Vanessa couldn't sleep. It was five in the morning—an hour and a half was left for her flight. She felt every minute like an eternity. So many thoughts were racing through her head. Just when she felt like she had lost every last bit of herself, she began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Hope for a way out of the maze she was in.
Vanessa took one of her fake passports and put it in the backpack she had prepared. She left a note on her bed that read: I'll be back soon. Don't worry.
On the way to the airport, she turned off her phone.
After the eleven-hour flight, Vanessa landed in Zurich. She first went to rent a car, then drove to her location, several hours away.
But the person she was looking for was not at home. After a quick search, she got back into the car she had parked off the road across from Paul Ward's little house and waited, hoping he would be home soon.
The night passed, and then the next day, but still, there was no sign of him.
As dusk fell again, Vanessa noticed a man walking toward the house in the distance. She got out of the car, and when he turned down to his home, she ran after him.
"Paul Ward! Not so fast, you fucking bastard!"
The man looked like he saw a ghost. But the woman in front of him, holding a gun in her hand, was worse.
"How do you know my name? He told me no one would find me here!"
Vanessa went very close to him. "Who told you? Cole?"
"I don't know names, I swear!"
Vanessa took her phone and showed the screen to him. "Is this the man you were talking to?"
"No. He was quite older. Please let me go."
Vanessa punched him in the face without any warning. "Why did you do this? Talk immediately, or I'll break every bone in your body!"
"Don't, please! I will tell you everything! He paid me. He said I should play the role of my life. He offered to pay me $1 million. After playing the role, I had to disappear, change my name, and live peacefully for the rest of my life."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"About the role. Don't you ask me about that?"
Vanessa punched him again. Blood flew from his nose.
The man pressed his hand across it. "What was that for? I told you everything!"
"What role are you talking about?"
"Please, leave me alone! I am telling you the truth. I swear! He gave me clothes to wear and told me to put on the hood. Afterward, go to a house, pretend to talk on the phone, and say, 'Tell the boss that 2-f-m is cleaned.' That was everything, I swear!"
"You didn't shoot them?"
"Shoot? Who? What are you talking about? Are you crazy? I haven't harmed even a fly in my whole life.
Vanessa turned aside and hit the nearby tree.
"I've been played! Damn it!" She hit the tree again. "Someone is playing with me! Everything has been planned."
"What are you talking about?"
Vanessa turned to Paul again. "Get out! Run!"
Paul didn't hesitate even for a moment and ran off in a flash.
Vanessa dialed Karevsky. "I need to get back to LA as soon as possible."
"What happened, Blake?"
"I'll tell you later. When is the earliest flight?"
"At five in the morning."
"Okay. I'll make it to the airport in time. Thank you."
***
The return flight was even more stressful than the outward flight.
Was that true? She was played. Everything had been manipulated. But by whom? Someone has set Cole up for the murder of Steve and Grace. Why? Was that possible? What kind of a twisted game was that?
She propped her elbows on her legs and cupped her face with her hands, rubbing her eyes.
It wasn't Cole. Cole had not ordered their murder.
But if this would be fantastic news for anyone else, it meant something else to Vanessa. It meant Cole was in on it from the beginning. He was part of this whole mystery. Someone wasn't just playing with her. Someone was playing with both of them.
And he had to know. He had a right to know.
Vanessa had to tell him the truth. But how?
***
After the plane landed, Vanessa turned her phone on. It had been two days since she left, and as expected, notifications started popping on the screen.
One hundred sixty-four missed calls.
Nine messages.
Vanessa started reading them.
What's going on, Vanessa? Where are you?
--
Cole Willker
Where are you, Vanessa?
--
Cole Willker
Turn the damn phone on, Vanessa! Tell me where you are and what's going on!
--
Cole Willker
Vanessa, I can't stand it anymore! I am furious! Where are you?
--
Cole Willker
Why did you run away, and what from?
