Toxicity

Nine

Mackenzie's P.O.V.

30 November, 2018

There were pictures of me in different places, such as in the park with Austin. Or in shopping with Nora. The pictures were seeming like that they had been shot from a distance. Was he stalking me?

"He's so creepy." Nora says annoyingly. "Why the heck is he even after you?"

"I-I don't know." Fear started to tremble down my spines as I thought that Ken always used to stalk me wherever I went. It's just...hilarious.

"Do you think there's more?" Nora asks me and turns on her heels towards the rack. She starts going through the place as I notice from a distance that there were a few wooden boxes neatly places on the upper shelve.

"What do you think are these?" Curiously, I walk towards the rack and pick a box. There was the letter 'M' written on it.

"Do you think that 'M' means Mackenzie?" Nora quietly asks.

"I don't know." I open the case and find out that there were some more pictures. And as far as I could make it out, there was the same girl in every photo. Wait, does it mean-

"He stalks this girl too?" I give my glance towards Nora.

"Probably." She starts looking through the other boxes and takes out another one with the letter 'M'. As she opens it up, I see there were many other photos. And this time, they were of mine.

"He really is such a creep." She says in a disgusted voice while picking up random photos one by one and checking them out.

"Then what if-" I start looking through the rack again and find some more boxes with the letters 'H', 'D', 'J' and 'K'. Without delaying a second, I pull out the box with the letter 'J'.

"Knew it," I see that this time there were many pictures of Jessica in that crate. "J is for Jessica."

"Means, he used to stalk her too?" Nora archs an eyebrow.

"I think so." I quietly mumble as I go through the pictures. I could understand that she was there in every photo and by her face I also got it that the pictures must be taken least six to seven years ago. Cause she looks younger in them.

"Maybe he took them when they used to go to college and-" as I was about to finish my sentence, we both hear the doorknob jiggling from outside. Which made us put everything back as fast as we could.

"What are you doing here?" After we get out of the photography room, the butler steps in.

"Uh-" I look around to find an excuse. Come on Kenzie, come on! "We were just here to use the washroom." Okay, do I enter Ken's room only for using the washroom?

"Well, I wanted to tell you that Mr. Westphall is home. You both can go and meet him." Confusingly, the butler replies. Thank God that he didn't ask any further questions and left.

"Come on." Nora stops at the hallway when she notices that I haven't moved a feet from where I was standing. Now how I'm gonna tell her that I don't want to meet Mr. Westphall?

"Yeah, let's go.." I take a nervous step and soon before I could process it in my brain that what should I talk about to him, I already find out that we're downstairs.

He was sitting on the couch while he was going through his phone, his back facing us. I gulp and whisper to Nora. "Can you give us a minute alone? Please? Just wait outside, I won't be long."

Nora furrows his eyebrows at me but still nods and makes her way to the door. And on the other hand, I make my way to him.

"Ms. Ziegler." He greets me with a smile and gestures his hand to the couch opposite him. "Take a seat."

"No, I-I'm fine. I just needed to talk to you about something." I was so nervous that I could barely stand on my feet.

"Sure. About what?"

"Well, about-" spill it out Kenzie! "about that night."

A brow of his darts upwards as he replies. "I know what's going on in your mind. But that's a long time ago, so I think it'd be better if we leave that topic behind."

There was a blow of relief in my mind. "So means, we are o-okay?"

"Professionally?" He asks me and before I could answer he replies himself. "Yes. But personally?" I was afraid what that answer would be and it was no different than what I thought it would be. "No."

"What do you- what do you wanna say?" My voice was so low that I doubt if I heard it myself.

"I mean to say that our deal is fine. And as we planned, our work will start on the second week of December. But...I also want to tell you that while we work together, please keep your hormones to yourself." His face was looking so collected that I didn't get a chance to understand if he was angry with me or not.

"Yeah, yeah sure." I nod my head. "Well, I'm sorry for that-"

"Past is past Ms. Ziegler. We just have to make sure that we don't repeat the mistake again." His mouth twitches to a comforting smile and I again nod my head at him. After a few exchange of words about the investment, I quickly find my way out of the house.

"You asked him about that night, didn't you?" Nora starts the car and asks.

"Yeah. And he kind of insulted me too." Which obviously felt like he drove a dagger in my heart.

"What did he say?" She laughs and I give her a death glare.

"You think it's funny? He probably thinks that his client is like some sort of a hormonal teenager!"

"Yes you are." She nods her head and I groan.

"Come on, it was Johnny's fault and I was drunk too. He was showing me that he had a hot girlfriend so I was just showing off that I had a hot boyfriend too." I shrug my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, showing off your hot boyfriend." She boringly says. "As if someone like him would look back at you."

"You don't have to make me remember that. Just tell me what are we gonna do to that creep brother of his?" I ask her, referring to Ken. "Should we tell it to the police?"

"First of all, the police would arrest us for trespassing in his house. And we don't even have any solid proof that he kidnapped Jessica, do we? Yeah, the police can arrest him for stalking you but do you think that his brother would let him rot in jail?" Nora points out and I groan.

