** Omniscient Narrator **
Anna took a few steps closer to Jimmy, the tears pooling in her eyes. “Tell me it is not true, Jimmy. You didn’t do it, did you?” She begged for reassurance, she was just finding it difficult to believe that the man she had willingly shared her bed with for so many months would try to take everything away from her; a man she loved with everything in her.
Jimmy scoffed as he looked up at her. “That is your problem Anna, you are always having so much faith in humanity, always trusting blindly, always trying to be the bigger person, the saint, seeing the light in everyone, but you are not just being naïve, you are being a very big fool.” He spat at her.
Annabel couldn’t believe that he said those words to her, she shook her head in regret. How she wished she never met this guy, let alone share her whole life with him.
“Maybe I was wrong about you all along, you are not different from the rest of them out there, you are just a thug and opportunist, and you are damn right, I was the foolish one. I am glad that you are going to be rotting away for a long time, maybe you would have some remorse while in jail.”
“Remorse?” Jimmy scoffed. “My only regret is that you weren’t at home to burn in that fire, because that was my intent. I was going to have him taken away from you but then I thought it wasn’t enough, a slut like you deserved to burn to ashes.” He spat
Annabel slapped the rest of the words outta his mouth, shocking the life out of him because he hadn’t seen it coming. The policemen had to intervene immediately, pulling Jimmy away from her.
“Bitch!!” Jimmy yelled as he felt blood rolling down from the break on his lips, that slap was Jaw breaking.
“Detective, please take him away.” Mr. Blackwood said to the top officer and he nodded.
“This isn’t over! I swear Ann, this is just the beginning. You have made an enemy of me, you are going to regret it.” Jimmy kept yelling as he was dragged away by the cops.
Mr. Blackwood strolled closer to Anna. “It is good I brought him here, he admitted that his intentions were to murder you, that would earn him a few years and by the time he is out, you would have been rid of him.” he said.
Anna didn’t know if that was supposed to be comforting, she was shattered right now. The man she had given her all to had just been arrested for trying to kill her, the irony! How did they go from lovers who shared a bed to enemies who would try to kill the other?
The tears began to roll down her eyes. It felt like all she did these days was cry her eyes out, mostly because of the wrong choices she made. Was she unfortunate or just plain cursed because all this was starting to get out of hand?
Mr. Blackwood didn’t make a move to console her, he just stood silently and watched her. Perhaps he wanted her to feel the consequences of her decisions or maybe he wanted her to get it out of her system. Either way, he couldn’t hide the fact that he felt bad for her.
Anna’s phone suddenly began to ring and she struggled to see the caller ID with all the tears in her eyes. She soon realized that it was her mother calling and she quickly wiped the tears off her eyes, not wanting to let her mom know she was crying.
She sniffled before taking the call and her mom’s voice came sounding through the phone, panicking. “Annabel! Tuo padre sta morendo, ti prego aiutaci.” She said in her native tongue.
Annabel froze, she couldn’t believe what she had heard. Her mother uttered a few more words before her strength gave up on her and she dropped the phone to the ground, her legs shaking.
“No, God please no.” she muttered as the tears began to flow again. Why was all this happening to her?
Mr. Blackwood as if understanding what had happened rushed at her, he pulled her into his arms to hold her from falling. “Annabel, what is the problem? Please talk to me.” He pleaded.
“No! No… No!” Annabel lamented. This cannot be happening.
Mr. Blackwood immediately helped her back into the office, ignoring the phone on the floor.
“Please tell me what is wrong, what happened?” Mr. Blackwood pleaded as he helped her sit down. This was one of the times he wished he had taken his foreign languages class seriously, he had clearly heard what her mom said but he had no idea what it meant.
Annabel looked up to him with a wet face. “My father is dying, Max.” she said amidst sobs, almost choking on her own tears.
Mr. Blackwood cupped her face, wiping off the tears. “Calm Down, Annabel, tell me what is going on, what is wrong with your father?” he asked
“He… he has Leukemia, my mom said it got critical and she rushed him to the hospital. They are trying their best to keep him alive but the hospital will not start any major operations on him until they are paid fully, they also requested a family member to sign an undertaking in case he doesn’t survive as his life is not guaranteed at this point.” She rambled in a rush of words.
“I don’t know what to do, Max. they are asking for a lot of money,” she said in tears
“Alright, just relax. Ask your mom to send the hospital name and location, I will make calls and see that all bills are sorted out. Your father will be operated on right away and he will survive, you just need to have faith.” He assured her.
Annabel looked up at him in surprise. “Really? Would you really do that for me?” she asked with teary eyes.
“Ann, I would do anything for you, now call your mom already, I will make all necessary arrangements to see that your father is alright.” He said.
“Thank you so much, Max, thank you.” she said in appreciation as she looked around for her phone.
“It is alright, you don’t need to worry, I will have the best hands treating your father, he will be fine.” Max assured her.
TBC!!