Sebastian.

I collapsed against the bed, the gentle thud against my back pushing a frustrated breath out of my lungs.
“You’ve finished?”
I rolled my eyes to Kaia who sat up beside me with the sheets held up against her bosom, an apparent dissatisfaction painting her wrinkled features as she twisted her neck downward to mope at me.
Kaia Miller, a lady I liked to call a “friend with benefits” was the daughter of and sole heir to a producing company in New York – one of the biggest. Although she played the role of being my woman in important meetings and events, the actual void she filled in my life was created whenever I was needy. Just one call, and she’d come running whenever and wherever.
“Still in shock? Or is something else bothering you?” she threw in disbelief. “Because the Sebastian I know will not be satisfied by now.”
“Orla” escaped my lips in hushed tones before I even realized, snapping my eyes shut with clenched teeth.
“Orla?” she reechoed. “What about her?”
“She keeps bothering me.”
“The almighty Sebastian can be bothered?” she blurted.
I shot her a glare, warning signals ricocheting through my eyes. A warning she quite understood seeing how she swallowed on her spit as though pushing back whatever was left of the nonsense she just spewed. That originally would weigh zero pounds but with my mood like two ends of uncoated wire right now, she knew better than to thread without caution.
“Alright, I’m sorry. How then is she bothering you?”
I threw my eyes away, the frustration pooling in my gut at the words about to leave my mouth. I could hardly believe I was about to say this. “I didn’t like the look in her eyes earlier this morning. It has changed. They bother me.”
“That’s right!” She snapped her fingers actively. “The unveiling was for Orla?! That was a shocker.”
“Mateo is definitely up to something,” I thought aloud. “And I will stop at nothing until I find that out.”
“About the accident, do you know who may be behind it?” she questioned, keeping her original intent vaguely behind DOUBT blaring from her tone.
“What do you mean?” I questioned, getting slowly irritated as I squeezed my brows interrogatively. “Isn’t Mateo already in custody for the investigation?”
“Come off it, Sebastian,” she brushed off casually. “You and I both know he had no hand in this.”
“Well, he will,” I cut in almost immediately, the urge to make that a reality biting into my tongue. “By the time I am through with him.
“You intend to pin this all on him?” she asked, shooting up her brows into a gape.
“I intend to sap the vigor in Orla’s eyes dry.”
She winced in amazement.
That was my aim. My SOLE aim.
I couldn’t care less about Mateo’s state but if it would deflate Orla’s ballooning pride, I was down for anything.
“Pretty obvious Mat’s been the one goading her. She goes AWOL for six months and then suddenly, she resurfaces. As an actress. Who does that?”
“So for how long do you intend to keep him?”
“For as long as necessary!” I replied, my tone sharp with resentment. How else was I going to make that clear?! “I will have him detained for as long as it takes to make Orla’s shoulders drop. For as long as it takes me to crush her pride like raw eggs.”
I paused to let the silence that ensued, abate my nerves as I was only an inch away from flaring up.
“The media,” I continued, a lot calmer – or rather, quieter, still seething deep within. “The press. Public sentiments. Everything I can manipulate, I will. To make sure Orla comes crawling at my feet again.”
Another awkward silence kicked off as she stared speechlessly, her gawking expressly echoing her soundless confusion. She had yet to comprehend why I was getting all worked up. Over the same lady I rejected some months ago.
Frankly speaking, my head wasn’t even wrapped halfway around my obsession yet.
Why would I even care?
‘Your pride will suffer if you sit and do nothing.’
And there I had it – my answer. Orla was someone I deemed unworthy. Coming up in my face again, highly esteemed, was just –
I was pulled out of my thoughts by a knock on the door.
“Expecting someone?”
I shook my head with a groan, pushing myself up to lean against the headboard.
She sank her side of the bed deeper while adjusting herself to get off. Then she picked her nightshirt lying on the floor and wore it, donning her nakedness down to just her butt line before dragging her feet to the door, shushing her mushy slippers across the floor.
I waited, listening to her inaudible conversation with whoever was at the door.
After a while, it creaked close, and then she turned around to face me again.
“Orla’s here,” she informed, crossing her arms over her bosom.
My pent-up annoyance melted away from the immediate thrill that coursed through my entire being on hearing the news.
‘You haven’t even done anything and she’s already here to beg.’
