by A. G. Khaliq
I sent Donte a lovely text from you. On your phone, posing as you.”
I let out a blood-curdling scream.
Knowing that it was the end of the road for me.
115
Knowing that this was my fate.
Knowing that there was no fucking way out of this for me.
“Telling him you're moving away,”
Fibonacci went on. “Telling him you don't love him anymore, telling him to forget about you. Telling him to move on, telling him it wasn't real. That you were just leading him on, because you were too unsure of your feelings.”
“You bastard!” I screamed. “You fucking bastard!”
Fibonacci grinned, taking my phone out of his pocket, opening the text and flashing it in front of my face. I could feel my blood run cold. He wasn’t lying…
And what scared me even more was that Donte would probably believe every 116
single fucking word of this message.
“See?” Fibonacci snarled. “It's all there in the message. Now I'm going to leave you in this cage without food or water. You'll get so hungry to the point you'll be eating your own flesh… And then you'll die eventually.” He broke off his sentence, roaring with manic laughter.
Laughter of a true psychopath.
“And nobody is going to find you,”
he shrugged flatly. “You're beyond help now, Maya.”
Before I could protest, he turned on his heel, and began walking away from me. Leaving me alone shivering in this cold, damp room. Dark, with a tiny window being the only source of light.
My only company being rats from beneath the floorboards.
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Leaving
me
shaken
and
heartbroken.
Leaving me torn.
Empty.
Alone.
I let out a blood-curdling scream.
And another.
And another.
Knowing that I would never be able to stop screaming.
My life was over…
I was stupid to think that I would ever be able to live a normal life, without my past coming back to bite me…
118
Now I had to live a life without Donte, and my mother.
I may as well be fucking dead.
119
14
donte
“Work over,” I grinned to myself, as I put the rest of my paperwork away into the drawer, and logged off my computer. It had been a long day, to say the fucking least. Another draining day in the life of a fucking CEO.
Now, it was time to go and pick up 120
Sapphire. I fucking loved that woman…
It was hard to just go a few hours without seeing her pretty face.
I let out a sigh, before smiling to myself. I made my way out of my office, locking the door behind me.
I walked into Sapphire’s office.
“Hey babe?” I called out.
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, as I came to the realization that she wasn’t here. I rubbed my chin, immersed in thought.
“That's weird,” I murmured to myself. “I thought that she would be waiting here for me. Maybe she hasn't signed out yet. Maybe she's just somewhere else in the building.”
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I nodded to myself, making my way out of her office, ready to look somewhere else.
I made my way to the Reception, where Sainabou was sitting, working overtime as usual.
“Hey Sainabou,” I greeted politely.
She waved back at me. “Hey, Boss,”
she smiled, with her hands on her hips.
“Is everything okay? How can I help you?”
“I just wanted to know if Sapphire checked out,” I shrugged. “Did she sign the sign-out sheet?”
Sainabou quickly scanned her eyes over the paper, searching for Sapphire’s name.
“She did,” she commented. “She 122
left about an hour ago.”
“Right,” I replied flatly, narrowing my eyes.
“She's probably gone home, boss,”
she shrugged. “She finished her work a little early. Probably why she isn't waiting for you.”
I folded my arms awkwardly, feeling embarrassed. Something didn’t seem right about this. Ever since we’d been together as a couple, she’d always waited for me after work, without fail…
I let out a heavy sigh. I was probably overthinking it.
I made my way outside, looking around to see if I could see any familiar faces. I was going to give this one last go and ask somebody where she was, because I was confused as hell.
123
I saw Yasmeen and her husband Mikail on the other side of the car park. I waved at them, smiling.
“Hey Yasmeen,” I grinned, walking over to them. “Hey Mikail.”
“Hey,” Yasmeen smiled.
“Hey man,” Mikail grinned. “I haven't seen you in a while. How are you?”
“I'm all good man,” I shrugged. I took my head into my hands in frustration.
“Is there something wrong, Boss?”
Yasmeen asked, with a concerned expression on her face.
“I was just wondering if you've seen Sapphire,” I admitted. “I can't find her 124
anywhere.”
“No,
we
haven't,”
Yasmeen
shrugged. “I spoke to her earlier, in the morning. I thought she'd be with you.”
“Same here,” said Mikail. “I only came here now to give Yasmeen a lift.”
“Oh.”
I
couldn’t
hide
the
disappointment written all over my face.
“Thanks anyway.”
“Is something wrong?” Yasmeen looked worried.
“Anything we should be concerned about?” Mikail asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
“No, not at all,” I reassured them exhaustedly. “Thanks for your help. I'll see you guys around.”
