Cheated Love

by Kris Buendía

  “No…”

  “Don`t make come get you” I warn her ”please, come here.”

  She does what I ask and comes back to bed. I hold her and touch everything that is mine. Every part of her and every thought damaging ourselves even more.

  “Say something Duncan, please. You can laugh, even make fun of me if you want. I`m sure that doesn`t exist in your world anymore.”

  She could brighten up my days with just that look in her face.

  “I would never be able to make fun of you, babe.”

  “Then, why aren`t you saying anything?”

  I sigh.

  “Baby” I kiss her “I feel like I`ve come back to life.”

  “You say it like if you were…”

  “Dead” I finish ”that is true.”

  “I don`t like you talking like that.

  Now she pushes me away angrily.

  “I feel like a fool.”

  “Stop it!“ I scream and I shock myself. She is looking at me, standing in fear and now I`m the one that is embarrassed.

  “Shit” I run to her “I`m sorry. I didn`t mean to yell. It`s just that I get angry that you feel like that. Please, forgive me.”

  I hold her close and we stay like that for a few minutes more. While those words she said take me back to reality.

  …

  “Now everything is going to be fine.

  Those were the last words she said before falling into my arms. I knew then and there that everything was lost. I had no other choice but to put in motion the only plan in which I can protect her, but also destroy her.

  Me. I`m going to destroy her.

  Gabe Miller will fall, but before that happens, I must put Lana out of harm’s way.

  Every rule I`ve broken for her is going to cost me dearly. But if I had never met her, I wouldn`t have come back to life.

  Dorian is right. I let myself be caught.

  In front of me is my team and they are waiting for my command. Dorian and I won`t be there. We must do something first.

  “It`s time to put Lana Miller under custody.”

  The team nods and they stand up to leave the room. Everything must go according to plan and I hope I`m not wrong. I will be able to give her my gun and let her kill me, just like he brought me back to life.

  If I must protect her by breaking her heart, so be it. Gabe Miller will fall once he has seen the success of his trap. He will fall at the game he himself built and Lana will not only be free. She will be free of him…and me.

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY FOUR

  In the present.

  “You must have some twisted sense of humor to do what you are doing.”

  The door opens again and a man in a suit walks in. I can`t see his face clearly because he goes straight to Duncan and talks to him, with a lot of respect and almost intimidated by him.

  “Agent Ford, we are waiting for your authorization.”

  Duncan breaks eye contact with me and stares at him violently, like he didn`t like being interrupted.

  “In a minute.”

  The man looks at me for a second and I look down as soon as Duncan`s eyes are on me again.

  “He looks like he is scared of you” I mock him.

  Duncan says nothing about my comment. He relaxes his back to the chair and he crosses his arms, taking a different posture this time.

  “It`s called respect.”

  I meant one person. He meant it in a general way.

  “What are you agent of the month or something like that?”

  Being insolent is the only thing I have right now. When I hear him pant I know that I`m getting what I want. Piss him off, because that is the only way he`ll be honest with me.

  “They do it because I`m their boss.”

  Wow, I wasn`t expecting that. As I didn`t expect it to hurt so much to know that he is the authority in all of this.

  He planned it.

  “Wow” As soon as a tear falls from my eye, I try to wipe it whit my shoulder, but my arm resists the pain and I grin.

  “Are you hurt?“ The son of a bitch seems concerned.

  I keep quiet and ignore him.

  That is when he gets up from his chair and walks over behind me. He opens my cuffs and frees me from them. I can barely feel the blood going throw my fingers. My wrists hurt like hell, but not as much as his confession.

  “Lana?”

  “Please tell me that I`m dreaming” I mumble.

  From the worst nightmare that anybody can have. I just want to wake up and never have met him. I don`t know what hurts more.

  “Blood diamonds” he says with vehemence “That is what diamond trafficking is called, they are taken from war zones by using slaves” I say no with my head” The development of this practices are a real and a concise example of a massive human rights violation and the obvious existence of slavery.”

  “We received the case a few years ago. With no leads, and not knowing where to start. I was sure that we were dealing with a man, an agile person, he took cover in the shadows, while his bank account grew more and more, financing wars in underdeveloped countries in Africa, in this case. We were able to retrieve some small leads and that took us to the US and to some members of the senate”.

  Gabe.

  “What?”

  “That was when your name came up” he says distantly “You are the only doctor with billions in her bank account and a suitcase full of jewelry in her apartment that have been tracked back to Africa, from legitimate sources that only you know and that is the information I need. Who is your supplier and who are you selling them to?”

  The suitcase Gabe sent me. I never took the time to check every one of them, I saw some of them that had been gifts from him, but I ignored the rest. I also ignored the fact that the suitcase was still in my apartment and that for some stupid reason I forgot to give it back to him.

