Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

6 - Visualstorm.

"You look amazing."

Pamela smiled at Devlin but the smile wavered when she looked down at her dress warily. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. It's perfect." Devlin said grinning broadly then his brows puckered. "Except for one thing. Well, two."

She looked at him expectantly. "Okay?"

"That slit is too thigh high and that neckline is too low. Go get changed into something more appropriate."

Pamela groaned and Devlin grimaced. Had he gone too far this time? Had his constant bickering driven her to madness?

"Devlin, this is the third dress I'm putting on because of your complaints. What do you want me to do?"

"Dress like you're heading to church, that's what."

"Don't be ridiculous. My neckline is not too low and neither is this slit too high." She walked to the sitting room mirror and studied her look. "To me, this is perfect."

Well, it actually was. Her look was not too revealing and it fit her very nicely, but he would be damned before he let that blind fuckwit have another slice of his wife's sultry body.

He'd been gratified when she'd told him they'd not slept with each other for those three years, which only showed that Deaton was a dumb head – because he could not imagine anyone resisting her body – but they'd surely made out which was just as annoying. His jealousy was unhealthy, he admitted but he couldn't help it.

"I know." Devlin said sulkily and continued. "I was only worried you'd outshine other ladies and all the men would queue to dance with the belle of the ball."

Her laughter reverberated through the room and into his heart, in beautiful, cozy waves that made him feel special and happy. Everything was going well – for the moment, but there was a glitch in his otherwise perfect life – Marcel Deaton. He didn't know why but he didn't trust him.

Devlin had had a background search done on Marcel Deaton and had come up with zilch. Not even a goddamned parking ticket violation. In short, everything he'd come up with was barely enough to fill a page. Devlin knew that if their positions were reversed and anyone did a background research on him, what they would find would fill a book.

For the fact that Deaton had been a traitor and had been in sync with a lunatic but had a squeaky clean background made Devlin more wary of him. People like him knew how to disappear without leaving a trace. He was smart.

This was why he didn't believe the cock-and-bull, trumped up story about him being blind.

His suspicions had began from the very first day he saw him again. He'd noticed something suspicious about the way he acted, as if he was pretending or trying to play victim. There was also something suspicious about his Bruce Wayne knock-off aide who looked like he should be wearing breechcloths and carrying a spear than being an aide, and to a blind man for that matter. He would chew copper wire if his guts instincts was wrong. He just needed to carry out his plan.

Yes, he'd drawn out a plan with Cody on how to prove if Deaton was really blind or if he was bullshitting the whole world, and most especially his wife.

The said wife smiled at him. "Well, my makeup. Hope it's okay?"

He leaned into the couch and did his best not to sigh. Why women always asked men about their attires and accessories and make up was funny to him. In the end he didn't care. Just look beautiful. End of story.

"Hmm-hmm."

She turned to look at the mirror. "I think the highlighting is too much. Also my lip gloss should be nude and not this bright red. Right babe?"

"The hell I know?" He muttered. He just wanted her to leave so that he could spring into action. He looked up at her and saw that she was looking at him expectantly. "I mean, you look beautiful. That's the most important thing."

She grinned brightly and picked up her purse. "Okay then, I'm off." She walked to the door and stopped. "I would have kissed you but I can't smear my gloss."

He nodded absently at her and checked his watch with a quick flick of his wrist. "Yeah, yeah, I understand." Where the hell was Cody? He was supposed to be here by now.

Speaking of the Devil, Cody entered.

"Good evening ma'am." He Pamela greeted solemnly.

Pamela was visibly surprised and happy to see him. She hugged him, laughing in happiness.

"It's been so long!"

"Yes ma'am."

"How is Susan?"

Devlin grimaced. Wrong question. He'd have to fill her up on the "situationship" between Cody and Susan.

If Cody had felt uncomfortable by the question, he didn't show it. "She's fine."

"And the baby? What's his name?"

Cody's eyes lit up and he his chest swelled with pride. "Alexander, and he's a big boy now."

He fished out his phone from his pockets and handed it to Pamela, probably to show her Alexander's picture. The look of pure adoration in Pamela's eyes was priceless. It made Devlin feel a kind of pang. Pamela would want a baby.

"Oh my God, he's such a cute boy! I would absolutely love to meet him someday."

Cody gave Devlin a quick look, as if to say it depended on Devlin. Devlin rolled his eyes.

"You need to get going, you don't want to be late to your "chummy" event."

Pamela laughed and stepped out of the door into the growing darkness. Devlin would have felt apprehensive letting her leave his safe house but three of his best men were going with her and if his plan was a success, he would be able to keep an eye on her.

