

Fama: Extreme Illustrated Edition

Rohan Paxton

Published by Rohan at Smashwords

Copyright 2012, Rohan Paxton

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. The First Step

3. Green with Envy

4. Once Remembered, Twice Forgotten

5. Horse Race

6. First Film as a Teen

7. The Academy Awards

8. Ambassador

9. The Drama Begins

10. The Cause

11. A Trip to Hong Kong

12. Persona Grata

13. Lunar

14. Married

15. Launching Cosmetics

16. Midnight Fear

17. Las Vegas

18. The Fourth Of July

19. Shooting In The Dark

20. Seasonal

21. No Longer a Hidden Truth

22. The Untold Story

23. Commencement of Hostilities

24. Judas Kiss

25. It All Ends Where It All Began

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

"Oh, oh, there's a post to be delivered at Mr. Earnest's," said the postman who had forgotten to deliver the letter that was supposed to be delivered before three days.

He soon drove the red van to Mr. Ernest's villa. "Royale Suits," he read from the plate that was incised on the front wall near the gate. "This is it. I make a clean breast that Mr. Ernest shall not be mad at me."

The postman, Mr. Stewart went further and saw that Mr. Ernest and his friend were discussing about some issue. He did not want to disturb them because it sounded as an important matter.

This was the seventh time the postman had heard the word— _fame_ from Mr. Ernest's maw. The way he was explaining was like as if the issue had taken place recently.

Just at that, Mr. Stewart interpreted the conversation when he felt that the discussion had come to its ending part. "Here is your letter sir, I'm sorry, I..."

"No excuses!" Mr. Ernest shouted. "Anyway, this is not something new, you have been always doing this since the day I saw your pretty face for the first time."

"Well, I heard you were talking about some matter, may I know what it was about?"

"It's a story about the _interminably living_ singer, Eva Jones."

"If you can, please tell me the anecdote. Do take time. I am interested in knowing about music and singers," beseeched Mr. Stewart.

"It's not a mere tale that you are asking for to be explained just because you want to know about music and media." Mr. Ernest paused. "It is a real story and a long one. If I'll have to tell it to you, then, it would take more than a week in order to complete. My throat has become so dry that I have no patience to explain it once again. Here, this is my friend, Dubois, I've told everything to him, so if you want, please, incline your ear to him."

"Come with me Stewart, we'll go to my place, I can explain what I had heard from Mr. Earnest," said Mr. Dubois as he put his hand over the postman's shoulders.

The discussion started with a cup of coffee.

Mr. Stewart had promised that he would come to Mr. Dubois on all the days of a week to hear from him.

And then, the conversation was started.

These are some important things that Mr. Dubois began with.

#Scene:

"Ramp walk is something like eating breakfast when nobody is at home," says Eva Jones.

At first, the interviewer did not know what she meant exactly, but later, he understood that Eva was conveying that she did not have even a grain-sized fear since the very first day of her on the stage.

When asked why she was over confident about herself, she used to say, " _Over confidence_? Ugh-huh, that's not the word that suits me. You may ask why I don't fear anybody when I'm on the stage—after all, why should I? I am the one and only daughter of the _famous_ tenor singer, my mom is a contralto singer, they've provided enough confidence in me, in fact it is a _true_ confidence—what I call."

Eva's answering had the power of shutting the questioner's oral cavity by asking her any further. Her ways and the style were like as if there were no one beyond the line that she had made for herself—a line that could only be felt— _fame_.

Eminence was the very ingredient that was mixed in her blood by birth.

Eva mostly sung in mezzo soprano voice, singing in that tone left the hearers thrilled and flat.

Eva entered the music industry when she was just six.

Her first album which was a frolicsome one— _Majesty_ was released during that time. No offence in terming it so, because it was released with her own record label, AlcindorGinger. Mr. Smith quite knew that private labels weren't going to hit the market so easy. But she made a name, in fact from the same to have been the first youngest singer to create an individual record label.

In her twenties, she had made gather thousands of aficionados in her concerts.

She used to do her own make-ups rather than depending on make-up artists. Sometimes, she used to draw long eyeliners in the middle of the upper and lower eyelids, like the nineteen sixties' heroines.

The way her hairs curled down to the shoulders, one part at the front side, almost covering her eyes and the other part tucked behind her right ear, showing the long earring that she most commonly used to wear, made her looks just amazing. She was even called 'Dolly Bird' by some of her fans for of her beauty.

CHAPTER 2

The First Step

There was something more in the life of Eva, one of the all-time greatest artists.

Mr. Dubois went on to explain the story which seemed quite interesting, for it was the life history of someone who had acquired a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

February twelfth nineteen eighty two. It was the day when the legend, Ella Jones was born.

When she was twelve, she was given a stage name, 'Eva', by a casting director who chose for his movie— _Fright in the Flight,_ that in fact was her first film. Her introductory music album, _Majesty_ was not a big hit among the crowds.

Eva had always dreamt of getting awards for her songs, but the unpopularity of her album mentally affected her. She decided not to do any more albums or songs in the later years.

When Eva was ten, she was impressed by many famous artists on the TV, she wanted to be one among them, singing and dancing.

So, Eva revealed her desires to her parents, she told them that she wanted to participate in a reality singing competition— _Catch-up Ketchup._ In the show, children of Eva's age gave their names for participation. Only ten lucky contestants were eligible to chip in, Eva was one among the them—the reason—she was the daughter of Mr. Ethan Smith, the famous music artist of all time; she was not that very into music then, except she only knew a little bit of it.

So, Eva wanted special guidance as well as training from some good musician to develop her voice. For this, Mr. Smith appointed Mr. Fernandez who was a great Spanish music composer.

Within a week, Eva became familiar with the way a line had to be sung, she was also taught all the eight notes of the music-scale.

Mr. Fernandez trained up her cadence so well that, now she could sing in front of the audience too.

On the outset day of the show, Eva was the first-to-be-called-out contestant by one of the three judges. "Ella Jones..."

At that, she came on to the dais, facing the audience and holding the mike an inch far from her lips in such a mood that she proved the crowds that she was all ready to sing without trepidation.

"So, which song have you chosen to sing today?" asked Mrs. Diana.

"I'm gonna sing a song from the newly released album of Shebelle— _If you miss me_."

"Go ahead then. The stage is yours."

Eva took a deep breath, and clearing her throat, she began.

You'll find it hard, if you want to know

Nobody will help you out, then the anger you show

Is of no use today, I can't take it anymore.

All these have just come now as you miss me from your life...

You miss me...

The voice of her was so pleasant. Her father never knew she could sing so brilliantly, he was in fact gaping in fuddle.

When she finished her song in contralto voice, the crowd stood on their feet and began with approbation. She was also appreciated by the judges and they passed on good comments for her.

"I was just an intermediate for Mr. Fernandez's talents and all credit must go to him alone," said Eva. She did not talk about her father as a part in her success.

People wondered why Mr. Smith had no part in Eva's beautiful intonation, and they looked at him with stupefy expressions at that time.

It was shame on his part that Eva had not spoken anything about him at all. Although he was a great singer, he did not have the talent to _teach_ music to anyone—and that's the reason why Mr. Fernandez was appointed.

After the show was over with the performance of the last participant, everybody departed from the hall.

The time was now quarter past ten.

Eva walked with her father holding and swinging his hands on the street where there was nobody.

On the way to their home, Eva stopped in front of the pet-shop.

As she was a huge animal lover, she pulled her father's hand, leading him into the shop.

There were two aquariums at the entrance. Eva stuck her eyes on the fishes inside that glass box.

"Father, I want to adopt these fishes," Eva paused. "I've heard that fishes do not rest at all. All the time they swim and swim and sw—have you ever seen fish resting, father?"

"Huh, yes, I've! My dear, the day when you see a fish sleep, you realize it's dead."

"So until their death, they have no rest?"

"Umm...maybe."

CHAPTER 3

Green with Envy

Within a week, the first episode of _Catch-up_ _Ketchup_ show was broadcasted on the televisions. Mr. Campbell who was a friend of Mr. Smith saw Eva on the TV became green-eyed. Even his daughter—Ruby, had given her name for participating in the reality show, unluckily, the judges were not impressed by her and she was rejected.

Actually, Ruby _was_ a friend of Eva, but because of that issue, slowly she also started to dislike her friend and Mr. Smith. She was envious of their eminence.

Mr. Campbell wanted the same fame for his daughter; he wanted to show people that she was not somewhere at the bottom. But he was a common man, not in the field of any media or film industries.

Mr. Campbell visited a known screen-play writer so that if he could find any directors, then it would be helpful for Ruby to enter into the film.

The screen-play writer, Davis was also a friend of Mr. Smith; he contacted a local director for his commission from Mr. Campbell.

The director was after all waiting for a child artist for his new movie— _Cast Forth_ , he warmly invited Ruby.

When _Cast Forth_ was released, many famous directors were impressed by Ruby's performance; they started calling her to act in their movies.

Ruby and her father began to think that reputation's grand door had been swung open for leading her somewhere at the front—ahead of Eva Jones.

When Eva saw her friend on the big-screen, she realized that being a daughter of a famous musician, she had not gained such a prominence among the audience; but being a child of a common man, Ruby had thousands of connoisseur already.

Her age was then fifteen; she asked her father something she never had asked him before, "What have you been doing all these days?"

"Whoa—what do you mean?"

"I'm sure that you had seen Ruby on the screen and among the crowds in their minds, eyes, in the posters they carry around... Even I want the double of what she had acquired. Don't you feel mortified that being your only child, you have not done anything for my popularity? I want huge number of crowds gather in front of me, thous of 'em—perhaps, ten thousands. My name should be my fame. I need to enter _fully_ into this industry. I want to suck the tears and the blood that my admirers would shed for me, I want them to go wild behind me, and their walls should be filled with my posters and—nothing else. I need them to fall right here, under my feet. I need those spotlights flash on me—my eyes would strain, but it doesn't matter—my renown would just cover it up. I must never make place for Ruby—I simply would not. I'm going harebrained, sickly, father! I need people to call me for my photo shoots, interviews and... Father, do something, right now!"

Mr. Smith had never seen his daughter so chaotic, she was talking in such a manner—like a dumb beast that got the ability to speak one fine day. Never had the topic of fame oozed out of her lips; she talked all these things without space for a stop. Indeed, Mr. Smith could see the red nerves in the eyes of his daughter protrude. Eva's chest was pounding because of lack of breathe that made her almost faint.

Mr. Smith decided that it was not right for him to coil Eva's prodigies under the liana, so he worked on out for accomplishing her desires.

One day, as Mr. Campbell was a veterinary doctor, Eva went to him with her Rottweiler which was affected by canineparainfluenza.

In fact, Mr. Campbell was waiting for chance to make fun of Eva because he hated her from the depths of his heart—but he did not wanted to show it, thus he hid his true expressions behind his face and then he began to talk to her in a rag style.

He said something to his wife that made Eva feel bad. "Didn't you see? Eva has come here to our house for the first time in fifteen years, look how the circumstances and fate change people," he paused. "Give her some bread and curd to eat."

Eva was so intelligent to grasp what was said by Mr. Campbell, she knew that he was referring to her frolicsome album that was released when she was six. It was a flop album. Even the lyrics of those songs were so bad that it would make the hearer sleepy and flap the "next" button of their music players.

Eva said back to Mr. Campbell as though she had not known what he had meant. "Yes, sir, I managed to eat bread and curd even if it was the age of mine to drink milk."

She came back to her house immediately without getting treatment for her dog by him.

Though she took her dog to other doctors, none of them could help, and within a week, she had to bear the tears of losing him. It was such a hard thing to take, because she had treated him like her own brother, and to have him no more with her seriously made her ill. She began to have those memories on her mind in the days when she had spent her good times with him—he was indeed the only person on the earth who, according to Eva, never spoke a word against her in the twelve years of her being on the planet.

CHAPTER 4

Once Remembered, Twice Forgotten

Eva had made a time-table; she gave identifiable time for singing and for other leisure activities. Her practice session had then started. She wanted to show people who had bad opinion on her that she was no less than anybody. She used her five hours of each day for singing and practicing, because, then she had decided to make a music album. Unlike other common albums which contains less than twenty songs, Eva's then-decided-album was planned to have thirty four songs, each portraying her life history, she wanted to make it a record, something which none of them had ever done before. Eva decided the album's title to be, _Once Remembered, Twice Forgotten_.

Thirty four songs in just one album were not going to be so easy, and Eva knew it.

She wrote all the songs and as she sang them, she recorded them and sent it to the Library of Congress to register the copyright for her album.

Mr. Smith contacted Mr. Adam, a well-known music producer and through the A&R department, he signs his daughter with the major record label: Mingle Bros. and before that she hired an entertainment lawyer to interpret the contract and to help negotiate terms. When the record label liked the songs, a mechanical license agreement was then filled out through Harry Fox Agency for obtaining rights to record the songs for the public. The Mingle Bros. gave her a budget for the studio related expenses. The A&R executives coordinated a time for her to begin recording the album thereafter.

It took two years for her album's completion. Eva was fourteen, then. During that period of time, she had been continuously getting invitations from many directors and producers for acting in the movies and she was also being called for many concerts in and around the U.S.

Eva had sung all her songs in a peculiar style that made the people to have Goosebumps over their body. The lyrics of the songs talked about how life and love was inter-connected with each other; it made the hearers to listen to the same song again and again. People believed that the best way to enjoy those songs was to close their eyes during the night times, especially when it rained heavily, and then to understand each lines that sometimes would make them shed tears.

_Once Remembered, Twice Forgotten_ was the only album that people were willing to download from the internet that time. Because of the size of the thirty four songs, people often deleted other songs which they once enjoyed on their music players.

On every music channels, Eva's songs were the first-to-be-given-preference ones.

Mr. Demetrius, a booking agent who worked for the Mingle Bros. helped her to sign for a tour promoter in order to set out for the world tours in order to promote her album. It was a good time to perform on different stages of different countries in front of her fans.

After a year, her journey was over and she came back to Chicago, her hometown. Finally she sighed, "I done it!"

On whole, her concert tour had brought in eight point three million dollars and she was reasonably happy about it.

With the album, Eva started to gain prominence among the crowds. Her admirers threw away posters of other celebrities off their walls and scrapbooks to make place for Eva's.

The next year that was on June nineteenth, she had received a Best Lyricist award too.

Every year, Mr. Smith would buy his daughter whatever she had asked for her birthday. He decided to take her to a trip to Colombia this time.

"Tell me Ella, are you ready for a tour with me to Colombia? For your birthday, you know, you are turning sixteen this week. So, we'll celebrate the event extraordinarily."

"Well, father," Eva vacillated. "I'm not planning to go anywhere."

"But, it's your sixteenth birthday; you know how important it is to celebrate this day. You just can't ignore it like this," he paused. "Well, would you receive from me some gifts at least?"

"Sorry dad, I can't."

"What had happened to you, I mean... is everything all right?"

"Yes," she said. "Actually, I've made my plan to vogue from Atlanta to Artic in the yatch, the pink one, it would be cool, you see."

"But, why, dear?"

"The reason is because, just as you said that sixteenth birthday is important in every girl's life, so I wanted this year to be slightly different from the previous, you know...not taking any delivery of gifts, or something like that. In fact, isn't it written that, in a person's life, the day of birth is not _that_ important than one's death day? I have no objection on you celebrating when I die."

"You are not at all in the O-level these days. No one can tell _when_ you behave unusually. You are..." Mr. Smith gulped the word that he had come to say and he pulled his lips over his teeth. "Probably, it is the drudgery of the estrogen."

This was the sixteenth time that Eva had met the twelfth of February since her birth. One of her childhood friends, Douglas came to Eva to wish her a happy birthday.

When he went to Eva with a big cake in his hands, he saw her sleeping as though she had lots of work done the previous night. He assumed that Eva would not get up until the clock had told her to.

By that time, Douglas had arranged the candles on the top of the blueberry cake which he had kept on the table in front of Eva, waiting her to awaken.

After twenty minutes of unexceptional look on Douglas's face, Eva had got up only then.

Eva was bemused suddenly to see her friend's unexpected presence. "Whoa," she said as she supported her elbows on the bed to get up.

"You had a bad dream?"

"Well, no. When I just saw your crooked face all of a sudden, I...I got like a cat on a hot tin roof!"

"Go refresh yourself," Ella.

"Why are you here, I mean so early?"

"The time's already nine thirty."

Eva garbled as she saw the wall-clock. "Ow."

"Wish you a very happy birthday," Douglas said as he put his hand into the pocket of his skin-tight jeans rather than looking at Eva. "See, I've got these tickets, we'll go for a movie in the afternoon. So, get ready faster, we need to be there on time."

"Jesus Christ!" Eva cried. "I'd no intentions of celebrating my birthday this year."

"But, this is so special..."

Eva objected her friend in a way which she felt would not hurt him. "I know. That is why I wanted to change myself from this year."

"Why, _from_ 'this year'?"

"Because only now I'd come to know the foolishness of celebrating birthdays. You won't understand," Eva said as she jumped out of her bed. "Oh no! I'll have to go."

"You mean...to cinema with me?"

"Nope."

Douglas rolled his eyes. "Then?"

"To voyage. A world trip."

"What am I supposed to do with these tickets?"

"Give it to me," Eva smiled as she held her hand to receive the tickets from him.

Douglas was confused. "You're gonna enjoy yourself?"

"No."

"Perhaps, you wanna enjoy it with your ex—Marley?"

Eva blew air into her mouth pursing her lips at once, and then she let her breath smoothly out. "Anyway, I am going to voyage, so, I would throw those into the sea, if that would make you happy."

"It would be like, a ten time—I mean, a hundred times heart-breaking incident for me."

Eva did not even flinch on what Douglas said. She donned into her sweater and took a big bag in which she had arranged her necessary things the previous night. "Meet you soon," she put the bag on her shoulders. "How did you know that today was my birthday?"

"I..." he tussled for words, looking down as though his answer was written on the floor. "Sorry, Ella, I should have not done that, I—I read your diary the last week when I'd come here to meet you."

Eva broadened her eyes. "How _cheap_ you!"

"I did it because I thought that it was some of your manuscript, so I was interested. I did not know that it contained your personal matters," he said, once again feeling sorry. "Anyway, forget about it. What shall I'm supposed to do with the cake that I bought you?"

Eva licked her lips and sighed. "We'll eat it."

"Oh, thank you. I thought you would say _no_ ," he said as he went near the table eagerly and lit the candles. Then he took a knife that was beside the cake and handed it to Eva. "Blow the candles at once and, here, cut the cake."

Eva put up a grin as though she was concerned for wasting it in vain. "Yeah."

She severed a part of the cake gently.

Douglas expected that Eva would raise the piece to his mouth, and she did raise it—to his face.

"Here you go," Eva said as she patted the piece of cake all over his face and she rubbed it as if she was applying some cosmetic cream to his innocent face. She smiled very hurriedly, this time—purposely. "Meet you soon."

Eva ran out through the door as she slammed it behind her.

Douglas screamed. "That was pathetic of you, Ella!" and then he reduced his voice to a low-audible tone which Eva hadn't heard. "I love you."

From the downstairs, he heard Eva, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Nora talking continuously. One after the other they kept on arguing on some matter.

He was not able to decipher what their talk was about, and he licked the cream off from his face, helplessly.

After a week, Eva returned to her home with Mr. Diego, her bodyguard who had assisted her in the trip.

She discussed her experience with her parents.

"Why, didn't you complete journeying the whole world?"

"No dad," Eva showed signs of disappointment. "Because the people whom I met in the coastal region of Africa threatened me by using words, such as—tsunami, storm, west winds and blah, blah, blah...I was very frightened after hearing all those things."

Mr. Smith shook his head. "Any other better reason?"

"Being a big celebrity's child, people did not allow me to go any longer," Eva said openly. "They were so irritating."

"It is a common thing, that's why I and your mother advised you a lot before you had stepped out."

Eva muttered. "I should have listened to you."

Douglas was such a friend of Eva's who came to her once in every week, although her going to his home was only a rare case. Eva had not seen him since a year. The last time she saw him was when he had come to wish her for her birthday.

Eva decided to look up for him at his home, but there were nobody out there. With culpable face, she asked her dad if he had seen him ever since. But his answer was no.

CHAPTER 5

Horse Race

Eva had not expected to get into the film industry, until Mr. Robertson, a casting director gave an invitation for her to act in his movie in which, actor Christopher had to be her partner.

This movie— _Shape It Out_ was expected to be completed in nine months. Eva was just seventeen that time.

Three days prior to signing the contract for the film, Eva had bet for a million dollar with Mr. Frank, the nephew of a duke, representing a horse race that was to be held in the Jayden International Stadium in New Jersey. The deal was that whosever representative won, they would take home a million dollar. Eva had also invited her co-star for witnessing the race that had to begin exactly at four.

Eva lowered herself to the VIP seat and Christopher took a seat next to her.

The first round was finished, followed by the second one, then it was the third round—the final round that would reveal who the winner was going to be. Mr. Frank was gazing at Eva for a long time with a fraudulent gaze.

Eva whirled her fore-fingers. "Come on, come on, come on, and don't let it go. Do it, come on..." she said, looking keenly at her representative.

Before a few inches were left to reach the finishing-line, Eva's representative had been at the first place.

But then, Mr. Frank's representative took over and stood first and Eva's was the second when they crossed the finishing line.

Mr. Frank proudly got to his feet and began giving a standing ovation, and thus showing his appreciation for Mr. Earl, his representative.

"Oh, how did it happen?" Eva said, clapping her hands after she stood up, though it was against her better judgment. "I just don't care if my money goes into _his_ pocket—" she looked down and bit her lips. "But, failure was something unexpected."

Actually, according to the matter of fact, Mr. Earl had tried to unhorse Mr. Jerold (Eva's representative), when they were just a few inches away from the finishing-line.

Mr. Jerold did not fall from the horseback for sure, but he lost his vigor, and was not able to figure out who was the one that was longing for the cupid trophy by cheating him. Nobody knew this, so Earl was considered to be the winner of the American Pony Rush for that year.

Eva _tried_ to feel easy. "What had occurred has occurred," she said, turning to Christopher. "I believe that failure is the gateway for success." Eva was not sure that what she said was right, so she kept looking into Chris' eyes, trying to read his expressions.

"Mr. Frank was the _frank_ winner today!" a voice came from behind.

Turning back, Eva answered, "Yes." She had qualms as she reached for her purse, she took the cheque-book and pressed at the top of her pen and wrote on it the name of her competitor and the other relevant details too. Then she handed it over to him.

"I'll comfort you this time by recollecting what I had read in the first book of Corinthians, chapter nine. _Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain_ _it._ "

Eva sighed. What else more than this could she do?

"It was nice meeting you. Thank you," he said and immediately left the place as if with a mood that he might loose a million dollars if Eva changed her mind subsequently.

That evening, Eva went to a beach where she could enjoy the commencement addressing mood of the sun with Christopher.

Eva lay on his knees while they were sitting on the shore.

Chris began to stroke Eva's hair—from the root to the tip.

She enjoyed when he kindled her. "Thirty when I am, switching a decade back on clock would just be all but a pair of scissors' work."

"What you mean, Eva?"

"When I turn thirty, I'll crop my hair short such that I'd look like a young girl who's twenty!"

Christopher smiled. "Did you ever have crush on someone?"

"Yes," she said, without any hesitation. "Caleb Marley."

"Anybody before that?"

"No one else," she nodded. "What about you?"

"I was attracted to three beauty queens of my life, and only one among them had shown concern for my love," he laughed.

"Shown concern, in what sense?"

"I know what's running in your mind right now," Christopher said. "Don't ever think that I had ever slept with any of them."

"Ah, I didn't think _that_!"

"I meant to say that it was only her that loved me back."

CHAPTER 6

The First Film as a Teen

The film's shooing began on the very first week of July.

Christopher was all set for the audacious dunny run.

He wanted to do all the stunts and actions by himself rather than depend on any stunt master. As a part of the cinema, for a particular scene, Chris had to dress up unusually. When Eva saw him as a drag queen, she burst out into laughter, it was so funny!

Without being able to control her laugh, "That's looking cool," she said. "Make sure the boys in the town won't fall for you!" Then, the laughter continued among all who were present there.

With that, the first day of the shooting had passed.

Not after a few days, Eva had to style her hair into dreadlocks like a Rastafarian woman for the next scene of the movie.

The team along with the casts had to go to a ghost town. The shooting had to take place inside a haunted-like rotunda house where nobody had dwelled from nineteen thirteen to until this day.

"Are we supposed to shoot in here..." hesitated Eva.

"Yes ma'am, this film has to be in an auid lang syne style, let's go further, we're running out of time," the director answered.

Eva felt the horrifying façade of the building was greeting her artfully for a much awaited circumstance.

The house did not have any door at the entrance. It appeared as if the entire house was set on fire someday in the past.

As it was dark inside, they lit up fire on the timber logs and hung it on the walls for a traditional old fashion look.

At that, they saw a water stagnate right in the middle of the hallway. Water seeped from the cracked roof and it was continuously dripping into it. They assumed it to be the rain water which was trickling down the roof.

The blazing woods made its reflection on the waters; it made the scene the best for shooting.

Christopher was given a small trouser made of leather that had extra fitting on it, like, leather strings, badges and metallic buttons to give him a fuddy-duddy look. He was ordered to remove his shirt and apply a bit of grease over his chest. His black hair was to be covered with blond wig that lengthened till his shoulders; he was also given a sword.

The aim of his was to find treasures from the bottom of that water source and there would be a dangerous beast that was thought to be done with the help of Mr. Pablo, Christopher had to battle it with his given sword. Now Eva's role was to get down into the water with her partner, she was given a white gown to wear. The sequence was that—Christopher had to save Eva from the abominable creature.

The treasure box was put into the water—but before that, the water had to be thoroughly examined to make sure whether any harmful creatures had made the water their dwelling place. After half-an-hour's check up, the director demanded the leading casts to get down into the water so that they could shoot the scene.

Already a lot of time had passed by now, therefore the director decided that he would not let the scene to be cut at any cost. He wanted a true effect on the big-screen.

So, according to the will of the screenplay writer, the scene was going to be shot then.

"Lights, camera, action!" said the director as the clapper-loader snap shut the clapper board in front of the camera, and the recording began.

Both of the leading casts got down into the water and began to beat their feet so as to keep themselves afloat. The grease on Chris' chest and shoulders almost mixed up with the water to give a superb natural effect on screen.

Now, he began to swim deep, still he reached the base of the waters. He was taken aback when he understood that there was no treasure box which was supposed to be there.

For the reason that he could not hold his breath for a long time, he came above the waters and started taking whatever the amount of oxygen present in the air in a great deal of difficulty.

After taking a deep breath for another time, he swam into the water and began searching for the treasury once more. This time, he got something in his hand and he swam above with it. When he looked at the stuff he had got in his hands, he was totally bowled over to see an old sword made in a traditional way, and that too, using the bones of some sort of animal that would had been on the endangered list a time long back.

The director was seeing all those things; he ordered the scene not to be cut.

Just at that, Eva's sensed some kind of pressure on both her legs, as if someone was trying to pull her to death.

She was horrified even more than before because of the continuous increasing pressure that she could not tolerate; slowly she was being pulled underneath. Before the water could come in a level of stopping Eva's heavy breaths, Christopher swam into the waters towards Eva's feet.

Chris could feel the force of something. As the water was not clear for visibility, he could not see what exactly it was—but he knew that it was some horrendous creature.

Chris tried to pull it off; it seemed that a snake had coiled onto her legs so tight enough. Immediately, the beast left Eva. Then it swam above the waters and showed off its amazing pattern on its body, it was hard to believe.

"A s-n-a-k-e!" the Mr. Robertson stressed, "even after a thorough examination?! Impossible..."

Chris did not look for anything, except he just slit the beast with the bone sword—yes, it was truly sharp.

Now things were all normal as before. Eva was so thankful to Christopher that he saved her life. "Thank you Chris, for having an important effect for my life. I love you," she said.

Then she wanted to tell him something that she was longing to tell him since the first day she met him. "Will you marry me?"

For a moment, Chris had gone dumb; he did not know what exactly to speak because this was for the first time in his life that an actress had proposed him. He kept on gazing into her eyes, and she, into his in an amorous mood. They could see the reflection of the torches on the walls inside each others' eyes.

"Are you ready to..." she repeated.

"Yeah, baby," he said as though his head had been in the clouds for a while.

All these sequences had a romantic, yet realistic effect. It was not in accordance with the sheet that the screenplay writer had written, rather, it was truly perfect in the eyes of Mr. Robertson.

Eva and Chris were soon out of the waters. They saw the clip that was just shot. But, they all wondered the cause of the miraculous disappearance of the treasury as well as the appearance of the bone-sword.

The team left the spot immediately.

Eva was still quivering and was holding herself tightly to Christopher.

When they came out, there was a pipe, its origin was from the middle of the nearby woods and it was connected to the side of the wall of the building where the shooting had taken place.

"Perhaps the snake and the sword would have come from that passage," thought Eva.

The next scene was shot after two days in a tavern on Tuesday evening. The people in the bar were all roistering indecently, so half of them were made to go out, because the shooting had to take place then.

The cameras were all arranged and everyone took up their respective positions.

Eva began to let a part of her hair on the other side of her shoulder briskly by a slight shake of her head towards her right side in such a manner that she was making everyone who saw her feel that she was a big cheese like no other. At that, one of the extras who was partially drunk, began to see Eva and scream at her from a certain distance. "Hey, you woman with rouge and lapis lazuli necklace!" he said. Pulling his Ray-Ban glasses from his eyes, he continued, "Remember, you are only for the looking glasses and not in authenticity."

He had fanned up the flames of Eva's mind to such an effect that she started to remove one of her high pointed heel red wooden shoes and threw it on him, but he almost dodged it. Then she started to use abusive speech which none of the people in the tavern had ever made an effort to look up for such words in their dictionary.

"Eva, try to be _you_. Abusive speech is a sign of bad character; have you not read it in the Good Book?" Chris began to murmur towards Eva's ear, trying to calm down her boosting ire. "People are looking at us."

Now that man also started speaking so uncouthly that the extras now had to close their ears and open up their eyes wider like how people usually do when they see a man and a woman going so rude at their behaviors on one another—just to make sure that they don't miss out a chance of seeing a fight between them—especially between a great personality like that of Eva and a common man.

Christopher assured his girlfriend. "Don't fight back, dear, remember the places we've come, things like this are very common here," he paused not for more than a second. "There's nothing else, he had gained the courage—I mean, the Dutch courage what they call it, or else how can he talk to _you_ such hatred things? Just think that he is a piece of rough diamond, so we need to handle him with care. That's it."

"Maybe..." she said with a smile.

Now even the man had stopped speaking any further words again.

"By the way, what did he tell you that blew your top to the extreme?" inquired Chris after a while.

"He had questioned one of my most authentic factors, which is—my beauty. I don't like when people tantalize me about my prettiness. And that idiot guy told that I'm just for the looking glasses," she sighed, "he had meant to say that I was only good in front of a mirror, and that I was considering myself as a great person after seeing a mirror. Do you feel that guy was right, Chris?"

"If I would have, would I love an intelligent person like you?"

"You know, I'd always been a very short-tempered girl from childhood. During my school days, in the chemistry lab, a girl had mocked me with the way I looked, but one of my classmates later told me that she did it just for fun; actually she had not meant to hurt me pulling my leg. And I didn't know about it, so I took a test-tube of drinking methanol and threw it into her eyes," she paused. "And, the result—she became blind and I was dismissed from the school later."

