Chapter 70-BAD MAN
'I ask you one last time, what are you doing here?" She asked, her tone of voice more serious and filled with anger. Ricardo ran his fingers through his well-conditioned hair and rested his eyes on Aurora.
'I told you, I am here to meet my female friend, it's not like I can bring her to you and Leonardo's home and make love to her passionately" Ricardo frustratingly told her. His confession had Aurora reevaluating all that she had thought of him.
'What?"
'Exactly what I was trying to tell you but you would not listen to me. I might be a single man but there is no crime in meeting a female friend at a guest house" Ricardo explained, clearly still frustrated at Aurora.
'But why a guest house and not a hotel?"
'Avena, if I took her to a hotel then this miserable town would have enjoyed the latest gossip since no one minds their businesses. I settled for a guest house, where employees are more discreet" He explained himself.
Feeling guilt wash over her, Aurora wanted nothing other than to dig her head into the ground as soon as she saw how disappointed and angry Ricardo looked.
'I, I am sorry. My mind is so—" Aurora tried explaining herself, only for Ricardo to stop her by grabbing hold of her shoulders and looking into Aurora's teary eyes.
'Just tell me what happened?" he asked her, his tone of voice filled with concern.
Do not tell him a single thing. Aurora's mind told her.
'Someone is trying to blackmail me, Ricardo. They want to take my happiness away" Aurora cried bitterly.
'Someone is trying to blackmail you, how?"
'It does not matter how, just take me to the room just in case the person wants to hurt me" She pleaded, without wasting more time, Ricardo nodded his head in agreement.
'Okay, we will find out who that person is" Ricardo reassured her. He quickly let go of her and pressed the button and in no time the two had arrived on the first floor. Ricardo took her hand, walked ahead of her towards room number fourteen. As he arrive in front of the door, he kicked the door open and Aurora ran past him and entered the bedroom.
'Ricardo, shut the door or they might just run out" Aurora told him. Like a crazy woman she began searching the interior of the room for her blackmailer, looking into the closet. Upon entering the bathroom, Aurora stopped as she realized something and her heart sank. She lifted her shaky hand and placed it over her mouth as the feeling of shock overwhelmed her.
'No, this cannot be true" she whispered to herself. As heavy with shock as she felt, Aurora gathered all of her strength and walked out of the bathroom. Ricardo had his back facing her and he was searching for something.
'Ricardo!" She called out and he turned around to face her.
'I'm sorry but no one came out, your blackmailer is not here. I wished I could have helped you" Ricardo sympathetically told her. Aurora swallowed the lump in her throat as though she was swallowing all the emotions that she was feeling at the moment.
'Yeah it is okay, however we do not have to look for the blackmailer any longer" She told him, almost whispering to Ricardo. Her response had him raising an eyebrow.
'You know who he or she is?" he asked her, surprised that she knew who it was and had chosen to not tell him.
'You know, so tell me, who is the blackmailer?" Ricardo asked, eagerly wanting to know who the blackmailer was. He stepped towards her and Aurora stepped back, showing him that she was truly scared and disgusted by him. Without saying a word, Aurora raiser her index finger and pointed at Ricardo.
Ricardo's eyes grew wider as he realized that Aurora was pointing at none other than him.
'Avena, we have been through this in the elevator and now you are at it again" Ricardo told her with every tone of irritability in his voice.
'That's the problem, see I was not sure that you were the blackmailer but now I am sure" Aurora informed him, a single tear running down her eye. Placing both his hands on his hips as he tried to understand what it was that Aurora was trying to say to him.
'And how did you come to this conclusion, if I may ask?"
'Ricardo, I did not tell you which room number the blackmailer had invited me to but you somehow walked ahead of me towards this room!" Aurora yelled at him.
'Aurora but you told me in the elevator, don't you remember?" He asked her but Aurora was too stunned to speak. Her silence had Ricardo wondering what he had done to make her speechless.
'What?" Aurora questioned him.
'What?"
'Repeat what you said to me?" Aurora demanded him rather than asking of him, this action of hers only confusing Ricardo more.
'Repeat what?" Ricardo now angry at her asked.
'You just called me Aurora and not Avena!" She yelled. Her voice echoing throughout the room. Ricardo froze on the spot and for just a second, his face was unreadable. That was until Ricardo, smiled and clapped his hands repeatedly.
'I always knew you were smart, that's it, and you caught me" He told her as pride filled his voice. Aurora quickly shut her mouth, biting her lips to stop herself from shrieking. Ricardo admitting to being the blackmailer was the final nail to the coffin and from the looks on his face, he liked that he was caught out.
