Chapter 18

Rachael kept looking at her wristwatch. She took off her heels. Rachael didn't know what she was about to do.

Charles told her to wait, right? But curiosity was eating her up like a hungry rat eating a cheese. She needed to know what was happening around her. The urge to apprehend what Charles was hiding made it even impossible to trust Charles who didn't trust her. 

Charles wasn't a small man who could be dragged by a woman. If Charles could waste millions of dollars to keep this secret, it couldn't be a mere thing. It had to be something that he could lay down his life for. 

She had thought about few things. She even considered what Steve said, for a moment, but didn't anymore when she remembered Charles sweared he didn't have sex with her on God's alter. 

What could it be then? What deep secret was he hiding from the world?

Christina wasn't helping either as a friend.

Rachael planned not to tell anyone about the meeting, but she did because Christina noticed her looking at her watch impatiently. So she had to bring Christina in because they were best friends. 

"Rachael, I'm sorry that I'm not telling you what you want to hear. Let's look at it this way, too: Charles doesn't know about what happened to you few years back. You know, eventually, it will surface. When it does and you're not ready to tell him yet, who do you think you'll come to next?" Christina asked her. 

Rachael was sure that she would be ready by that time. She didn't know how long Charles was planning not to tell her the secret— that was exactly what was scaring her to the core. Charles was buying her time, though. 

"You, of course," Rachael replied.  

"Do you think I'll tell him?" 

"No. But—" Rachael wanted to make Christina understand. She believed that the only reason Christina was talking the way she was was because she didn't understand the situation the way Rachael did. 

"Similarly," Christina interrupted, "asking him won't change a thing. Because you know he will not tell you, even if you use all the 'please' in this world."

"I have to try, Christina. I have to. I can't let this feeling kill me from the inside," Rachael said. She got up from her chair and walked to the window to view the city below her. "And I know you think waiting for Charles is the best thing. But I can't keep waiting on forever."

How long could she remain patient? 

Christina knew that Rachael was a determined woman. When she wanted to do something, she made sure to do it— she was persistent. 

The office phone started ringing. Rachael ran to get the phone, she hit her thigh on the office table on the way. "Miss. Blade speaking," she said, rubbing her thigh that hurt.

Rachael frowned when the messaged was delivered from the other side of the line. "Send her in," she said, disappointed. She slumped into the chair.

"Who is it?" Christina enquired. 

"My mom," Rachael retorted, putting her shoes back on. She composed herself. She didn't want her mom treating her like a baby in front of her friend. 

Christina always laughed at her whenever she had been pampered by any of her parents.  

Rachael made herself busy with a sketch. She didn't feel like working, but her mom seeing her doing nothing would make her ask questions, or, worst, she would be lectured. 

"Good morning, mother," she greeted her mom, keeping her eyes on the work she was doing when her mom came in. "I wasn't expecting you." She looked up at her mom as her mother sat in the chair across the desk. 

"What you need now is a break, Rachael. Staying at work is only going to increase your stress." Harriet crossed her legs. "You should have gone into the movie industry instead— you're a brilliant actress." Harriet smiled when Rachael gave up with the act.

Rachael closed the sketchpad. She had gotten exactly what she was avoiding. 

"I told her that. It's a good thing you said it," Christina said, adjusting the pillow under her head on the sofa.

"I love what I do," Rachael informed them. "And I'm not acting here. Acting is for the movie, and this is real life. So whatever I do is 'real'." She emphasised the last word. 

Rachael could tell that her mom and Christina just wanted to lighten her mood. The people around her knew just how to do that. Talking about what happened yesterday, and expressing how sorry they are would only put her in a devastating condition, so they shared jokes and made sure she laughed. 

Harriet glanced at the wrapped gift on the desk. "Someone brought you a gift?" Harriet asked, shocked, reaching for the gift.  "Who sent it?" She asked, reclining in the chair, scrutinising the gift. 

Rachael rolled her eyes away from the gift, playing with her fingers. "I don't know who sent that."

Both Christina and Harriet gave Rachael the look. The look that people give when someone who they don't expect to do something ridiculous does something ridiculous. 

Well... They couldn't blame her for not thinking straight.  After all that she went through, some rare things were expected from her. 

"An anonymous person sent you a gift, you don't know what inside, and you aren't even bothered? What if it's something important?" Harriet asked. 

"Or what if it's something dangerous? Like a bomb. Or something dangerous?" Christina asked, terrified.  

"Will you stop being paranoid, Tina? That's just a gift," Rachael stated, gesturing at the gift. 

"That was just how you thought Vivian was a prankster until she proved not to be," Harriet said, dropping a droplet of sarcasm in her tone. "You see, Rachael, you aren't skeptical about anything. At times, if not always, you need to look at things from another angle."

Rachael stared at both of them as they lectured her. When they stopped talking, she asked, "are you finished?" She folded her arms. "Now, let me tell you guys it wasn't me who brought that gift in this room. I told the security to get rid of it, but Jimmy insisted that I shouldn't throw it away until after opening it, and decide if I want it or not," she explained to them. 

"I'm with Jimmy on this one," Harriet said, unwrapping the gift. "One reason you shouldn't have come to work. It's a wonder you haven't yelled at one of your employees."

Christina opened her eyes wide, hilariously, making a funny face. 

"Don't even dare," Rachael warned Christina before she could tell Harriet that Rachael almost fired few staffs about two hours ago. 

Harriet looked up at them for a moment.  "She already has," she said, smiling, removing the last paper, her eyes focused on Rachael. 

Harriet smile faded when her eyes landed on the gift. 

"What is it?" Rachael asked, waiting for her mom to show her what the gift was, though she didn't care to know at first.  

Christina got up from the sofa to go see the gift. They stood over Harriet who had been hypnotised by the gift. Rachael couldn't wait too, she stood over her mom with Christina, staring at the gift. 

"Who's that?" Rachael asked, looking at the picture of a pregnant woman who was guessed to be in her last months of pregnancy. The woman had one hand on her stomach and the other on her waist. 

But the picture wasn't complete. Another piece was missing. It had been torn. All that was left was the hand of someone over the woman's belly too. Rachael thought it was the woman's husband.  Even the frame was broken.