"Christ!"

The sequence of the scene was so realistic yet again—thus, it was not cut by the cameraman according to the instruction of the director.

It was the time for the next scene; before that, the gaffer arranged the party lights with the help of the best boy and he played the music. The party scene included break-dances and salsas under the dim disco lights. Only on that night after seeing the way her boyfriend danced did Eva come to know that he was double-jointed in a sense.

Just as the party fun was going on, someone switched the main power off; the tavern had totally gone dark. The dances and the music were stopped. Eva buried her head inside Christopher's coat. "Crap the lights!"

Eva felt as if someone was coming towards her, just like how a person usually came if a letter had to be given to her on the shooting sets. The person held his hand against Eva's hips and pinched her with all his strength.

"Ah! Get the hell out of here! You..." Eva shrieked in pain, all the extras turned to the sound of scream, they did not know what had happened. Though Eva felt that she was going to cry, she controlled her tear duct by passing out any fluid.

She immediately turned back from Christopher's chest and tried grabbing hold of the arm that caused her spasm. But she was only able to grab the air; the person had already gone away.

Eva heard someone running off from her direction; she heard it still the sound got fader through the EXIT.

"Who's the loony scalawag creature here?" Eva began to shout, "Switch on the lights you pest, switch 'em on I say!"

At once, the lights were all back.

"Who, huh? Who's the one dare to _touch_ me here?" she told, unruffled. "Why are you trying to put a monkey wrench in the works of ours?"

The director came running towards Eva to hear from her if everything was all right. But, she ignored his words and turned her face to the crowd. "Well, for whoever had pinched me, come and stand in front of me so that I may see you," she sighed for a second just to think how her next sentences were going to affect her boyfriend, yet she continued with it because she could never control her tongue for anybody, you see. "...I even am ready to marry you if you would do as I say. Come on!"

At this, Christopher grew bleak, he realized that his jaws had dropped, and he had to snap it shut for a moment.

"I'm going to close my eyes and count three, before I open them; I want to see the one whom I'm looking for. And here I go." Eva said, closing her eyelids. "One, two and... three."

To her surprise she saw fifteen men standing in front of her, pushing and pulling one another so that they would be the first to be noticed by her. Some people even fell on their knees and said, "I'm the one, please marry me."

There were constant noises in the bar; each man who stood in front of Eva said that he was the one and that she should marry him. The noise was tried to be stopped by Mr. Robertson, but he could not succeed.

"Gosh! Stop, just stop it I say, or should I remove one of my shoes?" Eva said, reaching for her left shoe. She sighed. "That was not at all a good idea, didn't work as I thought," she grumbled under her breath, too inaudibly.

Eva had come up with an idea that, the person who caused her pain would surely come before her eyes if she had offered him something extraordinary. But, even if only one person had come before Eva, claiming that he was the one, she would not have married him, no matter how sexy he was, because then she was in love with Christopher alone.

"I am sure, from these men, none of them had caused me twinge," Eva said, disappointed.

"How can you tell that?" inquired Christopher.

"The attitude, the facial-expressions, and moreover their guts to stand in front of me, these all shows it."

After studying the boys for a moment, Chris turned to Eva. "Hey, where's the man that wrangled with you when we entered the bar?"

"Oh, yeah, it did not occur to me to..." said Eva, "and I had heard someone running out of here, no doubt, it was him, that nonsense slob."

"Come on, let's go out and check," Chris uttered, his hands pulling Eva's.

When they both went out, there was nobody. He had just disappeared.

"Damn him to the Hades straight away," groused Eva, letting pass her fingers from her forehead down to her silky hair—a sign of anticlimax.

The cameramen and Mr. Robertson were right behind them when they turned back. The scenes were so reasonable, just like how it usually happened in a tavern, especially when stars like Christopher and Eva were present; so, the director held back from cutting the scenes.

The shooting continued with many interesting and blunt events till the whole movie was completed in the expected month.

For two months, the editor had a tough job working day and night for the ultimate excellence of the film.

Finally, it was the day for the movie to be released, August second.

The estimated investment for the film was eighty nine million dollars. Eva took home nine million dollars and Christopher was paid thirteen million dollars.

On the second of August, there were huge crowd in every theater where the much awaited movie was going to be played. Most of the famous theaters of the world had to put up a 'HOUSEFULL' board at the entrance.

The excitement level among the crowd had been so high that they behaved as if they were going to see Eva and Christopher before their eyes directly rather than virtually.

The fans began to go inside the theater and sat on their respective seats.

On the big screen in front of them, flashed the names of the director and the leading casts. And slowly with a thunder-effect sound, flashed the name of the movie in black background.

A Film By

Robertson Just

Starring

Christopher Tyler and Eva Jones

In

" _Shape It Out_ "

People began to scream out loud when they saw Eva's and Christopher's name on screen.

The name of the film disappeared with a fading music and the movie began.

It was good to see Chris and Eva together; they were just a perfect match. All of them knew that they both had fallen in love with each other since their very first film.

The movie was over with its final scene— Brittani's death (Eva's character in the movie). All Eva's fans began to shed tears, they could not just control, but if that scene was at the middle of the movie, they could have taken time to weep for a long time, but because the scene was at the conclusion part of the film, the fans could not cry taking their own time, because, the lights were all on now. They wished not to expose their tears to the others, so they took their hankies and wiped their lower eyelids and cheeks.

The crowd came out of the hall and began commenting on the cinema.

"It was a very good film, wasn't it? I enjoyed it a lot," said Richie, enthusiastically.

"Yeah it's true. It made me feel that I had not wasted my money for a monotonous movie that always had been since I was six," replied Ralph.

"Everything was fine, but I could not just tolerate the conclusion part. Mr. Robertson should not have done that."

"But it indeed was good," he said, his voice low, but balanced.

"Yes, it was."

All the team members of the film, had gone to a theater to see their movie in the luxurious theater—E-13 Borgia Hall.

The movie— _Shape It Out ran_ successfully in all the theaters worldwide. It had a pre-telecast box office earning of four hundred and three million dollars.

Mr. Derrick, the Lord Chamberlain was impressed by Eva and Christopher after he had seen their movie. He decided to invite them for an opulent dinner at his home, so that he could hear from them the both good as well as bad experiences that they had while shooting.

Mr. Derrick took the fork and knife that was beside his plate. "So, how was it all?"

"It was one of my gem-like experiences that I ever had with Chris," said Eva as she squeezed the tomato ketchup into her plate.

Eva had squeezed the bottle so hard that it splattered all over Christopher's shirt.

Eva immediately took a glass of water and with her handkerchief she wiped the ketchup off from his shirt. "Ugh, sorry about that."

"That's okay; you're the one who has to put a lot of stains on me in the future."

Eva narrowed her brows. "What?"

"Nothing. I was just telling you to finish your food soon."

CHAPTER 7

Academy Awards

Christopher took his girlfriend to his hometown in Florida during the season of the Oscar.

"Wow, they're so beautiful," Eva articulated as she saw those raindrops that hung themselves on the entrance gate of Chris' house.

"They would bob at once and trickle over with the work of the wind," Christopher said as he headed to the door, ignoring Eva's charisma of praising nature's beauty.

"Are there nobody out here?"

"No." Chris said. "Sometimes, like now, whenever I'm on a vacation, I come here. My grandpa had been here until the previous year, but now he is no more in this world."

"Oh," Eva mumbled

The night fell. Christopher was sitting on a sofa with the _Jackenville_ , taking the warmth from the bonfire. Although there was a very little space, Eva came and sat next to him. But Chris managed to make room for her with an endearing smile.

"What are you reading, honey?" Eva asked as she tried to bend down herself to see what the title of the magazine was. Immediately, Christopher shut the book so that Eva did not have to bow down, it made her easy to see what he was reading.

"Oh, _Jackenville_!" she widened her eyes in surprise. "I love that."

"I love y—I mean...me too."

Eva slowly made herself on the lap of her boyfriend. She took the magazine away from him and put it on the table, but he did not even realize it.

"Oh," Christopher sighed, his breath warm.

She ran her fingers down gently from his chest. "Wow, you've got gorgeous abs! Working out very hard these days, huh?"

Christopher struggled to force the words out of his mouth. "Ugh—yeah. Pretty hard, you know, especially these days," he said, as though there was a period between every word. His further talk was not for Eva, but, moreover was for himself. "After you had come in my life, I..."

As Chris' speech was too inaudible, Eva asked him, "What? Could you repeat it once again? I didn't get you."

Eva's words alerted his attention that was lost for a moment. "Umm—well, I'd meant to say that after I'd signed the contract, you know, I had to stay physically fit, so..." language

Eva realized that Christopher's talking was nonconforming for some reason which she could not figure out. She kissed him on his forehead at once.

Christopher immediately stood on his feet. This unusual act of his had left his girlfriend dumbfounded. He wiped his forehead. Eva was not sure whether he was clearing her saliva or his own sweat off from his temple.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. I'll be back in a moment," Christopher said as he pointed his nose towards his room.

"He's gone to piss," Eva whirred as she gnashed her teeth in provocation when her boyfriend had disappeared.

Christopher was back in a minute. He was hiding something behind him. Eva wondered what it was.

Eva bit her lips for a while. "Ah—would it be a club? Was he going to punish me because I had kissed him?" she thought to herself.

Chris pulled Eva's right hand. "Come with me to my room."

"Bu—But, why?"

Christopher did not reply.

He drew a chair to Eva that was in front of a mirror. "Come, sit here."

Eva did just what he said. She was a bit nervous too.

Chris switched on the twenty two bulbs that were circuited around the mirror at once..

Now, Christopher raised his arm, thus exposing what he had been hiding.

"Oh, god, oh god," Eva sang when she saw the reflection of the beautiful necklace that was made with true-heart-cockles.

Chris lowered himself; he held his hands and brushed Eva's hair to the left side. He tied the necklace around her neck.

When he felt that she was looking more splendid, he kissed the back of her neck, making a chill pass down her spine.

"They seem quite traditional," Eva uttered.

"You don't like them?"

"Yes, I do! They're stunning."

Christopher took a deep breath of pride. " _I_ made it. For you—just for you— _exclusively_."

"Is it?!" Eva exclaimed. "Well, how did you learn to make it?"

"I was interested in making jewelries from the past ten years. I wanted to see my wife wear the jewels made by me," he explained. "So I had gone for a year's course where they taught to make them."

"What and all do you make?"

"Um—earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and..." he shrugged. "That's it."

Eva raised herself from the chair to show appreciation for her boyfriend. "Thank you."

Christopher got hold of her hand and raised it to his chest. "Do you know why these gaps are there between your fingers?" he asked, his voice quixotic.

"Why, No," she seemed unusually surprised.

"Just to insert my fingers and, hold your palm onto mine, like this," he said as he put his fingers into the gaps of Eva's fingers and caught hold of her palm gently.

"Let's dance."

Their slow movements which were worth less than a dance continued for almost twenty minutes without any music.

Then, Christopher switched on the audio-player and made slight turns, holding Eva's hands.

As they were making the tango moves, Eva reached for the switch when Chris had let loose her hand. She switched off the lights, and their foxtrot turns continued in the darkness.

It was on Friday, Christopher and Eva had been to the grand event in Hollywood's Kodak Theater and it was for the first time that she had stepped on the red carpet in her whole life.

The moment Eva stepped her right leg from the Lamborghini, the men with cameras on their shoulders began running towards her.

Eva looked so dazzling in her usual red shoes that had six-inch heels. She had worn a simple gown that showed her bare back.

As for Christopher, he looked more remarkable than his girlfriend after he had spiked his blond hair in the air. His tie dress was a perfect fit on him, making his body shape seem staggering. His nose supported the glasses that he had worn.

One of the cameramen came to Eva with a mike. "You've turned from blond to brunette?"

"Huh—yeah. Blond was so boring."

The other cameraman ran to Christopher. "What do you think? Would your team be successful enough to get an academy award?"

"Not 'an', Chris corrected. "But many."

"That's the sprit. Good luck."

"Thank you," he smiled as he played with Eva's fingers while they stood together.

Inside the hall, Chris and Eva sat alongside each other.

The hosts for the event were Mr. Denzel and Ms. Nadia.

"It's so good to have you all here tonight," Ms. Nadia began with her speech. "It's time to know the best film of this year."

"Nadia, got to say this, our celebrities are more excited and, you know, showy than ever!" Mr. Denzel laughed. And so did everyone.

"Okay, now, coming to the main part of our star-studded event, I'd like to call Mrs. Karen Duane and Mr. George Alfredo to read out the nominees," she said.

Just then, from behind the stage came Mrs. Karen and Mr. George with ostentatious smiles, addressing the gathering.

Mr. George bent down a bit and adjusted the mike according to his speech, "Hmm, hi everybody!" The crowd greeted him with a loud applause. "So, like we had been waiting for this much anticipated event tonight, I'd like to call over the nominees for the best film, without much ado."

The list of nominees was screened on the walls. It included the movie, _Shape it Out_ , too.

Eva had received the best actress award and she was only eighteen then. Mr. Robertson received an award for best director. Christopher was nominated for three awards, and he got two of them, one was for the best dialogue and the other was the best actor's award.

After the event was over with other celebrities too getting the awards, they all came out of the hall. The boys with mikes in their hands rushed to them, behaving customarily—capturing the videos and photos of them holding the awards in self-esteemed gesticulation.

"See, I was confident that the team would take home the Oscars!" Chris cried out.

"Congratulations!"

"Thank you," he nodded.

Eva and Christopher were on their way back.

Chris kissed the idols in his hands. "Getting an Oscar had never been so easy for me, and this time, it's two at one shot!" Then, his expression changed. "I wish my dad was here, so that he could see what I've earned. It was his wish always—to make me a star."

Eva held his hand in a bid to reassure him. "Hard work has its own results, for sure," she stated.

"But, past aside," he told to himself. "The happiness has made me forget all things."

Eva doubted, but at the same time, displayed a grin. " _Every_ thing?"

Christopher erased the gaze from the statuette and transferred it to his girlfriend. "Expect you."

Eva sighed. "That's what I wanted to hear."

CHAPTER 8

Ambassador

After a year, _Shin's_ , a leading Company of the United States, invited Eva to be the brand ambassador for their organization for the next four years.

Eva signed the contract, demanding ten million dollars.

She had also studied the basics of pharmacy from _The Shin's Cosmetology Institution_ which was considered worthwhile in her later years.

Eva had to be on regular ramps as well as put all her efforts to bring maximum profit for the company.

She could hardly ever visit her boyfriend and spend her time with him, because, day by day, she became more and more busy. She was nineteen years old when she represented the _Shin's_.

After a year, the company had made an elite offer for their customers. If they answered every questions of a particular card that was put inside the carton of the cosmetic product, then they would be getting a chance to meet the actress.

A lonely heart named Jane, from Ohio, was the first lucky person to invite Eva to her home.

Jane was such a girl who loved Eva under her lesbian desires. She was in high spirits when she answered the buzz which was from the _SCI._

Right after that day, there was a revelation for Janet. Eva had gone to her house personally with her two masculine bodyguards—the company had never told about it!

When Janet saw her dream-girl near the gate, she went running towards her. She let her weight off the ground and jumped on Eva, hugging her as tight as she could and kissing her all over the face.

"I'm going to be here with you today until you see the sun no more."

"God, I can't believe what's happening right now!"

Janet had read panels on Eva's official website regarding Eva's favorite food. Then, she prepared the cuisines in a way the actress would enjoy and never forget the taste of it in her life. Janet asked all kinds of questions that had been creeping in her mind vis-à-vis Eva's eminence.

The sun went lower, and it was time for Eva to leave.

"Before you go, please come with me, I've something more that needs to be fulfilled."

Janet took Eva to the basement. She opened the door of a room; the door had a golden plate nailed on it. On the plate, in black bold letters, it was written:

EVA'S ROOM

1982

"My room?" Eva made a face.

"Yup! Let's check it out," she said as she inserted the key and rolled it so that it opened.

The door opened with a creaking sound.

When Eva saw her posters and figurines all over the room, she felt so enthralled that she got to know how much her fans loved her.

There was hardly any space to move around the room freely because of the mirrors, stuffs that Eva loved the most, flower vases and all those things.

Janet pulled the drawer of a dressing table and took a sketch-pen and a scrapbook.

She was so excited that her fan had arranged all the make-up products that she used, just in the same manner Eva had arranged it, like moisturizing creams on the left side, hair-kit at the middle, eye-liners, lip glosses, and touch-up applications at the right side.

"Have a look at my scrapbook, Eva."

"Sure," she said, keen to check what the other stuff was.

The book contained Janet's typical collection. She had stuck all the pictures that had appeared in the newspapers ever since Eva was a lass.

She flipped the pages continuously with a mood like, "I'd seen all this number of times. Anything new?"

"How—I mean, how did you manage to collect so many pictures?"

"Whenever you photo would appear in papers and magazines, I cut it and paste it into my book. Even my friends used to help me get the prints."

"Wonderful that it is. But, why waste time doing all these things? In your age, you might want to do anything more, something useful."

"You don't know how much I love you, Eva..."

"Ugh," she said. "Well, what's the pen doing in your hand?"

"Red. It's your favorite color!"

"So you wanted to show it to me just to tell me that you knew even the most small dim-witted bits and pieces of mine?"

"Not exactly. This is something more!" Janet said as she moved to one of the mirrors placed at the eastern most side of the room.

"Here you go Eva, take this sketch-pen and write any of your favorite quotation on this mirror. I'd been dreaming about this since I'd seen your handwriting in the fan-club cards for your aficionados who had been dying to get your autographs in one of your concerts in Ohio."

Eva went to write on with a smile on her face.

" _Be Like a Seed That Falls From the Polyalthia Longifolia, And Not Like the Stones beside It."_

"I think no one would ever be so lucky to have this sort of experience with you like I had had. My inside-being always insisted me to arrange things in this room in a better way. I was, like, sixty percent sure that one day you'd come and stay here and that my lingering dream would come true. And that has happened now!"

"What about the remaining forty percent?"

"You know very well, Eva, about your status and my status. Your position is far more ahead than that of mine. I'm a girl who is from a family who have fallen under a great debt trap. You know, you'd be shocked to hear if I say that I'd not even had enough bucks to attend your concerts. Not even one of them. No," she paused. "You don't know how much I'd gone through pain and tears because of not being present to see you on stage. But I always make sure that I download your every song, your performances on the podium, your interviews, commercial ads, videos and all that."

Since Janet had told her that she was under debt trap, she removed her pricey lapis lazuli necklace and handed it to her before she left from there with her guards.

CHAPTER 9

The Drama Begins

It had been nearly a year since Eva had seen her boyfriend, in person. This time, she kept aside her schedule and decided to go to Christopher's mansion.

She put on a coat over her shirt and took her bag and her mobile phone which she'd never forget while stepping out.

"Mom, where's the key of my car?"

"You're going out somewhere?"

"Yeah. To Christopher's place."

"One of the old classmates of yours had called over the phone today. She said that her name was...Terri. Yes."

"Oh gosh!" Eva was bemused at the mention of her name. "You mean, _Terri_?"

"Yes. She has come to the city for some treatment and told she would be coming here today."

Eva tried to sound as calm as she could. "Oh, I see."

"But, why did you jump, like, ' _oh, gosh'_ when I said she was coming?"

"Ah..."

"Don't hide anything from me, Ella. I'm your mother."

"Well, all right. However, there's no point in veiling this from you. She'd definitely tell to you about all that had happened to her because of _me_."

"Then, it's time to divulge the matter. Go ahead."

Eva sighed before she could take another long breath before she could speak intentionally what she wanted to speak but was never able to.

"Terri was one good classmate of mine. One day, in the chemistry lab when we all were busy with an experiment, she scoffed at the way my face seemed awful because of too much of the makeup. And, I really got angry that she had ragged me in front of my friends. Without a moment's dilly-dally, I threw the liquid that was in the test-tube onto her face. Then I realized what the liquid was. Methanol. But it was too late. Terri had gone blind."

"B-l-i-n-d?" her mother accentuated.

"And the worst part of it was that I was dismissed from the school, but I didn't tell about that neither to you nor to dad."

Just as they were speaking, there was a knock on the door.

Eva held her hand to open the door thinking that it was Terri on the other side. But, when she answered the door, it was the security-guard.

"Ma'am, there's somebody at the gate claiming that she was your childhood friend. Her name starts with T..."

"T-E-R-R-I," Eva broke out.

"Could we let her in?"

"Yeah sure, she can come over."

Eva saw a Rolls Royce near the gate. When the car came closer, she looked inside the shield and found just one beautiful woman of her age who was driving.

"Terr...It's you," Eva whispered.

The engine of the car stopped with a jerking sound. The woman in the black over-coat and bronze hair got down the car. She was so posh-looking with high-heel Dr Martens that covered up to her knees and huge sun-glasses that reflected the rays of the sun directly on to Eva's face. Seeing Eva wrinkle her brows, Terri removed her glasses and put it on her shirt's pocket. When she looked up to her old friend, Eva got to see that her eyes were perfectly all right.

"Won't you invite me inside?"

"Oh...oh. I'm sorry. Come in."

"You turned a big celebrity, huh?"

"Ha." Eva heaved a sigh and then pursed her lips. "Mm."

Then she continued, "I'm extremely sorry for what had happened that day."

"Uh, Ella, come on. You had said sorry to me that day itself. Even I'm over and done with that."

"Oh. When did you recuperate your vision?"

"Within seven months after the incident, I think."

"Your purpose of visiting me today?" she asked.

"Well, I've got some problem with my eyes. For better treatment, I came on over here. And since your house was nearby, I decided to meet you," Terri said. She looked on Eva for a moment. "You are in branded attire, planning to go out somewhere out? Or is it that you always wear such dress even when you're at home?"

"No. I wear simple dresses at home. Today I planned to meet Christopher."

"Oh, I just forgot to ask you about your relationship with him. How are things going? And, you know, you both make just a perfect match on screen. I'm a great fan of Chris; can we go to meet him today? Please, don't say you can't go with me."

Eva laughed and nodded. "Of course, we'll both go, right away."

"That's so sweet."

When they both reached there, Christopher greeted them inside. "Pleasant to see you my dear, after a long time." Then he saw Terri and asked, "Who's she?"

"Yeah, this is my childhood friend. Terri," said Eva.

Terri came forward and hugged Chris. "It's so astonishing to see you before my eyes!"

"Ha ha. Really? That's good."

"Wow, you're laugh is so seductive."

Eva smiled at that point.

"By the way, what are you doing?" Chris asked.

"I am doing a business of my own brand costumes. Have you heard about the textile company _Alessandro and Joe_?"

"No."

"That's my own organization. I work there."

Christopher concurred. "That's nice. Who is Alessandro and Joe?"

"Alessandro was my first boyfriend and Joe, the second one!" she laughed.

"Huh, you never told me that!" Eva griped.

"Hadn't I? Oops. "

"Get in, guys," Chris demanded.

Eva was sitting at the table when Chris had gone to get some wine. Terri followed him to the kitchen.

"You stay here alone?"

Christopher was convulsed at her sudden sound close to his ear. "Oh. Yes," he said.

"Can I have a total look at your house? If you don't mind?"

"Um, you can. Go on about. You can take your friend for assistance."

"No thanks. I'll go myself."

"As you wish."

Terri went out of the kitchen and started to gaze up and down and everywhere. The house was so beautiful. She went up the stairs and found beautiful paintings of beautiful women on the walls. Then she went to his bedroom. Many musical instruments were arranged there. And, without Chris' permission, she opened a drawer and found as many things as a person usually finds in an opulent man's drawer. Apart from those things which could just be ignored, there was a peculiar thing in there—it was a chain of a girl with a heart-shaped locket. Terri felt that she was familiar with that one before. She opened the locket.

"Good Lord!" her eyes almost bulged out when she saw the photo of herself and Alessandro's when they were some fourteen or so. Terri had gifted the chain to Alessandro before she finally saw him in Columbia.

"Christopher...Alessandro...what's happening? Are they both one and the same?" she muttered with an appalled expression on her face.

Terri came down the stairs and found Chris kissing Eva while they were both at the dining table with three glasses of red martini in front of them.

"No..." she spoke in an out-of-earshot undertone. She decided not to ask if Alessandro had a secondary name as _Christopher_.

Then, her face was not the face that displayed enthusiasm which she had when she had gone upstairs. It had totally changed.

Eva saw her friend standing dazed on the stairs, so she immediately pulled away from her boyfriend. "Come Terz, what are you doing up there? See, your wine is waiting for you and so were we."

"Hope you have a thing for my house. Don't you?"

Terri walked towards the table and took her seat and the glass of wine. "Indeed," Terri said, her tone, lifeless.

Eva explained to Christopher all about their life in the school and also how she had gone blind once. "Hadn't I told you, that day in the tavern when we had been for the shooting? I told that a girl had mocked about my looks and that I threw—" Before she could finish, her boyfriend began.

"Yes! I remember. You threw some acid on her face and she had lost her sight..."

"Exactly," she said. "That girl was Terri. That was the last time I saw her as a little girl. Now she's in front of me. Grown up and..."

"Scenic." Chris completed the sentence.

"You're right," Eva said. "I must also tell to you that she was a good cook even after her vision had gone astray. Her sense of smell helped her to identify every ingredients, and sometimes with a sneeze when pepper or chili powder met her nostrils!"

They laughed. It was time for Terri to leave.

"Oh no. Eva, I think I left my bag upstairs. I'll go get it," Terri said, hurriedly running upstairs.

She took the bag that was on the dressing table inside Chris' room. She thought to shoot another glance at the chain just to make sure that she had not seen someone else in the photograph. She opened the drawer and took the chain in her hand. It was him and her again—Alessandro and Terri. A drop of tear trickled down from her eye and it fell straight on the photo. There was also a brown diary inside the drawer. She took that and found Alessandro's name written at the beginning. She flipped the pages. Christopher had mentioned the name of Terri a number of times. But everything was written in Spanish, she couldn't understand a word except her own name in it. At the last page, she saw Alessandro's Polaroid—he was sitting beside his ball in the basket-ball court. On the left side of the page, there was a dried ugly rose. The date and her name under it made it apparent that it was a rose given by her on fourteenth of February when she was twelve.

Terri was confused as for why there was no response from Christopher when she told that her name was Terri—the name he himself had mentioned so many times in his diary and that why he didn't even flinch when she had said that the name of her first boyfriend was _Alessandro_.

Perpetual and unbroken thoughts were recurring in her mind like a stream flow. "Was Alessandro my boyfriend who now is Christopher? Or was he a good friend of Chris whom he trusted on so much that he gave him the responsibility of handling his personal diary?"

Terri put the diary into her bag before she left the room.

"Why so late? What were you doing there?" asked Eva when her friend was downstairs again.

"I—I'd been to the toilet."

"Okay. You're getting late, time to go."

"Why, are you not coming with me?"

"No, I will stay here tonight."

Chris held his hand to Terri to shake hand with her. There was a tattoo on his right arm. She got to see it. It was an alphabet that confirmed who Christopher exactly was. It was the alphabet _T_ ('T' in old English text).

"It'd been good to have you here. Hope we'd meet again," Chris said.

Terri's heart almost stopped working when she brought her old memories into her mind when both Alessandro and she had been to a tattoo parlor and the way he closed his eyes as tight as possible and pursing his lips so hard that it would almost tear, bearing all the pain while he was getting a tattoo engraved on his forearm with the starting letter of his girlfriend's name—Terri.

Without bidding farewell to Christopher, she stared at his face not more than five second, and in the spur-of-the-moment she hasted out of the door.

Eva was puzzled with her conduct. "What's wrong with her?"

Outside, they heard a bang of the car door. The engine started up aggressively and the sound of it showed as if she was hard-hitting on the warpath.

"What had happened?"

"No idea," Chris raised his arms, as if in surrender.

"Unusual. Everything was all right before few minutes."

Christopher bobbed his face in agreement. "Everything was all right before she went upstairs."

"There must be something out there that made her disappointed," she said as she ran upstairs to find the cause of her friend's disenchantment.

Chris too went along with her.

Eva looked everywhere, she also went to Chris' room, but found no signs that could cause any disappointment.

"Is everything all right?" he asked from the backside.

"Ah, yes..."

Without knowing the cause, Eva slowly walked to the windows. She pulled the curtains open and gazed peacefully outside the street—on the road where Terri had drove away in resentment.

Christopher had a slight doubt that Terri had opened his drawer. So pulled it open, ensuring no sound would capture Eva's attention. He took the chain in his hands and got to see the locket that was being already opened, there was some sort of wetness and blurriness on the photo—this made him realize that his girlfriend had not forgotten her old memories.

Christopher then peered inside to look for his diary so that he could find traces of Terri's touch in that, too. But there was no diary there. He was on edge to find that Terri had taken it away. And he knew exactly why she had loped; he figured out that it was because she had seen the tattoo on his arm.

Chris suddenly dropped the chain back into the drawer and raised himself upright when he heard Eva speak, but she had her back still turned to him. Chris shut the drawer and wiped the evidence of distress from off his forehead and walked towards her. Then he put his shoulders on her from behind and whispered, "You know, it was winter and this is the day after a long period that I'm seeing the beautiful moon come up above the disseminated grey clouds!"

Eva pursed her lips and looked at the stars in a girly action of wonder. Then she understood what he had meant. "You're meaning to say that you saw someone so special as the moon after a long period? Where I guess I am _the moon_ , and _winter_ is that long period, and by _clouds_ , you mean my busy schedule, am I right?"

"Huh—yes," he said deliberately. "Yes."

"Um," Eva turned to gaze Chris. His lips and the downy blond mustache above them made her to loose her control over him; she pressed her lips against his for not more than a second until Christopher pulled back.

"W—what happened?"

"Not the right time."

"Right time?" she repeated in infuriation. "Is anyone an astrologer over here? No...just tell me, because you're driving me round the bend."

According to Christopher's intellectual capacity, what he'd been doing was something detestable when he saw the same thing with the eyes of his childhood girlfriend. He understood the reason why she had run away from him on her realization about his real identity. He did not want to be unjust to her.

Somewhere in his heart, something was unremittingly poking him when he went a step forward to satisfy Eva from then on.

CHAPTER 10

The Cause

Not after a day, Christopher saw a sheet of folded paper lying on the floor beside the table. On it, it was written:

Come and meet me, I need to talk to you

#14 Genie Cottages

Frankston Street

\--Terri Jose

Christopher felt that he needed to go to the Genie Cottages to meet Terri. He drove his car to the Frankston Street.

"Number fourteen," he looked into the paper once more. "This is it."

He raised his head, and his eyes met Terri sitting casually with a magazine on the balcony at the third floor. The moment she caught sight of him, she got on her feet. For a while, she did not speak anything.

"Come on up, Kar—I mean, Chris..."

Christopher could feel the acid boiling in the walls of his veins. He went up the stairs without wanting to take the lift, because he wanted to take time to think what on earth he was going to speak to her.

"Err—hi...Terri."

"Why, huh? What's the cause of your new persona? Mind telling me why you had cheated on me?" her emotion turned into tears. "Was to become a media magnet all the reason for you to leave me alone in the airport, that day?"

Chris struggled for words. "I—I, just listen to me."

But Terri began with more tears down her face, "You know how much I had loved you. I was too a chicken to ask you that day as for why you had left me and came here."

