He didn’t wait for her to answer.
“Lily Chen has a prosecution file and it contains documents, recordings and payment trails.” He paused.
“You know what?
You call me daddy whenever we are having fun and those things are threats to your daddy”.
He grinned.
“So I want all of it.
I want it.”
He leaned against the doorframe, his eyes cold and devoid of anything resembling empathy.
“Every copy and every backup.
You have forty-eight hours.”
“But, Lily is my friend, she has suffered enough.
From the death of her parents to the betrayal of her husband to also the discovery of what you did to her parents.
How…how do you expect her to handle this?” Zara said, she was scared but she spoke.
“I would not have had any problems with Lily and her family if not for the fact that they wouldn’t mind their damn business.
First it was her father, now it’s her and you want me to go down?” He laughed hysterically.
“No way !”
Zara shook.
She was still naked on the kitchen table.
“Ok, how…
how about I convince her to stop pursuing the case?”
Richard laughed.
“Lily is a tough woman, so cut the crap”.
He’s right, Lily is really bitter for revenge.
Oh God, what do I do?
“Wait…”
“Sssh, he came close to her, very close enough that she could feel his breath.
“Do what you are asked to do”.
He pinched her nipples softly and she gave a little moan.
He reached for the door handle, then paused, looking back at her, smiling slightly.
“You are smart enough to know I am not bluffing, Zara.”
He turned and walked out, the door closing behind him with a soft, final click.
Zara didn’t move.
She couldn’t.
She sat there, the silence of the apartment pressing in on her, the sound of his departure still ringing in the air like a death knell.
She knew exactly what would happen if she didn’t deliver.
She looked at the phone on the counter, the video still paused, a permanent mark on her soul.
She had forty-eight hours to kill the only friend she had left.
She sobbed.
What have I gotten myself into?
Lily’s phone buzzed on the desk, the vibration was harsh in the quiet office.
She tapped the screen, her thumb hovering over a link Zara had just sent.
There was no text, just the URL.
She clicked it.
Actor Derek Chow Found Dead In Manhattan Apartment — Suspected Overdose.
She read the first paragraph.
The words seemed to scramble, refusing to make sense.
She read it again.
Her eyes traced the letters, but her brain felt like it was stuck behind a glass wall.
She closed the browser, then opened it and read the same paragraph a third time, each word slamming into her like a physical blow.
Oh no!
She pushed back from her desk so hard her chair screeched.
She walked into the bathroom next to the office, turned the cold water on, and gripped the edges of the porcelain basin.
No, no, no, this can’t be happening!
She squeezed her eyes shut until purple spots danced in the darkness.
Her knuckles turned bone-white.
“What is happening,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the rush of the water.
She dried her hands, her movements was mechanical, and walked back to her desk.
She dialed Zara.
Zara didn’t pick until after two rings.
“I just sent you…,” Zara said, her voice was tight.
“I saw it,” Lily interrupted.
“Zara…I…I saw it”.
Her voice was a bit shaky.
“Lily…,”
“His communications and everything he kept.
The police found nothing.”
“They cleared it out,” Zara said, a flat, hollow tone to her voice.
“Yes.” Lily paused, forcing her breathing to even out.
“His testimony is still on my recording.
We still have that.”
“Okay, I think we have a leverage then.” Zara said.
“Yes, but we need to find another way in, Zara.
Help me think.” Lily said, slapping softly on her forehead and feeling restless like someone searching for something.
Silence stretched across the line, long and heavy.
“I’ll come in tomorrow,” Zara said.
“We’ll think together.”
Lily hung up, sinking back into her chair.
Derek was dead.
His apartment was scrubbed clean by people who knew exactly what they were looking for.
It is Richard.
I don’t need a confession to know it.
Richard moves like a shadow, he’s always quiet and efficient and he only leaves nothing behind but corpses and silence.
Lily thought with her fist clenched together.
She had recordings, she had a statement, but right now, it all felt like paper houses in a hurricane.
She needed a new angle.
She needed to survive.
*****”
Zara sat in her chair, the apartment was dim.
Her phone sat on the table like a bomb.
He said forty-eight hours but the deadline had passed six hours ago.
Richard wasn’t the type to bark, but he was the type to bite.
She believed him, not because he was loud, but because he was quiet and quiet people didn’t threaten; they executed.
I don’t want to do this.
The thought of betraying Lily made her stomach turn, a sick, churning heat that made her want to vomit.
But the video.
If that video reached her mother, her sisters…
she couldn’t live with that.
She would rather die than see her family broken because of her own mistake.
At this point, I don’t think I have a choice.
Everyone should look for ways to sort out their mess.
Lily has hers and I have mine, it’s quite unfortunate that I have to ruin her plans to sort my messages out.
Zara thought.
****
The next morning, Zara arrived at the office before anyone else.
She had always had the key.
She walked into Lily’s office.
The air smelled of Lily’s perfume, clean, sharp, expensive.
She went to the cabinet where the hard copies were kept.
Her hands didn’t shake.
They were cold, numb, acting on their own.
She pulled out the files: the accounts, Raymond’s signed statement, the payment trail to Derek, the police reports.
She took her phone out and photographed every single page, the flash firing in the dim light.
Then, she walked over to the laptop.
She knew the password, Lily had given it to her for backups months ago, a sign of trust that felt like a hot needle in Zara’s chest.
I’m sorry Lily, but sh*t happens.
She plugged in her USB drive and dragged the folders over.
Copying.
The bar crawled across the screen.
10%…
40%…
90%…
100%.
She pulled the drive out, tucked it into her bag, and walked back to her desk.
She sat down, placed her hands flat on the desk, and stared at the beige wall.
She was past crying.
She felt empty, a husk of a person who had just sold her only lifeline for a ghost of a chance at safety.
She walked outside, the morning air biting at her skin.
She dialed the unknown number.
“Good morning,” Richard answered.
“I have it,” Zara said, her voice sounding like someone else’s.
“All of it.
Delete the video when I give it to you.”
“Of course.
Send me a location.”
They met in a park, under the canopy of trees that hid them from the street.
Zara handed him the USB.
Richard took it, his fingers brushing hers, a touch that made her skin crawl.
He took out his phone, opened the video file, and hit delete.
She watched the screen.
The file was gone.
He smiled and came close to kiss her but she moved back.
She breathed out, a long, shaking shudder.
“Are we done?” she asked.
“For now,” he said.
He walked away, his stride long and unbothered.
Zara stood there, watching him disappear into the crowd.
She felt free, or at least, she told herself she was.
She didn’t see Richard’s car idling a block away.
She didn’t see the second phone on the seat, where the video still sat, untouched, saved, and ready to be used the next time he needed something.
She was a liability he had perfectly managed.
She was his.
Three days later, Lily stared at her phone.
Zara hadn’t shown up.
She hadn’t called.
Lily walked to Zara’s apartment building.
She stood in the hallway, the smell of damp carpet filling her nose.
She knocked.
Nothing.
She texted.
Nothing.
Six hours passed.
She sat on the cold concrete steps outside the front entrance, her stomach cramping from hunger, the silence of the building mocking her.
She called one last time.
“Zara.
I don’t know what is going on, but I need you to call me.
Please.
I am outside your building.”
She hit send and waited.
The streetlights flickered to life.
The city kept moving, oblivious to the fact that her world had just fractured again.
Then, a single vibration.
A text from Zara.
“I’m fine.”
That was it.
Just two words.
Nothing else.
Lily stared at the screen, the cold seeping through her jeans, a creeping dread settling in her marrow.
She wasn’t fine.
Nobody was fine.