I paced around the bedroom, running my hands through my hair. Liam raised an eyebrow. "Bianca we don't know for sure if this is legit."
"Why wouldn't it be legit? Who do you think would want to play a prank like this on me for no reason?"
Liam placed his hands on his waist and stared at the ceiling before exhaling loudly. "What if it's the person that has been trying to kill you? What if it's a trap?"
He did make a lot of sense. If somebody was truly out there and trying to kill me, this would be the perfect way to trap me. Luring me out into the open where I would be vulnerable
"But I don't think it's a trap, because that woman obviously lied when she testified to the police that she saw my body in the river."
"I don't know Bianca, I still have a bad feeling about this." His tone was low and filled with concern.
"I have to do this Liam, if I don't I'll never forgive myself for not finding out the truth."
His shoulders visibly slumped as he exhaled and I could tell that he was very reluctant about his whole thing. "Fine, but if you're going to do it we're going to the police."
There was a sense of finality in his tone. I jumped on my feet. "Didn't you read the text? She says no police."
"If she's really innocent I'm not trying to hurt you that she won't have a problem with you coming with protection."
"She might get arrested, maybe she doesn't want to go to jail."
Liam shrugged. "Maybe she should have thought about that before lying the police 6 years ago."
"We don't know why she did what she did, her life might have been in danger also. We'll never know unless I meet up with her."
"I'm sorry Olivia but it's too dangerous, even the location that she picked is a lonely secluded area. I can't let you leave."
I felt my chest tighten. I was disclosed to finding out, I couldn't just let this opportunity slip past me. I raised my head defiantly, "no, I'm going to find out the truth whether you like it or not Liam, I'm sorry."
His face turned red as he pressed his lips in a fine line. "Bianca you're not listening-"
"Liam you're the one that's not this early tomorrow night for 6 years I've been in the dark, and now it seems like I finally have something that can shed a little bit of light in the darkness, and you want me to just do nothing, to simply just ignore everything?"
I spun around and headed to the bed, climbing on and facing him with my back. "Good night Liam." I wrapped the duvet around me and tucked myself to sleep.
****
In the morning when I wake up I was alone on the bed. I felt my heart sink a little at the thought that Liam was angry with me.
Since we got married, we made an appointment never let the night pass without us addressing our issues. But for the first time in 6 years it seemed like we had broken that promise.
I got down from the bed and freshened up, then headed downstairs to have some breakfast. "Good morning sunshines," I greeted, pulling out a seat for myself.
"Morning honey," I said to Liam who was beside me. He didn't acknowledge me, he just continued to chew on his food.
My expression softened and I felt a little hurt. Nonetheless, I was still going to meet up with the woman. We could deal with our arguement later.
We are having Maria's delicious pancakes coated with sugar syrup. It was a sugary sweet breakfast and we were having a good time.
Skye and Lorraine began playing with their food. "Hey, you two cut it out. I always tell you no playing with food on the table, you never listen."
"I wonder where they get it from." Liam snorted.
I dropped my cutlery harshly, making it clang against the ceramic plates. "Liam if you have something you want to say to me come and say it to me directly."
He didn't respond. After breakfast Maria came to pack the dishes and I escorted her to the kitchen. "Forgive my intruding but I couldn't help but notice the tension between you and sir."
I sighed. "We had a fight last night, we disagreed on something."
"I'm not going to be lonely and ask you before what the fight is about, it's not in my place to do so. But I'm sure whatever it is, you two can work through it."
"Yes we can, if only he'd stop being so stubborn."
Maria chuckled. "Liam was only 15 when his parents died. If it wasn't for his stubbornness he would have lost his parents company to his uncle."
I was a big familiar with this story, Liam had told me that he was turning 16 when his uncle tried to take over the company. Luckily his parents had put him as the sole heir.
"He had to endure so much hardship, right here in this very mansion. He did so and I was practically the only parental figure he had left."
Maria was his nanny growing up. "Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.
"I don't know, all I'm just trying to say is that Liam has been through a lot. So sometimes he can tend to be overprotective of the people he loves."
A weak smile plastered on my face. "I understand."
I lazily stroll to the room, and there he was, eyes fixed on his laptop. "Are you going through another case?" I began to massage his shoulders.
"Yes, it's manslaughter. The hearing is in two days."
"Can I come?"
"Of course."
At least now we were one step closer to reconciliation, even though our interaction was still very much awkward. I held my breath and let out what I had to say.
"Liam, I just wanted to say that I understand where you're coming from. I know that you care about me so much and you don't want anything to happen to me. But you also have to understand how important finding out the truth is to me."
He paused and then raised his head to look at me. "I know Bianca but I'm not willing to risk losing you over that."
"Then you can come with me if you want."
"Did you really think that I would let you go there alone? Even if you didn't say this, I'd have just followed you."
My lips part as a small smile works its way on my face.
****
Liam and I sat in front and he tried to start the car. The engines sputtered but the car didn't come on. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"I don't know, let me go check." He got down from the car and went to the front, opening the bonnet. I stayed put in the passenger seat watching as he checked a few things.
He returned and started the car again. "I can't seem to tell what's wrong, but the car isn't coming on."
"What about my car?"
I rushed inside to get my car keys and I rushed back out, entering my car. My car started immediately and I began driving.
We didn't get so far from the house before my car suddenly rolled to a stop. "Shit!" I exclaimed.
"What?" He asked.
"I ran out of fuel."
I checked the time, we had less than 30 minutes to get to the abandoned bridge. I started to panic. "Liam what if she gets there she doesn't see me and she leaves?"
"Let's stop a taxi then," he muttered. I got down and locked the car and then he flagged down a taxi and we both got in.
As we were driving towards the meeting point, I felt anxiety rippling through me. "Liam I'm afraid."
"Afraid of what?" He asked rubbing my shoulders.
"Afraid of what I could find out."
The taxi came to a stop and we alighted. I stared ahead at the abandoned bridge. There were caution tapes that demarcated the small bridge from the rest of the road.
"Wait here," I said, moving forward.
"No way, I'm coming with you."
"Liam please, just stay here. Seeing you might scare her off."
He stuck his hands in his back pocket and lingered around as I advanced. I kept my eyes sharp, looking for her.
I stood in plain sight, hoping that somebody would spot me and then approach, but it seemed like there was nobody there.
She said she'd be here by 6:00, it was 10 minutes past 6:00 by now. Eventually Liam walked up beside me. "Bianca, I have a very bad feeling about this, let's just go nobody is here."
From the corner of my eyes I saw a woman. "Hello? Are you that one I'm looking for?" I asked politely.
She looked nervously between Liam and I. "Don't worry he's my husband," I explained. Liam placed his hands on my lower back.
She briskly began walking towards us. I smiled, finally, this was it, I would know the truth.
"Bianca!" Liam yelled and then pushed me to the ground as the loud bang of a gunshot reverberated in the air.