"Let's not draw the attention of the public, please, get in," he said as he moved into her house putting his head down—an indirect way to tell her to follow the same course. And so did she.

Terri waited for him to speak.

"There are a lot of things that I'd hidden from you, Terri. There is a cause for me to change my name, my place and moreover leave my loved ones behind."

Terri started to pay attention, "What's that? Something serious?"

"Yes. Very serious," he bit his lips. Then he began, "You should have known that before when I acted as though I'd not at all known you ever. I didn't want to come here by all means wholeheartedly. I had never thought of uncovering this identity to anyone—that me being Alessandro again. Since I could not just be so callously loathsome to you like this, I came on over."

"Be clear...I'm not getting a word of yours."

"The whole reason hangs in the business that one of my dad's friends, Mr. Gonzalez in Colombia had started when I was five. Subsequently, he encouraged him to join the business. Only after a month was that my dad came to know about the work he was engaged in. It was against the law—the illegal exporting of medicines derived out of wild animals," he stopped for a second to read her expression. And then he began again. "My father had not known everything about Mr. Gonzalez until one day he was caught by the police because of his act of homicides; they also came to know about his new job. Dad could not just believe on the part that his friend had betrayed him to the police, saying that he too was a partner in the business, and that they both had done the illegitimate job together. One day, the police came to my house and arrested him. But that was not all; he escaped out of the walls of the jail on a night after three months of being tortured there. The police got to know this and they started chasing him, somehow my dad managed to reach home. But the police came in to our house after some twenty minutes to see if he had come to us. Those couple of minutes was the luckiest time for him as he had hidden himself somewhere in the corner of the house from where the police couldn't trace him." Christopher raised his eyes towards the ceiling. "My mother had gone insane due to these things; consequently she died in a week. Everything did not finish there; the police came unexpectedly for the second time. Dad was arrested again. They took him. Before my dad saw my face for the last time he had left a letter for me. I've kept the letter in my diary which you had taken away, could you just bring it back so that I can show you?"

"Oh, well," she said brushing her hair, feeling guilty for stealing something that was his personal. "I'll get it."

Terri was back with the diary, "Here—"

Christopher opened it and kept turning the pages until he found the letter. He took it, exhaling noisily.

"I hadn't seen that!"

Christopher handed the paper to her so that she herself could read and know the exact reason why he had left her and also know the cause for everything.

Terri unfolded the letter.

Dear son,

This is your father writing a letter to you. You better not be here anymore. If they find you somehow someday, I'm sure they will kill you. There are a lot of problems, dear. You better not know it. Go to the log cabin in the backyard, I've kept enough money in a bag there for you; take it and leave the country, go somewhere far off. I don't believe I'd ever see you again. You'll always be in my heart, dear. Miss you.

Yours loving dad,

Martinez

The emotion from the letter made Terri speak without her own knowledge. "I miss you too, dad." She suddenly realized where she was actually. "Oops," she said. "I was lost for a moment."

"So there are still many a reason why I left you and came to Chicago, but only my dad knows that and in fact I had to heed his words, or I wouldn't have been where I'm today."

"There had happened so many things in your life—I'm so sorry for being rude to you without even knowing what the truth was."

"But, please, make sure that you don't open your mouth to goof and speak anything about this to anyone, if you do, it might be my life that you would be staking."

"I promise I won't," she said, her hand on her chest. "But tell me one thing, Alessandro, you look completely transformed, you don't even have any single trace of your childhood. How's that?"

"Huh, yes. For the reason that I wanted to completely change myself, I got my name legally changed, also my citizenship and—I've got a cosmetic surgery done."

Terri was thunderstruck. She spoke after half a minute. "Alessandro, who was once an innocent boy living in a small town in Colombia—now, Christopher, living here in the U.S! Huh!" she said. "Wonderful in a sense."

"I lived in concealment in Colombia itself for about ten years," he said. "I never showed up to anybody."

She brought her brows together in incredulity.

By the time Christopher stood up from the chair, it was seven o' clock.

"My diary—by the way, why did you take it?" he asked. "I mean, you don't know what's written in it, do you?"

"I took it so that I can know from it who exactly you are and the reason for your atypical personality."

"But, without knowing Spanish..."

"I've gotten translator software on my laptop."

"Oh, improvement in technology gets an access to any of the personal matters of others today with a click of a button!"

"Anyway, I don't think this diary would do any further good if it continues to be here," she said, reaching out for the diary from the bed. "You can take this home. I guess I have known all about what I wanted to know."

"Thank you, I'll see you around."

"Take care, dear."

Christopher bid goodbye to her from the street while she was still standing at the balcony.

There were no media fellows in the scene. This gave him a sense of composure as the next day there would be no news leaking in the papers pinning on the question regarding what work he had at Terri's cottage.

CHAPTER 11

A Trip to Hong Kong

Christopher wanted to take his girlfriend out so that she would not be mounting a sense of being left behind at any instance.

To start up with, he phoned her up.

"Hi, Eva."

"Tell me, honey," her voice did not have such gusto as usual.

"Would you like to join me for a trip?"

"A trip?!"

"But _you_ must decide the place. Wherever _you_ want to go, we shall go."

Eva wasn't sure about what to say or which place to choose. She remained silent for a second. "How about Disneyland?" she wondered how his reaction was going to be like, whether or not he would agree, but she still told him that since she was a girl always building castles in the air about fantasies right from her dawn period.

"Hong Kong?" he asked, his voice in confirmation with Eva's idea.

"Well—yes."

"We'll definitely."

"Oh, yes? Are you serious?!"

"Ah-ha," he smiled.

Eva was so overjoyed that her dream world was going to be a reality and that too with her dream boy!

On a bright Sunday morning they stood in front of one of the famous places in Hong Kong, that is, Disneyland Resort, Penny's Bay in Lantau Island.

"We're gonna spend, like, a full month in this country! We're gonna rock!" Eva yelled.

They went inside the gate of the world of fantasy with Eva's bodyguards and a tourist guide to lead them across the fun-filled magic kingdom.

"The whole campus is about sixty-eight acres," the guide began.

"Oh, I see. Mr. Ayden, what's the annual attraction of people here?" inquired Eva.

"Yeah. The park was commenced in September two thousand five. It had attracted around five million tourists in its very first year! It has a daily capacity of thirty four thousand visitors. To be straight, the theme park had exerted a pull on over twenty five million guests since the day of its opening!"

Christopher dropped his chops, "My!"

"There are four themed parks in the Disneyland. The first is Main Street, U.S.A, the second one, Adventureland, the third and fourth are Fantasyland and Tomorrowland respectively," the guide explained. "The Main Street, U.S.A is the entrance site of the park."

Adventure land being the second themed land, they went there and realized for themselves that it was the biggest among all the other Disney parks.

One of the hotels of the Disneyland, Penny Inn, attracted them to have some brunch. The food there without a wink of doubt was absolutely scrumptious!

Then they passed by a huge castle.

"What's that?!" Chris asked.

Mr. Ayden summed the enormous turret into three simple words. "Sleeping Beauty Castle." He went on, "Now you're in the Fantasyland—a place where the people could see their favorite Disney characters coming to life."

"That's the Fantasy Gardens over there. And, look, Mickey and Donald!" Mr. Ayden pointed his finger.

Eva posed for a photo while her boyfriend captured her along with the other Disney characters into his camera.

The new magnetism like Autopia and Stitch Encounter were really the attracting spots in the Tomorrowland.

"There are yet two more latest themed parks. The Grizzly Gulch. It harks back to a land that was abandoned amidst the mountains. And the Mystic Point, a place you truly cannot refuse! It's located in the thick rainforest surrounded by inexplicable forces and eerie events! It's an abode for the lovers of adventure and travelers.

They enjoyed joining with the vast group of people for a parade called ' _Flights of Fantasy_ '.

The nighttime was amuse-packed. They got to witness firework shows like _Disney in the Stars_ , _Tinker Bell Castle Illumination_ and the _Celebration in the Air_.

"Exotic!" Eva mumbled.

Christopher kept looking at the sky. "Cream of the crop!"

Before they left the premises of the Disneyland, they went to the Muppet Mobile Lab implemented in the Segway platform—a place where two Muppet characters performed their comedies to give the guests some double up time.

By the end of the day, Chris had snapped hundreds of pictures in his camera.

Not one among them felt like coming out of the park that was damn superlative. That was _so_ a first-class experience!

"It was nice having you today, Mr. Aydel. Thank you."

"Ayden," he corrected.

"Oh. Yeah, sorry, Mr. Ayden, thank you so much."

One of the bodyguards, Mr. Elliot drove the cab back to the hotel and the other one—Mr. Diego sat beside him.

Eva and Christopher were incessantly going on talking about their future plans which made the driver feel so provoking. "Ad infinitum gobbledygook," he maundered under his breath as he looked at Mr. Diego, helplessly.

"Mumbo jumbo!" he said as he at once saw Mr. Elliot and turned his lively face outside the windshield with a slight sigh.

Eva's glance met with a fascia of a hotel. "Pull over. Pull over, right here."

"Hmm! I'm excited to have our dinner right in _that_ hotel."

"Come on, let's go," Chris agreed.

The beautiful gentle lights and the red lanterns of the restaurant greeted them inside.

Christopher took over the list of options from the table and ordered for _Ma Po Tofu_. "What'd you like to have, Eva?"

"Pass over the menu here, let me have a look."

"Here you go," he extended it to her. "And, what are you both going to have tonight?"

Eva broke out in excitement like a child, "A plate of _Har Mei_ sounds interesting."

As for the two gentlemen, they decided to have _Lobster with Star Ansie Butter_ and _Foie Gras Choy_.

To start up with, they decided to have soup.

"I'll go for the egg drop soup," Mr. Diego said.

"Uh, I'll try with chicken and sweet corn soup," Chris looked into the list.

"Subgum wonton soup," Eva nodded in agreement with her choice.

Finally, Mr. Elliot said, "Chicken rice soup."

"Hong Kong food is great for health, you know!" she spoke again.

Within minutes their food was on the table.

Without knowing exactly how her food was going to taste she had spoke about the wholesomeness of the country's food just because it _sounded_ good to her. Chris saw her blushing as she began to eat the half-cooked prawns.

"Yum. This thing has got a crispy skin over the meaty flesh, with all the enhancers like red pepper, pine nuts, salmon roe... tastes good!" Chris expressed as he put the fork on his plate and began chewing.

"Yep, this san choy bao contains tender piece of foie gras that is kind of melting in my mouth!" Mr. Diego agreed that Hong Kong cuisines do taste nice, in fact, at least some of them do!

"If I have to say, the lobster in my plate is fat and tasty and also the star ansie butter, spring vegetables and the cabbage—" Mr. Elliot pursed his lips to suck back his saliva. Then he said, "Incredible!"

"Don't you have any comments, Eva?" Mr. Diego asked.

"Ha-ha," she laughed to begin with what to say. "Well, yeah, I do. You know, dried shrimp with har mei powder and har mei oil," she paused between every word. "Case in point, noodles are cooked well. And, um, coming to the Carabinero prawns, hmm—not bad..."

The strong morning rays hit Eva's face from the skylight.

She woke up with a realization like, 'How come I'm back here _?'_ Christopher lounged adjacent to her, his right leg over her stomach. She carefully pulled away from him, getting the duet off her. When she noticed that she was in her night-gown, it took the wind out of her sails!

"Chris!" she screamed. "Am I seeing what you're seeing?"

Christopher opened his eyes at once in alarm, and when he saw that Eva was referring to her changed clothes, he calmed himself down. "Ow, I guess I am. What's wrong?"

"Arr! Who changed me without my permission?"

"It was me."

"It was you? And you're asking me _'_ what's wrong', eh?"

"Sorry dear. I had to do it, because you had vomited on your skirt after which you fell unconscious in the restaurant last night. And, I had no other options."

Eva was speechless for a minute. She then whispered to him with a delicate smile on her face, "That's all right."

"Anyways. Quick. Dress up. We need to go for shopping."

_Yang Kim_ was a mega shopping mall where only the rich persons in the country would have the guts to enter.

"This's it. We have all kind of things we need here," Mr. Diego put in the picture as he looked at the façade of the gigantic building.

They went on the escalators and it was an eye catching thing for Eva whenever she saw the moving steps.

"The place is so calm and interesting!" she exclaimed. "It seems you want to buy anything and everything from here!"

Though Eva wanted to buy like, 'the whole superstore', she was a cherry-pick and chose only the products that were worthwhile to her.

Christopher's soft-spot was the gadget department. He took all the new-released ones into the cart.

When the shopping was over, Eva queried, "You're done, Chris?"

"Um-hm."

They were back to the hotel in the night after their shopping and sight-seeing around the vicinity.

"No! Chris!" Eva screamed in the middle of the night.

Christopher was thrown into disarray. "Whoa—what's wrong, is everything all right?"

"Man, I had the worst nightmare of my life."

"What happened?"

Before she could speak, she took half a deep breath. "You and Terri—I saw you were both married and you were cuddling the baby in your arms." she looked into his eyes as she spoke.

Chris was on nerves when Eva mentioned both him and Terri together. "Ah—get that off!" he said. He took her face in his hands, closely drawing it to his eyes. "Look, Eva, I cannot even think of getting married to any other girl except you. Don't be afraid."

"But, that was just a dream, why are you like, so tensed?" Eva inquired after reading the troubled expressions on his brows.

Christopher immediately lost his hold off her in a realization like, 'Yeah, why the hell am I tensed?'

"Sorry for disturbing you, baby," she said. "G'night."

"Good night."

Eva began to think that there was something with the way she saw both of them together. Something far off—difficult to grasp.

"Tell me Chris, why do think that that day Terri ran off in a very bad-tempered manner?" she asked after about twenty minutes.

There was response.

Eva deemed Chris had slept already. But he had not.

Christopher had his back turned to her. He was gazing at no a particular spot on the wall on the other side.

He heard teardrops falling from Eva's eyes onto the pillow and he couldn't make a move but stay in the same position until five minutes had passed and he heard the sound no more.

"Why must I hide something from my girlfriend? Would she not be able to keep a secret, at least for me?" he began to think. "Everyone has a past relation—an affair with someone. But, that's just _past_. What takes into account is the current status. I think I must spit out everything."

Christopher decided to tell all his secrets to his girlfriend. And he did so the next morning.

Eva was flabbergasted. She did not know how to accept the theory as something which was truth.

"You got to believe me, Eva."

"Jeez, that seems half-baked," she said. "I mean—are you kidding or something?"

"No, I'm not," Chris stipulated as he went for his bag in the cupboard. "See, this is my personal diary. This confirms that my nationality is not American. Look, it's not at all written in English, is it?"

Eva flipped through the pages. "Spanish?"

"That's right."

"Terri one, Terri two, Terri three..." she went on counting the number of times the name had been mentioned in the pages until she reached with a number of eighty two. "Gosh, can't believe this."

Christopher did not insist on her any further.

"You had taken me to Florida claiming that it was your hometown..."

"Yes—in someway, it is my hometown. My grandfather was an American, he lived there."

Eva began to put every statements and scenes in an order for her to understand what exactly was going on. "Doesn't matter. According to the question of fact, love itself is semblance of an egalitarian," she finally spoke after a few seconds.

" _Egalitarian_?" he asked as though it was the first time ever that he had heard such a word in his life.

"Believes in equality. Love is blind, you see..."

"Ugh, yeah."

"So who's now in your heart, her or me?"

"Like I said the other night—"

"I believe you, Christo."

He nodded.

Eva's fear of loosing her boyfriend moved her to write a letter for him that she wished must only be opened after her death.

After writing the letter under the light of a table lamp, she put it into an envelope. She wrote on it something that was visible even from quiet a far distance too.

" _A letter to be opened after I give up for the ghosts"_

She closed a novel with the envelope between the pages.

Christopher was away when Eva had been writing the letter. When he came back, she went to him and hugged him casually and buried her face inside his jacket.

"Do you remember the first romantic lines that you'd told me?"

"Why—no."  
"I do," she was quiet firm. "You started with like, _Will you marry me?_ Right?"

"Yeah—yes. I remember."

"So when would that day come?" she asked. "You know, all these days, there had been no physical intimacy between us though we were together all alone most of the nights—like, for tonight. How long will we keep putting an extension to our boundaries?"

Christopher passed forth a deliberate laugh. "As soon as we go back, the first thing we'll do is get the permission from your parents for our engagement."

The famous magazine _Fad Point_ in Hong Kong invited Eva to feature in the cover page for the latest edition of their magazine that weekend.

She was excited about it.

After some three days of attending their office, Eva went there again for the photo shoots in the evening.

On an average, Eva had posed for two hundred and ten photos in eight different costumes which were high on trend during the course of time.

The night of her return, there was a beggar she came to see on the street. Feeling pity, she got down from her car and gave some money to him. The moment she turned back to get into her car again, something impulsive occurred.

The man that was begging on the street snatched the diamond-studded purse from her hand. Immediately, the bodyguards inside the car got down and chased after the man.

"Holy crap!" she shouted. "I'm down in a pit that I hollowed out for myself? Catch him! Catch him! Don't let him escape!"

Eva too tried her best to trap him. She took a short cut through the narrow road between two huge buildings. When she saw the man running towards her, she pulled back slightly to hide herself. As soon as the crook came close to her, she pounced on him like a cat and began hitting him hard on his nose.

"Gotcha!"

The guards that were chasing after him saw them and came running towards the scene.

"Hold him. Lead him to the police station!" she screamed before she gave another hard blow on the felon's forehead and she grabbed the purse from him that he had been holding against his face as a source of protection against her strikes.

"Great work, Eva," Mr. Elliot said as he pulled his mobile phone out from his pocket to make a call to the police.

Within minutes, the police were on the spot. They handed the criminal to them.

On returning back, she explained her experience to Christopher. "How the beggars have turned out to be so menacing these days!"

"Be careful, Eva. The next time you step out even for getting a small job done, you make sure to be with the guards, Christopher made an advice.

The next week, Eva went to the branch office of the _Fad Point_ magazine for another time. They had selected some twenty the-most-gorgeous photos of Eva. In effect with her decision as well as the cameramen's synchronization, a best photo of her was picked to be on the front cover of their magazine. The remaining photos were added on their website as a part of the promotional activity.

In the night when she sat in front of TV, she came across a channel in which a woman spoke about the values of maintaining diary entries and the way that it would help you throw your emotions in the form of words when being alone. Eva's attention was drawn to the program.

It had been so long that she had maintained a personal diary properly. So she thought of writing diaries based on her interests and daily activities from then onwards.

She went to the closet and pulled a diary from the shelf in which she had maintained few pages of improper accounts of expenditures for the previous month. She tore off some pages of that and decided to write in it her experiences right from the day of her experience in the country.

Just then, Eva answered the door. It was Christopher on the other side. He had gone out to meet Mr. Desmond, a casting-director (who had come to Hong Kong for some personal matter), to discuss with him about his next movie.

"What were you doing?"

"Huh, just watching television," she explained. "Come in. And, tell me, how was the day?"

"Wonderful. Mr. Desmond had agreed to sign me as the leading performer for his film as soon as we get back home."

"That's nice."

"Yes, it is!" Chris said as he went upstairs. "I'll be back with you. Let me refresh myself a bit."

"Alright."

There was breaking news on the CNN that had taken control over Eva's mind. She sat on the divan and began to closely have a look at the headline:

"DEATH BY SERIAL KILLERS ON THE RAISE"

The "serial killer" thing was quite terrifying to her. She heeded on the news without flapping on to any other channel.

" _A group of detectives say that a serial is at work on the abandoned streets in the night. They say that they have the proof of deaths caused by the killers mainly in places like the local rivers, around trash-bins, and such unnoticed places._

The bandit has been said to accomplish his work with the help of many other such-like ones throughout the country.

According to the local news reports, there had been twelve murders that occurred in twelve different places across the state. Many of the victims were unidentified; nobody had come to claim the bodies.

" _It's a well-sorted out plan that these serial killers adopt which hunts his victims and takes real pride in what he commits," says Mr. Bo, a journalist._

Detectives say that these men are mainly from the age group of twenty two to thirty five.

_It's a very complimentary thing to say that Eva, the famous American actress along with her two hefty bodyguards had a vital role in handing over one of the killers to the police! Our police rely on the part that they would be successful in trapping the remaining criminals as soon as possible..._ "

With the mention of Eva's name, she began to heed more close to what was being said.

A black-and-white photo of a young and energetic man appeared on the right-side corner of the screen. Eva did not know who it was until there had been a picture of his doppelganger displayed on the centre of the screen in a rather zoomed manner.

Eva's jaw dropped open wide when she heard the next few lines, "G-o-o-d L-o-r-d," she accentuated. "Christopher! Come down. Quick!"

The culprit's photo was constantly flashing on the screen as the woman continued to speak.

Christopher was downstairs within no time. "What's wrong?"

"Watch," she said as she made room for him to sit beside her. "That's the ludicrous creature on earth. The beggar I'd been saying about last week, she said as she looked on the screen without letting her sayings disturb what she was hearing with an immovable attention.

"... _This is a photo of the killer that was caught the other night. He was a businessman in Switzerland who came to this country when the business had collapsed last year. He is a notorious person with the necrophilia disorder who is said to be engaging in sex with the teen girls after stabbing them to death._

In March, two thousand and one, there was a case of a young girl from New Town who had been found brutally killed just by the river-side and it is suspected that this person had a role in the dreadful crime.

Dozens of devastated families say they are finally thankful for the answer they'd been waiting for, but they want the remaining others caught.

" _Arrests would be the ultimate conclusion to this investigation," says an inspector. "I'd like to take this opportunity to remind and give surety for our people that the twelve murders which took place between the years of two thousand to two thousand three have been wholly investigated..."_ _"_

Eva's hands and feet had been frozen for a while after what she had heard. Christopher's assurance did not have any effect on her for nearly a minute.

"Boy, just can't believe this!" she muttered somehow. "I was so lucky in someway to escape his snare."

Chris pulled her close his chest. "Yes, you were."

"He was a businessman..." she recollected. "Such a dangerous one—and _I_ had been able to hand him to the police?!"

"Brave girl that you are!"

Eva smiled. "You know, when I had took total control over him under me after I'd swooped on him, he was like, trying to tear my shirt apart—but I thought that it was just a part of his defense. Now I realize, if at all Mr. Diego and Mr. Elliot had not come to my rescue...I don't know whether I'd been speaking all these today," she sighed.

Just at that point of time, Mr. Diego comes to the door.

"What's up, dude?"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry to announce, but, I have my wife who is ailing at this point of time. I'll need to go back to her."

"What happened to her?"

"She is falling sick time and again. The problem needs to be looked into after I go there."

"So, you want to quit?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"It's okay," she said as she rose from her seat and walked to the wardrobe. "Here, I have a little money for you, in case if you—"

Before Eva said anything again, he said he didn't want the money, but after a while when she forced him, he did take it and bid adieu to both of them.

"Thank you so much."

CHAPTER 12

Persona Grata

After the Hong Kong trip, they were back to Chicago.

Eva's personality and the dresses she wore became more of a concept of 'modern' as each day passed. This gave an idea for a costume designer that if she could, then it would be good to make a music album in which she'd be dressed as different counties' woman in their costumes for each of the songs in the album.

"That's a good idea!" she was excited. "We'll need to select some countries where we could go and make the videos in front of couple of famous places of those countries."

Mr. Jared gave her all the details on his viewpoint as for how the music album must be shot. He promised that he would be her choreographer and also take up all the responsibilities for the designing of the costumes and also the hair-dressing styles.

"I'll need to look up on the internet everything about the history and culture of the countries. Wouldn't that be a good idea, Mr. Jared?"

"Yes, indeed."

"I have with me a list of the Seven Wonders of the World like, Chichén Itzá, Great Wall of China, and so on."

"You mean we'll select those places?"

"Um-hm," she replied.

Mr. Jared gave a catalog of many titles which she could select for her new album. But, she was interested in none of them. Impressed by her boyfriend, she decided to title the album with some Spanish words. Immediately she made a call to him and said everything about the album.

After assuming the context of the work, Christopher finally uttered two simple words through the phone:

_Persona Grata_.

"Sounds good. What does it mean, anyway?"

"Person who is diplomat and acceptable."

"Wow, that's perfect," she expressed her excitement. "Like, I mean, I'd be a kind of person very diplomat and acceptable in the countries I'd be visiting?!"

"Exactly!"

"Hm. Thank you once again, Chris, for your wonderful idea!"

"You're welcome!"

"Hey, you are coming with me?"

"Sorry, I had a deal with Mr. Desmond, right?"

"Oh, yes, I had forgotten about it." Before hanging up the phone, she conveyed, "Best of luck, dear."

"To you too."

Eva's album was thought to be recorded in an easy-on-the-ear style. And that genre is what she always loved—the Pop.

She signs with the Mingle Bros. to record her next album. A budget was allotted for advertising, publicity and promotion by them. The other departments of the record company were then fully busy.

Mr. Adam, the music producer along with other members of the industry went with Eva for making the third album of her life.

# In Brazil:

For the work of the song: "Passita Wing"

Traveling in a cog train through the Tijuca Rain Forest was in fact a wonderful start-up experience for Eva.

"So, I'd planned to shoot in front of the statue of Christ—what do you call it? I-I..." she struggled for the words.

Mr. Jared was by her side. "Christ the Redeemer."

"Uh, yeah! Christ the Redeemer."

Eva had not expected the Art Deco statue to be so a breath-taking one until she saw it when she reached the Mount of Corcovado.

"Wow, man, look at that!" she shut her mouth close after dropping her jaws for five seconds. "Incredible work of talent! It was for good reasons why this had to be in the list!"

"Definitely!"

It was a beautiful view from the mountain-top vantage point to see many cities down from there including one of the most beautiful cities of the world—Rio.

"This metropolis has a thing for its name, right, Mr. Jared?"

"Rio-De-Jenerio," he uttered to realize how it sounded. "A very only-one-of-its-kind name!"

"Know something about this sculpture?"

"Uh-huh. It's called as Cristo Redentor among the Brazilians. It stands at an elevation of about forty meters tall, including the nine point five meters pedestal. Construction of this effigy took place between the years of nineteen twenty two to nineteen thirty one. And, it is made of shatterproof concrete and soapstone."

When Eva looked up for some facts about Brazil, she came across a couple of interesting places around there where the scenes could be shot. She was impressed by the Brazilian Carnival Samba Dance and decided to name the song after the dancers— _Passistas_. It took four months for her to make the first song of the album.

"Need to practice the dance, so Mr. Jared, from where can I get some proper training?"

"It's good that you have chosen the samba dance as the theme of your song," he said. "There's a dance master of samba school headquarters whom I know, he can provide you with special training."

"It definitely requires a special training on my part!"

On Tuesday afternoon, Eva made a visit to the _Quadra_ to meet Mr. Neil—the childhood friend of Mr. Jared.

"Nice to see you, Eva."

"You too!"

"To begin with, let me tell you, this type of dance is an extremely-calorie-burning one and has need of lot of stamina. I've divided the sessions for five months, normally two or three times a week for the people that wants to become professional dancers. But since you just want to know the basic techniques and rhythm of the dance, I'd cut-short the session."

"When can I join?"

"Tomorrow," he told without any hesitation. "You'll need to come for a month and I will explain to you the whole concept and way of samba-dancing. So I'd like to keep the classes for four times a week."

"Sure. Thank you, Mr. Neil."

"Anytime."

The next day, Mr. Neil had some interesting facts of the Brazilian samba to share with Eva.

"There are three dances which are wonderful to show up on screen, that include _Samba De Gafiera—_ the most complex style of samba which is a partner-dance, _Samba No Pé_ —the solo-dance and the Samba Axé—a bouncy kind of dance that has both the fundamentals of calisthenics and _Samba No Pé_ in the ballroom."

Eva pursed her lips as she closely listened to what he had been saying.

"Samba is now the national dance of Brazil that was brought by the Africans with a view in mind to conserve their culture and traditions. The Carnival Samba Parade in Rio plays an important role to erase the anxieties of people at least for a few days."

"That's so nice!"

By the end of the one month of training from Mr. Neil, Eva was then all set to work on the video shots for the song.

A form of jingle sticks called _chocalho_ , four-stringed _cavaquinho_ , _pandeiros_ , _tamburin_ , _surdo_ and trumpets were used for the background music. The song included the scenes of the Christ's statuette, Pepino Beach, Sao Conrado Beach and the samba parade on the Rio Branco Street and the samba dances in the ballroom. It also had scenes of Eva's Blocos party at Ipanema and her trip to Sambódromo that featured other beautiful women including her in the hot samba costumes with hundreds of masqueraders, a gentle dance with Mr. Keith on the shore of Copacabana ( _Zona Sul_ ) and also a scene from _Pao De Acucar_ —commonly known as _Sugar Loaf Mountain_.

# In Rome:

For the work of the song: "Vestal Virgins"

The word 'colesseum' was acquired from a Latin word _'colesseus'_ (colossal)—referring to a gargantuan sculpture of the Emperor Nero that measured about hundred and twenty feet.

"I have knowledge to some degree about this building!" Mr. Jared announced.

Eva's face indexed a sort of excitement. "Really? How?"

"Way back in my post-graduation time, I'd an assignment to survey this beautiful landmark," he said before he began with the explanation. "Um, coming to the concept, it is said to have been built by Roman Emperor Vespasian and Titus, his son. It's an art of sophisticated workmanship and is also known as Flavin Amphitheater. The building exemplifies the use of the Romans' most prominent inventions—the concrete, it took around ten years for the construction of this edifice."

"It seems like you've gotten a practical interest in the history of the world!"

"To a certain extent, I would say yes!"

Eva had decided to work on the second song of her current album and she had gained knowledge of some important aspects of the Romanian culture in the two months of her being there. In that period of time, Mr. Jared had a great time taking efforts to the maximum to choreograph the song which was thought to be titled as _Vestal Virgins_.

"Eva, to say, like, there's no special costumes in this country as far as the modern days are concerned. Rich women are often seen wearing expensive jewels and they have the highly flamboyant hairstyles."

"Would it be a problem in the selection of costumes, Mr. Jared?

"No, not at all. We have some renowned attire from the _past_ like, for example, the tunica, he said as he led her to the makeup room.

For the first scene, Mr. Jared made Eva's hair-dressing in a quite simple manner that is, allowing it to fall down in locks behind and confining it by a band encircling the head. The make-up used was normal and the mirror was of extremely polished oval-shaped bronze. Wigs and hairpieces were used to form an illusion of plentiful tresses. As for the costume, it was a simple blue skirt.

When Eva was all ready for the shoot, she looked into the mirror. Putting her hands into the pockets, she widened the lower part of her skirt. "Feels like I want to fly all around the colesseum!"

"There's a limitation for the figment of your imagination, Eva!"

Without wanting to make any further statements, Eva just took the brush at once from the table and damped the remaining face-powder on her cheek and put a camellia flower at the back of her hair in a matter of hurry.

The first shoot had taken place in and around the colesseum.

When she was back for the second shot, Mr. Jared was waiting with the stola (a common ancient Roman garb). Her hair was perfumed with sweet-fruit-burst fragrances. Different types of curling tongs and hairbrushes were used. Additionally, her hair was decorated with ribbons, festoon of flowers and an emerald-studded tiara. The thong-styled sandal was a matching pair with the type of the dress she had worn. She had put a snake-bracelet on her right hand and also the Etruscan gold fibula to fasten up her dress. With a remarkable gold necklace on her neck, she was all set for the next scene shot.

