Best Defense

All this mess...

...Sean Danial Warner POV's....

The next two nights, the sound of blaring music echoed through my head. The smell of alcohol mixed in the air, as well as the noise of laughter and the exclamations of the people who filled the main room of the club made my head throb.

I glanced at the large clock hanging on the counter table. Eight is forty. That means I've been in this place for almost two hours and haven't gotten anything meaningful. I let out a frustrated sigh in my heart and glanced at the exotic-skinned girl with the mini catsuit sitting next to me, and was now twitching in my arms.

Eddie Paula.

He hasn't changed much. How to move, talk, and look at others as if he was a diva. I put all my thoughts aside from the plan I had made in my head. It's been bad enough for me all day to avoid Franda for all sorts of reasons because of the focus on this problem. So, the sooner everything is finished the better.

Erick says I just need to figure out what Paula and Syaiful are doing here, and who the hell she's meeting. According to him, this method is more effective than playing cats with Syaiful and also this has the potential to reduce his vigilance. He won't suspect that I'm working with Interpol, hopefully.

But all Paula said earlier was a list of her new car, a bag collection, or a vacation to the Maldives. I can't take it anymore. I was about to get off the couch when suddenly Zee-zee, Paula's friend, who was sitting across from me leaned her body towards me. "Sean, at two o'clock, she's glaring at you." she cried to me over the blaring sound of music.

I moved my head following the direction of his gaze and saw Franda, standing in front of the entrance of the club room. Her face was very emotional and her eyes seemed to be glazed as she looked at me. Damnit damnit!

Not willing to waste a second, I jumped up and chased Franda who was walking out of the club room. He looks very angry. He had reason to behave that way. There are a lot of things I've been hiding lately and it's all just a matter of time until he finds out.

Franda stopped her steps in a quiet corridor close to the lobby. He folded his hands in front of his chest. His face was riled up and he wouldn't even look at me. I can imagine she must be in shock to see Paula sticking that way to me. Especially since the other day I had time to convince her by saying that everything was fine when she asked.

I kept this from him because I didn't want to worry him. But now that he caught me wet with a girl at the club, he must have felt I was lying to him.

"I thought you were still in the office, honey. But seeing you here now, you must really miss me."

I said the first thing that just came to my brain. I knew in this situation my sentence would just sound mocking, but right now I couldn't think of the right thing to say to him.

"Stop messing with me, Sean." Hardened it. "Why didn't you pick up your phone? I called you so many times and was scared shitless because Selena said you weren't in the office all day." He looks very emotional.

I sighed in my heart. There are many things I hide from her besides work and family matters. Anything to do with Interpol and Dave. In short, my life has been a mess lately. It's a complete mess and I'm trying to get him back on track.

And the last thing I don't want is Franda getting involved in all this mess. I just want him to feel safe. But does not making him know anything really protect him? Even now I have no reason to calm him down.

I know I should just apologize and explain everything, but instead I say. "This is why I never told you, Franda. Because you're gonna be so dramatic. And I didn't tell you because it was pointless. There's nothing you can do for me even if you know, Franda. So, just leave this thing alone, okay?"

Why would I talk to her like that? Horror and coldness crawled through my spine when I saw Franda's face turning deathly pale, as if someone had just slapped her. Then I realized that my words had hurt her when I saw her two beautiful brown eyes begin to be in tears.

"Franda.pardon me, I didn't mean to," I tried to approach him but he immediately stepped back away from me, so I stopped and held back.

"You know what, Sean? I felt really anxious when you suddenly disappeared, and after meeting Selena I couldn't stop thinking that maybe something bad happened to you. I'm looking for you like crazy because you can't be contacted." He shook his head in disbelief.

"But I found you here. At the nightclub. Drink with your friends. And also your woman." He blasts every word like a dagger, right in my heart.

How could he think I deliberately avoided him and went to have fun with others?

"I really care about you, Sean. But it seems like only one of us feels it."

She roughly wiped away the tears that were coming down the side of her face, then walked past me. I snatched her wrist intending to hold her away, but she immediately pulled her away from me. "You're right, Sean." he choked. "Maybe you never needed me. Just go back to your friends."

***

I checked my phone again and there's still nothing. It's past ten, and he's still in his office. Denise should've told me if she had persuaded him.

I exhaled a deep breath while leaning my back against the back of the car seat, then closed my eyes. I can't believe I had to ask Denise for help to see my own wife. But Franda gave me no other choice.

He completely avoided me for a few days afterwards. Dikantor, or when I came to Ed's house. He won't talk to me at all. This is the first time he's been so hard on our fight that it makes me feel like a desperate loser.

As hard as I tried, Franda kept up with her harsher attitude. When I insisted on seeing him in the morning at Ed's house, I insisted on him make me coffee. Well, he did, but his brown eyes looked at me coldly, as if to say, "Drink that and get the hell out of here."

So I caught the signal. Sometimes women need to be left alone until they completely forget their anger. That's what I've been thinking up until now. Whatever happens, I have to see him tonight. He needs to hear what I'm going to tell him.

The sound of my phone shaking my mind. I groaned as I looked at the number on the screen.

"Bad news," Rudi's voice sounded from across the street as soon as I answered the phone.

"Can you call me next time? This is not a good time."

"It's about Dave."

I jumped up, and straightened my body. "Have you caught him?"

"We found him, but he was with them. That's why Dave stopped calling you again."

I frowned. "I don't understand. This is great news, you yourself said he was one of the key witnesses of this operation."

"Right, but the bad news is that Syaiful now knows you're involved in this."

"Wait, so it's true that Syaiful is the person you're looking for?"

"Yes, that's why we need to..."

I didn't listen to the rest of his words when suddenly a dazzling car light came from across the street on my face. Car Denise.

"Listen, Rud. I really should go, I'll call you later." I hung up the phone without waiting for an answer.

Turns out there's been an incoming message on my phone a while back, from Denise. Iopenit.

..."I'm going to walk Franda into the garden, and we're going to sit in the chair by the fountain. Then I'll leave you two alone so you can talk to him."...

I smiled and typed my reply.

..."Is perfect."...