One Wild Night

"I hope this isn't a bad time?" She asked hopefully, and Anita shook her head.

"Not at all. Please come sit, don't stress my niece," Anita said as she pulled her sister to the comfortable couch in her office and helped her sit down.

"How is work?" Lisa asked as she looked around the office curiously.

"Beautiful. Is there something my niece is craving? Perhaps snacks?" Anita asked, making Lisa smile. From the moment she told the family that she was pregnant, Anita had not ceased to refer to the baby as her niece. "I'm fine. I'm just here to talk to you," she said as she looked at Anita with a straight face.

"Is there a problem?" Anita asked curiously as she sat down on the couch opposite her sister. "Please don't tell me you're going along with mother's madness. Please tell me you're not," she pleaded, and Anita sighed.

"You're married. I'm not," she reminded her sister.

"I'm married to a man I'm in love with. Someone who practically worships the ground I tread on. That is the kind of man you deserve to get married to, not someone that will barely tolerate you like Bernice's husband, or someone that hits on everything in a dress like Tiffany's husband," Lisa said, and Anita shrugged.

"Still, you're all married, and mother is proud of you all," Anita said, and Lisa shook her head.

"Please, do not do that to yourself, Annie. Because you were scared of what our mother would say, you rejected the man when you thought he had nothing, and now you want to join her and plot against a woman who accepted him? What is her offense? What is her crime?" Lisa asked with a frown, and Anita frowned.

"Lisa, why are you so interested in this? It's not like you know her personally or you're close to her family, so why are you advocating for her?" Anita asked, and Lisa frowned.

"I don't need to know her to know that what you're doing is wrong! If I don't stop you from going along with mother's madness, I will feel like an accomplice if you people do anything to hurt her, and I don't want anything on my conscience. Please, for God's sake, Annie, give up on this man. You don't even love him. You deserve to fall in love," Lisa pleaded. "You're asking me to concede defeat? You expect me to lose to her?" Anita asked incredulously.

"That is the point, darling! You're not losing anything! It was never a contest, to begin with! Stop allowing your mother to brainwash you into thinking that life is a contest, and you have to compete with everyone you meet or that you have to always be first. You don't have to. How will you ever get to enjoy life if you keep seeing it as a competition at every stage?" Lisa asked reasonably.

"Do you love him?" Lisa asked when Anita did not say anything after some time.

Anita shrugged, "Now that I know who he is, loving him is easy. He's handsome, wealthy, ambitious, and everything I want. I want him," Anita explained, and Lisa shook her head. "Give it up, Anita. You're setting yourself up for a lifetime of misery and torment if you eventually succeed in forcing yourself on him, which I doubt is possible. I don't think someone like Thomas Hank will ever come back to you after you rejected him when you thought he had nothing. You failed his test already. Think about it, do you really think he will give you another chance? Do you deserve another chance? And what do you think he will do to you when he eventually finds out that you were behind Lucy's scandal? Or do you really think that it will be a secret forever?" "Mother can take care of all these things you're talking about," Anita said confidently, and Lisa rolled her eyes. "By doing what? Killing the girl and blackmailing Tom into marrying you? You must be delusional to think that mother is some sort of goddess and can get whatever she wants," Lisa said with a snort as she stood up.

"I came here to reason with you one last time without our mother in the picture to influence your decision. Trust me, that woman is going to ruin your life if you keep allowing her to control it."

"That woman is our mother," Anita reminded her. "She won't be my mother for much longer if she so much as hurts the hair on that girl's head. And none of you will be my sisters either. The moment you go ahead with whatever evil plan you have to tear them apart, I'm cutting you off," Lisa promised as she picked up her handbag and walked out of the office. Anita had a thoughtful expression on her face as she stood up and went to stand by her office window as she thought about everything Lisa had just said. Was Tom really going to fall back in love with her if they got Lucy out of the way? Although she hated the fact that Tom was with Lucy, Lucy didn't really do anything wrong to her. As a matter of fact, Lucy had tried to matchmake them, but she had made it clear to Lucy that she wasn't interested in someone like Tom.

It was Tom who had deceived her, and judging by what her sister had heard at the salon and what she had said during the interview, he had deceived Lucy too. A part of her had felt guilty when she watched the interview and saw Lucy's emotional reaction to all that had happened to her, but the other part of her that wanted Tom had overshadowed the guilt.

Maybe Lucy didn't exactly deserve what she had done to her, but it couldn't be helped. Lucy might be a nice girl, but she was in a relationship with the wrong man. Anita's thoughts returned to what Lisa had just said. She couldn't help wondering what her mother's plan for Lucy was. She returned to her desk and picked up her phone, and then sat by the edge of the desk as she dialed her mother's line and waited patiently for it to ring. "Hello, darling!" Her mother greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning, mother," Anita greeted cautiously since she knew how easy it was for her mother to switch moods. "Good morning, my lovely daughter. To what do I owe this pleasure?" She asked curiously. She has never been one to beat around the bush.

