Diana turned rapidly when she heard the voice that read the end of the letter in her hand.
"Julitta, don't play like that!" She scolded. "What are you doing here by the way? I thought you wanted to bring a bag for me."
"Yeah, I forgot my keys here and I came in to see you engrossed in the letter in your hand. I just had to take a peek." Julitta explained. She bent over and grabbed her keys, dangling them before Diana to prove that she was saying the truth.
"Who is Calhoun by the way?" She asked. "Is he Coco's father? If he is, did this mean that he is still in love with you?"
"Still in love with me? You say it as if he has always been in love with me." Diana murmured. "Calhoun is a man of twisted words. Even his thinking is twisted. Everything about him is twisted."
Julitta nodded. "Well, we can talk about all of that when we leave here successfully. How about you go and grab Coco while I get the bag?"
Diana nodded. "Alright, I'll do just that."
This time, Julitta ensured that she left the room alongside her. Diana was still in thought. She knew that Julitta would ask her a lot of questions about the letter she received from Calhoun.
She hadn't read the other ones she took from Jasyn's office. She was yet to read them and she was somehow scared to read them. She wasn't going to admit it to anyone, not even herself. But deep down, she knew that she was sore and afraid.
She got to the medical center and the nurses were surprised to find her there.
"Hello, Diana. So nice to meet you."
"Thank you, Susan, I was wondering if I could take Coco with me for the time being," Diana said. "I have about two days off and I just wanted to spend them with him."
The nurse smiled. "That is wonderful. I'm pretty sure we can work it out for you. We just have to inform Commander Jasyn."
"You don't need to, he's my son," Diana said, feeling a little upset that she was being refused.
"I'm sorry Diana, but the last time we allowed Julitta to bring him to you, he got very mad and almost suspended us from the medics."
"What? Why am I not aware of this?" Diana demanded. How could Jasyn do that to her? Was he planning to kidnap her son one day and use him as ransom? Or bait to coerce her into doing things that would please him?
"I have no idea, Diana." She said, "I have to tell him first."
Diana had to think quickly. She didn't want anyone to be alerted of her actions regardless of what she wanted to do.
"Wait." She yelled. "You can't tell him about this, he wouldn't allow me to take him along."
"If so then why do you want to take him? Perhaps he knows about potential danger and is trying to keep you both safe from the danger."
"Never," Diana exclaimed. "He is afraid because I found out something he did and he thinks I would leave the army or I would tell Eugene about it so he wants to keep Coco in his care so that he could use it against me in the future." Diana lied.
The nurse gasped. "What? I never knew Commander Jasyn was such a person. How could he do such a thing? I cannot believe this at all!"
"Me neither. So I don't want him to think that he can do such. If I take Coco with me, he would automatically believe that he cannot use the child against me. At least my son would be safe regardless of whatever he wants to do."
"That is better. Here, let me hurry and bring him." The nurse said. "Shall I pack his clothes as well?"
"No no, there is absolutely no need for that." Diana refused. "If he sees the boy's clothes, he will believe I will return."
"But shall you return?"
"Yes of course. My aim for joining the army hasn't been fulfilled. I'm just starting the journey to fulfilling my aim." Diana said, smiling sweetly. The nurse nodded, smiling back at her.
"Hold on a second." She went into the room on the left and brought Coco out. She handed him to Diana carefully.
"I will be expecting you both in three days. I kind of love your boy, he is so sweet and doesn't trouble anyone at all."
"Unlike the other kids in our care."
Diana chuckled. "Just like his mother. Perhaps he will grow up to begin to give trouble... All the trouble he couldn't give as a child."
"Oh, I worry about that time." The nurse exclaimed, covering her mouth.
Diana giggled. "Oh well, let's be on our way. We have to leave early to return early."
She finally left. She asked for forgiveness from Jasyn in her heart. She hoped that the lies she had told would not come back one day to haunt her. If it did, she would deny it with everything she had. It would be a case of her words against the nurse's.
Diana returned to her room to find Julitta pacing in front of the door. She chuckled.
"Why are you pacing as if you have your wife in labor to birth a child?" She asked teasingly.
"The nerve you have to tease and chuckle," Julitta growled silently. "Are you serious right now? Do you know what is at stake?"
"What is the matter girl?"
"I overheard Jasyn tell Theo and Yolanda that we would be traveling to the east country to spy on the environment before the war."
"When?" Diana asked as her face turned stone cold.
"They leave tonight," Julitta said. "He is going to ask for volunteers."
"Shit," Diana muttered. "Shit shit shit. This cannot be happening now."
"Why not? Don't you think this would be a good time to visit Calhoun and attend the banquet he invited you to?"
"Julitta, you must have mistaken something. I am not meeting Calhoun, I don't want to see him, I don't wish to see him." Diana stated.
