August 2005, NYU

“Who’s that?” Angelica asked Chanty.

“Who?” she asked without looking up from her book.

“The one Liam’s with.”

Chanty looked up and glanced at the corner of the café where Angelica’s gaze was focused.

Liam was talking to a pretty black-haired girl and he seemed to be enjoying the company.

“She’s pretty. Must be his new girl,” Angelica said.

“I don’t care,” Chanty uttered with a sigh. “You should be back at the hospital now, Ange. You’re not supposed to be here spying on people.”

“Hey, I missed you, okay? After I graduated, it’s like I am alone again. It’s nice to visit NYU and you. And I like keeping tabs on things around here.”

“And Liam interests you?”

“Yeah. He’s a pretty cool guy if he’s not with Zachary. But the two of them are not that bad either. You should come with us next time.”

“Yeah, maybe. Whatever,” Chanty said, stealing another glance at Liam and the girl he was talking to.

2013

“Who?” Chanty asked her two wide-eyed friends.

“Beth the bitch!” they cried in unison.

“What?” Chanty shot to her feet. “Julianne, let’s go!”

She stormed to the door and Cassandra and Angelica moved to the side to make room for her. She went out the door, turned to the right and walked to the end of the corridor.

“They’re over there at the corner,” Angelica whispered in Chanty’s ear.

Chanty poked her head out of the partition wall that separated the private dining rooms from the main dining area of the restaurant.

“Oh my God! What the hell!” Chanty cried out in a whisper, grasping the edge of the wall with one hand. “It’s really her! What are they doing together?”

Angelica joined her, her head right below Chanty’s. “I think they’re on a date.”

Cassandra walked toward them and joined in with the peeking. “Yes, I guess so too.”

“Who’s Beth the bitch again?” asked Julianne, her head below Angelica’s.

“She’s our all-time favorite enemy,” Angelica answered.

“She’s my ex’s twin sister,” Cassandra explained.

“The ex who broke up with her two years before she met Philip,” Chanty added, her eyes still focused on the couple at the far corner.

“And she hates Cass’ ass like hell,” Angelica said.

“Why?” Julianne asked.

“Because she had been stalking Philip for years, that bitch,” Cassandra answered with ire.

“I’m really confused,” Julianne uttered.

“It’s pretty simple. Cass has an ex. Beth is his twin sister. Beth blames Cass for the accident that happened to her brother years ago. On the other side, Beth has been chasing Philip for years but Philip ended up with Cass. So yeah, Beth hates Cass,” Angelica explained, looking down at Julianne.

“And whoever Cass’ enemy is your enemy?” asked Julianne.

“Oh no, girl. I have been chasing after Philip for years as well, just before he met Cass, remember? Beth has been more of a pain in the ass than Cass.”

“This is really interesting. I can make a great story about this, you know,” Julianne uttered with amusement. “You girls are very interesting indeed.”

“I know, right?” said Angelica. “You shouldn’t forget to point out how amazing I am, Jules.

“You shouldn’t let Zach hear you call me Jules,” Julianne said. The four of them were still peering at the couple fifteen meters away from them.

“He can’t do anything about that,” Angelica uttered.

“Even my friend and editor opted to shift back to calling me Julianne because he insisted it,” Julianne added.

“Urgh, please let’s not talk about your possessive, childish fiancé. Let’s focus on those two. This really presents a problem, Chanty.”

Chanty nodded. Cameron alone was bad enough. Him with Beth the bitch was worse. The black-haired woman who had been on the top of their Most Hated People Wall of Fame was fearless. She and Cameron was actually a great pair. Seeing the two holding hands across the table and talking while looking into each other’s eyes made Chanty sick.

“Beth knows a lot of people, too, Chanty. She can use her connections to find out the truth. If that happens--”

“No one’s taking my son away from me. Especially his father,” Chanty blurted out angrily, leaning away from the wall. And before she knew it, Julianne was already gaping at her with a mixture of curiosity and shock.

Cassandra and Angelica must have realized the same thing because they stood rooted on their feet, looking at Julianne’s reaction.

“So that’s why I thought something was off yesterday,” Julianne finally said, her voice flat. “I sensed you were lying, Chanty.”

Chanty gave up.

“It’s for a good cause! I swear! I tried telling Liam the truth but he wouldn’t hear of it!”