I scoffed, pulling a corner of my lips into a smug smirk. “I guess she amounts to nothing then,” I mumbled to myself as I made my way out of bed, a fresh wave of gratification soothing my nerves now.
I asked to usher her into my den to add a grander feel to my entrance as the stairway led directly down there.
I walked in on the sitting figure relaxing with crossed legs. The audacity.
“If it isn’t Orla,” I crooned to announce my presence as her eyes were anywhere but my way, stepping further away from the last step. “Have you come to BEG me to let your man go? Too soon anyway,” I taunted, mumbling the last part to myself in a bid to revel the satisfaction that accompanied the conviction.
She uncrossed her legs. Still not looking my way. Then she languidly tilted her head to me, straight-faced for a second before an enigmatic smile erased it.
“I have come to TELL you to let him go.” I flinched, the emphasis on ‘tell’ all the while staying collected, pinching my brows in awe.
I scoffed, leaving my mouth open in speechlessness. She… “Where do your guts stem from? Like …” Out of words, I let repeated scoffs take over. “What deluded you into thinking you could walk into my forte on your feet, make demands, and believe I will obey?”
Without saying anything, she dipped her hand into her handbag, undipping in a matter of seconds with a bulging envelope now in her grip. “You have two hours,” she said simply, plopping the envelope on the table in front of her, its impact lacing the air with a mild screech, without breaking her glare from mine.
“Do have a great day, Sebastian,” she said with an obvious sarcasm dripping her tone as she quirked a brow, the subtle hints of mockery playing on her lips snarling the lion share of my attention.
And just like that … Just. Like. That. Like she just finished dishing orders to her henchman or had strolled into her kitchen however she pleased, she turned around and left.
My eyes got lost in her receding form until she was out of eyeshot. Even after the door creaked close, they lingered on it when my brain subconsciously ignored reality, earnestly trying to process how and when this change happened.
“What’s this?” Kaia’s voice came through followed by a crinkling sound that reminded me of the envelope she’d left behind. Snapping from trance, I turned around and immediately snatched the package from Kaia already trying to pry.
Hastily, I unwrapped it and sent the envelope flying to wherever now holding a bunch of papers held together in groups with paper clips.
The words on the printed page looked like an infant’s scribblings to me, reading through the apathy that loomed over my eyes. At first. It only took a few lines for horror to barge into them, fastening the loose ends of my stare.
‘How did she get this?!’ My eyes now bulging, bawled.
“Is there a problem?” Kaia asked with anxiety squirming to her voice, her curiosity cowering behind it.
“How… How did she get these?! How?! How did she get these?!” I rooped while quickly skimming through the other pages, drenching the air with violent rustles, and confirming the content’s growing gravity by the pages. Just headings only aid that cause.
Bank statements that proved I bought some movie roles.
Proof of slush fund accounts.
Bribery.
Coercion.
Unlawful deeds to make me go up the ladder of fame seamlessly.
Not a single proof on these papers was feigned. Whoever got this did a thorough snooping as information regarding them was wrapped up neatly.
One word about this to the press, and I could end up jeopardizing my career.
She was warning me. This was a threat.
‘But how did she get to lay her hands on these?’
“What does it say?!” Kaia asked again, the anxiety in her tone going staunch and fading the curiosity away completely. But of course, assuaging her unrest was the least of my worries.
“Matthew! Matthew!” I roared in a fit of rage mixed with a fair share of panic, now storming toward the exit. He needed to explain how these were suddenly in Orla’s possession. I hadn’t paid him handsomely just to wear expensive tuxedos and colognes!
Just then a buzz grazed my thigh, reminding me of my phone I’d slid into my pocket earlier. Undipping it, the screen lit up to a text from an unknown number flashing on the screen.
The text appeared valiant, its tone hauling a ferocious teeth-grinding out of me. The pain in my temples slowly began to bloom, alongside the intense vibration, wailing at the enormous pressure I was applying but I couldn’t be more ALOOF to all of that. The blow my pride just took was worst and this was little or no ointment to alleviate its pain.
The glare in my eyes as I stared at the text had long morphed into a blistering one as I was now churning with raw ire.
“How dare she?!” I barked ragefully, my eyes glued to the abomination glaring back at me from my screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: “Your time starts now.”