Chapter ten

When you begin to lose yourself, it doesn't happen all at once. It's a gradual process. Today, it's a pinch, and tomorrow, it's a whole chunk of flesh. That's what pain does to you. Pain caused by hurt, hurt caused by people you thought were friends, or worse, family.

How do you justify the gruesome outcomes of your trust in man? How do you look yourself in the eye again and say yes, you will become. You will come out stronger and better than you'd ever imagined. There are only two ways to do this. You live to die, and you die to live. The fun fact about living in death is that the stabs are numb. You don't feel a thing as the sharp blade is driven through your skin in quick succession because you died living and there's much pain can do now.

Burned out, that's how Vivienne felt after her run. Her legs could not carry her past the lobby and she silently wished she had taken one of the bodyguards with her. She managed to walk into the elevator and when the doors closed, she sat on the floor at the far corner. It was always a long ride to the penthouse so she was going to gather as much strength as she could.

Luck was not on her side as the time came flying past her. One minute she was on the ground floor, the next, the doors were opened, waiting for her to come out.

She met the bodyguards packing up and she looked at them in confusion. They had cameras, microphones, and many other things they considered necessary for security.

"What's going on?" She asked.

The lead, whose name she learned was Mike anxiously checked his watch. It was the first time she saw any of them look tensed after the driver. "You seemed angry earlier and your best friend suggested we leave so that we don't complicate things any further."

She looked between all of them. The driver had his head bent to the floor and he played nervously with the button on his jacket. "Then what are those for?" She asked, pointing to the cameras and the other thing on the table. "I don't think you need to put that here. If you're worried about how safe I'll be when you're away, I can tell you this with full assurance that I'll be fine. You don't have to worry."

The driver nodded and lifted his head. It was then she noticed the cut on his lips and blood streaming down his neck.

"How did that get there?" He panicked. "Was there an Intruder? How did you deal with him?" She asked in a rush.

The driver shook his head, looked over his shoulder at Mike, and laughed again. "There was no intruder. You're safe," he said and looked at her with pity. "Now we no longer work for you, I can tell you this. We had this installed for your safety, but some people had other plans."

I looked at Mike who gave him a warning look. He did not pay attention to him but went ahead to tell her all he had.

"You're such a good woman, Ms. Chavez, and if the world can't see that, then it's their loss," he started and looked at Mike, daring him to make him quiet.

"There's a lot of conspiracy against you as we speak, and I hate to tell you that it's courtesy of people who are very close to you. Watch your back, ma'am." He said and stepped out of the apartment. The others stayed back to pack their equipment.

She picked up her phone with the thought of calling either Amelia or Gavin, but she dropped her phone and walked to her room. She shut the door behind her, leaned her back on it, and slid down to the floor. "When will things change?" She asked herself, almost screaming. She grabbed a handful of her hair and began to pull at her scalp.

Her phone buzzed nonstop, and there were texts from Eva. Wanting nothing to do with work or the company, she pushed it away. If she didn't go to work for a month, they'd still exceed their monthly target. It was something she could blindly boast about.

It stopped and a few minutes after, it began again. She groaned and opened their chat. Eva was being kidnapped and she couldn't type full sentences.

Fear shut up her spine as she began to think she was next in line. "How could this be?" She asked herself. The person who did this obviously wanted something from her.

Her thoughts immediately went to the thing she remembered Amelia saying. She couldn't believe those because Amelia had become almost unrecognizable and difficult to read the past times they hung out. She made her feel like she was forcing the friendship and what they shared had died.

Her screen lit up again with a call notification. She answered and she heard a scream. "I'm sorry to bother you this morning, ma'am," the person said. "We've called your office for help all morning and no one has answered…"

Eva, she wanted to say, but her voice got stuck in her throat. She placed her hand over her chest and fanned herself. With the air conditioning in her room, there was no reason to feel hot and sweaty.

"We're from the new branch in Santa Monica," he said. "I had to call because there's a fire here. The fire service has just arrived, but I needed to let you know we'll be needing insurance parers. There's not much that can be done without insurance," he told her.

"Would that be all?" She asked, standing to pick up her car keys.

"No," he replied. "The bigger problem now is the building wasn't insured."

Vivienne tried to remember what could have led to her forgetting to handle those things, and then she remembered Gavin. He had a lot of questions to answer later