<h4>Chapter 197: Chapter 197 : Unexpected Betrayal</h4>


    Allegra.


    Was this it? Was La going to confess that she didn’t love me anymore? I felt tears well up and begin pouring down my cheeks. My formerly joyous mood evaporated in an instant, fading into nothing.


    My heart clenched, and I sniffled, though I tried to sound all choked up in what I said next. “I’m listening,” I whispered. A few strands of hair fell into my face that I didn’t bother to move away. I clenched my fist, waiting for her to say something. Anything.


    The pause she gave felt like hours. Finally, she broke the silence and said, “Allegra... I... I’ve been lying.” There it was. She was going to say she didn’t actually love me. I gave a choked sob, something she probably heard.


    At this point, I didn’t care. My life would carry on, but my heart would be gray. This was terrible. La said, “No, no, Allegra, I... I still love you. Deeply. But I gave them information, okay. I misunderstood. They lied to me.”


    Now, I was confused. I furrowed my brow, reaching up to move those strands out of my face and tilting my head. She still loved me. That was all that mattered, right? But what was she talking about? Them? Who? Who did she mean?


    “borate, La. Please? I’m lost. I thought you were breaking up with me just now, but now there is something else? Juste out with it, okay?” I said. My voice was edged with a mixture of frustration and fear. Surely she wasn’t talking about anyone connected to me. Right?


    La said in a strained tone on the other end, “The people who kidnapped you. I misunderstood, they paid me, a-and, I thought–”


    “Wait. You were working for the people, who... w-who...” I widened my eyes, my world crashing down in far worse of a way than if La was just breaking up with me. Sure, my heart would be torn to pieces then, but this was t out betrayal.


    “Yes, but listen, hear me out! Like I said, th-they lied, okay? They told me it was because Ba stole from them. I misunderstood. Do you understand? I-I just thought, and, and... I should have known better. I’m sorry, okay? Really! I’m sorry. Please understand Allegra, I–”


    She was stammering, tripping over every word, and I couldn’t handle it any longer. I hung up on her, my jaw clenched. Then, I threw the phone aside and buried my face into my hands, shaking with sobs.


    Memories of what happened to me when I was captured shed through my mind. I’d not been sure what they were going to do to me. Even if no physical harm came my way, I heard what they wanted to do to my brother.


    I didn’t want to lose him, and yet I was bait for them to get to him. Being away from family and friends had been nerve-wracking. At any point in time, they could do something horrible, if they got tired of waiting. They came across as very impatient, after all.


    Thank goodness I came out of that alive and unharmed, but other things could have happened if they were far more malicious with regard to me and getting what they wanted. I swallowed, chasing those thoughts away. Nothing like that happened, I was safe now.


    I needed topose myself. After pacing in my living room for what was probably a half hour,pletely drowning in my thoughts, memories, and miseries, I reached over to grab my phone. There were no cracks on it, at least, so what I did hadn’t caused damage.


    Sitting there, I stared at my phone, noting several missed texts and calls from La. I didn’t read a single one of them, and I damn well wasn’t about to call back. I felt numb, surely having cried out every single drop that I could.


    My mind was in a fierce debate with itself. Should I call Ba and inform her about this? She was going through a lot, what with recovering from the trial, no doubt. I closed my eyes and rubbed at my temples, trying to keep it together to think clearly.


    Ba had the right to know, she was probably in danger from those goons now. I dialed her number and put my phone to my ear, only to be answered by the very stressed woman, who had a strain to her voice.


    “Hello?” Ba asked, the sound of shuffling on the other end apanying her voice as if she was busy. I couldn’t hide the pain dripping from my tone when I replied.


    “Ba? I need to tell you something important, I–”


    “I don’t want to talk right now, Allegra,” Ba said, sounding exasperated. “To either you or Neal. This is too much, I told him that, and I didn’t want him calling me. Now, here you are, I don’t want to talk.”