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They nodded, smiling and waving at me, before I turned on my heel and walked away, frustrated with the outcome.
I walked back into my office, gathering my thoughts together. I couldn’t help but to feel a little worried. I guess I was paranoid because of everything that had happened between me and her lately.
So Sapphire definitely wasn’t at work, she'd signed out, she wasn't outside, and nobody else had seen her since the morning…
She probably did go home. I was just overthinking it.
“I could just go and visit her if she wants me to,” I murmured to myself. “I'll message her to tell her I'll pop round if she's up for it.”
126
I took my phone out of the pocket of my trousers, holding it out in front of my face. I narrowed my eyes as I realized that I had an unopened notification blaring across my phone screen.
“Wait, what's this?” I breathed.
“She already messaged me… She's sent me a paragraph.”
I let out a sigh, clicking on the Notification to read the message.
Wondering what she’d said.
Hi Donte.
It pains me that I had to send this on a text message, rather than telling you in person. There's some things that I wanted to say to you. I've moved away, and I thought I owed you an explanation, after everything we've been through. I don't want you to look for me. I don't 127
want you to come after me. I did all of this out of my own will. I needed to move away. To get my head straight, to focus on myself. And I won't be coming back.
I had an amazing time with you.
I've had a lot of fun getting to know you, not to mention how good you make me feel. But it's like that day in the strip club.
When the song was playing, ‘let me love you until you learn to love yourself.’ And that's what I'm doing right now, Donte.
I'm learning to love myself.
We've had some really int
imate moments together, but I feel like I've been leading you on. I don't want to pursue a relationship with you. I've been through too much in the past to give my all to another man. To emotionally drain myself
in
another
relationship.
Relationships aren't for me anymore.
How can I love another man, when I'm struggling to even love myself?
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Every day, I've been staring in the mirror, and I feel like shit about myself, my scars and bruise forever reminding me of my harrowing past. And it's just something that I can't move on from.
Whenever I was with you, I thought of Fibonacci. My first love. I just can't get him out of my head, despite what he did to me. When I left Fibonacci, I left my heart with him. I'm not capable of loving somebody again.
I'm sorry for leading you on. I'm sorry for making you feel like you have a future with me, when I was just using you to help me make myself feel better. It felt good to feel loved, to be loved by another man who wasn't my ex. But I don't love you, Donte. And I'm sorry about that.
You're a handsome man, you're charming, funny, witty. And you can get any woman that you want. I hope you won't keep dwelling on me. I hope you 129
have a good life with Sharon, if you still decide to pursue that arranged marriage with her.
You've taught me that there's some good in the world left. That I shouldn't let my past dictate my future. I'm sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry for breaking your heart. But I couldn't continue being with you, knowing that I was lying to you about how I felt. That's why I moved away. To stop working at Indigo Limited, to spare you the pain of having to see me every day, and contemplate what we could have been.
Goodbye Donte, and I wish you all the best. Please don't look for me…
For your sake and for mine.
Best wishes…
Maya.
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I dropped my phone to the ground, allowing it to smash.
Feeling completely and utterly numb.
Nothing.
Empty.
Like I would be better off six feet underneath the fucking ground.
A blood-curdling scream leapt out of my mouth. A scream so terrifying that you could hear it from ten blocks away.
Feeling like God hard torn my world apart.
Feeling like my life had been taken away from me.
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My soul ripped out of my body.
Like I was a dead man walking…
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” I bellowed.
“NO!”
I punched the wall behind me, my knuckle splitting open, swelling up as blood gushed out of it.
“HOW COULD YOU FUCKING
DO THIS TO ME?!”
And then I allowed myself to collapse…
Falling down to the ground.
Rocking myself backwards and forwards as I sobbed, drifting in and out of consciousness.
Knowing that I was living my worst 132
fucking nightmare.
I let out another scream, my face going blue.
I screamed until I couldn’t scream anymore.
Until my throat went hoarse.
Every vein in my body on fire.
I continued to scream…
And then everything went black.
Complete fucking darkness.
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15
donte
It felt like I was suffocating.
I could barely breathe.
If this was what it felt like to be in love…
Then God forbid, I never wanted to 134
be in fucking love again.
Everything me and Sapphire went through, everything we did together, every goddamn intimate moment, it was all a fucking lie?!
She didn't fucking love me…
She didn't feel the same way about me that I did to her.
I was so certain about her feelings, the way that she got so nervous around me, the way I sprung her out of her shell, gave her so much confidence, made her feel so sexy.
But I guess this was all just a game to her.
That all she felt was lust…
And nothing beyond the physical.