"What? Why?" Julitta demanded. "Diana, the man is in love with you. He did confess to it."
"You don't know him," Diana whispered. "I do. And I know that Calhoun can never love a woman. He cannot."
"I doubt he even loved his mother. He never spoke about her, never even thought of her."
"How can you be so sure?" Julitta asked. "It's just possible that the thought of his mother hurts so much and if he is anything you have said, he might be too embarrassed to showcase any form of emotions. Especially before his subjects."
"That's not an excuse," Diana said. "Not an excuse at all."
"I'm just telling you anyway, I'm going to volunteer. I'm certain Yolanda will do the same."
"What about Jasyn?" Diana asked.
"Jasyn would not be able to go even if he wanted to. He can only send some people on a special mission and tell them exactly what he wants them to search for." Julitta said.
"And I dare say this because I know that he would want to know more about his competition."
"Competition?" Diana reiterated. She scoffed. "What competition?"
"It's not as if you don't know that the man is obsessed with you. He probably doesn't want you to be afraid of him, he doesn't want to scare you so he wishes to calmly pursue it."
Julitta answered. She had packed all the clothes from the bag Diana packed, into the bag she had brought along.
"What's to say that... Look, Julitta, I don't want to go to Wisteria." Diana whispered. "If Calhoun sights me, it's over. I've spent almost two years running away from him."
"I've hidden his child from him for so long, I have joined an army, trained so hard, and left the soft life I was used to, just because I don't want to be found by him."
"Then you tell me to just offer myself freely to him, allow him to find me so easily? As if we were only playing a game?"
"Come on, Julitta. After so long, you want me to toss everything to the trash can and give up?"
"That's not what I mean, Diana." Julitta defended. "I was simply saying that if you really cared about Wisteria, and I'm not referring to Calhoun now. But if you care about Wisteria, maybe this is the chance you have to protect them."
"I think that this is rather a chance for Fraco soldiers to use me to create a soft landing in the hearts of the Wisteria people." Diana refuted.
"It's so very easy for them to achieve this if the people of Wisteria see me. They would assume that since I am a part of them, I have brought friends."
"Don't be so certain," Julitta said, trying to convince her. "If you won't volunteer then I will do so in your name."
"You shall do no such thing," Diana warned. "You will do no such thing."
"Watch me, baby girl," Julitta smirked. "Let me inform you. We shall have tents in the forests that lead to the eastern country."
"When the war begins, we shall still stay there. The others will only come to join us."
"That's not how spying works," Diana said. "It would require you to go through the country as a traveler."
"So you do know what it entails," Julitta smirked. "Yet you pretend not to be interested."
"I never said I didn't know what it entailed, I also never said I wasn't interested. I am interested but I simply do not want to do it." Diana explained. "Do you understand?"
"Yes." Julitta nodded. "What will you do to Fifi?"
"Fifi? What did Fifi do to me?"
"She betrayed you," Julitta said as if it was the most obvious thing on earth.
"Betrayed me?" Diana laughed. "I was counting on her to betray me, I knew something was off about her. Especially how she looked when Theo came to see me."
"She is in love with the man," Julitta confirmed. "I did hear her mention it to Tisha several times. Tisha always told her to forget about him since he seemed to be interested in you."
"She would never listen. What more to expect from a woman in love?" Diana asked. "I don't know what I would expect as well."
"Diana, let's go," Julitta said. She stood up and grabbed Diana's keys and hers. "Let's go and meet the other soldiers. If they ask us, we say we volunteer."
"Julitta..." Diana sighed. She did not know how she could convince the girl anymore. She also had no other choice. Julitta walked to the door and opened it for her, gesturing for her to go outside.
"Coco, do you support us visiting your daddy's place?" She asked the boy. Coco giggled and tapped her cheeks. Diana smiled.
"You silly thing, playing with me. I asked a question." Diana chuckled. "Let's go and hear what Jasyn has to say about me visiting Wisteria after all."
Julitta smiled. She carried the bed while Diana carried Coco and they walked out to meet the other soldiers where they stood, waiting for Jasyn to come and meet them. Diana stood where other commanders stood and she handed the baby over to the nurse that stood somewhere beside them.
Julitta stood with the soldiers behind the commanders. They awaited Jasyn's coming.
When Jasyn came, he came with Eugene and some other officials. They all came to address the soldiers.
"Before we begin, I want to ask. Who shall volunteer for the spy job? They are the ones we have a meeting with."
Julitta raised her hand. Some other soldiers raised their hands. Theodore raised his hand.
"A female commander has to go as well," Jasyn said, his eyes steady on Diana. "Diana."
Diana smirked. She raised her hand. Jasyn nodded.
"You all come with me."
"Pardon me commander but Diana cannot follow the others to the eastern country," Eugene said, glaring at her.