Isaac came back from school that day without much having happened. As he walked through the gate he noticed someone pretending to trim the plant hedges, posing as the gardener. He knew exactly who it was but he greeted politely anyway.
"Good afternoon."
The person turned to Isaac, looking him up and down while thinking, There's no way it could be this punk, right? But he replied smoothly,
"Afternoon. You came back early. How was school today?"
Isaac stammered slightly. "It was okay. There wasn't really much going on at school today, so I just had to head back home before I make my stepmother angry." He made sure to add that last part because he could feel Victoria's eyes on him from the top balcony. He didn't look up but he knew she was watching.
The gardener nodded and went back to his fake trimming. Isaac made his way inside.
Entering the house, he could see Victoria had already moved to the sitting room. She turned to him sharply. "You're late."
He wasn't, and they both knew it. But he still went down on one knee, apologizing. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I have no excuses."
Victoria looked him up and down. Out of everyone in her life this was the person she was most suspicious of. It didn't sound reasonable even to her but her thoughts kept circling back to him. She was a strong believer in gut instinct and it had never been wrong before. But this time she wasn't sure. There was no way someone like him could dig up her past without her knowing about it.
The reason her suspicion had spiked was because of the way he'd acted at dinner last night. But looking at him now kneeling on the floor with his head down it seemed like he'd already gone back to his usual self. Still she needed to confirm.
"Go take out the trash," she said coldly. "When you're done clean the living room. After that do the laundry."
"Okay ma'am." He didn't protest. He just stood up and went to do it, dropping his bag on the counter in the kitchen before heading outside with the trash.
As soon as he stepped outside, Victoria went straight to his bag. She knew who gave Isaac this bag but acted oblivious. Her main focus was to find out what was inside. She could deal with the bag itself later.
The moment he stepped out the door Victoria went straight for his bag. She knew who had given Isaac this bag but she acted oblivious to that for now. Her main focus was finding out what was inside. She could deal with the bag itself later.
She unzipped it. The only thing she found was his school books. She opened a few of them and kept glancing toward the door to make sure he wasn't coming back. After a while she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her robe and held it beside the pages, comparing the handwriting with his. They didn't match. She went back and forth between them hoping at least one would line up but none of them did.Am I wrong? I can't say for sure. My gut keeps telling me it's him, but how come…?
Seeing she had no concrete evidence she zipped the bag back up and left everything the way she found it. When Isaac came back inside he glanced briefly at his bag then continued his chores without a word.
Victoria had just gotten upstairs and was pacing around her room when the door opened. Stepping in was the gardener Isaac had greeted earlier.
"So how did it go Vic? Is it him?"
Victoria shook her head. "No. It's not him. The handwriting doesn't match. Besides, I already called someone at his school to check what time he got there, and they said he arrived on time which matches when he left home."
"So what do we do?" he asked. "Will you give out the money?"
Victoria looked at him with a glare in her eyes. "Like hell I will, J. I told youI had plans with that money. Once I get it all completed, I can start a company of my own and move out of this place with my kids. So how the hell am I supposed to do that?"
Yes, the man disguised as a gardener was Victoria's secret lover. She'd called him here earlier before she went to sleep. He'd arrived just on time. She'd made a plan to check Isaac's notebook to see if the handwriting matched the one from the letter earlier but it didn't. This made her feel even more foolish. She was stooping so low just to uncover who was trying to blackmail her.
"Fuck this is so frustrating. Just who could it be?" She was sure she'd buried the identity of Lucy Turner years ago. Every trace of it wiped clean. So how was it out in the open now? The more she thought about it the more confused she got.
She went straight to her drawer to bring out the weed Jeremy had brought with him earlier. It was already rolled up. She lit it up, and taking a drag of it seemed to calm her down a bit.
Smoking had always been her thing. It made it easier to think straight, especially when she was high. Even Andrew didn't know about this side of her. Only Emily knew. As for Emma she was completely in the dark about what her mother was really capable of.
"So what do we do?" Jeremy asked.
He leaned against the dresser and folded his arms. "I mean if push comes to shove I can have the boys ready. When you go to deliver the money we can find a way to track whoever picks it up."
Victoria looked at him, then shook her head. "Jeremy, I don't know, okay? I'm confused about what to do at this point."
Jeremy nodded, then walked up to her, taking the smoke from her. He took a drag from it, and after he puffed it out, he got close to her while breathing in her ear. "Why don't I fuck your brains out and make you forget all this?"
Victoria looked at him with a glare and slapped his face. "This isn't the time for that, and you know it."