"Have fun babe." He called after her.

She poked her head in, grinning. "Oh I absolutely will."

The moment she left and they were left alone, Devlin stood.

"Is everything ready?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Devlin nodded repeatedly. All he needed was for Pamela and Marcel to be present, and it would be game on. He grabbed his jacket and put it on. "It's show time, baby."

~

The noise was annoying.

Despite the fact that Pamela wanted to be here, she hated the noise, and she was horrified to realize that she was not enjoying herself. She tried to comfort herself by telling herself that she was the best dressed – which was true, but she had a kind of gnaw in her heart that refused to leave and tried as much as she did, she couldn't tell why it was there.

"Hello!"

Pamela turned, smile in place to greet whoever had extended the gesture. She hugged the happy trio who were representatives from a nongovernmental organization in the state and had come to extend their support. Pamela shook hands with them and hugged them. She greeted a lot more people, laughed and joked with them.

It wasn't until it was time for her to speak on the podium did she realize why that gnaw was there. She was lonely.

She grinned brightly at the people applauding her.

"Thank you so much. You are all welcome to this annual ball, dedicated to sending love to the blind out there, just as our motto says which is," She made a deliberate pause and continued, along with most of the people in the room. " 'Love And Light Makes Us Champions.' "

They applauded.

"Our co-host, who is also a beneficiary of this charity event is sadly not present tonight, if he was we all know how lively this place would be."

There were sounds of agreement from the audience.

"But we have to carry on with or without him, and that said, we're going to have a live performance from this group of visually impaired youths, who have proved to be everything but." She looked down at the card she was holding to confirm the name of the group. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's put our hands together for Visualstorm!"

The applause was deafening, and Pamela stepped down from the podium and went back to her seat. She smiled at the blind youths who began filing into the room with their canes. They stood in a straight line with their heads bowed.

Anyone watching would be wondering what kind of performance blind people were going to give but she was sure they would be blown. Her assistant had been the one who had sent her a video of a group of dancers cum acrobatic performers called Visualstorm and Pamela had been left in awe at how good they danced and performed, even without their sight. It was that moment she realized that nothing, not even a disability, could stop a determined soul. She'd decided there and then to invite them to the ball.

A Michael Jackson song came up and they started a cool break dance that made everyone gasp in wonder. They switched beats and moved in sync to that too. One of them started an acrobatic style of bending from the back and coming back up from under his legs. Everyone stood to applaud, awestruck and emotional.

Pamela felt really happy and satisfied. She looked at her assistant, Delaney, who was standing at a corner of the room and their eyes met. She mouthed a 'thank you' to her and Delaney blew her a kiss. Pamela was grateful to have her because she had been the one who had put literarily everything together. Delaney was godsend. She made everything easy, even without seeing her physically. All Pamela had had to do was to send her instructions through the phone and Delaney would bring it to life.

Pamela hadn't really like their virtual meetings, but because Delaney was a working college student, Delaney couldn't always be there, and now that Devlin was back into her life, Pamela was grateful and more than satisfied with the arrangement. She didn't want the innocent girl to be dragged into her family drama.

She was brought back to the present when there was a loud applause and cheers. The Visualstorm had ended their performance and were leaving. Pamela stood and waked to the podium.

"Thank you so much Visualstorm, you guys are a huge inspiration to us all. Well done!" She looked at the card. "The next item on our list is the donations. The official account number will be displayed on this screen. Now it's up to us to open the Robdore app to choose the items we want to buy in order to donate the amounts. Your log in info would be your email address, your bank verification code and your password."

As everyone started to bring out their phones, Delaney walked up to her and handed Pamela hers. Pamela proudly scrolled to where the Robdore app was located and tapped it. The Robdore app, named after her dad and her mom was an idea brought by Marcel for people to shop at auctions and fund raisers in order to reduce the risk of the items being stolen. It hadn't been hard for Delaney to get one of her college buddies who was a computer genius to make an app. Florence had come up with Robdore, and here they were.

"Thank you guys for your donations. Music and drinks will flow to the brim so that you all can shop and donate with ease."

She stepped down and went back to her seat. She smiled kindly at a man who held out her seat for her. The screen at the podium displayed the account balance which was newly opened and empty and as people donated, the amount added up. Pamela was happy and grateful; now, they would give more devices to more blind people to make their living better.

In few seconds, the numbers started rising and got to six figures. Pamela was touched. If only Marcel was around to see it. She scrolled through the items, many of which became sold out as fast as one could blink. It almost drove her to tears, that people were that kind.

