28 Water & Oil Pt. 2 (2/2)

Her nonchalant reply was,” Eh. Look at it this way. You tell your share of story makes the Joan of Arc more miserable. Not even accounting the sorrow smile her wifey gives out. I cant wait for that reaction, and you better start blabbering.”

”Allright. I want $250,000 and I never want to see this tramp's face again.”

”Done deal,” Priscilla had made a deal with Brad without my consent, which adding, ”Only if you promise to meet her once more. Just once.”

Priscilla and Brad shook their hands. While they shared smiles amongst them, Madonna was starting to break down. I tried to console her but she up and left the table, leaving us four sitting around. I knew her appetite was gone. Mine was too. But I knew I had to take in so much more tonight.

Brad's story coupled with Amaan's was going to be a bumpy ride. And addition of Priscilla was an unpleasant surprise on its own.

I realized that we had to start from somewhere, so I thought of taking the first step.

I turned to Brad and said, ”So, Mr. Brad, unfortunately I am the only one on this table who doesn't know about you. Would you tell me a little about yourself?

Brad said he'd happily oblige if I passed him the biryani, and so I did. Once he was done serving himself, he spoke, ”I was the CEO and the branch manager of Velocity Cars in Nepal. Our plan was to introduce higher end vehicles to people who can't generally afford them. Needless to say, our company made a good turnover by kickstarting our business in smaller countries. It was good for national economy, and we made good relations with the native government.”

To be honest, I was not listening to her all the way. But the pretext was required for my following question.

”It seems like you and Priscilla are already acquainted. How did that happen?”

”Velocity cars has a sub-division, Velocity Red. It's main focus is on high end cars with big price tags. Luxury vehicles, race cars and novelty cars. I bring this up because Priscilla is one of the financial supporters of the division. She is also the official spokesperson for that part of the company.”

Priscilla raised her hand with spoon in her fingers up in the air and said, ”Financial security. Out there, there is a rich kid with a silver spoon ready to swipe his father's credit card for one of our cars. And I, who owns 20% of the Velocity Red will have royalties coming into my account for the rest of my life.”

Priscilla gloated her wisdom with a bright smile, which she completely overturned into a growl.

Between her gritting teeth, she said, ”I hate to admit, but that woman of yours lodged that idea into my head. She was always too careful with the money, and never let me buy any bling. In stead. I own three restaurants in Miami and my own clothing line.”

Priscilla stood up from the chair and slammed her spoon on the table. She screamed GODDAMNIT before storming off.

I was confused, but Amaan was smiling and Brad was calm as a cucumber.

”Wh-why was she like this?” I posed the question for the ladies sitting around.

”She hates to admit, but Madonna helped her career in more than one way. She was always particular with details. The one who angrily left the room is a live example. She knows she owes a lot of things to a lot of people, but she tries to balance out Madonna's betrayal by claiming all her success as hers. Which isn't entirely wrong, but its not true either.”

I continued to look at Amaan, who was explaining P.A.'s mentality to me. I swung my head and looked at Brad, who was grudgingly agreeing to Amaan's claims.

What I witnessed was one person's impact and the power of their presence on another individual's past.

”Madonna's absence helped Priscilla because she met new people and had different experiences. It was almost the same for me,” Brad gave me a peek into his life. ”It was tough, seeing Madonna exit the front door, never to return. But in her absence, I found a new friend, Professor Amaan. She really helped me out after the operation.”

”Operation? You had some major illness, Brad?”

Brad looked at my face with surprise and disgust in his eyes. He posed me a question: ”Tell me, Mrs. Kiyomi House, what do you know about Blessing Witman?”

”Uh… she is one of the people we were supposed to meet. Instead, Amaan asked Madonna to fetch you. Since you both shared the same last name, I thought you'd be siblings or a couple. Was I wrong?” I was swinging my head from side to side to get a single reaction out of them. I was confused and afraid of what was about to come.

And suddenly, realized what was going on. And it filled me with horror.

Please god, don't let Madonna be a reason for this!

Brad let go of his spoon and pointed his finger at his chest and exclaimed, ”Mrs. Kiyomi, I am Blessing Witman.”