BREAKING THE DEAL

Jacob and Nesisa arrived at Sharon's place just in time to see her dishing up some food.

"Should I dish up something for you too? I didn't prepare much, but I can make some noodles," she smiled at her children.

They thankfully denied the food, and sat down to get to business.

"I made a mistake," Jacob confessed.

"What did you do?" Sharon was alert, placing her plate of food down as she waited to hear the news. She could not afford to take in any more bad news.

"I sent the video to Mrs Noels in error."

"Oh oh! And then? Why didn't you recall it?" Sharon asked.

"It was too late when I saw it. After she sent me a picture of Jeremy's diary, I was really happy to know that the diary had been found. So I went to check the video in my phone, just to make sure I still had it…you know that feeling you sometimes have. When you know for sure that you have something, but you just want to check again. After I checked, I sent the video by mistake. I only realised my error about half an hour later, when I was about to respond to my work emails, and it was too late. The message had already been viewed." Jacob was really sorry about what he had done.

"But she has the diary, doesn't she? Call her. Call Aletha now. We can still ask to get the diary." Sharon said.

Jacob responded, "I asked when and where we can meet to get the diary, and she hasn't responded up to now."

"Call her now," Sharon failed to sit down due to anxiety.

Jacob hastily dialed Aletha's number.

"Wait," Nesisa whispered, and Jacob ended the call, which had begun to ring.

"Huh?" he looked at his wife.

"I'm saying, don't tell her that you sent the video by mistake. Just say you sent it because you trust them enough to know that they will keep their end of the deal." Nesisa spoke in hushed tones.

"That makes sense." Jacob agreed, then he dialed the number again. He put the phone on speaker.

"Hallo, Jacob. We saw the video, I am with Kiara now," Aletha said.

"Ok, thank you Mrs Noels. That's the reason why I called. My family and I really need the diary. So we're already on the way to get it now. The reason why I sent you the video was to show you the urgency of this matter. I couldn't waste any more time. So we're on our way now."

"Ok, let me inform my daughter." Aletha said.

She hurried upstairs where Kiara was, and informed her that the Rains were on their way to collect the diary.

"No!" Kiara spoke with finality. "If you look through the diary; you will see that it is full of letters. Besides the letters, there is nothing else in that book. And the letters, all of them, are addressed to me. Jeremy left the letters for me. I cannot give that diary to anyone. It is mine."

Aletha's mouth dropped open, and she told her daughter: "they are already on their way, my child."

"I am not giving them the diary," Kiara said.

"And the video? Are you going to tell them that the person that they buried was not Jeremy?"

"I cannot tell them that, mamma. And please, don't share that information with anyone. As it is, Jeremy is counting on me to find him. Once I tell the Rains what I know, they will mess up all my plans."

"How?" Aletha asked.

"Since they believe they have a better right to Jeremy; and also they believe that I caused his death, they won't want me to be involved in searching for him. But I know where to find him. I need to do this; and I need to do it alone. I am on a mission, mamma. It is a mission to find the man that I love."

"Kiara, are you sure you can do this?" Aletha was getting very worried for her child.

"I can do this, mamma. I have to do it. Jeremy would have done the same for me. I owe him."

Aletha looked at her child and deep pain seemed to slice open her heart. She felt the pain, and she was at a loss for words. She felt sorry for her daughter. She knew how much Jeremy meant to Kiara; for she had seen their love growing. Often, Aletha had wished if only Vine had not appeared in Kiara's life.

"And mamma", Kiara added "This diary; his diary, is the one that will give me strength. I will not give it away because it is mine. This is a compilation of his letters to me; and I have no desire of giving them away. I will look at it every day, and I will read his last letter to me, and gaining strength from that; I will find him."

Kiara would have proceeded to talk was it not for the honking of a car outside.

"They are here," Aletha announced and led the way downstairs. She was carrying the child in her hands.

"Hallo hallo come in. Please be very fast. Travis will be here any minute from now," Aletha warned them.

