" Sir share a few words from last night"
" What made you react the way you did?"
"Is Jenna Berry your soon to be wife?"
"Was that just a trick to send her off?"
"Do you regret your actions?'
"Is it true that you are suffering from Delusional Disorder?"
Flashes from the cameras had him blinded as he stood before a dozen reporters, throwing questions at him without a break. The attention wasn't new to him but the interrogation sure was.
"The answer to all your questions is a simple NO!" he begun, " I am still adamant on what I have already said, I did see my fiancée, Jenna, fall to her death. And I must take this opportunity to abolish your misguided information of me suffering from any kind of disorder. I am perfectly normal and I have all my medical records at my home which could easily clear away the doubts spurring its heads."
" Sir but what would you like to think about the woman proclaiming to be Jenna?" one of the reporters asked.
"As I have already emphasized, I know nothing about her! She sure resembles Jenna but I can say with surety that it's not her. She could be her twin for all we know but not her"
"But the statement sounds a bit ambiguous," Another raised his voice hoping to be given a satisfactory answer.
"What part of my statement sounds ambiguous to you?" James questioned him back, his voice clearly giving off a bit of irritation.
" That you were about to propose Jenna Berry the last night, I am sure you would have known her for quite some time now to take this step in life, then what intrigues me is the fact that all of the sudden her twin pops up and declares herself to be her sister while you were oblivious of the mere fact that your soon to be wife even had a sister!"
"Your ambiguity will be disposed of quite soon. Let me have my time to prove my point." With that he stormed off leaving behind a crowd of reporters, screaming to attain his attention.
***
It was almost afternoon when after a ton of persuasion, Jenna came forward to give a statement on the issue that was now on every lip and a topic of conversation in every group. Nervousness had got the best out of her. It was her first time before such a large crowd of reporters and one of the many things that she feared was her stuttering.
Letting out a soft breath, she smiled. Once the crowd was satisfied with the pictures they had taken from every possible angle, she was quietly led to a stage and seated on a couch. and then it began, the cascade of torturous questions, all together!
***
" James I can never understand you! In fact, I don't even understand myself!" Elif confessed, her fingers playing with the loose strands of his hair.
"I don't believe I am that complex for you to not understand me," he stated plainly, his eyes glued to the random movie playing on television.
" I didn't say you are complex but..." she stopped, sealing her lips from saying what she initially intended to. The least Elif wanted for today was to get him irritated with her rambles or complaints. Already well aware of his lack of interest in the topic, she learned better not to pursue the discussion. But to her dismay, he wasn't willing to let the topic end there.
James turned, placing his arm on the back of the couch while other was left free in his lap. Pressing his lips together, he let his gaze take a rough inspection of her face, taking in the smile that spread across her lips and the hint of amusement that silently danced in her eyes. " But what?" he asked in rather a hard tone.
" But this that," she began, a little uncomfortable_ an obvious gesture from the erection of her spine to the wavering of the smile she upheld. " You suddenly show up at my house after months of no contact or message and even now you are taking more interest in T.V then me..." she paused, thinking over her next set of words.
" And?"
" I...I feel like getting...used"
Silence befell the room along with the weighing tension. Her slight shiver from the obvious fear did not go unnoticed by James. He gulped slow and hard. Elif knew she had hit him at the wrong place and at a very, very inappropriate time. She knew wandering her gaze anywhere but him and silently praying for the time to speed up won't save her the trouble she had asked for.
"Look at me." He ordered, his tone quiet calm then what she had expected... and it didn't help at all. James was known as the beast of New York for a reason. But what made him differ from an actual beast was his more of a calm and calculating personality. He used tactics and planing rather than quick burst of anger to bring his opponent down on their knees. His silence was twice as deadly as his expressive furious self.
"Elif look me in the eye" he hissed. The mere tone he used was enough to bring her to comply with the demand.
Hesitantly, her brown orbs met the raging blue ones. " Would you like to elaborate on how exactly am I using you?"
"It's nothing, James. I was....just overwhelmed with your presence that I didn't realize what foolishness I uttered. It's really nothing-"
"There has to be something going through your mind to accuse me of such odious damned thing!"
She gulped once, then twice. No doubt, she was aware of the wrong use of her vocabulary but nothing could be done now. James wasn't good with apologies. They simply infuriated him. His belief is to think over the words you utter than to regret later. Use was indeed a very strong word to put against him in such a manner as she did.
He nodded twice, shifting his gaze from her_ much to her relief. Yet the relief was short-lived. In a split of a second, James had her upper arm in his grip and her face a mere inch away from his. Before she could comprehend his sudden action, he had already opened his mouth to speak in what one can call a dead yet dread-settling manner.
"One thing you must know is I am not a fool and second, I don't appreciate being made one. Now that you have already accused me of using you, an explanation is the least I deserve."
With that he let go of her, fixing his coat and looking ahead of him.
"I...I just meant that you... you never came to me when you got engaged with Jenna," she begun only to stop midway on the hard clench of his jaw at the mention of her. Not having left with another choice, Elif continued, " even though you knew about how I felt about you... And now that you have dumped her, I have once again become an option to cut your time with."
