PART 1
~ SECRETS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS ~
It was the early spring when the newspaper spreads the "news" to Oasis Lane, which I've been living there for almost a year.....
Well, basically the news around here are just plain and usual like always....But today, there's something unusual....
My Name is Barbara DeLovette, and I'm just an ordinary person with ordinary activities. I used to clean up my house in the morning, doing my chores, and doing my daily routine as a baker....Yes, I opened a little bakery shop at my house. My husband was always encouraging me to do what I love the most, and baking is the one thing that I'm sure, I'm passionate about......
And that brings me the idea to share my passion with my friends…unfortunately, I pick the wrong time to do it and I have to let them see my desperate action while I was in the middle of sharing my passion, how ironic…
* * *
As I said in the beginning, everything seemed normal as always. The new neighbor was still shy and doesn't talk a lot but we had fun making our cakes and pies, laughing to silly jokes we heard and shared, and keeping each others company. It was supposed to be a happy day...and that is why it was very astonishing as I climbed down the basement of my house that I barely go there for years, open an old closet with a skeleton in it and sobbing there silently.
Yes...it was supposed to be a happy day, until later they found my body, hanging silently by the apple tree in the backyard of my house, the tree that solemnly witnessed as my dead body became as stiff as the tree itself....and swung motionless with the rope surrounding my neck....it was the very day when I decided to hang myself to death!
* * *
There's Isabella Stafford, always standing in front like she always does. Isabella is a typical straight-forward person who only knows right and wrong. For her, life is supposed to be simple, just black and white...no gray. So no wonder everyone considers her as an Ice Queen. But despite all that, she is a loving and caring wife and mother. Her family is always looked SOOO happy....SOOO flawless. Her husband, working as a Director of one of the Prestigious Banks in the city is a cold man and always seemed unfriendly. Her daughter, is a sweet and shy person, so shy that she even barely speaks or chats with anyone but her Dad. That is why it’s not so surprising that she doesn’t come today. But Bella, even if you see her looking like she doesn’t care a bit, ...for me, she was a friend that you can depend on. And now, she's thinking that my death is just pointless…well, she doesn’t know the half of it yet....
Near the Stafford family, there is Essella Red with her loving and caring husband. We always call her Queen Ella for her life is just like a fairytale. She has a wealthy husband who owns two oil companies, and he always cherishes her with everything she wanted or desired, has a beautiful daughter who's very popular at school, beautiful house, expensive dresses and jewelleries. She trully lives her life just like a queen but underneath it all, she feels lonely. Her husband is almost never at home, and for her daughter, she has more in her mind rather than just to stay at home dwelling with homework or attending some boring funeral. So to erase her loneliness, she spends her spare time doing activities that no one knows....secret activities.
At the head of my coffin, there is Chloé Mortaud - ex secretary. The sweet and thoughtful one who apparently feels a little bit overwhelmed at the moment. Her relationship with her husband is on the edge...but she can always covering it up by saying everything is FINE ( F*cked up, Insecured, Nauseous, Emotional ) when the truth is they both have been desperately trying to have a child for years. And today for the very first time in years, I see tears in her eyes......, and the sad thing is ... she doesn’t have any hug to ease her sorrow … her husband is still working out of town, and leaving her all alone…
At the very back row, there's Clara the hectic one...well, if you count her children you'll know it. Actually Clara is just too soon to be burdened with such big responsibility. She got married when she was very young and then she was left in a matter of years by her husband. Luckily she has help, her older son takes the role as the head of the family. And to tell you the truth, it is very sad to see a parent depends so much on her son while he's still longing for his youth life. Clara has tried to find a suitable man for her family but apparently she failed to find one because all the men were afraid of her children. So now she's just busy dealing with her 'impish' children rather than paying attention to my funeral.
But perhaps...the most interesting event happens to our newest housewife on the block, Marisol de Luca. From our little chat at my house, she told us that she's married to a Marketing Supervisor, Vincenzio de Luca, and they both have a son Allesandro de Luca. Marisol...well if it's her real name is surprised when a handsome man suddenly approached her by calling her "Lupita!!!". That man is Caesar Augusto, he is a Successful Businessman with lots of companies. His father was my father's best buddy. I used to visit him at his house when he was still a youngster, when he was deeply in love with this girl...LUPITA. Hmm...speaking about Lupita...I just realized now, Marisol sure looks A LOT like Lupita...that is why she looked very familiar when I first met her and decided she could join in our group.
"I'm sorry good Sir, but I think you're mistaken me with someone else..." Marisol smiled politely.
"No...Lupita....you're still ALIVE!!!" Caesar said with shocking expression on his face, but a happy one.
The red-haired woman by his side had a shocking expression on her face too as if she's looking at a dead person, and that one wasn't a happy one.
"I'm sorry...but I'm not Lupita....my name is Marisol de Luca and this is my husband Vincenzio de Luca" Marisol tried to explained since that guy won't loosen his grip on her hand.
"Lupita...I...I thought you were dead! Don't you remember me...I'm Caesar!" that guy yelled and started to attract attention from others there, they started to whisper each others.
"Look Caesar right? let my wife go! she doesn't know you!" Vincenzio started to lose his patience, and this was the first time Marisol saw her husband like that.
"Caesar....please...don't make a scene...." the red-haired woman tried to pull Caesar from Marisol too.
"Ximena look at her! She looks like Lupita!" Caesar didn't take his eyes off Marisol, he looked deep into her eyes, making her heart beat fast like hell!
"For God sakes Caesar, Lupita is DEAD! I don't think she looks like Lupita!" Ximena hissed to Marisol, looked her from head to toe with a disgust expression.
