Chapter 11: A very important letter

The room was silent as June took in the words. New Central State.

How was she supposed to find her mother in such a busy state?

"So, what do you say? Do you want to or don’t you want to?" Her father said in a singsong voice, as if he were talking to a little child.

It was the tone he had always used on her when she was younger. And it might have worked on her then, but she was no longer a little child.

Soon, she would become a mother who needed to protect her child.

June swallowed the lump in her throat. "Give me the letter and I will answer whatever you want."

She needed to get that letter. There might be clues in it to find her mother. If her mother was truly desperate to find her, then she had to let her know somehow that she was also in New Central State.

But her father didn’t give her the letter immediately. His eyes moved around her like she was some sort of puzzle he couldn’t piece together.

June remained expressionless as she stared at the letter in his hand.

After a while, he threw it at her. "Fine."

Immediately, Amie perked up once June turned her attention to her.

"What do you want to know?"

"What gift did you promise to give Rauf once he gets his sight back?" She asked the first question that popped into her mind.

Giving that gift to him would make him change towards her, Amie thought.

June smirked.

Rauf must have asked for the gift. Though he had almost everything, he had been so excited when she promised to give him a gift after his recovery.

He must have been disappointed not to get a gift.

For some odd reason, she felt slightly satisfied about that. That suited him well for not believing in her. For not even giving her the chance to explain herself.

"A pendant chain," she answered. "I promised him a pendant with a love shape that would carry both of our initials."

Amie smiled as if she had just won the lottery.

"Great. Tell me some of the things he hated."

Before June could respond, she continued. "The things he liked. How does he love to sleep? His favourite meal. Your special moments together."

The more questions Amie threw at her, the more disgusted June felt.

Amie wasn’t just trying to replace her, she was trying to imitate their moments together.

June might have given up on Rauf, but she wouldn’t give up on their memories.

It was the one thing she planned to hold onto forever. She wasn’t sharing their bond with anyone, especially someone who planned on manipulating him with it.

Yet, she knew if she didn’t say what her father wanted to hear, there was going to be trouble.

And just at that moment, an idea came to her head.

She started talking.

"Rauf loved to be tickled on his feet. I have no idea, but whenever he was angry and I tickled his feet, he always came back in a good mood," she lied.

Amie nodded, staring at her like she was giving her instructions on how to save her life.

And this, June fed her more lies than truths. She occasionally put in the truth, but it was mostly about mundane things. Every important question was met with a lie.

Satisfied by everything they had gotten from her, her father dismissed her.

June held onto the letter as she turned on her heels. It wasn’t until she felt she was at a safe distance that a smile lurked at the corner of her lips.

She wished she could see the look on Amie’s face when she tried one of these with Rauf.

"Are you okay?" Ellie questioned, her eyes searching her body.

June nodded, collapsing into the car seat beside her. She let out a breath she had no idea she was holding in. This was the first time she had faced her father and actually gotten what she wanted. "I am fine." She raised the letter up for Ellie to see. "I finally got enough information from that man."

Ellie smiled. "That’s good news."

Ellie’s eyes moved around before she turned to the driver. "Can you please drive?"

The man nodded, driving off.

Immediately, the car was at a safe distance, June burst into uncontrollable laughter. She laughed to the point that she had tears in her eyes.

Ellie, who had no idea what was so funny, waited for her until she was done.

"Did something happen there?"

She briefed her on the lies she had told Amie, and immediately Ellie burst into laughter with her.

It was good to be laughing with a friend.

She wondered how Amie would look when she tried what she said, and Rauf ended up getting angry again.

It would be hilarious.

Everything she knew about Rauf, she had learnt it the hard way. Amie should also work hard to learn the little she wanted to know.

Back at Rauf’s office, his personal assistant dropped a picture on his table.

"Sir, we have been following your wife as instructed, and she hasn’t gone anywhere else other than her parents’ place."

He showed him a picture of Amie driving into Trevor’s house. But apart from that, there was nothing else.

Rauf frowned at the picture.

He had expected Amie to call him when she woke up and didn’t find him beside her, but she didn’t.

Instead, she had left the house in a hurry and spent all day with her parents.

There was surely something she was hiding.

"Continue to tail her."

His personal assistant nodded.

"And I want you to find out about her stepsister, June Trevor. I want to know everything she has been up to these last five years."

For some reason, he couldn’t get June’s teary eyes off his mind. And he couldn’t help but blame himself for not checking whatever report she had shown him then.

His personal assistant nodded.

"And one last thing, I want to know everything Samir has been up to. The projects he has been dealing with. The projects he plans on working on. Those who collaborated with him when I was blind. I need every minute detail about them."

He might have forgiven them because of his wife, but he needed leverage in case everything they had told him was a lie again.

He wouldn’t put it past Samir Trevor to play him for a fool.

And it was never wrong for a man to be careful.