THE STARKS ALLEY

29

TY'S POV

It had been a month since the two cousins and the third dweeb had been convicted of Kristie's murder. Izzy and I had actually given up in looking for who was responsible for it.

"The problem is, they are each other's alibi," I told Izzy.

"We already know that, Ty. I'm starting to think they actually did it. I just want to know where the body is and I'll live in peace."

"You can't be serious about this Izzy."

"Look. They have already been replaced on set. Not even Kent is working on getting them out of their hell holes so what chance do we have?" He was making a good point but, I could not believe that this is where it ends. That meant they would be in jail for life. We had already visited them before, except Dale of course, neither of us liked that guy. Izzy was packing up and he was planning to leave.

"Are you coming?" He asked, "I'm going to pay Kelsie a visit. I need to know why she did it, now that I'm positive she's responsible for it." It was only fair for me to accompany him since we had come a long way with this investigation and we came up with nothing.

We got into his rented car and we were on our way to The women's maximum prison. I remembered how awful Kelsie had been toward Kristie and it all made sense to me. She was evil, maybe even evil enough to murder her because of her success.

"Is that... Is that Monic?" Izzy asked me, and it was indeed Monic.

"Didn't she leave on the night of the party?" I asked Izzy.

"That's what I thought." We had to slow down. She was coming from a grocery store and she got into her car and drove off. We both couldn't understand why she had been under the radar for so long while she was around the whole time. That right there was suspicious.

"Our special visit to Kelsie has to wait," Izzy said as he followed Monic's car at a distance. After driving for about forty five minutes, she parked her car. We waited for her to alight and she took a look around before she went into a house, a huge, grand house.

"We used to share an apartment, how on earth can she afford all this," Izzy said.

"We need to go after her," I remarked, opening the door of a car. We both walked up to her doorstep and Izzy rang the bell as we waited.

Monic opened the door and she was so shocked to see us, that she forgot to breathe. She closed the door immediately.

I opened the door and ran after her. Izzy made sure the door was locked.

"CODE RED! CODE RED!!" She yelled into her phone, "PILLS NOW!!" I pounced on her and we both fell on the floor.

"Get off of me!!" She screamed. I took her phone to see who she was calling but it was a private number. I tried calling but it was out of service.

"Not until you tell us why you were running," Izzy said, pinning her down to make sure she stayed down, "We thought you were in Poland, what are you doing here?"

"I believe you meant to say sorry for invading your home," she said furiously.

Izzy told me to hold Monic down as he took a look around the mansion and I just sat on her, trying to figure out what her earlier call meant. It was easy because her hands were tied with a cloth.

"Don't you see? You're caught up in a 'jealous ex' situation," she started. She realized I was obviously confused by what she meant so she asked, "Oh! Izzy didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Well, on the night of the party, he told me that he and Kristie shared a kiss... Behind my back," this shocked me because I never pictured Izzy as the cheating kind. I respected him more than most people at The Starks Alley.

"He felt guilty, poor old Izzy. The guy is too good. He cheats and confesses right after he does. I was obviously devastated and I over drunk. I still can't remember anything that's happened that night but I woke up here and I've lived here ever since."

Why is she opening up to me?

"Ty, a broken heart is worse than death itself. Your broken trust haunts you as you try to move on and seeing him today is not making that easier." She was right. Maybe Izzy was driven by guilt. That's why he made us follow her here where she was living happily and moving on from a guy that didn't love her enough.

IZZY'S POV
I walked through Monic's mansion and I still wondered how she could afford everything so quickly.

Maybe she got involved with a tycoon richer than you

Right. Maybe she moved on quickly with someone else. I was no good for her and I can't say I'm proud of that. And I know she still hates me for the pain I caused at the night of the party. She drunk so much that she just disappeared on me and I had never seen her or contacted her since that day, thinking she went back to Poland like we had planned to. She didn't even come back for her stuff at our apartment and I could see why.

"She's got a room full of clothes," I said to myself, "Two rooms in fact." She was insanely rich from what I saw and at least she was happier.

I noticed a room at the farthest end of the long, dark corridor and it looked sinister to me. I opened it and I found... A normal bedroom. I started feeling like one of those jealous exes who never move on, especially because they are the guilty ones. That's at least how it looked like. Maybe Monic just wanted to live her own life away from me and to move on. I needed to mind my own business.

I noticed that the window was opened and it was windy so I decided to close it, as a good deed as I prepared an apology for Monic. It was at the window that I spotted a reflection on Monic's mirror of something under the bed and I had to look at it. So much for minding my own business.

I knelt down to get a closer look and... I had never been shaken like that.

It was Kristie!

I quickly pulled her from under the bed and held her in my arms, moving her hair from her face to see if it was really her. She seemed as lifeless as she was believed to be, but her body was warm and her pulse was very slow. All this time, Monic was behind all this!!

I carried her in my arms and ran to where I left Ty, only to find him alone.

"Where is Monic?!"
"Is that KRISTIE?!"

We both asked each other simultaneously and we were each shocked beyond our expectations when we first got here.

I rushed to the car and Ty followed me quickly.

"You lost her!!" I yelled at Ty, carefully placing Kristie at the back seat.

"And you found her!!" He shouted back, with a more cheerful tone.

"Do you realize what you've done??"

"I thought you were a jealous ex!!" He exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" For a moment back there, I almost thought that I was a jealous ex too, but I'm not.

"Well, you weren't completely honest with me, so I believed everything word she said," Ty explained.

"What did that bitch possibly tell you?" I asked. Ty reminded me about the night of the party and basically how I betrayed Monic and he even started making it about him. He made it clear that he did not respect a cheater of any kind.

"That is not one of my products moments and I regret deceiving Monic that way. But she had Kristie all this time!! And you let her go!"

"You just had to kiss Kristie while dating Monic huh!"

I couldn't argue with him. We were obviously concerned about different timelines and he was dwelling on the past. The past is meant to be forgotten.

"Although, I am happy that we found Kristie," he said at last. We were on the same page, at least.