Anita cleared her throat, "I want to know what your plan for Lucy is," Anita said tentatively.

"And why is that?" Her mother asked every trace of warmth out of her voice now. "I just want..."

"I will be very much disappointed in you if you tell me you want to chicken out now," her mother warned, and Anita swallowed nervously.

"I'm not chickening out. I just wanted to..."

"If you're not chickening out, then don't worry about my plan. I told you I would handle it and make Thomas yours. You trust me, don't you?" "I do."

"Good. Then get busy with your work. I'm sure you have a lot on your desk to attend to. Sweep him off his feet with your charm and intelligence while I get the girl out of your way."

With that, the line went dead, and Anita sighed. She couldn't afford to feel guilty or back out now. That would make her mother very cross with her.             **********

Lucas had barely managed to sleep when he woke up to the sound of the doorbell ringing persistently, and he frowned, wondering who could be at the door since some of the neighbors who had seen him last night knew that he had returned without his parents and that this wasn't his apartment. He sat up on the bed, hoping that whoever was at the door would leave soon. He was tired and needed to sleep since he had been unable to sleep for most of the night, as he had been too busy thinking about his life, thinking about his broken engagement with Rachel, thinking about his family, as well as Tom's job offer, and how to have a fresh start.

The tears he had been looking forward to shedding once he was alone and had time to think had failed to come. All he had now were circles under his eyes and bloodshot eyes.

"Baby, I know you're in there. Please open the door," Rachel yelled from outside, causing his heart to skip a beat. Rachel? How did she know he was back?  Lucas wondered but made no move to stand up to go to the door. He didn't want to see her. Rachel rang the doorbell again, and then everywhere became silent. Lucas waited quietly and listened for every sign that she had left, and when there was no sound, he got off the bed and walked to the living room barefooted, dressed in his pajamas, trousers, and a t-shirt. Once he got to the living room, he heard the sound of glass shattering, and he quickly walked over to the kitchen in time to see Rachel climbing in through the kitchen window.

"Have you gone completely out of your mind?" He yelled at her angrily.

"Baby," Rachel cried once she saw him and hurried over to where he stood to embrace him, but Lucas stepped away before she could do so.

"Get out of this place, this instant, else I will call the police," Lucas threatened. "No, you won't. You won't do that to me."

"Rachel, do not test my patience. You have no idea what I can or cannot do right now," Lucas said, and tears gathered in her eyes. "I know that I was wrong, but I'm sorry. Why can't you just forgive me?" Rachel asked as a tear dropped from her eyes, but Lucas just watched, hard-faced.

"I've forgiven you. But I want nothing to do with you and your family. Get out, and stay out," he said in a cold tone.

"After all we shared? You're going to throw the ten years we spent together away just like that?" Rachel asked, sounding very hurt.

"You know what I regret most right now? Staying with you for that long. Now leave, and don't come back," Lucas said, and Rachel wiped the tears from her eyes. "Maybe you need time to…."

"Leave!" Lucas yelled at her, and she moved back in fear, raising her hand to her lips to stifle her sob. It was the first time he had ever raised his voice.

Without saying another word, she walked past him, wanting to leave quickly, but Lucas turned to her, "No. You're not going out through the door. Leave the same way you entered. And make sure you send someone here to fix the window you broke," Lucas said, and Rachel turned to look at him in disbelief.

"Babe…" she called in disbelief. Seeing the adamant expression on his face, she walked past him and ungraciously exited the house through the window.

Tears were falling from her eyes as she returned to her car, and once she was seated in her car, she rested her head on the steering wheel and broke into a sob. Her whole body shuddered at the intensity of it. It was all her fault. She had no one to blame for this but herself. If only she had not been so possessive of Lucas and jealous of his relationship with his twin sister. If only she hadn't been so desperate for Lucy to get a boyfriend so that she would leave Lucas alone, she wouldn't have easily believed Jamie when he came to her for help, nor would she have given him all that information about Lucy's whereabouts. If Jamie hadn't abducted Lucy, this wouldn't have happened. And if she hadn't been too scared of losing Lucas to confess to them about how she had helped Jamie, everything would probably have been different. So yes, it was all her fault. She had been so scared of losing Lucas that she had made mistake after mistake that had ultimately cost her the one relationship she cherished most. After crying for some time, she sat up when something else occurred to her. She had recently talked to one of her cousins about Lucy's abduction. Was it a coincidence that the story was all over the news just the next day after their conversation? The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her, especially now that she knew that Lucy's boyfriend was her cousin's boss. Knowing how her family worked, she wouldn't put it past her cousin. Without wasting more time thinking about it, she picked up her phone and dialed her cousin's line, "Anita, please tell me you weren't behind Lucy's scandal," she pleaded once the call connected.