The Driver

CHAPTER 10

            The days were passing fast, and I was starting to recover. My friend was trying every day to help me, and I will always be grateful to him. Without him, I would certainly have been a lost man.

        I can even say that I owe my firm success because he often fought for both of us. In the meantime, I hired a housekeeper who used to also cook for me.

        In the evenings I dined alone and sometimes when she was exaggerating with the dishes, I would invite all my friends and have a great party at my house.  I was starting to make as many friends as I could to stop feeling alone, and I was in a relationship for a few weeks.

        I had not received a sign from Izabela, nor did I dare to contact her. We both needed time to heal our wounds. My friend knew how much I wanted to see or write to her and always challenged me to do it.

        Now I had a partner who listened to me night after night and who was happy when he saw me coming into the house. I decided to adopt a dog. I knew a nice woman, not very special, but who knew how to listen and make me feel comfortable when I was with her.

        I had no feelings for her, but I was not indifferent either. I had already made enough progress since I met Izabela, but I never managed to get her out of my mind.

        It was not an official relationship, but we met quite often. The business was getting better and better and all I needed now was a family.

        On an ordinary and banal day, I found out that my company is in a big scandal. An influential businessman used one of our limos to throw parties that always ended with s****l orgies. He killed one of the ladies he used to hire every time.

        They had been exaggerating with alcohol and drugs and forced her to take drugs, too. I knew these girls very well because they were always present in my limos.

        Marcel lost his temper and began to strangle Mia. When one of his partners stopped him, it was already too late, Mia was dead. Her best friend, Alice, immediately called the police and from there the whole scandal started.

        My company's name was through all the magazines and on all the television channels in Romania and abroad. It was a huge scandal and great chaos. I had to take care of the privacy of all the people with power in the police, the government, and other institutions.

        If people had found out about everything they were doing, it would have been a disaster for the whole country, but especially for their families.

        I hired the best lawyer in Romania and paid him exorbitant sums to help me keep secret everything that was going on in my limousines.

The international press did not let itself be fooled so easily and they looked for evidence that was more incriminating to me. There were days when I was the killer in this whole scandal and not Marcel. Televisions had long exceeded their normal ratings on normal days.

        High-presidential people in parliament were being brought forward for the deeds they had done when they rented limousines. I was afraid I would lose everything I built with a lot of work and a lot of stress in an instant. I was afraid I would be accused of all their sins.

        Tougher trials followed in which I was faced with serious charges, but there was no trial for the crime Marcel had committed. I could not understand how he had gotten rid of the press and I had become the center of attention. I had not committed any crime. I was just renting limos.

        If before my company's name was on everyone's lips for fairness, promptitude, and the high-quality services I offered, now my company's name was denigrated and trampled by everyone. I had become the most famous man in Romania but in a diabolical way.

        Shortly after the news became international and the monstrous scandal explodes, I received a message from Izabela. I was starting to stop thinking about her, but I had not been able to do so much after the night I heard words I did not think she was capable of.

          Especially at this time when I was so stressed that I felt like I was not going to get out of this whole thing alive. I was beginning to be verbally and physically assaulted on the street. It was necessary to hire two bodyguards to protect me and a whole security team to protect each premise.

        "Hi. I just saw the news about your company. I hope you are okay. I know the limo was part of your firm, but I hope they did not involve you too much and you will not suffer after the scandal. I am sorry I stopped writing to you, but I needed time. When I saw the picture of you on the news, I got a surprising sour stake mixed with anger and pleasure."

        "Hi. I am glad you wrote to me. I am fine, thank you. The scandal is huge, and until the investigation is over, I am not allowed to let out limousines on the street. I can only leave taxis in circulation, but also those with restriction. Are you okay? Are you still in Switzerland or have you changed your location?"

        It seems that I needed to be in a scandal to find out about her existence, and yet why didn't she text me before? It had already been six months since she had left and a few weeks since we last spoke.

        "I am still here in Switzerland. The people here are more reserved and more distant. I am fine here, and I still do not plan on leaving anytime soon. I am sorry you are involved in such a scandal, and I hope you get out of it soon. We will talk.”

        "That is what you said last time, that we are talking, and yet it's been a few weeks since then and you've never texted me. I thought I meant something to you. Not so much because we did not have enough time to spend together, but I thought the attraction I felt you felt too.

I wanted to write to you so many times, and I could not. I called you a few times with a hidden number just to hear your voice for a few seconds, I never had the courage to say anything.

It was enough just to hear from you, to know you were okay. I have met a woman I have been dating for weeks.  I thought it would fill the void you left and that longing for you would be more bearable. She is not as special as you are, but she makes me feel good.”

"I am glad for you. You are a lucky man to have the courage to take the next step.”

        That sounded like good-bye forever. She abandoned me for the second time. Why would she ever try to make it clear that she cared about me if she were going to disappear again? I told her I had a relationship with the thought that maybe I would pique her interest and not take her away from me.

        I had even been an i***t when I told her I had a relationship and I did not know why I expected something else. Any woman would have been mad and reacted the same way, but from her side, I expected something else.

        If I were not involved in this scandal, would she ever show a sign of life? Will I ever see her again? It probably was not a good idea to tell her I was in a relationship, but I thought that is how I would make her jealous and she had come to me.

        The driver of the limousine from that night was still in shock. It was Mia's boyfriend. I paid for a few sessions with the psychologist and gave him leave until the trial was completed.  There was nothing he could have done to save her anyway.

        The window between the driver and the passengers was black and the music was very loud. I knew if he stayed at work, he would look for Marcel, but I also knew that if he did that, he would be a dead man. No one stood in Marcel's way and had an artillery of bodyguards after him.

        He was guarded more than the president of Romania. I knew he had a lot of illegal business, but I did not know the details.

        I knew that everyone was standing at his feet and that he would escape without going to jail. I just wanted my firm to come out of the whole scandal and have a clean reputation.

        I had enough friendships with the powerful people in the police and the government, but I did not want to take advantage of that, and probably now, in this scandal, no one would have gotten involved except in a secret and very costly way.

        Everyone was sick of money and no one was willing to risk it for free.  This was a game from which I could only win by playing dirty. I would have given a hundred of my men for a single one who knows how to find solutions to problems by discussing and negotiating.

          It is always good for the snake to be removed from the den with foreign hands. I did not know how I was going to get out of this whole scandal, but I felt like I had to do unclean things to get out of it.