PRETENSE, LOVE AND BLOOD

REMI

“Hey, man,” I said to the cab driver, imploringly.

He turned, a hint of irritation on his face.

“Have you got a charger on you?” I asked, desperately, shoving the phone in his face.

He was so pissed off I thought he was one of the people in the congregation.

“Please?” I egged him on. My head was twirling wth a new wave. To know the truth.

Mark didn't always open up to me about Maverick's misdoings. He protected him like a thick shell. If Mark was actually willing to tell me the truth, why the hell would my phone go off now?

Now this damn cab driver was making matters even worse!

“Ain't got no such thing in this car,” he answered but didn't stop there. His grammar stiffened. “If that's your criterion to board a cab, I'll drop you off here and you can forfeit your bill.”

I waved my hand in front of my face. “Hello? Has there been an issue between us, sir?”

“My job, I'm just doing my job,” he grumbled, turning away.

I crashed my head back to the headrest. Exhaustion washed over me.

Tears rushed to my eyes. When I blinked they cascaded down my chin.

When we got to my apartment, I leapt out of the car, still in my wedding dress. I tossed the driver his money and bolted through the front door.

I immediately plugged my phone. When it added a single battery percent, I turned it on.

As though on cue, a call came in from Mark. I answered with shaky hands.

"Mark?" I stammered. "Tell me what happened, please. Did anything happen to Maverick? Why didn't he show up?" Who was that female? What the hell are they doing together? I fought to keep my voice controlled.

"Look, Maverick was at the verge of leaving for the wedding..." Mark said, flatly.

"Okay, okay?"

"Can you let me speak?"

Wow.

I went mute. He continued. "Do you know Lily?"

A flash of panic struck me when I heard a lady's name. "No."

"You might have met her sometime. Kinda family friend, too. Thing is, Lily is his business partner's daughter."

He paused and I listened hard, wondering where this was going. What had Maverick's business partner's daughter got to do with our wedding?

"She had an emergency. She's asthmatic. She got an attack while with Maverick and he had to—"

"While with Maverick?" I had to interrupt. "He was supposed to be at the wedding! What were they doing together at that point in time?"

"I once asked you to let me spe—"

But I didn't let this slip. "Mark, what on earth is going on? He abandoned his wedding to care for her? I'm pretty sure, Mark, that there were a lot of people in that room. Why... Why didn't they just take it from there? Why be in the room with a business partner's daughter in the first place?"

My voice inevitably began to rise.

"Does any of this makes sense? I think I remember Lily! Slender, big-eyed."

She was the kind of girl who was everything to everyone. It was difficult for man to not fall on her laps. Worst of all, she was a pretense machine. Chances were she wasn't asthmatic.

I was still speaking when Mark hung up on me. I shook my head, just as a message came in.

It was from the family group chat, and came from Lily.

"I'm so sorry, everyone, but I had a health emergency. Maverick is with me, ensuring everything is okay."

I gripped my phone, incredulous. This had to be a joke, right? That concern was supposed to be for me. Maverick couldn't just cancel our plans for Lily's fabricated drama.

My phone vibrated, and it was an SMS Maverick. "strange of me to act this way, but I had to save a life. A car is waiting in front of your house. Please come with it."

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. Before I could stand, a masked man stepped into my house.

I leapt to my feet. "Who the hell are you?"

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "A friendly reminder that to bail out drug dealer dad, you need over half a million."

"Who're you?"

"The longer it takes, the slimmer the chances you'd see him again. Alive. Isn't being with Maverick your only chance of being... a real human being?"

Quietly, he disappeared.

I was disheveled. My breathing began to catch up to my throat. The words of the masked man resonated in my head.

Abruptly I was up to my feet, changed into some clothes and walked outside. A Benz waited. The chauffeur tried his shot.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry that—"

"Philip, please just drive."

When we got to Maverick's mansion, I ran up the stairs, cleanly ignoring several family members who tried to be sympathetic with me.

"Where's he?" I asked a maid.

The latter was taken aback by my forwardness. "You mean Sir Maverick?"

"Whatever the fuck his name is."

"How dare you speak of my son in that manner?" a voice boomed from upstairs.

I turned to see Maverick's father, a formidable man, slowly descend the stairs.