Chapter 10.
Few weeks ago…
"Marie? Woah! Is that you?" A voice called out to them.
Marie and Hazel turned towards the person, coming face to face with Tyler Delcano. He gave them his signature boyish smirk.
"It's you, alright. You look so good! Last time I heard about you, it was something about being the second most beautiful woman in the company."
Hazel turned to Marie with a small smile on her face, "How come you never told me that? We could have celebrated that feat."
Tyler grinned cheekily and loudly whispered to Hazel, "Actually, she is the most beautiful woman in the company. The one who took first was solely based on personal relationships." He winked at Marie who rolled her eyes.
"What's up, Tyler?" Marie asked courteously, she wasn't smiling and her face still looked puffy from crying earlier. "This is my sister, Hazel,"
Tyler's eys widened in surprise, he had never met Hazel while he and Marie were dating, neither had she met any of his relatives.
Well, until later…
Tyler was instantly captivated by Hazel. He picked her hand up and placed a kiss on her knuckles. "I am really pleased to meet you," he paused before staring at Marie and Hazel, "Are you sure you guys are not twins?"
Hazel smiled warmly, "We get that a lot, Tyler. I've heard so much about you," her hand was still in Tyler's hand.
Tyler was dumbstruck. Hazel and Marie looked so close in age that they could pass for twins, the only difference he noticed was that Hazel was gaunt.
Was this the woman who put Marie through school? He had always thought there was a ten or twenty years gap between them.
"Likewise," Tyler replied after he got a hold of himself, "I really wanted to thank you for raising this fine young woman, even if she could be a tiger sometimes,"
Hazel chuckled, "Yeah, a really wild tiger. I can relate to that,"
They laughed at that. The conversation became really bubbly with Tyler's presence.
"So, what are you doing in the city? I thought you were posted to California?" Marie asked as they all took a stroll together around the park.
"I'm not working in the company, first of all. Also, we have some kind of family dinner, and our parents choose here as this year's location," Tyler grinned at his parent's choice of location, "I flew in this afternoon, got bored, and decided to tour the city when I spotted you,"
"Oh," Marie sighed out as her mind subconsciously darted back to Ammon.
"What about you? How is the company treating you? I hope there are no complaints," Tyler inquired genuinely.
To be honest, he knew he still liked Marie but the latter had no feelings for him. She had always seemed distracted during their last weeks of being in a relationship. Her tastes in men must have upgraded by now, he thought while assessing her.
"Yeah, it's really excellent…" Marie was saying when Hazel cut her off.
"Except a certain man that…"
Marie cleared her throat really loudly, making Hazel pause mid-sentence and giving her a smirk.
Tyler raised his eyes at that but decided not to say anything.
The conversation came to a stop when Hazel started coughing, and Marie looked scared to death.
"Is everything okay?" Tyler was concerned, especially with the horrified expression on Marie's face.
Hazel waved it off, "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a cough. Why do you worry so much?"
Marie looked at Hazel in disbelief. She turned to Tyler who was trying to assess the situation.
"Tyler, uh, we have to get going. Hazel can't stay out in the cold for long. It was really nice meeting you again," Marie spoke first, trying to say it in a way that won't arouse much attention.
She didn't want his sympathy or anyone's.
Tyler nodded, "You can reach out to me anytime, okay?" He looked worriedly towards Hazel.
Hazel managed a smile at him, "I'm really fine, Tyler. I'm happy to finally meet you."
In their exchange of goodbyes with Tyler helping Hazel into her side of the car, they barely noticed Alyssa and Ammon walk past them.
Alyssa, who was talking animatedly to an unconcerned Ammon spotted Tyler and was about to call out to him, paused when she saw his entourage.
Wasn't that Marie? Did they know each other? Marie never told her. They seemed close, she noted. And who was the other woman beside Marie? Her twin?
But Marie had never told her anything about having a twin sister. Come to think of it, Marie had barely told her anything concerning her personal life.
*
"Marie, you have to calm down. We are still working on it," The man on the phone said, "You will get a response tomorrow, I promise,"
Marie sighed, massaging her temples. "Okay. Thank you, Tristan,"
She watched as Hazel slept peacefully in her room with her children looking worriedly over her. If this loan did not work out, she would have to ask Tyler or Ammon.
She hoped the loan was approved. She wouldn't know how to approach either of them if it wasn't approved.
"Would she be okay?" Hailey had tears in her eyes while Nicole walked out of the room.
"Yes, she would be fine," Marie affirmed confidently.
Yes, her sister would be fine. Nothing bad will happen to her. Once her loan had been approved, she would fly Hazel out to get the needed treatment.
She vaguely remembered all the nights she had spent in the hospital before they told her there was nothing anyone could do about Hazel's condition anymore. That was why Hazel was brought back home to manage her health.
This last surgery was their only hope of Hazel's survival.
*
"Hey Am," Tyler spotted his brother after Marie had left with her sister.
Ammon glanced at Tyler's goofy face and went back to his phone, "What do you want?"
"Can't you be, at least, warm when replying me? I can't take your cold responses anymore," Tyler sang dramatically, placing his hand on his chest.
He heard Alyssa's giggle and he turned to give her attention, "Hello, beautiful. Oh, how you dazzle under the evening's sun,"
Alyssa blushed, a little shy that Ammon's brother was talking to her.
"Hello, Tyler," She greeted before voicing out the question that she desperately wanted to ask, "I saw you with one of my colleagues earlier,"
"Oh, you mean Marie?" Tyler asked, noticing a subtle change in Ammon's facial expression.
It was really fast that he could be mistaken. Ammon never mixed business with pleasure, so he would neither know Marie nor be interested in her. Ammon never cared about the identity of the staff that worked for him.
"Yeah, you two seemed pretty close. Do you know her?" Alyssa continued.
"Well," Tyler started, "Marie and I go way back. I visited her college once and stumbled into her. We've had quite some history, you know,"
Tyler said while looking at his brother to see if he would react. But Ammon's face gave nothing away. He was focused on typing on his phone.
"Like dating?" Alyssa pressed on.
Tyler saw Ammon's finger hang for a second before it went on doing what it was good at.
"Not really," Tyler replied thoughtfully, "But you
could say that. We were dating, but not entirely dating. If you get what I mean,"
"Oh. Friends with benefits?"
"Hell, No!"