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Laura looked at her office one last time. She knew she would miss it. Working as the Assistant DA was a dream come through for her and she wished it would never end this way.

"Look at my office one last time. And please hurry. I need to get my stuff in here as fast as possible."

And he just had to remind her that she was leaving it to him. She turned around holding the carton a little bit closer to her chest.

"You'll make a good prosecutor Gary and I'm sure you'll make an even better Assistant DA." She said to him. How much she hated that smirk on his face but she didn't want to show how defeated she felt. Especially when she was defeated.

"What do you mean? I've always been a prosecutor."

She gave a small smile as she walked to the door where he stood. She placed her hands at his shoulder and looked at him. "No you haven't. Maybe you'll become one this time." Having the last word she quickly left the office to towards the elevator. Her lips cracked a smile as she heard him curse at her.

She rushed to the elevator to avoid the stares of her colleagues and juniors who hated her and were happy she was forced to resign. Among everything, she avoided Chloe. That woman adored her and she felt she had failed her. She wasn't sure she was able to face her or anyone again.

She finally reached the ground floor and hurriedly walked to her car. Putting the box at her back seat. She opened the driver's seat and sat down while closing her eyes for a moment.

After what had felt like a thousand years, she finally started her car and got ready to drive out.

"I'm alive. That's a good thing." She said out loud and then she drove off.

                                                                      ⚜

It's been six days. Six days since she was unemployed. Six days since she had last seen the outside world. Six days since she sat in front of her television obsessed about the news.

Laura didn't know what she was expecting. Maybe the detectives will suddenly find Aria's killer and her job may be restored.

May.

She heard a knock on the door and she groaned. She knew it was her mother again who suddenly felt like she was suicidal or something and didn't want to leave her side. She had to literally drag her out of her apartment last night and she didn't expect her until in two days time.

She reluctantly went to the door and opened it.

"I told you I'm okay mom so st-" She stopped midway when she noticed who was at the door. "Chloe?"

Chloe smiled. "If this is how you look I wonder why your mother feels like you're not okay." She said sarcastically.

Chloe was surprised to say the least. Her boss or former boss was not a very organized person that she knew but she always looked clean, tidy and corporate. Now she looked like a homeless person with her hair like a bird's nest and her pajamas in a chaotic state. She knew the loss of her job would take a big toll on her but she never expected it to be this bad. Her apartment was even in a worse state than her hair.

"What are you doing here?" Laura asked still puzzled at her sudden appearance.

"You haven't been out of your apartment of almost a week now. Of course I'll be worried."

"Oh." That was the only thing that Laura could say. She had been trying to avoid her for a reason and now she was standing there at her doorstep.

"And although I was genuinely worried about you. I brought a friend." Then someone who Laura hadn't noticed since they got there appeared.

"Hi Laura." Her almost six foot height towered Chloe's five five.

Suddenly Laura's mood became sour. "What's she doing her?" She asked angrily.

Chloe walked inside the house after their friend closing the door behind her. "Who invited you in?" Laura asked.

"You weren't planning too so I did it for you." She answered back making Chloe the man in the middle.

"Chloe you still haven't answered my question." Laura asked ignoring her friend. "What is she doing her?"

"I have been looking for you since I heard you lost your job and I went to your old address and found out you don't leave there anymore. Your boyfriend refused to give me your new address." Her friend answered as she picked an apple from the fruit basket.

"He's not my boyfriend." She said grinding her teeth.

"Whatever. So I went to the next person I could ask since I found out you and your bff is having trouble in paradise and that would be Chloe. So that how she brought me here."

"For someone with a first class in psychology you are very stupid. I asked you what you are doing here and you can't even answer the question."

"Stop it L. Enough of whatever it is eating you up." Tiffany said with pain in her voice. "I was worried okay. You were forced to resign from your job and suddenly you disappeared from the face of the earth. Of course I was worried."

Laura was dumbstruck at her confession. For months now, they had only had conversations laced with bitterness and hatred. She wouldn't admit to herself but she felt happy that Tiffany worried about her.

She walked to the fridge and open a can of beer. She cringed. She hated the taste of beer but felt it was what she needed to bury herself in at this point.

"You hate beer." Tiffany said as she took a seat on the kitchen stool.

"I also hate being jobless. See, we don't always get what we want." Laura walked to the sitting room and jumped on the couch.