When she was down the stairs, a handful of bevy accompanied her in similar costumes on the shooting set just as per the idea of Mr. Adam.

# In China

For the work of the song: "Ninghai"

Eva began to surf the internet to prepare for her next song and to get facts and history about the Great Wall of China.

" _Being built in the northern part of China, the Wall stretches about eight thousand eight hundred and fifty two kilometers from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Nur in the west. It is believed that over one million workers met with death while building the Great Wall..."_

"Boy!"

Eva also got to see some articles and photos on the famous traditional Lion Dance of China in which the dancers mimic a lion's movements in the costumes of lion.

She came across the mythical origin of this type of dance.

" _When a monk prayed to the gods to help them all get rid of the evil that was causing pestilence in the land, the gods told him that a lion would protect them by engaging in a battle with the ills and sorrows."_

"Um—" she pursed her lips giving a close look on the white screen. "That's interesting. We'll work on a lion dance. Yup."

As Eva began to be more familiar with the terms, she decided to write a song that would put a premium on the Chinese tradition.

As and when Eva was done with the song, she, along with the other back-stage members were able to come up with a sensational song that was titled as _Ninghai_ (called as 'Homeland of Lion Dance' in Ningbo).

As the costumes used were usually orange, yellow and red with unkempt exterior, Mr. Jared prepared a couple of such dresses since the dance was usually performed in pairs. He stitched a red bow on some of the costumes' head to indicate male lions and green bow on the other costumes to represent female lions.

Working for the song was quite difficult as it involved acrobatics and giant-ball-body-balancing stunts. The other scenes included panoramic views of the hills and valleys, boys performing martial arts and few vistas from the temple-side.

The dance was accompanied by music from clashing cymbals, drums and other gentle musical instruments.

They also performed Yangee dance (one of the most expressive form of folk arts in China). The casts enjoyed the shooting along with the team on the street in the evening, dancing in a circular motion from head to tail. They had all dressed up in colorfully designed costumes, with red silk ribbons around the waist as they were swinging their body to the music being played. Buttress like dancing fan, waist-drum and litter were also used for the background.

Mrs. Nicholas had choreographed the song with a concept in her mind to shoot the scenes in such a way that Eva would be a tourist who decides to explore China one fine day, and as she marshaled with the people along her way, she leaves the country.

# In India:

For the work of the song: "Shuleka"

Mr. Saurabh guided the team across the capital city of India—New Delhi. They came to Agra, a place where one of the Seven Wonders of the World was situated.

"Taj Mahal," he said in simple terms. "Built between the year of sixteen thirty two to sixteen fifty three, it is elevated to about one hundred and seventy one meters above the sky—a perfect epitome of love, indeed! It was officially built by Shah Jahan, a Mughal Emperor, in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal."

"...A finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Islamic and Indian architectural styles!" Mr. Naveen completed the lines.

"Exactly."

The scenes were decided to be shot in certain famous places of the northern India like, Jama Masjid, Qutub Minar and the Himalayan Mountains.

Mr. Sanjay, a famous _Bharatnatyam_ dancer trained Eva very well to perform the dance in her song.

"This type of dance requires an utmost guidance and coaching," Mr. Sanjay said. "There are basically four concepts in Bharatnatyam. The first is _Abhinaya_ , a remarkable way of story-telling, the second, _Nritta,_ the different rhythms of the universe. The third, _Karanas_ that include one hundred and eight key poses. And finally, the _Hasta Mudras—_ referring to different hand gestures in a way of communication."

"On an average, how many months would the training take?"

"Roughly about three months," he told. "This dance would be pretty hard to perform for the people whose nationality isn't of this country. So if it doesn't have a great deal of practice, then it'd be like as though you're imitating some of the Bharatnatyam dancers in a rather poke-fun-at-them manner. You got me?"

"I understand."

Eva knew that India was a country with dramatic traditions and mythical beliefs and so she wanted the song in which she could show-off the true face of the Indian ethnicity. The Bharatnatyam dance had a particular uniqueness and it was in some way a language in itself which could be understood only by another Bharatnatyam dancer—Eva realized this during the practice sessions behind the screen.

By the end of two and a half months, the training was all over and Eva was all set to write a song titled _Shuleka_ —a delicate type of soft melodious musical song.

Eva was thrilled over by the fact that she had been to India in the right time because it was the month of February and she had gotten a chance to shoot among the parade group of _Taj Mahotsav Carnival_. The parade had fantastically featured the elephants, camels, arts, _shayari_ , classical concerts of music and many other interesting experiences on the road. Also, the _Taj Food Festival_ gave a chance for yet another shoot of a scene in which Eva was found enjoying the lip smacking delicacies of the Agra, the fest also including many craft _mela_ display and local handicrafts too.

A particular scene in the Himalayans was thought to be shot with Eva being to the top most spot of the Mount Everest that was to be created with the support of the graphic-designer, Mr. Mohit. He also was instructed to make a couple of graphitized Yetis that chased Eva down from the top of the mountain while she was running in a slow motion with a happy expression on her face, ahead of the horrendous creatures.

Eva also selected to present the _Lavania_ (beauty) dance that had an origination from the Maharashtrian culture on a beautifully enhanced stage in the _Dhoti_ costume.

The scenes also included a dance in the Agra Fort that was built entirely with red sandstone in the year fifteen sixty five. In that background, she was dressed in typical _Angrakha_ , yellow saree and _pheta_ with big round nose-pins, long dangling golden earrings and other noteworthy jewelries.

# In Peru:

For the work of the song: "Inca Bridge"

Being subjected to in the Machu Picchu ambiance was yet another sense of great delight for the squad.

With her personal experience, Eva came to know the characteristics of the people of the city—they were so friendly and helpful to one another.

Eva enjoyed reading some information on the internet that she thought would help her with the fifth song of her album.

Machu Picchu: This means "old peak"—a pre-Colombian Inca site located two thousand four hundred and thirty meters above the sea level. This was an abandoned place and so is often referred to as the 'Lost City of the Incas'. It is situated on a mountain above the Urubamba Valley in Peru. It was declared a UNESCO in the year two thousand and seven. It's one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Latin America...

She also read about the Inca Bridge that was built across the Urubamba River in the Pongo de Mainique (it had been a secret passage for the Inca army in the olden times) and Eva made a thought to name the song after it.

The atmosphere she lived in the city for a couple of weeks moved her to write a song based on love-making in Machu Picchu as well as in some of the eye-catching sites around.

There had been a number of beautiful destinations for them to choose from, but only some of the selected locations were opted for the shooting. The song was shot in places like Chan Chan—an ancient mud city (a World Heritage Site), Lake Titicaca (the biggest navigable body of water in the whole world), Chavin de Huánter and Huascarán National Park (mountain park in Cordillera Blanca range).

There was a particular bravura scene in which Eva watched the landscape beauty of the Machu Picchu through her binoculars from a far distance, and also scenes of people in front of the Inca Walls and a love scene with Mr. Ralph on the Inca Bridge.

When Eva got to know about Peru's famous aboriginal dance—Huayno (a dance in which high-oblique lyrics were being an adjunct to a fantastic sonata of instruments), she made up her mind to include a small bit of it in her video. Scenes also included late night party in the bar along with the DJ music, a visit to the candle-lit lounge where Eva and Mr. John had a nice time boogieing along with the crowd, and, there was also a scene in a dance club where Eva got a chance to sip the colorful _Machu Picchu drink_ that was a mix of pisco brandy, orange juice, mint liqueur and grenadine.

# In Jordan:

For the work of the song: "Fadwa"

Eva went to Ma'an Governorate in Jordan as she was all prepared for composing her next song.

The main intention of her going to the country was to record a scene in front of the Petra—"a rose-red city half as old as time" in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit system. It lays in the slope of Mount Hor. 'Petra' basically means 'rock'. It is a great piece of art work that found its place in the list of the World Heritage Site in the year nineteen eighty five—a must-to-be-visited place before you die.

The imposing eastern doorway leads steeply down through a dark, narrow gorge called the Sig—a natural ecological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks. At the end of the gorge stands Petra's most highly structured paddock, _Al Khazneh_ , which means, "The Treasury".

It was when Eva checked the internet about the common girls' life in the country that she got an inspiration to write a song based on it. She pictured the scenes and penned it down on a sheet of paper. She began to see with her mind's eye as she portrayed herself as a Jordanian girl named Fadwa.

Eva sat on her couch and began to write.

Fadwa, a girl who was never allowed to wear dresses like her favorite western actors, one day gets a chance to wear what had just been a dream to her during the days of her life. She attends a party in a ballroom with her friends when her step-mother had gone out of station for a week. During this time, she enjoys her life just as the way she had intended it to be like. She then marries her boyfriend, all in accordance with her hope against hope. Then, finally when her step-mothered gets to know about this cloak and dagger, she forces her to divorce him. The emotional sequence begins here when she was totally into him and while it was so hard for her to bid him goodbye. At this point, she makes a commitment with him—a final commitment. At last, she decides to end her life wearing a jilbab (a floor-length, long-sleeved dress worn with the head covered) just to make a testimony that she kept up the cultures when she breathed her ultimate.

Eva made a clear thought to invite Mr. Abdul, a famous Jordanian singer to feature in her song as her partner as per the prepared script.

Mr. Jared took Eva to him on a diligent Friday afternoon.

" _Assalam alaykum_!" Mr. Abdul acknowledged both of them with a greeting grin.

"What does that mean?" Eva slowly whispered to Mr. Jared as she managed to keep up the smile on her face.

He replied in frailty. "Say, _walaykum assalam._ "

Eva then however coped up to get the words out of her mouth. "Wal—walaykum a—assalam!"

Mr. Abdul smiled and welcomed them inside as he went through the entryway.

"You didn't tell me what exactly that was!" Eva growled through her teeth.

"He had said 'peace be with you' for which you had said 'and peace be with you too'."

"Oh!"

There were a couple of places where Eva and the group had teamed up for the shooting like, Jordan Tombs, Great Temple of Petra, Monastery, Petra Midnight Pilgrimage, The Silk Tomb and the Petra Amphitheater.

Classes of Pilates training significantly transformed Eva's body—making it a perfect toned body with slender thighs and a flat abdomen. It thought her about the body awareness and the ways to maintain good posture and easy-on-the-eye kind of elegant movements. It improved her agility and economy of motion. The second round of training given to her was for the Tangolates, it was a dance of the combination of crux-solidity of Pilates with the sinuous movements of the Tango. It also took on board the cardio fundamentals of music.

The song was integrated with range of scenes from Latin and Ballroom dances such as the Cha Cha, Rumba and Meringue.

Eva was contented to a great extent that she had been able to shoot her song just how she had it all pictured in her mind in a sort of motion picture. And she was thankful to Mr. Abdul for his contribution.

# In Mexico:

For the work of the song: "Pok Ta Pok"

Chichén Itzá was built by the Maya Civilization and it is located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula in the municipality of Tinūm. These two complex words all in all meant, "At the mouth of the well of Itzá" in the Mayan language.

The site puts on view a mass of architectural designs, from what is called "in the Mexican origin" and several styles seen in central Mexico to the style found among the Puccu Maya of the northern valleys.

There was a reason why Eva chose the last song of her album to be shot in the Chichén Itzá. She had read in some magazine regarding the mystery of Pok Ta Pok—a game that was played by the Mayan boys in the past. It wasn't just a mere game—it is an obscurity on which the fear of the world hangs right now. Pok Ta Pok was played with a large ball in a game-court just beyond the El Castillo. The ball was hurled through a ring that was fixed on a wall, _seven_ meters above the ground. There were _seven_ players in a team and if you clapped your hands or shout in the court, the sound will echo exactly _seven_ times! This is believed to be an elemental concept according to the Mayan prophecy that on December twenty second, two thousand and twelve, the great warrior serpent, Kukulkán will raise from the ground beneath the playing field—and that it would be the end of the world on that day.

Though Eva had known a number of Mayan prophecies being fulfilled, she believed with her sturdy heart that that concept was just a mythical belief—she wanted to prove it to the world with her concluding song of her album. She was so sure about this because she knew that Jesus would never take back his words: " _Only the Father knows when there would be an end to this system of things, and no man knows it, not even the Son_."

Mr. Jared along with Eva made a visit to the Chichén Itzá. "Whoa!" Eva widened her eyes when she saw the Feathered Serpent at the bottom of "El Castillo" staircase. They further went ahead and found a narrowly enclosed staircase that led them to a _chac mool_ —an altar of offering of sacrifices. The experience of being inside the monument was undoubtedly adventurous, Eva felt that it would do a great deal of good if the people with claustrophobic would skip that part!

The scenes for the final song included dances in front of the Chichén Itzá with men in Nuevo Leon, leather-fringed vests, cowboy hats and bandanas. As for the women, they wore dresses like Puebla, Yucatan, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Nayarit, Guerrero and Michoacán with some of them in braided hair and ribbons. There were a handful of cute little Mexican children dancing in concord with them as they all were holding red-colored balloons—with one for each of them. The dances mainly were Polkas, and Schottische.

The scenes also featured Eva performing a high-on- escapade bit from the helicopter—a bungee jump. As a part of the next adventure, she was found traveling through the skies in the hot air balloon that was very much similarly designed like the Chichén Itzá itself as the birds flew past her smiling face.

At the concluding parts, Eva along with all the casts were found dancing on the Pok Ta Pok game-court (shot like as if it was December twenty second, two thousand and twelve, that day).

The graphic designer created a mind-blowing bit by making the court quake as all of them were still dancing to the music. Then, finally the quad cracked open and someone did come out from under—it wasn't Kukulkán for sure! It was Mr. Allison—the director of the album who slowly came up above the ground in his blue director's chair!

All these were made with the high-defined graphical sequence by Mr. Jackson.

And, as the last morsel, the children were found letting all the balloons up into the air—and that was it—the cessation of the album and not of the world itself!

CHAPTER 13

Lunar

Right after Eva was all done with the work of her prominent album, the first thing she did was visit Terri to talk with her about her boyfriend, Christopher.

"Hey, how've you been?"

"Hi!" Terri exclaimed. "I'm doing good, and you?"

"As always—pretty good!"

"Come in, Ella."

Terri sat on a couch and Eva pulled a chair for herself next to her.

"Saw the trailer of your videos on TV—they were awesome!"

"Thank you!"

"Would you like to have some hotdog?" Terri said as she rose up.

"Undeniably—why not?"

When Terri had gone to the kitchen, Eva began to accelerate her thoughts as on how and what she was about to speak.

Terri came with a plate of two hotdogs. She took one for herself before offering the other to Eva with the plate as well—so that she would not have to sweep off the bits that would fall from Eva's maw.

"It's so hard to believe, Terz..."

"What?"

"You and Christopher—"

The moment Eva cited her name with Christopher, the lettuce in her second bite obstructed Terri's breath and she began coughing so badly that she had to get up again and put a small break to the conversation so that she could go get some water to relieve her throat.

As and when Terri opened the refrigerator, there was a knock on the door, and Eva had to answer it.

Eva got up and unbolted the door.

"Christopher?" she made her eyes wider rendering speechless for a second or two.

Even Chris felt like a skeleton in the cupboard when he put light on the thought like, _why is she here?_ But he did not wanted to show the grimace of astonishment on his face, so he got along with his usual leer that felt more like so edgy to himself.

"Come in Christopher!" Terri welcomed him from a few distance away.

Eva moved aside with a smile, realizing that the presence of her on the entryway was blocking him.

"Then, how was the shooting of your new film?" Eva asked.

"Pretty great!" he said. "How far did the success of 'Persona Grata' reach?"

"Four stars," she claimed, "according to the _Yorker Post_!"

"Wow! Not bad at all! I mean, that's fabulous!"

Eva smiled in agreement.

"What was the name of your new film?"

" _Interrupting One_ ," Christopher said.

"Oh, so who's that 'interrupting one' in the movie?"

"My co-star, Kim Palmilone."

Eva nodded, "I see."

Just then, Christopher looked at Terri just to make sure that she's not having an impression of being left at the rear in the middle of their conversation. Eva got to see the keen expression on his face.

"Christopher," Eva called to draw back his attention. "May I know why you're here today?"

He wanted to divert the topic. "Just came over to see you, Eva," he said. "I'd been to your house, your guard told me that you're here."

"Yeah, I'm here!"

Just at that, Eva's bag vibrated with a tune. It was a phone call from her mother's personal assistant.

"Ma'am, your mum has not been alright since you'd left. She's taken ill now and is demanding to see you soon here with her."

"Oh, what's the matter?"

"She is depressed and now lying on her bed with a cold."

"Yeah. Okay, I'll be there in another ten minutes," Eva said before keeping the phone back in her bag.

"Everything all right?" Christopher asked in a matter of tension.

Eva rushed to the door without looking back. "Mom is desperate to see me. I need to go back."

She got into her car and asked the driver to fast back home.

On entering the gate of her house, there was no presence of the guard there.

The car halted in front of the doorway and Eva began to get down and run inside to see her mom.

"Ella, where were you?" asked Mrs. Nora.

"At Terri's."

"I was wondering... You were supposed to reach here by early morning."

"Are you okay now, mom?"

"Yeah, I got my half life back when I saw you."

Eva smiled and pulled herself closer to her mother where she was on her bed, sitting.

She saw that the guard was just adjacent to the bed. "Mr. Aaron Jean, you're not supposed to be here anymore. Get back to the gate."

"Sorry, ma'am," he put his head down and went out the door to mind his business.

At once when he was out, Eva silently walked to him. "Mr. Aaron, I'm sorry. I wanted to know something and I didn't want others to hear that, and that's the reason I sent you out."

He was confused. "What is it, ma'am?"

"Uh, did Chris come here few hours back?"

"No. I didn't see him at all here since you'd left."

Eva's heart almost shattered. "Okay, thanks." She hid her feelings locked in herself.

"Any problem, ma'am?"

"No. No—No problem...No problem," her sense of tone made it clear that there was some kind of trouble and Mr. Aaron didn't wanted to dig that out because that wasn't a part of his work in fact.

"Alright, then. Do let me know if there is a quandary anytime."

"Gracias for the assurance!" she smiled.

Eva wanted to probe the matter out as for what reason her boyfriend had in order for him to lie to her. She decided to go there the next day again.

"Dad!" there was a loud noice from downstairs.

Mr. Smith addressed it. "What's it, Ella?"

"I'm going out for shopping. Will be back in the afternoon. And tell mom to take care. I'll be back soon."

"All right, dear."

Eva drove her Ferrari to Terri's cottage.

On reaching there, she heard Christopher's voice again. There was a deep discussion going on between him and Terri. She raised her hand to knock on the door, but held back to hear what was it that they had to talk so much as that Christopher was going there all the time.

She moved to the shut windows from the other side to hear them in secrecy.

Christopher was speaking. "...yeah, Mr. Gonzalez. Like I'd told you that day. His time has arrived. I'd made him my business partner in Coloumbia last week. That's the only way I could get to do what I'd been longing to do ever since my dad had left me."

It sounded something as a serious matter to Eva and she began to hear them, giving utmost attention, not letting the sound of birds or the bell of cycles, nor even the sound of whooshing wind against the leaves of the trees to rob her off her sincere attentiveness.

"Does Ella know about all these?" Terri spoke. "Have you ever told her?"

Eva amplified her eyes and ears when she heard her name. "Is it something in which _I'm_ related to?" she spoke in her mind. "God, Almighty."

"Oh, it's ten. I need to head back. It's an appointment with Mr. David Charles for advertising for his company."

"See you, Alessandro."

"Take care," he said.

When Eva got to know that the door would then be opened, she hid herself behind the big beautiful vase that was beside her. The door made a creaking slow sound and she adjusted herself much more so that she would remain hidden. But, abruptly, the vase fell off and smashed against the granite flooring.

Terri heard the sound and immediately made it to the spot. She saw the pieces of her vase lying all across. When she looked over, she saw a big white cat on the papapet. Terri then had no other option but to believe that it was because of the cat that her four hundred dollars' stuff had all shattered along the floorboard.

"Errr. Darn you, kittie!" she stamped her foot against one of those pieces of clay, forcedly.

Terri went to the doorway where Christopher was standing just a minute ago. But he had already left. There just remained a trail of his footprints on the carpet.

On the happening of all these, Eva had concealed at the empty place behind the stairs. And when she realized that Terri had gone inside, she heaved herself to get out of the place.

She successfully managed to get out of there, not until Terri took to see her at the main gate downstairs.

"Eva?" she mumbled in trepidation. But Eva didn't know that her friend had seen her. She hurried to her car and accelerated back at a swift rate of knots. "What had she been doing here at all?" Terri wondered.

On her way, Eva pulled over in front of a mall. But since it definitely wasn't her day, she decided to head back without wanting to purchase anything.

She began to contemplate in angst by recollecting those words that she'd heard in their conversation.

As she was completely lost in her mind, she took to a route that led her nowhere to her destination and it was only after half a minute that she realized it.

"Oh, shit," she reversed back the gear, and for being atypical, she hit a bike that was parked behind. "Jeez!"

Before someone could perceive her, she left the spot instantly.

After reaching home, she went to her room and locked herself up.

She began to think and think and think about the cause of Christopher's new behaviors. It was evident that he was going to do something that he had ever once dared to do.

Eva lay on her couch and putting her arm over her head, she lost herself into the matter for a second time.

"Like, the changing phases of moon..." she murmured. "Chris has been changing."

With a deep sigh out, she got up and took to washing her face at the basin.

CHAPTER 14

Married

Eva remembered what Christopher had told her during their trip to Hong Kong.

There was a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Eva, Chris here."

"What's up, man?"

"Have you lost it?"

"Loose what?" Eva was confused.

"Our commitment."

"For our engagement?"

"No. For the marriage."

"Whoa," Eva exclaimed. "Without being engaged?"

"Absolutely."

"I'll ask my mom and dad."

"Sure, then."

Eva was so happy that finally she was getting married to her boyfriend. She notified the matter to her parents immediately.

Her parents had agreed to it and Eva called up Christopher over the phone.

"Hola! My parents have no objection with the deal, Chris!" she cried with rejoice.

"I knew they would agree!"

"Really? How, though?"

"We're couple made in the heavens!"

"Goodness!"

"Next week at the Holy Hazel Church. Be ready."

"All right, Chico!"

It was on Friday. Eva was so enthusiastic. Invitations were already sent to all the guests to attend the impressive episode of their marriage. Many girls almost of her age were appointed for making her look stunning at the grand event of her life.

"At last, the nightmares of Terri stealing my boy has disappeared!" Eva whispered, smiling slightly in front of the mirror.

The media and journalists were also assembled to record the precious moments.

Eva wore a white-creamish gown that was fully pearl studded. It was a perfect fit matching her idyllic nature.

The girls tried on every kind of blushers and eyeliners and creams on her just to make sure she looked pretty in all angles.

Just then, Mrs. Nora came into the room. "How's everything going, ladies?!"

Eva turned behind at her voice. "Mom! I'm feeling so good today, you know," she got up from her chair and hugged her mother.

"I know it, dear. I was once your age!" she said, brushing Eva's hair gently. "Now, get ready. Quick. We're getting late."

The whole house was decorated with different types of roses and candles all over. It was so pleasant witnessing them.

Everything was set. All of them made their way to the church.

Eva got into a car, she with her parents and her close friends.

On reaching the chapel, she took a deep breath before getting down from the car with her royal bouquet made of white roses and with tiny diamonds where she was holding it by.

The cameramen began capturing the video.

Mr. Smith accompanied his daughter all the way to the church.

On entering the door, the crowd greeted them with huge applauses. She saw Christopher waiting for her there in his black suit and white shirt.

"I've never seen you look so alluring!"

"All thanks to the girls!"

Both of them slowly walked to the vicar.

Now the priest read out the verses related to the marriage from the book of Ephesians. "Submitting to one another in the fear of God. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord," he sent a smiling gaze at the couple before continuing. "For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself." The priest gave one more look at the couple who stood in front of him waiting for exchanging the rings. "For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. For this is the reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning the Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

The scriptures read out in a minute not only were helpful to the then-going-to-wed couples, but also all those who were at the church to remember how it was the God's view of marriage that both husband and wives live in accordance to His laws.

Now it was the time for exchanging vows.

"Christopher, do you wish to take Eva as your honorable wife?"

"Yes, I do," he said boldly.

"Okay. Now, Eva, do you seek Christopher to be your future husband?"

Eva looked at Chris at once and smiled earnestly. "Of course. I do."

A golden plate was given to them on which lay a white cloth and on it there were two rings.

"Now it's the time to exchange the rings, please."

Christopher first took the diamond ring and put it into his wife's right ring-finger.

Eva took the platinum ring that was meant for Christopher and placed it into his finger too.

"I wish you shall go according to the scriptures and enjoy a worthy married life," said the priest. "I hereby pronounce you husband and wife."

At that time, there was a great cheer among everybody, they smiled and began clapping loud.

Christopher then pulled Eva towards him and they both officially kissed in front of the public for the first time.

The crowd began to explode in festive more than ever. It was such a memorable experience for every one of them present there.

The couple turned around to address the gathering. At that, plenty of rose petals, full filled with striking natural fragrances were poured out on them by the crowd.

Eva looked for Terri, but she was nowhere to be found, though she was invited by her personally.

Both of them walked along the passage and they cut the large four feet strawberry flavored cake that was placed on a table from the top and gave it to each other, in a jovial humor. Then they enjoyed a goblet of champagne, each, along with all of them.

That evening after the ball dance, the couple went back to their respective homes and got all set to fly to Australia. "Take care, you both," said Mrs. Nora, kissing her daughters' hand at the airport.

"Have a safe journey," Mr. Smith responded. "Good luck with your honeymoon."

"Thank you," said the newlywed couple, both almost at the same time.

After the custom checking and other processes, they got into their special VIP flight and flew to Sydney.

They stayed at an imperial resort.

"You've been here before?" Christopher inquired when both of them were sitting on the armchairs, relaxing.

"For promotional trips, yes. And you?"

"It's the first time!"

"And that's the reason you selected this place?" Eva said, bending down a little.

"Not exactly."

"Then?"

"Sydney is a romantic place to hangout," he commented.

Eva smiled, biting her lips as though she was trying to seduce the one whom she was talking to. "Definitely. A picturesque romantic place for..."

"For?"

"Ah-huh!" Eva at once rose up and bent to face Christopher. She could see a drop of sweat already pouring down his forehead and his ears had turned to be as red as the strawberry cake that they cut at the wedding. "Oh, look at you!" she touched his ear. "They're so hot."

"And so are you!"

"Hey I didn't mean that 'hot'!"

"But I meant it," he smiled.

"Looks like they're longing for something!"

Christopher couldn't keep up with his senses anymore. He elevated himself from his chair. "Yes. They're longing for _you_." He hugged his wife and carried her to the room.

"Here, on the bed you sit," Chris laid her carefully.

"And then?"

Christopher didn't speak. He took a glass of milk and handed it to her.

Eva was bemused.

"Drink it. A glass of milk is a perfect start for any ladies at this point of time!" he said.

With a slight simper on her face, Eva drank the whole glass of milk, hardly leaving any drops behind.

At that, Christopher pushed her on the bed gently as such that her head lay on the soft white cushion. He took off his shirt and lay on her, kissing her all over her upper body.

The next thing Eva knew was it had already been morning when she found herself naked on the bed. But no one was lying beside her.

Rubbing her eyes, she supported herself against the bed and was about to call her husband to see where he was.

"Boom!" Christopher scared her from behind.

Eva turned her face to him, "Chris!"

"Tea's ready. Here's your cup."

"Excuse me, first let me put on my clothes," she demanded. "I'd never drunk a cup of something like, lying bare! I've never done that."

"There's it, on the table."

Eva soon got into her night-dress and was all set to drink what her husband had to offer her.

"You prepare tea so well, dude!" she said after sipping from the cup.

"That's me!"

"You're cool. You've always been!"

"And will always be."

"With that, I wanted to ask you something," Eva paused. "You'd offered me milk yesterday..."

"Yeah," he said, his voice low.

"After that I don't remember anything at all. I didn't enjoy anything last night as far as my knowledge has a statement proving that."

"You were so appealing and charming," he said before looking at the cup in her hands. "Hey, your tea. Drink it before it is cold."

Eva shrugged while she sipped on. "Ah, thanks."

"Pleasure."

"What's today's plan?"

"Manly beach."

"Wow! It's really _manly_ ," she said. "We get a sense of some courage being there, you know?"

At noon, they made it to the beach.

"Chris, let's capture some good times here now. Take this and click my picture," she told handing the camera to her hubby.

Manly beach had offered them a lot of great moments. She was all ready to put them up on her blog once she got back to the resort.

They also visited other architectures like Sydney Town Hall and Australian Museum. It was an enthralling experience without doubt.

When she got the resort, as expected, she created a blog on the internet. The title being: _Live Your Life._ She put all their snaps and videos on it.

The next day, when she signed in to check her new site, there were already hundreds of comments awaiting moderation on every photo. On the FOLLOWERS list, there were two hundred and thirty six members by then.

They went to one of the remarkable places there after two days—Sydney Opera House and followed by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

On the seventh day, they went for a prominent sport of Sydney, that is, The NRL which is the greatest and noble domestic rugby league competition in the Southern Hemisphere.

They spent nine days and eight nights altogether before making a departure.

CHAPTER 15

Launching Cosmetics

It was when Eva had seen on TV certain personalities endorsing their range of makeup products that she got that impulse to launch her own sort of beauty kits, she was twenty four then.

As was said, Eva's basic course at _The Shin's Cosmetology Institution_ was indeed considered worthwhile during that time.

Eva consulted a 'no name' contract manufacturer to put her dream into reality at Canterbury.

"Very excited on how this is gonna work," Eva exclaimed.

"Just right!" Mr. Aiden, the dermatologist spoke. "It's a multibillion business you'll be working on."

Eva licked her lips and smiled in agreement.

"How do you want the name of the brand to be?"

"Uh, I've this idea in me. Like, long back, I'd been the brand ambassador for the _Shin's_ , and now I'm here for implementing sort of those ideas to expand this project."

Mr. Aiden looked at her once, his gaze above the spectacles he had worn. "What kind of 'ideas'?"

"Business ideas, product ideas, branding..."

Eva had an intention for creating her own line of products, but at a decent price level for her fans who desired to look like her in the type of makeup she commonly wore.

"The main thing I would like to tell about is that, we shall only be using eco-friendly products for the manufacturing of our cosmetics," she said in a professional way. "I would encourage the use of organic ingredients and strictly a big NO to toxic chemicals that might cause any kind of allergies."

"Sure, madam," Mr. Aiden agreed.

After two days, Eva went to that private label cosmetic manufacturer's laboratory once again to talk with him about getting started with her new business.

"I like wearing makeup that is made out of roses, tea tree oil, figs and such sweet fruits and flowers," she said. "So, essentially now you've gotten to create products from these things."

Mr. Aiden took Eva to the manufacturing department.

Eva took a deep breath. "Wow, what a heady scent!"

"Yeah. We can make your products smell even better!"

"You can?!"

"Yes."

Eva gave a complete list of her range of expected merchandise to Mr. Aiden. It included soaps, bathing crystals, moisturizing lotions, exfoliating scrubs, lip balm, glosses, hair conditioner, oils and shampoo, nailpaints, perfumes, foundation cream and powder, shower gels, eye shadow, mascara, sunscreen lotions and makeup remover.

