Tainted Souls

Chapter Eleven

"What is going on?" I whispered to Keisha.

"I have no idea. It's always like this. There is always some sort of new incident that happens at every dinner "gathering" at the Mendoza family's place," Keisha reminded me.

Everyone was standing by the tables and not sitting down yet, looking towards each other with hushed whispers. I had no idea what was so concerning. Then, that was when I saw it.

Atlas was eating off the food that was on the catering cart. A chef was standing there, looking paralyzed in fear. Just what was Atlas doing here? No doubt that this was Maverick's doing.

"That dog is proof that karma happens on its own. Just last week, Taj's parents were acting completely condescending towards me, saying that it was my fault that they lost a fashion business partner because my fashion style is not "lady-like enough" to other people. They were completely praising the Valentine family for finding them new business partners," Keisha scowled.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Keisha. But I don't think that the dog being here is a coincidence. This dog isn't just any dog. It's the same dog that I told you about. Atlas, the dog Maverick agreed to be the owner of," I informed her.

"What the hell! Of course it's like him to plot behind the scenes to ruin something with that evil, calculative brain of his. But why would he intentionally do something like that, if other people probably know that Atlas is his dog?" she asked me suspiciously.

"I have no idea. I mean, people do know that I also have rights to take care of Atlas as well. I insisted that Maverick adopt the dog in the first place, after all." I pondered within the world of my own thoughts. "What if that nefarious boy decided to purposefully set things up to blame me? To make it look like I let Atlas free in order to cause chaos at my first dinner gathering that he reluctantly invited me to?"

"I assumed you would have guessed sooner, piccola cagna. It is such a pity that you found out before it was too late. You thought you could get back at me by having me invite you to the dinner gathering. You thought you won when I agreed to it. But you never considered the consequences of that, once again," he smirked.

Just when had Maverick appeared right behind me? He had this annoying capability of walking with silent, lethal footsteps to the point where it spooked and surprised me all the time.

"It's disgusting how you would manipulate Atlas like that as well. He is a dog! He wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of all that delicious food in front of his vision," I glared at him. "I swear, I'm going to expose you for what you did."

"Too late. The chefs and the other guests already got the memo from Taj that you decided to let Atlas loose intentionally." Maverick looked around pointedly, then gave me a look of disapproval.

"I should have known," Keisha scowled. "It's completely like Taj to do something like this. He's still acting passive-aggressively about how I couldn't play the perfect fake girlfriend act in front of his parents last week."

"Who the fuck let Atlas loose?!" he exclaimed. "Whoever did something remorseless like this is going to pay."

"We heard from a reliable source that it is this...little friend of Keisha's. Taj's girlfriend continues to disappoint us more and more as each day is passing," Mrs. Mendoza commented in a snobby tone. "Sasha has also informed us that Taj's drama grade has been suffering since that friend of Keisha's has been bothering Maverick in class."

What the hell?! It was actually the complete opposite, with Maverick always being unwilling to participate in acting out the dialogue that was written on the play's script. 

But of course, I had to look like the bad person because of his manipulation and have them think that the exact antithesis of the real situation happened.