That was it. She knew it. He would put the house on fire, may even push her down a thousand story building!
But nothing happened. The house was still the same and so was he, except a little stiffer.
"I.have.not.dumped.Jenna.Berry" he hissed so low that if it wasn't her eyes that caught the movement of his lips, she might have ignored the lowly voice in the name of a curse " And as for your feelings, it's not my business. I have never asked you to feel something about me."
"What makes you so cold, James?" Elif asked, this time with courage rather than fear. He however simply looked at her with no expression whatsoever. " Why did you never come to me in all these months. You never as much as paid a simple visit-"
" Cause that would have been cheating, Elif!" He interjected, his voice raised a notch over hers. " Hanging around with another woman even if she is nothing more then a friend, when I was engaged with her was wrong at so many levels! Even though my mind was and is always clear of any affection for you, opposed to what you entertain in your mind, it was not enough to put a cover on the fact that I would have been cheating on my fiancée."
"And now?"
" She is dead."
"James why don't you admit that she is not dead but you are tired of her!"
"Elif-" before he could unleash the fire that fueled in him, his cell rang indicating a call from a man he least wanted to have a convo with, Mr William.
"Which hell did I break loose now? "
" James get a damn hold of yourself!" Mr William almost shouted. James shut his eyes as if the mere eyelids weigh him down to a level he couldn't bear. " She is alive!"
And with those words, his lids flew open and hands quickly set to work. Without bothering to cut the call, he took the remote from Elif's hand and
switched through the channels until his father's words showed themself true on the widescreen.
She was indeed live and insane!
***
" Are you sure that not the truth Miss Jenna?"
"Yes. I assure you it's not. I have lived with him for five months, I know him better than anyone else. He suffers from no Delusional Disorder. In fact, he suffers from no disorder at all." Jenna stated, looking into the camera with uncomfort that did not go unnoticed by James.
"Then how could you explain the happening from last night. No man suddenly jumps up and announces his loved one dead without a thought!" A reporter asked. Though his face or channel wasn't shown, his mere question and the way the words were put to make it one, clearly proved he was from ' Calsic News', the one paid to spill rubbish on his family's name and honour.
" The answer lies in the question itself. As you have stated that no man stands up and claims his loved one dead all of the sudden, that very true.... but only if the person getting rolled in this game is actually loved."
For a moment, silence engulfed the room on this unexpected proclamation. But soon enough, it broke once more.
" Miss Jenna, are you trying to say that you weren't Mr James Maxwell fiancée?"
"No. I was indeed his fiancee but he was never mine!"
It felt like a dream. A nightmare that he wished to wake up from yet he couldn't! All that happened around him seemed so unrealistic that he actually had to take a look at Elif and study her expression. It was when she turned to face him with confusion plastered all across her features that it dawned upon him that everything was very much real and that he messed up bad!
" You see, James Maxwell is a multi-billionaire and things usually don't go around in simple ways with them. To say that I was more of a captive then a fiancée would not be an over-exaggeration of the reality." She stated, leaving Elif and millions across the screen utterly speechless, especially James himself.
" She was my captive and I never knew of that. Isn't that a wonder!" he whispered to himself, his eyes glued to the screen and mind lost in all the sweet memories they shared together. Her laughs, her smiles, the glint of bliss in her eyes... he never forced any of that on her. Even though he and only him knew it wasn't Jenna behind the screen yet her words hit hard, perhaps due to the flawless resemblance she shared with his Jenna.
" But from some leaked rumours and news of you and Mr James Maxwell relation, it never appeared as such."
" Appearance always deceives the eye. There is no doubt about the fact that I was wrongfully manipulated with threats and gesture of power to make me comply with the demands. As much as, he once took his pistol out on me and said that he would put all the six bullets in my Aunt's body with the last being the one that will go past her head.'' Tears welled up in her eyes and shame in his.
" Do you really believe that he was going to pronounce me as his wife the last night? " she asked through her sobs, the ones that James had devoted his life to not see. " As if the physical assault wasn't enough in reply to my NO. But who am I kidding? It's James Maxwell we are talking of. The man is immune to No's. But today I am not afraid to say what I wished to scream at his face when he made me go through the inexplicable torture of his wicked ways! I am not afraid to say that James Maxwell is nothing more than a man with pride greater than a human's life and Ego so big that it has blinded him to see beyond his facade of power and hunger. And today I am proud to come forward and unveil his dirty business after he tried to take what defined me as a person, my identity, my life! Had it not been for God's wish to save me, I would have been rotting at the bed of River Hudson, cold and dead!"
James let his head rest against the couch, his mind void of any thoughts. It was too much for him to deal with in just nineteen hours.
" You mean to say that Mr James Maxwell, Son of Mr William Maxwell, has been abusing you for five months and even attempted murder?"
" Yes. "
"How could you prove that?'
" If the surprise on his face from last night, seeing me stand, save and sound and marks on my skin are not an evident prove, I will bring up more when I'll have my hands on them"
With that, she proceeded to show the bruises that painted her milked-washed skin hidden under the silk of her dress.
Raw, blue and black!