"Yeah, we need more proof."

●●●

9th December

"Mommy! Mommy! I shot another one!" Austin calls out and I shift my eyesight towards him from my phone.

"That's amazing." I smile at him. "So now can we go back home honey?"

"No I wanna play more! Please." He insists and I look at the time.

"Okay, a bit more." I inform him and he again starts to concentrate on his game.

Playing golf has now started to become Austin's favourite, well it actually started from the day Johnny brought him here. Now on every Sunday, he is always after me so that I bring him to the golf club. If I don't, he'd just eat off my mind until I do. Sometimes I wonder it'd be way better if the golf club didn't have a separate place for children's.

"Hey buddy." A familiar voice reaches to my ear and I look up to see who's the person talking to Austin. My heart stopped beating when I see it's Ken.

Did he follow me here?

"Ken? W-what are you doing here?" I stumble to say. Come on Mackenzie! Don't mumble.

"Oh hey Mackenzie, it's such a coincidence that we met here." He smiles at me and I start doubting if it's coincidence or not. "You're such a great player. Who taught you?" He kneels down in front of Austin.

"My Daddy did." Austin replies while he was staring at Ken suspiciously. Wait, now is he gonna tell that the angel was Ken? Please Austin, just recognize him! Just-

"I'm Ken." Ken takes out his hand towards Austin. "We haven't officially met yet but I'm your Mommy's friend."

Friend or stalker?

"Hello Ken. I'm Austin." Austin shakes his hand with Ken's and Ken passes him a smile.

"Alright then, I won't disturb you further. You keep on playing." Ken gets up and makes his way to me. "He's such a sweet kid."

"Yeah I know." I didn't want to talk much. All I wanted was him to leave me alone. But still curiously I ask, "Weren't you in London? When did you come back?"

"Who told you that?" Ken archs an eyebrow.

"Your butler."

"You went to my home?" He again questions.

"Uh- well...to meet Mr. Westphall." I slightly shake my head and he mouths an 'oh'.

"I just came back yesterday. So, why are you sitting here alone? Why don't you come and join us?" Ken proposes and my mind starts getting foggy.

"Us? What do you mean by us?"

"I meant to say me and Kal." He points out at a direction and I look by the way. At a few distance, Mr. Westphall was playing golf too. It was feeling really strange to see him wear such casual clothes, a t-shirt and a trouser with sunglasses. Cause I was used to see him in business outfit. "He is actually really fond of golf, I find it interesting too but not much."

"No I'm fine." I reply him, kind of reject him.

"Come on it'll be fun." Ken insists and turns towards Austin. "Austin? Won't you tell your Mom to play with you too?"

"But Mommy can't play." Austin replies.

"And I'm willing to teach you." He takes out his hand to me. "If you hate it then you can stop. But I assure you, you'd find it amusing."

Alright then, I'll play just a minute and then I'll say I hate it. "Okay." I stand up, without taking his hand. And fast walk towards the ground.

"You wanna choose?" After a minute, when he comes back with a bag of gold sticks, he asks.

"I'm fine with anything." I randomly pick one up. It was heavy, but not much that I wouldn't be able to pick it up.

"You know the rules, just aim the ball towards the hole. And shoot. Got it?" Ken says after placing the white golf ball in one place.

Well, it's easy then. I thought to myself and without delaying, I swung the stick with all my entry. Which just made Ken laugh.

"What?" I look at him.

"You didn't even touch the ball." He points out at the ball and I realize he was right. My face starts to become red with embarrassment as Ken goes behind my back.

"I'll teach you." He traces his hand to my arm to my hands and grips them tightly. My back was glued with his front which started to make me uncomfortable. "You need to handle the-"

I couldn't hear what he was saying, quiet frankly I didn't want to hear what he was saying. All I wanted to do was just kick straight on his groin and leave him there until Austin broke in.

"Mommy! I need to pee!"

"What a fantastic way to ruin the moment." Ken quietly mumbles and I look back at him after I free myself from his grip.

"What did you say?" I ask.

"Nothing." He shrugs his shoulders which made me role my eyes.

"Come on Austin, let's go."

●●●

"Ken followed me to the golf club, can you believe it?" I almost yell after Nora answers the call. "He also touched me illegally using the excuse of teaching me golf!"

"Relax, relax. Okay?"

"How can I relax? I used to think that Ken must be a good guy. Hell, I didn't have any problem in dating him if he asked me nicely! But why does he f*****g stalk me?!"

"Don't freak out-" the bell rings while Nora was talking. "-just make sure that you don't create any mess in front of him. He can't understand that we suspect him."

"Yeah, okay bye. Someone is at the door." I hang up and reach to the entrance. But nobody was out there.

But then I notice there was a package left on the door. I picked up the?package and peek in.

There was a beautiful black dress and a note.

" Be ready at nine for dinner. I'll pick you up love." - KW

KW? Means Ken Westphall? Is he really asking me out now for God's sake?

I close the door and throw the bag on the couch. What a terrible way to invite someone on dinner. Well, let's see what you do cause no matter what happens, I am not going at all.