" Those were Paul's words in the email.

I remembered what Paul told me, about how we were merely pawns in her game of chess.

I know I couldn't entirely trust Paul. But I know I am tangled in someone's game. Just who?