"Think about a fabulous brand name, ma'am."

" _Hypnotizing_ ," Eva informed without taking a single second to contemplate about it.

"Guess you'd gotten the title beforehand long back!"

"Ever since I'd planned to launch my goodies!"

There were complete instructions provided by Eva so that her strategy would turn out to be just the way she had intended it to be, like the products' texture, formation, and ingredients to be used.

According to Eva's sketch, a wide variety of cosmetic blend derived out of organic components such as pomegranate, tea tree oil, rose petals, fig extracts, cologne of lavender, orange, lemon, watermelon, avocado, marigold and even 'GMO free' factors were used.

"To be more proficient in this term, let me give you perceptions through which you can earn more profits", Mr. Aiden said.

"I'd love to hear them!"

"How about setting up a store?" he asked. "I mean, we have our members here to manage all the store activities, so you don't have to bother going there every time but except for your promotional events, if you like to.

"That would be a great idea," acquiesced Eva a jiffy before her expression changed slightly. "But what kind of work would there be at the store?"

"Many," Mr. Aiden looked away from Eva's face. "There are services that can be made available there such as spa treatment, massage therapy with natural oils, cure for ageing skin, bridal makeup service and providing assistance on the products, if needed be."

"That's a good way of marketing, indeed!"

"It is!" he replied.

Since the cosmetics manufactured under the guidance of the qualified contractor were free of any malicious chemicals, mineral waxes and artificial coloring or fragrances, it was in actual fact approved by the FDA for that matter.

After seeing through a number of different branding design styles for her new products, Eva was compatible with one:

" _HYPNOTI_ _z_ _ING"_

"I think that seems the perfect one, right, Mr. Aiden?"

"It's good, yes."

As a part of her marketing activity, Mr. Aiden helped Eva in creating a website where there could be extended an online shopping prospect for the customers. There was made available discount offers for regular customers and a normal price tag for the introductory ones.

Eva decided her store's name to be Ella's, and they gave it a design like this:

" _Ella's"_

There was news already flourishing on the internet, TV, and newsletters about the launch of Eva's course of cosmetic products after the store was successfully set up across different mega cities throughout the world.

For the matter of much more publicity, Eva attended many press meets, presented herself at the local radio stations at Canterbury, held lots of music concerts and parties.

The cosmetic products were specially made available only at the instituted store where they were all sold as a kit in a beautiful designer bag fabricated by Ms. Olivia, the famous fashion stylist. All bags were individually having a printed signature of Eva to make the project meet with high stipulations of demand.

During the course, Eva was interviewed by many TV hosts.

"So, tell us, Eva, how was your experience to be following all new a path like this?" asked one of the interviewer.

"Cool. Sizzling."

"What made you chose a name something like 'Hypnotizing'?"

"My products," she said. "They are kinda—it makes you feel hypnotized, though not literally," (she smiled) "...with the fresh strike of lingering aroma they have gotten."

"Nice idea, though. Keep it up."

"Thanks."

"Do you have something to tell our viewers?"

"Yeah," she said turning to the camera. "Hi, guys, Eva here," she smiled again. "My range of cosmetics are skin-friendly, it's just something you are looking for. I hope you get the right out of it! They are environment-friendly too. Now, you can give them a try and see for yourself how _hypnotizing_ it's gonna be!"

Eva was so thankful to Mr. Aiden for his support throughout the journey, and she never forgot to thank him wherever she had been to for her promotional activities for the matter of up building her new approach.

**CHAPTER** **16**

Midnight Fear

Christopher and his wife were outside his mansion, taking a breather at the swimming pool.

"You took up to be so brave enough to try a whole new line to earn your bucks!" Christopher said before diving off.

Eva was lying on a long cushion chair. "I was interested and so I did it!"

They swam and played with the pool ball. The time had gone by nearly an hour and they didn't even took to realize it.

On entering the hall after that, Christopher said, "Eva, now that you have proved successful in trying out new things, I just wanted to give an 'oomph' to you in trying out yet another new-fangled course."

Eva smiled in confusion. "Yeah? Tell me."

"How about writing a book?" he asked, being quite sure that she would agree for it. "I'd been thinking to tell you this from so many days!"  
"Then why didn't you?"

"I wasn't sure..."

"Well—well, well," she stopped Christopher by speaking. "I guess I can give it a try!"

"Oh, yup. You must and you can."

"Thanks. But what am I gonna write?! I have no idea."

"Anything you're interested in?"

"Music!" she raised her voice.

"That's not a 'new course', you're already in music!"

"Ahem, then, what about writing something that would lump up terror in the minds of the readers?" Eva giggled.

"That's a good idea. Writing something based on terror," he said, rubbing his forehead with his index finger. "Sounds good."

"What about the title to be given?"

"You want me to try a title for your project again?" he smiled.

"No. I'll do it for myself," Eva said just before starting to guess something in her mind. "Midnight Fear!?" she broke up.

"I guess that's good!"

Eva nodded.

"What's its theme?"

Eva turned her back to him and walked ecstatically towards the table to get her pen and diary. "It's gonna be a surprise!"  
Christopher sighed and shrugged.

That night, Eva began to start writing. She wanted to write something not too long, instead, she thought to keep it short. She wrote down the titles first and demanded Christopher to go to the other room so that she could fully concentrate on her work.

The theme proposed was something like this that there was a main character in the novel who had shifted to a new house, and that it was at sharp twelve o' clock every night that when the cuckoo bird came out the wall clock and cooed twelve times and a loud noise could be heard—as though someone had put a big rock with heavy force directly into a well, nearby. The fear starts from midnight and continues till about quarter past twelve. Finally it was figured out that it was all because of a man who lost his lover who was staying in that house before she'd died. Rumors had already been scattered in the wind at the vicinity that whoever stayed there would be haunted by the spirit of that girl. The man hated the presence of any dwellers at his lover's home, and hence he played all mischievous acts to superimpose in them the dread of the existence of specters in that house.

And at the completion of her book, she gave it to the Rookie's Publishing Department for review. They were glad to receive a piece of work from her because of what she was and they knew that it was going to increase their goodwill too.

On the day of the release of the book, Eva had invited many famous authors and other people, including children for a small function in The Big Apple from where she thought she could mushroom the sale of her books. Christopher had to go for a photo shoot on that day and so he couldn't attend.

There were plenty of people already assembled on the grounds.

"This is the book, titled _'Midnight Fear'_ , as you can see here," she said turning back to face the big blue banner on the stage. "Many of you would have already assumed this to be something related to the fiend, but let me tell you, it is just a stuff that amps up terror in the minds of the readers for a cause that is not related to the demons," she smiled once to make things seem easy. "And the cause? You're gonna find only when you read it!"

Few of the editors, authors and journalists were also seated along with Eva at the table, facing the audience; they gave comments through the mikes—about the work as well as their own experiences related to books and magazines and also shared with the public all the secrets that it takes to write a book.

"To make the event seem interesting," Eva spoke. "For the children—see, I already see them kinda dozing!" she laughed. "Yeah, so, children, I'm gonna ask you some general questions—some simple ones, for which if you answer, you'll be taking home a free copy of my book today!"

All the children's mind then was lit up in happiness.

"Me! Me! Me!" they shouted.

"All right, all right," Eva calmed them down. "Since the majority of you are children here, let me select some ten of you first to participate."

She ordered the children to come up on the stage and give a small speech about anything they were interested in. On doing so, many of them didn't turn up because of their stage-fear. And that made the selection process a bit undemanding.

Around twenty young people spoke on the stage about many worthy-of-note things they were fascinated in.

Eva selected the best ten out of the group and started to ask them simple general knowledge and fact-based questions.

Since there were just three books that were allotted to be given away as prizes for the winners, Eva had selected the three best ones then.

"Ryan, Angel and Grace are the lucky youngsters to own a free copy each—of my books at this point of time, exclusively by me!" Eva congratulated them.

It was yet another good event she had been to in trying out something totally new.

That day itself, thousands of books were sold and the Rookie's team was thankful in tons to Eva for selecting their department for publishing her work.

When Eva went back home, Christopher was lying on his couch, too tired.

"What happened, honey?"

"I was waiting to share my experience with you!"

"Yeah, I'm here now, please."

"Today I had one of the worst cab-ride of my life!"

"Ah?" Eva wanted an explanation for that.

"Hm, the car came along the bumpy roads, then somehow when that got away, there it was—another problem again—too many people on the road and there was heavy traffic, and it isn't over with this! To make it worse, the car got punctured halfway and I had to come here all the way walking, taking a short-cut!"

Eva made an attempt to show that she was pity with what had happened. "Oh, man!"

"I guess the roads were jammed up because of your book-release event."

"Yeah," she stressed the word.

CHAPTER 17

Las Vegas

"A city that's so bright and greeting that no words can express," commented Eva at Las Vegas. "One must come here and sense how the experience here like really is!"

That was the time when Eva had come to Nevada for the shooting of her next music album— _Fama_. Even her husband had accompanied her for the purpose.

" _Fama_ again is a Spanish word," said an interviewer who had interviewed Eva for their news channel. "Where do you get these words from?!"

Christopher who sat next to her on the sofa mopped his forehead at that point. He had already been sweating bullets.

"My husband," Eva said, proudly.

The interviewer turned to Christopher to ask. "Is that so, Chris?!" she beamed like a sixty watt light bulb. "How did you learn Spanish?"

Without wanting his inner sense to punish him at proving something, he spoke as soon as he could, yet he stayed calm. "Yeah. I used to go for a language speaking course, long back," he then put up a grin on his face for a backup composure.

At that time Eva realized that no one in the media had known her husband's real identity, she felt sorry, but couldn't speak out. She just licked her lips and made herself melt in the usual ongoing 'interview-atmosphere'.

"Tell us about your new music album, Eva."

" _Fama_ is going to send that 'real' chill down your spine! It is all surprise, again. My team has already planned how to take this ahead. Music is my inspiration and there are some extreme..." Eva stopped suddenly. "Ah-ah! I am not revealing that!"

Early morning on Sunday, Eva got up from her bed to start working on the songs under an internship at the _Allies Music Publishing_. First, she began to write down, using motivational words and giving the ideas of heavy rhythmic beats wherever she thought it was needed.

Just then Christopher saw her at the table being busy with something and he wanted to ask her if she required some guidance. "Hi, baby, you need my help?"

"Oh, Chris," she turned to him with a beautiful smile. "No, thanks, dear."

"You're up with the lyrics?"

"Yeah. I'm planning to write my full thirteen songs right today itself."

"Don't you think you're putting yourself into too much stress?"

"I don't think so. Let me see, if possible, I'll do it."

"Okay, I'll just shift, let me not disturb you."

"All right."

As Eva had planned, she did write and visualize those songs that were to be recorded in the album and she showed the titles to her husband.

"They seem all good, Eva," said Christopher, patting gently on her back.

"Gracias!"

"De nada," he said (welcome in Spanish) when Eva had thanked him.

Eva's contract with the Mingle Bros. was by then over, so she signed into the record executive Andy Morgan's label: Justify Records and soon the songs were sung by her in the Jammer & Jigger recording studio under the guidance of her private sound engineer, Mr. Dillon.

Once the music was ready, they went for video shooting at few impressive destinations of Vegas.

The crew went first to many restaurants, bars, clubs, casinos and places where there were plenty of colorful water-plays in order to shoot the first song, _Pleasing Myself_.

For the shooting of the second song, _That Girl_ , Mr. Madison, a model and singer, was invited to do a duo with Eva. The set was arranged all in a picturesque way in front of the giant motel where there were water fountains at the entrance which further beautified the things.

"I'm very excited here! My co-star—he's too hot," said Eva on a camera. "It is a cold night, and I'm already steaming!"

They rehearsed for the dance the whole night and when the director, Mr. Jonas found everything good, he scheduled the shooting for the next night.

It was on Sunday, Eva and all the other casts and members once again assembled on the sets. The shooting began, then.

There were scenes from the top of the motel, then Eva romancing Mr. Madison at the fountain and many other scenes which included a billiard game, a bike-driving and so on.

There were huge gatherers on the set, and celebrities like Mr. Madison and Eva had already learnt the 'way' to put on a show still—without raising a brow or rubbing their necks.

On the fourth day of the album shoot, they all went to an apartment, and the shooting was planned to take place inside a room there as well as on the road nearby. _I'm Animated_ was the third song. It was a sort of different song where lots of sci-fi graphics were used. Robots, computers, e-pads, androids, and other such related items were included.

The shooting went on with more songs like, _Canophilist_ (a song that featured lots and lots of different breed of dogs from around the world), _Robbery Eyes_ (song where Eva comments on the typical yet attracting gaze of her co-star), _When You Walk_ (an emotional song featuring Jake Albert), _You Can Feel My Maturity_ (a hazy song with large number of people), _Eagerly Awaiting_ (yet another expressive song), _Killer You_ (song based on a love revenge), _No Subjection_ (song in the spring time with flowers, gardens and butterflies), _Devastating_ (a song in which Eva sang everything about what a woman feels like when she's in love and how hard it is to get along when it seems everything is lost), and _Forever Young_ (a feminine bliss song).

Then for a special song, they went to the breath-taking Grand Canyon in a helicopter. Eva had never seen the place except on TVs and on the internet.

"I guess 'spectacular' is not just the only word I can use when being here, right Chris?"

"Yeah, this spot is so bright and brilliant!"

Eva went a bit forward to sneak a peek at the abyss of the mountains. She took all the air inside her lungs and screamed out at the top of her voice, "Christopher!!! I love you!!!" The sound was so loud that it echoed even to the Hoover Dam on the next range.

The last song that was selected to be shot at the Grand Canyon and related places was _God I'm Dying_. It was planned to be shot with an extreme touch to it—staking the life of Eva. Because she wanted to show off to the world how music can inspire someone to do just anything in life.

"Please call off this thing," Christopher was worried at the last moment.

"No, Chris. I will be able to do this. I want to. It's my dream," she said. "I didn't come all the way till Vegas just to shake the dust off my arse and get back home. No. We're not here for that. Let me do this."

Christopher couldn't speak anything then.

The scenes were completely backed by many life-saver men as well as equipments.

There were scenes where Eva drove a car on the Grand Canyon, and the car's front wheels were made to peek out of the rim of the mountains. She had felt so petrified and timorous at that point. The worst scene was when she had to get on the deck with high pointed heels, but she was completely supported by ropes that seemed invisible on screen—and with her chin held high up to the Guano Point where her face met with the evening setting sun at the horizon, it was something really hard to do—if you miss a step, and there you are—in a worst position of hanging by the ropes after getting your face hit on the car deck. Eva somehow managed to do it. She was able to have a command over her feet, lest it should have shaken for a devastating outcome.

Then, there was also a scene where she had to climb on top of the flying helicopter that traveled over Lake Mead and make feeble portentous dance moves there, in a sitting posture—without taking any chance of getting herself cut by the running propellers over her head. Also, there was a scene—all according to the director's imagination—where Eva had to drop herself down from the Eagle Point. It was an extreme case, and the she was totally guarded with belts against her hip and ropes over her shoulders.

At the Hoover Dam waters, there was a scene where Eva and Mr. Dorman were found making intense love. Then they both went on a bike ride on the usual road and Eva was supposed to try out some precarious moves there, too, like making herself stretch completely back and moving her lips to the song at the same time. It was hard again, the bike was moving at a high speed. Also she was ordered to stand on the bike's seat and wave her hands— without holding on Mr. Dorman.

They also cruised down the Colorado River, swam at the bottoms of it and had champagne at the pontoon boat.

CHAPTER 18

The Fourth of July

As a part of her promotional tour–' _Fama Exhortation_ ', Eva had been performing in many places around the Vegas. Then she had gone to an apartment that was located some seven kilometers away from the NYC.

"Do you know how people here consider the importance of the next week?" asked Christopher to his wife.

"Why, no!" she said after looking at the table calendar. "Next week—from now, uh, comes on fourth."

"Exactly," he smiled before giving a reply. "It was a day when our country had been an independent nation. Fourth of July, it was when the country had been set free from the Great Britain way back in 1776."

"Oh, I had just forgotten about it!" she said. "Anyway, thanks for reminding."

_#July 2_ nd _:_

In the morning, Eva had left for the rehearsal, and on coming back her way, she wanted to purchase few set of clothes for her upcoming concert at the Madison Garden.

She went to a mall that was by the road with her bodyguard Mr. Elliot.

After the purchasing was done, they went to the counter for billing and Eva met a person.

"Excuse me, have I seen you somewhere?" asked Eva to the woman.

"Gosh, Eva!" she put her hands over her mouth. It was clear that it wasn't an act of surprise having seen a celebrity, but it seemed she had to tell her something that she had been longing to say from a long time. She looked left and right and over her shoulder and went up a bit closer to Eva. "Man, there is something I need to tell you, thank God I found you."

"Yeah, but, what?"

"You would have seen me at Terri's. I used to work a laundry service there." She spoke, partially out of breath.

"Ah-ha," Eva corresponded. "At Terri's. Yes."

"So, you know something," she spoke softly as they moved a bit aside where they could speak privately. "Your husband is up to some serious thing. I overheard him speaking with her a few months ago."

"What are you talking about?!"

"Truth," she responded at a quick pace. "There's some man named Gonzalez. Christopher and Terri were discussing about him on the day when I eavesdropped them. I was ordered to go home at that time when Chris had come, and I took to feel there was something that was going to happen the next moment after I was gone. So I placed a spy pen at the window before leaving. And I began monitoring everything they had been speaking behind the closed windows.

"Hey, wait, what color shirt was Chris wearing on that day?"

"I guess it was blue."

"Jesus! Even I was there at Terri's that day, and I guess even I heard them speak on this."

"Now you can trust me."

"Yes, I do, but I reached there only at the last moment. Only when their conversation was about to wind up. Can you tell me what their whole secret-talk was about?"

"Like I said, it is all about a guy named Gonzalez. I don't know anything about this person. Christopher is planning to kill him."

Eva was thunder-struck when she heard her say the word _kill._ "Hey, what under the sun are you talking about?!"

"Truth," she said again.

"Are you serious?"

"You had the word; you said you trust me."

Eva held her left hand over her hip. "Not in all instance, though."

"It's up to you, then."

"Okay, I trust you again. Continue."

"He is planning to do this without your knowledge," she said. "And you know the worst thing what I had heard?"

"Tell me."

"It was Terri that told Chris to marry you; it wasn't out of his own will that he had decided to make you his wife."

Eva sighed. "Speak. Don't stop." All the while her heart was pumping up faster and faster.

"Yeah, both of them love each other; I have seen Christopher going to her many times."

"But—well, why did Terri then wanted him to get married to me? What benefit would she draw?"

"It is not of any benefits to her, it's all for Chris. I interpret that Gonzalez and you are related in some way or the other."

"I'm confused. It can't get worse than this. It just can't." Eva rubbed her hair.

"I didn't finish yet. Listen, the main intention why Chris got married to you was to kill Gonzalez _through_ you. You work as an intermediate to accomplish the task for him. At least, that was what I heard them speak."

"But I'm not going to help anyone in this shrewd act of crime. Then how?"

The woman understood that she couldn't give a reply to her question. "And, you know what Terri's suggestion was for Chris after you both were bond together?"

"No?"

"She had told him that he must refrain from sex with you."

Eva was fainting literally after hearing that. At once the flashback of the morning on the second day of their honeymoon thumped back into her mind.

"Now I just left working there..." she continued.

As the woman continued to speak, Eva went to Mr. Elliot without listening to her. "It's time. Let's move."

_#July 3_ rd _:_

Eva had to perform in front of a multitude of her fans at the Madison Square Garden the next day. The tickets were all sold and all of them from different parts of the world were eagerly awaiting the show already. And after her rehearsals, she was back.

"Chris!" Eva called a minute before they had to leave to Hotel Pennsylvania. "We're getting late, buddy!"

"Coming!" screamed Christopher getting out of the room, making his hair almost like the tomb of Taj Mahal in shape. "I'm done."

"Whoa. What sorta style is that?" she intruded

"Spikes."

"Arr," she turned towards the door.

Just at that time, Christopher got a phone call. "A minute, please," he whispered before taking a few steps away from where Eva stood.

She listened to him. "Spanish," she alleged under breath.

Even before sixty seconds had passed, Chris walked towards his wife—his face seemed flooded with disappointment.

"Are you alright?"

"Sorry, Eva, I can't go with you today."

"Reason?"

"My business partner from, ah—Spain is coming at three. I need to pick him up from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"Like, what business? Eva jolted a question. "You've joined one? You never said that to me."

"Sorry, dear. It's a real estate business."

"Where? Here in Vegas?

"Chicago."

She looked down and moved her eyes as if she was reading in her mind merely looking at the grass, "The conversation of the woman at the shop...Gonzalez (a Spanish name), Christopher talking in Spanish now...The way he said _Spain_ before a couple of seconds..." She nodded before she could raise her head to speak. "Fine, then," she managed to act as if she had not given way for any hint of qualms against him.

The bus was waiting outside. She got into it and bid good bye to him before it made a move. On reaching the destination she decided to think that she had to probe whatever the matter it was, somehow, without letting know anything about her investigation to Christopher. Until then, she decided to act normal by all means.

In the night before she was up to sleep, she texted Christopher over the phone.

'Hi.'

'Hi, how you doing?' he replied.

After half an hour, Eva texted him again. She sent him a long note kind of message.

'Was that lyrics?'

'Yeah...'

'You're going to sing that at the MSG? Well, I guess this song isn't on your album, if I'm right?'

"You're right Chris, _Dickinson_ is not in the album, and I just sent it to you now. I'm not scheduled to sing that on the stage.'

'All right, what are you doing right now? Did you make your prayers?'

It had been an hour, and the time was already eleven, Christopher received no reply for his last text message. So he assumed that she was already sleeping and he didn't disturb her any further.

_#July 4_ th _:_

It was the day at one of the world's famous arena for the talented artists, where Eva had been for her performance, for the first time—in the Garden. Singers like, Madison, Jake Albert, Arnold, Charles Sean and Dorman had also come to play their part in the grand event.

The crowd was huge than expected. Eva wore her dance attire, and was all set to rock the stage that evening. She was able to sell out the show in just fifteen minutes. The first song she performed from her album _Fama_ was _'Robbery Eyes'_. It was a grand opening song, featuring Mr. Arnold, for which her fans cheered her up to a fascinating deal. The next song was followed by _'I'm Animated'_ where there was a set of boys in robot costumes who danced in the background. The third song that was scheduled to be sung was _'Canophilist'_ —it surprised the gathering a lot, because they didn't expect that to happen—the wide range of different variety of dogs were brought from behind the stage, like the breed: Pug, Harley Quinn, British Mastiff, Chihuahua, Beagle, Alsatian, just to name a few. The next song was _'That Girl'_. Mr. Madison and Eva rocked the stage that night. They were dancing in the air—both of them—with the white ropes above. The next song was _'God I'm Dying'_ which had stood in the first position in the U.S charts. Again, Eva risked her life by giving a see-it-before-your-face effect to the crowds. No one had ever thought of how things could change in a minute after everything had seemed conventional. Eva went backstage for a moment, and the lights went off. The music-beats started to pour heavy thereafter. Suddenly a shattering sound of the glass was heard in the background and Eva came over to the stage—in a form that broke everybody's expectations. She was blazing in fire—something that had never happened in the history of the Madison Square Garden. She had her protective costume fully draped, not leaving a single space for the fire to gobble up any of her body parts. The crowd stood in awe. The dance continued for not more than a minute and Eva hurried to the ladder—and the spotlight was over her. She went up there and instantaneously all the lights were on then. There was a big glass kind of container before her, as big enough as that it could perhaps occupy even the Great White shark. Eva jumped into it—and at once the fire over her deceased. Then she completely striped off her weird bandage costume, henceforth, revealing a sexy purple swimsuit. That part drew the screams from each and every one present. Eva began swimming like a dolphin trained for the shows.

The song was over then.

The lights were gone for a second time. The arena was totally dark. People started to remain silent.

No sound from the waters. Most of them looked what was happening in front of them by putting their phone's light on.

After few minutes, they heard someone say, "Wow" over the mike.

The lights filled the hall once again. It was Eva whom they saw standing on the stage—completely all right and flashing her brilliant smile over everyone. She was in a long orange gown then.

"Wasn't that too quirky?" she continued to smile. "Oof. That was strange indeed! Well, all thanks to Mr. Austin for training me out for that idiosyncratic piece! Bull shit, he took a chance with my life!" she broke into laughter. "Hey, come over the stage, you crappy little creature out there. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Mr. Austin!"

Mr. Austin took over the stage. "Hi, everyone!" It was cool playin' all the while."

The crowd then began going, _"WHOOOOO"_.

"So this person and I are up for you with a special song, yeah, because you know, it is fourth of July today. And America is already painting the town red outside," she put her head down and smiled a bonus, "...and so are we," she said, raising her face to the audience.

Getting up from their seats, every single person out there showed commemoration on behalf of the country.

"And, yeah, we'll be having few boys and girls here to complement for and sing along with us," Eva said and looked behind her for the children to occupy the stage.

Then it was the children that took over and positioned themselves in front of the mikes that were previously arranged for them.

"So, we are now here to sing three songs, and they are, _America the Beautiful_ , _This Land Is Your Land_ and _Stars and Stripes Forever_."

They started with the first song and all of them stood by their seats and began waving their hands in a slow motion—left to right and then from right to left.

Then the second song was started subsequently after the first one was over.

Eva saw few people going from there at that time. She kept up with the singing, at the same time paid a close attention to the group of people who seemed out of usual. They were discussing something after looking at their phones; even they left the crowd in no time.

The third song was started.

By then, about twenty five percent of the people had already left. Eva began to wonder that something was not all well. She was curious at all the stretch and put up a 'what's-happening?' face. She continued to sing with the team.

The third song was over too.

Maximum of the clique had gone by then, because it was palpable with the sound of the claps among them when the show was ended.

"Why were the people going away, Mr. Austin?" Eva said once they were behind the stage. "Did you seem to notice?"

"Perhaps they were getting late!"

"Oh, yeah?"

Eva returned back to the stage after a while to perform the next song from her album with Mr. Jake Albert.

"What is this?!" She shouted in total stagger.

"My god! Where's everybody?"

"I had told Mr. Austin, he took this easy. There's got to be some reason. I just don't understand why..."

"Let's go, Eva," said Mr. Jake in a theme of urgency.

Both left the spot immediately. They took the exit way.

They saw the place was almost without people.

"What's happening?" Eva inquired to a sexagenarian.

He didn't give a reply, he just ran away.

"Why is everybody running away?" She asked apprehensively.

"I've no idea."

"Excuse me, can you please tell me what's going on here?" asked Mr. Jake to a teenage girl who looked practically dead-and-gone in the face.

"Tornado," she said under breath. "Tornado," she kept repeating.

"God of the heavens!" Eva held her hands against her ears and screamed her loudest.

Mr. Jake pulled her and began running. "Man, this is insane! We need to board a taxi!"

They kept running on the road. They hardly saw a soul. No taxi that came along their way did halt. At last, a car stopped by them. It was the movie producer, Mr. Logan.

"Wow, glad we found you, Mr. Lo."

"Get in, get in. No time to speak."

They immediately got inside and the car started to move.

"What were you doing there?" he asked, keeping his gaze focused on the road.

"I had a concert at the MSG."

There was news on the radio just at that split second.

Tornado warnings have been given to the people to get out of danger. We have been reporting this from past an hour. "This thing came on over as a full-blown surprise," Emily Alexis spokeswoman for New York Disaster Management Association, told the agency. "It's definitely demoralizing as for what's happening."

Eva sighed and looked out of the windshield. She could see that there were people at the town squares then, who perhaps knew nothing about the alerts. They were enjoying—like how they used to every year, keeping on their customs—finding a time to gather with their relatives on a day like that when they knew nothing about what had to befall them. She looked above the buildings, and saw spectacular fireworks, one after the other and it went on and on—shooting straight into the sky.

She looked at the radio at once and became conscious that the news was still on.

" _I can see this whole thing getting devastated right before my eyes," a man spoke. "In no time the monster will take away our house. God, help us!"_

_The tornado has already killed forty four people now. The_ forecasters warn that brutal storms could possibly prolong in the region the rest of the weekend.

_U.S Department of Disaster Management Service_ spokeswoman Mia said emergency responders reported several cases of injuries, but she didn't know how serious they were. Mia said houses had been severely dented, and search and salvage efforts were in progress. Reported tornado that struck also caused damage at _the_ Warden AeroSystems, _St. Peter's Air Force_ Base and other industrial plants. It is estimated that the prelude cost for the damages could be around two hundred and ten million dollars.

They reached in front of the Hotel Pennsylvania.

Eva made a call to her husband. But the line was busy. After a minute, she tried again.

"What happened, Eva?" asked Mr. Logan.

"Chris' phone is switched off."

"We can't be here like this in the middle of the road, let's get to a safer place," told Mr. Jake.

Eva was worried if everything was all right with Christopher. She laid herself back over the seat and covered her eyes with both the hands for a moment.

"Let's get to the hotel," she said.

All the three rushed to the room. Eva knocked the door, but there was no answer. So she took the spare key from her bag and opened the door and they got inside.

Eva tried to call Chris the third time. Again it was switched off.

They waited for him to return.

That night both Mr. Jake and Mr. Logan slept there because of their fear of facing a disaster. All the while she was waiting for her husband. But he didn't come.

CHAPTER 19

Shooting in the Dark

Just after a few minutes dawn broke, Eva heard a knock on the door. She got up with a hope that it was the one whom she was expecting.

"Room service, ma'am."

"No, thanks," she said before pursing her lips. Hey, wait. Is everything all right outside? I mean, is the catastrophe still present?"

"No, ma'am. It's gone."

"Thank God, we were safe."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And, you have any idea where Christopher had left for yesterday?"

"He said he had to receive one of his friends, ma'am. I

wasn't told anything more."

"Okay, see you."

"Take care, ma'am," he said before he left.

Eva was vexed then. She again called Christopher over the phone. It rang.

"Hello, Eva."

"Where on the face of earth are you?"

"Sorry, I stayed at Flatiron Building last night with my business partner."

"Why, let me ask you, is that whosoever business partner of yours male or female?"

"Eva!" he shouted at her.

"Keep your voice low and just tell me where you are right now."

"On my way."

Eva cut the conversation straight away.

"What happened, Eva? A voice came from behind. It was Mr. Logan. She saw both of them had already wakened and were sitting side-by-side on the sofa.

"Nothing. It was Christopher, he said he is about to reach."

It was time that both Mr. Logan and Mr. Jake had to leave.

"Thanks that you made us stay here for a night, Eva."

"Thanks to you guys for saving my life!"

"Good-bye, then, we're leaving."

"I'll see you around. Bye."

Before even ten minutes was past, Eva heard another knock on the door.

"Christopher, you'd almost blown me away!"

He hummed before he could give a reply. "I'd apologized before for the same."

"Did you see the storm?"

"No, I didn't. You?"

"Neither me," she discerned. "Take its toll and tell me now, what's the name of your business guy?"

"Mr. Matthew."

"You were to meet him on third, right?"

"Yeah, the flight was disrupted," he conveyed.

"Did he leave?"

"Yes he did."

In the same week, Eva went to California for promoting her album.

