“Oh, you’ve been here before?” I asked her curiously. I was pretty sure she had said this was her first time.
“Yeah, once.” She ran her hands through her hair and then leaned toward me and grinned. “I’ve missed you, Bianca. I feel like we haven’t seen each other in ages.”
“That’s because we haven’t.”
“I bought you something the other day.” She studied my face and grinned. “A book on Richard the Third and the lost princes or whatever.”
“Oh awesome.” I leaned back in my chair. “You know that some men at the Tower of London recently found . . .”
She interrupted me and said, “So you have to tell me all about that guy online.” Then she paused and turned around. “Waiter!” she called out loudly. “Can you come over here when you have a chance? I’d like a drink sometime this year.” She turned back to me with a glint in her eyes and a small smile. “Let’s see how long he takes now.”
“He’s most probably busy, Rosie.” I shook my head at her impatience. “You’ve only been here for a few minutes.”
“Exactly, I’ve been here for a few minutes, and I’m still sober.” She shuddered. “Something is wrong with this picture.”
“You can have some of my wine if you want.” I pointed to the bottle on the table, and she shook her head.
“No, I think I’m going to get a co**cktail,” she said quickly. “I need liquor tonight.”
“So how’s work?” I changed the subject and inquired about her job. I really wanted to talk about myself, but I didn’t want to be rude.
“Challenging.” She shrugged. “We’re attempting to get the account of one of the top financial companies in the States. I can’t tell you the name for legal reasons, but let’s just say if we get it, we will be one of the top advisement companies in the world.”
“Do you think you’ll get it?”
“If I have anything to say about it, yes.” She pursed her lips. “Of course, I’m not working on that deal. I’m helping James with the Bradley Inc. deal. If we get that, I think I’ll get promoted. That’s why I’ve been so busy.”
“Oh.” I looked down into my glass of wine; my heart was racing at her words. I hadn’t known she was trying to do business with the Bradley Corporation. “That’s David’s dad’s company,” I said casually, pretending that that fact was unimportant.
“Oh yeah, that’s where I saw him a couple of weeks ago. In the offices.” She made a face, and I knew that she was worried that I was still upset that we had broken up. Rosie didn’t know that I had never really had legitimate feelings for David, so his cheating hadn’t really hurt me.
“I need to tell you something.” I took a deep breath and lowered my voice. “It’s about David and, well, the Bradley Company.”
“Oh?” Her eyes narrowed, and she looked at me in interest. “What about them?”
“I think that the Bradley Company had something to do with what happened to my mother.”
“What are you talking about?” She looked confused. “What happened to your mom? She died in a car crash, didn’t she?”
“That’s the thing.” I took a deep breath, hoping Rosie wasn’t going to think I was crazy. “I don’t think she did.”
“What?”
“Remember how my dad used to work as an inventor?” I rushed out. “Well, he used to work for the Bradley Company. In fact when the company was started it was called Bradley, London, and Maxwell. I think—”
“Hold on a second.” She jumped up quickly. “I just need to go to the restroom, okay?”
I noticed someone in the corner of the bar staring at me. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him. I nodded at Rosie slowly as my head started to feel heavy. I was being watched. I was certain of it. I took a deep breath and looked around me. Was I being listened to as well? Part of me was glad that Rosie had jumped up when she had. Then it hit me; it was the man who’d been staring at me from behind the
newspaper at the coffee shop.
“That’s fine.” I mumbled back, the words tripping out of mouth in an existential fashion. I wanted to jump up and run, but I knew that wouldn’t help. I’d ask Rosie for her advice when she came back from the restroom. I’d tell her everything that was going on and then hope she wasn’t angry at me for keeping it all from her for so long.
“Watch my bag for me.” She handed me her large black Balenciaga bag and walked away quickly. I put her bag in my lap and quickly unzipped it and placed the plastic bag with the copies of my father’s papers in it and did it back up again.
“More wine, ma’am?” I heard the voice in front of me and I felt a prick in my arm as I looked up. I didn’t see the face of the person as I looked up, because my vision became dotted. All of a sudden, I felt terribly drowsy, like I wanted to sleep. I closed my eyes for a second, and then the world went black.
The first time I regained consciousness, I could feel someone lifting me up. I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on, but my eyelids wouldn’t open, because they were too weak. The second time I regained consciousness, I could hear two men frantically whispering something. It sounded like “The plan’s changed. The plan’s changed.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I allowed the dark void to suck me back in as my brain realized that the inevitable had happened. I knew that I’d rather be unconscious than frozen in fear while being blind and speechless. The void was good for now. The void would allow me to conserve my energy and stop the panic that was currently running through my body.
I drifted back into oblivion, and all I could think about were David’s words the last time we’d spoken: You’re strong, Bianca. You can handle anything. I promise that you’ll get over this. I only hoped that I was as strong as he thought I was.