CHAPTER 85: D.U.B!

Catherine’s POV

I sank into my bed. Stupid me! I wanted Julian to stay back and kiss me but my mouth said a different thing. Maybe I was expecting him to push further and act on his impulse. Stupid me!

My phone rang, jolting me out of bed. I moved to the table and picked it. There was a ’no caller ID’ on the screen but I still answered the call.

I was met with silence, the caller was probably expecting me to speak first.

"Hello?"

Still no reply.

"Who’s this?" My voice rose in pitch.

When the person still refused to speak, I sighed and ended it, placing the phone back on the table.

On my way to the bed, the fucking phone rang again. I stomped back to the table, grabbed the phone and declined. Whoever the idiot was, called again.

"If you are not going to say anything, you better stop calling!" I yelled into the phone, about to end the call, when his voice came.

"Baby..."

My posture stiffened and a small yelp left my lips.

"Baby?" His voice came again.

I stared at my phone with a hard, fixed gaze, like he could see. "How dare you call me, you sick fuck?"

"Catherine, I’m sorry about what happened. I wasn’t in my right frame of mind. I was high," Collins said and my nose crinkled. "I’ve been trying to reach you but I couldn’t. Recently found out twas because you blocked my num ...."

I cut him off. "And I will block this one too. You really think I’m dumb, right? Fuck you, Collins. Do not ever call this line again."

He was about to say something but I quickly cut the call. The nerve of that bastard! While finding the block button, my phone rang again but I blocked it off.

Ugh! My day was supposed to start off well but Lucy, Julian and this fool just ruined it. I couldn’t wait for Kiera’s arrival, she would certainly redeem it but that would be until night time.

For now, I had to find ways to entertain myself. Just then, my phone rang again.

"What the hell’s wrong with this idiot?" I mumbled under my breath when I saw another unknown number. I wanted to end it and block it too but a voice in my head told me to answer and give him a final warning.

"I asked you to not call aga..."

"Catty?" My throat dried at once. Mother? She finally found time to call? Wow.

"Someone seems to finally remember that she had a daughter."

Her voice came again. "Catty, don’t be mean. You know why we’ve not been able to talk."

Of course I knew and that was the reason I didn’t get worried or bother with trying to reach her. Apparently, their registered number wouldn’t work in the country they went to for their honeymoon and Richard also said something about not registering new numbers there because they wanted to have alone time and spend it with each other. Cute right?

"But you could have at least tried to reach out through texts."

"I know, baby. I’m sorry. We’ve just not had time ..." she suddenly stopped talking.

"Mom?"

"Mom?"

I called thrice without getting a response. The call was still on, so it probably wasn’t a network thing. What could be the problem? Did she accidentally mute the call?

Her voice came again but this time, it was very low. "Honey, I have to go now. We’ll talk later."

Huh? Why was she whispering? "Are you okay, mom?"

"Yes. Yes," she hurriedly answered, getting me more worried.

"Mother? You are acting weird. Is there a problem? Your voice..."

"Catherine, we will talk later," she chimed in and cut the call before I could reply.

What the hell? It didn’t feel right. The silence, the sudden whispers.... it was all weird. I immediately tried to call back but to my surprise, the phone was now switched off.

"Maybe she ended the call because of a low battery," I tried to convince myself but I shook my head the moment I remembered that her voice also got weirdly low, like she didn’t want someone hearing her.

Something was wrong but inside my head, I really hoped I was wrong.

Sitting on my bed and trying to shove the thoughts out of my head wasn’t working, so I left my room to Gabriel’s.

I knocked on his door thrice before he opened it. His body was dripping wet, with just a white towel around his waist and this was the very first time I realized just how hot he was.

"Hey, sorry for taking time. I was having a shower."

I swallowed and walked in with cautious steps. Why the hell was I finding him attractive? Girl! Get a fucking grip on yourself! You are not a pervert!

I moved to his bed and sat down.

