79: C79 Chapter 79

C79 Chapter 79

RENO

Ilana's words screwed me up that I could not control my car well. I almost hit someone, a woman crossing the road carelessly. My feet stepped on the brake automatically. I rested my head on the steer to calm my pounding heart down before I got off. That woman was holding one of her bruise legs while her messy blonde hair blanketed all over her face.

"Are you okay?" She tidied up her hair and gaped. "Angeline..." I muttered her name.

"Do you know me? Who are you? And why were you driving so recklessly? Do you want to kill the passers-by?" she grumbled at me. Angeline did not recognize me at all. Ten years was too long for someone to keep others in her mind. Late alone, we never talked a lot during high school. She was one of Ilana's bullies. What was she doing here at this hour with her sorrowful condition, tangled hair, crumpled mini red dress, and red eyes? Did she just cry? She took off her black high heels and grabbed her golden leather handbag. She slipped on the ground when she was trying to get up.

"Let me help you." I offered her help instead of responding to her questions. I assisted her in walking to the edge of the road. She sat on the bench at the curb. I gave her a bottle of water I carried from my car. She gulped it.

"Thank you." She scrutinized me from top to toe. "You seem familiar. Have we met before?"

"Yeah." I took a seat two meters away from her with my eyes on the road ahead. "We studied in the same high school."

"Reno...that's impossible. You mustn't be Reno. Reno is a nerd, wearing spectacles. How can you change a lot?" I landed my sight on the earth below me and sighed. "Prove to me that you are truly Reno."

"I am using contact lenses. And I don't have to prove to anyone that I am Reno." She did not argue. “I'll take you to the hospital. The bruise on your leg needs treatment."

"No, thanks... It's just a small wound anyway."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It just needs a plaster on."

"Alright." I surged at my feet.

"Where are you going?"

"Home."

"May I have your name card?" I doubted at first to give her my name card. However, anticipating that she might need help with her injury, I handed her a small rectangular plate card with my name and office address on it at the end.

In ten minutes, I had abandoned Angeline, steering my car to my apartment. I reset all my schedules today, spending my time at home might heal my disappointment. Ilana's marriage would be next month. I wished there was still a way for me to be with her. That was something that I would never accomplish no matter how. To be honest, it was too heartbreaking to accept the fact that she would live with someone else for the rest of her life.

Arriving home, I threw myself on the bed with my shoes on. I did know how it began, I hear someone sobbing. Her voice was clear enough. It came from the front door. I checked on my door and the living room, no one I could find. The sob kept louder. I opened the door. A woman was squatting with her face slipped between her two knees. She was wearing a light green scarf.

"Ilana....what happens?" I rushed to her and hugged her. I might have acted impolitely, hugging someone else's fiancee. But, I no longer cared about the norm. Ilana was my only number one priority at the moment. She just looked me in the eye without saying anything. Her eyes told everything. She had a burden on her shoulder.

"Ilana...Ilana...Ilana...." I woke up. It was just a dream. Yet it was like real. I got up and grasped a paper towel on the table near the bed, drying the sweat flooding my forehead and temple with it. My mobile phone was ringing; an unknown number appeared on the screen.

"Hello..."

"Reno...please help me!"

"Sorry, who is it?"

"Angeline...I am in a hotel right now. Someone brought me here. I have messaged you the address. Please come. I need your help so badly right now." Then, she hung up the phone.

In confusion, I hurried to the bathroom and washed my face. It was at 7 p.m. when I viewed the time after I was out of the bathroom. Without changing my t-shirt and jeans, ran out with the car's key and jacket. What was I doing now? I did it, running toward my car just for Angeline, the one who hurt Ilana. I ceased near my car. Did I have to go back or go ahead? But, my conscience chose to find and give Angeline some help.

I drove my car with a doubt in my heart. What if Angeline was lying? What if she wanted to trap me or something? What for? We seldom interacted during high school either in or out of school. The car led me to a five-starred hotel with a semi-classic design. The gold and cream painted the wall and its pillars. The gate was towering and huge. Angelina sent me the room number. She said that I just needed to directly go to the eleventh floor and searched for the room. That was not difficult.

I did what Angeline instructed me to do. Room number 707 was right in front of me. The scream from inside forced me to think of the ways how to get inside. Breaking the door was an impossible thing to do because the door was too strong, so I resembled a room maid and pressed the bell. When someone's head was popping out of the door, I immediately hit his nape. That man fall fainted. I carried his body in. Angeline was half-naked sitting at the edge of the bed. Seeing me getting inside, she embraced my back. I freed myself from her embrace.

"Put your dress on and let's go from here as we don't have much time. This man will wake up in a matter of minutes." I instructed. “I did not strike him harshly.” Angeline did my instruction, wearing her dress hurriedly while I was waiting outside.

We finally had been in my car after scurrying out through the stairs, not the lift for I was afraid that the hotel staff would be suspicious. Angeline inhaled and exhaled few times.

"Thank you so much."

"Now tell me what really happened.."0

"Since I was a child, I have aspired to be a model. That man offered me a job as a model in one of the fashion magazines with one requirement; I have to sleep with him." I was quiet, giving her time to tell her story. "I refused yet he kept pursuing. That's why I contacted you."

"I know nothing about modeling. But, how can you easily believe in that man?"

"Because I want to be a model, no agency accepts me as their model for the reason that I am too fat to be a model." Angeline's body was not fat at all.

"Should I drive you home?"

"I don't have a home."

"What do you mean?"

"My family lost everything after my father was sent to jail due to corruption case." That startled me.

"Where do you live now?"

"I don't know. I don't have a place to go." From the rearview mirror, I could watch tears dripping down her cheek. "May I live with you?"

"No...I'm sorry. I mean, that's impossible. What about living with your friend?"

"No one wants to be my friend. Even, Kevin stays away from me."

"Kevin?" Recalling my stepbrother's name was like dragging me back to the incident in the library where he asked Ilana to see him there and did something unpleasant to her. That hurt my heart. It did not matter whatever he did to me, but I could not tolerate what he did to Ilana.

"We had a special relationship when we were in the college before my father was detained for his case. He broke up our relationship just because I am a daughter of a corruptor."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Where should I go now?"

"I'll send you to the hotel and book a room for you to stay there until you get home to settle. Well, I will get you a house to settle."

"Thank you so much, Reno."

"Don't mention it."

"May I ask you something?" I just nodded my head. "Do you have a girlfriend?" I wish I could answer "Yes". If only Ilana was not engaged with that man. Why did she questioned me that, by the way?

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