Chapter 8

• A day flies by, I spend the entire Tuesday looking for a job or paid internship. I am weeks away from graduating so I might as well get serious in finding employment. It is tough as most require experience which I lack. Also I desperately need an income to find my own apartment. Nimo, Oliver's girlfriend will return tomorrow and I don't need to be a third wheel in their apartment. And all of this is Quinn's fault that I'm homeless.
• Oliver's steps are silent I don' t realize he has walked until I spot his shadow in front of me with a suit case and box. I recognize them. They are mine.
• He hangs his bag and his keys. He's always been more organized than me. There's nothing out of place or clothes lying around.
• "How is the job search?" He asks.
• "Frustrating. With the experience and age limit they put, it is like one should have started working in their mothers' womb." I breath.
• "I'm sure you will find something."
• "Where did you get my stuff from? "I ask standing up.
• He wipes his face, "There were at the door. Didn't you hear the person who dropped them?"
• I shake my head. The only explanation I have is that Quinn must have asked someone drop them. They are the stuff I carried to his penthouse.
• "This was among the stuff." He waves a white envelope.
• Greedily, I reach for it and tear it open. I can't believe what am seeing.
• "What is it?" Oliver asks trying to peep.
• "A title deed for my new apartment." I say as I feel my mouth run dry. Quinn bought me an apartment, not rent it or lease but bought. Moreover it isn't located in an ordinary neighborhood it is situated in the high end side. Where the rich live. There's a card also.
• Consider this my act of apology. I am sorry I put your life in danger. I am sorry I made you homeless. However I am not sorry for the verdict that will come tomorrow .
• Oliver grabs the card from my grasp. I watch him read it.
• "You aren't planning on accepting that apartment, are you?" Oliver eyes me skeptically.
• "Why not?" I take the card back. "That family owes us more than just a two bedroom apartment."
• "He put your life in danger, just because he saved you it doesn't warrant him a hero. He can't undo what he had a hand in. For all we know that might have been the beginning of something big." Oliver angrily says.
• "The guys were killed. It is over except..." I keep quiet when I remember I didn't tell Oliver about the mysterious guy that attacked me at my apartment and also died mysteriously.
• "Except what?" His curiosity is heightened.
• I quickly think of a lie. "I am still traumatized."
• He momentarily ignores me, "Only some members of the gang were killed, what if the head of the gang decide to revenge?"
• The thought gets me traumatized for real.
• "It is over." I dismiss him. Quinn assured me of that.
• "Let's hope so." He walks into his bedroom.
• I put my stuff in the corner before I spot the Soduku paper Quinn gave me. I haven't had time to solve it and I doubt it matters now the message he was trying to pass to me. I sigh and go back to my laptop .
• The verdict tomorrow will determine if I accept the apartment. I stare at the laptop again. Quinn's wedding is in four days. I scoff and and stand heading towards the kitchen. I'm expecting Andre. He did email me saying he has great and bad news. I am curious for both.
• My meat stew is still boiling. My Samsung flip phone beeps. It a text from Andre saying he forgot the apartment number. I immediately text him back and put the phone away. It is the first phone I ever owned back in the days. It has less features and the internet is slow like a turtle. I lost my phone when I was abducted for now it is what I can afford to use.
• Minutes later I hear a knock on the door. I head to open it.
• Andre is wearing a winning smug on his face as he walks in contrary to the last time I saw him.
• "I am so good." He brags and bounces in, his feet barely touching the floor.
• I am confused, "Okay..."
• " That is not what I expected to hear, show some enthusiasm for the guy that saved the day." He flops on the coach.
• "Go Andre, Go Andre..." I pretend to be a cheerleader.
• "Your sarcasm is tasteless."
• "Tell me, I am dying here." I exaggerate.
• "You will not like the bad news, but you will be ecstatic about the good news. It will over write the bad one." The conviction in his voice isn't missed.
• I am already dying to hear what he has to say.
• "Oliver will not be expelled." He finally sets my curiosity free.
• I smile, "And the bad news?" I can't think of anything worst than having my brother expelled.
• "You never set foot back at the university, unless it is your graduation day." Andre says.
• "What? "Oliver walks in. "Who even decided that?"
• "Quinn is willing to overlook the damage you did to his car and the punishment you were to be accorded. Only if Cara never goes back to the university." Andre explains.
• Oliver breaths, "Who the hell does he think he is?"
• "It is a small price to pay for; one, he won't expose your identity and two, you are just weeks away from graduating. Your absence at the university won't affect your graduation or GPA."
• He is right in everything he is saying although some thing seems wrong. Quinn is stubborn and stiff like a he can't bend to anyone's wishes. Additionally, it is not like Andre and Quinn are friends. So I am left wondering if when Andre stormed off yesterday saying he is going to fix the mess. He meant this and how did he manage to get to an agreement with Quinn?
• "And how exactly did you get Quinn to agree to this cause I was very sure he would have Oliver and I expelled. In fact I got a card whereby he said he wasn't sorry for the outcome of the case."
• "That is true, he told me he was planning to get Oliver expelled and also find a way to get you in trouble and expelled too. But I managed to strike a deal with him."
• "How?" I am still puzzled.
• "Lets say information is a powerful weapon." He proudly states.
• "So you blackmailed Quinn?" I am shocked. "He is Quinn he would rather let someone air his dirt than give someone that kind of power to hold over him."
• "I am not blackmailing him. But whatever it is, he can't risk it to come out."
• "Is it about us?"Oliver asks.
• "No. The guy has no interest in your lives as long as you stay away from him never to see your faces." He heaves and runs a hand through his clean shaved head.
• "Then what is it?" I want to know whatever it is Andre is holding over him.
• "It is personal. I can't tell you."
• I give up cause I know he won't tell us.
• Again Andre has come to our rescue. If tomorrow goes as he told us, lucky us. Oliver at least will not be expelled and I am happy not go back to that cursed school. My mission there failed, I couldn't break Quinn. I couldn't hurt him the way his family did to us. I couldn't 't bring him and his family down. I failed with shame and misery.
• I have only one card to play. Plan B. The last resort that would put my brother and I at risk again. And that is go after what is rightfully ours.