Story: Revenge

“Alicia! Alicia!”

It was that voice. That voice which once fooled me with his play of words. Those words that charmed me into giving away my soul. The voice of a thief, a thief who stole the best years of my life, and then discarded me so easily as if I was just a piece of rubbish.

I heaved a long sigh and turned around. My eyes rolled as I struggled to utter his name.

“Azim,” I said with a heavy heart.

We sat by the window that offered views of the busy pavement. Working people were rushing from one place to another, looking straight ahead without the slightest care of what was going on to their right or left. Where were they heading to? What were they chasing? My mind wandered as I distracted myself from confronting the memories which I wished I could erase.

“How are you?” he said with a grin to playfully tease me. I simply nodded, not furnishing him with an answer.

“An Americano… and you, the usual Latte? Thanks Donna,” he gave a flirty smirk to the waitress and winked, a side of him I used to ignore for years.

“Look Alicia. It’s been a long time and I wished we hadn’t turned out this way. You and I, strangers. We once shared a life together. Surely, you have managed to let it go?”

Again, I remained silent. The pleading, the begging. There was something that he wanted, for sure.

“This will be the last thing that I ask of you. Please sign the papers,” he requested.

It was our vacation home in Langkawi. He wanted my permission to sell it.

“Why?” I asked, curious.

“I need the money…” he said coyly.

“Does ‘she’ know?” I wondered, intrigued that he’d share his problems with me. It was no surprise that he kept ‘secrets’ amidst the glamourous life he portrayed on Tatler. When the curtains were drawn, he would coil in one corner ruminating over the excess in expenditure and the dubious business deals he got himself into. I knew the real Azim. The world didn’t.

My voice cracked a little. That vacation home in Langkawi was the place where I shared the best years I had with him and Alya as a family. I remembered her running around the garden, and squealing as she ran after the dogs, chasing tails in the compound. During happier times, I would slowly sip wine with Azim, sitting at the balcony, admiring the sunset as the sun disappeared from sight. “We were once happy,” I thought, feeling melancholic as I reminisced about the past. “All that was well, is gone now,” I bowed my head in view of a new reality.

I fumbled with my hands searching for a pen in my handbag. Azim offered his Mont Blanc to me, and I snatched it, signed the papers and threw the pen back at him.

“Is that all?”

“Alicia, wait. Can’t we at least be amicable?”

I played with my cup, circling my finger at its rim. I gave a deathly stare at his face as if telling him, no more games.

Then suddenly, there was a loud shout coming from the café’s door.

“Azim!”

That familiar figure, carrying the weight of a 6-month pregnancy came storming at us.

She stood right in front of Azim, snatched the wine glass and threw the water at his face.

Azim’s now wife looked furiously livid. She screamed, “How dare you!”

I was astonished with what had happened, and thought to myself, ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold.’