"You don't have to be a bitch about it. I'm just trying to help."

"And that is by doing what?"

"You make it sound like this anyone's fault. I warned you, I begged you to let this case go but what did you do? You turned me into your enemy!" At this rate Tiffany was already shouting.

"If you came here to tell me I told you so. Well you can as well leave. I already know I fucked up. I don't need your nagging voice at the back of my head!"

"Well Laura what she is trying to say is-" Chloe tried to intervene.

"I know damn well what she is trying to say and I don't need it. Do you think I don't know? I sit on this couch thinking everyday what I could have done differently. Maybe if I ignored this or ignored that I'll still have my job. But I didn't and I wouldn't if you give me another chance. I don't regret what I did. I just regret I didn't do it faster and that those higher up dickheads didn't see it my way."

The house was silent for a bit until Tiffany cried. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." She cried as she rested her head on the island.

"For what?" Laura cocked her brow with her drink halfway to her mouth.

"Why I testified against her. I could have told you."

That caught Laura's attention. She always wanted to know why Tiffany did it. She knew Tiffany knew her mother didn't kill herself so why. Why did she lie?

"So why didn't you?" She dropped the can on the side stool and diverted her full attention to Tiffany.

Tiffany raised her head up using the back of her palm to clean her eyes. "Because knowing you, you would have tried to get to the end of it and get yourself in the same mess. I wasn't wrong."

"What are you saying?" She was getting impatient.

"They blackmailed me like they blackmailed you. But this time even worse."

Laura was speechless. "H-How did you know that?"

Then Chloe spoke up. "I told her." This surprised Laura even more.

"How did you even know?"

Chloe smiled. "I heard you two. I was about to bring in somethings that he sent me to do and I heard him. At that time I wasn't so sure about it until I heard Gary saying something in the copy room about you being a self sacrificing lamb and you'll fall for it. Whatever it was. It wasn't until recently I put two and two together."

Laura listened. She had to say she was surprised but not totally convinced. Then how did Tiffany know her's was a worse type of blackmail than mine?
She asked herself. According to Chloe she didn't hear the details of the blackmail. But she pushed that thought aside. There was no need to doubt her since she had been a good friend and assistant.

"My mother's past was used against her. My past. Your past." Tiffany said.

"My past? What do you mean by my past?"

"A lot of things about your life and parents life that if it comes to the light will only destroy and nothing else. Same with mine and my mother's. I know you thought I was selfish but I was just doing what I felt was right. My mother, wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

"How would you know? Who gave you the right to make such choices for me?"

Tiffany stood up and walked to the couch Laura sat on making her stand as well. "Nobody. I'm evil. I'm weak. I'm the useless, thoughtless daughter of the victim who chose my peace of mind over chasing a dead woman who happened to be my mother. You're the Saint. You're the one who does everything right and even sacrificed her job to chase after a dead woman. So crucify me. Crucify me for being weak and selfish." There was no more than a few inches separating them.

"You know now you say it out loud it looks more clear. You're right. That's what you are. Weak. And selfish." She said that looking straight in Tiffany's eyes. "So don't make yourself the victim." With that Laura walked out on her. She opened the fridge and took out a can of soda and opened it. She threw a bottle of soda towards Tiffany who barely caught it still in shock making Laura to smirk. Then she looked at Chloe and asked. "You want one?"

Chloe unsure of whatever was going on nodded before catching the can of coke Laura threw towards her.

"Why are you not at work today?" Laura asked Chloe.

"I quit."

She almost choked on her drink. "You did what? Why?"

"They were going to fire me anyway so I as well did them the honors. And no it wasn't your fault."

"But if not-"

"I can remember very well just a few minutes ago someone saying something about choices." She gave a sly smile. "I made mine Laura, so don't beat yourself about it." She brought her can towards Laura's and clicked it. "Cheers to our unemployment." She smiled.

After a few moments of carefully observing her, Laura smiled. "Cheers to our unemployment."

"Now I'm the one who feels left out."

Laura groaned. "You're still here? You can as well do yourself some good and leave."

"Shout all you want L, I'm going nowhere. Now turn on the bloody t.v. I can't miss the Tonight's Show one more time or I'll murder someone."

Laura rolled her eyes as she walked to the sitting room and took a seat on the sofa.

