Page 70 of Rewind

“Hey yo! Let me in!” she called out. “Amina is here.”

The door slowly opened but Amina couldn’t make anything out because it was dark.

Before she had any idea of what was going on, Candace suddenly moved behind her and shoved Amina inside.

The sudden move made her stumble to the ground. As she looked up, the lights snapped on.

Standing over her was Mark.

“Hello, Amina. I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.” He smirked.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Ethan was exhausted by the time he came out of the OR. His back was stiff from standing for several hours but thankfully the surgery was a success. After delivering the status of the patient to their family, he headed to the locker room to shower and dress.

After getting out of the shower, he checked his phone and saw that he had two missed calls. One from Amina and one from Glen.

It appeared that Amina had called him a half hour ago. Since it was around dinner time, he figured that was what it was about. He was surprised to hear from Glen. It had been a couple months since his friend had checked in with regards to the case he was working on for Ethan.

Ethan listened to Amina’s voice message first and immediately he was alarmed. Her mother was contacting her after all this time. And why of all places was she at the Blue Flower Inn? Ethan used to volunteer at a clinic in that area when he was doing his residency. It wasn’t in the best part of town, and it was well known that people went to the Blue Flower to solicit and do drugs. Several people had OD’d and died there.

He didn’t bother listening to Glen’s message. He would call his friend later. He needed to make sure Amina was okay. What was she thinking to go there by herself?

Ethan hurried to get dressed and rushed out of the locker room. One of his colleagues attempted to talk to him but he frantically shook his head. “Sorry, I have an emergency. We’ll talk later.”

He couldn’t get to his car fast enough. Maybe he was overreacting and Amina was perfectly fine but he wasn’t going to risk it.

“Hold on, baby, I’m coming.”

Amina slowly wobbledto her feet, feeling like a complete idiot for falling for Mark and Candace’s ploy. She should have known better than to trust her cousin who didn’t do anything nice for anyone unless there was something in it for her. Amina didn’t know when Candace and Mark had teamed, but it didn’t matter because she didn’t intend to stick around.

“There’s a reason why I blocked you from all my contact information, Mark. I’m leaving.”

She turned to go but Candace was blocking the door with a maniacal grin. Her eyes gleamed viciously and for the first time, she didn’t look very attractive. In fact she was downright ugly to match her insides.

Her cousin had done some awful things to her over the years but this was quite possibly the lowest.

“Bitch, did you think you could humiliate me like that and get away with it?” Mark demanded, clearly perturbed at being ignored. His fists were balled at his sides and he appeared ready to attack.

Old memories flashed before and Amina’s breath caught in her throat. Was this it for her?

Blood pounded in Amina’s head and fear threatened to take over. She was outnumbered. She didn’t know if her cousin could fight, because Candace always sent one of her minions to handle things for her when they were growing up.

Then she remembered what Ethan had told her during training.

You don’t always win a fight with the most power but with a calm, cool and collected mind.

Amina took a deep shaky breath. She wasn’t sure if she could talk her way out of this but she would try.

“Mark, the only embarrassment was the way your parents carried on. Your father groomed a young girl and abandoned her when she got pregnant and then played the victim when he was confronted with the truth. And I can almost guarantee your mother knew what was going on. How many young girls has your father seduced while your mother turned a blind eye because she likes to live off the funds your father is stealing from the church?”

“So it was you who called the IRS on our church? Do you know my father may go to prison for tax fraud?”

This was news to Amina. After the engagement party, she’d wanted nothing to do with Mark or his rotten family. But it was funny to her that someone must have contacted the IRS. It was probably one of the church members that had been at the party. They were clearly sick of Pastor Caldwell’s shit.

A loud belly laugh burst forth. Amina couldn’t help herself. “It wasn’t me but maybe your father isn’t as well loved as he thinks he is. Look, Mark, any misfortune your family is suffering now is their own doing. And if you just brought me here to blame me, then consider me blamed. You need to move on with your life as I have.”

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