She began looking at her reflection on the mirror, slowly heaving from the bed where she was sitting. Positioning herself right in front of her spitting image, she lifted up her t-shirt such that her belly was exposed. She put her hand over and looked at her stomach.

"Qué tal?!" It was Christopher that suddenly laid his arms on her shoulders from behind, in a romantic mood.

And Eva was like, _'Enough, Chris! How long will you act?'_

"It had been a year since we were married, why am I not pregnant yet, Chris?"

At a moment, his face turned down to be like a sunflower that was plucked before a day.

"Your belly has borne no fruitage."

Eva didn't want an argument to creep up because she exactly knew what the cause was.

Turning around, she looked into her husband's eyes. She rubbed her palm against his neck. Then she began kissing him so hard like she had never done before—her hot breaths were continuously poured inside his mouth. She hugged him very tight—as tight as that even the breathing was tough. Then she pushed him against the bed and began kissing him more and more. She took off her t-shirt and thought in her mind, _'You're escaping nowhere today, baby.'_

In the unfortunate time, her phone started ringing at its maximum volume. Eva couldn't help but to reach out for it. She lost her appeal at once.

"Mr. Logan here."

"Hey, Mr. Lo! What up, buddy?"

"Where you staying?"

"At The Huntington Hotel."

"I am going to produce a movie, and I want you to be a lead actor."

"Oh, wow. I'd like to, Mr.Lo."

"Come over to Chinese Independent Baptist Church at one in the noon."

"Sure."

"What were you doing? Hope I didn't disturb?"

Eva bit her lips. "Nothing much. It's okay."

"All right, then. Don't forget. Today at sharp one o' clock."

"Deal. Yes."

The conversation was over.

Eva looked at the clock. It was twelve already. She made a thought run across her mind, "Should I stay here today, or go to Mr. Lo?"

She kept on thinking for a while until she heard Christopher call.

"Hey, you there, Eva?"

"Yeah, I'm here," she said loudly.

She came to the room to say to him that she had to leave for discussing about signing in for a new film with Mr. Logan.

When she entered the room, to her surprise, she saw that Christopher was on the bed wearing nothing but a pair of innerwear. His abs showed up and Eva couldn't resist.

"Um, Chris, I need to go to Mr. Logan right now."

"Why, Eva?"

"He's called me for a conversation about his film."

"Shall I drop you?"

"Ah, I'll go myself?"

"Your wish."

"Thanks."

Eva walked down the stairs after closing the door behind her.

"What the hell did I just see?" Eva muttered to herself. "Christopher was ready to go according to my desires? Did the woman that I saw that day tell to me something that was wrong?"

She was bemused to the point where she turned restless.

"I'll go and see right now what he's doing," she said as she immediately took a turn and went to the door again.

She looked through the glass that was on the door, hiding herself, somehow. She saw Christopher tapping on the phone and holding it against his ears. It was obvious that he was going to make a call. So she took her phone without delay from her bag and set it so that it began recording his speech.

"Hola, buenas tardes!"

Then there was silence.

"Hoy en día mi esposa me estaba preguntando cuanto a por que ella no estaba embarazada aún. Ella empezó a besarme tan salvaje y yo estaba como, ¿qué se supone que debo hacer ahora? Gracias a una llamada telefónica que cambió mi día mejor," he said.

Again silence.

Christopher began speaking once more. "Sí, un productor de la película la había llamado y ella tuvo que ir. ¿Y sabes qué, yo había escuchado ella conversación telefónica, ella estaba en la sala en ese momento. Era obvio que ella iba, entonces me convertí en casi desnudo, así manifestándome que todo estaba bien conmigo."

Then Eva saw him keeping his phone on the table after he had said, "Adios, amigo."

She left from there and ordered her bodyguard, Mr. Elliot to escort her to the Chinese Independent Baptist Church in her Ferrari.

She wondered what and to whom Christopher had just spoken.

When they reached at the gate of the church, she saw Mr. Logan was already waiting for her.

"Hi, Mr. Lo!" she yelled through the window.

"Hey!"

She pulled over to a halt.

"So, how you doing?"

"I'm cool, thanks," he said. "And you?"

"As always, doing well!"

Both Mr. Elliot and Eva got down the car and walked to the church with Mr. Logan.

"The script herein is based on the novel written by Dylan Gabriel, _Shooting in the Dark_."

"What is it all about?" inquired Eva.

"Just as the idiom explains, it's all about trying out with luck, like you know, shooting in the dark, which means taking chances with your luck. So that's what it is all about."

"I see."

"The lead male actor for this movie would be Mr. Liam. And I've a director, Mr. Landon."

"Where shall we be shooting?"

"It'll be decided shortly."

"Any estimated budget?"

"Fifteen million dollars," he said, "Shall we start the project next week?"

"Okay."

Eva was then signed into a contract for acting in her yet another movie.

Right after a week as it was decided, Eva met Mr. Logan once again at the scheduled place—Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.

"Hello, dear."

"Hi, Mr. Lo!"

"This is the one who'd be directing our film, Mr. Landon, like I'd said that day," he told.

"Glad to meet you, Mr. Landon."

"Glad to meet you, too!"

"And here is Mr. Liam."

"Hi, Eva."

"Hello," she smiled.

The cinema was made for the Alameda studio and it had already taken permit from the Los Angeles Film Permit Office in order to be shooting on the streets of L.A.

Eva continued with her world tour without letting it inhibit her new assignment in any way. Mr. Logan soon hired a production team including crew and the producers.

In the period of fourteen months of the shooting, Eva saw to it that she worked for both her movie as well as attend concerts in different parts of the world.

Then Mr. Landon worked with the editors on creating a rough cut and the final film in a span of about two months.

During that period, Eva never saw her husband; they only talked over the phone once in a week. He had told that he stayed at a private villa in California.

For the film, a distribution deal was then set up on the basis of leasing model with the major distributor called Lake Panorama after it showed interest to pay a fixed amount for the rights to distribute them. The company then provided the movie to the theaters in the percentage method after agreeing to its terms and conditions in addition to obtaining ancillary rights to boost the circulation on DVD, CD VHS and TV networks.

It was the day when Eva had turned twenty seven that her second movie was released.

The film ran so effectively across the world, as such that, after the negotiated engagement, the theaters renegotiated to extend the lease agreement because it had hope of drawing a steady crowd due to its popularity.

CHAPTER 20

Seasonal

Life taught Eva many things—both good moments to cheer on and bad times to cry on. She went back to California to her husband after the previous movie had won her a second best female performance award.

"Good to see you!" Christopher gave her a warm hug, welcoming her.

Eva smiled. "Chris, I think you must go back home."

"Why?!" He asked, confused. "Seems you're not going with me?"

"Right. I'm not."

"As for?"

"I am making an album."

"Not again! Eva, c'mon! You can't put yourself into so much strain all at once like this."

"Do you really care?"

"What you mean?"

"I have decided I would do this, and so I will."

"Whatever," he said, rolling his eyes and walking inside. "It's up to you."

"Sorry, but..."

"I'll leave. Don't you worry."

"Not that, I mean—"

Christopher got into the room and shut the door after him.

Eva sat on the chair in desperation.

After few minutes, she heard the creaking sound of the door opening.

"I will be leaving tomorrow," he conveyed while he stood in front of her.

Eva couldn't speak and Christopher didn't mind about it. He went to the TV and sat on his chaise longue in an I-just-don't-bother mannerism.

It was morning and Christopher was already done with his packing of luggage.

"Flight's at one."

"Hmm," Eva buzzed.

They began to slowly talk to each other in a more friendly way after a while.

Christopher began, "Take care of yourself when I'm not here."

"Thanks, sure I will," she gave a smile. "Call me when you get back."

"Okay."

Eva wanted to ask something more, about his business person and Terri—but she kept quiet about it because she wanted to investigate the issue all by herself.

The five hours time then went rather like five minutes and Christopher was about to leave.

He kissed his wife at the balcony. "Be back soon."

"Once I'm done."

"Bye."

"See you, take care," she said, kissing him on the cheek in return.

Chris was gone.

For some time, she began to think that she did no good sending her husband away.

Then she thought she'll go to him once she got back home without prior notice to see what the situation was like when she wasn't there.

Eva's had brought in thirty nine point two million dollars through her _Fama Exhortation_ tour. And she was yet again all set to do her next music album.

The concept of her new project was something through which she had a notion of showing how life keeps changing. Like the four seasons on earth. There were two songs representing each season.

The shooting of the album took place in Colombia.

Days passed by with her being in that country among Spanish people who spoke English entirely in a different style. Eva loved their accent and often tried to imitate her new friends there.

On a particular day, one of her friends, Maria, was using her phone to check its features.

"You have a good handset, Eva, let me tell."

She smiled. "Thanks."

At that, a previously recorded file on the phone was opened by Maria.

They began to hear.

"Hey, I had totally forgotten about it, can you please listen to it and tell me what it means?" asked Eva.

She didn't give a reply until she was done hearing it. "Was it a phone conversation?"

"Yes," Eva answered. "Between Chris and somebody else."

Maria went to her table and took a sheet of paper and pencil. She played the audio again, and as she began to hear from it, she wrote it down.

"Take this," she said. "I have written it in English."

The paper read: "Today my wife was asking me as to why she was not pregnant yet. She started kissing me so wild and I was like, what am I supposed to do now? Thanks to a phone call that changed my day for better. Yes, a film producer had called and she had to go. And you know what, I had heard her phone conversation, she was in the hall at that time. It was obvious she was going, then I became almost naked, thus manifesting everything was fine with me."

Eva wondered to whom Christopher had spoken such things.

"Is there any problem in your marriage?"

She felt uneasy about answering that. "No."

Several months rolled by and Eva was all done with her album as well as tours.

She had just forgotten again about her husband's Spanish-conversation thing.

"I am missing my mum and dad so much, you know," she spoke to Mr. Adam. "It had been long time since I met them."

"Yeah, I guess you're waiting to get back home?!"

"Longing for the same, in fact."

CHAPTER 21

A No Longer Hidden Truth

Mrs. Nora was happy to see her daughter after so long a gap which seemed much like a decade to her.

"Wow, Eva, how pleasant to see you!"

Eva smiled and hugged her mom tenderly. "Missed you so much, mom."

"And so did we, sweetheart," she said. "You colored your hair black?!"

"Yes!" Where's dad?"

"I love the curls, you look undoubtedly amazing! Come on in, Ella, come in."

That was the point where she found Mr. Smith with his converged stare the newspapers.

"Hello, daddy!"

"Hey, Ella!" he rose up from the chair with tears in his eyes. "Lord, how changed my girl is!"

Eva looked keenly at her father. "Dad, you've got gray beard!" It broke laughter among the three.

"It's high time for me to be a granddad!"

With that proclamation, Eva didn't seem to have the courage to holdup thereafter. For something was pulling her back from the current atmosphere.

"Is there any good news, Eva?" her mother asked, in a bid to hear from her if she was pregnant.

"Not yet, mom. I was way too focused with the projects. It all came back to back, so Chris and I thought it wasn't the right time," she grinned out of unwillingness.

"How was everything going, I mean, with your projects?" asked Mr. Smith.

"Fine. Quite fine I must say."

"What about your husband, how's he doing?" Mrs. Nora inquired.

"Hadn't he come here?"

"No he didn't."

Abruptly, there was a sound—a tune from Mr. Smith's cellular phone.

"Oh, it's the alarm," he said. "Lemme get it."

"Not even once after we had left?" Eva continued.

"No, dear," said Mrs. Nora.

Eva turned facing the doorway. "Hmm, I'll go see Christopher now."

Mr. Smith came back to the scene just then. "Where's Ella?"

"She's gone to her husband," she said. "I'll prepare her favorite food today. Guess she have been missing her typical-mom-made-breakfast so much!"

When Eva reached Christopher's, she at once knocked at the door.

It was answered a minute after she gave her second shot.

As and when the door was opened before her, she saw her husband in a dull face, rubbing the morning sun beams against his eyes.

"Had you been sleeping?"

"Oh, Eva! Chris' beamed forth in surprise after realizing who the person was that stood in front of him. "You look absolutely stunning."

"Thanks. Had you been sleeping?" she asked again.

"Ow, yes. But that's okay. I should have gotten up earlier. It's already..." he took Eva's hand and looked at the watch, "...half past nine!" he smiled.

Eva pursed her lip before she laughed.

"The house looks so dusty!" she announced. "Haven't you been cleaning it up?!"

"Nope, I weren't here, actually. Had been to Columbia for two months."

"Two months? Why?"

"We were having some dealing there with the real estates."

"You and Mr. Matthew?"

"Yeah. Mr. Matthew," he agreed.

"How far has the dealings been?"

"We'd had been able to sell quite a number of lands there to the local immigrants."

"Good."

"Even I had been to Colombia for the first time for the shooting of my recent album."

"That's cool. How did you like the place?"

"A good-to-be-there one!"

"Yes, it is."

"Definitely," she said. "Chris, where's the mopping cloth and trash pan? I'll just clean up this place."

"Ah, Eva, you need rest. You're home."

"It's okay, man. I can handle it. You just tell me where they are."

"Well, in my room."

Eva walked forward to the room and she got the cleaning items and started her work instantly.

Within half an hour she renewed the house.

"Looks so great!" Christopher praised her once she was done.

"Feels so great!"

"It does!"

"And, hey, the washing machine doesn't seem to be working. Is everything all right with it?"

"No, it has to be repaired," he put up a guilty statement.

"Your house desperately needs a complete makeover!"

"Yes?!"

"Haven't you been appointing any servants?" she inquired.

"Need to. We'll find one."

"Can I send some who works there at my house?"

"That should be a good idea. In fact, they may prove trustworthy since you know them."

"You're correct," she verbalized.

Eva called up her mother. "Mom, can you allow Jenila to continue her work as a maid, but here?"

"Yes, dear. I'll send her today."

"Is she there?"

"She's here."

"Okay, bye." She held up the phone.

"Jenila—a nice woman is all that she is."

Christopher acquiesced.

In minutes, there was yet another knock on the door.

"Good to see you, ma'am."

"Good to see you too," she greeted Jenila inside with a gesture. "See, Chris, she's the one I'd told you about."

"Hello, sir."

"Hi," he said calmly, maintaining esteem.

"Chris, do you have clothes that need to be washed?"

"Yes. I'll bring them."

He returned soon and handed the bulk of his dresses to the woman and sent her away to do the work.

"Where's Terri, Chris?"

He began to blush pertaining to the juncture.

"Haven't seen her lately."

'And the reason?' she asked in her mind, but held back by just shaking her head slightly to claim his answer satisfactory.

"But why you're asking about her to me?"

"Chill, dude, I wasn't here, right?"

"And so wasn't I—like I said before."

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry."

"Don't say that for petty reasons!" he acted serious, though he at the same time showed that he wasn't.

They saw Jenila after five hours.

"Ma'am, I've dried them up and ironed them as well," she said as she handed the cleanly folded set of clothes to Eva draped with newspapers.

"Thank you so much."

"Anytime at your service," she told. "Anything else I can do for you today, ma'am?"

"No. You can go back."

"See you."

Eva handed the clothes to her husband and she sat at the dining table with the newspapers that had covered the dresses. Christopher had then gone to his room to keep the clothes inside his wardrobe.

As she was reading from the papers, she came across an article that shocked her to death. There was a file photo featuring Mr. Smith with Christopher and the title read, "Together in Colombia: A New Business Profile." The article said that both of them were doing a business in Columbia. She immediately looked for the date to know when the newspaper was published. She discovered that it was almost in the same week she'd been in the country.

"I never figured out! Jesus!" she cried.

Eva also read that it was a real estate business. She was shaken off her feet—the same feeling someone would have when they realized that there was a criminal out there in their house, that too, all with their knowledge.

"He'd been lying to me all the while..." she spoke in her heart again.

"Christopher!" she yelled as if it was an alert call. "I need to get back home, I'll be back. Bye."

Before he came to see what the matter was, she had left the spot and no trace remained.

Eva immediately made it back to her house.

"Dad, how many days have it been since you met Christopher?"

"Why, we haven't met since you'd left for the honeymoon."

Eva narrowed her brows in mystification.

"Everything alright?"

"Yes," she said as she went upstairs to her room without talking much.

Mrs. Nora followed Eva to her room with her food.

"May I come in?" she asked before she came inside.

"Yeah, come in, mum."

"See what I've got for you!"

Eva looked at the dish and she seemed to have lost her appetite which was why she ignored the food.

"I just need to catch a few 'z's before I could have it."

"Did you eat anything at Christopher's?"

"Yes I did, mom. Please take your whatsoever food downstairs. I'll have it when I'm hungry."

"As you wish," said Mrs. Nora as she went back.

Eva began to recollect the memories when she was in New York and that her husband had told he was to meet his business partner, Mr. Matthew.

"The same person was mentioned in the second instance. Mr. Matthew—is he really the doppelganger of dad?" she was dissolved in a deep thought.

Eva got out of her bed without delay and made a quick plan to probe her father's room right then in concealment.

She didn't want to get her way down via stairs because if her father noticed her going to his room at that point of time, he for sure would mind it. So what she did was that she sneaked out through the window and made an outline to get to her destination. She got her feet supported on the pipe like a dreaded ninja and caught hold of the windows as she passed her way in intense care. With great difficulty, she somehow made it to the balcony, through where entering Mr. Smith's room was a trouble-free piece of cake.

Reaching inside, she discovered how changed the room was, because only when she was a child did she accidently go there, that too, just once, because her rubber ball had rolled into his room and she had been there to get it. She remembered that day when her father chased her away as if he were in doldrums. Mr. Smith had always hated to have someone enter his room without his permission.

"Today," she thought, "I'm going to study the reason behind everything—only if I could."

She went up to his computer table, pulled out all documents she found there down and began going through it—much of the contents seemed all like as if it had something to do with the work of a chief executive officer—it seemed so professionally relating to business.

"What are these doing here?" she asked. "Does a person dealing with estates keep it? Darn!"

She moved to the cupboard. There was a big file that she was prompted to open.

The first thing she encountered was a birth certificate. Eva was horrified looking as to whom it belonged to. Her heartbeats jacked up like never before and she began to sweat to a degree wherein even the air-conditioner proved worthless. She pulled to find more evidences. There were plenty of sheets. She found the school documents that belonged to the same name as was it mentioned in the birth certificate. There was her dad's license too, and the photocopies of the certificates of his graduation along with the set of the same dossier.

"Damn all on the earth. Why am I born?" she flooded tears. "Just to watch my dad die in a scene wherein I played an intermediate?"

With a stern heart, she took the file and moved back, not through the short-cut like before—but she had her chin up with an attitude of 'let-what-happens-happen', and she directed her steps to the hallway where her dad was sitting on his chair, reading newspapers still.

She realized her father wasn't looking at her, and that his gaze was on the opposite side. For a moment she kept the file over the table and took the newspaper sheet that she had brought from Christopher's.

"Seems like you're so badly in love with the papers, dad?" she tried to bring a smile on her face.

"Yes, I am in love with these nosy creatures! They give me my regular dose of daily updates!"

"Then why, let me tell you, your real dose is here, dad."

"What's that?!"

She handed the paper to him. "Check this out."

Mr. Smith began looking at it. His face turned red. "Who—from where did you find this?"

Eva sighed with a noise. "Hmm. Whoever, wherever, whenever. It doesn't matter. Tell me, dad, what does it all mean? I just don't understand anything at all."

"I—baby, I just happened to establish a business deal with your husband."

"Anything else you'd be interested in apart from the newspapers would be your sincere commitment towards establishing business with others. Right?"

Stymie steamed across Mr. Smith's face.

Eva went to get the file she had kept on the table.

"How would you feel if I tell you to check them out?" she said by just throwing it on his lap.

Suddenly he got so on his nerves and his blood boiled up to a mega extent. "Who the hell allowed you to get to my room?!"

Eva wanted her mom to be with her then, so she said it was her that had permitted her.

"Nora!" Mr. Smith yelled.

"What's happening?" puzzled Mrs. Nora enquired.

"Was it you the one that had given permission to her to get inside my room?"

"No ways!" she made a face. "When did I, Ella?"

"Sorry mom, I just," she paused. "Dad, I decided to explore your room today because I wasn't finding everything all right. Now that I have come to know stuff about it to this level, there remains nothing that needs to be hidden."

Eva took the file from her dad and showed the sheets to her mother. "Look at these, mom. The birth certificate shows that dad's name is Gonzalez Alberto, his mother's name, Aintzane Eduardo and his father's name, Santiago Alberto. This confirms he belongs to a Spanish origin, mom!"

When Mrs. Nora was informed about what Eva had revealed, she didn't seem to put up any sort of 'oh-my-god-what-am-I-seeing?' face—she rather looked at Mr. Smith in an 'everything-is-over-now' mood.

But Eva continued. "And, see, this is dad's graduation certificates and license, why is his name Smith Evans here?"

Mrs. Nora seemed to ignore her daughter's heeds.

"Dear, you need to know something," she began when Mr. Smith looked at her in an anger mixed with a 'no-no-don't-tell-her-anything' expression. "There was a world much before you were born, dear."

"What—what's the world?" she displayed signs of perplexity.

At that, Eva's dad spoke. "Ella, your husband had warned me not to tell you a word about the business."

"Who is he to warn you?" Eva shouted. "What rights does he have over you?"

"He had warned me against an issue," he told. "This may turn into a serious one."

"Please, dad, spit it out whatever it may be."

"Dear, make your mind, 'cause for what you're to hear now, is gonna pay you really hard," said Mrs. Nora.

CHAPTER 22

The Untold Story

I'm ready, mom, go on about it," she said as she threw herself on the sofa.

"Yeah, your dad's real name is Gonzalez, but he had managed to obscure this until today," she looked at her husband. "He was born in Colombia. At the age of nineteen, he started his work as a journalist for _The Times_. In the office where he had worked, there happened to be a man named Martinez.

"Both were good friends. Your dad had got engaged in poaching activity because he thought that his work as a journalist was not getting him enough money to survive the world. He invited his friend too without telling him anything about the work. Mr. Martinez never got to see any animals in their true form, as they were processed and packed before it came to him.

One day, Mr. Martinez discovered that what he had been doing wasn't right according to the law of any country, so he went up to your dad and hit him black and blue; and since your dad is a short-tempered, he had blown his top to an extent where it caused antagonism between the both. Mr. Martinez was soon arrested but your dad wasn't.

"Continue mom, why have you stopped?"

"Dear..."

"There's nothing need to be hidden, mom."

Mrs. Nora was wringing her hands. "Your dad had tried to kill Martinez because it was in front of many people that he had hit him—which made your dad feel remorse."

Eva held her hands against her face. "Daddy?"

Mr. Smith was found fidgeting for a while.

"Your dad had a couple of friends who were working with him in the illicit business. He went to them to ask him if they could do what he had wanted them to do. That was the time when Mr. Martinez had escaped the jail and he took to overhear their discussion while he was on his way. As he was running back to his house, your dad and his group chased after him—but they couldn't kill him as the police troop where right behind. Mr. Martinez was taken to jail again and in not less than a week, your dad too was sent behind the bars, not just because his business, but because..."

"Because?"

"He had already hit two people to death."

"Why?!" Eva burst out.

"He had been through depression."

"Eww. I regret being your daughter, dad."

Mr. Smith pursed his lips. "Eva," he said. "Stop judging me. You're not my daughter."

"What, dad?" she stood up slowly. "What the heck did you just say?"

"Dear, I'm sorry—I didn't mean to—"

Eva got closer to her dad and caught him by his shirt. "Say it again. Am I not your daughter?"

He just put her hands down slowly and turned his back to her before he said a word that crushed her to chunks. "No."

"Mom? What am I hearing?" she yelled.

Before Mrs. Nora could begin, she sighed. "Yes. But we've never treated you as our non-biological kid, have we?"

Eva forced out a giggle. "Are you insane?!" Then suddenly, her face grew gloomy.

"Your dad was twenty three when he got married to me," her mother explained. "I'd been a barren until this very day and I couldn't give him a child. So we decided to adopt, and that was you."

Eva couldn't accept what she had heard. "What about the birthday you'd been celebrating in my name all about, then?"

"It was the day you were adopted, Ella. The officials at the orphanage said you were born on the same week, but they didn't know the exact date of your birth."

Eva rolled her eyes in uncertainty and disgust. She began crying, letting all her sentiments out at once. She was confused to the core. For a second, she realized that none of them around her had ever been true to her.

She rushed upstairs again, crying so hard that it made Mr. and Mrs. Smith to follow back for consoling her.

"Dear, don't cry, dear. It hurts."

"Ella, stop crying, please."

"How can I?" an extra ounce of tear trickled down her cheeks.

"Ella, we wouldn't have told you this thing, but I understood that it wasn't going to be good if I kept the issue under wraps," Mr. Smith said. "Christopher had warned me not to tell you regarding the business; he threatened me that if I ever disclosed to you about the business, he'd tell you that we aren't your real parents."

"Have not you ever thought about it, then, what the world hadn't known, how did he come to know it, huh?"

Mr. Smith thought about the matter only then. He began looking left and right as if to gather an answer.

"Do you know something?" she asked.

"What?" they inquired.

"Martinez had a son who was five when you had made him join the business. You remember?"

"Yes, I do," Mr. Smith answered.

"You know where he is right now?"

"Why, no, I've never thought about it."

"Then, let me say, I know it."

Mr. Smith gasped. "What are you talking? How do you know him?"

"The answer is simple," Eva conveyed. "He's your son-in-law. Would you believe?"

"What on earth?"

"Yes. Christopher is the one."

"No ways!" he shouted.

Then Mrs. Nora spoke. "Martinez had an only child and his name was Alessandro."

"Forget about the name, anyone can change it, but the last time we saw Alessandro, he was fifteen. I well remember his face. He doesn't even resemble in any angle as your husband, Ella!" Mr. Smith said.

"Have you come across the term 'plastic surgery'?"

"Yes?"

"That gives you an answer."

"Goddamn," he discerned. "How you know about it?"

"Chris had once told me."

"Man!"

"And do you know why he has made you his business partner?" she asked and gave two seconds for him to think. "He's gonna kill you dad. I had overheard him."

Mr. Smith's eyes blossomed in apprehension. "Whoa, shit, man! Now I understand why he had taken me atop the twenty two storey building when I happened to visit him in Vegas last year!"

The name 'Mr. Mathew' hit into her mind in the fraction of a second, and then she nodded it off with a slight shake of her head.

"He happened to take me to a waterfall when in Colombia recently."

"See, that confirms it. I'd tell you, you better refrain from him, dad, otherwise you're betting your own life."

"Hmm," he agreed.

"Everything was bogus, actually. That was the only reason he married me. Nothing out of love dad," she said. "Nothing out of true love."

Mrs. Nora held Eva against her shoulder when she began dropping more tears again.

"Now, please, go back, you both. Leave me alone for a while."

By the time Eva had sent them out of her room, her eyes were red because she had cried so much. Her nose was running for fifteen minutes constantly.

She sat on her bed, cold and frustrated, flipping the memories of her past when she spent with the ones whom she believed to be her parents. Then she saw her reflection on the mirror in front of her. She went up to it. She touched it and imagined in her mind how her real mother had looked like. Turning back, she took her towel and went to the bathroom.

She began crying with all her heart—only no one would get to see it—because she was in the shower.

"Why are things getting worse on me?" she put her face over her arms that were resting on the wall for a while.

Once she was done, she came out and she wiped the dust off her piano that was in the corner of her room and gently drew a chair by it.

"Hear, Smith," Mrs. Nora said when she heard Eva play the instrument. "She does it only when she's depressed. I think we gave her too much of what she could take."

"We didn't have any options. Holding ourselves back from what's a truth—partially when everything was slowly getting enlightened, would've been like not completing the Sudoku when you had the answers before you."

"Um, but—"

Eva kept on with the piano for nearly half an hour until the tunes she played got wilder. It was as if she was hitting the keys with all her force because she was so desperate and couldn't hit anyone else to get off the preformed scars on her very soul.

Finally she stopped.

Mrs. Nora went to her room to see if everything was okay.

She was afraid to see Eva on the floor—like a hapless corpse, pale and opened-mouthed.

"Ella?! Are you all right, dear?" Mrs. Nora's eyes were wide opened so much so that a beetle could enter.

Mr. Smith came into the room at that point.

"Ella?" he called before he placed his hands over her chest. "Nora, get the water, she's unconscious.

CHAPTER 23

Commencement of Hostilities

The next thing Eva realized was that her was wet.

"Are you all right?" said Mr. Smith.

Supporting herself, she raised to her feet. "Yes. Yes I am."

"I've been telling you to forget..."

Much before her dad could complete, she broke in. "I will, dad."

"No matter what, you'll always be our sweetheart."

"Thanks, mom."

"I didn't expect your come-back-home would be the worst of your life," expressed Mrs. Nora.

"Leave it now," Mr. Smith put an interlude.

"I'll need to meet my husband now."

"Ella, wait..."

Eva shook her head in no-agreement terms.

Once she rushed to Christopher's, she yelled at the door. "Chris, you low lit abominable creature on earth, you bloody queer, get out of your room, man. Open this stupid door. Right—"

The door was opened then.

"What?!"

Eva drew close to him. "Christopher, just look into my eyes," she said. "I don't see that true love in them, like I'd seen on the very first day I met you."

Christopher was wondering what his wife was up to, only he didn't speak a word.

"Hadn't you ever loved me with your heart, Chris?" she gave into tears. "Touch your heart, and promise me you did."

He made assumptions that his wife had come to know everything about what he really was.

Eva didn't expect that he would listen to her.

"I do touch my heart, I did love you."

She argued. "I don't think so, Chris."

"The first time I saw you, I did fell in love with you. I had then made a commitment here, right in my heart that I will and only marry you."

"You cheated me."

"Circumstances made me to," Christopher shot back. "I loved you so much, but I never realized you were the daughter of my enemy—not until I saw you both together on television."

Her mind proved to be an adhesive to seal her mouth for a moment.

Whilst he continued with what he had to tell. "There was a girl, much before I had fallen in love with anybody on this planet. I had to leave her when I came here."

"What link does it have with our conversation?"

"It does," he said. "It does have a link. The girl is none other than Terri, your schoolmate."

It was hard for Eva to believe as she stood there like as if struck by a thunder. "What?!"

"Yes. She was fifteen. She joined in St. Natalie High School and that's when you both met, you were just two months younger than her, but in the same class."

"Terri..." Eva looked worried.

"She discovered who I really was on the very first day she met me. And only _after_ that had I told you everything. But I thought I'll never let a word into your ears about the story that I didn't want you to know before I was done with what I wanted to do."

"You won't do it even after letting me know."

"I will."

"Christopher, please. Jesus hates murderers."

"I'm not religious as you may think."

"Chris, you're not going to do this, you'll have to pay the price."

"I'm wealthy enough."

"You can't be so attitude-minded."

"I never cared."

"Please, Chris," she fell on his feet. "I'm begging you, please, please, please don't do it. It can't serve any good if you do."

"It'd make my dad's soul rest in peace," he said.

"Souls don't exist, Chris. Haven't you read, the dead are conscious of nothing at all?"

"If I don't do this, my every bit of effort after my dad's death would be reduced to nothing."