“But you should have told him the truth again and again until he believed you. He could have understood, you know.”

Chanty began to panic. Julianne had known Liam more than her. “Julianne, please, don’t tell him yet. I just need to take care of this matter with Cameron before I can face this Liam problem.”

Julianne stared at her for a long time without a word, studying her.

“Julianne, you have to understand that this means a lot to Chanty. You don’t know what Cameron is capable of,” Angelica said after a moment.

“Let me think for a moment,” Julianne said, stepping away from them.

Chanty looked at Cassandra and Angelica helplessly before she followed Julianne back to their dining room. Cassandra and Angelica followed behind them.

“Well? Have you thought about it?” Angelica broke the silence when they finally closed the door behind them.

Chanty threw her friend a look.

”What?” her friend mouthed. “We need her to keep this a secret, right?”

“Shut up,” Chanty hissed at her and turned to Julianne who was already seated at one corner.

“This is really hard for me. I am pregnant and I don’t think I can carry this much stress of knowing your secret, Chanty.”

“I know, Julianne. You can tell Zach and Liam. I can accept that. I have led you guys to believe my lie.”

“But she never really intended to,” Angelica spoke up in her defense. “It just started out as a white lie, didn’t it, Chanty? It was just to make Cameron back off for a while. But Liam was in the room when Chanty told Cameron and he believed it.”

“And when Chanty tried to tell him the truth, Liam didn’t believe her,” Cassandra added.

“But I’ll fix it. I will tell them if you want,” Chanty said.

“No!” Angelica and Cassandra cried in unison.

“I don’t think I can take more of this as well, guys. Julianne is right. This lie is very stressful even for me. In fact, I can go right ahead and tell Cameron the truth right now. I’ll tell him Willie is his, but I won’t give him the privilege of becoming his father. I will tell him right now. I can win in court if it has to come to that.”

Angelica gave an exaggerated gasp. Cassandra’s mouth fell open. Chanty started to turn around.

“You might lose in court,” Julianne uttered as Chanty walked to the door.

Chanty paused.

“She could?” asked Angelica.

“Cameron’s a lawyer. And he can play the cards well if he’s as good as what you all believe he is. He can throw back the things that you did right back at you. He could tell the court that you hid his son away from him. That you lied to him.”

“That’s true,” Cassandra seconded.

“So I guess this lie can go on for a while. But please, don’t let it drag for long, Chanty. I am not a very good liar. Zach will eventually notice.”

“Then don’t let him. Don’t talk to him about Chanty and Liam,” Angelica said.

“Liam’s his best friend,” Julianne pointed out, but Chanty was already hugging her before she could add something.

“Thank you so much. I owe you a lot, Julianne. I will tell Liam as soon as everything’s settled.”

“And how do you intend to settle things?”

“Let’s just hope that the article will make Cameron back off. If that doesn’t happen, I’m planning on attacking him more before he could make his move. I will attack and attack until he would be forced to talk to me and settle things. We will sign on it and he will finally be gone, on his way to senate or whatever.”

Angelica, Cassandra and Julianne looked at her doubtfully.

“How do you intend to attack him?” Angelica asked.

“With what?” asked Cassandra.

Chanty smiled at them. “Girls, I have not been in a relationship with that douche bag for years for nothing.”

When her friends finally realized what she was trying to imply, they smiled.

“Oh, I like where this is going,” Angelica said.

“Zach will definitely freak out if he finds out,” Julianne said an hour later.

They were now driving back home after they waited for Cameron and his date to leave the restaurant. Since Chanty and Angelica drunk quite a few more wine and later a few shots of tequila, Cassandra was behind the wheel. Julianne was riding shotgun while the other two were seated at the back, their heads resting at the windows.

“You don’t have to tell Zach everything,” Angelica droned. “I don’t tell Henry everything.”

Chanty scoffed beside her. “You only follow him almost everywhere if you don’t have anything to do.”

“He lives a very dangerous life, you know.”

“And you can protect him if something bad happens?”

“Hey, I did save his life countless of times!”

“And from what I gathered from your dear husband,” Cassandra said from behind the wheels, “you almost got yourselves killed that night when you followed him to that Russian thing.”

“Those Russians were really bad people. It was a good thing I followed Henry.”

“Wait, I don’t understand,” Julianne spoke up.