"And I forgot to tell you before." Tiffany said. "Nice house."

And even Laura couldn't hide the smile on her face. No matter how she felt or pretended to feel. She couldn't deny she missed Tiffany. A friend turned sister. And she couldn't deny she enjoyed that moment of normalcy in her life. Just in her sitting room, with two friends, enjoying a good show.

If only she knew it was the last time she would experience something normal in such a long time, she would have savored the moment longer.

                                                                  ⚜

Rhonda knew what it meant when her phone rang at this time of the night. Someone was dead. Annoyed by the sound of her phone, she sleepily used her hand to find her phone on her side stool.

"Detective Sanders." She said trying to sound as professional as a sleepy person  could.

"Good to know you are awake partner. I mean I'm married with three kids and I still managed to get here before you."

Somehow Saint's grumbling managed to wake her completely. "It's not my fault you are married Saint. That's your problem."

He sighed. "Just get here already. I'll text you the address."

"Anything I should know before I get there."

"Yeah. It's clearly a homocide and you won't believe the victim."

"Try me." She pressed the phone on her shoulder with her ears as she walked to the bathroom.

"It's Jones."

"Holy shit!"

"Yeah. That's what I said when I got here. Holy shit."

                                                                      🔱

Laura washed her face in the toilet sink for the umpteenth time in an hour. She didn't know why she felt like throwing up again even when she emptied her stomach that morning. She blamed herself. How was she so stupid? She felt like a hero sacrificing her job for him not knowing how stupid she was.

After a few minutes she managed to get herself together. She decided to take jog for the first time in a long time. With her headset in her ears, shutting the world out and drowning herself in her sorrows, she jogged till she felt only pain in her legs and nothing else. She decided to take a rest as she reached the lake not so far from her house. It was a place she went when she felt frustrated.

She sat down on the bench which was donated by the late town magistrate and his wife. She was so lost in her own world that she didn't notice the person that slipped beside her until she felt someone tap her.

"Christ!" She panicked. After she recognized who the person was she removed her headset and turned it off. "Sorry didn't see you there."

"I knew you would be here."

"What are you doing here then? I thought we were not talking."

"Well I guessed we are now."

"Just leave me Rhonda. I'm not in the mood for anything now."

Rhonda picked a stone and threw it into the lake watching it bounce. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not."

"I know you are going through a hard time and I'm sorry I was so angry with you I didn't even see it from your angle."

Laura was quiet. She didn't have the energy for any draining conversation at the moment and this was surely one. This wasn't the first time they had had a misunderstanding due to their jobs but they always found a way to differentiate their personal feelings but Laura didn't know why this one felt personal.

"You changed your line?"

Laura nodded throwing another stone to the water watching it make ripples. Somehow it had a calming effect on her.

"Nathan has been trying to reach you."

"Rhonda, I don't want to talk about Nathan."

She puffed. "You guys just have to put me in the middle of this."

"Nobody put you anywhere."

"Nathan is my friend too. I can't just stop talking to him because you guys are going through a hard time. What if you guys kiss and make up one day? I'll just feel so stupid."

"We are not kissing or making up anything soon. I'm sure I told you that."

"Don't blame me for being skeptical. You guys have broken up in the past ten years more times than you have been together." Laura gave her the eye. "I'm sorry. Just saying."

"Well I'm serious this time and I better not talk about it."

"Fine." Her phone chimed just as she said that. "Sorry, I got to go." She got up from the bench.

"Thanks."

Rhonda smiled. "I love you babe."

Laura turned to look at her. "I may feel the same way too." Rhonda laughed making Laura to join her.

"No problem." She had to leave immediately but not before she told Laura what brought her here. "It's not your fault Laura."

That one sentence made Laura remember why she was here at the first place. Her expression became grim. "You know that's not true."

"No, I know it's true that's why I'm here. You're a good woman. You will never follow anything but the truth no matter the circumstance. I'm sorry I didn't see that. You did everything that you could do. It wasn't your fault Laura. So don't beat yourself about it." Her phone rang making her too start walking away. She made a hand gesture towards Laura that she would call her.

Laura nodded at her and gave her a small smile. She knew Rhonda meant well but she didn't comfort her. Because Laura knew that that night, she would be having a new member in her dreams.

Or should she say. Nightmares.