No need soiling your hands, Mr. CEO

Vee had been facing down the whole time, her mind was blank and she continued staring into the dark, "there's nothing to live for, I'm doing this for them, it's worth it, they are my friends, I'm sure they would do same if they were in my place" Vee thought, she heard the creaking sound of the door but didn't lift her head and suddenly she heard a splash and felt the ice cold water run from her head down to her body, for a moment she couldn't breathe and gasped for air and when she finally caught her breathe, that same hollow expression was on her face.

The man who splashed water on her was about to hit her with a whip, "that's enough Alfred, leave us now" detective Paul said as he stepped in and took a seat. "Vee why are you doing this to yourself, please just tell me what happened and you'll be free the next minute, I need you to help this case to go forward, so now tell me, why did you do it?" The detective asked her, for a moment her eyes softened and then she narrowed them as she tried to open her mouth but no words came out, she was determined to face the penalty for a punishment she hadn't committed, it wasn't her fault but she decided to take the sacrifice, Vee was terrified but she didn't let it show, no, she couldn't just watch them punish her friends even if they were guilty, they all had a reason to live, they had employers who depended on them, she had nothing and she couldn't afford to continue living if her friends were going to be taken away, so she had already made up her mind and there was no turning back, no amount of interrogation was going to make her give in, the crime was a great one and she was going to keep quiet. "It seems you are not willing to cooperate," Paul said "and before we continue anything we need to be truly sure of your innocence, "Jack please bring in the polygraph" A short and plain-looking fellow stepped in immediately as if he had just been waiting for the command, he placed the machine on the large table separating them and immediately left. "Miss, can you please put your hand in? We need to be sure what you told us isn't false, if you are directly responsible for this then your punishment will be worst than death" Paul explained to her in a low tone. Vee immediately obeyed and he explained to make sure she understood before he started questioning her, " so this is how it goes, I will ask all my questions at once and you will answer all of them when I say so, in the right order, first question, what is your name, did you do it, and if you did, please be kind enough to tell me why and if you didn't, go ahead and tell me who did, and why they did something so bad" Layla tried moving her hands a little and then started talking" my name is Vivian, I didn't do anything, I'm innocent but I've decided to take all the blame and punishment, I don't know who did it" immediately she mentioned that she didn't know, a bip sound was heard from the machine and Paul stared at her closely " miss Vivian you do realize that you can't lie with this do you?" He said lazily, Vee sighed as if to surrender and then continued "I do know who is responsible but I'm sorry I can't say anything more" that was it, it had been decided and Paul was relieved that she would just have to die a less painful death rather than get the worst punishment given only to criminals whose crimes were unforgivable "I'll leave you, for now, my dear, I think there are people here to see you" Paul said as he stood up and left. He went to his office and sat down, his frustration knew no bounds as he tried to search his brain to see if he could come up with anything, the crime scene left no traces of evidence, and all the security cameras around that area were broke, lots of people moved in and out of the place at the time of the crime and the only person they met at the place, with the body was Vivian, a criminal wouldn't be stupid enough to stay behind, it seemed like she had been tricked but she wouldn't give out anything. He now understood why Jackson was reluctant to continue with this case, Jackson was a well-known detective who was appreciated everywhere for efficiency and accurate results, this case was first given to him and after he questioned Vee he started having different plans for her, Jackson was a great detective and didn't need a lie detector to tell if someone was lying or not, the professional investigator was able to discern and draw conclusions from subtle gestures and little expressions, He had told the commissioner that this girl was innocent, he wanted them to let her go so they could look for the real culprits but the commissioner wasn't pleased, they didn't want him to handle things in his way, that was almost impossible and the girl had turned herself in so there was no need to let her go, the authorities took the case from him and gave Paul to handle it.