While Cassandra filled her in with the details of Angelica’s crazy adventures, Chanty fell quiet, looking out into the darkness of the street. They were driving to Angelica’s place first because it was much further out the city than Cassandra and Philip’s place. Then they would take Angelica’s car back to the city to drop Julianne and Cassandra would sleep at Chanty’s place for the night.

She thought about Beth and Cameron and how faith could be so playful to even bring those two together. Everything was messed up in Chanty’s mind. It might be the alcohol, she thought. How could she face this problem with Cameron and what was he really up to? And how about Liam? Julianne was another bit of a problem. Chanty didn’t know her well yet to trust her to keep her secret for some time before she could figure out a way to get the hell out of this mess.

“What’s happening?” Angelica’s voice woke Chanty up from her trance.

The car was slowing down and Cassandra was pulling up at the side of the road.

“We ran out of gas,” Cassandra said.

Chanty groaned. She looked out the window. “Let’s just call for a taxi.”

“It would be a wise decision if I am living within the city, Chanty,” Angelica answered. “In case you forgot, my address changed recently.”

Her friend was right. They were a few miles away from the city. Angelica and Henry bought a house far from the city to keep Angelica away from the mall. That was just what everyone’s guess, but Angelica had argued that it was best to live in a quiet place especially when she and Henry were planning to build their own family.

“We should have dropped Julianne first,” Chanty said. “Zach would kill us.”

“We decided I stay, remember? In case Cassandra needs a sub,” Julianne reminded them.

“Then let’s call the husbands,” said Angelica, “and fiancé,” she added.

“I don’t know, I don’t think it is a good idea,” said Julianne. “Zach will freak out. He would think of the worst possible scenarios.”

“Urgh,” Angelica rolled her eyes. “Henry will kill me.”

“Along with Philip. Why didn’t you fill your tank earlier, Ange?”

“I was in a hurry to even think about it. Why didn’t you check before we left the restaurant?”

“I was thinking you would have already taken care of it and--”

“Hey, hey, hey! Stop it,” Chanty cried out. “Okay, calm down, ladies. It’s not the end of the world, okay?”

“Zach’s calling,” Julianne uttered, taking out her phone.

“Don’t answer that,” Angelica told her.

Julianne threw her phone back inside her bag. “Now what? Husbands?”

“I just told you, my husband will kill me if he finds out I went out without telling him. And he’s on a mission, I guess.”

“Philip?”

“I just told you, he’ll kill me too. He’s been calling me five times already. I should go home without having to tell him something like this happened.”

They fell quiet.

“How can a simple incident like this be so overly dramatic?” asked Chanty. “Fine, I’m calling Liam.”

“What a great idea,” Angelica said dryly.

Chanty dialed Liam’s number and he picked up on the first ring. “Hey, we kind of have a problem. No, no, we’re fine. I’m with Cassandra, Julianne and Angelica. No, Angelica did not make another trouble,” she said with a smile as she looked at her gaping friend.

“Why does everyone thing I always bring trouble?” Angelica asked aloud.

“We kind of ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere,” Chanty told Liam. “So we decided to call you because we can’t tell the other guys. I don’t know. They just think it is better if they don’t find out. So keep this to yourself.”

Liam sighed. “Okay, text me your location. I’ll come right away.”

When he placed his phone back on the table, the eyes of his companions were on him.

“Was that Chanty?” asked Zach.

“Yeah,” he answered, not really knowing what to say. “I need to go.”

“Wait,” Philip stopped him. “Isn’t Chanty with my wife?”

“Uh…” Liam scratched his head. He really didn’t know what to say. “I guess so?”

“And most definitely Angelica,” Henry said, standing up. “You don’t have to tell us anything, Liam. We might not know what happened, but I’m pretty sure they need our help.”

“I knew this is going to happen! That’s why she wasn’t answering her phone,” Zach said as he followed Henry and Philip, who was also saying, “that’s why she hasn’t been answering my calls,” to the door of the pub. “Well, aren’t you coming?” Zach asked Liam who was still in his seat.

Honestly, he didn’t want to go at all. He could imagine Cassandra and Angelica throwing daggers at him. And Julianne would definitely not like this and he didn’t want to find out what that lady could do.

“Heaton, get your ass off that chair and let’s go,” Henry said over his shoulder.

Liam sighed. He never planned his boys’ night out to end up this way.