Fever Dream ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 74

2018

Neymar's POV

It had been two hours since I returned home and still had no news from Liv. I had called David but he hadn't replied and when he finally called me back he was already at Valentine's surprise party with Clara, helping them set up. He offered to go to Loges or come here but I told him there was no point.

I had also called Riberi at the insistence of my father and he had already assembled a team of lawyers that were looking into our legal liability. He told me he had also send a legal representative of the company to join Liv at Loges, mostly to make sure she doesn't do or say anything that could be used to prove that we were liable for that outcome, if it came to it.

If the news came out about what happened today and 3P was blamed for this result, it was over, Riberi said. All the money that we put into it would be lost, and so would our credibility. I couldn't even process this. 3P was a wonderful tool, I knew it, I believed in it. How could it have gone so wrong?

My phone finally rang and it was Liv. "Hey, what is going on?" I asked, biting my lip from the anxiety.

"They kicked us out." Liv said, snorting. She sounded a mess.

"Why did they kick you out?"

"Because I'm a player and it was a conflict of interest. Apparently, they still want me to play next Saturday. Which is good, cause I wasn't sure."

"Did you have a chance to look at the computer before they told you to leave?"

"Yeah. They were right Neymar." She told me. "It was like they said. Every prediction was wrong. We weren't allowed to do anything, Peter offered to reconfigure it, but the lawyers didn't allow us to touch anything. And Riberi's lawyer also told us not to say anything."

"Why were you there for so long then?"

"They hired forensic examiners. They will go through everything, and determine what has happened. We needed to be there so someone from both sides could verify the chain of custody was never broken." She said. It sounded like an episode out of CSI.

"And what now?" I asked her.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "I called Riberi before I called you. He said it will take a few days, even a week or two, for the forensic examiners to give a verdict. Until then, we are suspending any promotional operations for 3P. Peter, Angelique and Morena are starting work tomorrow, to try and recreate the issue so we can understand what went wrong, I'll try to help them as much as I can." She told me. "And... we wait for all hell to break loose."

2016

We're over, aren't we?

Neymar and I left the club, without telling anyone. We got in his car and drove back to the house and the clock struck midnight, while we were stuck in traffic.

I turned to look at him, willing myself to say: Happy birthday, I love you more than anything in the world. It was the truth. But my lips were sealed shut, even as my tears were running like waterfalls.

When we got to the house, Neymar shut the door of the car, by hitting it as hard as he could. "Caramba!" He sweared. He walked to the front door and unlocked the door, walking up the stairs to our bedroom. Thankfully the house was silent, his parents probably sleeping. I hoped they remained asleep, the last thing we needed was Nadine to make an appearance.

Neymar waited in the room with the door open. "You can pack a bag. I'll call you a car."

"Neymar, can I please explain myself? I've kept some things from you, I shouldn't have, I know that, but—"