???? HIS BALLERINA ????
THEME: {What the heart sees}
✍️ Written By Precious Pinky ✍️
???? Chapter Forty-One ????
~‘Just smile for me’~
????BALLERINA????
“You think so?” Ace asked, staring at her closely.
She smiled with a nod of the head. “I know so.”
“You know… you are the first person to ever tell me this.”
“Tell you what?”
“Something nice.” He said.
“Are you kidding me?” She joked. “Like seriously? I mean, having someone like Paulo you should be receiving a lot of compliments from him.”
“Wait, you mean Paulo? Like detective Paulo?” He questioned, raising a questioning brow at her.
She shrugged, giggling. “Well, yeah?”
“You’ve got the wrong person, girl. I mean, that guy does nothing but to annoy the shit out of me.”
“I feel your pain.” She laughs.
They both fell into a very comfortable silence. Both of them gaze were in the window.
“I was scared.” Ballerina say, breaking the ice. Ace said nothing, his gaze were fixed on her. “I… i thought they were here to kill me.” She slowly shifted her gaze to look at him. “I thought I was going to die just like my mother, father and aunt.” She sighed. “But when I received only a piece of note? I kinda felt a tiny bit of relief until…” She paused. “I heard a loud bang against the door. I thought they had come for me. I thought they were going to hurt me. I wanted to even jump off the window even when I knew it will result to one thing…death.” She chuckles over her stupidity. “But it felt like the safest thing to do. It was more like, committing suicide than to be killed by them. Again.” She smiled. “Turned out it was Heather and the other maids knocking.” She shrugged. “And then I thought to myself, what would I have done if I truly jumped out of the window and died and then realized that the person knocking was just my maids?” She let out a de-ep sigh, looking out the window again. “What kill fast-er than a bullet is fear.” She said softly.
Ace didn’t say anything. And neither did his gaze left her form.
She didn’t know why she told him all of the things but it felt like the right thing to do.
He was the inky she could trust aside from Paulo, of course.
She trusted Ace so much. Although, she doesn’t know why but she just do.
He’s the first guy or probably first person to ever see her for who she really is and not what she is.
He was the first guy to not judge her predicament.
He was the first guy to see the real her.
He was the first guy to compliment her dance moves when she was blind.
Honestly, she thought she su-cked.
She just went to that beach to dance her soul away and just go with the feelings… the waves. But little does she know that someone was watching. Someone was enjoying the dance. Someone was getting his healing from it.
He’s worth everything.
She slowly raised her head to look at him, he was also staring at her.
“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
He shook his head slowly, raising his hand to her face and pushed a strand of air from her face to the back of her ear. “You are not.” He sighed. “Honestly, I think you are right. What kill fast-er is fear.”
“Yeah.” She sighed.
“You keep sighing, why?”
She shrugged, laughing. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just wondering.”
“Wondering what?”
“How that poor guard family will feel when they get to know their father is dead.” She said.
“You know you can just compensate them.” He suggested.
“Will that be a good idea?”
“I think so.” He nodded at the bed. “Why don’t you go to bed for now and have a good sleep.”
“But…”
“No buts. Just sleep. Don’t worry, tomorrow will think about itself.” He a-ssured her.
Ballerina laid on the bed while Ace helped pulled the duvet over her tiny body.
“Thank you.” She said calmly.
“For what?” He asked.
“For coming. I’m really glad you came along with Paulo.” She smiled.
“I’m glad I came too.” He stood up to his feet and was about to walk away when she stopped him by grabbing his wrist. “Are you okay?”
“Can you stay?”
“Stay?”
“Till I fall asleep. Please?” She pleaded.
Ace hesitate for pretty long while before nodding his head with a shrug of his shoulder and sitting back down on the couch beside the bed.
“Thank you.” She whispered.
“You keep thanking me.”
“I’m just… grateful.” She smiled. She shut her eyes, letting out a de-ep breath of relief. “Honestly…I wish to see you smile. Even if it’s for just a moment.”
“I can’t.” He said.
She opened her eyes and look at him. “I hope you can just smile for me.” She smiled. “Like this.” He didn’t say anything. “Goodnight…Ace.”
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????PAULO????
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know what to think, Ace.” He sighed.
“It’s quite a surprise that you of all detectives don’t know what to say concerning this matter.” Ace said, looking out of the window.
“Wait, was that a compliment?” Paulo said, teasingly.
Ace rolled his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
Silence!
Silence!
Silence!
