Exchange Lovers

15 years….. Antoinette is staring at the wedding photo of her and James. It feels like it just happened yesterday. The two of them were smiling happily and James hugged her as if afraid that she would disappear. She hugged herself, reminiscing about the feeling of it. The hug felt so loving and secure that it made her think their love was infinite. Then just beside it is another picture frame. The frame has a dent and the glass has broken lines. It was their family picture taken just before she went abroad. They were all smiling. James was hugging their daughter on his lap while kissing the top of her head. A perfect family picture, full of love and hope for a bright future. But now… she looks around the living room. Broken pieces of glass and vases were scattered everywhere. The place that was decorated with love was now a mess. Antoinette is now feeling devastated. Her only princess… Her apple of the eyes, the fruit of her undying love for James, is now in the hospital. The scenes when she went there played in front of her eyes. Monic is now in the hospital with old and new bruises that almost covered her body. Her face is violet and pale. The neck has wounds from being strangled by a rope. There is a tube that connects for oxygen support and another one for blood transfusion. Besides the bed is Jessica. Her best friend called her and told her about the situation. She’s crying and crying on the phone blaming herself for what happened. But now she’s sleeping while holding her daughter’s hand. Jess looks tired. She’s been staying there for almost three days and two nights already. Guarding Monic and standing as the guardian of the patient. She woke up Jessica and they talked. It was almost nighttime when Jessica finished telling her all the things that had happened. Her best friend was crying and asking forgiveness that she should tell her everything when it was just beginning. Then maybe things like now never happened. She calmed down her best friend and told her that she would go back to the house since she came from the airport straight to the hospital. Jessica didn’t want her to go alone but she told her that Monic needed her there more. She promised that she'd be careful and also get a new set of clean clothes for Jessica. Jessica gave her the key to her own apartment and said that Antoinette should go there and rest first before going to her house the next morning. She told her that she could wait until Antoinette was well rested and then she visited the house. With that, Antoinette followed her best friend. Antoinette was working abroad as a*****e manager in a boutique. It is a luxury brand of jewelry. The job was offered to her by a friend in college who knew how good she was at distinguishing jewelry and her affinity for jades. She accepted the job because Monic was diagnosed with mild autism and needed a lot of money to support the child’s needs. Though James has a mini local furniture store that is well known locally, the income is just enough for daily needs. Since the job offers a high-paying salary, they both decided that she would go and James would take care of Monic. From there, she found a furniture store that was looking for a partnership with a local store from her country. After obtaining the partnership, Antoinette wanted to go home but James said that it was a waste to just resign. James wanted to save more money to upgrade Monic'sc education. That’s why she stayed for another three years. All those years, their local furniture grows and James' infidelity may have started at that point. Honey is the supervisor of a luxury jewelry store. She is the same friend that gave the job aboard to Antoinette. While that was happening, Jess knew it but didn’t have the guts to tell her because James says that if she said, they will hurt Monic. So all this farce continued until Jess received a call from the neighborhood that they heard loud sounds and crying from the house. Jessica immediately drove over and saw Honey putting a rope tightly on Monic's neck. James was watching baseball on TV like what was happening was ordinary. She pushed Honey away from Monic but James also stood up and took a vase, then threw it, aiming at Jess. She dodged it and picked up a big figure, then swung it to Honey. Finally, Honey loses the rope and runs behind James. They were shouting and cursing at each other. The neighbors called for the police. They all went to the police station while some neighbors took Monic to the hospital with a police escort. At the police station, they were questioned separately. James called for an attorney to represent them. Jessica told them what she saw and how Honey physically abused the child while James didn’t intervene. She, with some neighbors, becomes a witness against James and Honey. While James and Honey said that they were just disciplining the child because, according to them, Monic sometimes stole or broke some pieces of jewelry and other things that were valuables. The police at first charged the two with child abuse and attempted murder. Jessica also said that Honey is a mistress of James that they didn’t admit. They said that they were just business partners and family friends. Then they counter charge Jessica and the other neighbor with libel, physical abuse, and attempted murder. James attorney spoke privately with the police. After that, someone from the higher office in the station talked with Jessica and the others. He said that if they don’t like to be imprisoned they should just make concessions and agree to forget what happened. The police especially told Jessica to just shut up and accept it so she could go to Monic in the hospital otherwise something unimaginable would happen. With that, they understood that the law was not on their side anymore. Some of the neighbors were afraid too, so they all pulled out their testimonies. They advised Jessica to just let it be. She should focus on guarding and securing the safety of Monic first. Since she doesn't have any means to fight head-on with money and the influence of James, she backs out too. The smile on Honey’s face was insulting and disgusting. James also told Jessica to not call Antoinette and not tell her anything about what happened. After a day or two, someone texted Jessica and said that James had sold the store ownership and also took all the valuable items in the house. Since the house and lot were inherited from Antoinette’s parents, James could not sell it. Instead, he mortgaged it to a loan shark company. Then they run away with all the assets that they could get. That was the go signal for Jessica to call Antoinette from aboard and told her everything. Antoinette went to Jessica’s apartment and rest. When the morning comes she took some of Jessica’s clothes then went to her house. When she went there, some of the neighbor look over or stared at her from afar but no one approached her. They were afraid to be implicated since James becomes a power house in the locality ever since their furniture business boomed. She tried opening the door with the password of Monic birthday but it didn’t open. She also tried their wedding anniversary but still it didn’t open. Feeling helpless, she remembered that Jessica told her that the door password was change and she gave her the duplicate key that Antoinette gave her before leaving abroad. The door opened with a click sound. She so shocked with the state of the house inside. It