2025-01-12 19:10:26She looks back at Mateo. Her heart skips a beat. Mateo is standing right in front of her.
Was that the agenda behind the room? To distract people?She tries to take a step backward but he stops her. Again. By surprise. By damn surprise.He reaches out to hold her hand. Slowly, carefully like he's worried about hurting her, he takes off the ropes he used in tying her hands.Once they are free, he stares at them. Then look at her. “Are you okay?”No. Lorette shakes her head. She's not having any of this. If these are the little tricks he uses in killing women, she isn't going to have any of that.“Why are you not doing anything?” Lorette asks.“What?”“Why did you unload the gun, take off the ropes from my hand and ask if I'm okay when you're going to kill me in the next few minutes?”He smiles. For a moment, she almost forgot he's a killer. He looks so…caring…like her father. He's looking at her t
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“Of course. I'm dying soon, so?” “I love your courage. Of the thirty seven women I have brought to this room, none of them have tried to listen to my story, but you…aren't you scared?”“We'll die one day.”“Yeah. Sure…well…you know, you women…how do I put it?” He thinks about it for a few seconds. “You women are the ones who need validation the most. You're the only set of people who want to be complimented about every little thing you do. You want everyone to take note, to tell you you're good at something. Have you no brain? Can't you tell your lipstick looks damn creepy without having someone point it out? What's the mirror for?” Why does Lorette feel like Mateo is describing himself? Instead of asking him that, she sits down and cross her legs. “Doesn't everyone need to be complimented?”“Yours is on another level. Why the hell can't you figure out if you've added weight without asking your boyfriend?”Lorette chuckles. “I
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She puts the gun back in his pocket and starts to ascend the staircase leading out of the basement. “Let's get San and get out of here,” she says without stopping a bit. Wow. Wow. Great, isn't it? She won't say anything for him risking his life to come all the way here to get her? Talk about having dead emotions. She isn't even going to apologize for leading them here with her damn stubborn ideas?Directing all his anger in his legs, Weston ascends the steps with full force that might have broken all the staircases off if his legs were capable of that.“San. Wrap it up with her. Let's go,” Weston says into the covert earpiece. ***“San. Wrap it up with her. Let's go,” Santiago hears Weston say in his ear. He stops walking. The woman beside him…his first love…the only woman who has managed to steal his heart also stops.Santiago pulls her in a hug. He says the words he knows she wants to hear. The words he's been dying
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It takes a series of arguments before Santiago allows him to walk on his own inside. Like damn, he didn't hurt his legs. “I'll go get the stretcher,” Santiago says and runs off. Weston runs after him. He's almost panting by the time he catches up with him. “Man, I don't need a stretcher—” “Nurse, where is the doctor? There is an emergency!” Santiago shouts at a nurse. “Emergency?” “Can you hear me? There is an emergency! My friend is dying!” Santiago shouts. Weston feels really sorry for the nurse as she is already running out of the room to look for the emergency patient. “This is my friend!” Santiago shouts after her but she's already out of earshot. At last, Santiago manages to get two doctors to practically tie Weston to a bed and get the bullet out of his hand. “How many days will he spend here? Two? Ten?” Santiago asks. “Hey!” Weston whispers at Santiago. The last thing he wants at the moment is to be tied to a damn hospital bed for days. “Are you feeling any pa
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“Wait here while I go check what's going on,” Santiago says. Santiago opens the door, comes down from the car. He should be able to negotiate with them. He can't have them spilling that fucking nonsense in front of Weston. This is why killing Mateo in the first place was a bad idea. “You're brave now, huh?” One of the men who is already out of the car asks. “I can explain,” Santiago says quickly as quietly as he can. “What? You can explain?” The man asks, an amused grin on his face. “Look, my guy—”“If you don't shut your mouth, you're going to lose two teeth and I damn well mean it,” the man says.Santiago glances at the car. “They're your priority now, huh?” The man asks, also looking at the car.“I swear it was a mistake.”“If you say that shit again, I'm not going to warn you before I take off the teeth.” Santiago hears the car door close. His heart literally jumps out of hi
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Burning with rage, Lorette adjusts her face cap and enters the cyber cafe. She sights an unused laptop and goes there. She pours her heart into the writeup that will end up being Mateo's suicide note. About how he's sorry for pretending that he gives a damn about women, about how sorry he is for killing all those thirty six women, about how there is no best gender…She types until she can't feel her hands as part of her body anymore. Done. She stands up and leaves after sending the letter to the appropriate place. It is not until she is inside the taxi and is going back to the campus that she remembers Santiago and Weston. Damn it. She shouldn't have reacted like that before leaving them. She tries to think…what does Santiago likes the most? She scrolls through her Instagram followers. She nods slowly. Girls will do. By the end of two blind dates, Santiago will forget all about it. “Hello. You're pretty. You're interested in
