𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬

Chapter 5

5 years later..

     I stared at the folded piece of paper in my hand. That one piece of paper had so much control over me, I was sucked into it. If I only I read it on time, if only I had listened to her. I didn't realise how much time had passed while I was overthinking the whole situation. The car came to a stop, and my driver turned got out of the car and opened the door for me to get out. I slipped the note in my suit and got out of the car. I lifted my chin up and put my usual I hate everyone look on my face.

I walk in and meet Connor whose face was as red as a tomato. "2 hours! You are 2 hours late! You missed the board meeting!". I brushed him away and walked past him without explaining myself. The truth is, I was late because I was thinking about the incident. Today is a big day. Today is the day that I had been preparing for for the last 5 years. Get ready David McCarthy.

I walk through the large glass doors to an even larger building, with a board outside with huge block letters that read "D.R.P.", which stood for Diamond Rose Petals. As soon as I entered the building everyone stood up and greeted me. My assistant runs towards me with a clipboard and yells "Mr. Atlas!". I stop walking and wait till she reaches me and catches her breath. She continued, "There's someone here to meet you. Ms. Musayeva" I knew exactly who this was and this is the time that I was preparing for. "But you have a meeting with Mr-" I cut her off and told her, "Re-schedule it and every other meeting I have today. And tell Ms. Musayeva to enter my office until I come. I'll be there in a while"

After 5 minutes I enter my office. Sitting on the couch on the side of the room, is a young woman, wearing a black turtle neck sweater and a coat over it. She had dark brown, shiny hair that was tied up in a high ponytail and a tag that read 'Eliza Musayeva'. She was looking at the pictures on the wall and jumped when she saw me in front of the door. I sat myself down on the leather chair behind my desk silently and waited for her to sit in front of me. She stood up and sat down and broke the silence with "Good evening". She didn't smile or frown. Just had a steady face with no reaction which sort of surprised me. Most people I meet are very cheery or moody. She showed signs of neither so I knew she would be of good help. I greeted her with the exact same tone she gave me and I handed her a file. She read it carefully and said, "May I ask you some questions?" I replied, "Go ahead"

"According to this document, your birth name is Oscar Brown and you have contacted us regarding the mysterious death of Matilda McCarthy 5 years ago. You believe the death was an assassination by her father David McCarthy, am I correct?"

I let out a sigh and replied with, "Yes".

"Why did you wait for 5 years to contact us sir?"

"I was not in a position where I could pay for your fees. Took me some time to gather all this. If it took a day to build a million dollar empire then we all would be millionaires right?"

She took a long pause and continued. "Did you know Matilda McCarthy or her father or anyone associated with this tragedy personally?"

"Yes, I knew Matilda...better than anyone else". I felt my heart shatter again as I read that out loud. I haven't said her name to anyone else in years. All the memories were coming back as fast as a train. It was a lot to comprehend in 5 seconds.

She kept down the file on the table and looked me in the eye. "Could you tell us what exactly happened please? I would like to hear the full story from your perspective before I take the case". 

I felt my eyes slowly fill up with tears. I got up from my seat before she could see me being vulnerable again. I went to the coffee machine and poured myself coffee as I told her what happened.

"I met her 5 years ago when she joined my school. She was always the center of attention and I was nowhere near her, position. But somehow we ended up becoming good friends. Really good friends." My heart felt as if it was drowning in the pacific. It was so hard to speak of this, even though so much time passed since then. "We used to go to this hidden beach all the time and talk our hearts out. She didn't care the fact that I was a poor, broke town boy whereas she was the daughter of a millionaire. That's what I liked most about her. One day while we were at school, she gives me a folded note. But I didn't read it completely, at first. I spent the better part of the day sleeping, as I was so tired from all the work from earlier. We were going to meet that evening, and I couldn't get there on time. But it wasn't because of me sleeping. I received a call from the hospital about my mother having a sudden stroke. I ran to the hospital and spent around an hour running around trying to help her out. I sent Matilda a text, telling her what had happened. But what I didn't know was, she didn't open the text." I took a breath and drank a sip from my coffee. 

Ms. Musayeva said, "Relax. Take your time and tell me. I'll listen". Her voice was comforting and it helped me calm down a bit. I sat down again after wiping my tears and continued with the story.

"Well, once the doctors confirmed that my mother was going to be alright, I went to meet Matilda. I took my friend's car and parked it outside of the place. I ran in and saw Matilda lying on the sand. I went closer and saw her entire face covered with blood. My heart completely broke that moment. I felt mixed emotions of emptiness and sadness. I placed her blood filled head on my lap and checked if she had pulse. When I found out that she did, I called the police and hugged her tight. I covered the bullet wound with my shirt and she opened her eyes and smiled at me. She was weak yet very strong. I felt her pulse stop when I grabbed her hand again. She closed her eyes and fell into the deep sleep with a smile on her face". I called it the deep sleep because I found it hard to say the word died at that moment. "She had another note in her fist and I took it. I didn't tell the police about it. I still have it."

She remained calm, and said, "Can I see the papers?" 

I took both notes out of my pocket and handed it to her. I looked at her as she read it. She read and kept the note on the table. She wrote down a couple of things and looked up to me and said, "You want me to find evidence against Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Johnson?"

"Yes" I replied.

"It's gonna be hard" She said. "It'll take a lot of work from my side and yours as well. And it has a lot of risks"

"I am ready" I answered.

"Well then" She said and got up from her chair. "We have a deal".