Chapter 3
The Owner
The scarf was soft to the touch and gave a warm feeling
to her hands. Tanyah unfolded the scarf and she saw a logo
at the other end of it. She closely examined it and she
realized it was a crest. Prominent families since long back
each had these crests which were used as a symbol to
represent the family. Each family had a different design and
elements which reflect that family's history and values.
Golden Tree
That's what was written at the bottom of the blue and
white crest. She went to her laptop and looked it up to see if
she could find the name or location of the owner of the scarf.
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The information she found wasn't as conclusive as she
expected but the words 'Golden Tree' were linked to a
certain location outside of Dalsus. And it was a clinic located
in a small town called Kelsus, which was well known for its
quiet and peaceful environment.
A scarf with a prominent family crest, which had the
name of a clinic far away from Dalsus, and an unknown
person, but something else was bothering her even more; in
this God forsaken heat why was someone wearing a scarf, or
even carrying it for that matter. It was very hot this time of
year and having a scarf was definitely questionable.
But judging from the crest maybe it's a sign to show
where he's from, and what better place than to have your
family prestige on your torso.
She felt her nerves twitching and tingling in excitement.
Who was this person, why not come to her office, was it
important that coming to her home was needed?
Tanyah intently looked at the scarf again as if
interrogating it to tell who its owner was. She brought the
scarf close to her face to take a closer look at the crest on the
scarf to see if there was a name of the family or owner, which
is unlikely because family crests were more than enough of
an explanation, but the problem was she didn't know exactly
which family. Only other prominent people could easily tell
which family crest belonged to which family.
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Bringing that scarf close to her face was a big mistake, as
she brought it even closer to her face to sniff it, however, she
didn't stop there as she brought the scarf even closer to her
face.
One inch closer and Tanyah let her intrusive thoughts
win; she brought the scarf to her face. She didn't know
exactly what material it was made of, but she liked it. As
everything around her disappeared, all of Tanya's focus was
on her moment with the scarf.
The smell quickly invaded her senses so quickly that she
wanted more, she wanted to wrap it around herself and keep
it all to herself. To get more of the addictive new smell she
kept immersing herself in the scarf until she forgot about
everything she was doing.
A knock at the door knocked her out of delusions, she
quickly extracted her face from the scarf and looked in the
direction of where the knock was coming from. She heard
her aunt say something as she made her way down the
stairs.
"Oh my, looks like that man is back for his scarf," said
Miss Laura as she made her way to answer the door.
Tanyah looked at the scarf and that's when she saw what
she had done to the beautiful scarf, it was now in bad
condition compared to how it was when her aunt gave it to
her. It had gotten damp because of her wet hair that had
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gotten in contact with the scarf when she was nuzzling her
face into it. And to make matters worse, the scarf now
smelled of peach and berries bubble bath.
For a moment Tanyah was mentally and physically
paralyzed, she heard footsteps approach the living room and
she instantly froze.
She didn't know what to do next or with the assaulted
scarf in her hands which the owner had come to take back.
Looking at the direction of the door to see how far her aunt
and guest were, Tanyah began to think of a way to get
herself out of that mess.
'What a pervert! What to do now?' thought Tanyah,
inwardly berating herself for being carried away by a mere
scarf, which had now gotten damp and wrinkled. This was
her first time meeting this person and the setup was already
getting up from a bad start.
What will he think? That she's a desperate and
unprofessional person who didn't know how to conduct and
control themselves. Horror and shame quickly enveloped
Tanyah as she buried her face in her hand and mumbled,
"This is certainly not how a lady should act."
'The dryer!'
Yes, the dryer. She could toss the scarf in the dryer while
she's talking to the owner and by the time they are done the
scarf will be home and dry. The plan sounded full proof, and
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it might just work. Not wasting any time, she got up from
where she was seated and went straight to the laundry room
to get her plan in motion.
Meanwhile…
"Good afternoon ma'am. I'm sorry to interrupt your day
but it seems I left my scarf behind."
'What a charming young man,' thought Miss Laura
before she quickly let him inside the house.
"Ah yes! I kept it well and in good shape. It's of very nice
quality, mind sharing a thing or two," coaxed Miss Laura,
lightly nudging her elbow at the man.
The man laughed before saying, "Unfortunately there's
only one of that kind in this world, maybe similar but never
the same. However, I can have a special one made just for
you."
"Thank you very much," gushed Miss Laura.
They both merrily conversed as they made their way to
the living room. However, the smile that was on Miss Laura
quickly fell to the depths of hell with the scene that unfolded
right in front of her a few seconds later.
On her way to the laundry room she remembered that
she left some papers scattered on the table. With a visitor in
the house it wouldn't make a good impression to have
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papers everywhere. But she needed to be quick before the
visitor was settled in the living room. A good impression is
always important. She again raced to the living room to
remove the papers.
At this point her hair was a total mess, beads of sweat
settled on her forehead, panting wildly like an untamed
animal. Holding the scarf closely to her, she bolted into the
living room. But unfortunately, she didn't make a smooth
and successful entrance.
The day really wasn't hers. Unfortunate events seem to
latch on to her one after another.
As soon as she entered the living room she abruptly hit
something hard. Whatever it was, it wasn't a door. The
collision had such an impact that she fell butt first on the
ground.
Her head was so giddy that she couldn't quite
understand what was happening. It took a few seconds for
her to register her surroundings and what had just
happened. The first thing she saw were some shoes, black
and neatly polished in front of her and the more her head
cleared she realized what just happened.
Could things get any worse? Apparently yes. She looked
at Miss Laura and she looked like a horror movie was being
enacted right before her eyes. She her hands clutching her
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non-existent pearls with a face that could only be explained
as profound shock and horror
The man did not move or say anything, he just looked
down at her like a small creature on the ground. He wore a
dark shade of glasses, which she was glad about because she
didn't want to see the way he would look at her after the
stunt she just pulled.
