Silver Lining

Chapter 37 - Sweet Revenge

Clara's POV

I've been looking at my watch for the whole entire day, I couldn't wait to see Dorris after work. I was surprised that Luciano agreed to grant me my personal time with Dorris, I thought he would have insisted on tagging along, but he was surprisingly cool with it.

"It's 6pm now, can I go off to the airport to pick up Dorris now?" I pleaded to Luciano.

"Alright, the car is ready at the lobby. I'll get Tim to chauffeur you back by 9pm," Luciano said without looking at me as he continued to dug his head into work.

"Alright, bye!" I grabbed my handbag and dashed my way down to the lobby. The brief moment of freedom from him was so satisfying. I hopped into the car and made my way to the airport.

*Vegas's Airport*

"Dorris!!" I waved frantically the moment I saw Dorris walked out of the arrival gate.

"Clara!!" We both squealed and hugged each other in exhilaration. I bet we both looked like over-rated bimbos, but we couldn't care less about how others view us, we were just in a frenzy to see each other again.

"How are you?! Are you okay?! Did he hurt you?!" Dorris asked as she pulled herself away from our hug and took a good look at me in frantic.

I giggled and said, "I'm fine, don't worry, Luciano won't hurt me."

Dorris heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Alright... Phew... I hope you're not lying to me about this just because you don't want me to get worried about you."

"I swear I'm not lying," I grasped her hands and assured her.

"Let's catch up over dinner, I know of a place that is really nice," I said to Dorris. I drove Dorris to the karaoke bar that Luciano brought me to before since it was the only nice eatery in Vegas that I know of.

"Here we are," I pull out the car right outside of the karaoke pub for the valet to park it.

"Wow... This looks promising," Dorris said while we made our way to the entrance.

We got a nice spot for two that wasn't too near to the stage so that we could hear each other even when there's someone singing. After our orders were taken, Dorris looked straight into my eyes and whispered, "You don't have to worry anymore, Rico is coming for you. He has worked out a plan to save you out from Carlos."

I was supposed to be elated upon hearing this good news, escaping from Luciano was something that I looked forward to, but somewhere deep in me no longer feel that way. I felt torn from the inside to learn that I'll have to make a choice and leave Luciano soon. I couldn't disappoint Rico's effort to save me, but I also couldn't bring myself to hurt Luciano.

My brows were knitted together in distress at the dilemma that I was facing. Dorris sensed something was amiss about me, she asked me worriedly, "Is there something wrong?"

I heaved heavily and explained, "I don't know... I don't think I want to leave here so soon, at least not so abruptly."

"What?! Are you out of your mind?! That guy raped you, and he even threatened to kill Rico!" Dorris exclaimed in disbelief.

"Dorris, a lot of things happened. I know this might sound ridiculous to you, it's also overwhelming for me too. Luciano didn't rape me, it was just a misunderstanding. We were drunk that night, I didn't know what I was doing, and the stains on the sheets were actually blood from his nosebleed when he knocked out next to me. Long story short, I got a doctor to run a virginity check on me to prove his innocence too. Luciano isn't as bad as I thought he was, in fact, he has been... good to me," I explained.