Jeremy touched the place Victoria slapped, then removed his gardener's hat, getting a clear view of a man with a bald head and an earring in his right ear. He had the real look of a thug anyone who saw him could tell. But this time he was smiling. "You know, it's been a while since you hit me, Vic. Wanna play it rough?"
He started moving toward her slowly while she backed away. "Jeremy, I'm serious. This isn't the time for that."
Jeremy laughed. "You always say that, but later on you're singing a different tune."
He closed the distance between them. He raised Victoria's chin up. Victoria didn't bother putting up a fight since she knew it was no use. Just as Jeremy was about to kiss her, the doorbell rang downstairs.
Victoria used this opportunity to get away from him. It wasn't like she couldn't stop him if she really wanted she could but that would turn disastrous, and she really needed him now to help her take care of things if all of this escalated.
She headed downstairs with Jeremy following behind her. When she reached the bottom she saw Isaac standing at the open door talking to someone outside.
"Sir all mail is to be dropped in the mailbox outside," Isaac was saying.
"How did you get the passcode to the gate?"
Victoria heard this and quickened her pace toward the door. Seeing it was a postman she turned to Isaac sharply. "Go to your room and don't come out."
Isaac looked at her and nodded. He acted like he didn't see Jeremy coming down with her from her room. He just made his way upstairs, locking the door.
Victoria turned to Jeremy and nodded. Jeremy understood her and went toward the postman.
The postman was confused why the woman wasn't saying anything. Jeremy came out. "Hey."
The guy looked at him. Since Jeremy was wearing the gardener's hat pulled low, it was hard to see his face.
He continued. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"
The postman wondered what was going on but still replied, "Sure."
Jeremy led the way to the back, and the postman followed him. He didn't really understand what was going on. Or is he about to be tipped again? He was just a Twenty year old guy doing everything so he could afford money for college, so getting tipped was like a life-saving grace from heaven.
As soon as Jeremy put quite a distance between them and the front of the house, he brought out a gun and pointed it at the guy, who immediately raised his hands, dropping all his deliveries.
"Who sent you?"
"I don't know!" the man stammered, seeing the gun in front of him. "Sir, the letter was among the others which were set to be delivered today. We didn't have plans on doing it, but there was an envelope directly set together with a note inside there was fifty bucks as a tip if it was delivered fast. Because of how urgent it was and how close it is to this place, I took it. The note also had the gate code since the person said the people living here hardly ever check their mailbox, so he asked me to go inside and directly knock on the door."
Jeremy looked at him. Victoria came from behind and asked, "Where's the paper?"
The guy hurriedly searched his bag that was hanging around his neck, bringing out a piece of paper with only a short sentence: "Have this letter delivered to the address set on it. The house hardly checks their mailbox, so here is the passcode and a tip of $50 for the stress and trouble."
Reading it didn't really give them insight since the handwriting on it was also different. But this kept bothering her who was really doing it? She knew it had to be someone close to her for the person to know the gate passcode.
She looked at Jeremy. She'd already told him the passcode to the gate months ago. She was suspicious of him, but she knew if it was him, the downfall of her would also be his downfall. But that didn't mean he might not have a way to clear his name if it was him.
Jeremy, noticing her look, asked, "What's with that look?"
She replied, "Nothing." She turned to the postman. "Do you have any idea who dropped the letter?"
The postman hesitated. Then he felt the cold press of the gun against the back of his head and gulped hard. "It was a kid," he blurted out. "Like thirteen or fourteen. He's the one who brought the letter in."
Victoria didn't even bother asking again. "Where's the letter?"
The guy hurriedly brought out the letter. She collected it. This one didn't have any name on top.
She turned, saying, "You can go. And never step foot in this house again."
The postman hurriedly rushed out, thanking his lucky stars he didn't get shot in the head. He swore never to deliver anything to this house no, not even this estate.
Jeremy didn't try to stop him since Victoria said he could go. He let the postman leave.
Victoria made her way toward her room with Jeremy following behind.
"Why didn't you ask more questions?" Jeremy pressed. "We could even track him or question the child."
Victoria didn't stop walking. She replied to Jeremy, "Because the person we're dealing with is extremely smart. There's no way he'll let a slip-up happen. Asking the kid won't be favorable. I'm more worried about what I'll see inside this letter than figuring out some information that won't lead us anywhere."
Jeremy nodded. Victoria, seeing this, confirmed Jeremy wasn't the culprit of this whole ordeal.
He didn't have the brains to do all this, and there would've been a lot of slip-ups on his end if he was the one. She'd had the thought of killing him before, but now she knew she didn't have to.