Marisol didn't know what to do, she tried to take her hands away from Caesar's grip but Caesar tightened his grip making her feel pain around her wrist.
"Look man, let my wife go...or I'll......." Vincenzio threatened him with cold stare.
Everyone didn't pay attention to my funeral anymore and started to notice the more interesting incident now.
Caesar didn't care about Vincenzio's threat, but the look on Marisol's face with pain expression made him finally let her go. Vincenzio just took Marisol to their car as soon as possible and drove away without even looking back. In the car, Marisol just couldn't forget about the incident, so many questions running through her brain now...who was he ? why did he call me Lupita ? why his face looked really familiar to her...and surprisingly...everytime she thought of Caesar's face or his menacing yet so charming glance, her heart beat fast!
Back at the funeral, Caesar didn't seem to want just forget that incident, he grabbed his cellphone and called one of his men. "Yeah it's me...there's something I want you to investigate as soon as possible. I want you to find any informations you can get about a woman named MARISOL de LUCA!!!"
* * *
That night, Vincenzio made love to Marisol like they never made love before....as far as she recalled, it was the best one she had ever had ever since she could remember.
"I love you Marisol...I really really love you...don't ever leave me okay?" Vincenzio said when they're hugging each others.
"I love you too Vince...and why would I leave a great husband like you? " Marisol asked back, but no answer. Vincenzio had closed his eyes and looked like he was asleep already. Marisol just smiled and closed her eyes tried to sleep too. That's when Vincenzio opened his eyes again and looked at her as if he was gonna lose her....
* * *
Somehow, a little misunderstanding can happen in anywhere. A simple question about something that maybe started in unusual places....
After the funeral was over, Juan, Barbara's husband took his grieve to the nearest Bar. He seemed torn apart and forgot all the unsolved cases at his police headquarters.
Her name was Audrey Novak, and she was a slut! At least that's what everyone thought of her. But the truth was ?? there was 'something' about her that everyone couldn't figure it out yet
She knew anything about the 'unspoken'. From the moment you looked at her for the first time, you just knew that you needed to keep your husbands away from her.
"Juan isn't it? I'm really sorry for your lost. But I can assure you that you can ALWAYS speak to me about anything, anytime, anywhere...." she spoke with her sexy voice while caressing Juan's cheeks with flowers.
Audrey was surprised when Juan left her just like that without even bother to speak anything. "Oooh....what the?!" she said to herself. And it was in that moment, Audrey felt something wrong. Really wrong…
* * *
As days passed, everyone seems to live their own usual lives. My suicidal is just a past news that will slowly be forgotten, but to my dear friends....
One day, all the women was talking in front of Mortaud's lawn after they waved to Juan who was off to work.
"It's almost a week and there's nothing happened here. It's just like Barbara's death has nothing to do with our neighbors at all" Clara complained.
"Well, we know it's hard to deal with death, but life goes on, Clara. I'm sure Barbara would want for us to forget her death" Bella replied coldly as always.
"Geez Bella, the woman killed herself. And that's something we can't just forget like that. She was OUR best friend" Ella disagreed.
"Well just leave it to the cops. Besides...Juan is a detective right? just leave it to him" Bella said with no expression on her face.
"Bella...you're so mean! Anyway...speaking about her husband, he must have been devastated that he has to deal with his own wife's suicidal case" Clara said.
"Yeah I bet he is...actually I have something to tell you girls. It's about Barbara and it's something that I heard before we found her dead" Chloé told them and they suddenly stared at her, waiting for her to finish her lines.
"Ehm...I don't know girls whether I should tell you all about this or not...." Chloé said with doubt.
"Oh for God sakes Chloé just shoot!" Bella yelled impatiently.
"You know when she told us that she wanted to get more apples from her garden the day that she died? She was on the phone when I accidentally heard about something that she said when I was on the way to the bathroom...."
"Are you saying that you were eavesdropping???" Bella said cynically.
"Well......." Chloé blushed.
"Careful Chloé with your eavesdropping habit, it may put you in danger someday...." Bella warned her but Chloé shrugged.
"And what did you hear ?" now Essella was curious.
"She said 'JOSE...I WILL COME TO YOU' " Chloé continued.
"Jose? who is this Jose guy? and why we never heard her mentioned this name ? did you tell the cops about this when they were interrogating us for being there when she commited suicide?" Bella asked.
"Nope, I just remember it right now" Chloé said with sad expression on her face.
"Then forget it! you wouldn't want to be involved in this stupid suicidal. We almost got accussed for being responsible of her stupid suicidal" Bella was angry now.
"How could you say that Bella!? She was our friend and her suicidal was unusual since we all know she lived her happy marriage with Juan. Doesn't this bother you girls?" Ella asked, disagreed with Bella again.
"If there was something bad, she should have come to us not killing herself like that. What did she think of us? not her friends? what a bitch!" Bella yelled angrily but deep down inside she was disappointed with Barbara's act of desperation.
Juan stared suspiciously at the women who were gossiping from the distance. But he put his handsome smile on his face like always before he entered his car and drove away.
"Do you think Barbara chea....." Clara said unfinished.
"For God sakes...look at him Clara! Juan is a young and hot hunk. He's a LOT younger than Barbara. Why would she do that to him?" Ella said.
"Yes, don't make a harsh conclusion yet when we don't know the truth" Chloé agreed.
"Oh Barbara....what did exactly happen? why did you commit suicide ?" the women stared at each others with questions on their faces.
Ah yes...the TRUTH....I know for sure that my case isn't closed..... yet......
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