Chapter 72- KILLER

Both Leonardo and Aurora sat down at the dinner table eating their food, Leonardo paused and looked at his wife who was playing with her food. Placing his cutlery onto his plate, he studied his wife carefully.

'Are you not hungry today? Do you want eat something else, because I can make you something else" Leonardo offered, worrying about his wife's inability to eat.

Aurora slipped out of her mind and smiled at her husband and nodded her head, signaling no and that indeed she was fine. Even as she pretended to be alright, Leonardo knew that his wife was lying to him and that something was truly wrong.

'But you haven't touched your food so I thought that maybe you wanted something else to eat, maybe the baby wants something else" he told her, making a light joke to get her out of the bad mood she was in. Leonardo could not quite pinpoint what had made his wife upset to the point where she no longer found food pleasing, even though it was her favorite, spaghetti and meatballs.

'I'm pregnant and I guess I'm being limited to I can eat" She responded plainly, indicating her need not to talk any longer.

'Are you sure it's just your taste buds?" He asked, trying his best to find the route of her problem.

'I'm just not feeling like eating" She reiterated and went back to playing with her food

'I would have believed you, that if I did not know that what a terrible liar you were" Leonardo told her taking the white napkin close to him and wiping his mouth. Aurora began to worrying as she saw that her husband was studying her facial expression closely.

'I'm fine, it's just the hormones" her voice raise a little, so much that it had the annoyed her that Leonardo was pressing on.

'Okay, then I won't press you anymore. By the way, why is Ricardo not here?" Upon hearing Ricardo's name Aurora stiffened. She remembered the event of earlier that day when Ricardo had openly challenged her to either go with him or he would tell her husband that she was not who she claimed to be.

As much as she wanted to tell Leonardo the true reason why Ricardo was no longer in their house, but she keep her mouth shut for she would ruin her relationship right there at the dinner table. Once more Aurora put up a fake smile and looked that her husband."

'He called earlier that he would be staying away"

'And why is that?" Leonardo question her.

'He said something about working on something and he needed to be in his own space. But you know how Ricardo is, he's a strange one that one, isn't he?" She lied, omitting the fact that Ricardo had threatened their marriage.

'It's ok, at least he will be at the wedding" Leonardo told his wife, by telling her that, Leonardo unknowingly set a new and rising fear in her about Ricardo being at the wedding was nothing other than a disaster. She knew that Ricardo would not there to celebrate with them but to ruin the union of both herself and Leonardo.

'Hello, earth to Arena" Leonardo waved his hand in front of his wife face until she snapped out of her imaginary realm

'Yes!" She answered, almost yelling out the answer to him

'Look, if you don't like the food we can always go out for ice cream" He offered her an alternative choice.

'No, I'm going to eat this, I was just caught up that's all"

'Caught up with what? If the wedding is still too much for you, I can take a few days off of work and then we can plan the entire thing together. We only have three days you know" Leonardo offered but being reminded of the words such as three days had sent another anxiety running right through Aurora.

'It's ok, I can handle it" She replied, knowing quite well that she could handle planning the entire wedding by herself but thinking of Ricardo was the only thing standing in her way. Aurora then turned her attention back to her food and took a bite of it and just like her husband had said, the food tasted amazing and she could not help the amazing taste buds running through her mouth.



The next day

'I must say Leonardo, you look great. I'm sure your wife would love seeing you in the shirt" Ricardo complimented his best friend, Leonardo smiled as he turned his face away from the full-length mirror and looked at his friend Ricardo. After taking a day off from work to make it to his fitting, he also brought along his best friend, Ricardo.

'I am sure she will" Leonardo responded, turning his attention to the full-length mirror, smiling at himself as he was happier than he had ever been. For the first time, he was getting married again. His marriage to his wife was not a forced marriage but it will be a marriage that is founded upon love, trust and happiness.

Ricardo listened to Leonardo praise his wife and the more he praised her, the angrier Ricardo felt. He hated that someone such as Leonardo, who had everything growing up was once again going to have one up on him and he could not stand to see his friend happy.