Once they got to her room, Victoria tore the envelope off the letter, opening it. The letter was folded and was addressed: To Lucy and Owen.
This made Victoria ask, "Who's Owen?"
Jeremy, seeing this, felt like he'd seen a ghost. He hurriedly grabbed the letter from Victoria. She was shocked by his reaction, but he didn't care. He was more focused on the content written on the letter.
Victoria had to stand beside him to read it.
[Guess this came as a shock to you, J or should I call you Owen? You'll be surprised how much info we have on you and Lucy. I told Lucy not to get you involved, but it seems she's taking my word lightly. I wonder which info of hers I should give the cops first or maybe have it sent to her husband.]
They were halfway through the letter when Victoria's phone rang. She looked at Jeremy, then went to pick her phone up from the bed. Seeing it was Andrew, she frowned. She tried to keep herself calm while shushing Jeremy. She picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Victoria. How's your day going?"
Victoria replied, "It's going great so far. How's yours?"
"Same old, same old. Meeting today was really stressful. I really wish I could travel back home already. Missing you."
Victoria tried to calm herself. She didn't like how this conversation was going. Why did Andrew call, and why now of all times?
So she replied, "That's understandable. I miss you too. But I'm sure that's not just the reason you called, right?"
Andrew's voice sounded down. "They said our gardener just died. Can you believe that? And I'm just finding out his name was Owen."
Victoria, hearing this, felt fear. The truth was, Jeremy had always been the gardener, but he didn't really do much since that was just the excuse to let him come here. She'd always sent Isaac to clear everything since she was the one who introduced Jeremy as the gardener to Andrew. She was the one handling everything concerning him and also supervising if he did anything so Andrew didn't know anything about him.
But Victoria replied, "Really? How come?" She tried to act shocked.
Andrew replied, sounding surprised, "I'm surprised you didn't know since you were the one that employed him."
Victoria replied, "I haven't been on my phone all day, and you know I don't reply to unknown numbers. Anyway, you said 'they' was it the same number from before?"
She said this while making her way toward the door but paused after hearing what he said.
"Well, I got it quite a while back, but it was from a different number. It said to break the news to you exactly at 5 o'clock since you might not take it very well."
She looked at the clock. It was just 5 o'clock.
"Victoria?"
Just who could it be? She was lost in her thoughts again.
"Victoria?"
She snapped out of her thoughts when Jeremy touched her shoulder, signaling her to answer the call.
So she replied while faking a cry, "Yes, it's sure a tragedy. I'll try to see if I can connect with the family. Can you send the number that texted you so I can reach out to them?"
There was a pause before Andrew replied, "Actually, it's an unknown number. I'm really sorry he had to go that way. You know, people live and die it's the cycle of life. No one knows when death comes. If you can get in contact with his family, let me know so I can also support them. I have to go for now. Bye, my love. Love you."
"Love you too."
As soon as the call ended, they both looked at each other and went to read the rest of the letter.
[But I won't be doing any of that. I'm a very generous person, you know, so I'll give you a way out. You should have already received a call, Lucy, from your husband. I was just one step from sending all the pictures of your past and present with Jeremy to him, so don't fucking mess with me.
So to sum it up, here is what happens:
Tonight, 8 PM. Lucy takes $50,000 to the address below. When she gets there, she will see a letter beneath the counter by the empty shop. She is to read it for further instructions, and she is to come ALONE. And I mean it this time, because if you think this is a bluff, you're giving me the go-ahead to test you. This money buys you one week of silence. After that, we renegotiate.
Happy doing business with you.
I'm watching. So don't test me.
- A Friend]
Once they were done reading it, they now knew this person had planned everything from the start. But who could it be?
Jeremy was more worried because the name Owen was his real name, and he'd never once told anyone that name not even Victoria knew it. That meant whoever they were dealing with knew too much about their past.
"Victoria, what do we do?"
"I don't know. I'm as confused as you are, Owen." She made sure to emphasize his name while glaring at him.
"What's with that look? It's not like I'm the only one with a false name. You just never asked for my real name, and I thought we were sticking to our aliases."
This made Victoria realize Jeremy had never once told her his real name meanwhile, he knew hers. Not just that, this had also put her at a disadvantage. If they were both to get caught, the fact that Jeremy knew her true name meant it was leverage, while she didn't even know his real name only the crimes they'd both committed together.
This made her make a mental note to get more evidence on him.
They didn't bother talking again and instead waited till it was time for Victoria to go pay out the money.