RED-HANDED

If it was possible to undo the past, this day would have been erased from the calendar of events forever with no traces at all. " That miserable wretch" She attacked him mentally as she sized the car out of his Campbell apartment.

This was the third place she'd searched out but had no trace of him at all. Del seemed to have suddenly dissipated into thin air with nothing left at all.

Her face was stained with tears. Her restless mind had not settled yet~there was a lot rushing up there with no definite solution or options. Even if she found him, what would be her first reaction?– her thoughts continued to torment her.

If asked how she successfully drove in her state of dilemma and despair, she wouldn't know. It was a pure miracle. All she wanted to do was to shed tears of misery but she discovered that the well had run dry and the tears she longed for, refused to come any longer.

Her phone kept ringing nonstop but Phoenix took no notice of it. Both Levi along their parents called over and over to check her whereabouts but each one ended like that.

It's past three hours since she dashed out like that and this got everyone worried. What if she had an attack?~ this scared Kalisa.

" Did you get her?" She asked. Her heart instinctively skipped when Stanley tilted his head with a no. " God...Phon~" She cried and Levi caught her midway. The blame in a way, laid squarely at her doorstep.

Compounding her misery was this– If she'd stood her ground and insisted on breaking off their relationship after her last check-up, this wouldn't have happened.

The whole house was at a standstill– with everyone hoping and praying for good news. Levi kept calling anyway in case she'd answered.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Phoneix's emotions were still frayed, driving through the hazed streets of Cambridge. The rains were pouring by now~ causing huge traffic across a couple of streets. She was drenched from running through, checking every place she knew Del could be.

She continuously called Del's line; it went through at first but the receding ones just ended with a pep sound. It was turned off at this point. She felt very tired and emotionally drained, her body was gradually giving up on her.

But then, the notification drop straightened her for a moment. Berla had updated her Instagram post, meaning she had arrived at her destination. She needed someone to loosen her pain and Berla was the best she could go to at the moment–she felt.

On opening the post, her eyes flared in disbelief. It twitched, glittering with unshed tears that silently drained down her eyes in a bit. "...this is~" She choked and the phone fell off her trembling hands.

Berla had posted a photo of herself and Del, sharing love-thrilled moments at her Floral Villa which was located around the Caribbean airport residential estate. It was about an hour's drive from her end.

With no thoughts at all, she screeched across the street, whirling down the route exit towards Caribbean street. The speed at which she road off tensed him up.

" What's she doing?" the man in the white Lincoln Corsair flinched as he chased after her– the speed at which she accelerated ahead highlighted his anxiety. He needed to keep to her pace, losing her at any point might be deadly.

He was the only one who had been able to tail her after she'd fled the venue earlier.

FLORAL VILLA

The evening had wore on, silencing the world with its presence. It was early yet in the night, only a few minutes after 10.

Just like splashing thunderstorms, Phoneix flashed into the yard, dashing out of the car the moment it halted. The engine and lights remained on ~ her steps huddled through the rain as she approached the door of the main house.

In the distance, the Corsair pulled up as well. He saw her hasten in after pinning in the door code. It was pretty obvious she knew who it belonged to and felt trouble looming ahead.

The halls were enveloped in silence, a sweet sense of romance elevated the atmosphere which coupled with the evening rain pretty well. It felt warm and welcoming with the soft lights that ushered her in, just like her honeymoon should have been. But that was a mere dream at her end~ a bigger one out of her reach, she thought as she scanned around.

Chatters and sweet giggles were heard from the room as she drew nearer. " Hey, stop it...it tickles." The feminine voice echoed and the chuckle continued. She couldn't believe her ears~that was Berla and Del's voice.

Her feet became heavier at every sound that exuded. Phoenix felt anxiety mounting inside her. Even though she knew what she would meet sooner, she decided to make another desperate attempt, to salvage Berla and Del's relationship.

" ...I believe what I saw was just my mind playing games on me, right?" She softly mumbled, bracing herself for the inevitable. She briefly paused at the door, fear started to bite at her heart. Gently, yet with hesitation, she slowly turned the knob. It wasn't locked.

To her horror, red-handedly, their gazes met each other as Del and Berla sprung upright on the bed. " Berla...Del~" She looked at them with a lot of pain in her eyes.

" Phone...!!" She loudly whispered. For a moment, they were stuck in silence~ complete silence as the clock on the wall continued to tick with military precision.

After a long debate with herself, Berla's guilt washed off into an unapologetic one and Phoenix realized. "...shouldn't you give up already, Phone?" She sneered on an impulse.

Her eyes were instinctively wet with unshed tears. She was in shock and disbelief. " She's right, Phone~ you're just a walking dead. Why not let the living continue to live, huh?" She heard Del's voice echo along.

" It's not like we did something out of the ordinary. " Berla added.

Her heart wrecked apart and her world came crashing to her face~ they had now ganged up against her with no sign of guilt at all. It felt like she deserved what they just did to her with no right at all to complain.

" Get over yourself and stop overreacting, hiding under the mask of ill fate...pretending to be the victim here." Del accused. " ~I've been the victim not you, Phone"

"Exactly my point...!"

" Berla~? even you?" She sniped. Phoenix saw them in a different light altogether. Behind their charming facade, she was convinced, lurked all sorts of undesirable character traits she never knew.

Soft yet pained and agonized sobs seized her breath, and her tongue remained stuck at the roof of her mouth. She dreaded the last two encounters which her supposed to be a happy day, served her with.

The man she trusted with all her heart for the past ten years and her better half just dropped her like hot coal without a second thought.

The pain in her chest became unbearable and she collapsed to the floor. " Phoneix...!!!" An unexpected masculine voice called from the distance. The latter two were surprised to see Irish rush to her aid.

" Mr Irish...!" They loudly whispered in shock. They were by now on their feet. " How did you get here?" They had asked but he gave off nothing at all. All he wanted was to save her.

" Phone...?~ Phoneix, hey stay with me, huh?"He kept calling as he scooped her in his arms. " You should be ashamed of yourselves." He said over his shoulder to them as he made his way out of the house.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Levi's phone finally rang after a long period of earnest wait and behold it was from Phoenix. " It's her..." He announced and a sense of relief pricked at them as they clustered over him.

" Hey, Phone where are you?~ we've been worried sick" He answered but the voice that greeted him made him redraw, glancing back at the caller ID to be sure. This made his parents query in confusion.

" Why, is everything alright?"

" It's Phoenix's but a male voice answered...wait a second~" He said, returning to the caller.