“You’ve been so busy the whole day, Jamie. It seems like you’re putting your work before Narissa! You should watch out-you don’t want to lose your wife,” Elise teased. Upon hearing her words, Zephyr curled his lips into a thoughtful smile. “The two of them are extremely in love. You’re just overthinking it, Mrs. Griffith.”
“How can you say that they’re in love?” Elise asked in a flat voice. “Well, Miss Cuber looks.. Zephyr paused dramatically to stimulate everyone’s imagination. “Miss Cuber looks like she’s glowing.”
Narissa was fuming. “You’re trash! I’m going to stab you in the eyes if you mess around again!” He’s in no position to tease me about my bedtime activities with my husband “Evidence indicates that you don’t have that ability to do so yet, Miss Cuber.” Zephyr was unfazed.
“Well, you would’ve already been a cripple if you hadn’t taken your medication the last two times!” An icy glint flashed in Narissa’s eyes.
“Well, there are no what ifs’ in this world,” Zephyr replied.
“It’s not too late for me to do something now!” Narissa hissed. A look of rage surfaced in both of their eyes. Jamie hastily dragged Zephyr away when he saw this. “Hey, Doc, I’m running late. Let’s go!” One was his wife, while the other was the doctor that he employed-Jamie would have to deal with their emotions if either one of them lost an argument against the other. Jamie, therefore, decided that it was best if he left.
“Jamie!” Narissa could clearly tell what Jamie was trying to do, so she stomped her foot on the ground. “Yeah! I heard you, darling!” Jamie pretended not to understand what she was hinting at. “I’ll pick you up tonight. Bye! I love you!” Then, Jamie hurried away while pushing. Zephyr out the door with him.
Elise noticed that something was wrong when she connected the dots with Narissa’s behavior earlier. “You’re acting weird. What did Zephyr do to you?”
“That guy is just faking chivalry! He’s all shallow and nasty on the inside! His head is filled with perverted stuff!” Narissa complained angrily. “I’m not sure about that. He must have some good traits considering that he helped us deal with both our men.” Elise was more rational in her analysis.
“Whose side are you on, Elise?” Narissa was fuming.
“Me? I stand on the side of logic, Elise replied. Narissa held onto Elise’s arm and swung her from left to right while throwing a tantrum. “Aren’t we best friends?!” she wailed.
“Fine, fine.” Elise couldn’t resist the woman’s whiny voice, so she gave up on her stance in an instant. “I’ll help you, okay? Since you’re here and since Alexander’s business partner offered him two tickets to a magic show, why don’t you go watch it with me?”
“Let’s go!” Narissa replied. After Elise got changed, the two women headed out. It was Clement and Raymond’s job to protect Elise, so they took another car and tagged along behind the two women. Elise’s phone rang while they were driving, and she pulled it out to see that it was a call from Alexander. “What is it?” she asked after pressing the phone against her ear.
“You didn’t use the two magic show tickets that I brought home last night, did you?” Alexander asked. “Narissa and I just decided to head out to watch the show. Is anything the matter?” Elise shot Narissa a glance.
“My men told me that Owen is making his way to the stadium, and I recall that the magic show is going to be held at the same place. I don’t think this is a coincidence, and I’m afraid that Owen might have set this up for a reason. I don’t think you should go.” Alexander didn’t want Elise to take the risk.
However, Elise didn’t agree with him. “If he really wanted to do something to me, he had a better chance of doing it in the café. It seems like Owen has no intention to harm my reputation. If he really went through all that effort just to set this up, then I should show up and take a look just to make sure that his efforts don’t go to waste, don’t you think?” Elise uttered.
“You’re not wrong, but I just think it’s better to be careful.” Alexander was still rather hesitant. “Don’t worry. Clement and Raymond are around, and I’m going with Narissa. I’ll be fine,” Elise replied. She had a feeling that Owen would be a breakthrough in the long tug-of-war that was going on. She was eager for something to happen so that she could get to the end of this all.
Alexander couldn’t win an argument against Elise, so he gave in in the end. “Okay. Just keep me posted,” he replied. “Got it.” Elise ended the call after that. Narissa heard the gist of their conversation, and she tensed up after that. “What’s this? Are our lives in danger even when we’re just going out to watch a magic show?”
Elise chuckled. “With you around, I’m not sure if it’s our lives that are in danger, she uttered. Soon enough, they stopped the car by the side of the road, and Elise and Narissa walked into the stadium arm-in-arm. Clement and Raymond didn’t have tickets, so they had no choice but to wait outside. Once the audience settled in their seats, the performance began. The magician was an internationally famous figure, and the stage was well-designed, so the whole performance felt almost like a dream. The applause thundered through the stadium after each of the magician’s tricks.
Even though Narissa knew that all of the tricks were just optical illusions, she was still amazed by everything she saw. Elise, on the other hand, wasn’t too focused on the show. She was observing her surroundings, but she didn’t see Owen anywhere. Before she knew it, the magician was already at his last few tricks.
Right then, someone let out a cry of panic. “Fire! There’s a fire! Run!” People started clambering to their feet before squeezing their way out of the stadium. Clement and Raymond realized that something was wrong when they saw people rushing out of the stadium. They tried to make their way in from the sides of the doors, but they kept getting pushed back out by the people who were rushing out. “We have to split up and find other ways!” Clement and Raymond shouted to each other over the crowd and agreed on the plan before they headed their own ways.
Meanwhile, Narissa held Elise’s hand as they followed the crowd toward the exit. Both of them had had close brushes with death, so they were unfazed by such a situation. Just then, a bunch of people who had been stuck at a different exit started rushing toward them. One of the people ran between Elise and Narissa, forcing them apart in the process.
Before the two women could respond to the situation, they had already been pushed in different directions by the crowd. Elise was surrounded by more than ten people, and she couldn’t move at all. However, Elise noticed something odd-she noticed how the people around her didn’t seem to be in a rush to escape the stadium.
After some detailed observation, Elise could tell that a few of the people around her were still laughing, even at a time like this. It was obvious that these people’s intention was just to keep her in her spot. Elise could clearly just push past the barrier they created, but she also knew that she had to fall for the ‘trap’ to learn more about the situation. So, she spent all of her energy on feigning panic instead.
All of a sudden, she heard the clanging sound of metal coming from above her head. The moment she looked up, she saw a metal beam falling directly toward her. It only took Elise a second to tell that the metal piece hadn’t broken off from the ceiling on its own-its sides were perfectly straight as if it had been sawn off by someone. It was evident that someone had planned all of this.
She was about to dodge the metal piece when she saw Owen running toward her from somewhere in the crowd.