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All this time, she’d just been telling me what I wanted to hear.
Filling my ears with sweet lies.
And she was so embarrassed, she didn't even have the guts to confront me in person about it.
She left me with just a fucking text message.
The screams wouldn’t stop leaping out of my mouth. One after the other.
One after the fucking other.
I collapsed to the floor, crying and screaming for Sapphire.
But it was no use.
It was no fucking use.
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She was gone.
And all that was left was the memory of her.
The memories of what me and her had.
Everything we shared.
Every beautiful lie.
There was no coming back from this.
I would never be able to move past this.
I loved her…
137
But she didn’t love me.
138
16
arturo
The next day
I trudged into the living room, yawning exhaustedly. I was so fucking tired.
“I fucking hate mornings!” I sighed agitatedly, rolling my eyes.
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I whipped my phone out, scrolling through my notifications to check for any text messages.
“Can we go out today?” Pedro asked, walking into the room with Iglesias. “I'm fucking bored. We haven't been out in ages!”
“Some of us have jobs to go to, you fucking
bum,”
Iglesias
retorted
condescendingly.
“I work too, you prick,” Pedro shot back.
“Yeah,” Iglesias grinned. “At your own brother's fucking business.”
Iglesias cracked up with laughter, and Pedro shook his fists angrily.
“At least I'm living my best life, enjoying myself, unlike you boring 140
bastards,” Pedro smirked. “Always working. The money we already have is enough.”
“Did I just hear you correctly?”
Iglesias remarked, repulsed. “You can never have enough money, bro.”
“For God's sake, stop arguing you bastards!” I sighed exhaustedly. I really wasn’t in the fucking mood for this shit.
I was too pissed off and tired. “We're not five year old kids!”
“Lighten up, Arturo,” Iglesias grinned.
“Forgive me for caring about more pressing matters,” I retorted. “Where the fuck's Donte?”
“Who gives a fuck?” Pedro muttered. “He's probably fucking that Sapphire chick from work.”
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“Yeah, I'd think that too,” I murmured. “But it's nearly ten in the fucking morning, and he still hasn't come home! You really think he's gonna go to work without a change of clothes?”
Pedro furrowed his eyebrows and Iglesias narrowed his eyes, looking a little more concerned.
“Maybe he just stayed over at hers?” Pedro suggested.
“He isn't answering his calls either,” I muttered.
“Fuck, this doesn't sound good,”
Iglesias mumbled. “Let's go into Indigo Limited and ask around.”
I nodded in response. We made our way out of the house and to the car, ready to drive to Indigo Limited.
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We walked into the Reception, to see Sainabou sitting down on the desk.
“Hey,” Pedro greeted.
She waved back in response.
“What's up?” she asked.
“Have you seen Donte around anywhere?” Pedro questioned, rubbing his chin.
“Oh,” Sainabou replied awkwardly.
“He hasn't left his office since yesterday night.”
“What the fuck?”
Pedro shouted.
“Come on guys, he's in his office!”
Me and Iglesias bolted after him.
My heart was pounding against my chest.
What the fuck had happened last night?
143
I kicked down Donte’s office door, to see him asleep on his office floor. He looked so pale, it looked like the life had been sucked right out of him. His phone was smashed next to him, and it looked like he’d been crying all night.
What the fuck was going on?
“What the fuck?” Pedro breathed.
“Why did he sleep here?” Iglesias mumbled.
I let out a deep breath. I needed to know what was going on, and I knew that Donte trusted me the most. More than anything else in the fucking world. He needed me right now.
“You guys wait outside,” I said. “I'll talk to him.”
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“Alright, let us know if you need anything,” Pedro nodded, and Iglesias followed him out of the door.
I crouched down next to Donte, shaking him.
“Donte, wake up!” I breathed.
“Wake up, Donte. Come on.”
I forced his eyes open. He’d definitely been crying all night. From the looks of it, he’d got smashed off his face too. I could see empty vodka bottles all over the floor.
Donte blinked several times, before getting to his feet groggily. He took his head into his hands, rocking it backwards and forwards.
Not saying a fucking word.
“What the fuck happened, Donte?”
145
I demanded, my voice dropping to barely below a whisper. “Why are you asleep on your office floor?”
“Sapphire…” Donte whimpered, shaking his head. “Sapphire, Sapphire…”
He repeated her name over and over again, like he was torturing himself.
He looked shattered. Broken.
Completely fucking numb.
“I should've known she had something to do with this,” I muttered.
“You don't understand, bro,”
Donte murmured. “You've gotta help me find her! She's gone…”
“What do you mean, she's gone?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