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All the students are gathered there, the seats are all almost filled. Even with all that population, the hall is very quiet like a funeral gathering. Weston sits on one of the chairs at the back, Lorette and Santiago sit in the chairs in front of him. “Mic testing…” echoes around the room. About three seconds later, the VC comes in stage. He has a sheet of paper in his hand which he slaps on the lectern. Without greeting, he gets straight into his speech that seems to have been seething in his head since a million years. “What more can you guys do?” His voice is the normal tone surprisingly. “If you want to die, why don't you go home and do that? If you're tired of your lives, go home and end your lives!” He holds up the sheet of paper in his hand. “Let this be the last time something like this ever happens here. You all have businesses, some of you are already CEOs! Do I have to have reporters lurking a
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Weston opens his eyes. It's morning. He stares at the white ceiling. Five years ago, his daughter was born. Five years ago, he became a father. He can still remember how anxious he felt as he wore the disposable surgical gown to see his wife and kid. He can still remember the way his heart felt as he wondered if he wasn't going to hurt his daughter as he carried her in his arms. He swallows hard. If anyone had told him that day that five years later, he wouldn't know where his daughter was, he'd have told the person to stop telling bullshit. He sits up in bed. He glances at Jose's bed. It's empty. Weston grabs his towel and goes to the bathroom to take his bath. Five minutes later, Weston is making his way to the cafeteria to get something to eat. He orders for his daughter's favourite. The meal she always suggests they make on her birthday—chicken and wafflesThe cafeteria is very scanty because of yesterday's incident. Alm
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“Okay. Was trying to save your damn self before but now I see you don't deserve an inch of my pity. Let's facetime so you don't think I'm playing a record for you.” She hangs up. It seems like eternity before she calls again. His daughter's face comes on the screen. Weston's hand is trembling, the phone almost falling from his hand. His daughter looks kind of…pale? She's wearing a head warmer. She's grown slightly compared to the last time he saw her. He can't form any words as he stares at her. She's looking at him. No smile on her face. His heart sinks. Normally, she smiles at him. Did…did she overhear him shouting at Ivy over the phone? “I'm sorry,” oddly is the first word that comes out of his lips. She doesn't say anything. She's just staring at him. “Happy birthday,” he says.She doesn't say anything. “You're cool?” He tries to ask but again she doesn't say anything.“Remember our
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“I have now,” Weston drops the picture frame on the sofa and carries Hannah in arms. “How is that? Did they disappear and come back?” She asks. “Daddy, how do people become people? I have not seen anyone jump down from the sky. Are there places where people go to pick babies? Daddy…answer me…” she whines as he carries her in the car. “Which of them should I answer first?” “When I grow up, can I become an actor? I will be on the screen. Will you watch my movies?” “Of course. Why won't I?” About two hours later when Weston drives to his parents house, Hannah is sleeping in the back seat probably tired of rambling for hours. He smiles as he parks the park and wakes her. “Have we arrived?” She asks, looking at him sleepily. Weston nods. “Big pop and lala are waiting to see you.” He helps her get out of the car and holds her hand. He's barely climbed the first step leading to the house when his mother rushes
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Later that evening, Weston is in the sitting room, watching Lorette and Hannah have one of their long funny conversations as they prepare for a visit to his parents. “When I grow older, I want to be a museum tour guide,” Hannah says. “Didn't you say you want to be a make-up artist some minutes ago?” Lorette asks as he helps her into her shoes. “I can do that as a side job. When I don't have clients in the shop, I'll quickly go to the museum,” Hannah says. “What about the online cooking tutorials? How are you going to have time for that?” “Oh…that? Daddy, I can shoot videos at midnight, right?” Weston frowns. “When are you going to sleep then?” “I can sleep for two hours.” “Two hours?” Weston asks in horror. “Yes. I am going to shoot the cooking tutorial videos for like two hours. Another two hours, I'll use it to shoot videos for my dance clas
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Three days later, Weston knocks at the door of a hospital room before going in. The patient on the bed raises his head. He stares at Weston then at Hannah whom Weston is holding.“You're okay?” Weston asks before realizing it's the dumbest question to ask a person on a hospital bed. “Yes…?” Jose answers. Weston can't really tell if Jose is trying to play dumb too or he doesn't know what he's saying. “Hannah, meet Jose, he's one of the best friends that daddy has,” Weston tells his daughter. “And, Jose, this is my daughter.” Jose's mouth parts slightly. He closes it a few seconds later and smiles. “She…she looks young.” Weston chuckles. “Young? What's a five year old supposed to look like? Old?” “I…sorry. I mean. Shit. You have a sure way of taking me by surprise.” “You think so?” Weston strides to Jose's bed. He drops the fruit basket in his hand on the table. “Last time I checked, you did some
