“All the evidence was against Tiffany!”
“How did she even get to that place? Where did
the bad car come from? How did she know
what time Ms. Smith would land? And why was
she the one who went to pick her up?”
These questions got Jake speechless.
He sat down, defeated.
“And who was the one that got her to sign the
release in the first place?
“Mr. Johnson, you are a smart man, you need to
<
think about this more carefully. In this whole
thing, Ms. Johnson is the only innocent one.”
“You did not have a right to have love with the
death of her mother!”
Everything the lawyer had said made sense.
Jake looked at his phone.
He opened the conversation with me.
Everything was about me taking care of him.
“When are you off work? I made your favorite seafood soup.”
“Are you working late? I’ll wait for you to get
back, so we can celebrate your birthday.”
“It’s cold, I bought you a jacket. Try it on when
you get back.”
“Can we go see my mom tomorrow? I want to
give her some money.”
Every sentence was like a knife in his heart. He
had never paid any attention to these details.
He realized how much I had been doing for him.
Tears were pouring down his face. He tried to
dry them, but more and more kept coming out.
When the tears finally stopped, he looked at the
<
lawyer.
“Can you find out where those divorce papers
came from?”
“I don’t know what else to do, please…help
me.”
At the same time, I had landed in a new
country. Eight hours difference from home. It
was cold and there were not many people
outside.
I put on my jacket as I left the airport and took
a taxi to the apartment I had booked.
After putting my bags down I finally could
breath a little.
Before I had even gotten a chance to get some
water, my stomach started to growl. I realized I
hadn’t eaten anything all day. From the moment
I left home, all my senses just seemed to have
been turned off.
I didn’t want to eat, or drink. The only thing I
wanted was to leave.
Now that I was on the other side of the world, I
was not as happy as I thought I would be.
I got dressed and went out again.
<
The restaurant downstairs seemed to be a
happening place. It was filled with young
people. I wouldn’t look too weird there.
As I was eating, I still could not taste anything.
But suddenly I had this feeling of freedom and I
laughed.
I hadn’t even finished my laugh when a group of
people started cheering, there was a couple
that was having a date, and the boyfriend just
proposed in front of the window with the snow
coming down. The friends made a circle around
them, telling them to kiss.
I took out my phone to take a picture. But when
I looked at my phone, at the picture of me in
the wedding dress, I hesitated.
In the two minutes it took me to change the
background, the proposal was over. The young
people started to celebrate. I was tapping the
table with the rhythm of their beat. The owner
of the restaurant was so happy he said that
everything was on the house.
Random acts of kindness always get to my
heart.
It was something I hadn’t felt in three years.
The girl was so happy, she was crying with her
boyfriend. I looked at them, tears coming down
my face.
There are always people who are happy. And at
least in this moment, they are.
After leaving, I tried to not pay attention to the
news back home.
But the Johnson corporation was too visible.
Everywhere I went, there was an article about it.
Just now, Jake seemed to be fighting with the
Hamilton’s.
All the things he was going to give to Tiffany,
the resort and the stock, he was taking them
back.
Sam wasn’t happy, because he was losing a lot
of money. So, he bought some influencers to
bash Jake online, saying that he did not have
any credibility. The comments were a mess.
His company was facing a huge crisis.
The partners were cancelling contracts. Even
with paying a lot, they just didn’t want to do
business with him.
The suppliers had stopped delivering the
material. They said they wanted to see how it
all played out.
The city was small, they didn’t want to offend
Jake, but they also didn’t want to offend Sam.
I knew that Sam was behind all of this.
I kept looking at the news, not understanding
Jake.
He had given millions to Tiffany, what was the
big deal with a hotel and some stock?
I was gone, shouldn’t he be celebrating with
Tiffany?
She hadn’t even been home in three years, so
that I wouldn’t see that she was out of jail.
Now that she was free, and she was clear,
shouldn’t he be with her?
While I was thinking all of this through, a phone
call came from back home.
I answered it, automatically.
But as soon as I heard the voice, I hung up.
I blocked all the numbers from home. But Jake
didn’t want to give up.
He was sending me texts.
At the beginning I was deleting them. But he
was sending them too fast for me. So, I just
deleted them all at once.
When he could not reach me by text, he tried
email.
In one hour, I had more than 99 emails.
I looked at the red dots and got a headache. In
the end I just uninstalled the app.
All I wanted was to not be involved with him
anymore.
Back home, Jake was looking at his phone,
looking at the messages he had sent me, he felt
lost.
The lawyer was standing in his office, sweating
profusely, holding the contract.
“Mr. Johnson, you should look at the contract,
the social media hate is going crazy, the
partners are leaving, the company is going
down…”
“Where is she?”
His lawyer was surprised.
“Who?”
“The person you’re supposed to be looking
for!”
“Mr. Johnson, I did my best, but I can’t find Ms. Johnson anywhere, not the hotel, not the
station, I’ve been everywhere. I don’t know what
else to do. The company is like this, I can’t
leave.”
Jake didn’t look at him, he just grabbed the
keys from the desk and went down to the police
station.
But when he was filing the report, the police
were searching the system, and there was
nothing.
“Mr. Johnson, I think there has been some kind
of mistake. Ms. Johnson’s information has been
cancelled. If you don’t have the actual
information we can’t find her.”
Cancelled?