Vivian's so-called friends were seated outside and even though nothing was pursuing them, these four girls carried guilt all over their faces like people that had just been caught stealing. "Are you sure this is gonna work, what if she doesn't eat the food?" A skinny girl called Prisca asked, "let's just be positive, shall we? we're gonna be in really deep shit if that brat sells us out" Jennifer said, she was tall and had an abnormally large forehead that didn't seem to suit the rest of her face and she looked like the master of the whole plan. "Guys I think we're missing something here, the chance of her eating the food is high and the chance of us getting caught is also high, we brought her the food and when she dies doctors are obviously going to examine her and know the cause of her death and it's gonna point back to us because we brought the food!" Another girl called Denisa chipped in, "we don't have to make everyone know that we brought her food, just give her secretly and convince her not to tell anyone, you girls know that cheap girl is easily fooled and she wouldn't think too much about it, and besides it's not like they don't give food to prisoners, they might just pin the blame on someone else, not us" Jennifer explained in a low tune as they were cautious not to look suspicious in a police station. "Jenni is right girls, we're already here, no turning back, I'm quite sure it wouldn't be long until that bitch sells us out, let's get rid of her before we get into trouble" Fiona, the last of the four girls whispered. These were the people Vivian called her friends and she was willing to die for them, but here they were trying to kill her even though she already had a death sentence. Vivian considered them her saviors but what she didn't know was that all they ever told her were lies. These four girls found her unconscious, lying on the road many years ago and there was no one around, they waited for a while, no one came for her and they decided to take her in with them, they were young but lived on their own and did minor jobs to survive. Vivian regained consciousness two days after but couldn't remember anything but her middle name. Jennifer was the one that came up with most stories of how they saved Vivian's life, she told her that Denisa gave up her kidney to save her just four months ago, her parents were poor and couldn't afford to pay for treatment when their only daughter had kidney failure she was treated and they were relocating to another town when all of them had an accident and she was the only one who survived, both of her parents were now gone, the only people she had left were her friends who sold their house and had to borrow money for her to get surgery because her brain had been damaged. Vivian believed all these lies without thinking twice and felt indebted to the four girls who claimed to have sacrificed everything for her.

The five girls lived together in a small apartment and worked for people most of the time to get paid, they acted like they loved Vivian and considered her as their younger sister but in reality, they didn't, Vivian did all the work and did their laundry too after some time the four girls started behaving weirdly and spent most of their nights out, they started bringing back lots of money and spoiling Vivian claiming that their customers were just being generous, this went on for years and they soon changed their apartment and moved into a bigger one, they even wanted to send Vivian to school but she didn't want to go to the university, she wanted to work with her friends. No one let her so she stayed at home all day and did all the housework.

Things changed when Jenny got a real boyfriend and she invited him to their house, the boy who was a rich spoiled kid called Daniel fell in love with Vivian at first sight, Vivian was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen and she looked so innocent that anyone who saw her thought she was an angel, the same thing happened to each and every one of the girls, their boyfriends all fell for the same girl, they tried not to bring them to their house or let any of the boys see Vivian but it seemed like Fate was against them.

Though many boys chased Vivian, she never gave in to any this only made Jenny and the three other girls hate her to the core, they had lost rich men and big fortunes because of her. They sat down one day and decided to frame her so she could go away from their lives and stop giving them bad luck, they were assassins who got paid to kill people, Jenny killed her boyfriend because he left her and Fiona did same. Someone paid them to eliminate a whole family, they killed two kids and the man's wife, hid them away and sent Vivian an address to come and meet them, she came when they had just killed the man but they twisted the story and said the man was trying to kill them, Vivian was very naive and instantly believed the people she trusted most in this world, she still felt bad for the dead man but she reasoned out that they had only tried to protect themselves and that was a good thing, Vivian knows that killing someone was bad and her friends might get into trouble, she didn't want that. Everyone was quiet and the more Prisca thought about what they had done to Vivian the guiltier she felt.

"Hey girls, you're here, you shouldn't be, please don't worry about me, I've told you times without number that I'm fine, please you should go now" the girls were startled when they saw Vivian, they had waited for too long and couldn't speak freely because there were in a police station and we're too scared to get caught, so they had spent all their time there thinking and calculating stuff in their head. "Ok, but we brought you food, it's your favorite, take this quick, and don't let anyone know you have food or these people might take it from you and eat it, they look so hungry," Jenny said as she took the food from Prisca and handed it over to Vivian. "Thank you so much, you still care for me so much, they haven't put me in the cell, I'm still in the interrogation room..". "We'll leave now Vivian, take care of yourself" Jenny cut her off before she could finish speaking as she got up and left, the others followed.

*******

Layla was so nervous as she looked forward to seeing the love of her life after such a long time, only six months had passed but to her, it felt like eternity. She kept pacing around until her brother couldn't take it anymore " ok pull it together baby sister, I don't get why you are so worked up, this man in question isn't worth it if you ask me" Vincent complained in an annoyed tone, Layla just paused to glare at him and continued pacing around:" Vince do you think he's gonna like the present I prepared for him? What if He's no longer the Jaden that left me six months ago, what if he no longer finds me attractive, oh my God Vince I'm gonna die I swear" She started sobbing "Hey little girl just what are you thinking tearing up like that?" Vince asked, " he is coming back alright, he told you to wait for him, he even informed you he'll be here soon so why don't you just chill and wait, you don't want him seeing you after such a long time with this ugly look and puffy eyes do you?" " You are right brother, he wouldn't have called me first if he didn't love me anymore, I could still feel the love just from his voice, Jaden hasn't changed at all he is still the most handsome and most caring person in the world after you of course" Vince just narrowed his eyes for a while and then rolled them "there we go again," He thought "I know this is like the third time and it's just noon but I should take a bath now, my hair is all messed up and I can't feel my jaws," vee said as she rushed to her bathroom, she had been so excited when Jaden said he was coming but now, more than anything, she was anxious and couldn't just shake out the bad feeling no matter how hard she tried.

