"Are you at a solitary
"Yes."
"Tell me the name of the
woman now."
"Gisele Romanek."
He wrote the name down. "Is there any way that I can talk to Ms. Romanek to ask her what happened?"
"Sure," said Brooke. "You can contact her at," and gave him Gisele's home and mobile phone numbers, and even her house address and her email address.
"I got it," said Ira. "Thank you for getting us together, Ms.
Hargensen. I certainly will represent Ms. Romanek. I've heard comments about her emotional instability, and only a crime could destroy someone's mind so severely," and hung up.
Chapter 26
After complying with her duty as a righteous citizen, Brooke took the road again and sped away. She headed for the mall. By now, Nicole and Ben had eaten three huge slices of pizza, two bowls of succulent spaghetti and meatballs, and three Caesar's salads. They had exceeded their stomachs' limits and they couldn't fit a cherry in there. Nicole had never eaten this much. Ben rubbed his belly continually with a bright smile on his face as Nicole tried to conceal it so that false rumors of a pregnancy wouldn't start and ruin the reputation that she was righteously and passionately trying to uphold. She had a face of horror as she burped freely, releasing all of the air from her full stomach. She rolled her eyes and looked around at everybody. Brooke was thirty- five minutes from the mall. "We're going to have to do something else for entertainment," said Nicole. "I don't want to throw up. I hate throwing up because it ruins my teeth and my esophagus." "What do you mean?" said Ben, horrified. "Are you bulimic?"
"If I was bulimic," said Nicole, "I wouldn't have said what I just said. I learned the damages that vomit can do to a bulimic's teeth and since then I've tried everything within my reach to avoid throwing up." Her stomach released acids up her esophagus trying to force her to grow up, but she held on.
"You can't force it to stay
in."
Panting, Nicole said, "Ah,
we shouldn't have done this."
"You should throw up some of it, not all of it, until your stomach gets back to normal."
"No," said Nicole, "I
refuse."
A forty-year-old woman
approached them. She noticed that Nicole was in trouble, and handicapped or not, she was determined to help her. "Are you all right?" she said, holding her head.
"She has to throw up," said Ben as Nicole covered her mouth, "but she doesn't want to because she fears that the vomit will make her teeth rot."
"Well," said the woman, "you're clearly not bulimic. I can help you. I eat heavy and breath- infecting foods all the time, and that's why I carry a toothpaste and a few toothbrushes in my purse."
Nicole turned around, looked at her, and smiled.
"I also carry a two-point- eight-ounce bottle of mouthwash and a pack of floss."
A passerby commented, "Lady, you always bring the works!" and the woman, Nicole and Ben laughed. The woman was none other than Cristina, Noah's aunt.
"Come on. Let's go to the bathroom, get rid of what you have too much of, and then clean up your whole mouth so that nothing happens to your teeth."
Cristina and Nicole walked together until they found the ladies' room. They went in, and Nicole ran to the nearest toilet and threw up, but she couldn't control the amount of food that she discarded, so she had to throw up everything that she ate during the day, leaving her stomach completely empty. The stomach wouldn't be tranquil until it was completely empty, so that it continued to process its own acids. Nicole didn't mind being hungry again as she slowly walked out of the bathroom; thus Ben and Cristina would make sure that she was taken care of. "I have to get out of the chair every now and then," she said as she walked to the sink, "but I can't do it at home because I sleep in the second floor."
"I see," said Cristina. "It sounds like you live in a mansion. What mansion is this?"
"It's the Spears mansion."
Cristina remained quiet and pensive for a few minutes as she rolled her eyes. What did Nicole have to do with the Spears family? How was she linked to them? "The Spears mansion," she said. "How are you related to them?"
"I'm Scott Spears' sister- in-law," said Nicole, smiling, as if she was saying that she's the first lady of the United States.
"Oh," said Cristina, "you're the little sister of his third wife," as she walked around the bathroom, avoiding the mirrors; thus the lover of her husband had dowsed her face with acid three weeks before. Luckily, only the left side was burned, but she was gaining Nicole's trust and she didn't want her to be afraid of her after she'd earned so many points with her. After all, she was only a monster on the outside. Despite the unjust attack, she'd stayed the same on the inside, and she always would. Besides, she needed not to suffer because this woman would pay---sooner than she and the woman thought. "You see," and then turned around, still avoiding the mirror, "I am his sister-in-law, too."
Nicole gasped. She was astonished.
"I'm the sister of his first wife, the older sister."
Meanwhile, Scott was working on a few reports about "Jessica's Skin" on the computer. Suddenly, a frightened man came into his office. "Help me!" but he wouldn't say who he was. "This woman's shot me." He was bleeding. "She's going to kill me!" Hayley opened the door and shot the man five times on the back, killing him, right in front of Scott, and the man literally died in Scott's arms. Scott was crying. It was Noah. Scott woke up abruptly from this horrible dream. He didn't know if Hayley was killing Noah Bryan as a grown-up, or if this was a premonition telling him that she'd eventually kill his father, Noah.
Crying, he turned off the computer and did nothing for the next half an hour. He wanted to get together so that he could continue to perform optimally. Suddenly, Maury went in with a smile on his face. "Jessica's Skin" generated new sales," and then turned serious when he saw the horror on Scott's face. He looked like his skin was being torn off of his body, and he was still alive! Maury sat down. "What's wrong?" "Noah Bryan, my late grandson, he wants to tell me something. He's telling me something about his murder and his father," said Scott, crying.
Maury walked around Scott's desk, sat beside him, hugged him and said, "Scott, I know that this is going to sound crazy, but either Noah Bryan's alive and he's been hidden all of this time, or he's using his father for his revenge, and it seems that through Noah, he's the one that's going to kill Hayley."
Scott was shocked. Maury knew about his dream! Yes, Noah Bryan had just started sending him messages, and they weren't messages of love. "What do you mean?" asked Scott, horrified.
"When you dream things like that," Maury said as he walked around the office, "usually what happens in reality is the opposite of what you dream. When the dream is real, and you know it's going to happen in real life, you can no longer do anything to stop what happens in the dream."
Horrified, Scott said, "Give me an example of what you're saying so that I can understand."
"It's simple," said Maury, sat down once again in front of him. "Where's Noah as we speak?"
"At home," said Scott, "I
think."