"Any problem?" He asked and it took me about two minutes to actually remember the reason I came to his room.

"Have you talked to Richard since they left?" I asked, finally finding my voice.

"No. He’s supposed to reach out but he hasn’t. They are definitely enjoying themselves."

Hmm.

"My mom called me but..." I paused, unsure of how I was supposed to phrase my worry.

"But?"

I stood and paced around, before turning to him. "Something felt wrong. I don’t know."

"Tell me what happened. Did she say anything?"

My lips pressed together. "We were talking, but she abruptly paused for minutes. And when she spoke again, it was weird, her voice became low and she told me she would call later."

"I was still trying to understand why but she ended the call on me. I called back but her line was unreachable."

Gabriel looked at me for a while, obviously trying to think. "What if she ran out of battery?"

"I already considered that but it doesn’t explain the sudden pause and lowered voice."

"Right. Maybe she needed to do something."

Yeah... probably had to go somewhere with Richard or something of that nature.

"I’m overthinking. When she calls again, she will explain to me. Hopefully, she doesn’t take a decade to do that."

Gabriel gave a half-smile. "She’s better than my father, who hasn’t reached out at all."

We laughed and a notification beeped from my phone. I hurriedly took my phone out of my pocket to check, believing it was a message from mom but it wasn’t.

Kiera: Babes, I’ll be at your place in tens. Wait for me at the gate.

I giggled and tucked the phone back in my pocket. "Gotta go now, thank you."

"Care to share what’s making you this happy?"

My head snapped to him and I chuckled. "I got a new friend from the neighborhood. She is on her way here."

"Wow. Finally, Catherine genuinely likes someone."

I didn’t know if that was a compliment. The statement kinda made me feel like I was a mean ’hard to please’ girl.

"That’s not an insult," he quickly added, like he had just read my mind.

"Her name’s Kiera. I could introduce you to her, she’s funny and likeable."

"I would be honored if you do that."

Gosh! He sounded so cheesy with those words. I rolled my eyes, blushing. "Oh please."

"I should get going now. She might be here already."

"Sure. I would dress up and come over to your room to meet this joygiver of yours."

I laughed and quickly pulled his door open, leaving before he would make me turn red with laughter.

Kiera appeared just as I approached the gate. The security let her in and we went up to my room.

"That Dub replied to my message," she said as soon as I shut my door. Her eyes lit up like she had a very interesting chat with her.

"Dub?" My brow raised.

"I mean Lucy, the desperate girl."

I giggled, rushing to sit close to her. "Let me see."

She opened her phone and let me read through the conversation. But the name she used to save Lucy’s contact completely threw me off. DESPERATE UGLY BITCH. Ohh ohhh, that’s where the "DUB" name came from.

"Nice name, very creative," I commended with a laugh. She laughed too.

My eyes moved back to the phone.

DESPERATE UGLY BITCH: Who is this?

KIERA: Someone who knows that you’re looking for your gift.

DESPERATE UGLY BITCH: Go straight to the point. How did you get it and why do I have to meet you at the estate gate?

KIERA: I am a staff at your house and I was ordered to destroy the gift. I reached out because of my principles. I would like to return it to you.

DESPERATE UGLY BITCH: Okayyy? So who ordered you? It’s that cunt, right?

KIERA: I’m sorry ma’am but I can’t give you any name over the phone. You have to meet me, I’ll tell you who it is and give you all the information you need.

DESPERATE UGLY BITCH: Fine! 7PM! It better be worth it. I need enough information to get Julian to see that bitch’s true colors.

Kiera didn’t respond after that. I raised my face to her, while wondering what she was really planning. Were we really going to meet her?

"Kiera? Are you sure about this?"

Her lips curled to a smirk. She opened her bag and pulled out two black masks. "I paid the security off, so they won’t be there by that time. So to the plan... we are going to ambush that DUB and beat the hell out of her."

Oh fuck!