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“Hey, Santiago,” his godfather says once there is an answer at the other end. “How are you, sir?”“I…I'm sorry.” His godfather shut his eyes. “What the fuck did you do again? I already told you I got Weston and Lorette covered. I have Weston's kid with me, I'll use her to—” “That's not it,” his father cuts in quickly. “I…um…I told Weston about Dylan.” For a lot of seconds, there is silence at the other end. “Where are you?” Santiago's voice is unbelievably too calm for the revelation. “Home, of course.” “Let's talk face to face.” Then the line goes off. The phone falls from his godfather's hand. He runs his hand through his grey hair. “You have a kid?” “Am I supposed to answer that?” “If I knew you had a kid, I'd have abducted her and used her against you. I had no idea at all.”What? Is he out of his mind? His godfather raises his head and looks at Weston. “Once San
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Weston can tell from the look on her face that there is something more. He waits for her to tell him. “I stumbled in on San and his father arguing one day, San was kind of telling his father to keep shut if he doesn't want his ass in the pool.” Weston waits. He's sure she isn't just telling him just for telling sake. There must be something more. He waits a while longer, forcing his damn brain not to think his daughter is five and she's with fucking Santiago. “He hates it when people snitch on him,” Lorette adds. “Kind of…he…” she lets out a deep breath. “Sorry. I just…I had no idea I'd be telling this to anyone.” For some seconds, she stops to get her emotions back together. “Even if San tells me something as little as what he ate last night that nobody knows about, he doesn't want me to tell anyone. When…I think we were sixteen when I first realized it. He told me he was fooling around with a girl and I kind of jokingly told the girl to tak
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Weston stops the car and runs his hand through his hair. “I begged you, apologized to you, did all sorts of things but you still didn't agree to get married to me, so why do you keep asking about your daughter?” “When did you apologize to me?” There is silence at the other end before Ivy starts to talk. “Okay, since you want to hear it, I'mma tell you. If there is anything I regret, it's having Hannah. I thought you would dump me for some other women later if I didn't have a child for you since you don't really seem all that ready to get married to me. I needed something to assure me you're not going anywhere and getting pregnant seemed like the best deal.” Weston bites hard on his lower lip. “You must have figured this out but I stopped using contraceptives without telling you. But I'm starting to realize it's all stupid now. If I knew Hannah was going to be a burden to me, I wouldn't have gotten pregna
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With rage, he dials Santiago's number. “What the fuck do you think you're doing?” He shouts. “Hey, you wanna make me deaf or something?” “Whatever shit you're up to, you should know better than to involve my daughter.” “What can you do?” “Where the hell are you?” “Not so easy, bro. Not so easy. I need to spend some time playing with Hannah and getting to know her before we come to an agreement of what to do. Till then, stay anxious.” With that, the line goes off. Weston dials the number again, it doesn't ring. Obviously, Santiago blocked him. He dials another number. “Find out where that fucking bastard is.” “Alright, sir.” He dials his father's number. “I need to find out where Santiago is.” “Okay. Is everything okay?” “No but I don't have the
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Weston comes out of his car. It's been more than thirty minutes since the cop pulled him over but he's not responded to him since then. The other cars he pulled over before Weston's are long gone and the cop doesn't seem like he has anything he's doing at the moment. “Excuse me,” Weston calls the cop’s attention. The cop glances at Weston. “I'll attend to you soon, I'm quite busy.” “If you're not going to come check whatever it is that you want to check, I might as well start going. I didn't do anything wrong in the first place.” “You didn't do anything wrong?” The cop scoffs. “Was that how you were supposed to put on your seatbelt? Was that how you were supposed to fasten it?!” Weston frowns. “What?” Is there a certain way to fasten seat belts? “Come with me,” the cop says, already walking to Weston's car. They get to the car and t
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“Daddy was smiling in the picture Abigail gave to me. And, daddy only smiles when he is with people he likes.” Santiago chuckles again. “How old are you?” “I am five years old. How old are you?” “Me? I'm the same age as your father.” “Daddy is…um…twenty five. You're twenty five?!” She asks in surprise.Santiago nods. “Yeah. Why?”“Daddy said monsters are old, like five hundred years old. And Father Richard said only monsters kill people. Does that mean you're a young monster?” The smile dies off Santiago's face. “I'm not a fucking monster.”“‘Fucking’? What does that mean? Do you have a dictionary? I'll look up the meaning.” “I mean, I'm not a monster. That's the meaning.” He glances at Hannah to see her staring at him. The glasses on her face feel like some gadget she's using to scan his thoughts. “What…” he clears his throat. “You can't see without your glasses?” She sighs. “It's a lon