    “What? This isn’t about Neal, it’s–” I started, but she hung up on me. I wrinkled my nose, shaking my head. Whatever went down between her and Neal had nothing to do with me, and I hadn’t heard from my brother about it.


    At this point, I was at a loss for what to do. I began to pace again, spending about a minute or so on that before letting out a sigh. Maybe I could just send a long text to Ba, but I had a feeling, based on her tone, she would just delete it.


    I decided to think about it for a few hours so that I could calm down after realizing the love of my life was not who I thought she was. All of this, I was hoping to give to her. We were meant to have a life together, yet here I was, with a theoretical knife sticking out of my back.


    Drowning myself in ice cream sounded like a great n right now, but I’d need to work out even harderter to burn off those extra calories since I’d be on the runway soon. Oh, right. The runway.


    That was one good thing that happened today. I needed to think of the bright side before I fell into the abyss of sadness after this news. But, honestly, how could she? No, no, I needed to refocus before I went back on what I just said I wanted to do.


    I took in a deep breath, making my way to the kitchen and cing a pot on the stove. My stomach clenched, the pain from the stress of it all rather intense. I found myself looking for any distraction, such as what Ba could have meant about Neal.


    I had too much on my own te to deal with the issue Neal was facing, aside from whether or not he’d done the job. Had he gone after Ba again? Maybe that was why she was so upset. I didn’t want to press, at this point, either.


    He needed to leave Ba alone because he really hadn’t been treating her well either. Was he hounding her? That was probably it. I groaned softly, shaking my head at how much of an imbecile he could be sometimes. I loved him dearly, but he had problems.


    This instance of said problems made things very inconvenient because the kids could be in a lot of danger right now. La had sounded regretful, but who knew if that was genuine? Maybe she only spilled because she was guilty, but it didn’t lessen the danger.


    My mind switched back to the modeling job I now had, something that thankfully was going to start right away and be good in my life. Even if it was the only thing, well, it was something. Tears continued to crawl down my cheeks as I grabbed some chicken stock.


    The runway would take me away, be a home for my mind, something positive. The interview had been wonderful, and the people I was working with were turning out toe across as genuine and kind, a rare thing in this industry.


    Granted, I just met them, and my impression of La had been that she deserved to be treated like a princess, was wonderful, gorgeous, and lovely in every way. Clearly, I’d beenpletely wrong, given this horrible betrayal.


    I began to make myself some homemade chicken soup, something not tooplicated and that wouldn’t be too hard on my stomach. This all was too much. The same words Ba had said, really, after she mentioned my brother.


    Maybe I should call Neal and ask him what happened so I could get some rification. Or maybe not. Did Ba deserve to be kept in the dark?


    I didn’t think so, even if she hung up on me like that and didn’t want to talk.


    There was one way I could get the news to her, but I didn’t like it one bit. Narrowing my eyes, I thought of James, someone who I definitely didn’t get along with. I’d been avoiding the possibility that I may need to speak with him for a while now.


    His treatment of Ba wasn’t tolerable, but of course, he continued that cold, standoffish behavior. Stubborn in the worst of ways, which was damaging. I wasn’t sure how happy I was that he got to see the kids, but it was what it was.


    I sighed, pouring myself a bowl of soup and going to sit down at the table. After a few bites, I stared at my cell phone, not wanting to make that call and deal with that asshole right now. With what La said to me, though, it would be wrong to keep my silence.


    Several bitester, I was still at a loss for what to do, and just shook my head. My depression washed over me in waves. I couldn’t believe I had to deal with this, here and now, right after I finally made some progress in my life.


    The illusion that La was perfect, that we could have a life together, that things would work out, waspletely shattered, and I was devastated. I shook with more sobs into my soup, sniffling and trying to get it together. Why did heartbreak have to be so painful?


    Finally, I put my spoon down and reached over, dialing James’s number. It’d be a miracle if he even picked up, but who knew, maybe I could make progress with him over Ba. I ced my phone against my ear, listening to it ring.


    Eventually, James picked up with an irritated, “What do you want, Allegra?”