Chapter 17

“WHAT’S up with you, Euclid?” Frederick asked him while on their way to the police station. “You looked terrible. Did something happen inside the room?”

Euclid didn’t answer. His thoughts were still on the woman that was carried by the police mobile behind them, and he doesn’t think that she’ll leave his mind again. That’s why Euclid let his partner drove the car, and he thought it might prevent him from asking too much about Maria, but he was wrong. Nothing can stop Frederick’s curiosity.

“Nothing happened,” he replied after a moment of silence. “I’m just tired, I guess—”

“Come on,” Fred drawled. “You weren’t like that before the bidding. You were excited to get her, and you did get her. You fight for that woman as if she was your life—you even bid an imaginary million pesos to win her.”

Euclid sighed. He looked out the window and remembered again the moment that Magdalene removed her mask. It felt surreal to see her beautiful face again, but reality hit him suddenly. It hit him so hard that all his pain and suffering years ago dawned on him like a thunderclap. And, to see her in that situation just worsened the pain. To see the girl who became the light of his life before in that unfortunate situation hurts him. It hurts him so much that he wanted to seek and kill all the people that made her do that job.

How did she end up in human trafficking? How and why she became like this? Why, of all people, it was he who captured her? Why they have to meet again like this? Euclid brushed his hands on his face.

“Dude, you know that girl, aren’t you?” Fred asked, suddenly became serious. He looked at him when the streetlights turned red. “And, it seems that she knows you, too. She called you in the name that you don’t want to be called.”

“She’s the only person that prefers to call me ‘Euclid’,” he said, unwarily. “I can’t believe that I will see her in that kind of situation. It never occurred to me that she can do such things.”

“Who is she?” Fred asked before the lights turned to green when he returned his gaze to the road, Euclid shut his eyes. “Who is she in your life, Euclid?”

Euclid shook his head. He doesn’t want to talk about her now. He wanted to rest and forget for a moment that their path crossed again. Maria was the last person that he wanted to see again. But why his heart suddenly jumped when he saw her? When he confirmed that it was her, a sudden warmth wrapped his heart and brought a familiar feeling of longing.

Euclid ditched the feeling that is starting to lurk inside his heart again. He won’t let his personal feelings meddled with his mission. For now, he has to treat Maria as a person that committed a crime.

*

Maria held the cover in her head tightly as the vehicle ran faster than its usual pace. Because of the bumps in the road, the suit in her head is falling out of its place.

“Is she really the Magdalene?” she heard the girl in front of her, asked curiously. “Why does she have to cover her face?”

“She’s ashamed of herself,” the other girl replied with a smirk. “The man that she thought liked her so much because he’s willing to pay a million pesos for her is a prank!”

All the women in the police vehicle laughed. Those were also dancers in their club, but none became her friend because she chose to isolate herself from the other people in the club. She also has a separate dressing room from the other dancers, because of it, they envied her. That resulted in numerous rumors about her and the club’s owner.

But Maria doesn’t care. Those people that judged her even they didn’t know her were a useless human being for her. They don’t have a contribution in her life, so why would she pay them any attention? They didn’t deserve her time.

“Hey, Magdalene! Show us your face,” the girl in front of her shouted. “Trisha, pull that suit off her—”

“Hey, hey!” the policewoman that with them shouted. “Don’t touch her! Nobody can lay a hand at her? Understood?”

“Whoa! Even here with the police, that woman got special treatment?” Maria heard the woman laughed. “What’s with her that we don’t have?”

The policewoman laughed. “Do you really want to hear the answers?”

“Nevermind,” the woman muttered. “That woman has been used with different men than us. She always has customers every fucking night! If she’s an appliance, she was the one overused.”

A roar of laughter filled the car. Maria couldn’t take it anymore, if that woman spoke again, she might punch her in the face and throw her out of the vehicle.

“Shut your filthy mouth, bitch!” the policewoman scolded. “If Agent Mercado heard your words against this woman, he might put you directly in jail.”

Agent Mercado… Euclid’s name echoed in Maria’s mind. She still can’t believe that the man in front of her a while ago and bid for her for a million is Euclid. All this time, it was him at the bar’s corner, watching her dance like a dirty prostitute with only a piece of cloth on her body. It was him that she asked for help, and it was him that saved her from that crazy rich man.

But it was also him that captured her. I was also him that put her hands in a cuff and accused her of criminal activity. Euclid is back, but not to save her from her miseries… but to make her pay for her sins.

Maria’s tears fell again. Still, Euclid was also the man that she trusted with her heart before. He was the man that gave her hopes and happiness. He’s the man that she dreamed of marrying… But, that was before… before he made a decision that ruined everything with them.

Euclid Mercado is the reason why Maria became the woman that everyone hated.

***