It wasn't easy for people to trust charity and nongovernmental organizations because of the amount of scams that were out there, one of which she had experienced. But she was happy that they trusted her because of how transparent the donations were. Through the Robdore app, donors could track every single penny taken from the account. Pamela couldn't be more proud of her progress.

"Hey."

She jerked when a voice spoke directly into her ears. She looked up and saw Marcel. Boris directed him to seat beside her then left. Apart from his very wide grin, he was wearing a grey suit with a white shirt that fitted him well. She grinned back at him, relieved he was around.

"Mr. Deaton you're finally here. What happened?"

His grin faded into a smile. "I woke up after my nap this afternoon to this bad migraine. My eyes were watering and itching. I had to visit my optician."

"I'm so sorry. Why didn't you tell me? You should have called."

He took her hands and squeezed it. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to worry."

She smiled at him. "How you're always worried about me being worried is worrying."

They both laughed.

Marcel sobered first. "By the way, Boris told me the amount." He pointed at the screen which was already slowing but was already at a whooping sum. "Congratulations."

"To us, Marcel. Congratulations to us." She linked her fingers with his. "Now we can started looking for a surgeon for you."

His smile disappeared and he leaned back in his seat. "I don't want to."

"Why not? Don't you want to see again?"

"I do but – " He looked torn. "I still haven't recovered from the hospital and syringes and pills. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. Besides, I don't want to get my hopes up. Visiting a new doctor just to hear him say that there is nothing that can be done is not an easy pill to swallow."

Pamela understood how he felt, and felt ashamed that she'd brought it up when he was supposed to be happy and let go of his burden.

"Want to dance?"

He faced her and his lips curved into an excited smile which elaborated into an eager grin. "Heavens yes."

She stood and helped him stand and guided him to the center of the room. It wasn't until she had started did she realize how awkward it was dancing with him when they just broke up. Thank God they had planned the wedding to be a very private one, strictly by invitation. No one, except Delaney had known about it. Delaney hadn't been able to attend, and she hadn't asked why the wedding had been canceled.

Living in a generation where people minded their businesses was underrated.

She sighed and focused on the present. Why was she feeling lonely again even with Marcel around? Not that she didn't care about his presence, she did, and she would do anything to make him happy, and to repay him for risking his life for her, but she couldn't help it, and couldn't deny the realization that her loneliness had nothing to do with his absence. Now that he was here, looking very happy, dancing with her and celebrating the donations they were able to garner, she still felt lonely.

But there was nothing she could do than to enjoy the party, let it end and go back to meet her husband. Her heart skipped. That was the reason she was feeling lonely? She was missing her gangster husband? She almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all.

How could she not? When he'd made her feel loved and special? When he'd held her close and so tight that it made her heart want to burst with emotions? How could she not, when he made love like someone who had gone to college to study the art of lovemaking? How could she not feel lonely without him, when she was in love with him with so much fierceness that words couldn't express?

She pushed all thoughts of Devlin from her mind and focused on the present. All of a sudden, alarms started to blare. She turned around in confusion and fear as the music stopped and was replaced by the blaring of an alarm.

"Fire! Run everyone, fire!"

Galvanized by panic, Pamela screamed when she saw flames. The lights started to flicker on and off then went off and stayed that way.

"Everybody pass through the fire exit!" Someone yelled.

Yes, she had to escape! The she turned to look for Marcel. He was blind, how would he escape? Everyone was running around, coupled with the blaring alarm and that made her confused. She looked around. "Marcel? Marcel?"

"Pamela!"

That was Marcel and panic was in his voice. She tried to wriggle through the rushing people to hold his hands but was held back by two strong arms.

"I'm fine! Let me go! I need to help Marcel!"

The arms started herding her away from the scene and she struggled. "Let me go! Marcel! No!"

"Stop struggling."

Devlin. She should have known. Hell, she should have known.

He kept of leading her out, through another exit that wasn't filled with people. He kicked open the outer door and led her to his car.

"Devlin, wait. Marcel." She said. She looked up at the building, at the orange-red flames that started to engulf it and started to cry. "Marcel is still inside! Help him please!"

To her shock, Devlin smiled complacently and wiped her eyes free of tears with his thumb. "Trust me, Pam Pam, he's gonna die in that fire."

She reeled back in shock. "What?"

"Just as I said."

She slapped his hands away. "You're insane!" She started to struggle with him and failed. "Someone would have called 911 and fire service will soon be here so you have no power over what's going to happen!"

"I do." He said simply and looked straight at her. "Because I started the fire myself."

~

Thank you so, so much for reading. Please vote, comment your thoughts, add to your library and reading lists and share. Thank you.

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro