"But why didn't you tell me all this while?" She had asked in pure confusion.
"This is a secret everyone had begged me to keep in wraps for years, hope you can now understand why I was so horrified to find out you both were engaged. It didn't feel right. I tried to warn you subtly, but you were blinded by your love for him to understand."
Maya had looked over her shoulder, immensely grateful that the girls had taken the initiative to disappear, even as she felt completely at odds with this piece of information she wasn't sure she was ready to share yet.
"So you had just let your only sister's murderer go unpunished?" she swallowed hard knowing that she was suggesting that he punished the man she loved. The man who could be a murderer. She swallowed hard again. Fuck.
"The odds were against me. Do you know how powerful the Salvadors are?" Her gaze narrowed as she remembered how Anne Gracie had shivered in front of Mrs. Salvador and she could easily believe how intimidating the Salvadors were and influential too.
All the odds pointing towards Xavier as Diane's murderer seemed reasonable but still yet why couldn't she believe it? Why was there this doubt that won't just go away? Was Tyler right and she couldn't see the truth right in front of her only because she was in love with Xavier?
∆Back to present∆
Bubble rose in her throat and she rushed towards the toilet, barely managing to hold back her hair before she was emptying the sandwich she had for breakfast into the water closet cistern.
She collapsed on the toilet floor too tired to stand up anyway as her strength was completely depleted, the emotional turmoil she was going through affecting her whole body as it seemed like it was just yesterday she was living a simple and boring life.
She wasn't on social media and only minded her books. She never dreamt to fall in love with a man like Xavier in her countless fantasies when she couldn't sleep and took to counting the ceilings, but it'd happened and he had not felt the same way. But she was having a hang of living with it.
She knew she would be fine eventually. Always knew. But now? Glaring at the possibility that the man she felt something so strong and deep for it shook her to the core could be a murderer, was not something she thought she was strong to recover from so easily.
Her head was on the bowel again as she clutched her tummy while finishing up on emptying her tummy.
To make matters worst, she didn't think she could bring herself to have a taste of food at this point.
She didn't know how long she had sobbed in the damn toilet, her hands on the toilet seat just in case the gurgling comes again and she needs to bend over again. She could barely remember Jasmine's shocked face, seeing her sprawled on the ground and although she was wide awake she found herself incapable of using words. She was wasted, tired, done for, and tired again
She let Jasmine carry her to the bed and she held her hand without asking her questions while Maya just stared straight ahead, tears pooling in her eyes.
***
Xavier raised a finger stopping one of his maids who had scurried inside with a broom to clean up the mess he'd made out of pure exasperation as he couldn't concentrate since Jared's word won't leave him the fuck alone.
He needed to be able to handle his mess if he was really serious about wanting to be enough for Maya. She stared wide-eyed at him as he stood up taking the broom from her.
He placed the dustpan next to the dirt and the maid gawked fascinated with what he was about doing.
After failing for the third time to pack the broken shard of glass with the broom to the pan. He groaned in disappointment, picked up his car keys, and left the house.
He knew what exactly needed fixing, and who he needed to be doing that fixing with.
He needed to go get his girl and trust her enough to see things just as Jared had.
He'd done a lot of thinking about what had happened that day himself and for the first time in years, he was toying with the possibility of thinking that he just might not be Diane's murderer and he had been punishing himself with guilt over the years for nothing.
Jessica was outside and was about to go out when he almost ran out of his car.
She gave him a dirty look and he bent his head in shame knowing that with the stupid shitty track record of the wrong he had done to her friend, she was in the right.
"I need to see Maya."
"She isn't at home."
He sighed, "I'm mad about your friend. I need to see her soon else I might become insane."
Her eyes widened but she yawned trying to hide how shocked she had been, "The answer remains the same. She is out."
"Where is she?"
She gave him a little glance like for a split second she was contemplating on telling him, but deciding against it, she shook her head visibly and smiled at him, "Sorry. Ain't allowed to say."
"You know once upon a time I was happy she had you, girls, as friends and admired how loyal you both were to her." He murmured under his breath.
"And now?" She cocked her brow.
"Surprisingly even though I'm not pleased with the current happenings I can't bring myself not to be happy she had such amazing people around her."
"Sweet talking, are we?"
He shrugged, " Is it working?"
She smiled for a while then frowned abruptly, "No."
He nodded and pursed his lips, "But do know I meant every word. She is a good person and deserves the very best and though I'm not the best, I want to try. I'm crazy about Maya. I love her." His gaze held hers conveying the seriousness in his tone, "Please do relay these to her."
Jessica nodded and waited patiently till Xavier entered his car, and drove away from her line of sight before she walked back into the house.
Maya peeked through the curtain and seeing his retreating car heaved a sigh of relief.
"But Maya, what is so bad that you can't talk to him about? And how long are we going to keep this up?"
"Not long," she promised, "I just need time to sort out things."
"Since you're in the thinking over stage, you have a helluva lot to think about going by the profession that just left Xavier's lips," Jessica finally said, she held Maya's hand and Jasmine raised her brow in anticipation, "He says he is in love with you."
Maya's eyes widen and she sat up, then with a deflated sigh fell back on the bed knowing how desperate he could say or do anything just to get Jessica to tell him where she was.
"He Seemed damn serious," Jessica added like she could read her mind.
"I don't know anymore Jessica, there have been many misconceptions and misconstrued words between me and Xavier," she sighed, "I don't want any more misunderstandings, so I'll rather he tell me how he truly feels himself," though she was 100 percent sure he didn't feel love for her. He had told her himself he couldn't love her ever.
Besides, what difference does it make if he loved her? When there was a seemingly more shocking Discovery about him.
She closed her eyes and for a minute or more, it felt like life's problems were resting on her shoulders.