Hazina's Revenge

Chapter 8 - Apartment Four

As I watched agent Pascal walk away, I heard agent Wilson suggest, “Hazina, you should let me check the apartment for intruders before you enter.”

Absent-mindedly, I held the key out to Dante without looking at him and responded, “Whatever you think is best.”

He was quick to grab the key and unlock the door, then he disappeared into the apartment. Agent Jacobs and I remained planted where we were standing and waited for agent Wilson to return.

It couldn’t have been more than a minute before Dante popped his head out the door and urged, “All clear. Come on in and check out your new place, Hazina.”

I stepped inside to find myself in a decent-sized living room that was fully furnished. The walls were painted a warm shade of gray, and the floor was covered by a midnight blue carpet.

A dark blue couch stretched the length of the right wall. Hanging over the large windows on the farthest wall were matching dark blue curtains that had a pretty, silver floral design.

In front of the couch was a rectangular coffee table made of wood, and there was a small wooden table on each side of the couch. Decorating each of the small tables was a lamp.

The base of the lamp looked like marble with beautiful shades of blue, silver, gray, black and white. The lamp shades were an extremely light shade of gray that beautifully complimented the base.

Unfortunately, I was unable to truly embrace the beauty before me. Instead, I kept wishing Tristen was there with me to see what I was seeing, but that would never again be a possibility.

After glancing at the television on the other side of the room, I forced a fake smile onto my face before turning to agent Wilson. With my voice barely above a whisper, I thanked the guys for all of their help, then I asked to be left alone.

They both held sympathy in their eyes, as they insisted I not leave my apartment without them in tow. Once I gave them my word, they did as requested and left. Right away, I locked the door behind them, then I made quick work of looking at the rest of the apartment.

The kitchen was fairly big with lots of cabinets and plenty of beautiful marble counters. The walls were painted the same gray as the living room, but the floor was covered with a gorgeous marble tile, sporting the same colors as the lamps.

That brought a little smile to my face for just a second until I remembered I have nobody to cook for but myself. Tristen used to love when I would prepare nice candlelit dinners for him. I left the kitchen with tears pooling under my eyelids and made my way to the bathroom.

While I was checking out the bathroom that matched the kitchen in both color and marble theme, I took the time to release my bladder. Once I was done with that task, I decided to strip the dirty clothes off of my body, so I could take a much-needed shower.

As the hot water cascaded over me, I realized right away that the water pressure was weak, causing my frown to deepen with disappointment. I was already missing my former home, and the shitty water pressure wasn’t helping with that.

On auto-pilot, I went through the motions of washing my hair and body with the cheap shampoo and soap that had been provided for me. I wasn’t a fan of the shampoo’s scent, but the soap wasn’t too bad.

When I was done getting cleaned up, I pushed the see-through shower curtain to the side and left the shower. Realizing I had forgotten to look for a towel first, I hurried to open the vanity doors, and I was pleased to see three midnight blue towels neatly folded on the upper shelf. On the lower shelf was a small supply of toilet paper along with a large multi-pack of women’s sanitary supplies.

After grabbing one of the towels, I quickly dried the water off of my body, then I wrapped my hair in the towel. When I tried to glance in the mirror, I couldn’t see anything, so I used my hand to wipe the steam off it.

Upon looking at my reflection, I was met with pain-filled eyes that had dark circles around them. My eyes that were usually a beautiful shade of burnt henna were now dull as could be.

Wanting to see more, I removed the towel and let my long hair fall down to the middle of my back. That’s when I noticed my tanned complexion was slightly paler than usual, and there was no shine to my dark brown hair, despite it having just been washed.

I barely recognized the person looking back at me. No longer was I that young woman full of life and love. No longer was I living my dream… working with flowers daily and planning a wedding.

Everything I had worked so hard for was gone. Everybody I had ever cared about was gone. I had no dreams left to strive for. I had not a single person for me to care about, and nobody to care about me.

A soul-gripping loneliness and memories of a past I would never get back. That’s all I had left.

Unable to bear the sight of myself any longer, I left the bathroom and found my way to the bedroom. I didn’t even bother turning the light on, so I could see my new room. Instead, I dragged my feet across the dark room, then I stood with the back of my legs pressed against the side of the bed.

Not caring about any of it, I let my body fall backward onto the mattress. Glaring at the ceiling above, I wondered what else was going to happen in my future. Would I ever find happiness again, or would I be forever doomed to a long life of anger and animosity.

That’s what I was feeling at the moment, and it was all because of the Solito Cartel. It was an anger I planned to hold onto until I found a way to get revenge.

There wasn’t anybody or anything that would be able to stop me when the time’s right. Revenge was the only reason I had to keep living.