For far too long he had seen Leonardo get everything Ricardo had ever wanted, now it was his turn to get what he wanted even if it meant taking a woman that belong to his best friend. Reaching into his pocket, Ricardo had a carefully folded the piece of divorce paper into his pocket. He wanted Aurora to sign for he simply did not just want to take Aurora away from Leonardo but he wanted their marriage to be over so that he could take over.

'Ricardo!" Leonardo called out to him, only for Ricardo to look at this friend hurriedly as he realized that his best friend had been calling out to him, while he was too lost plotting of how he would get his plan put together.

'Yes, you call me" Ricardo responded, trying to keep the sadistic side of him within himself. He blasted a smile on his face, the same smile that he has been plastering for all these years, pretending to have been friends, pretending to have cared about his best friend. All this time when in reality, he hated everything the Leonardo stood for, he hated that people liked Leonardo more than him, he hated that his mother was better than his, he Leonardo's family will do everything to keep him from trouble, whereas his family cared only for the money.

'Can you please repeat yourself? I don't think I heard you the last time"

'What is up with you lately? You've been in your own world and you haven't been living in my house. Have I done something wrong?" Leonardo asked his friend playfully.

Of course you did something wrong, you have always done everything wrong. Ricardo thought himself but allowed those words to die in his heart. There was no point in saying it out loud before his master plan was complete.

'No! I was just busy with work and the new lady in my life" Ricardo spilled out. His confession had Leonardo staring at him with shock written on his face but just then, Leonardo broke into a smile.

'You have a lady in your life? I cannot believe it?" Leonardo told his friend, laughing as he did that not know that every time he laughed, Ricardo grew nothing but hate for him.

'Why are you laughing? Can't I find love?" he asked his friend sarcastically but masking it with laughter

'No it's not that you can't find love, it's just weird. I never thought you were a one woman kind of man, that's all.

'Well this woman in particular has me thinking that I want to settle down" Still amazed at what Ricardo was admitting to, Leonardo smiled as he was in disbelief that his best friend was finally ready to settle down.

'It's just that I never thought that there will be a woman who will hold you down and here you are, just as I'm about to get married. Will she be coming to the wedding?" Leonardo asked him.

Ricardo walked all the way to the corner of the room and sat down on the black suede couch, placing his one leg over his other and sitting comfortably.

'She might not come, it all depends on how she plays her game" Ricardo responded carefree, knowing that there was a deeper meaning to what he was saying to Leonardo.

'Well I hope she can make it to the wedding, I mean any woman who can hold you down is worthy of my praise"

'She sure is my friend, she sure is" Ricardo responded in a smooth voice, knowing the game that he was about to play would either swing one way or the other with Ricardo winning in the very end.

'Where my suit? I think we have to go out and eat something and then I have to get back to my wife. It's only two days left until the big day"

'You look nervous?" Ricardo told him. Leonardo smiled but his smile faded away as he knew that his friend could read him like a book. Leonardo could no longer mask his sadness with a smile as he was left feeling defeated.

'I feel like someone is after my happiness, someone wants to see my marriage ruined before it even begins" Upon hearing Leonardo's confession, Ricardo straightened himself in his chair and the smile on his face was quickly slapped off.

'Why would you say such a thing?" He asked his friend, Leonardo. Inwardly worried that somehow Leonardo had found out the truth and omitted telling him.

'I just have a feeling that someone will reveal the secret that I've been trying to hide all this while. I mean, I just think that my wife she seems a bit strange these days as though someone had told her about it"

Ricardo relaxed himself as he understood that Aurora had said nothing about what he had told her. His plans were still intact and that made Ricardo happy.

'No need to worry, you are just imagining stuff. I mean who else would tell her? Very few people know of what you did and plus, there was no evidence that you actually did it" Ricardo explained but nothing he said calmed Leonardo down.

'Think about it Leonardo, your parents paid off all the people who could have told him the world of what you had done and in the process, I took the blame yet your parents cleared my name"

'I was the guilty one not here Ricardo" Leonardo told his friend, biting the inner lining of his mouth as he said those words.

'But that's not the point Leonardo:

'The reality of things is that I am the one who shot that woman and not you. You simply took the blame for what I did and however we try to mask it, it will haunt me as much as long as I live. I would like to thank you for taking the blame for me, it still does not change the fact that an innocent woman had died on that day and I was the killer"