  “I don`t have the amount of money you say I do ”I say between my teeth “Regarding that suitcase, I saw it for the first time that day that you were there with me. You saw my shocked face, you know it was Gabe who sent it. Nothing of what you are saying makes any sense. Your lie doesn`t make sense. If you are really an agent, then do your fucking job and realize that you are making a mistake.”

  I take a deep breath and he looks at my hands. I can`t stop them from shaking. In fact, my whole body won`t stop shaking. There are two things here, and I don`t know what to ask first.

  “Did you have your fun?“ I spit out “Have you laughed enough about me with all of this people? These people that went into my apartment, destroyed everything they found, including the only picture I have with my father and they pointed guns at me. Did you have fun seeing my father in a hospital bed? Did you have fun in bed with me?

  “Don`t insult me Lana. That doesn`t have anything to do with this.”

  “Yes it does!“ I scream at him “I´ve been honest since the first time I knew you. You let me tell you about the fact that I ended Aldus Fitz´s life. See? I´m not scared of telling you the truth, not even here. But I´m sure that you already know that, and I am surprised that you didn´t come up with it before, I don´t care. I think that being a trafficker is worse for the CIA.”

  He lowers his head, I feel him behind me again and he places the cuffs on me again. He does it carefully and doesn´t put them too thigh. I don´t need his compassion.

  “What happened to you?”

  I find it funny that he should ask.

  My heart finishes breaking and my eyes get filled with tears, sour, painful and burning ones.

  “I don´t regret a lot of things. If I have to be locked up, then let it be because...because I met you.

  “I know I should have told you the truth.”

  “Spare me your bullshit lies Duncan” I spit out “Is that your real name? Because I don´t know what to call you right now.”

&
nbsp; “It´s my real name.”

  The black mirror behind him catches my eye. He realizes it.

  “Nobody is watching or listening to us. “

  For some strange reason I believe him, and for even a worst reason I need to try one more thing out.

  “Prove it” I dare him “If you want me to be honest” and tell you the truth, prove it to me that it´s just you and me right now.

  With no time to waste, y hands are freed from the cuffs. From behind his waist he takes out a gun and puts in the table. It´s the first time I´ve seen a gun so close. I´ve seen them before on Gabe´s bodyguards and I was always afraid of them.

  “A criminal like me shouldn´t be afraid of guns” I grunt “Please take that thing away from my sight.”

  He does as I ask and puts it back in his waist. That doesn´t help at all, but at least it´s not in front of me anymore. I´m not scared of him either. He sure is a lying son of a bitch, but he would never hurt me physically, it´s worse what he has done to my heart.

  “Start with your questions, agent Ford.”

  To call him like that, so distantly, makes him react. I see panic in his eyes.

  “Why did you backed off the divorce settlement?”

  “Really? That is your first question?”

  “Answer the damn question” he grunts.

  I´m not waiting for my answer to hurt him. I´ll tell him anyway.

  “He threaten to kill my father” Remembering my father is not helping right now “I waited for you in the hospital like you said. When I realized you weren´t coming, I had to walk in the rain. I couldn´t miss that appointment, I couldn´t wait to be free...to be with you.”

  He swallows.

  “Continue.”

  “A van followed me and I thought it was you when it stopped and honked at me. I didn´t think it twice and I got on it. Once inside I realized it wasn´t you, it was Gabe.”

  “He is the one that did that to your face?”

  I hadn´t realized that it had left a mark. Anyways, I go on.

  “He said that he would kill my father, my friends...and you” I wait for him to interrupt, but he says nothing “I got to Dorian´s office and you know the rest.”

  Now that I think about it, Duncan insisted that Dorian should be my lawyer.

  “I was married to Gabe Miller for three years and I everything that a politician is capable of doing. Bribes, illegal document extractions, blackmail. I saw it all, and I kept quiet because he threaten me with going to the police and telling them about what happened with Mr. Fitz. He was the one that sent me the suitcase filled with jewelry and a handwritten letter with his handwriting to prove it. You can check every public picture there is of me, you can check every security video of the hospital, and you can see that I never used even half of them. And the only ones I had, Gabe bought them at charity auctions.”

  “I don´t know if any of this makes sense to you, but not to me. That bank account that you are talking about, I had no idea it existed and even less that it´s under my name. Gabe was the one that handled the money and I never liked using his credit cards. “

  “You live in a fancy apartment Lana. Not everybody can afford a lifestyle like that. “

  “You live there too” I accuse him “And I haven´t fucking judge you for it. The only time that I touched the money that I´ve earned as a doctor, was to buy my father a house. If Gabe has something to do with that or you want to frame me for it I don´t know. I have no answer for something like that. The only thing I know is that I´m innocent. At least of that. I don´t even know if I can call a lawyer or the army to get out of here.“

  If all of this is a plan, Dorian has to be part of it as well.

  “Dorian is not your brother, is he?”

  He says no moving his head, making a grin so as not to seem embarrassed.

  “He is agent Donovan” like hearing his name was going to help somehow “But he has become like a brother to me.”

