Sunset Miracles (temp on hold)

Chapter 8

"Did you know that Alissa was part of the plan? She was meant to lure Miguel there, so the same could happen to him. But, Miguel had a business meeting the time Alissa was meant to meet him. So he was lucky."

"Did Alissa ever show?"

"Nope. She phoned him when Mrs Calderwood was at the door. He phoned her back and threw his phone off the wall. Smashed it and then continued on with doing the things to me."

"Dang it! So we can't get her as an accomplice. Fucking hell, this just gets worse."

"What does?"

"We always thought there was foul play with the whole thing. Like it was devised by two people, maybe more, and not just Joel. We thought that everything was done too coyly. We felt that there was no way that Joel could've gotten you there on your own, especially with the troubles you were having at the time of the attack."

"Who's we?"

"Leon, Miguel, Beth and I. We just felt there was more to the plan that what met the eye. We seen things just deteriorate. Everything felt too composed and planned on Joel's behalf in the court. Like it was already planned with him and someone else."

"And you all thought it was Alissa? Why?"

"She was there the day of the court case. When Miguel went up and told the court of what happened and your state upon his arrival, her face turnt. As if it had encountered sour grapes or something like that. Every thing Miguel said, she was pulling faces in disgust. And when Joel was in the dock, she was sitting there smug. Like she'd done the dirty on him. But when Mrs Calderwood went up and gave her statement, Alissa's face dropped. Like she wasn't planning on anyone finding out about the whole thing. I don't know. It was just weird with how she was acting. And the fact that you didn't remember anything from that night helped her case with staying out of prison."

"To be honest, she really had nothing to do with what Joel did to me. She wasn't there. She was meant to be there but wasn't. So she got off lightly. However, I feel like there was something much worse planned for me when she arrived. I think that's why Joel dozed me twice with the mixture of drugs he had. As one was for me and the other was for Miguel. Like it was enough for us to go into a dazed state and remember nothing of that night, but not enough to kill us. However, I seriously don't think Joel was expecting me to take a severe reaction to the stuff."

"No one was, to be honest. I don't think anyone was ready for what Joel did to you. He hurt you and it just makes me mad that I couldn't have protected you."

"No one could've protected me. I was stubborn when it came to Joel. I just wanted to be loved. Loved by someone other than my family and friends. I felt like I was missing out on something. Like, I was missing out on something. Something that turned out to be one of the worst decisions of my life."

"I wasn't going to agree with what you said but I do have to agree. Joel took your life and made it into a mess that couldn't be undone in the sense of retaliation. He screwed everything up for your life goals and what you wanted to achieve in life. He just took the branch and burned it before even checking to see whether there was any signs of life aboard it."

"Did you just relate my life to a branch? And birds?"

"Why, yes, yes I did. Because it's true. He didn't check to see whether you were happy with things. He just took something and destroyed the beauty of it."

"Yeah, well, what beauty was in me to be destroyed? I was already broken," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"That doesn't matter, Nia. What matters is the fact that he just ripped you to shreds like you meant nothing to him. That your memories were nothing to him."