'Why?" Aurora asked him, her tone filled with pain as she asked him this. Her mind running in circles as she tried to think of all the reasons why Ricardo would do such a thing to her.
'Why? You are smart Aurora, I am sure that you can figure out why I did what I did"
'Just tell me why you would want to destroy your best friend's marriage"
'Because unlike Leonardo, I actually care about you" Ricardo's smile had gone away and the look on his face was replaced with that of a lunatic.
'What are you talking about?"
'My friend does not love you as much as I do, Aurora, just think about it. He was not even supposed to marry you"
'But how did you know that I was not Avena?"
'I meet Avena at some night club in London when she was on vacation, when I visited Leonardo and saw you that is when I knew that you were not Avena. I then paid a few people and lucky me, I was told that you are nothing but an employee for the Russo's" Ricardo's confession had hit Aurora right in her heart.
'So you knew this entire time that I was not Avena, but why would you want to tell him only now, why not before this?"
‘Because I liked that you were taking Leonardo for a fool, he deserved everything that he is getting right now. I wanted you to hurt him once the truth came out" Ricardo confessed, his confession left her speechless. She had remembered just how proudly Ricardo had spoken about her husband a few days ago and now he was badmouthing him.
'How dare you say such rubbish about my husband, he loves you like a brother!"
'Oh save that brotherly nonsense for someone who cares! He treats me like a servant! I grew up around him and all that money his parents threw around and he always made sure to flaunt it!" Ricardo lashed out.
The Ricardo before her was nothing like the Ricardo that she had come to know now, because the man in front of her was filled with rage so much that his demeanor and facial expression revealed just that.
Never had Aurora thought about doing what she was about to do but she knew that it needed to be done. Even at a distance, the Russo's had thought her lessons that she needed to survive the world of the rich. Without any hesitation from Aurora, she pulled out her Cheque book that Leonardo had given her about a month ago. Ricardo watched silently as Aurora flashed the book before his eyes.
'How much do you want?" Opening up the book and pulling out a pen from her bag, ready to sign the cheque. Ricardo smiled as Aurora questioned him but behind that smile was an evil man and that it sent shivers down her spine.
Aurora watched his body language and she could not quite understand what he was trying to do but she watched as Ricardo placed his hand into his trouser pocket.
'You know, it is true when they say you become like the person you are married to and you have just proved my point"
'I do not understand what it is that you are trying to say? But that doesn't matter, because all I ask is for you to name your price. Is it one hundred thousand dollar or a half a million?" Aurora asking him, scrambling for him to answer her question.
'You know that it's funny, you're becoming just like that Romano family. You think that you can pay people off n all your problems will go away"
'Ricardo I am in no mood for lectures, tell me how much it is that you want and I will pay you!" She yelled at him as tears filled her eyes and her emotions ran wild but none of that made Ricardo sympathetic towards her.
'I don't want money… all I want is you" Ricardo's confession had come as a shock to Aurora. She stood on the same spot, gripping her pen tightly and wanting nothing but to stab Ricardo.
'Well unfortunately, you can't have me. I will be getting out here soon in the next two days my husband and I will be married and we're having a baby together" She responded to him boldly.
'And how is that my problem?" He asked her with his no-care attitude. His response to her has left Aurora beyond stunned.
'Do you know what you're saying to me?"
'Yes! I am very aware of what I am saying. I am saying that you should leave your husband, take your unborn child and move in with me" Lost for words, Aurora could do nothing else other than to throw the pen and checkbook on the floor. Staring at Ricardo with fire raging in her eyes. Breathing loudly like a dragon about to spit fire from her nostrils.
'It is not going to happen and I suggest you forget that idea, take the money and leave me alone"
'You see my dear, you don't have the choice. It's either that or I tell your husband who you truly are and knowing how fragile Leonardo is, I am pretty sure that he will ever speak to you again. I mean its one thing to lie, but it's another thing to lie about your entire identity.
Aurora had always known that a time like this would come but never had she thought that it will come this soon and worst of all, from her husband's best friend.
'You like doing this, don't you?" She asked him, her voice low but filled with anger as she looked at Ricardo
'Honestly, I do not like doing this but you're making this harder than it seems. You could always just disappear and never come back" Ricardo offered her an alternative.
'I will never leave my husband you despicable man" Aurora gritted those words in anger as she wanted nothing other than to strangle Ricardo on the spot.