Love, Lies and Billionaires

“Are you okay, Maren?” Nella asked as she slipped into one of the facial chairs beside Maren. She put down her bag somewhere beside her and almost immediately, a lady came to attend to her.

“I’m good, I mean, why wouldn’t I?” Maren asked, without looking at her as her face was covered in a facial mask, but she knew it was Nella who had just spoken.

“So you’re holding up fine?”

“Really, Nell?”

“I’m just asking. I mean, he was your ex fiance after all and the father of your child,” she said defensively.

“I like the fact that you said the word ‘ex fiance’. I don’t care if he’s the father of my child, I get to choose who’ll father my child.”

“Ooh, spicy” Nella said, as her legs were placed in a footbath, the mouth she was referring to Maren.

“I really don’t care what happened to him,” Maren added.

“Be honest, Maren, you still had feelings for him,” Nella said, but Maren remained quiet, so she went on. “If really didn’t care about him, you wouldn’t have given him a chance to come at you.”

“What are you saying?”

“What I’m trying to say is, you never really took his appearances as a problem till he took his demand for Nathan seriously. So I essence, part of you missed him”

Maren scoffed, but remained silent.

“But anyway, that’s all gone now, right? He’s dead,” she added as they began to put on her own facial masks. “I do feel sorry for him, though. Didn’t get the chance to actually be with his child. Must have been really hard for him”

Nella said, half sympathetically. After that, both women remained silent, only able to hear the low, soft music playing and the occasional sounds of the tools used by the female attendants.

“So what about the detective? Has he gotten any lead?” Nella asked curiously, breaking the silence.

“Not yet. Apparently, William was involved with some criminal organisation and his currently on their tail, so we haven’t really heard from him lately”

And what’s his name again?”

“Micheal,” Maren replied.

“Hmm, Micheal” Nella was quiet in thought for a moment before she spoke “Come to think of it though. Who hired him? I mean, nobody’s heard anything from Irene. William suddenly dies and then he shows up”Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

“Well, according to Alexander, he is and acquaintance of William’s and he just had to take the job when his friend died so, that’s pretty much it”

“No, it’s not, ” sounds pretty suspicious to me. I mean, if Alexander didn’t do it, then who killed him?” She asked and paused. “Could it be Irene?”

“Ha!” Maren suddenly gave off a short, sharp laugh, which startled the entire attendants around them. “Irene is as chicken as she looks. She’s all bark with no bite”

“Now that’s just her way of keeping suspicion away from her”

“That could be true, though. But I’m not buying any of it,” Maren said. Nella was silent for sometime but it seemed she really disliked silence as she spoke up again.

“Was he always that bad?”

Maren gave a heavy sigh before allowing words to flutter out of her throat. “William was a really nice person. I mean, he was really nice to me. He was caring and made sure I was always comfortable.”

Maren’s voice was steady and void of emotion. “It really was all good for about a year we dated. And then his mom died, and he gradually began to change- his mom was a lovely woman by the way”

“You think he changed because his mom died?”

“No, I mean, he used to be friends with Alexander’ back in high school but he suddenly changed towards them one day but remained the same with me. Then suddenly, after a year and some months, his attitude changed for no reason.”

“Don’t you think it was because of Irene?”

“Could be. But Irene did say they’d been having an affair for as long as we’ve been together so, I don’t think that’s entirely the reason.”

“Well, now we’ll never know the reason for his change in attitude.” Nella shrugged. “When is his burial, anyway?”

“In a week I guess, according to Micheal.”

“But they can’t bury him without knowing the killer, right!?”

“Not necessarily. I mean, whoever did it did a clean job. According to the guard who found him, there was no sign of struggle, no break in and most importantly, no weapon was found around the scene to get a fingerprint or something. So basically, he has no lead.”

They were just about taking out the facial masks on both women’s faces.

“You think Irene will show up?”

Maren scoffed, “Definitely”

*****

Maren sat in the car, staring into space. She was glad no one could see her because the glass was tinted and soundproof. She really didn’t know what she was doing there in the first place.

‘I really shouldn’t have come,’ she thought, crinkling her black gown in her hands. She looked at the journalists, who were also all dressed in black, who passed by the window.

She knew she’d be asked tons of questions which she wasn’t ready to answer and she really didn’t want to get emotional seeing William put on the ground.

Knock, knock, Maren?” A voice distracted her from her thoughts. “Maren, you need to come out now,” Nella said, peering through the window, though she knew she’d only be able to barely see a silhouette of anyone inside.

Maren took a deep breath and tried clearing her thoughts before she put on her dark shades, picked her phone and opened the door.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nella asked as soon as she got down.

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks,” she replied, and they made their way to where everyone was seated, staring at the priest. She made her way to where Alexander sat and took the seat beside him while Nella sat beside Eddie.

“Hi sexy,” Eddie said, making Nella roll her eyes in disgust, but to his amusement,

Alexander, who has been more caring these days, gently placed Maren’s head on his shoulders, making her smile inwardly. The priest began speaking to the hearing of those who wanted to.

Not long, someone who caught almost everyone’s attention walked over to where they sat and took her seat beside them.

“Well, hi”