There were over fifty Lenard Lees in City X, and searching through their profiles would take so much time. Furthermore, I was never awesome with a computer. Even when I was working in corporate in Lin Corp, the most we got to use were word processing, spreadsheets and presentation software.
Kaiser probably hadn’t taught me how to operate the system for a fairly good reason. He probably didn’t trust me that well, or there was something else. I didn’t know, and I hoped he wasn’t watching the CCTVs right now. If he knew what I was up to, I couldn’t imagine what kind of punishment he would order on me.
Right now, he must be on the plane, I thought as I looked at the time on the taskbar of the computer screen. I had to make use of the time as much as I could. I quickly browsed the information on the first Lenard I found. Then I scrolled for the photographs of each ‘Lenard’ in the system. Some of these photographs had been grabbed off social media or hacked from their accounts.
The first fifteen Lenards didn’t meet the correct description that I was looking for. From my new hands-on experience with the system, I was able to narrow down the remaining thirty-five Lenards to twenty. I familiarised myself with the system and eliminated any results suggesting that Lenard was kind and cheerful, as well as having a lot of friends, since that wasn’t very Lenard to me.
But before I could click on the remaining profiles, a message popped up on the system’s computer screen.
“Update downloaded and installed. System will reboot in ten seconds. Please save your work.”
“What, save my work?” I almost yelled frantically. I could not fathom how I had been so close to finding out the current location of Lenard’s den and the criminal activities his triad was involved with. I was so eager that I couldn’t wait for the time I had promised Kaiser before.
Because I was so confused about my emotions, I thought that once I got my revenge, all my confusions and pains would be over. I chose to absorb myself in revenge so I could brush off my unreciprocated feelings.
But now that my efforts were fruitless, I was back to square one, and had to deal with my feelings regardless. I looked blankly at the computer screen that now stated the progress of the installation, in light green digits that looked back at me sadly. Due to the massive system installed inside Kaiser’s computer, I had no option but to return in four hours to resume my search.
My phone sat idly on the coffee table. I walked back outside and picked it up. It was peaceful. There were no calls, messages or whatsoever to bother me, but even with the serenity, my heart felt empty and lost.
I ignored my personal phone and went back into the bedroom and took my work phone out of the drawer. It seemed like years since I last used my body to satisfy a man at all, other than Kaiser. As much as I had to stomach sleeping with random strangers all for the bigger picture, I felt desolate without anyone to speak to. At least, when I was soliciting, I had more people to speak to, especially my girls.
I scanned my fingerprint and unlocked the phone. Binary digits appeared over the screen as the phone booted up. There were only a few apps installed on the phone, and I glimpsed through the notification. I unconsciously clicked on the membership app to open it, and logged in.
Kaiser had locked the solicitation feature, making it inaccessible for the time being. I could still view the history of my solicitations and the activity log. I browsed through the logs and then moved on to look at the hierarchies of each member and their supervisors up to the managers at the top.
As I knew, Kaiser was at the top. I wondered if Gri was his subordinate and what she had been exposed to, before I came along.
I read carefully through the names. Gri was one of his subordinates, but another name caught my eye.
Maca Arianna Godwin.
Again, this Maca girl and the more I thought about her, the more I felt she was not an easy puzzle to solve.
Then it dawned upon me that since Kaiser wasn’t around, Gri must feel glum as well. Surely there wasn’t any harm in inviting her out to tea. I found her contact number and without hesitation, I called her.
Gri answered almost immediately, much to my relief. She didn’t ask why I was calling her and accepted my invitation. While we weren’t friends, I was sure that she had many questions on her mind for me. Ever since I became Kaiser’s chick, it strained our relationship. We never returned to good talking terms like before.
At that time, I told Kaiser about it, but he assured me that this cousin he grew up with had an eccentric attitude and she just needed time because I was taking him from her. But after six months, she was still giving me the cold shoulder. I decided it was the time that we should have a proper talk face to face.
