Paid To Love

Episode 33

Paid To Love EPISODE 33

Victoria's POV

We spent the week getting almost avoiding each other. He would get up in morning, rush off to work then when he could get out hew would come and we would run over everything we planned. He would then rush back to work and come back really late then he would head straight into his room before I could even ask him about his day. We went back to my old apartment to grab what was left of my stuff. When we reached there it seemed like even more stuff was gone. Zoey helped me gather some of my stuff while James and Henry put them in the car.

I still thought about what happened to the mystery man— Mr. Nobody, He just lost his life just like that and it was all connected to my brother’s supposed death somehow. I still hadn’t come to terms with what I had witnessed, Every night I would get these nightmares about what happened, I would wake up with heavy breathing and absolutely scared. What had I actually witnessed, sometimes I wished it was all a bad dream and I would wake up with my brother still alive but I knew we’d gone past that now. Meanwhile there was this guy named Gerard working for Henry. Could it actually be my brother? There are so many unanswered questions and I need to start answering them one after the other. What I knew for sure was that there was something going on and I had to find out what Henry's company had to do with it.

Working closely with Henry might help me find some clues although I still needed to find an apartment. I needed to somehow find out about this Gerard from Henry without drawing suspicion.

Henry had been really busy with work of late and when he had time all we spoke about was the plan and me speaking Spanish. I needed to somehow bring Gerard into the conversation but somehow it felt like Henry had been avoiding a conversation and I didn’t know why, Before this he had all the time in the world but now It felt to me like he just wanted to be out of the house maybe to avoid me.

Just as I was still deep in my thoughts my phone rang. I set a special ringtone for Zoey so I knew it was her calling.

“Zoey What’s up?”

“I’m Ok, How have you been doing?”

“I've been good I guess.”

“Henry still avoiding you?”

“Yeah, you guessed right. It's been totally weird between us like we don’t even know each other anymore. He’s even been avoiding me.”

“Relax I’m sure he’s just been busy.”

“You really think so?”

“Yes Vicky, don’t get worked up over it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Zoey to the comforting rescue again. She had a streak for doing that now.

“Ugh by the way Vicky have you been to Moe's yet?”

“Oh gosh I forgot.”

"He said he had something to show you. I think it might be something related to the footage from that night."

I suddenly remembered but there was this hesitance about it all. "Why am I still going there? We've already seen the footage of my brother right before he left the place. Did he find something new? Is it important?"

"I'm not sure. He said it was confidential so he wouldn't tell me about it. I think you should go see for yourself."

"I'll go there later today.”

“Ok Vicky,”

“Thanks again, how’s work? Did you ask him when I could come back?”

“Yeah, he said you could resume on Monday just tell him when you want to go on a break next time.”

“Thanks a lot for covering for me Zoey amd for reminding me about Moe’s, I actually had forgotten about going back to Moe's. It'd been over a week already. Was he still waiting for me? Did he still have the footage?

“Don't worry about that, after work you can come so we can hang out.”

“Yes of course. Bye.”

Time went bye very slowly. My fingers kept twitching and I felt every second go bye while i stared into Henry’s ceiling.

I could almost hear the clock ticking every second. It was finally time for Zoey to close and I needed to get to the coffee place. I didn’t bring my car because Henry said I wouldn’t be needing it anymore. He offered to gift me a new one but I didn’t want anything I hadn’t earned. He probably knew I wouldn’t take it so he quickly drew up a second offer. He gave me the car for a few days as part of the contract to play the part in front of his dad, after all he was still watching us.

I agreed. I actually did like the car. It was a black Mercedes. It was absolutely beautiful and I couldn’t wait to drive it. I stood in his garage with his small fleet of cars that cost more than my yearly wage for the next thirty years. I got the keys and pressed the button on it and the car responded perfectly. I got in and started the engine with a button at the side. As I drove out I could hear the roar of the engine and it felt good, it felt good to drive something expensive.

I pulled up at Zoey's place and she just closed. I texted her to wait outside and I pulled up right in front of her. She replied that she’d drive us into town. I winded down the window and Zoey's jaw dropped.

"How bout I drive ?” I said cheekily.

“What tha? How did you get this.“

“Henry gave it to me as part of the deal. It’s not permanently mine although I might as well just buy it from him. “

“It is absolutely beautiful. Must be really expensive though.”

“Yeah but it’s just to deceive his dad. This way I could drive myself around and park it at Henry's house.”

Moe's was a very popular bar located downtown. It was for both the common and rich people.

The place was packed by the time we arrived. They had a karaoke night and people were. Taking turns on the stage. A bunch of men playing pool greeted us as we entered. While I preferred coffee Gerard was the beer guy. He would have a cold one after a hectic day and he did like pubs like this. Zoey on the other hand, seemed very comfortable. She did like a beer once in a while.

Moe was behind the bar, speaking to the bartender. I went up to him and smiled, waving a bit. "Hi Moe It's been awhile."

"Welcome Zoey. And Victoria. I was starting to think you weren't coming," he said, raising his voice slightly to speak over the noise.

"Sorry. It's been a hectic week. And month i guess."

He nodded sympathetically. "I’m sorry about your brother, he was a nice kid."

"Thank you."

“Well I found out something later on when I was reviewing the footage."

Zoey looked at me with a surprised expression. We followed Wilson into his office. He took a seat at his desk and Zoey and I sat on the opposite side on the visitors chairs. I shot another look to Zoey which she returned quickly.

"What's on the video you want to show me?" I asked.

"It's the same video we showed the police. The one where we see your brother leaving and entering the parking lot just outside."

"So what changed exactly?"

"So a private investigator you hired— a certain Detective Sidwell contacted me and showed me something that somehow both I and the police managed to miss."

Why didn’t Detective Sidwell let me know about this when he found out.

“He said I should let you know that he was chasing the bigger picture.”

He must be talking about those guys that chased us in the SUVs.

I moved forward in my seat,. "What? Is it something that can prove it wasn’t an accident?"

Moe’s seemed concerned. "I can't say for sure. I can’t really tell how much help it would be been since i don’t really know anything about the case. I just thought I'd show you the tape and see if you could recognize anything. Let me pull it up."

I grasped my knees with my hands, eyes trained on the computer screen. Once the familiar video was pulled up, Zoey scooted closer to the monitor. I followed suit, eyes searching. I spotted my brother immediately. He. Was wearing a blue shirt and some jeans. He comes out of the bar to the parking lot and stands there. He stumbles a bit but walks straight to his car and then something happens right before he gets in but we can’t see that angle.

“Now that was what you saw before but see the other angle.”

We turn back to the monitor and a different. Angle of the footage pops up.

"We were so focused on your brother while watching this, we didn't look at the surroundings. Look at the corner here." He tapped on the bottom, left side of the monitor.

I moved my facer closer to the screen, staring at the stranger he'd pointed to. His back was to the camera. .

Gerard tries to unlock his car door but his key drops. Another man comes up to him and helps him pick up his keys and then gets in the car with him but the stranger sat In the drivers seat.

"Oh my God," Zoey repeated, apparently coming to the same realization I had.

"I keep thinking. How could we have missed this?" Moe said. "How did no one notice?"