章 19: The Truth
"Only sorry?" Maddie asked after a moment of waiting for Castelia to say nothing more. "No explanation? Really?" Maddie stared in disbelief; it was tough to understand her friend's attitude as if it would be easy to solve the problem with an apology.
Castelia took a deep breath, thinking there was no way to calm Maddie's anger but to tell the truth. Before that, Castelia approached and led Maddie to sit back down. Castelia sat across from her, looking her in the eye before confessing, "Joshua called me back then."
Joshua's name was enough of a shock to make Maddie feel stupid for having guessed that Castelia wouldn't be so reckless if it weren't for the bastard Joshua. "Joshua?" Maddie's tone rose, telling her that her anger had returned to Castelia's unacceptable excuse. "You left me for him?"
Castelia did but lied, "He suddenly wants to meet. I worry about what he wants, could he be angry about what happened at the restaurant that day? I'm scared, so I can't help but go straight to him before he changes his mind."
Castelia's reasoning was still unacceptable, but Maddie's gentle expression said she was taking it slowly. Maddie asked, "So why did he suddenly call you and want to see you?"
Again Castelia answered with a lie, "He asked me to meet Melody and her father to apologize."
"What for?" Surprised Maddie asked, "But I'm the one who messed up their dinner that day. Why did Joshua even ask you to apologize?"
"I don't know," answered Castelia carelessly. "Maybe he just wants to tease me?" She added, "Melody was furious, that's why I was detained at their house."
"What did they do to you?" Maddie asked curiously, her tone as if she would go and smack Melody's heart if she did something terrible to her friend.
"She made me clean her house." Castelia again made up another lie to continue the story, causing Maddie who believed her to stare in disbelief and anger.
"How dare she!" Maddie snarled in annoyance, instantly her anger for Castelia had vanished somewhere.
"I'd rather we don't talk about it anymore," said Castelia, stopping Maddie from killing Melody in her mind. "We should feel lucky that Melody didn't terrorize us until today, I think that's enough to let this matter pass."
Castelia wasn't wrong with her words but she brought back the confusion from inside Maddie's head. "However, I still want to know why she left us like that." Maddie looked at Castelia before asking, "Did she really not mention the matter, that we tricked her and failed the task?"
Castelia shook her head slowly in response. "I think she didn't dare say anything because Joshua was there." A plausible reason, but what Castelia said wasn't what she had been doing until coming home late. Even Castelia covered up the fact that she knew the reason why Melody let them go like that.
FLASHBACK.
This time it was not a hotel but Joshua's private house which was located quite far from the city center, they stopped there. Castelia walked behind Joshua, watching him turn on the light that brightened the spacious two-story house.
A white luxury house with European characteristics, the place was empty with no one but them. Undoubtedly empty, Castelia should have understood Joshua wouldn't want to let anyone see them together as it would create trouble.
"I have a question," said the impatient Castelia, she stopped walking after entering Joshua's workroom without closing the door. Joshua put his black coat around the neck of the wheelchair before turning to look at Castelia.
Joshua raised his left eyebrow, indicating that he was curious. Castelia hesitantly asked, "If you really know about Melody and I's plans, why do you keep walking away without taking the camera I hid?"
Isn't that fatal? Joshua could lose it all today but he acts calmly as if nothing can touch him. However, Joshua didn't act like that, but that's who he was. Joshua couldn't hold back a broad smile, his heart seemed to be tickled by a thousand little fingers because of Castelia's funny question.
"Do I really have to answer that?" he asked mockingly. Joshua walked over and stood in front of Castelia, saying, "I know you and your friend were at that bar for me—"
"That's why you asked me to meet you?" asked Castelia and Joshua nodded once. Castelia was taken aback, thinking that she should have guessed because how could Joshua suddenly want to meet for no reason?
Joshua said, "I want to know that I'm right."
"And you're right," Castelia interrupted. Castelia had expected from the start that it wouldn't be easy to catch Joshua, but this was even worse because they were caught on the first day. Somehow but Joshua isn't that easily fooled.
"Then what about the recording?" asked Castelia again, expecting an answer.
"What should I say?" Again the man smiled amusedly as if mocking how sweet Castelia's question sounded unnecessarily in his brain. Joshua touched Castelia's forehead with his index finger before replying, "Because you are Castelia."
Joshua says, "Smart people don't even have to remember and they can remember someone well." The man's eyes fell on Castelia's and down to her lips before continuing, "Your friend thinks she's smart but I saw her put something in my drink. After all, how can she be left alone when her friend that accidentally bumped into me sits far in front of our table?"
Castelia was even more surprised, the pounding on her body made Joshua smile more in amusement. Castelia couldn't even comment, not expecting that Joshua was paying attention to everything when his eyes didn't even look far to where she was.
Joshua added, "I asked you to meet because I wanted to see what you could do."
Castelia should have understood that Joshua only bragged about him wanting to meet or he was happy whenever Castelia was around. However, that was not what they were discussing right now. Castelia didn't understand why her focus was there and her heart ached.
Castelia grabbed Joshua's hand and pulled it away from her cheek before saying, "You believed I wouldn't let the memory card reach Melody, so you pretended you didn't know anything and just walked away. That's why you didn't contact me anymore, because you've already proved that you're right."
Castelia didn't know what else to say, she smiled sadly at herself.
"No," Joshua argued calmly, causing Castelia to stop smiling and stare at him. "I literally just got back from Paris and I wanted to meet you because I wanted to."
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