"There is an ocean of silence between us… and I am drowning in it."
~Ranata Suzuki
She's wearing a red blouse, a black pencil skirt and a red bag, her curly hair neatly tied into a bun and her face holding little to no makeup on it.
My heart drops and panic rises within me as my eyes meet hers and she sees it too because she scoffs and enters further into the room even without being invited, carrying the same arrogance and loathe she always had around me.
Why is she here? Is she following me? How's the wedding? Shit, she was uninvited to the wedding.
What does she want? Because this isn't keeping a low key like Anna instructed or wanted. Someone has discovered my hiding place and I fear for the worst.
"What are you doing here?" I demand and slowly I turn to look at her, my voice fighting to stay firm. "How did you find me?"
"That is not a way to greet your fiancé's mother now is it?" She asked with a smirk on her face.
My hand holding the doorknob clenches and I further widened it and saying, "I think you should leave, now." I didn't want to have an argument with her. Her quarrel is with Anna and she is probably with her son, getting married so she needed to go there and—.
She begins to speak again, dragging me out if my thoughts, "You left Eli at the altar, do you have any idea what that does to a man especially after everything Eli has been through?" She demands, her eyes hateful and murderous.
Coldness break out on my skin at her words, especially at the part of Eli being left at the altar.
Anna didn't show up like she said she would and guilt plagues my heart because of Eli, he doesn't deserve any of what Anna has done, any of what I have done. I cannot even imagine what he must be going through now.
"Rosalina called me, she said he believes that you ran away and was tired of him and everyone, I beg to differ though." Her voice pulls me out of my thought and I see her glares at me murderously.
I understand her anger, Jumai has always been caring and protective of Eli and what Anna and I have done would make any good mother hate us.
Anna didn't turn up like we planned, well what the hell happened to change her mind??
Why would she say she will be around and not be around?
Maybe this was her plan all along, but it makes no sense. And now with Anna still out of the picture, I have to continue with the part of being Anna Wilson. I curse the day she came into my life.
I close the door and step away from it, feeling weak from the inside out. "I didn't mean to do that to Eli, Mrs Wilson, but everything was so overwhelming." I try to carefully play the cards in my hand, "tell Eli I am fine, but I will not be coming home, I no longer want to be in the relationship."
"You could have done that weeks ago, or even two days ago, but you led him on only to drop him on his head and disgrace him on his wedding day by not showing up! What was his crime? Loving you so much!" she closes her eyes and tried to retain herself mentally more than physically and when his eyes open again the anger has been already subdued.
"I am sorry, Ms Wilson, but you have to leave."
She moves to the bed which is not what I just told her to do. "I know the truth and it is quite confusing, but I think you will want to see this." she set her red Givenchy bag on the bed and pulled a brown envelope out of it.
My heart hasn't beat steady since I saw her at my door five minutes ago and with every minute she spends this room, the harder my heartbeats. I can make a run for it now but then again I don't know what's on the outside. Beside there is no running at this point she hates me and is angry for what I have done to her son and will want to harm me back.
My heart goes to Eli and if I could apologise for everything, I would but I feel that the time for apology is past.
"See what?" My brow rises.
"The truth." She instantly replies and walks over to the other side of the room where a desk is.
"And what will the truth be?" I demand crossing my hands over my chest.
"That I was always right you're not who you say you are and I have proof, Anna Wilson, or should I say Quynn Hudson?"
My heart almost leaps out of my chest at her bold statement and my stomach folds in an terrified way. My legs are about to give up on me and I walk to sit on the stool before the mirror. I know only the worse is coming for me. She knows the truth and the charade is fading away.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I try to deny but my voice betrayed me completely.
She opens the envelope, pulls out a file and she drops it on the desk and I see the file that I had locked in the drawer, the drawer which I no longer have the key. This file contains the contract the basic information file and the dos and don'ts. She opens the file and on the document and just like I feared, it is boldly written Ms Wilson's replacement contract.
How did jumai get the key? Was she behind my attack? Was it her all along? I knew something was not right, someone was putting the dots together and that person was Jumai.
No one was supposed to see these documents especially Jumai and at this point I do not know what she intend to do with the truth and I don't know why she chose to take me instead of go straight to her son with the truth she knows.
"What do you want?" I ask, in a defeated voice.
She turns to me with an appalling face, "What I want? I want a lot of things. First off, I want to know who the hell you are and why you're here."
The games are over and I don't have intention of continuing it, "If you've read the contract as well as the other documents then you should know who I am and why I am here, Mrs Jumai."
"Where is Anna?!" she demands with a scowling face.
"I don't know." I reply, being as honest as I possibly can be. I feared for this after Anna didn't show up for the switch and I was not able to get in touch with her, but when she called yesterday I felt that maybe things were going to work out just fine. Oh how wrong I was!
The truth is out and this is the time to throw in the towel.
I don't even know how I managed to keep up till yesterday because staring at Eli everyday knowing that I'm nothing but a fraud made me feel like a monster. I followed Anna's instruction to this point because I was scared about the lives of those I cared about, Luke was one of the those and I wanted to protect him and also Paula, as much as I could.
In protecting them, I contributed to the destruction of Eli Wilson.
I guess a part of me already knew there was no getting out of this in one piece, I was in too deep.
"Who else knows about what you and Anna did?"
Joey knew and Mr Agada and Mrs Maria Wilson knew the truth about me, but I wasn't willing to throw them under the bus. This is all my doing and I alone should take the blame.
"No one, Jumai, no one knew I wasn't Anna. You're the first." I lie without hesitation, my eyes fixed and blank. I proceed to explain everything in details to her, from the very first day Anna made the proposal to me, up to this point.
"Why don't you know where Anna is?" She demands with her brow raised and her tone demanding.
Tears burn in my eyes and I squeeze them shut, "She didn't think I deserved to know but she kept in touch through calls."
"Does she still call you?"
I open my eyes and a painful tear runs down, "She told me she was going to be back for the wedding yesterday, she said to do as she instructed and keep my head down, she didn't tell me more than that." my hand drops to the files and I ask, "How did you manage to get them?" last I checked, my attacker was still on the run.
Her hand slowly rest on the documents before looking at me, "The name of the man that attacked you is Tolu, I took the key from him. He said he was paid by Anna Wilson to do what he did and at first I didn't understand what he meant because Eli didn't tell me the whole story about your attack, but now it all makes sense."
Anna wanted me dead, she wasn't just going to let me go after everything I knew about her, she was going to have me killed after the switch. But she never turned up and the man still tried to carry out his orders. My hands are trembling at this revelation and uncontrollable tears run down my face.
I feel hurt, I feel used and it doesn't seem fair.
I wipe the tears away with my hands before asking, "What are you going to do to me then? Are you going to report me to the authorities and have me charged?"
"Me? I'm not going to do anything, I would leave it to Eli because he is the victim in all of this. He's the one brokenhearted and miserable and who refuses to leave the church because he's waiting for you to come back."
My heart clench in my chest in guilt at the mention of his name. He really was the victim in all of this and he doesn't deserve what I have done to him.
She walked back to the bed and picked up her bag, "I cannot begin to say the things I wish to do to Anna and you, but it's not in my place. So we are going to get in that car, drive yourself back to the church and you're going to tell Eli the truth and nothing but the truth. If you don't, I'll call the police and you will be locked up, and I will make sure that you never see the light of day again."
Xoxo
What are your thoughts? I'd like to hear them all. Thank you 🙏🏾🙏🏾