She entered and sat in the bathtub slowly like she was being careful not to make any noise or splash water, anyone who knew Layla will know immediately that she was super distressed and uneasy right now because her very close pals had known for a long time that she used the shower every day and only went to the bath tube if she was worried or stressed out, she immersed herself in the water, let her head fall backward and decided to just stay in that particular position for a few minutes, and slowly, she fell asleep. Layla suddenly heard the bell ring and before she could stop herself, she got up dried her body with a towel, and quickly dashed out to her room, she was sure Jaden was already around and she didn't want to keep him waiting because she knew how awkward things could get between Jaden and her brother, she didn't even care to apply some make up or let anyone tie her hair properly, she just took the dress prepared for her, wore it and put her shoes on too, rushed down excitedly to the living room and saw no one there but her brother"Vince where is he, I mean Jaden, please tell me you didn't scare him away with your gloomy attitude" Layla panicked, Vince had an amused look on his face and replied "he's gone, that cranky lover of yours isn't here anymore, he left" "no, that's not true!!" Layla panicked "Vince you're kidding right? I know you are, please tell me where he is?" "Hehehe, you should see the look and your face, a ghost is better, compared to you right now" Vincent joked, " he did come here, but he left almost immediately, if you are that anxious to see him why don't you go over and meet him?" Layla started to have a funny feeling and cried out "Oh my God, Jaden would not come here and leave without seeing me, even if you give him an attitude or make him sad, he'll see me if I am in the house at least, oh no, Vincent I think something is wrong, did he mention where he was leaving to?".

"He sure did" Vincent replied, " I think there's something wrong with his grandma, he got a call when he arrived here and I heard him mention something about taking her to the hospital tomorrow and then he said he'll be back" Layla was disappointed that he left so soon and was also feeling bad for his grandma, granny Margaret " I'll go there right now, I wanna see Jaden and I need to know how his grandma is" she just took her bag and left without saying anything else. Vince was grinning like a Cheshire cat as he suddenly woke up and went to his room to change, Layla didn't even bother calling her driver, she just entered her car and zoomed off.

She arrived at Jaden's family house after about 40minutes and immediately went in without even bothering to knock, the door was open and everywhere seemed quiet, she passed through their library into the sitting room but everywhere remained quiet even after she had called out a few times to alert anyone who was at home. " Maybe they already left for the hospital " Layla assumed, she was about to call Jaden and make an inquiry about the hospital and its location but suddenly she heard some quick footsteps, and then when she turned to see who I was, her heart stopped beating for a second and she dreamily watched the love of her life approach her, oh how she had missed him so much, she was so excited, ran towards him and flung herself on Jaden's body, Layla's physique was one to be admired and at that moment she looked like a dancer getting caught by her partner, Jaden allowed her to crash softly on him and his hands were around her slender waist immediately she got that close to him she looked up into his hazel eyes and opened her mouth to speak the only words that came out we're "I missed you". Jaden knew she was tearing up already and just hugged her very tight before she could say anything else, Layla closed her eyes and inhaled his unique scent and she held unto him like she would never let go.

They stayed in that position for about three minutes and Layla reluctantly started withdrawing as she still had a lot to ask him, but before she could say a word Jaden put put his long finger on her lush pink lips "shush my love, we'll deal with your questions later, for now let's just enjoy this memorable moments, I'm so happy I could finally see you again after so long, God knows the only person I thought about everyday and night was you, and now that I finally have you in my arms, I can't wait any longer" Jaden spoke as he looked directly into her beautiful eyes and the fire of love he coul

d see burning in them burned for no one else but him "Mine, you mean the world to me and you know that, you remember the day we met for the first time at the restaurant, that is the day I hold closest to my heart, it was no mistake and the heavens made that day just for fate to bless me with such a wonderful priceless goddess, without you in my life, I don't know what would have been my motivation, the fact that I have you is what pushes me to get up everyday, the fact that you care so much about me is what inspires me never to give up and I am more than convinced that you are the one for me, one of my greatest fears and insecurities have always been due to the fact that I know I don't deserve you, you deserve the best and more, nothing less, nothing like the rest of this random girls, but I'll rather die than let you be with someone else, I know I'm being greedy and selfish but I can never let you go in this life or the next to come, that is why I decided to work on myself, I want to be worthy of you, that is why I will work tirelessly to be the man of your dream, because my love for you is most real, because I intend to spend the rest of my life appreciating you, my treasure, I'm crazy about you, you know that, you complete me, my everything I adore you, I love you to the moon and back, you give me wings to fly, I haven't found a word in the dictionary to describe my love for you.

