Lucas's POV
I wanted to stop talking but the way she looked at me and told me to go on, I had to do her bidding.
I could see the alcohol's effect was wearing away little by little and I saw how shocked she was with everything I said.
She sighed and buried her face in between her palms, supporting them on her elbows.
"He didn't know, Melanie."
I told her.
She looked up at me.
"Derrick didn't know. He is a lot of things but he will never sleep with any woman against her will. When I had sex with Tammy, Derrick beat up. Because I had raped her. But that was before he met you. . . in a bad way."
She sighed.
"Jenna was so scared that night. She cried for being the reason why you had to go through all that. I think she must have created a bond between you both when you met."
Sue scoffed. "Yeah. Right. A bond indeed. If this is her version if loving me, I don't want to see her hateful side."
She said and rolled her eyes.
I leaned forward and watched her stare into space.
"Maybe the only thing left is for you to talk to her. Maybe, if you have a private chat with her, things might change between you. She loved you, Melanie. She came to the hospital for a week while you were in a coma. But, after that she just stopped going to see you and I don't know why."
She looked up at me. "Did you stop going to see me?"
He lowered his gaze. "I did. I had to protect myself, Melanie. I didn't want you to file a case against me. My family looked up to me and at that time, I had a lot to prove to them. And the pressure was on me because of the public and my family name. I didn't want anything to taint that. I'm sorry if I sound selfish but at that time, I had no choice."
She nodded. "At least your one of the people who saw me and had pity on me." She said.
I don't know how to say it, but that was more than a relief to me.
"They're sorry, Melanie. All of them. The next day Derrick just knew he had defiled someone. I expected it to be the blood but then, before we arrived from the hospital, someone had changed the sheets and his them from everyone. I didn't need to ask who did it. I know the work of AJ when I see it. But Derrick knew. He knew he slept with someone and he confided in me, wanted me to tell him the truth. I had to tell him everything."
"So he knew it was AJ all along?"
I said nothing. But she knew the answer to that anyway.
"He knew all along that AJ did something wrong and he did nothing about it?"
"What are you talking about? You talk as if you don't know how hard it is to turn against your own blood. The damage had already been done, all he had to do was live with it and try to make amends, which he did by finding you."
"The. . . The club meeting, that wasn't the first time?"
"Nah." I said and gave her a rueful smile. "He met you once, but you were in the cafeteria with Lala. I know because I came with him to pick AJ. We were going out and then she called him. That's when he saw you. That's when he made AJ get to know you better. And that's when she came to be close to Lala all of a sudden."
There was another silence between us and each of us to our thoughts.
She looked up at me again. "So, why did you and Derrick fight then? Why were you both against each other when we first met?"
"You. I wanted to tell the truth. I wanted to tell you the truth and he didn't want it at that time. We men just have different opinions that can make us feel that we are being disrespected."
He said and shrugged.
I stood up and walked towards her and she didn't object this time. She watched me sit beside her and hold her hands. "Melanie, forgiveness is the greatest thing in the world. Because that's how you show the world how different you are from everyone. How brave you are. And you are the bravest person I've ever met. The strongest. I've never seen one who could have survived what you went through. And I know its a lot for you to want to kill somebody, but you have to look past the people who do these things sometimes."
She pulled her hands off mine slowly, with her eyes on me. "I can't." She whispered. "It is too much for me, Lucas. I can't look past it. I try but it keeps making me see it all the time. The first thing that comes to my mind when I wake up and the last thing that comes to my mind when I go to bed at night is Derrick. But he doesn't just come alone. He comes with the hurt. The pain and the things he did to me. I can't do it, Luc."
She shook her head.
I felt my heart squeeze when I saw the moist in her eyes. And when she blinked, the tears rolled down.
She looked up and blinked severally to keep them back in but they kept rolling down the sides of her eyes.
I couldn't hold it, I pulled her into a hug and held her tight. I didn't hear a sound, but I felt her shoulders tremble and my shirt got wet. I knew she was crying.
"Why aren't you hesitant to tell me everything, Lucas? What if I take it to the police?"
She said with her head still on my shoulders and my arms around her.
I smiled. "We all deserve to be punished, Melanie. What we did is unforgivable."
"How did you get off easily at the hospital? You didn't give your real name. They told me, it was. . ."
"Philip Temple and Idara James."
I cut in. "We made the names up. And when our IDs were requested, we just simply told them, we didn't come with it."
I felt her relax in my arms and she sighed.
"I'm exhausted, Lucas."
"I know."
~•°•~
Mayor's POV
"I will prescribe some drugs to you and then you have to take them regularly for a quick recovery."
She said to me with a smile.
I nodded and still watched her closely. "Wow. It is just a malaria? That's a very rare thing."
She looked up at me. "Why? You don't get malaria at all?"
"Malaria doesn't necessarily happen often in Canada. I mean, it is possible but not often."
She stared at me. "You lived in Canada?"
"A few years." I said briefly and leaned back in my seat. Too much information wasn't healthy. Especially when you're with a woman.
She nodded and went back to the screen.
"So, with the whole bravado, I never expected you to be a doctor."
She scoffed. "With the whole bossiness and arrogance, I never expected you to fall sick."
She fired back.
I smirked. Now this is the kind of woman I like. "Really. You think I'm arrogant?"
She stopped typing and looked at me. "You think I'm rude?"
"I never said that."
"No, you didn't have to."
She said and went back to her computer. Then she stopped, sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was looking at me. "Listen, I'm sorry I acted that way at your office today. I was just too mad at my brother for what he did."
"What did he do? Daniel is not a problem, trust me."
"No, not like that. He promised to bring his daughter over to my place for the holidays, but he didn't. He took her to our mother's instead. . ." she turned to me and shook her head. "You must have something in your shirt. What did you do to make me talk like a parrot?" She shook her head and went back to the screen.
I chuckled. "I am as surprised as you are too. And another surprising thing is that I have bumped into you twice and I still don't know your name. Don't you think the universe is playing tricks on us?"
She turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "You just said it. It is a trick." She shrugged and opened my folder to write.
I laughed and shook my head. Now, what will I be, if I don't go home with this lady's number?
"Hard to get. That's actually my thing."
"I'm not surprised."
She said without stealing a glance at me.
I smiled and watched her focus on whatever she was writing. The fact that she was so focused on her work was quite intriguing for me and I loved the sight of it. Part of her black weavon lost its way into her face and she tucked it behind her ear absent mindedly and continued writing. She paused and stared at her essay for a while then looked up at me.
"Do you have any allergy for any antimalarial drug?"
I shook my head. "None that I know of."
She nodded. "Okay. I'll place you on Lonart for now. If you have any adverse effect, let us know at once."
"Good. Do I call you, then?"
I asked, pretending innocence.
She looked up at me and grinned. "Welldone, Mr. Jacob. I know what you're doing. Nice try though and no, you won't call me. I just said let us know. Just come back to the hospital with your complaint and the doctor on call will attend to you."
She said with the sweetest smile I've ever seen and went back to writing.
I chuckled. "It is Mayor."
She blinked at me. "What?"
"My name. It's Mayor. Just call me Mayor. Only scared business associates call me Mr. Jacob and my employees."
She smiled. "Well, you are my patient. Mr. Jacob."
She said, raised an eyebrow and went back to her work.
I grinned. Because this was going to be a hard chase. But I will make sure it's short.
I think I'm going to adopt that doctor as my twin for now, don't you think?
Hmm. Mayor, Mayor.
Don't forget to vote and comment
Love,
Mireya💕