He slowly bent down to where Tanyah was, and took the
scarf that was resting on her shoulder.
Victor sighed heavily as he got off the phone with one of
his colleagues he had sent on a special mission to search for
someone who was running away from him. It has been two
years since Victor started this manhunt, and still there was
no success in getting this person's location or getting them to
come to Kelsus.
While also tracking down that person's whereabouts,
Victor had something else that was weighing on him even
more; his father and mentor died unceremoniously and the
whole thing was just covered up as 'natural'. Even though a
lot of people believed it and the case was closed, Victor
refused to accept it and was willing to go to any lengths to
prove himself right.
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However, his pursuit to find answers was more difficult
than he expected as it seemed like he was being pushed ten
steps back with every single step he took forward
He sought for a second appeal regarding Charles's death
but it was rejected. Everything was already closed, and
having it reopened was quite difficult. He appealed for a
second time, but this time it was under a private
investigation. The investigation only went forward for a little
while before it was shut down again after they found out it
was the investigation of a closed and condemned case.
It really seemed like the end of the road for him and all
he could do was just wait for a ray of light in the pitch-black
darkness.
A few weeks earlier he was given a recommendation by
one of his colleagues to talk to a certain detective who might
help. He quickly sent a request to the police department to
talk to the detective, however, he soon realized it was an
uncalculated move from his side as that request was buried
away somewhere to make sure no progress went forward.
Victor always felt there was someone who was pulling
strings behind the scenes, and that person was well-hidden
from him because no matter how much tried searching for
them it always came to a dead end.
They had eyes and ears everywhere, including the police
department. Making such an open and blunt move was very
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dangerous and he was putting himself in the spotlight to be
easily targeted. If they heard someone was still digging up
the story behind Charles' death, they wouldn't hesitate to
eliminate the person. Now not only was he dodging bullets
and dealing with Charles' death, he was supposed to bring
Charles' nephew to Kelsus to take what his uncle gave him,
but he kept refusing to budge no matter what.
He wasn't even there at Charles' funeral. The family
grudge really merged from long back, he didn't quite know
the details but it was the cause of a rift between a family.
Taking matters into his own hands, Victor personally
went to the detective's home, but unfortunately, she wasn't
home. He had lost all hope in this case and was considering
something else, but as if fate was pulling him not to give up,
on his way back to Kelsus he realized he left his scarf at the
home of the detective he was looking for. It was a birthday
gift that Charles gave to him which he cherished ever since it
was given to him.
This was the first time he had ever lost or forgotten the
scarf anywhere and he took it as a sign that Charles was
telling him to come back to the house. Victor told himself
that he would go back there the next day without failure.
For the time being he was at the Sinclair mansion in
Kelsus and currently having a huge headache after his
colleague whom he had put in charge of Charles' nephew
who was supposed to come to Kelsus told him the man still
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didn't want to come. What's there to hate about this place?
He regarded this place as his home and sanctuary. It was
quiet and peaceful, vast grassy land to enjoy and mesmerize
the eye, friendly and kind people who really cared about
each other. That was his view of Kelsus. Why was he
refusing? This place was way better than where he was,
France.
"Ugh! He's seriously giving me a headache…," sighed
Victor, he could only vent out his frustrations to himself,
otherwise he would have gone to get him by himself and
beat him into a pulp if he refused. Dragging him here was
the only choice he had. Of course, he was the only one who
could do that. He technically grew up with him.
The next morning, he departed from Sinclair mansion
and went straight to Dalsus to get his scarf. When he arrived,
he was again welcomed by the sweet lady who revealed to
be the detective's aunt. She was very sweet and open as she
welcomed him into her home
"Today you are lucky indeed. The person you are
desperately looking for is home today. Her work schedule is
really tight sometimes. But tomorrow she will definitely be
available."
"She's really home today? That's very good news," said
Victor, breathing a sigh of relief. His scarf getting left behind
really did mean something.
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When Miss Laura and Victor entered the living room it
was quite a mess. There were papers and envelopes scattered
on the table, a few on the ground and the sofa. Miss Laura
shook her head and then told Victor to proceed into the
living room while she cleared some of the papers on the
table.
Victor thanked Miss Laura for her kindness and he made
his way inside the living room as instructed to sit on an
empty sofa. As he was walking across the room, Victor saw
someone from the corner of his eye running in his direction
and by the speed they were going in it didn't look like they
saw him or were stopping any time soon.
It was pretty evident that the two of them were going to
collide and the only reaction from Victor in that short
amount of time between seeing this person and realizing that
the unstoppable was going to happen was to turn in the
direction of this person. As they were running, this person
was looking sideways and backwards as if they were looking
for someone. By the time they looked ahead it was too late to
stop.
For a moment it was like time stopped before the
collision that could destroy a wall happened. It seems
whoever it was in an absolute hurry and they accidentally
bumped...no blasted on to him. Victor almost stumbled back
due to the impact, but the other party fell down with a thud
on the floor. Curious to know who this person was, Victor
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looked down to see who it was and it was the detective he
was looking for.
When she looked up to apologize for the accident, the
detective She was mortified when she saw who it was. Miss
Laura on the other hand looked like she had seen a ghost
and all the life and colour had been drained from her lovely
face.
Victor was prepared to catch her just in case she passed
out. It would have been a disgrace if he wasn't able to at least
save one of the women from ending up on the ground while
he stood idly. Just as he was about to help the woman who
just bumped into him and fell, the scarf around her caught
his attention.
Victor bent down so that he could be at the detective's
height and reached out his hand to get the scarf with a warm
smile on his face and looked at the detective.
"Thank you,"
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