Chapter 9 MIGRANE

CHAPTER 8

Evangeline woke up with a terrible headache. Her head was a big mass of pain. As she turned stiffly, she hit a warm presence. The warmth drew her in. Sometimes during the night, she had felt chilly.

Then she had been moved from her living room to the bedroom. Turning again, she hit the strong wall. Startled, she sat up straight. Jason Valdez was in her bed. Why was he in her home and on her bed sleeping so soundly? How and when did this happen? She remembered vaguely that he had arrived sometime last night to help them with her door. Tapping her head lightly, she realized she must have made a mess last night. She slipped out of bed, took her phone and stepped into the bathroom quietly.

As she closed the door, Jason who had been awake the instant she had stirred, stood up. He had actually woken up before she did and was watching her sleep. Her stirs had made him close his eyes, scared of being caught doing something he wasn't suppose.

Though he desperately wanted to have this conversation and be done with, he wasn't sure he should do that right now. He fetched his things and looked around for something to write on. Luckily, there was a pen and notepad on her dresser. He scribbled in it and left it where she could find it easily. Then he eased himself out.

Not knowing that Jason already left, Evan voice spoke in whispers as she called Zoe.

"You're dead babe. How could you leave me with a total stranger." She scolded her friend

"Well, in my defence even in your wasted state, you knew him as the man from Miami. So, what gives?"

"Did I make a mess of things?"

"Other than the snoring? No.... wait, you threw up?" Zoe started to laugh.

Evangeline covered her face in shame, recollecting that particular episode, "Oh, God!"

"And why are you whispering?"

"That's because he's sleeping.... On my bed, by the way and I'm in the bathroom trying to find out how much embarrassment I caused." Her friends laugh echoed insanely loudly.

"My head aches." She complained.

"Get some aspirin." Zoe advised, "Say hello to that cute man right there."

Evangeline tiptoed back to the room, only to find Jason gone. Like he was in bed one minute and not there, the other. She shrugged and went about getting ready for work. It wasn't like she expected anything from the annoyingly irritating man.

What had brought him to her place? On her dresser, she found a note stuck on the mirror.

I've a meeting in 20. See you later.

She tore it away and threw it in her waste bin. Whatever man! Something told her he had come in to talk about the surrogacy. She didn't even know what to think of that yet.

*****

Later that day, Logan was being told about where the picture came from. "Mary sent the pictures." Logan's PI informed him. He handed him the chart and proceeded to explain it. "She sent the pictures and somehow changed location."

"VPN." Logan added, getting the concept.

"Yes. Whoever she sent it to however wasn't smart enough to change his location. We traced him using his IP and discovered he's a start-up blogger." He explained, tracing a line in the graph presented.

"But why would she do that?" Logan asked, speaking more to himself than his PI who didn't bother replying him. "I need another thing. Get me the CCTV of that night. I cannot remember what happened. I may have been drugged."

His PI smiled knowingly, "I'm not sure about that. Your team were there."

"I dismissed them when Mary showed up. I was to meet with Evans but she wasn't picking up. Mary came to tell me she was in one of those business meetings. That's all I remember. I had a few drinks."

"Alright. I can have someone send it now."

"That would be nice." Logan leaned back in his chair and rolled towards the other room leaving his PI to work his corner. Why would Mary do this knowing how he felt about her friend? And most importantly, how had he stoop so low to be caught in this web? The pictures had caused quite a stair among the shareholders. He hated having a tainted front. It created perfect entrance for dwindles to wriggle in. His PI came in then to show him the recording.

"A part is missing, but I think you might want to see this."

Logan watched the video were Mary was giving him a drink. It looked like something a friend would do. Nothing out of the ordinary was there to see. He backtracked the video again. "I don't see anything usual."

"At first, yes." He paused the video. "Here, look." Mary had swapped the drink. She was the one who brought in the drink. She had been sipping from it or so and then she swapped it with his. Somehow also, the recording was missing a few clips of where she got the drink and what happened after. If she had played a foul game, she had the resources to pull off the CCTV recording to cover her track.

"Little, slimy..."

The phone rang out cheerily. Annoyed, he picked and groaned, "What?"

His secretary on the other end informed him, "Sir, Mary is here."

"Let her in." He said and dismissed his PI "Let me get to this."

"Hey baby." Mary greeted, eyeing the PI as he walked out of the room. She went to sit down on Logan's lap. The latter pretended not to mind. "How are you?"

"Did you speak to Evans?" He asked.

"No, she wouldn't pick my calls." Mary said, avoiding his eyes, he could tell that she lied.

"I've missed you. How about lunch?" She added.

Logan refused to fall for her gimmicks, "I'm worried. She isn't talking to me either."

"Let her steam a while. She will get over it."

Logan was undone with that statement, "Steam a while? Are you somehow deriving some pleasure from all these? She is your friend for Pete's sake." He yelled.

"And that didn't stop you from having a good time with me."

"The good time you got from drugging me?"

Mary stood up, and gazed at him hard, "Don't play with my emotions." She said getting teary. Logan didn't say a word. The Tablet was still there. He pressed play and pushed it to her. Mary stared at the recording. She was surprised to have left evidence. She had specifically informed the guy to erase this. Watching the clip, she could see nothing that gave her away, she relaxed visibly. "I didn't do anything."

"You swapped my drink." Logan stood up angrily, she cringed back in fear. "What happened May? You were my friend. Did she offend you and you wanted revenge somehow?"

Mary laughed hysterically, "Offend me? You did. Not Evans, you?"

Now he didn't know what she was talking about, when did sleeping with someone who offended you become a thing? "I don't understand."

"How could you? You didn't for years now. Will you ever?" She started crying. Logan moved to her and helped them both to the seat. He gave her some tissue to clean her face. "I love you Logan. I always have but you've never noticed. I watched you jump from one girlfriend to the other and told myself you'd be done soon and let go."

"You didn't tell me. I didn't know." Logan said at loss.

She snickered, "You always were done with the girls after a month or so. Then you met Evangeline and I knew I'd lost you."

"But you introduced us." Logan said, "Why would you when you have feelings for me?"

"Why do you guys keep using that line? I introduced my two friends. Did I say date? No. you guys decided that on your own without consulting me. You didn't even tell me until months later."

She stood up angrily and left his office.