  I would have never imagined.

  “What are you, an architect on you spare time? “ I have no issue in mocking him “Please, make this whole thing of making me feel like the stupidest woman on the planet end, besides the fact that today I woke up being a billionaire criminal.

  Being insolent always has its advantages. And that is that he forgot to hide somethings and also to pretend others. Like making him go mad when I behave like this.

  “My biological father was an architect. When he died me and my mother moved from Canada” he is telling me the same story that he told me before “I also lost her and years later my adoptive mother too. I just have my adoptive father that he is in a retirement home for retired marines.”

  That is when I start crying again, the same effect it had the first time.

  “Stop talking, Duncan.”

  “When I was adopted I barely spoke to them. I was angry at myself. And every night he would tell me stories about detectives for bedtime stories. They weren´t your regular bedtime stories that normal parents tell their children. They were real stories that he knew by hard and I thought he was the coolest dad ever” he smiles as he remembers “With time I understood that he was not only an ex-marine, but that he had gone through the experiences that he told me as bedtime stories. When I grew up I wanted to be like them. An architect and an agent. “

  Elaine.

  She must be an agent too. If everything he told me was true with the exception of Dorian being his brother, he said they were colleagues. Maybe she is here, and is laughing at me.

  “What happened with my first marriage is also true. “

  Shit.

  He must stop doing that. Reading my fucking mind.

  “I cheated and she left me. “

  “Where is she?“ I ask “I must congratulate her for getting rid of a fucking liar like you. “

  “She is no longer with the CIA.”

  “Bad luck” I say sarcastically.

  Of all the things that he is telling me, he is forgetting the most important one. I don´t dare to ask, and if he mentions it, I swear I will stand up and punch him really hard, even though I barely have the strength to do that.

  “I liked you from the first time I saw you…”

  “Don´t you dare lie to my face like that” I stop him.

  “I didn´t know that you were my mission…”

  “Stop it!“ I stand up and slap him in the face. I scream in agony because I hurt my hand.

  I step back as much as I can and I break down on the floor. I cry and I break inside and out.

  “Lana, listen to me please. “

  “I told you I was in love with you” I whisper ”I gave myself to you completely in every way to make you know that a man like you can be loved...and you forgot that part. Is being cruel part of being an agent? Because if it is, I know why you are the boss around here. “

  “I wish I could tell you that this is a nightmare. I myself would wake you from it. And tell you, you are safe.”

  “Safe? I can never be safe. Everything would be easier if you took your gun and fucking shoot me. It would all be over, then you would realize that, it`s the only way I will ever be safe. “

  I wait for him to get close and to not do so as well. I´m not going to test my mind and my heart to know if I´m still weak in front of him, because I already know the answer. That is why it hurts so much.

  Because I love him and all of this was a fucking plan that was written in a dirty whiteboard in his agent office in the CIA.

  “Be brave. “

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY FIVE

  Duncan

  “Have you come here to kill me? “ Is the first thing I says to him “I´ve heard that you torture criminals into telling you things. But I must admit, where I´m sleeping is more comfortable than I imagined. I hope you are having some sort of special treatment, because I have to get used to the worse.”

  Of course you have
a special treatment, where you are is not a kind of jail, it´s a protection room.

  “I haven´t come for that Lana. I´ve come to tell you something important.”

  “Is my father ok?”

  I nod affirmatively right away.

  “Your father is perfectly fine. It´s about something else, it´s about Mr. Fitz.”

  Her scared face breaks my heart.

  “If you are going to tell me that I´m a killer, it`s not something new for me.”

  “You are not a killer” I take a tablet and press play on a video.

  It´s a personal video from Aldus Fitz that we found on Mr. Miller´s personal computer this morning.

  “I have nobody to say goodbye to, but I do have a lot of regret” says Mr. Fitz “like threatening my doctor if she didn´t end my life. And that is the objective of this video...to prove my suicide and a backup plan for Dr. Miller.”

  The video clearly shows Mr. Fitz taking a bottle full of pills. Lana takes her hands to her mouth in disbelief. I couldn´t believe it either when I saw it.

  “If this doesn´t work, Dra. Miller will do it for me. I threatened to end her career if she didn´t end my suffering. I´m sorry Dr. Miller, I´m sorry. I don´t have a family, just power and money. My power is not going to heal me and neither will my money that is right now being transferred to all the children´s hospitals in the world.”

  In the video you can hear the door opening and Mr. Fitz whispering:

  “If there is anybody guilty of my death, it is me.”

  The video ends and her cheeks are soaked in tears.

  “Where did you get this? “ She asks.

  I wish I could tell her, but the important thing is that she is innocent.

  “I can´t tell you that. But I can tell you that you are not a murderer. The autopsy was fixed, showing that he had only died of natural causes due to his illness. Thanks to the video, his body was exhumed to determine the real reason for his death, and what it did to his heart to take all of those pills that you see in the video. “