Chapter 69- ELEVATOR

'I am proud of you" Aurora told her husband and just those words was enough to put Leonardo in a good mood, knowing that he had such a wonderful woman by his side.

His smile grew brighter as his wife I said those words. Looking into his wife's beautiful eyes, showing him that everything was to be okay if he had her by his side. The action he was about to commit weighed heavily on him but he knew that he had to do it. The sooner the better, otherwise that five days to his wedding might never ever happen.
Removing his wife's hands from around his hips, Leonardo looked deeper into her eyes as his lips quivered.

'I understand and I trust you, but there's something you have to do for me"

'Sure, what is it?" Aurora responded in a sweet voice.

'I have some papers for you to sign, it's from the... It's from the registry office. I believe they just wanted us to sign a few things before the wedding and could you sign?" Leonardo asked her as he handed the page to his wife. Without hesitation Aurora retrieved the documents from her husband, without reading them, she walked towards the drawer, pulled up a pen and proceeded to sign the documents.

'Wait! Aren't you going to read them" he asked her, stunned that his wife would sign papers before reading its contents. Aurora looked back at her husband and as always, she smiled and handed the documents to him.

'Why would I read it? I mean I trust you and I am sure that you read through it before giving it to me. Now come, we, have to eat" She informed her husband before leaving the room.

Leonardo's heart broke as he heard his wife say those words, she trusted him and here he was betraying her. Leonardo sank to his bed as he remembered that less than a minute ago he had handed her the property papers, the very same what she refused to sign months. The very same papers that would give his parents access to the Russo properties.

'I am so sorry my love but this has to be done" he kept thinking to himself as he shut his eyes and imagine what a cruel man he must be to betray the one woman who loved him with all her heart.


'Hey honey, are you okay?" Aurora sked her husband, concerned that once more he was looking at his food and not touching it. Leonardo looked up at his wife as she called him, swallowed the lump in his throat and smiled at her.

'It's nothing, I was just thinking of something. Anyway how was your day?" Leonardo asked his wife as he tried to find other topics to distract from the guilt of betraying his wife.

'Nothing much, just shopping, getting the final wedding preparations in place and by the way you have an amazing friend"

'Ricardo?"

'Of course Ricardo, I mean you don't have any other friends well besides me" Aurora joked.

'Why would you say that?" Leonardo asked his wife.

'Well because you don't like making friends, I mean I am the chatty and you are the quiet one. All I can say is that your friend really does care about you and I just discovered that today"

'So what did my amazing friend, Ricardo say about me?" Leonardo stopped fidgeting with his food, put his cutlery down onto the plate and gave his full attention to his wife.

'Not much. He spoke about what a nice and selfless person you are, I've no doubt but to believe him. I mean you are such an amazing man" Leonardo watched as his wife praised him and slowly he felt the guilt creep in.

'Don't say that" Leonardo lonely told his wife, feeling guilty that his wife thought greatly of him when he could not even gather the courage to tell her the truth about his past.

'Well you can't stop me from saying that, I know that you are a very good man and for that I appreciate you. Now eat before your food gets cold" Aurora continued to praise her husband.

*Flashback ends*
**

Once again Aurora was left alone doing cake shopping by herself, as Leonardo had told her that he had gone on a work trip and he would only be back a day later.

Being pregnant had altered a lot of her taste buds but luckily for Aurora, she could still eat her favorite chocolate cake. She turned to the lady, smile and responded.

'I think we will have chocolate cake" Aurora informed the woman, excited that she had the chance of choosing her own cake with her own flavors. The lady turned to the page and jotted down the favored cake that Aurora had chosen.

'And do you have any ideas about the decoration that you would like?" The older woman asked Aurora. Aurora sat in her seat confused as to what decoration she would like on a cake, it being something that she had never thought she would have to decide on her own. She looked around the shop at all the pre-designed dummy cakes and she pointed her finger one in particular.

'Sure you want nothing else?" The cake designer asked. Aurora thought about it for a while and responded.

'Maybe a few flowers but just in white I want everything to be white" she responded with excitement, licking her spoon, trying to savor the last of the chocolate buttercream.