Eva still tried to make him understand. "Listen, if at all you kill my dad, you'd for sure go to jail, that'd be ridiculous. You're a star. Real stars never do these," she paused to read his changing expression. "Look, you never know if your dad liked to have his friend killed. He'd never told you about it either. Did he? But wasn't it your dad's wish that you once became a luminary so that the world would recognize you as a somebody?"

His eyes filled with tiny drop of tears on each eye, but they didn't roll off until he closed his eyes for one second. "How do you know this?"

"You had once told me."

"If there's something you could do right now, keep up your eminence. Killing someone isn't definitely the right option. Would you do it if your dad was alive? Would you do it in front of him?"

Eva could feel that the tête-à-tête was for sure having a positive effect on him.

Christopher let out a hot breath. "Okay, I'm not assassinating anyone," he came to a conclusion.

Eva looked at the sky. "Thank god."

Before they could speak again, they heard the police cars' sirens just behind them.

"What's the matter?" Eva was confused.

Her phone then rang as if it had an answer to her question.

"Ella, it's me, your dad."

As Mr. Smith was speaking, two of the cops from one car got down right by their side.

"You're arrested, Mr. Christopher."

Trouble-founded Eva immediately spoke. "Dad, Chris is being taken away by the police!"

"Yes. I called them up."

"Dad, why?"

"He was up to kill me."

"No, he's not gonna do it, dad. Please save him before this gets over the public."

The media personnel had already come on the scene. Christopher was taken away by the police.

"What are you talking, dear?"

"Yes. He had told me, he realized it would be a great mistake."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, dad," she said when the media came rushing to her. "I'll call you later. Do something about it, dad. Christopher shouldn't be in a nauseate position. He'd otherwise be frenzy over it. The result might be fatal. See you. I'm disconnecting."

"Ma'am, we heard that your husband was going to slay Mr. Smith, what you have to say about it?" asked one of the media fellows.

"No, it happened all over a misunderstanding," she answered in tension.

"But your dad had given a complaint to the police that his life was under threat by his son-in-law."

"I said it was a misunderstanding!"

"Your dad looked so apprehensive, why he would lodge a complaint on him without any solid evidence?" asked the other man in the media.

"I said it was—" before she thought of repeating the same word again, she hit the person hard on his jaw such that he started to bleed.

Eva didn't stay for anything else that happened around her that night. She just drove her car to the police station to where her husband was taken.

On reaching there, she found her dad.

"Dad, please get him out. Tell me he's not busted," as she began to speak, Christopher kept watching her. He started feeling guilty for what he had been to her. He watched her lips move in emotion. "Dad, he's innocent. He's not going to do any shrewd act of crime. I can promise, only let my life go if he broke the promise."

At once Christopher's eyes were filled with tears and it did roll down his face this time without his shutting his eyes. But Eva didn't notice it until one point of time.

"Please, have you put his name on the FIR already? Say no, please," now she saw her husband crying, not because he was in that position, but because he was watching his wife battling for justice. "Look at him, does he..." she paused and walked towards him slowly. "Chris, you're crying?"

With that, he released the floodgates of his eyes.

"I've never seen you cry that much! Stop it, honey. You're gonna be safe until I'm here. Trust me."

Christopher buried his face against Eva's chest and he began letting out hell of tears. She also heard him moan at the same and for the first time.

"I'll be all right," he managed to speak to sound as if he was worried of being caught in the jail.

The media persons came again. But Eva didn't see the one with bleeding mouth anywhere on the set.

The cops had a hard time chasing off them for a while.

Mr. Smith spoke. "Sir, I—I will withdraw the case."

"Do you seriously want to do it?" asked one of the inspectors. "Later, if something goes wrong, don't tell we didn't warn you."

Eva went to the inspector in a swift. "No, nothing will happen to him. I believe if there had ever been a love that is so true, it is mine, and I, I just trust in my love. It wouldn't cheat me," she looked at her husband at that point. "I'm swearing keeping our love as a proof, Christopher, never let it break. I know you won't do anything that would cause any sort of threat to my dad's life. Say it, Chris. Say that you'd not trick your very hands."

After three seconds, he replied. "I do make this promise, at the least, for my honey—I'll never do anything that would put Mr. Smith's life in danger."

"Withdraw the case, please," she pleaded.

"Okay, then, we'll do it."

"Thank you, inspector," Eva answered.

She took her husband out so that they could go home. Mr. Smith had left from there half a minute before, without speaking a single word to them.

As they came out of the station, the media people again started to ask questions to them, but they refused to make a statement.

"I'm so sorry for everything, Eva," he said while they were inside the car.

"Ah, that's okay. I'm glad you are out from the police custody."

"I'm glad to have you as my wife."

"Sure enough?"

"Yes," he enunciated.

It was midnight already when they reached home. "So, you're gonna say no to that girl?" asked Eva, indirectly mentioning Terri.

"Yup."

"Oh, how you guys change your mind like a woman changing her clothes!"

"I'll be true to you, Eva," he beseeched.

"I hope you would," she breathed out a heavy sigh. After they reached home, Christopher had sex with his wife for the first time.

"This is the greatest moment of my life—to enjoy the night with the person whom I had loved so much that even the number of stars out there in the heavens can't outnumber the satisfaction that I have derived right now!" she affirmed solemnly.

He smiled and kissed his wife all over her face and neck.

Their sleep was deprived with the morning alarm clock. They saw each others' bare body reflecting back the morning rays.

Eva put on her clothes and got off the bed to switch on the TV.

There was news about the last night issue being telecasted on almost all the channels.

"Gosh," she said.

Christopher came to her. He wasn't naked anymore.

"Oh, dear!" he puffed looking on the screen.

The headline was about that Eva had hit a journalist so hard that he broke his teeth.

Christopher laughed.

"You can't be laughing!" she exclaimed. "Hitting the media personnel is gonna be a cause of concern!"

"Oops, sorry."

In that minute, Christopher had a phone call which for no reason raised her beats in the heart.

"Hello?"

There was silence.

"Yeah," he said as he walked a bit far from her.

Silence again.

Christopher's sound was quite audible right then.

When he had finished, he came back.

"Who was on the call?"

"It was Terri," he said without a letup.

"Not again her!" she rolled her eyes. "What did she say?"

"She had seen the news," he began. "She was afraid to discover that everything had come to light about the plan—a plan that I'd made before, you know it, I don't have to mention."

"No, you don't have to," she replied. "Then did she tell anything else?"

"She asked if I was not going to do it and I said no. I also said boldly to her what we did in the bed last night," he smiled.

"Oh, well, then?"

"Then she disconnected the call!"

Eva laughed. "Did you say you've ditched her off from your life?"

"No, before I could say that, the call was—"

"Yeah, it's okay."

Both got back with watching the news again. The raising question among the public was that why had Mr. Smith filed a complaint against his own son-in-law. Mr. Smith was unavailable for any comments.

"If at all you'd ignored me, too, probably I would have killed myself, you know that?" Eva whispered to Christopher. "It was so devastating to get to know the truth about my parents."

"I'll be there for you. You don't have to give up."

"Fine, baby," she grinned thankfully.

Luckily, Eva wasn't charged with any cases for hitting the journalist and she was thankful to him for that.

Eva decided to meet Terri personally for the second time to tell to her that she has to come to know every bit of the cloak and dagger about her husband.

On the same day, she drove to see her.

"Hi, Terz!"

There didn't seem to have much life in her greeting her friend. "Hello."

"Chris told you, right, today..."

"Yes."

Eva hummed. "So, you better do not interfere in our life. We're married and you have no rights to be acting over smart; you're just a third party for that reason."

"When have I ever interfered in your marriage life?!"

"I just am giving you a warning to stay back."

Terri stared at her face for half a long minute before she could speak a word. "Alright."

"Fine, then. Good bye. I was here to just inform you this."

"I'll see you around," said Terri. The way she said sounded as if she was equipped to commence hostilities against her, but Eva didn't seem to bother about it.

"Bye, friend."

"Bye."

CHAPTER 24

Judas Kiss

When Eva had gone, Terri made a phone call.

"Hi, Douglas."

"Hey, how's life, Terri?!"

"Yeah," she spoke, quaking. "Eva and Chris have patched again."

"What the hell?"

She whined.

Douglas spoke only after a while. "I won't let them have a prosperous life."

"Yes, you must do something about it."

"I will."

Within two days, Mr. Diego had come back to Eva claiming that he was again ready to continue to serve as her bodyguard.

Eva did agree to it.

"Hey, how's your wife?"

"Ah, um, she—she is no more."

"Oh, god," she showed pity to what she heard. "What caused her death?"

"Brain hemorrhage."

"Boy!"

"So you were alone?"

"Yes, that's why I thought of coming back."

"Nice to have you here."

"Thanks."

"Your voice has changed so much!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah—hmm, perhaps because of the depression."

"I see. Never mind, let go off the past."

"I'm trying to work on it."

After their conversation, he had talked to Christopher as well.

On the same night, Mr. Diego saw Eva taking some pills. Her husband was away and it seemed that she was doing it in secrecy, because he had been looking through the windows, only to find what she was up to and then he saw her hiding the pill-cover beneath her cot. She hadn't seen him and he was well aware of it.

He got to wondering and went back to the guest house at the same time.

Next morning he went to Eva.

He was peeking into the windows again, but there he found none and suddenly he heard a voice from behind.

"Good morning, Diego!" It was Christopher.

"Yeah, yeah, good morning," he smirked.

"Come on in," he greeted him inside. "Let's drink some coffee."

"Sure."

They went inside and Eva prepared the beverage for all the three, including herself.

Just then, Jenila came with a basket of washed clothes on her hip.

"Would you like to have some coffee, Jen?"

"No, sir," she refused. "I don't have that habit, thanks."

"Please put the clothes on the terrace," Eva said as she went out. "Once it gets all dried, you can come back to iron them."

Christopher too slowly went after them. At that point of time, Mr. Diego was alone in the hall. He carefully went to the room where he had seen Eva last night. He lifted up the cot and took the tablet cover.

"Atennsin," he spoke softly.

He realized that she had a depression for some cause. He immediately put it back to the place where he had taken it from—in the same position as it was and went back to his place.

Only after a while was it that the couple returned and they began to drink the remaining coffee from their cups.

"Have you finished?" asked Christopher.

"Yes, I have," he gave back a smile in return along with the cup.

Jenila had left then.

After the next two days, Eva had started to consume more of the depression tablets. She also told to her husband regarding it.

"How do you get them?"

"Dr. Lucas is the one through whom I get it."

"Consumption of this is going to affect your health on a serious scale, let me tell you."

Eva didn't reply.

When all the pills were finished, she called up her doctor to place an order for the same.

"I want the tablets, do you have them?"

"No, Eva," said Mr. Lucas. "Currently they are exempted from sale."

"Why?"

"It was found that it contained some harmful chemicals that are proved to trigger with the mental consciousness if consumed in the long run."

"But I can't be without them!"

"Sorry, Eva," the doctor said before he hung up.

She was more depressed to hear what Mr. Lucas had to tell than the gloominess she had had before. She turned back in disappointment, only to find that there was somebody right behind her.

"Mr. Diego!"

He was skirmishing for words at the first point. "Yeah, I heard you speak. What is the matter?"

Eva blew out a mouthful of air. "The pills—I've been taking them from many days and I came to know today that it's no longer available," she presented her feelings. "I'm afraid the urge to take them is sure gonna kill me."

"Not to take this as something to worry about, Eva."

"How would you say that?" she asked him.

"Yes. I have a friend of mine and he's a drug dealer. He deals with these things on a worldwide magnitude. I'm sure he can get you what you want."

"Please make it quick."

"How would you like to have the delivery made?"

"What are the options available?"

"One is that you can take the bulk package from him after you meet him and the other option is that you have it couriered at your doorsteps. The former would rather delay the process—if you can't wait..."

"Inform him. I'll choose to get an instant delivery of it."

"May I ask you, please," Mr. Diego began in doubt. "What's the reason behind you having to take the pills like this?"

"No, it's—um, I'd like to keep it personal, sorry."

"It's okay. I just asked you, that's it."

The next morning when Eva opened the door, she saw a white box alongside a bill. She took the small kit and the bill as well and called Mr. Diego to come.

"I think I've got my tablets," she told as she opened the pack in front of him. "Wow. It's Atennsin!"

She went to get the money to give it to him.

"Here, take this. Convey my thanks to your friend and you can give this to him."

"Sure," he smiled.

On the same day, Christopher had gotten a call from the producer, Mr. Alexis to act in his movie. He agreed and signed the deal and within a week the script had it that the shooting was to take place in India, and so he flew to the country to shoot there.

Christmas was just lying ahead and Eva had decided to feed the poor children of the society by inviting them together to a chapel.

"Mr. Diego, we're going for shopping today," she told. "I want to purchase some gifts for the children."

"All right, Eva, we shall go."

They got into his car which was pure-white, while he drove to a gift superstore that was about eighteen kilometers away.

She also bought some dresses for herself and by the time the shopping was all done, it was twilight already.

As Eva came out, her phone rang. It was a call from her husband. But the line got disconnected before she could answer it.

She tried to call him, but there was a network error.

"Can you please give me your cell?" she asked her bodyguard.

"Of course, take it," he said as he took his phone out of his jeans pocket and gave it to her.

Eva thanked him and went forward to make a call. Christopher's phone did ring and they both talked for a minute.

"Shall we go?" she asked Mr. Diego after she was done with the call.

"Yeah."

On returning, Mr. Diego took a different path.

"Wasn't the previous junction out there where we had to take a left turn from?"

"No, in point of fact, we can reach with this road sooner," he answered.

"I never knew that!"

Mr. Diego stopped the car suddenly. It was dark and there was nobody on the road except tranquility.

"What happened, Mr. Diego?"

He didn't answer, instead, he pushed a button adjacent to the steering and automatically all the windshields were closed.

"Hey, what are you doing," she shouted at him. "Why have you closed the windows?"

He didn't reply yet again.

What he did after two seconds was bloodcurdling which she never had thought to happen—not even in her dream.

Mr. Diego jumped to the back seat where Eva was sitting.

"What are you trying to do, you dickhead?"

And then, he began to assault her. He licked her like a dog. "I'm gonna rape you."

He had his hands over her clothes—as if he was soon going to tear it apart.

"Don't try to be nuts," she said as she tried to push him away and hit the window by her to escape.

She shouted at the top of her voice. But no one could hear her ingenuous screams.

"Christopher!!" she screamed.

"He's not going to come, nor will anyone else. Count on your fate, Eva."

"Please!"

She had her wrist in a folded position and hit him hard on his face—a usual thing she did on boys for her own defense.

"Ow—" he cried.

Mr. Diego pushed her to the seat in a more aggressive manner and Eva caught hold of the slim rubber-cover that was right in front of her—it was put on the driver's seat and the force by him on her made her hands to accidently tear through it.

"It's not going to be a big deal trying to get away," he told. "Because you're going to live no more after this."

She managed to give him one last hit on his groin before she could make an attempt to hit the window again so that it would break. "It indeed would be a big deal when I shoot your testicles back to your throat."

The window cracked.

Eva gave him another shot on his head with the flower vase she had in her bag and it made her almost survive the incidence that day, she exerted all her force and pushed the window and the cracked piece fell apart. She jumped out of the car as soon as she could and began to run back from where they'd come.

Eva was afraid that Mr. Diego would follow her. She kept on turning back to give a glance, only to find that there was just emptiness until after a particular point of time when she saw people on the regular road. She had somehow dealt with the situation to come out of that lonely lane.

She realized that she had left her shopping bag in the car itself. It had contained all the gifts she had bought that day.

She began to wonder extremely on the point why Mr. Diego would ever do such a thing. He was never that sort of guy as far as she had known him.

Unexpectedly, she heard the phone ring from her handbag. It was a different sound.

She opened the zipper and found she had forgotten to return Mr. Diego's phone.

On a close look over the screen, she found: 'Terri calling'.

Eva wondered and slowly raised the phone to her ears. But she didn't speak a word. She just decided to listen.

"Hello, Douglas." It was the first thing she heard. "Did you send her the drugs? Are things working out in a way we had planned?"

Eva was revulsion-struck because the voice so categorically sounded as of Terri's.

"Why Mr. Diego should be called 'Douglas'?" she thought in her mind.

"Hello?" she heard a voice. "Hello? Hello, can you hear me?"

Eva cut the call.

"What connections do Mr. Diego and Terri share?" she conjectured.

Like a lost ball in the high weeds, she kept moving—walking as well as running at the same time. For if she walked, she feared Mr. Diego would chase her again. She boarded a taxi immediately and ordered him to drop her to her destination.

"I don't think it was Mr. Diego. Diego would never try to do something like that," she began to give work to her mind to think about the matter. "I've been wondering, Mr. Diego that had been before this had always called me _ma'am_. But when he came back now, not even once did he call me by that word. And how so his voice had completely transformed in these years! Hard to believe. He said it was because he lost his wife—well I think there's an insider story to it. I'll need to find out."

Mr. Diego's phone that was in her hand began to ring for the second time. It was Terri again.

"Give Eva more doses of cocaine," she said. "She must die of a cardiac arrest. Don't let the person whom you'd loved to be enjoying with another man in her life."

Eva's blood turned ice with what she had just heard.

"Add extra. Make the fifty milligram of it to two hundred or more."

"What are these things?" Eva thought in bafflement.

"Why don't you just speak, are you listening to me?"

Eva immediately switched off the phone as she didn't want to give a reply.

She reached Christopher's house and locked the door behind her after entering.

What she had just been through made her hallucinate that Mr. Diego was waiting for her in some corner of the house to make an attack on her again.

"Terri mentioned that I was loved by Douglas..." she wondered on the concept.

At the flash of a second, what came to her mind was the Douglas who had been her classmate in school days.

"Whoa!" she thought about a dialogue that he had said, but which she didn't take it much into account.

"He had once told me that he loves me!"

Thinking about it, Eva called up Terri from her phone.

"What were you talking about to Mr. Diego over the phone?"

Terri's adrenaline worked to the point of hers squirming for a while. "I didn't tell anything about you to anyone!" she tried to sound as if it was an exclamation.

"I heard you take my name."

"Do you think you're the only 'Eva' in this world?!"

"Why would you want to tell anybody to kill someone?" she asked.

"I had a grudge on her."

"For?"

"I want to keep the subject private."

"So are you sure you haven't told anything about _me_?"

"Yes. Not a word about you," Terri said calmly.

"Why had you been mentioning his name as 'Douglas'?"

"God! Eva! What have you got in your mind? Diego's pet name is Douglas and I'm used to call him like that."

"How come you both know each other?"

Terri again tussled for words. "I—we...we both studied together in the national university for the under-graduation."

Eva continued to live at her husband's place and she never gave thought to go to meet her parents after that. She was twenty nine at that time.

Mr. Diego had never returned then and the tablets stopped reaching her doorsteps. In time, she had stopped consuming it, too. Christopher was happy to hear that. The couple used to talk over the phone more often than ever. She had related to him regarding her experience of how Mr. Diego had behaved with her and how she managed to flee from the scene. As for Mr. Diego's phone, she had thrown it into the trash.

It was on the Christmas Eve and Eva had talked to Mr. Julian, the father in St. John's Church about the food arrangement for the poor children.

Mr. Julian had agreed to get some needy kids, which included the few that were already in the church because they had none to look after them.

The early morning of the twenty fifth December found lots of children gathered at the veranda of the church much before even Eva had reached there.

"So how is it all going so far, father?"

"They're all so hungry!"

Eva smiled with a nodding and turned behind. She didn't just see them with her eyes—but saw them with her inner heart—the way they were so eager to eat food, as if they had been waiting for the day so long.

"Father, look at them," she told, feeling commiserated. "Ow."

The kids were given their breakfast and lunch. They stayed on for the night as well because they were told to.

"Hi, everyone!" Eva addressed them. "How was the food? Did you enjoy?"

"Yes," all children shouted.

"So I have another surprise for you now."

They wondered.

"Ah-ha," she pointed her finger to the door where the children had their backs turned to. "Look, you have a Santa out there!"

They looked behind and were surprised to see the Christmas father because of whom there was a hell of noise among the children. They ran to the Santa to receive gifts from him.

As he opened his big sack bag and began to give away the gifts, the church father spoke to Eva personally, "Thanks. The children had never been so happy in their lives, I suppose. I thank you for everything."

She smiled. "Keeping them happy for a day and making them want to wait for the next year again to have such joy isn't cool, father," she said. "I want to help them—I want to feed and nourish them throughout the year."

"It's not going to be easy!"

"I understand. But I'm hoping to start an organization."

"You have a great mind, Eva. God bless you for it."

"Thank you."

After the Santa had given all the gifts to the kids, they assembled back to hear what was the next thing Eva had to tell them.

She continued. "So, right now you can go out and eat your dinner to the summit of satisfac—"

No sooner did she finish the line than they ran out and took their seats to be fed again.

They were fully contended with the food they had been offered that night.

Eva came to them again. "One last after-dinner speech for you people!" she said. "I'm organizing a film club and it's going to be titled as A.I.F.E, meaning, American Institute of Filming Education and I'm inviting you for that. Who among you would like to join?"

Most of the children raised their hands in harmony.

"Fine. And know one thing, this is a free club—"

The moment she termed it "free", she could see even more hands raised.

"Oh, okay. So, you'll be taught all about filming sets and stuff. It's gonna be interesting. Another important thing about this club is that you get free food as long as you're the members of the—"

As Eva had stated that even food was going to be free, almost everybody had agreed to join her—there were twenty three of them.

When all the children had gone, Mr. Julian spoke to Eva again. "Why did you tell them to join a club? You could have just started an organization where you'd bring them under one roof and make the procedure to feed them three times a day."

"I thought, but then I realized, if I do that what distinctness would that be from an orphanage?" she gave him time to think about it.

Mr. Julian's veins grew cold for a second. "God bless you, my dear."

Out of the blue, she heard someone from behind and she turned back. "Merry Christmas, father."

"Who's he?" she asked. "I have seen him somewhere."

"Hey, Eva! It's me, Douglas!"

"Merry Christmas, my boy," said Mr. Julian.

Eva was horrified. Her legs were frozen.

"Why are you in awe?!"

"Douglas," she smiled. "You've changed so much!"

"We'd never been in touch for a very long time."

Eva turned to the father. "How do you know him?"

"He's my cousin's son," he told.

"Yeah, Eva. I come here mostly every December to see him."

"Glad to see you," she said as they exchanged a hug. "So how're you doing?"

"I've been great!" he replied.

It was late already and the officials had already been making calls to Mr. Julian to inquire about the kids who hadn't reached back then.

"Eva, it's nine. The kids need to go now."

"Okay, father," she said as she called everybody near her in a bid to send them away with few gifts.

All the children had gone, then.

Douglas spoke to Eva. "Hey, Eva, can I drop you, if you don't mind?"

"Yeah, of course."

They bid adieu to the father before they left.

"So, where do you stay?" asked Eva when they were in his car. Douglas was riding while Eva sat behind him.

"Currently at a nearby motel."

"I mean, which country?"

"Oh!" he laughed. "In Canada."

"I see."

"Where's Christopher?"

"He's gone to India for a film shooting."

"Good. Aren't you feeling bored without anybody at home?"

At that point of time, to show herself that she was indeed bored without her husband, she lay back on her seat and stretched herself a bit and she just gave a glimpse turning behind.

"I am—" she paused when she saw a mask kind of thing down there.

She picked it up as Douglas was busy riding.

"What are you doing to get off the boredom?"

Eva didn't say anything, for she was looking closely at what she had found.

"Eva?" he called when he didn't receive an answer.

"Yeah, um, uh, I do—I write short stories."

She felt doubtful of what was happening. She put the mask on her face and looked at the rare mirror.

She was shocked to see herself appear as someone who had made the circumstance a bombshell a few days ago.

"Diego!" she screamed at that point after she saw her reflection on the mirror.

Douglas immediately stopped the car with a sudden jerk so hard that Eva lost control and she hit her head on the driver's seat.

"Ouch! Holy crap!" she mumbled as she lifted her head.

The next thing she saw made her almost pounce on her feet in a dread to run away out from the car.

There was a stitch mark on the cover of the seat of Douglas. She soon peeked out of the windshield to see if the car's color was white.

No. It was painted blue.

She looked at the window—it was normal.

Watching Eva's face grow in dismay, Douglas at one point thought that he had now let the cat out of his bag and that there was nothing to hide from her anymore.

"Douglas!" she called him, though her aura persistently gave her an instinct to make a hurried departure. "What's this?"

He sighed before he could answer a word. "I'm sorry. I just..." he sighed again before making his further words strong. "Yes. I acted to be Mr. Diego. Terri and I planned for this."

"Hard to believe you've joined her and you're behaving against me! What's wrong with that idiot?" she shot back.

"There's a reason behind everything, Eva. Do you remember, that day when I had come to your house, we were young. It was your sixteenth birthday."

Eva listened to him with a keener interest. Her aura had no more hold on her then.

Douglas continued. "I felt rejected that day. But I felt all right with things as long you were not committed to Christopher. I had loved you so much and it was hard for me to see you with any other guy. I started to feel envious about it. When it came to the situation that you both had planned to get married, I left you. I just left thinking about you thereafter. Before a month I met Terri at the petrol terminal. We were glad we met after so long. I used to go to her house and she had told me about you guys. She said she was so badly in love with Christopher and I told her my story. She then began to force me to do something that would separate you both. Believe me, I had no intentions about it at first, but then, with the way her words cozened me, I just couldn't withhold and I took this extreme step to even kill you by giving you tablets that contained heavy doses of deadly drugs, because even I began to develop the impulse of wanting you more than ever."

"Was it you that used to bring the pills to my door?"

"Yes, Eva," he displayed a sorry face.

"How cruel! I never expected you'd betray me ever like this!"

"I regret."

"Ha," she rolled her eyes to make it seem it's just a common dialogue among men who do such pathetic things and later feel sorry for the same.

"I'm ready to be your friend, will you forgive me?"

Eva thought about it for a while. "Yes, I have forgiven you. But promise me you'll never talk to that shit again."

"I promise."

"If I do find you both together, I will never talk with you again," she made it clear.

"I don't think there'd be any necessity for that, Eva. Trust me."

"All right."

CHAPTER 25

It All Ends Where It All Began

She was lucky enough that no hint of insecurity befell her again that night. Douglas dropped her safely to her husband's place.

"Bye, Eva."

"Bye," she said as she immediately turned around.

Not before a week passed, Eva saw Douglas again. She was recording her songs on her mini sound recorder when she saw him walking towards someone. She watched. It was Terri who was in front of him.

Her foe was sitting just by the fountain and then she found her friend too sit next to her at the same time. Before stepping down from the car with her bodyguard, Mr. Elliot, Eva put the recording device into the pocket of her jacket.

"What's this?" she asked Douglas as she went to him.

Terri and he stood up the moment they saw Eva standing right before them.

Douglas didn't want to give even a slightest of the implication of the fact that he had told Eva everything about Terri.

"Hey, Eva!" he summoned up his thoughts in a positive way.

"You are obtuse, Douglas," she shouted. "Don't you think so?"

He stood much closer to Eva and started to wink his eyes—in a bid to tell her to keep quiet and that the girl behind him shouldn't know anything about what they had spoken last time.

Intelligent was Eva, hence she didn't speak anything. She just continued walking in the opposite direction.

"Ma'am, ma'am..." called Mr. Elliot.

But Eva had turned deaf for a moment.

He thought she would stop by where the car was parked, and she did. He saw her peer into the window of the car and when she lifted her head up, she had her handbag with her. She didn't wait for Mr. Elliot; she didn't even look back, in fact. At that point, he began to walk hurriedly towards her.

"Mr. Elliot!" yelled Terri when she found him going away.

He looked back.

"Come here."

"But—"

"Just come here for a second."

He came on over to her. "What is it, Terri?"

She hissed before replying. "See, I know this would be hard for you, but listen, you need to help us."

"Tell me, what can I do for you?"

"You need to help us in killing someone."

"What are you talking about?! Have you gone mad?" he shouted high so that they could not hear his heart that was already pounding so loud and fast.

Terri took a bundle of cash from her bag.

"Here, there is one million dollar," she said. "You are going to be a millionaire in just a second if you want to!"

"No, sorry, I can't commit this."

She took another two bundles. "One plus two, and it is three million dollars! Think about it before you can give the cold shoulder.

Mr. Elliot thought about it. "But, how?"

"We'll tell you that. But, dare not to tell this to anyone."

"I won't tell anybody."

"I already have made a deal with someone who would be working the main part herein."

He left the spot immediately with the money stuffed into his pockets.

All the while, Terri discovered that Douglas' mood was off.

"What's with you, are you okay?"

"Should we do this at all?" he asked, his eyes ran a series of emotion.

"Of course! That's our plan!"

"No, please don't do this."

"Whoa, grow up, dude!"

He spoke no words again.

They departed from there right after that.

Douglas made a call to Eva through a payphone nearby when Terri had gone.

"Dear, you happened to see me with her today because I wanted to tell her to withhold from what she was up to—"

Eva was angry and she didn't listen to him, she disconnected the call then.

Douglas rang up again.

The line was cut by her once more, that is, before even she answered the call.

He tried again and again and again, but she didn't pick up at all.

As soon as he could, he went to talk to her directly, but Eva had grown so hardhearted that she didn't even open the door for him. Instead, she called the guards and ordered them to get him off from there.

That night, there was something Eva felt unusual about. It was an hour after Douglas had left.

When she was up to close the windows, she saw three guys at the gate discussing something. After a close watch, she realized it was Mr. Aaron and Mr. Wyatt, the security guards and Mr. Elliot.

"Mr. Wyatt, what's happening there?" she called him.

"Nothing, ma'am. We're just chatting."

"Mr. Elliot, we'll need to go for a party at Mrs. Alyssa's tomorrow, have you forgotten about it?"

"No, ma'am," he said.

"Okay, then go back. Have some nap. We need to be there as early as possible."

Eva switched off the lights and went to sleep.

It was morning and Eva got all set to go to the party. She called her bodyguard and he drove her to Mrs. Alyssa's, the wife of the former Lord Chamberlain.

"Are you not coming inside?" asked Eva when she saw Mr. Elliot not getting down from the car once they had reached their destination.

"No, I wasn't invited, right?"

"Hmm, but I may be late."

"You can take your own time, ma'am."

"You're gonna wait until then?"

"I'll go back, you can give me a call when you're about to leave." Mr. Elliot turned back to go, he took two steps forward and turned his face again to Eva. "Ma'am..."

"Yeah?"

"Wish you a happy new year."

"Oh!" she then remembered why she was there. "Happy new year, you too."

He went back.

"Hi, thanks for coming, Eva," welcomed Mrs. Alyssa.

"I'm honored to be here!"

They went to the basement, along with the kids who had enrolled to be the member's of Eva's new film institute, for they too were invited for the party.

Mrs. Alyssa was launching a new band and she wanted Eva to feature in some of her songs so that she could promote it on a much higher scale.

Eva sang songs from her own album and gave information to her about the music industry and the experience one would find when they were in it. The video of the whole party was recorded by Mrs. Alyssa's son, Thomson.

Once it was break, she called up Mr. Elliot over the phone. "Where are you?"

"I'm at home, ma'am, why, shall I come there now? Is the party over?"

"No, no. Not yet. It's recess."

"When'll you be leaving, ma'am?"

"I'll text you. I'm not sure," she said. "There's one great multitude of fans here, along with them, the media as well."

"I'll be there when you want me to be."

"See you."