--
Cole Willker
Did something happen, Vanessa? Tell me you are okay.
--
Cole Willker
What are you running away from?
--
Cole Willker
Are you in trouble? Tell me! Don't run away from me!
--
Cole Willker
The last message was from about an hour ago.
I know you are running away from something. I know you are hiding something. I was ready to help you. Hell, I proved it to you. I risked my life for you. You owed me at least to tell me you are leaving. You are not the girl I thought you were. When you come back. If you ever do... Damn it, Vanessa! Come back.
--
Cole Willker
That was the truth. Vanessa wiped her eyes. She was not the one he thought she was.
It was all a lie.
It was a lie the lie.
She put the phone back in her pocket and got into a taxi that drove her to the house.
Cole's car was parked outside.
Vanessa opened the house's front door. Her heart was about to jump out of her chest.
Everyone was in the living room. Kristen. Jackson. Rebecca. Mike.
And Cole.
He looked at Vanessa for a moment, then walked past her, walked out of the house, and slammed the door behind him.
"Are you okay, Nessa? Is everything alright?" Rebecca asked her.
"Yes, I'm fine."
"Then what are you waiting for? Go after him!"
Vanessa turned her head to the door, then back to Rebecca and the others.
"Go," Jackson added affirmatively. "My car is on the driveway."
Without a second thought, Vanessa left.
Not long after, she was in front of Cole's apartment.
"Good afternoon," Vanessa greeted the doorman politely. "I hope you don't remember me."
"Mr. Wilker is not at home, Miss."
Vanessa pulled out her phone and texted Cole.
I understand that you are angry at me. You have the right to do so. But please. I need to talk to you. You know the porter won't stop me anyway.
--
Vanessa Blake
Seconds later, the phone on the desk rang, and after the doorman heard what he was told, he turned to Vanessa. "You may come in, Miss."
"Thank you."
Vanessa went up to Cole's apartment.
But he really wasn't there.
As time passed by, while waiting for him, she was feeling more and more insecure. Was she brave enough to tell him the truth? Was she ready to lose him just when she knew she could have him?
"Keep it short, Vanessa," Cole's cold voice came from behind her.
She turned timidly and approached him.
No. She was not ready. She couldn't. She couldn't tell him who she really was. She couldn't tell him that she had lied to him all the time.
She had to. But she couldn't.
Maybe she just had to go. To disappear from his life. Without saying anything...
Vanessa breathed heavily. Yeah, that she possibly could do.
"Farewell, Cole." She ran her fingers down his cheek and rested them on his lips. "That way, it'll be easier for both of us. Hate me. But remember me sometimes."
She stepped towards the elevator, but Cole caught her hand and stopped her.
No matter how angry he was with her, he didn't want to let her go. Not when the fear of never seeing her again consumed his entire being.
"I won't let you go, Vanessa. Not this time. Damn you! Damn me too. But I won't let you go!"
"You have to."
Cole cupped her face, burying his fingers in her hair, and rested his forehead against hers. "No."
"Please, Cole. Don't make it harder than it already is."
"You made me love you..." His lips caressed hers as he spoke. "To desire you. To long for you. What did you do to me?"
Vanessa was trying to move her face away from his, but her lips were returning to him like a magnet, over and over again.
The fight was doomed.
She was already lost in him.
"Don't let me go, Cole. Promise me you never will."
***
3 a.m.
The two of them were on the couch, wrapped in a sheet.
Vanessa was sleeping, but Cole was not. He was lying there, watching her, snuggled up in his arms.
At one point, she woke up and opened her eyes.
"Cole? Why are you awake?"
"I am thinking."
"About what?"
"About the question that tortures me all the time. The question you never answered. What are you running away from, Vanessa?" he asked, looking at her with his deep, dark eyes. Those icy yet fiery eyes.
And hers. Hers, full of tears, flashed in the darkness. "I'll tell you everything the day I'm ready to lose you."