Goodbye Gift

"Why are you still with that b*tch? I thought I warned you to stay away from her! Do you want her to end up like your little ballerina?"

Maya looked at the message in shock. Not only was this an obvious threat, but the message was from a name that she recognized — Nova Thomas!

Noah's sister!!

Was Lucas still in contact with her?

Out of curiosity, Maya quickly scrolled up to see the other messages from the woman. This was her opportunity to prove that Lucas had been telling the truth.

Sure enough, there were messages dating back as far as four years...

Lucas had kept them as evidence against the woman.

But...some of the messages were frightening to read:

"You looked so handsome today, but why didn't you wave back when I waved at you? Did you not see me?"

"I know you attended a party today. Why didn't you invite me?"

"I miss you so much. I can't stop thinking about you."

Lucas' response to these messages was,

"Stop following me or I will call the police."

Lucas had been telling the truth.

Nova Thomas did indeed stalk him and she was completely obsessed. However, the messages didn't completely stop after Nova was admitted to the psychiatric hospital four years ago. Roughly a year ago, she started messaging him again, and her tone had become a lot more threatening:

"I can't believe you've been going on blind dates. Do I not exist to you?"

"I heard you're meeting a ballerina. Is that the type of woman you like? Is that why you've forgotten me?"

Judging by her messages, it appeared as though Nova's rehabilitation did not go well and it only made her worse. But...why did she suddenly have access to her phone? And how did she know what Lucas was doing?

Maya looked at the word, 'ballerina', and she suddenly froze. Ballerina? Didn't Noah say that Lucas' blind date, the one that died in the alleyway... Didn't he say that she was a ballerina?

Maya had a bad feeling about this.

[No way...]

[Nova couldn't be involved, could she?]

[That's impossible...]

At that moment, a voice suddenly said behind her, "What are you doing?"

Maya turned around in surprise to find Lucas holding a wrapped painting as he stared at her.

Approaching him worriedly, she pointed to the phone and asked, "Has Nova been threatening you?"

Lucas glanced at the phone and furrowed his brows. Why did she have his phone? Did she discover something?

"Hasn't anyone told you it's rude to look through someone else's phone?" he asked as he grabbed the phone out of her hand and quickly looked at the latest message.

Maya shrank back guiltily. He was right, it was very rude of her. But...she didn't do it on purpose... He should have locked his phone.

"I accidentally pressed your screen and opened your message. Why haven't you called the police?" she continued with concern.

Lucas looked at the woman. He knew she was genuinely concerned about him, but he also realized that she couldn't stay any longer and this was a good opportunity to get rid of her. Not only was this woman still lying to him about her identity, but he knew that Nova had her eyes on them, and she was in real immediate danger.

Originally, he was going to confront Maya and expose her. But what would that do? It would only put both of them in an awkward position. He needed a quick way to get rid of her.

For some reason, he cared more about the woman's safety than forcing the truth from her.

Gripping onto the painting in his hands, he shoved it towards the woman and said angrily, "Take this as a goodbye gift. Let's never see each other again."

He was going to send her away and never see her again. It didn't matter that she lied to him anymore, he was going to forget about her and pretend that nothing ever happened.

Maya held onto the painting and froze. What was this man doing all of a sudden? Sure, she liked L7, but a goodbye gift? Why was he pushing her away like this?

"Are you doing this because of Nova? Has she been threatening you because we've been together?" Maya guessed. "I can help..."

Lucas glared into her eyes and did not let her finish her sentence, "It's none of your business. Who do you think you are?"

He then smirked and added, "Just because we kissed, do you think you're my girlfriend now? Do you know how many women I kiss every week? You should take this and leave before I change my mind. Didn't you say that you really like L7? If you don't take this painting now, you will never get the chance again."

Maya felt her heart sink. She would be lying if she said the man's words didn't hurt, but she wasn't some weak woman that would run off crying over a few harsh words. Plus, she knew the man's sudden change in attitude had to be due to Nova. After all, she saw the woman's messages: in her recent message, she had threatened to hurt someone.

Suddenly...a thought came to her mind: was Nova the one that tried to hit Delilah? 

Shoving the painting back towards the man, she said, "I may not be your girlfriend, but we are still friends! I don't care how much you try to push me away. If she is threatening you, I will hunt her down!" [And if she tried to hurt my sister, that's even more reason to punish her.]

With these words, she turned around and stormed off, leaving L7's painting in Lucas' hands. She had to go speak to Noah about his sister. What was going on?

The man watched as the woman walked away. Friends? Did she genuinely think of him as a friend? And was she serious about hunting Nova down? How was she supposed to help him when this woman had been tormenting him for four years?

Lucas glanced down, looked at the painting, and shook his head. "What am I going to do with this?" he whispered. He had specifically bid on it for her...

Not too far away, a pair of eyes watched the scene through a mask. Seeing Maya and Lucas go separate ways, a smile appeared on this person's face...

At that moment, Lucas received another message: "I knew you'd listen to me and get rid of her. As expected, you love me the most."

Lucas held the phone in his hand and quickly scanned his eyes across the room. How did Nova know that he had gotten rid of Maya? Was she watching them? Was she there at the event?