"Let's not waste any time. Kiara, may we have the diary?" Jacob extended his hand to Kiara.

"Jacob, I'm sorry but I cannot give you the diary."

Jacob laughed a little. Not that he found anything funny; but rather he was realising that the thing he feared the most was happening right in front of his eyes. Kiara was breaking the deal.

"We made a deal, Kiara!" he said, struggling to control his voice.

"I know. But when I made that deal, it was because I had not yet seen the diary. I did not know what was in it, thus I accepted. If only I had known, I would have never made such a deal." Kiara explained herself.

Jacob, Nesisa and Sharon failed to believe what they were hearing.

"From where did you get the diary?" Sharon asked angrily.

"I got it from the place where Jeremy left it. He wanted me to find it, and he left it at a place where only I could have known."

"And where is that?" Sharon failed to control her agitation.

"I'm sorry Mrs Rain, but I cannot give you that information. There are things; many things; that Jeremy and I know, and we have vowed to keep them between us. It wouldn't be sacred to us if we are to tell others around us everything about us two."

"The way you talk," Sharon said, "it's as if Jeremy is still alive."

"He is. In my heart he will forever be alive. So yes; Jeremy is alive." Kiara smiled. No-one smiled back at her.

"Stop pretending like you care for him that much, when it was you who messed him up in the first place!" Jacob vented.

"I'm very sorry that what happened, happened; but Jeremy is the only man I can ever love. I made an error, and he forgave me. If he forgave me; then between him and I, things are well. It would be good if you also, as his family, try and forgive me too." Kiara spoke with so much poise that everyone was shocked, wondering where she was getting all that confidence from.

"Kiara!" Jacob screamed with fury. "We are here for the diary! We trusted you enough to send you the video before we received the diary. Please don't let us down. We trusted you, Kiara. Please do the right thing."

"I'm sorry, Jacob. The diary is mine. It is full of letters addressed to me. I can never give it away."

"What do the letters say?" Nesisa spoke for the first time since entering the Noels' home.

"I cannot possibly say it all. They are too many, and I cannot start to talk about what he was saying in them." Kiara folded her hands, refusing to negotiate.

"Ok, summarize it then,' Sharon tried to reason with the young woman.

"I cannot summarize it. The letters are too many." She was adamant.

"How many are letters did he write? Did you count them?" Sharon asked again.

"Two hundred and fifty-four."

Everyone gasped, mouths open; eyes wide open.

"Two hundred and fifty-four letters? What was he writing in all those letters?" Sharon was the one to speak first.

"He wrote to me. All of them are addressed to me. That's why I said I cannot give them away."

"May we just see the diary?' Jacob asked.

"No, I'm sorry but you cannot." Kiara did not budge.

There was silence. Kiara was ruling; in charge of the shore. She looked overly confident, and at that moment the timid Kiara that she sometimes was had disappeared. In her place was a vicious lion; fighting for what she believed.

"He was my son!" Sharon cried. "He was my son and I deserve to know what those letters said! What are you to him, Kiara? You are not his wife!"

"With all due respect, Mrs Rain, your son wrote the letters to me. I might not be his wife, but still he wrote to me."

"Let me just see the letters, Kiara! I am his mother!"

"And I am the love of his life, Mrs Rain. When he chose to commit suicide, he wrote one suicide letter to me, and one to you, his family. He knew what he was doing. Why didn't he make some entries in the diary, addressed to you too? Or to Jacob? To Nesisa? Why are all the two hundred and fifty-four letters addressed to me? Why to me, Mrs Rain? Because he wanted to talk to me. He wanted to tell me what he had to tell me. They are all addressed as 'Letters to Kiara!'"

"Kiara, calm down," Aletha tried to convince her daughter to try and slow down.

Everyone remained silent. Sharon looked at her son, and he too looked at his mother.

"We're not going to get the diary," Jacob said in a low voice, shaking his head in resignation.