looks so chaotic that it seems a tornado passed inside the house. Broken glasses and some debris are scattered. Then she went to the kitchen and saw how messy it was. From the living room to the kitchen some appliances were missing like the LED 50 inches TV, the home theater sound system, air cons, refrigerator, oven, and her antique sets of platters and tea cups were missing. While looking around she remembered to go upstairs and first went to her daughter’s room. The room looks so dirty. Dusts and other things are everywhere. It looked like no one staying there. The branded clothes, shoes and jewelries that she bought aboard are missing. Only the rugged like clothes are inside. They are so faded and some even had holes on it. The stuffed toys she displayed before were either dismembered or had a cut on it. She can’t imagine what life her princess was living before. Almost every day she video called James. She would see her daughter eating cake either watching princesses’ movies on TV or hearing her laughter at the background. Antoinette all the while thought that Monic was living a good life with her husband. So, whenever James asked for more money for their daughter’s special class or medical treatment she immediately sent money. Her coworkers know her child's situation that’s why they always lend her or help her in assisting in getting funds for the child’s needs. Some even bought branded clothes and shoes. Then when James received them he would make a video of Monic thanking them or a picture of the kid happily wearing them. Antoinette showed it at them happily contented thinking that everything back at home was getting better. Then she remembered Monic’s appearance at the hospital. Her body trembles and her knees soften. Slowly she went to the master’s bedroom. The appearance of the room is too far from how luxurious it is compared to the child’s room. The bed is big and spacious. There is a luxuriously soft carpet all around. The vanity mirror looked expensive because of some gold paint on it. The drawers are either open or half closed. The contents are all gone. She then opened her walked-in closet. Her branded clothes are all gone and the same with the jewelries she collected in her maiden days and some she bought aboard. The place looked like it was robbed. She went to her husband’s closet and it was on the same state. But she saw a section where there is some lingerie. They were from top brand. She also saw other toiletries for woman. It’s a clear evidence of her husband’s infidelity. Antoinette sat beside the shoe rack and cried. All those years she taught that James would never do that to her. There were even times that James would video called her at night and asked her to stripped naked. James would asked for her to strip tease and dance naked for him saying that he was so lonely and doesn’t want to go to clubs because he said he loved her. She was so convince that all of that was because James loved her and only her. Even she sometimes felt uncomfortable and dirty. Hugging herself and crying all her might. She’s a big fat fool. She made herself believe in James empty promises of good future together. Now that Monic is at the hospital and everything is crumpled in front of her. She’s at lost. She does not know where to start again. In the middle of thinking and crying, Antoinette remembered the secret room behind the cellar in the underground. With the ray of hope she runs fast down the stairs to the underground room. This underground room was a cellar where her old grandparents kept wines from the old collection up to the usual wine they use. But what put her on fire were not the wines but the hidden little room behind the wine shelves. That’s the room where the old blueprint of the house was hidden with the original tittle of the house and other titles of some estates and properties that she didn’t tell James about because it will be a gift for Monic when she becomes eighteen like her before. It was a family heirloom for girls of the family. Aside from those things, there were some set of jewelries that was passed down to the new generation. In the family they have a rule that woman from each generation should put away their favorite jewelries here for the future generation to come and use in times of needs. The lady luck was on her side now because each set was all there in the glass case stands with the description of each of it. It describes which generation it comes the buying price at the time of purchased, the sellers identity, the receipt or certificate of purchase and some others that pertains to the set. Most of the set here comes from her great grandmother and grandmother. Antoinette knew that they were from an old aristocratic family in France but don’t know which because her great grandmother and grant mother’s relationship becomes sour when her grandmother married a new paper boy from California.  Although the union was not blessed, her great grandmother still passed down those set of jewelries and other stuffed like Antoinette’s favorite antique set of tea cups and table ware. The intention was that her granddaughter, which her mother will not be too poor and would still have some from their ancestors. Actually, her grandparent was not poor even without those heirlooms because her grandfather was a hard worker. Their buy and sell property business was flourishing at their time. The financial problem started when Antoinette’s parents met an accident while on their fifth honeymoon abroad. Her father was dead on arrival in the hospital while her mother was in coma but later on dead too. When they got back in the country they were both in a coffin. The old couple spent a lot of money in investigating what really happened and who were the ones that bumped into their car. Unfortunately, the opponents were powerful and super wealthy that every leads goes to waste. They even humbly asked for her greatgrandparent's help but they turned a blind eye. Antoinette’s guardianship falls to her grandparents. She was bought up with love and care from her tender age of five up until her college days that she got together with James. Remembering about that time she remembered how her granddad was so against James but still gave up when she got engaged with the man. Her grandparents made her promise not to tell James about the hidden room and even made a last will and testament saying that everything inside that room may only be used by her in times of emergencies and her daughter will be the heir for those heirlooms. The passwords are with their attorney’s family. Even they didn’t know what the passwords for each glass case. The passwords are inside the old microchip that is inside the box in the attorney’s hand that can only be opened with Monic’s eyes. It seems that ever since her grandparents know what kind of man James is but Antoinette was so blind to see it. Thankfully, they are clever people. Antoinette slowly goes out then closed the small door. She pushed a button and everything goes back to what it looks like before she went inside. Some old bottles of wines are still well preserved that it can be sold from a sky high price. She thinks that it would be enough for not and she won’t touch the heirlooms until it was really needed. As she walked out and text Jess about her situation in the house, she heard heavy steps up stairs. She paused then listened. They are about four to five big men running around the house.