Abra wanted to smile but she managed to fake a panicked face and looked around to see if anyone was around watching her but she could not spot anyone so she drove off.
She drove down to the Eastern Estate and straight to the ninth house by her right and pounded on the door. Unfortunately it was her mum who opened the door.
"Hello mum", Abra said entering the house before her mum could react, "Nice house."
"What are you doing here Abra?"
"I'm supposed to be asking you that mum. Oh right you told me already, you are in New York."
A man came down from the stairs with only a towel wrapped round his waist and that was when Abra looked to see what her mum was wearing and noticed she was wearing a robe which was covering part of her lingerie. "Don't tell me this is real mum. You are actually having sex with this man?"
"Abra—"
"No wait. This is exactly how the house looked the other time I came in and it looked extremely scattered. Mum did you by chance invite this man to the house so you guys can have sex and it led to the scattering of the house.
"Is this your daughter you talked about?", the man asked finally speaking.
"Yes. I am sorry you had to meet her under this circumstance Lawson. This is Abra, Abra this is Lawson."
"Oh, I already know he's Lawson. Mum, I don't care about your sex life but I don't understand why you had to lie about it."
"I—"
"She didn't tell you because she was not comfortable talking about it with you. She did not know how you would react considering that you're this stubborn", Lawson said on Mrs Roberta's behalf and when no one talked for a while he added, "Does anyone want some wine?"
At the end, Abra sat down to really hear about who Lawson was and it turns out he was a lawyer and had been having an affair with her mother for a while.
"Mum, I don't mean to interrupt your sex life but you know there's a lot going on the city right now and I need you to be safe."
"Well darling, I am safe."
"No. You are not. You are just getting pleasured, that's all. You even had to lie about your location and got your friend to lie too."
"So that's where you got the information that I was here. I hope you weren't rude to Maggie."
"You would hear from her soon enough", Abra said. "I know if I tell you to leave the city again, you'd probably change location and still be with your boy."
"Language Abra", Mrs Roberta said trying to caution Abra.
Abra ignored her mum and looked at Lawson dead in the eye. "If anything bad should happen to my mum even by mistake, you are as good as dead. Am I understood?"
Lawson smiled. "Look I get it, your mum is all that you have and I promise to take good care of her. You don't need to worry yourself. You're very much understood, nothing will happen to her."
Abra smiled back dryly. It was not a real smile.
"I guess I will leave for now. This estate was attacked by bad guys not so long, so I don't think I need to emphasize on what security measures you both need to be serious with. Goodbye mum, Lawson."
Abra drove home. She was really tired. She had had a long day. As she got to the front of the house, she saw a bunch of flowers just beside the door. She rolled her eyes, 'Not another note', she thought.
She picked it up and as expected there was a note on the flower which read, 'I'm sorry', and she knew who that was from.
The next day Abra woke up feeling very hungry. So she made lots of food and sat in front of the TV to watch some news. She wanted to listen to the latest updates about the city. According to the news, another death happened late the previous night and it was the death of a well-known reporter, Lana, who was said to be mercilessly beaten and burnt and most part of the Reportersspace building was burnt down as well.
Abra was not so surprised. She had expected another death to occur. Plus, from the first day, she went to the Reportersspace to find out some leads to her case, she sensed that there was something off there, she just could not tell what it was.
After eating and taking her bath, Abra went to the supermarket to get some things for herself. It was a Friday and a normal shopping day for her.
There was a TV in a supermarket playing news and Abra happened to see Sheriff Barru on the screen. He talked about holding a ceremony of all the ones that lost their lives. Abra thought Sheriff Barrry was trying his best in all aspects except one aspect.
"Hi, I'm Zed Matthew and you?", a stranger said trying to introduce himself to Abra. Abra forced a smile trying to be polite even if she did not want to smile.
"Hi I'm Abbie", she said purposely lying. It was better for her to start hiding her identity and a different idea popped into her head. She made a mental note to carry it out the next day.
Zed started talking about something but Abra was not listening because her eyes had caught something. There was a man wearing a blue trouser and also had tattoos on his body. He was wearing a big ring on his middle fingers on both hands. Abra remembered the thighs that had beaten the pale guy who was now dead and although the image was not really clear, Abra recognized the tattoos. She was not sure about anything because she could have been seeing a random person and assume he was one of the thugs but she decided to gamble with her safety by walking up to the guy leaving Zed fixed to the spot. She knew it was rude of her hit she could not miss the opportunity she has here and she did not know how to tell Zed to stop talking.
"Hey handsome? ", Abra said trying to be as flirty as possible and it seemed to be working because the rough-looking guy smiled briefly.
"I'm Abra and you are?"
"John."
"I know you aren't the kind of guy to sit and talk aimlessly. You love action and with the stress the city is putting on us, we both need a break. You look like anyone who can give me a satisfactory break and I promise to satisfy you too and so whatever you want on bed."
The man did not seem to recognize Abra from anywhere which was a very good thing. He scrutinized Abra got a bit while keeping a straight face. "I don't know who you are missy but you're not my type of girl and for that reason, I don't want you to ever bug me again after this night or you would regret it so much. But for tonight, you have a deal. Meet me in front of Fernando Suite by 8pm and don't be late. Make sure you what something really sexy or else the deal is off", he replied and walked away immediately.
'Fernando Suite. How convenient', Abra thought. By the time she looked back, Zed was not there anymore.