Scarlett's Choice

Chapter XX

Nya was a little disheartened as she went to bed that night. Her plan to ruin Scarlett didn’t work. The comments people were leaving online wasn’t nearly as bad as what they said about her when her sex tape came out. Even now she was receiving most of the hate instead of Scarlett. She placed her phone on the charger and went to sleep. Her phone ringing about 3 hours later woke her from a deep slumber. It was security. Sluggishly she answered saying, “Please this better be important”
“Sorry to wake you Mrs Woods but there are some detectives here to see you.”
“Detectives? Ok send them up please.” She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake herself up. She pulled on her sweatpants and by the time she was going downstairs, she heard the ding sound of the elevator.  Two men stepped out of the elevator, their eyes making its way to her descending the stairs. The shorter, fat one looked around inspecting the penthouse from where he stood.
“Mrs Woods. I’m Detective Peter Shaw and my partner Lance”. Nya couldn’t help but notice how handsome Peter was and his perfect body was everything that his partner Lance lacked. Both men quickly flashed their badges.
“What’s this all about?” asked Nya quickly focusing on the fact that two detectives were standing in her living room at 11 pm”
“Mrs Woods we regret to inform you that you husband was shot today leaving his office”
Nya suddenly lost all the feeling in her legs. Detective Shaw quickly grabbed her, keeping her from falling. “Mrs Woods, your husband is still alive. We’re just here to escort you to the hospital.”
Nya turned and looked at him, “So he’s ok?”
“The doctors will inform you more of his condition when you get there.”
Nya stood for a moment, not saying anything. It was as if her mind was trying to process everything she just heard. After a while, in almost a whisper she said, “I…I’m going to change” she walked off slowly, in a daze back upstairs. As she got upstairs and into her closet, it was as if someone snapped their finger and woke her from a dream. She quickly grabbed something pulled it on, grabbed her phone and her purse and ran downstairs. The drive over was a quiet one. She initially refused to answer any questions until she saw her husband. For a minute she thought of calling Scarlett but decided against it. She sat in the waiting area nervously; Peter sat beside her while Lance was off somewhere. David was rushed to emergency surgery and so now all she had to do was wait. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hours as they waited on an update. Lance brought Nya a coffee and said, “Mrs Woods, I can only imagine what you’re going through but the longer we sit here, the more chances this guy has of getting away.”
Nya looked at him, tired. “I guess your first question is going to be if he had any enemies?”
“That’s a good start” said Lance, flipping open his little notebook. Peter looked on, quietly.
“Well he didn’t, not that I know of”
“How was your marriage? I mean from what we gathered online and from some of his colleagues, you two weren’t in a very good place. “
“He moved out a couple nights ago. He was staying at the Hilton I believe”
“And from your interview with Buzz Online you said he had an affair with Dr King. Do you think she could have done this?”
“Scarlett! No of course not”
“What about the gentleman in your…your video.”  That imaginary light bulb finally came on and Nya dropped her coffee, jumping to her feet.
“Oh my God” she said. Both men who were now standing, looked at each other, anticipating what she was about to say next.
“I lied in my interview. I had an on-going affair with Nick Angelino. He’s the guy in the video.” Nya started pacing, finally piecing everything together. “When I tried to leave him he blackmailed me with the sex tape and when I didn’t pay him that’s when he released it. He said he was going to ruin my life. Oh my God” she sat slowly on the closest chair, tears flowing down her face, reality finally hitting her. This was her fault.
“Mrs Woods” said the doctor approaching the three of them.  Nya walked quickly towards her.
“How is he doc?” she asked, her voice weak.

Scarlett was getting ready for work, her television on mute as it always was in the mornings. The report on David’s shooting went completely unnoticed as she put the final touches on her makeup. She finished up her morning routine and headed to work. As she reversed out her driveway she thought about calling David. She wanted to let him know that she had her car fixed and to find out if he had spoken to Nya. She threw her phone in her bag and decided on calling him when she got to the office. There wasn’t much traffic this morning and she was happy about that, she then decided to turn the radio on for some early morning music. As she tuned the radio trying to find the right station she stopped abruptly when she heard David’s name. It was a news report. “Prominent lawyer David Woods was shot multiple times leaving his office at Berkley & Pierce Law Firm. Mr Woods who is the husband of controversial caterer Nya Woods is now in serious condition at the Good Samaritan Hospital.”  Everything else said became inaudible to her; she stepped on the brakes suddenly as if in shock. Rapidly coming to terms with what she just heard she made a quick U-turn and stepped on the gas heading straight to the hospital. The two cars behind her swerved quickly, thankfully the light traffic helped to prevent a situation that could have ended much worse. As she sped down the highway to the hospital a million things ran through her mind. She attempted to get her phone from her bag to call Nya but her bag ended up falling to the floor. She took the intersection to the hospital completely ignoring the red light. Less than 5 minutes later she was there. She parked quickly, picked up her phone off the floor leaving the bag and all the other contents there.  She headed straight to ICU, hoping that he was there and that he was still alive. As she waited in the elevator a huge knot formed in her throat as she fought hard to hold back her tears. She stepped out and her eyes quickly found Nya who lay on the waiting area chairs, most likely asleep. She walked over to her hurriedly, kneeling before her shaking her gently. Nya, who was sleeping, jumped up startled. Scarlett could tell that she was crying. She sat beside he, both women looked at each other for a while. Neither of them saying anything. After years of friendship they didn’t need words for every conversation. Both women sat patiently waiting.