She picked a posh Japanese restaurant in the outskirts of the city, where none of our clients would be able to recognise us. I arrived fifteen minutes earlier wearing a faux fur coat over an elegant sleek black dress. She had mentioned in the short message to me to wear something daring, and while I didn’t know what she was up to, I didn’t suspect her at all.
When I entered the private room she was in, she was with a man. They were seated with their backs to me, so I had no idea who was the man she had brought.
I closed the sliding door and sat down on the tatami beside her. She turned around and indulged me with a smart look written all over our face.
“I’m glad you could join us, Piper.”
I glanced at the man beside her, and my body chilled.
“He…”
“Thought you could run away from the past, Piper?” Her voice suddenly turned more menacing.
“Gri, this isn’t you. The true Griselda isn’t like this.”
“He abandoned me. He forsake me for you,” she declared tearfully. I responded to her soothingly. Up to now, Gri still believed falsely that her cousin had loved her and I was just a third wheel. Kaiser had said that she lived in her own world.
“Gri, you guys are cousins..”
“I don’t care!” She looked at me scornfully. Right now, I was having difficulty believing that this woman before me was my senior or that she was older than me by a few years. Now, she was acting childishly and had brought the man I wanted to least see in my life to torment me.
“Does he matter so much to you, that you could hate me because we’re sleeping together?” I admitted our relationship. Gri probably already knew, and I was sure of this.
“You stole him!” She yelled crazily, pointing a butter knife towards me. I tried to calm her down by holding her hand, but she went all defensive and launched me towards Syl. Then she darted towards the door and locked it.
“Punish her! She’s been naughty and doesn’t deserve Kaiser’s care!” she shouted ferociously. Seeing her transformation, I thought of the times we spent together and how it all came to this. The man used his muscular figure to pin me to the floor so that I couldn’t move. Neither could I fight him.
My only option was to speak to Gri for me to escape.
“Gri, please don’t do this. I thought we were friends.”
“But why did you take him? Why? Why?” she cried relentlessly.
“You two are related by blood, Gri,” I attempted to soothe her, but she wouldn’t listen to reason at all.
“You wanted to get back at her, Sylverster,” she whispered flirtatiously to the man. “I want you to go hard on her, till she cries. I want her punished.”
I swallowed, looking at Syl who had me contained using his strong body. I wriggled, but he was strong and kept my struggles at bay. I tried my luck with him. “Syl, you know Kaiser Klef won’t let you off if you hurt me. Why not just call it quits, and we go our own ways?”
He lifted his hand and when I was not expecting it at all, he swatted me so hard on the cheek that I almost cried from the sudden pain. It reminded me strongly of the slap from Lenard Lee and I detested the memory of that slapping.
“You whore, you’re only good to be f*cked. To think I once loved you.”
“To think I loved you even more. That’s why I hate my old self for being such an idiot,” I retaliated fearlessly. “If you are a man, go ahead and slap me again! I dare you!”
“Don’t think I don’t dare to.” He lifted his hand to strike me again on the other cheek, and I gnashed my teeth at him instead.
“Kaiser will not let you off! That time, he gave you a big beating and demoted your level. This time, you won’t be so lucky!” I threatened him.
Instead of slapping me, he just laughed so loudly like he was insane.
“Look at you, Piper. You’re piping hot. Every part of you is so hot, that I want to f*ck you raw. Maybe you forgot about the old times. I’m here to remind you of the past.”
“Stop, Syl! You should know that there’s no going back for us!” I shouted, but he put a hand over my mouth. Gri emerged and started taking off my clothes speedily. I knew what they were up to, but I had to find the right opportunity to escape.
“Give the mask to me.”
He wore the mask with his free hand. I lay on the floor naked in silence, waiting for him to lose his guard for me to retaliate by breaking free and defending myself, since I didn’t want sex with Syl. But that moment never came.
Gri shoved a gag cloth in my mouth. Syl unzipped his pants, facing me with a wide grin. I felt hopeless. I couldn’t fight a man and the person I believed had betrayed me over a man. And that man was the exact person I was unsure of my feelings for.
I knew I had to do something.