'Okay, I will go to the back just a few minutes"

'Sure" Aurora responded. She watched the baker as she stood from her chair and walked away, leaving Aurora to eat the remainder of the cake by herself.
Someone kept Aurora on the shoulder and she turned around slowly, only to see a
little boy looking at her and smiling.

'Hello madam, I have a delivery for you" The little boy informed her in the sweetest voice. Aurora looked at the boy and she could tell that he was no more than seven years old.

'Hello boy, who might I ask is the message from?' she asked him sweetly. Without saying anything more as a response to her question, he pulled out the envelope and handed it to her and walked away before she could ask him anymore questions.

She studied the exterior of the letter but it seemed normal until she opened it and read through its content and her blood went cold.

My love, do you miss me? It's been a long time since I've seen you. Heard about your wedding and I must say, I'm not too impressed.

Think I'm finally ready to reveal myself, meet me at the Blueberry guest house in room number fourteen find out who I truly am.

Yours truly your secret admirer

Aurora looked at the surroundings to see if she could see anyone that looked suspicious but as always, there was no one there. One thing she knew was that she needed to find out who this person was that knew so much about her

Without waiting for the baker, Aurora stood up for her chair and walked out of the bakery. She needed to make her away to the Blueberry Guest House and find out who this person was who was about to threaten the peace of her entire life.

***

Even as she walked towards the Blueberry Guest House, Aurora held onto her stomach, protecting her unborn child at every cost. As she walked towards the guest house, she looked behind herself, making sure that no one was following her and that she was in no danger.

Upon entering into the building, Aurora towards the reception and met with a young female.

'Afternoon, my name Aurora and I'm supposed to meet someone in number fourteen?" she asked. The secretary smiled at Aurora.

'Yes, the guest in particular had left a message informing us that you would be coming in today" She happily told Aurora, who was taken aback at how her stalker had predicted that she would indeed come to see him or her.

'Sure" Aurora responded. Aurora tried her best to show no signs of emotions, the last thing she wanted was to show the receptionist that she was indeed terrified. After listening to the receptionist give directions on where the room was located, Aurora walked towards the elevator, clutching her bag as fear engulfed her.

She stood in front of the elevator, waiting for the elevator doors to unlock. Aurora looked at the screen and it was nearly down onto the ground floor. But even though the elevator was nearly down to her floor, Aurora felt the nerves rising within her body as she did not know how to deal with the emotions that she was feeling.

All she knew was that she needed to find out who her blackmailer was and why it was that they wanted to ruin her life with Leonardo. The bell rung and the door opened and Aurora gasped.

'You!" gasped. Placing her hand over her mouth in shock to see Ricardo standing in the elevator and he too looked surprised to see her.

'Avena, what are you doing here?" he asked her, holding the elevator door opened for Aurora. Her mind spun and she thought of a million reasons why Ricardo would betray her and she found none. Aurora pushed passed him as she entered the elevator and she watched the elevator door shut and just as it began to climb, she pressed the button stopping it right in between floors.

She now turned her attention to Ricardo as she was burning with fury, her eyes filled with tears as she was growing angry by the minute. Inwardly she tried to excuse Ricardo but all the arrows were facing to non-other than him.

'Maybe I should be the one asking you that questions? So all this while it was you trying to ruin my marriage with my husband?" She asked him, while Ricardo stared at her, confused.

'I do not know what you are talking about Avena, can you please make sense of what you are accusing me of?" Ricardo stepped back as Aurora's hand slammed against the interior of the elevator, he had never seen her this upset before and her anger had him taken aback.

'Yes you do know what is going on! If you do not know then what are you doing here?" Aurora raised her voice, now she was not afraid because anger had given her all the reasons to want to hurt Ricardo.

'I, I—" Ricardo stammered, his stammering leading Aurora to believe that indeed she was right about him being the blackmailer.

'Oh what, you can't speak? Is it the cat that caught your tongue?" She asked him sarcastically but throughout this time, all Ricardo could do at this time was to stare at her in utter confusion.

'I am sorry Avena but I do not know what you are talking about, I am simply here to meet a friend, but the bigger question should be what are you doing here?" Ricardo directed the same question asked of him to her.
His question had come as a surprise to Aurora and even stranger to her was that Ricardo looked confused as to why she was asking such questions of him