Shawn
The sun had risen completely into view. Its beam of light ironically rested on the tiny wooden box still sitting in my lap. I waited for Amelia to say something, anything but she just sat there in sort of a daze and remained quiet. Then her eyes raised to meet mine and she spoke.
"I knew that you'd find them someday." She said resting her head in her hands before glancing up at me again. "I wanted to tell you."
"Well why didn't you," I asked cutting her off. "You're my wife, or was that all just an act too?" My voice sounded so cold towards her now.
"Because I knew that it would mess everything up. Shawn the day I ran into you was the day I found myself again. I didn't want to lose that and no matter how hard I tried to tell myself to do the right thing. Losing you just wasn't worth it to me." She paused sniffling as she wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt.
"Amelia you've been lying to me all this time." I said.
She stood up and kneeled at my side. I looked down at her, tears swelling in my eyes. She shook her head.
"I've never lied to you about how I feel." Her voice was shaky as she put my hand to her chest. Her heart was racing. "Tell me this isn't real."
"Then tell me the truth. How long did you know me before you approached me at the club that night?" I asked.
"About 3 months." She said. I quickly stood up. The box tightly within my grasp.
"Jesus!" I just glared at her as my tears overflowed. "Why?"
"Photography has always been my thing. My motto was that I could make anything beautiful as long as you look at it through my lens.... I was walking around in LA taking some pictures when this woman approached me."
Woman? Every assumption I'd come with in my head was thrown right out the window. She continued.
"She started asking me all these questions and took a real interest in the pictures I was taking that day. She must have known that her face was familiar to me but I just couldn't figure out who she was. I remember her exact words were... "It's easy to remember the pretty face up front while all the hard work fades in the back ground." So I asked her for her name..." She paused but the suspense was killing me.
"Who was it?" I asked.
She wouldn't look at me for a moment. "She told me to call her T." She finally said.
"What? No, no you're lying. Tina would never do this. I don't believe you. Her and J were more than colleagues, they were like best friends." I said defensively. My voice lacked confidence in what I was saying.
Amelia shook her head. "Then you don't know your friend very well at all Shawnette. The look in Tina's eyes when she spoke about Janet was unlike anything I'd seen. I mean she was asking me to do all kinds of crazy shit. I just wanted to get paid without getting to involved."
"How much?" I asked.
"Shawn please don't..." She said, looking at me with pleading eyes.
"Tell me how much we were worth to you?" I said.
"She gave 10k, cash upfront, and promised me 25 more once the job was done." I scoffed and shook my head as she began to explain. "I'd never seen that much easy money in my life. So I agreed to start following you guys. I realized very quickly that you were all just one big dysfunctional family. You all loved each other so much, but there was some fucked up shit going on in that little circle of yours. Rene surely got around, but so did Janet." She said almost bragging. "I knew about him and Tish before any of you. In fact my lens was watching the very first time." I watched her go through all these stories. She seemed to almost enjoy it. It was pissing me off, but I let her keep talking. "And I'm not saying the rumors about her and Bobby are true but I saw them together once. My stupid camera started acting up on me that day. Didn't get the picture, but it sure seemed curious though." She narrowed her eyes. "My main focus was suppose to be you and Janet. It was so interesting to see how much you adored her even though she ignored you."
