Chapter 13: Chapter 12

Elena sat on the too soft sofa smiling at her ‘dead’ husband. He looked stressed just by seeing her in his house, talking to his wife.

‘Bet you weren’t expecting this, she wanted to say,’ but she had so many other things she wanted to ask him instead.

Malik took a breath and was trying to keep his voice down. “Elena, again, what are you doing here?”

“I should be the one asking you all those questions, Malik, or is it Joshua?” Elena gave him a smug look.

‘’This isn’t funny.’’

‘’But it is.’’

‘’What are you doing in my home?’’

“Like your wife said, I’m just a widow who lost her husband some time ago and just moved here.”

Elena smiled at the look on his face.

She got up and walked over to him.

“Do you have any idea what your little stunt has done to me and your mother? She is dying Malik.” Elena said between teeth, all she wanted to do in the moment was slap him across the face because he was nothing but a monster and not the man whom she married.

Malik looked to see if Leona was coming back. “Listen, I want you to leave this house. Now!”

Elena laughed and stood her ground. “The only thing I will do is call the cops. This little game of yours is over, this is fraud, identity theft and so much more.”

Malik grabbed Elena’s upper arms painfully and shook her violently.

“Leave my house, my family and me alone! You got that!”

Leona came back by then and saw the whole thing. “Josh?”

She looked back and forth between him and Elena, who had tears in her eyes.

“This woman is a liar Leona! She got up and just threw herself at me, she even threatened to hurt the kids.” Jason lied.

Elena tried to pull away from Malik, but he had a firm grip on her.

“It’s a lie Leona, let me go Malik! Why don’t you tell your wife the truth about how we were married, and you faked your own death.” She struggled to get out of his grasp.

Leona stood there; a conflicted look was written all over her face as she looked between the two of them.

“Just please listen to me Leona, he isn’t who he said he is.” Elena plea.

“Why are you trying to turn my wife against me? You don’t even know us!” Malik said, as he pushed Elena out of the house.

“Tell her! He knows who I am Leona, don’t listen to his lies. We have been married for 4 years, but then he disappeared and faked his own death.”

Elena was begging Leona to believe her.

Jason tried to push Leona inside, but she wouldn’t budge. Someone who was jogging by paused for a bit then continued, thinking that it was nothing to concern themselves with.

“You are crazy lady, and if you don’t leave I am going to call the cops.” Malik threatened.

Elena looked at Leona with pleading eyes, but the other woman just looked confused.

“Just hear me out.” Elena tried, but Malik was now blocking her from Leona.

Leona eyes sprang water, and she shook her head.

“Just go! Get out of here! I don’t want to hear any of it, I don’t know you and neither does Joshua. We have a perfect family, and you are not going to destroy that.” Leona told her after a while.

Her head was down, and she allowed Malik to push her inside and slammed the door.

Elena sat in her car not believing what had just happened, not only did Malik faked his death but he also fake an all-new life and was pretending as if his previous life never existed.

Elena called Belinda when she got back to the hotel and told her everything.

Belinda told her to come home but she just couldn’t, she wanted answers and wanted to know why Malik did what he did.

Elena thought about going back to visit Leona again, but this time with proof, lots of it.

The next morning Elena went to the police department, but then they told her that there wasn’t any proof that would lead to an arrest.

Elena stormed out, ignoring their calls. Seeing that they were no help.

Elena then went a library and got all she needed by printing both her and Malik’s information, his birth paper and death paper, their wedding pictures and pictures of his parents and a few other things she thought she would need to aid in making Loena see the truth.

Elena made her way to Leona’s house two days after what had happened and knocked on the door, she had to build her nerves up to do this again.

She doubted that Leona would want to see her again after what had happened, but she was willing to try.

Leona opened the door and was about to close it, but Elena quickly held up a picture and Leona stopped. She took the picture from Elena and gasped then covered her mouth.

“I know him as Malik Franco, you know him as Joshua Swan, please just hear me out.” Elena begged, she had never begged before now and that made her even more determined.

Leona had a defeated look but gave a reluctant nod.

’’Ok I want to make this quick, I don’t want the kids coming home and seeing all this.” She added.

Elena said nothing as she followed her to the sitting room and began to spread her papers out on the coffee table.

“And if all this doesn’t convince you, here is our wedding video.” Elena pushed a black and red thumb drive over to her.

Just to kill her curiosity, Leona watched the video.

She now had no doubt that they are married to the same man, but with different names.

Elena looked over at Leona when she started crying.

Leona shook her head. “I knew that he was acting shady, those long business trips and all those other times.”

Leona stopped crying and ran her hands through her hair, then said. “He even told me that his parents died and that’s why they weren’t at our wedding. He never mentioned a thing about them.”

“Honestly I think his patents knew what is going on, his mother would have told me but his father on the other hand... well, I think he is just as shady.”

Elena now felt bad after seeing Leona cry, but she knew it was for the best and didn’t want Malik to do the same thing he did to her, to Leona.

“Truth is, Elena. The police came to me once, saying that they were investigating him for murder and fraud, but because of lack of evidence it was dropped. I asked him about it, and he said it was all a mistake.” Leona said softly.

Elena looked at Leona with her mouth wide open and she nodded.

“I didn’t want to believe the police, but then you came and that’s how I know that it must be true. But I am still in denial to think my husband would do such things.” Leona said, and Elena knew exactly how she felt.

Leona offered Elena some coffee which neither of them drank.

“So, his parents are alive? But because of this game of his, his mother had a heart attack and stroke thinking that he is dead?” Leona asked.

Elena nodded at Leona. “I still don’t know how he managed to pull it all off.” Elena told her.

‘’What do you think his real name is?’’ Leona asked.

‘’It’s defiantly Franco, seeing that he shares the same last name as his father but I’m not so sure about the first name.’’

‘’Why do you think he did this?’’

Elena shrugged. ‘’Uh, fraud.’’

Before any of the two women could say anything else, the door opened, and Elena went down on all fours trying to hide.

“Hey,” Leona said, sounding breathless as Malik kissed her on the cheek.

“I have a business trip to go to in Chicago, it will only take a day or two.” He kissed Leona again, then went upstairs.

Leona led Elena somewhere so she could hide and just as she closed the door Malik came back downstairs.

“Wish me luck hun, I’m going to kill the competition.” He laughed.

Leona gave him a tight smile and he kissed her again, long, and hard this time then left.

Elena had to cover her mouth at his words.

Leona turned to the door slowly, but she made sure that her husband was gone before opening it.

“Oh my God.” Was the only thing Leona said.

“He really is your husband, but why is he going to Chicago in such a hurry? Won’t people see that he isn’t dead?” Leona sounded a bit frantic.

“To kill the competition.” Elena told her.

Elena closed her eyes, then said. “I should go, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”