Eva took her lunch at Mrs. Alyssa. It was in fact a banquet.

"I keep my food short; I am not used to eating so much at one go!"

"We thought you liked them all!"

"I don't deny that. These are my entire favorite, but still, everything at one time—it's hard, you see."

"Ah, I understand."

"But it's okay. They all taste amazingly well!"

"Thanks."

Eva took the first lesson for the orphanage children that day, after she was again found teaching Mrs. Alyssa to train her voice to be able to sing better.

It was evening. Eva went to the balcony at the second floor and addressed the gathering. All were excited to see her there and the camera flashed on her face too much.

She at once waved her hands and smiled and went downstairs to text Mr. Elliot to pick her up.

He arrived as soon as he could and they somehow managed to get into the car, despite the huge crowd.

The car couldn't move, because the road was filled with people.

Mr. Elliot was found so desperate that he started to honk at them so nosily.

"Hey," she shouted at him. "Stop it! Don't you know I hate that?"

"Sorry, ma'am."

It seemed he wanted to get away from there too quick.

After a point on the road, the crowds were all gone. It was murky all around. Eva feared what had happened to her last time in a similar atmosphere—cold night, a driver, and her—no one on the road except the shadow of the trees.

On the left and right sides of the road was nothing but trees that grew so high to show off their tips—that means, she was then on a road build on a higher terrain.

The car began to move in a crisscross manner and Eva felt afraid of falling over by the edge of the road.

Mr. Elliot had no other option but to stop immediately. He looked out of the windows.

"Ugh, the car's wheel is punctured!"

"Damn, man," she said as she looked out too. "What's now?"

"Wait here. I'll get a spare wheel from the nearby outlet."

"Don't you have one?"

"Nope."

"Make it quick," she told.

She began hearing a tick-tock sound from downside of her seat when Mr. Elliot had gone; she looked down and found it to be just a clock.

It was totally dark and Eva wondered if there were any outlets opened at that time in a place that seemed so bizarre. She rubbed her palms together and blew hot air into it before placing them over her eyes.

"Franklin ATM Bank: 24 Hours Service," she read from the building which was adjacent to her car.

There was just that one building that at least gave her a hope that people did go there for withdrawing money.

She continued to wait.

Then something happened there—a terrible situation—the car blasted into smithereens. There was a great sound and the whole scene turned out to be smoke-filled. There was fire all around.

Mr. Elliot went there at once after hearing the blast. He instantaneously scuttled away from there.

The sun had already showed up when an old man came to the street for his regular walks. He was shocked with what he saw and immediately informed about it to the Criminal Investigation Department of the police forces.

The officers came to the spot as soon as they could.

"It's clearly a bomb blast."

There was a number-plate lying on the road, it was discolored.

The detectives, upon investigation found that it was Eva's car that had undergone this stomach-turning incident. They looked for her on the set and found her body—it was repulsive to look at.

"Why would Eva want to come to a place like this?" asked Mr. Peyton. "Was she alone?"

"We'll need to investigate the days prior to this," said Ms. Hailey.

The copiously burnt body was sent to a forensic lab for the DNA analysis.

The police squads came to the crime scene at that. One of their dogs—a Labrador had found some materials there. There were broken pieces of something that seemed a clock and the other one was an unusual device. Mr. Zachary put them into a plastic bag for further tests.

The detectives made it to Mrs. Alyssa.

"What?!" she was taken aback to hear that Eva was no more. "But she came here last night, and everything was going good with her."

"Do you suspect someone?"

"No, I don't, actually."

The officers saw the video taken by Mrs. Alyssa's son, and they found Eva was normal and juvenile like every time she appeared.

"What was the circumstance like when Eva had left from here?"

"There were huge crowd to the length of the roads."

"Where was the car parked when she was here?"

"It wasn't here," she answered. "Mr. Elliot had come to pick her up in the night."

"Thank you, ma'am. We'll see you again if the case demands so," nodded Mr. Peyton before his team went back from there.

Mr. Elliot was taken into task immediately. They inquired him about her, and he had failed to give a proper answer. He was slapped hard on the face before they took him to the jail.

The news of sudden death of the actress had given her fans an extreme line of flabbergast. They were too distressed.

Christopher, after hearing the news, was as shocked like any other. He immediately boarded a flight back to see her for one last time.

Two of the detectives visited Eva's house.

"We know it's a heartbreaking thing that had happened to your daughter, sir," Mr. Hunter said to Mr. Smith when he found them crying at the top of his voice—he along with his wife.

"If you don't mind, shall we take up your daughter's room for a while?"

Mr. Smith nodded, because he wasn't in a position to answer them.

They began probing her room for any sort of evidence.

"Check for diaries," Mr. Hunter said. "Any of the information that deteriorated Eva could be found in them."

"Fine, sir," said Ms. Hailey.

There were two diaries that they had found.

One among them only contained stories about her childhood and the other was a bit peculiar.

They gave attention to the latter one.

"Ser como una semilla que cae de la polyalthia longifolia, y no como las piedras al lado de él," was something that was written in the first page.

"What is this supposed to mean?" asked Ms. Hailey.

"Let's translate," said Mr. Hunter as he reached for his laptop from the bag.

After it was converted to English, it read: "Be like a seed that falls from the polyalthia longifolia, and not like the stones beside it."

"Seed?!" she wondered.

"Wait, I remember something like this... Yes. It was when Eva had become the brand ambassador of the _Shin's_ company.

"But what does it mean?"

"Eva never told that in media," he put his head down. "Maybe it's there in the diary. We should check."

They continued to read the diary. Eva had written a lot about her experience after she had acquired stardom. She had written about the day when she fell in love with her husband. With flipping of pages, they read that the couple's marriage life had taken a twist from what was normal. They understood that there was someone named 'Terz' whom she thought would rob her lover off. Moreover, they figured out that Eva had never known her true parents. It had alarmed the detectives to a great extent.

"Before we leave, we need to try to access Eva's interactions with anybody prior to this via the internet."

"Yes, sir, that may help us to uncover any form of suspects."

Mr. Hunter sat in front of Eva's desktop. He tried to open it, by it was password-protected.

"Shall we ask Mr. Smith—if he knows?"

"No, he may not be able to tell at this moment."

He looked for the password hint, and it said: 'LOOSE'.

Mr. Hunter received a call from the SIO at that time.

"Hello, sir."

"Yeah," he whispered on the other side. "How far is the investigation going, Mr. Hunter?"

"So far, nothing related to the case, but we are sure we'll find something before we leave."

"All right. And, yeah, I wanted to tell you something. We've got an anonymous email from someone named Do. It appears in the form of calculations and codes. There must be some answer that we need to derive out of it."

"What you want me to do, sir?"

"I want you to solve them, as I know you are a genius."

"What do you expect from that mere email?"

"I to a degree have no idea about it," the SIO said. "But the way it appears, I think there's someone out there trying to tell us something."

"Fine, sir, give me the numbers."

"Do you have a calculator out there?"

"Yeah," Mr. Hunter said as he took the device out from his shoulder-bag.

"I'll forward the email to you."

Approximately after a minute, he got an email from Mr. Thomas, the SIO.

He checked it from his laptop.

It did involve calculations and codes.

"1340+33667=35007

107-67-26=14

14+485-3=496

(I*l3@3 7@l<3 0nLY 7l-l3 L@57 d!g!75 @f73r 7l-l3 3Ql_l@L 70 5!gn)"

"What does it mean?" Ms. Hailey asked.

"There is a code—a complicated language within the brackets," told Mr. Hunter.

"Getting any idea?"

He wrote the codes down on a sheet of papers first.

Then he calculated the numbers with the signs given to make sure it provided that number alone and that it didn't have any other secondary meaning.

The numbers were right according to the signs.

The codes that were written on the paper gave him a language that was understandable.

"Done! He shouted. "I've found it!"

"Tell me," she said.

' _Please take only the last digits after the equal-to sign',_ this is what it says!"

"Wow! You're cool! Now, for if we take the last digits from the three consecutive rows..." she said as she took the calculator from him to type the numbers into it.

...3500714496.

"I guess this is some sort of a phone number," she looked at him for his nod of agreement.

"I guess it to be so."

Mr. Hunter soon made a call to Mr. Thomas.

"Sir, we've found the number. It seems a phone number."

As they were speaking, Ms. Hailey began back-spacing the numbers from the calculator—while her mind was fixed on what Mr. Hunter was speaking.

Only the last five digits from the calculator remained then.

"All right, I'll make a call to the person. But then, we need to find out who sent us such an email in a way that would persuade us to think about it as something crucial as considering it worthwhile than just ignoring it. I think, yes, for no doubt, that that person definitely is clever," explained the SIO.

"Yeah, sir. He has got to be, for sure!"

Just after the call, Mr. Hunter looked at the calculator that was positioned facing Ms. Hailey when she sat in front of him. He took it and before he could turn it off, he thought he found something on it. The digits: 35007 on the calculator when faced to her read a word in English.

"Looks like in a bid to find answer to one thing, we found an answer to the other thing as well!" he said.

"What?!"

"Read this," he showed the calculator in an upside down posture to her.

"LOOSE."

"Exactly. I guess 35007 is what the password is to unlock Eva's computer."

"Whoa, man!" she held her hands on her cheek. "Come on, try it soon."

He typed the digits into the password column and crossed his finger after he hit the ENTER tab.

The computer was unlocked successfully.

"Thank god!" she said.

Eva hadn't logged out of any of the sites where a login was required, and this made the investigation procedure much easier because as the sites were opened, they could access her privacy.

All her personal information was extracted and even her chat history with the people prior to a week on the social networking sites she used were considered.

They checked her emails. There were only fifteen in the inbox. There was no hint of any mail or chat with any person whom they could doubt about.

The trash was opened then. It contained two mails. The first one was to someone named Ruby. The mail read:

"Be like a seed that falls from the polyalthia longifolia, and not like the stones beside it."

There was a description below that. It said: "People often are too lazy that even if there's someone to encourage them from behind, they aren't willing to move forward. That's what my thought to you is about. There came lot of chances for you in the film industry, but you didn't work well for attaining them. You think about yourself as someone who's great. Don't you need fellow-beings at all? There are times when we reach summits and we fall down from such a height—you know what would then be the outcome. We need to understand ourselves more than anybody else can understand of us, only then we know how to move and where to target our direction to the encouragement we are backed with. We should never act stones that roll just a few distances away when kicked, but we need to be like the seed that I mentioned earlier, we need to take the kick (encouragement) from others and proudly roll faster than a stone. I hope you understand. Next time when you visit India, just try this. There are lots of polyalthia longifolia trees here. Kick a stone and kick the seed and see which rolls faster."

"Amazing expression is what she has used here, right, Mr. Hunter?"

"Yes, I agree, but the point to think here is, who is Ruby? Why would she share something that she had never ever shared with the media to this person? I think they are related in a close way. We need to figure if it's true or not."

She shook her head in conformity.

The second mail was opened. The recipient was a guy named Elvis. The mail read: "I need more of the Atennsin. Please make a delivery of the same as soon as possible. Like usual, I'll send the money through Mr. Diego."

"It seems that Elvis is most probably a drug dealer. Atennsin—it's already banned in most of the countries," said Mr. Hunter. "We need to locate Diego so that we'll know who Elvis is."

While they were about to leave, Ms. Hailey's shoulder accidently hit the big Monalisa's photo that hung by the wall.

Before she could say 'ouch', an envelope fell down from behind the photo, off to the floor.

She picked it up. It was written on it:

" _A letter to be opened after I give up for the ghosts"_

It was clearly Eva's handwritten envelope.

She opened it and started to read the letter that was there inside.

" _Dear Chris, I so badly am in love with you. I hope you too have true love for me. I am eagerly awaiting our marriage. When I'm alive, I'd not want to see you with any other girls other than me. I'm so possessive about you. I just need you in my life, Chris. Tonight you're not here, and I decided to pen this down. I may not be able to tell you these things directly on your face, and hence am writing it down. I would go back home and hide this stuff. I know, once when I die, you'll surely see this. May the God that made us meet, may also make us live together. For he knows that my heart is gentle, and it would be I who'd go to the crematorium first and not you, for if it is you who'd leave the world first before me, then, I'll tell you that that day I'll commit suicide too. Only, never let that happen. Take care_."

"Jesus Christ!" Ms. Hailey moaned. "Poor Eva!"

"Take the letter; we'll give to the person to whom it officially must belong."

When they both went downstairs, they saw Mr. Smith and his wife sitting on the floor. They weren't sobbing much then.

"Excuse me, sir," he called. "Can we know who Ruby is?"

Mr. Smith rubbed his nose and inhaled a bit before he could answer. "She was Eva's childhood friend.

"Until when?"

"Her school life."

"Then where did she go?"

"We don't know. They changed their lodging to some other place."

"So you don't know any whereabouts of her now?"

"No."

"Was there any distinctiveness about her?"

"Ruby was jealous of Eva's rising eminence; she was seen in few movies and commercial TV shows when she was a child."

"Thanks, sir. I hope we got enough information from here today," said Mr. Hunter. "Why didn't you both turn up to see your daughter?"

"We had brought her up without letting even the sunrays cause her any harm," Mrs. Nora spoke in tears. "How can we look at her at this time? I believe she isn't dead. I don't want to see her there and know that she is no more. I cannot take it!" she cried almost loudly.

"Sorry, ma'am," said the detectives and then they turned back to head to Christopher's.

There was a big crowd and even the police and media out there in front of his house.

"Sir, there's a letter we found written by your wife," said Ms. Hailey as she gave the envelope to Chris.

After reading it, he started bawling, without being able to control himself.

They waited for him to stop crying as they consoled him, patting on the back.

After a few minutes, they asked him, "Do you know who Diego is?"

"Yes," he said. "A few weeks back Eva had told me that there was someone named Douglas who had tried to kill her in the car. Diego was her bodyguard once who left to see his ill wife and then never returned. But, the Douglas that I told about earlier came here claiming to be him. He looked ditto like Diego, but Eva had told me that it was a mask that he used for transforming the way he looked in reality."

"Do you know who Douglas is?"

"No, I don't."

Mr. Peyton made a call to Mr. Hunter at that point.

"Tell me, sir."

"The pieces of clock that we had got from the crime scene unambiguously prove it that it had the explosive components in it."

"Holy cow!"

Mr. Hunter left to the laboratory—he and Ms. Hailey, too.

"There's another device here," said Mr. Peyton when he saw them both. "Can you see what this is?"

Ms. Hailey took and flipped it to see what it was. "I hope this device isn't damaged. And, with the holes that I see here, I believe it should be some sound device."

She pressed two buttons together and it started to play. It was Eva's sound. They heard her singing a song which was stopped unexpectedly, but the swish of the wind made it clear that the recorded sound wasn't over yet. Followed by it, there was a conversation.

" _Hey, Eva!"_

" _You are obtuse, Douglas. Don't you think so?"_

"Douglas?!" Mr. Hunter whispered as both he and his co-detective exchanged a quick glance.

There was silence again for about a minute. Then they heard from it someone shout: _"Ma'am, ma'am..."_

There was a long silence then, after which there was a sound of some car's door opening and closing. It then made an accelerating sound and it continued for about three minutes, which gave an impression that the place to where the car went was almost near to the spot where the conversation had taken place.

There were no significant sounds for nearly an hour.

"I think we're almost there," said Ms. Hailey.

"The sound of the man that we just heard seems like that of Mr. Elliot whom we had arrested a few hours back."

"Exactly. Now, we'll have to assume that Eva, with her bodyguard had visited someone on that day, and the recording device that she had used to record her voice had also captured this conversation. I think Eva had put the device into the car when she left. Perhaps she was angry. That is why she called Douglas, 'obtuse'; and we heard Mr. Elliot's voice at the same time, trying to stop her from going as he yelled the word 'ma'am' two times," rationalized Ms. Hailey.

Just then, there started a low-audible conversation on the device again. They gave close attention to it.

" _Guys, it's a three million dollar deal. Killing Eva would make us a millionaire! We'll share the amount equally. Help me in doing this."_

Then, there was a sound of someone which seemed as if it came from a little far distance. _"Mr. Wyatt, what's happening there?"_

" _Nothing, ma'am. We're just chatting."_

" _Mr. Elliot, we'll need to go for a party at Mrs. Alyssa's tomorrow, have you forgotten about it?"_

" _No, ma'am."_

" _Okay, then go back. Have some nap. We need to be there as early as possible."_

For nearly sixty seconds, no one spoke.

" _Mr. Elliot, you had served her so long so genuinely, now if you're going behind money, it's simply not done. You think you can escape the police?!"_

" _Yes. Mr. Aaron is right. We're not doing this. Call her and tell you cannot do this."_

No one spoke.

"No doubt, it is Mr. Elliot himself that has done this."

"Just one person wasn't involved. We need to arrest every detestable soul that had a hand in this crime," Mr. Peyton said in response to Ms. Hailey.

Mr. Elliot, at that point, spoke on the device which made them to make a small guess that he was not the real criminal. It seemed he was talking over the phone, _"I'm not doing this; please take back your money."_

"We need to go back to Mr. Elliot; he's the only one who can solve the mystery," Mr. Hunter told as he took his bag and persuaded the other two to follow him as he moved from there.

They found him there in the police custody, waiting like a watchdog so that somebody would turn up to bail him out.

"Tell us, Mr. Elliot, we've heard your conversation already," began Ms. Hailey. "We understand that you finally changed your mind to give back the three million dollars that was promised to you. Now tell, who was it that offered you such a huge amount for committing this canny act?"

He struggled for words. "I—I won't speak. She'll silt my throat..."

"No, you'll be given the maximum protection from our side; we won't let anything happen to you."

Mr. Elliot looked into Ms. Hailey's eyes for a second. "No, ma'am, I want to live. I don't want to die. She would use hundreds of ways to kill me someday if I tell you her name."

"Fine," said Mr. Hunter. "Did you give back the money to the criminal as you'd told?"

"Yeah, I did."

At that, from the sound-player, there was the voice of a new person.

" _No one needs to do anything. I know what is to be done."_

" _What are you talking about?"_

" _Wait for tomorrow."_

" _She informed you that I gave up?"_

" _Oh, you did?! No, she didn't tell me anything about it. It is me that was ordered to do this. And so, I will."_

" _No. We'll inform it to the police if you do something."_

" _Sorry, my boy, you'll face severe consequences then!"_

There was some sort of strange sound from the device then—the car's door opening and of men making some arguments.

The recording seemed to have stopped then, because there was no sound from it at all.

"Oh, shit!" breathed Ms. Hailey. "Who's the man that came at last on the set?"

"We'll need to visit Douglas right away."

"You're right, Mr. Peyton".

"You remember, Mr. Hunter, the mail... The one that sent it to the Senior Investigating Officer was named Do."

"Yeah!"

"Why shouldn't that give us an idea that it was sent by Douglas?"

"Ah, it can be, but—" said Mr. Hunter. "Hey, let me ask Mr. Thomas if the numbers that we had derived have helped him."

The detectives located Douglas' house and found that the door was locked from outside.

"Hello, sir, did you call on the number we had given?"

"Yup," the SIO's sound gave the intuition that he had lost hope. "It was Mr. Julian, the father in St. John's Church."

"What?!" he was amazed. "Did you visit him?"

"No, I didn't. Hey, how can we doubt Mr. Julian? He's a godly-devoted person! I think what I had received was, in fact, a prank email."

"Did you inform him about our investigation?"

"No, I didn't say anything. He just said who he was, that's it, and I said I was sorry for disturbing him."

"Thank you so much."

The call was then disconnected.

"Ms. Hailey," called Mr. Peyton. "We are going to the church tomorrow, all right? Be ready."

"Yes, sir."

On Sunday, and as it was instructed, Ms. Hailey met Mr. Peyton in the St. John's church.

"Good, I had forgotten to tell you to wear a simple dress, I am glad you wore my expectation!"  
She smiled.

They went to the church that day like a couple.

After the prayer was over, Mr. Peyton took two candles from his pocket and gave one to Ms. Hailey.

"What's the need for these?"

"Get up," he said. "Watch what I'm to do next."

They lit the candles and moved forward.

Once they were face to face with the father, Mr. Peyton dropped the candle off his hand and bowed low to take it, but that was just a gesture. He wanted Mr. Julian to pick it up, and he did.

"Oh, I'm sorry, father," he apologized when the candle was handed back to him.

"That's okay, my boy. Be observant the next time."

"Sure, father," he said as he lit back his candle with the flame of the candle that was with Ms. Hailey.

After positioned their candles with everybody else, they left the spot, instantly.

"What were you up to? I didn't see you do any great thing at all!"

"We have got one proof already."

"What is it?"

"In the conversation we heard from the device last night someone at the last use the 'my-boy' thing. The voice what we heard then and what we heard now are almost the same!"

"You're meaning to say that Mr. Julian is the criminal?"

"It has almost been proved," Mr. Hunter said. "Now we'll take this candle and give it for a fingerprint analysis to see if it matches with the one that were on the broken pieces of clock."

"But you had placed the candle at the church, already."

"No, I had three with me. The one that I placed there was untouched by Mr. Julian!"

"That was an awesome move!"

In the evening at around four, Mr. Julian heard a knock on his door. To his shock, it was the police officers.

"You're under arrest."

"Wha—what nonsense?"

His hands were trapped into the handcuffs before they gave him an answer. "You're escaping nowhere now."

They took him to the jail and that made his neighbors wonder what the problem was. In minutes, it was revealed by the media that the criminal that had killed Eva was none other than Mr. Julian himself.

It prompted the probe into the question, "What caused such a devoted person to do this?" He was beaten severely, but he wouldn't answer at all.

Way back in the laboratory, they found that the DNA matched.

"Where could we find Douglas now?" asked Mr. Peyton.

"We may never find him again," told Mr. Hunter. "Well, it's not I who said that, but the letter I found in front of his house last night says it."

"What letter?"

"See, this is it," he said as he reached for his pocket. "And, Ms. Hailey had pointed to the assumption which now is a fact; yes, this letter was signed by Douglas."

"What does it say?" Ms. Hailey was curious to know.

Mr. Hunter showed the sheet of paper to her.

" _I happened to be an awful creature to Eva. I knew she was going to die, and I wanted to inform her about it. But she had just failed to understand me. The way she said I was obtuse is still ringing in my ears. I've sent an email to the SIO today, I hope he understands it. I had no options to send the number of Mr. Julian to him, because the real criminal who is a source of this detestable thing was right behind me and that's why I used a different language to make the number clear._

I really regret of cheating Eva in the form of her bodyguard whom she'd trusted so much.

This is the last day of mine in this world, I really cannot stay without Eva being here.

Douglas."

"Does it mean Douglas committed suicide?"

"Yes."

"Did you see him at least then?"

"We did, with the other detectives and police officers."

"Then why didn't you tell us when you found the letter?'

"I was about to, but then Mr. Peyton and you had planned to go to the church and I didn't want this to ruin your plan."

Ms. Hailey sighed.

"So, it was Douglas who had tricked Eva into making her believe it was Diego..." Mr. Peyton said, looking down and not expecting anyone to answer.

"Shouldn't Elvis be arrested?" said Ms. Hailey.

"It's all over now," told Mr. Hunter.

The team went to the accident spot once again.

"Mr. Peyton, looks like we have found the crucial point in this case," said Ms. Lillian.

"What's it?"

"The CCTV that was in front of this bank shows footage that we need to consider closely!"

"Like what?" he inquired. "Has it recorded the accident?"

"Yes, it has. But since it was in the night, the picture isn't quite clear."

"Can I see it?"

"Of course," she said as she led him to the TV that was already on the scene. "I think Eva is still alive."

"What are you talking about?"

The video was played in front of all the detective officers, including him.

Ms. Lillian pointed her finger as she spoke. "This is the car that you see here. It was at 11:03 P.M. And, look, this of course is Mr. Elliot that is getting down from the car. The car remains still, and Mr. Elliot is already gone."

Just after twenty seconds, the car was flared up into the sky. They heard a loud scream.

"Did you notice something?" said Ms. Lillian.

"The car..." he bit his lip.

"Something's more just before that. I'll rewind that. Watch it closer."

It was played back once again.

"Look, Eva is getting down from the car. See it carefully."

"Yeah!" he crossed his fingers.

"Now, can you see her going on opposite direction? Now, watch, there's a girl out here walking past the car. She seems almost like Eva, but she isn't."

Now the car flared up into the sky again. There was a scream. The video was paused.

"An important thing we should consider here is the scream—it sounds that of _Eva's_ ," she said. "Moreover, last night we had received a complaint stating that a woman was missing. The details of her showed the time and the color of the dress she had worn before her family last saw her. Making an allowance for the same, I suppose that, when the car blasted, it was _this_ girl who died, and it wasn't Eva!"

"Man! What are we hearing?" said Mr. Hunter.

"Yes, I think Ms. Lillian is right," expressed Mr. Zachary. "It wouldn't give a person time to scream before she was dead when the car blasted off in a jiffy. That was clearly Eva's voice that we heard which gives us the thought that she's still alive."

"But, where is she?" asked Ms. Hailey.

Confused, Mr. Peyton interrupted the conversation in that situation. "Excuse me, but Ms. Ruby said the DNA of the girl matched with that of Eva's!"

"Did you just say 'Ruby'?" Mr. Hunter's eyes showed a sign of suspicion.

"Yes. It was her that had informed me. She is a forensic scientist in the laboratory where the DNA sampling was conducted."

Mr. Hunter laughed, though he had not intended to, and it sent a chill down his spine at the same time. "Wait, watch the remaining too," Ms. Hailey incited him when she found that he was about to leave.

In the video, then, immediately after the fire flared up, they saw a person on the set that had a radium watch strap. With the glow of the fire, the video made it clear that it was Mr. Elliot. He was found crying so loud and running away at the same time.

"What does this show? Would someone who had a role in this crime ever run like that?"

"We have found the real criminal who was the source behind all these!" Mr. Hunter said, referring to Ruby.

At that, Ms. Hailey instructed Mr. Zachary. "Mr. Elliot is innocent. You've got to release him."

Both she and Mr. Hunter left the place immediately to make it to the laboratory to catch the one who had perhaps done the biggest mistake in her life by telling a lie about the incident that was so critical.

"Where's Ruby?"

"I'm."

"You knew Eva before?"

"Yes—I mean, no," her blood seemed to run warm when she found she had told truth at the first instance.

"We know what is to be done with you," said Ms. Hailey as she pulled her forcefully and led her to the criminal investigation department where she was found guilty for what she had done. Ruby agreed to the point that she was still envious about Eva and that she didn't want her to come up again in her life as a celebrity.

"Did you think we are jackass to rely on just one single indication?" Ms. Hailey asked her. But she remained silent.

It was thought that Ruby was the one who had installed the bombard inside Eva's car on the night when the guards at Christopher's went missing.

A year passed by. No one could trace Eva at all.

On a bright Friday morning, someone draped in an old blanket went up to Christopher's home. She had slight burn-marks on her face. She saw a woman at the balcony with a baby in her hands. On a close look, she found it was Terri. At that point, Christopher went and sat next to her, taking the baby in his arms, smiling.

She went inside the gate of Christopher's. The securities started to shout at her and tried to chase her off.

The couple in the balcony saw the woman. She was trying to force into the house, but she couldn't speak anything.

In a moment, her efforts proved in vain and she was gone.

After a while, Terri began watching the video that was captured by the surveillance camera which was fixed in front of the gate.

She saw the woman had her hair cropped short up to her shoulder line and she seemed around twenty years old.

"Eva!" Christopher mumbled when he was just behind Terri— the finger of that woman clearly showed the exactly same marriage ring which he had put for his wife.

He hurried to the balcony and started looking for her outside the gate. But there was nobody. He ran downstairs and took his car to see if he could find her, but he didn't.

After looking for her for nearly half an hour all around, he at once stopped by the side of the road and recollected about what Eva had once told him: "Thirty when I am, switching a decade back on clock would just be all but a pair of scissors' work."

EPILOGUE

Each song I hear has a story behind that I summon up about my past. It makes me hark back lot of experiences—instances of both good and bad. Driven by those emotions, I wrote this book.

Music means a lot to me. When I listen to a song, I imagine things. I make a video on my mind. It's really worth it. I like recalling my past, though at times it's emotional. I love my childhood. I like to see, touch and feel my past reminiscences. I do that by looking at my collections and my drawings, smelling certain perfumes, and finding comfort in the bed on a rainy night.

I listen to songs not on my mind as most of them might do, but I hear it on my heart and the testimony that I can exhibit for you is this very book.

Let's Talk More about the Book

You can mail me at rpaxton48@gmail.com and get any of your doubts regarding the book clarified.

I shall personally be addressing to your questions (idioms, meanings and other factual descriptions) based on this book and I have no ghostwriters here being appointed for that purpose!

Moreover, I believe in the concept of a "personal touch" between the readers and the author.

So, no holding back, just give it a shot.

Let's learn. Let's subject ourselves to a newer ambience!

Find me on Facebook and Twitter:

<http://www.facebook.com/ropaxton>

<http://www.twitter.com/rohanpaxton>

A STORY BEHIND

In the month of February (2012), we had a Book Fair by Scholastic at our school. Since I loved books, I thought of paying a visit there, like how I used to, every year. As I planned, I did go—just after the school was dismissed. Once I reached there, I began to go through the books being stacked in the racks when finally I found something pleasing to the eyes. It was a book about the Hollywood celebrities which featured their biography, pictures, their real names, and so forth. I wanted to create a story something based on it. I thought of creating a fictional world of the life that I saw. So, that stringent fire inside me persuaded me to write FAMA. Then I did start writing it right after my tenth grade examination (on March 30th 2010). At first, I had a brain wave of giving it a title as "Fame", and only after a while did I change my mind and title it as "Fama". Way back in 2007, one of my friends had introduced me to listen to English songs, before that I never listened to any of it, to be honest! I realized that English songs were different and unique. I never got bored of it though in case certain songs turned out something as for the times of yore. It just worked better for me in fetching out my infatuation to write on, like I had always been saying. Now, that's how it all ensued, and you know it!

Acknowledgments

It would be cavalier on my part if I did not thank the people who had a hand in the victory of this novel.

I thank my mother who taught me how to write in a good handwriting. I believe that her handwriting is the most beautiful in the whole world, because I've never seen a person who had not learnt any of the calligraphy techniques, and still be able to write amazingly. Thanks mom, for all your encouragement.

I'd also like to thank my one and only amiable brother for his support to make this up to the mark.

Moreover, the music that I had been listening since I was thirteen had an exquisite power to push me to write such a novel—really, I'd never would had been able to write something without the instinct that those music had provided me.

Moreover, I never forget to thank my readers because they are the true worthy of my appreciation, always!

About the Author and the Novel

Born on June 3rd 1994 in India, Rohan (also editor and songwriter) went on to acquire his preschool education at the St. Mary's Kindergarten School and completed his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya, No:1.

With his huge interest for Spanish and western music, he was inspired to write a novel like this.

Rohan is a great animal-lover, and especially likes himself to be called a "canophilist".

With the success of his first fiction novel— _Startle Rim: Making Of A Wish,_ he had taken all efforts to design a completely different novel like this one. He has defined a whole different world of celebrities which is far more different from the life of the common people with a unique touch to it.

This novel is mixed with RLSED which Rohan knows is very important to capture the attention of his fans—elements that makes a novel _the_ best, that is: Reputation, Love, Suspense, Emotion and Detective.