But I want you to know that you rock my world" Layla couldn't hold herself anymore, this was just too much, he was making her tremble as she became overwhelmed with a river of emotions "Jaden I love you more, I love you more than life itself, I'm nuts for you and the love keeps growing each day" Layla said out as she let him go " you know what I want to do right now?" Jaden asked her " I want to french kiss you in Infront of God, your family, my family, the priest, and the whole congregation and whole world as we say ' I do', Layla my most precious Jewel, please marry me". Jaden said as he went down on one knee and showed her a diamond ring, Layla was electrified, she felt so thrilled and couldn't help but smile as tears rushed down her face like a waterfall, of course, she wanted to marry him, all she wanted to do now was scream "yes!" And then she opened her mouth and spoke "Jaden I love you to the moon and back, my answer is.." she suddenly saw a pool from nowhere and before she could react Jaden pushed her into the pool and she started drowning.

Layla gasped for air as she tried not to sink and suddenly she woke up, she found herself in her bathtub, the water was already cold and she started to shiver, she had fallen asleep in the bathtub and almost drowned, and then she suddenly realized that all what she had seen was a dream "Great heavens!" Layla exclaimed, "That was one hell of a proposal, but I did enjoy it, Jaden is so full of surprises and I should be expecting one soon, but what was that last part?" She thought "Oh I'm sure it's nothing, I was about to drown so maybe the dream also diverted" she reasoned out. Layla couldn't shake off the dream and stayed in the water letting herself wander into the world of imagination, she started thinking about where she met Jaden, that was three years ago but the memory was still fresh in her brain.

A few years back

The young Layla was feeling a little bit down and decided to take a stroll, her brother wasn't in the country and none of her friends were around, her driver wanted to follow her but she insisted she will go by foot, the driver was very reluctant and tried to make her reason with him" but miss your brother strictly Instructed that you should never go around without a car, you almost got in trouble the last time, please I ". " Donald please just leave me alone, I'm not a child anymore, I'll do what I want when I feel like it, you have to respect what I say and now I say, just leave me alone, go away!!" Donald was terrified of what her elder brother would do to him and said shakily "But miss.." "you heard me driver, You don't want to make me really mad at you, do you?, piss off!" Layla shouted, the driver was frightened, she never behaved this way, he didn't know what to do but reluctantly left, she didn't want to get into her bad books or get fired, but he decided to stay close without letting her notice, Layla was trying not to get irritated Infront of the driver but she had lost it, effortlessly trying to calm herself down but was still rational, trying not to pour out her frustration on the poor driver, she got agitated anytime things weren't going well for her and this was one of the time when she was confused and had no idea on how to calm down, the only thing she could think of was what her brother was always strongly against, roaming around with no direction or location in mind, worst of all, on foot, she just left and kept walking, she had nothing on her but didn't care, she was ready to go to wherever her feet would take her, she was scared her brother would find out, he was gonna come back anytime soon and the first person he usually checks on immediately he comes back from his business trips is Layla, she thought of turning back but now even the thought of her brother wasn't enough to make her change her mind right now, she kept on walking non-stop, her feet were now aching after just twenty minutes of trekking, She was a rich twenty one year old girl that had never experienced hardship in her life so she wasn't used to walking so much, but still she continued, after about an hour she was exhausted, she couldn't move anymore and she thanked her stars for her choice of dressing had made it easier for her to come this far, she wore long blue jeans that were ripped a little at the level of the knee, a red crop top and red sneakers.

she had taken time to clear her mind and now felt better, she wanted to turn back but her legs hurt so much she thought they would never stop, she didn't know what to do, she left her phone in the car when she couldn't control the frustration anymore and suddenly decided to alight in the middle of nowhere, so she couldn't get to the driver, her card was with her phone in her purse so even though she knew her brother's private and business number offhand, no one would lend their phone to her for free, she started looking around and spotted a restaurant.

she hadn't realized till this moment that she was starving and without even thinking that she had no money, she walked with so much difficulty towards the well-known VIP restaurant with only one thing in mind which was to eat first, she had no idea how the payment will be done but that was less of a worry, she could contact him through any phone in the restaurant, and without even bothering to confirm it's name, she finally walked into the restaurant, she looked around and noticed that it wasn't a very big restaurant after all, though there was a VIP section all the other places seemed quite open and ordinary "miss welcome to grande cuisìne where would you want to take your seat please, will you be more comfortable in a quiet and cool place or will you love to bless this crowd with a glimpse of your grace and beauty?" Layla didn't even have the strength left to smile, she got compliments like a hundred times every single day, she wasn't moved when people praised her looks but she was too kind and wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, she just nodded and said "I would love to get some fresh air while I eat please" " very well miss" the waiter said cheerfully it wasn't every day that he got to talk to a pretty lady who was so humble genuinely.