Chapter 5: A block of ice

"Fine, you win. I will tell you what happened to my brother." He said that while driving in to a parking lot at BP. After stopping the car he leaned back on his car seat and breathed out loud. Seeing him this way, Linda felt uneasy. She looked at him and quietly and patiently waited for him to speak.

"He is a year younger than me." He began. "His name is Morris. He is one person who does not take s**t from anyone. He is cold and does not warm up to people easily and has very few friends. I used to be one of his friends even though I am older than him. He never got interested in girls since we were young and always kept them at a distance."

"He started his own architectural company soon after graduating saying that he does not want to compete with me for our dad's company. So four years ago he told me that he met a girl that he wants to marry. I thought he was joking because our parents arranged for him to marry the daughter of one of our moms' friend. Her name is Nicole. He never liked the girl and was against that marriage from the onset."

She interrupted, "You mean Nicole Scott? The model?" "Yep! That's her. He never liked her but she on the other hand loves him a lot. He always referred to her as 'the plastic woman' and my mother favours her lot. Every time he was with us he would always show a straight face. It's like you are looking at a block of ice. One day he introduced me to Melissa Barnard as his girl friend soon to be wife and I got jealous."

Looking at him in confusion she asked, "Why would you be jealous of that? I mean, he is your brother and you are supposed to be happy for him not jealous?"

Feeling more down he continued. "Yeah, I know that now. But at that time I did not get it. I could not understand why his face lit up whenever he spoke to her but looked like a block of ice when facing other people. I mean he did not even treat our mom like that but this woman made him act more human.

After some time when I realised that he was very serious about her, I told mom and dad. Mom was livid so when he told us that he will bring her home, mom and I devised a plan to break them up. I hired someone to take pictures of her, the more ambiguous they were, the better. So I gathered those pictures and selected the most ambiguous ones and also photo shopped some to make her look like a cheap wanton woman.

Unbeknown to us, they registered their marriage a day before he brought her home. When they arrived, mom made a huge scene telling her that she won't allow a woman like her in to our family. We then showed those pictures to Morris and her. We made the situation big in such a way that Morris lost all rationality and flipped. He was so pissed that he did not let her defend herself.

We then threw her out and I was the one who even pushed her out of the gate. I saw how hurt she was but I did not care at all, I was happy I got my way. I failed to even see how sad I made my own brother due to my selfishness."

Linda gasped. "You really did that?" he breathed out loud and answered. "Yeah, I did all that believe me or not. I was that heartless." "So what happened to her?" She asked further. "I don't know. She disappeared. I never saw her since that day until now, four years later."

"So what about Morris? What happened to him?" She probed. "Well… it took a while for him to cool down so about two weeks after the incident, I went home and found him looking at those photos. I tried to destruct him from them but he already found that there is something wrong with them. He showed me the ones that were photo shopped and demanded and an explanation. That was when I found out that they were already married.

I started regretting what I did to him. He stormed out of the house that day very angry at me. After he left I told mom and dad about it and they flew in to a rage. He did not get hold of him for two days. His phones were off and when we called his assistant, we were told that he went to Port Elizabeth on business.

While he was away, I went to where Melissa stayed but found that she rented out her house and left. I then went to her parents' house and her mother threw me out just like I threw Melissa out of my place. The maid who was escorting me to the gate told me that Melissa was pregnant hence her mom kicked her out when she told her that Morris was the father and they had a fight.

Then she gave me her brothers number who was living in Australia at that time. I called him but told me that Melisa did not go to him, he too does not know where she was." "What happened after that?"

"Her trace went cold. I contacted someone in Australia to look in to Max but the investigation turned cold as well. She never went there… After a week Morris came home to pick up something from his old room. He did not say anything to us, mom tried to talk to him but he just looked coldly at her and told dad to keep his wife away from him and strode out. I ran after him and caught up with him before he got in to his car. Then I told him what I found out from the maid and that I still cannot find her and …"

"So you told him that she was pregnant and was kicked out by her mom?" she interrupted. "Yes and he was not happy at all. He told me to find Melissa or else he will break my legs off… and that was the last thing he said to me."