“You like her, don’t you?” Paulo asked, breaking the ice that had fallen between them.
Ace slowly turned to look at him, knitting his brows in confusion. “What?”
“You know just what I’m talking about, Ace.” Paulo accused, giving Ace a pointed look.
“Well, I don’t.” Ace denied, looking away.
Paulo let out a de-ep sigh. “She’s a nice person, Ace. And I think she’s the only who can change you for the better.”
“Are you trying to say I’m not better right now?”
Paulo started laughing as he three his hands on the air as if in surrender. “I never said that.”
“Did you see the person that killed the guard on the CCTV camera?” He asked after a moment of silence.
Paulo slowly nodded his head. “I guess.”
“You guess?”
“I just need to watch the video over again. Maybe that way i will be able to understand the video. But right now I need sleep.”
“I can relate.”
“Thank you!”
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#Next morning.
“I don’t know what to say anymore!” Kat said. throwing her hands in the air as she plop down on the chair.
“It’s very confusing.” Liam stated, sitting down beside Kat.
“You know you can sit on other places instead of sitting beside me.” She rolled her eyes.
“You should be thankful I chose to sit here, you… you…detective bit-ch !”
“What did you just call me?”
“I said…”
“Say one more word again and I promise to throw the both of you in jail. Try me.” Paulo threatened. Kat and Liam gulped hard, lowering their gazes to the ground. “I thought as much.” He ran his hands throu-ghhis hair, staring down at the video playing. “We should be concern about the matter at hand and not this shit you both are pulling. People keep dying each pa-ssing day, it’s time we bring this criminal to pay for all the crime they’ve committed.”
“They?” Liam repeated.
“We don’t know how many they are, okay?” He let out a frustrated sigh. “With this video, I could detect that the guard looked kind of relief when the person turned around.” He observed, pausing the video at that same scene.
“What do you think so?”
“If you look dee-per maybe you will see him let out a sigh of relief. I have sharp eyes, okay?” He bluffed.
“We know.” Kat stated, smiling. “So, you think he knows the killer?”
“Yeah.”
“We can’t even make out the face of the person.” Liam pointed out.
“Well, we can’t because the person is clearly putting on a hoodie.” Kat reasoned.
“It’s a girl.” Paulo suddenly said.
“What?” Both Kat and Liam questioned.
“The killer. It’s a girl.”
“How do you know that?”
“I told you guys to look dee-per, didn’t I?” He asked, glaring at them both.
“We did but… wait, she had her hair fallen to her side.” Liam responded.
“I see it too. It’s brown hair.” Kat said.
“It’s actually black, Kat. That’s why we didn’t notice it in the first place.” Liam corrected.
“Oh, shut up.” Kat said, feeling embarra-ssed. “But how the killer be a girl?”
“That shouldn’t be the question,” Paulo said slowly, placing his fingers under his chin. “The question here should be, how did she get in?”
“She probably used the fence to climb her way throu-gh.” Kat shrugged.
“Or the gate?” Liam added.
“Or from the house.” Paulo finally stated.
“Yes…what!? From the house!?” Both Liam and Kat repeated, with their eyes wide-ned in complete shock.
“She definitely couldn’t use the fence because it is electrified. She couldn’t have used the gate also because it’s well locked. And if the guard knows her then she should be a member of the household.”
“Are you trying to say, the killer could be a maid from the palace?”
“What do you think?”
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????UNKNOWN????
“Why did you do that, huh? I asked you not to shoot anyone but to deliver the note, didn’t i?”
“You did. But if i haven’t killed him, we would have been exposed.”
“You should have just said something. Anything that would have made him not to suspect you. Besides you are working there so it’s normal for you to be around there at that time.”
“It’s not. Unless I have a reasonable explanation.”
“Exactly! So why couldn’t you think of something?”
“I’m sorry ma’am.”
“Fix this. That’s all I can tell you. And also, one of us will be coming to work as a maid there as well.”
“What? But why?”
“Only you can’t do the job alone. You need help and that’s why I’ve provided you with one. You should be grateful.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
“Much better.”
“But… we keep talking about the princess and never said anything about Ace.”
“I know. Ace is messed up right now. But, like I’ve said, leave him to me.”
“He came around with the detective to the palace. He was with her all throu-ghthe night in her room. What if they’ve remembered something but are just pretending.”
“If that’s possible. I would have found out.” There was a moment of silence. “But, we need to pay him a visit, don’t you think?”
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#To Be Continued…