"Hey! Mind your words. Sylvester is not a scumbag, but you are. You are the scumbag here. And...you don't have any right to tell me where to spend my money or ask me how I will get it. Whether I have the money or not is none of your business. And if I decide to borrow, that’s my choice. Stop acting like I'm going to borrow it from you. Stop pretending like you care." Anabel said, even though she was already seeing some signs. She just wanted to get on Desmond's nerves.
"I do care, Anabel. I care about you, and I care about the choices you’re making. And if you borrow that kind of money, you will spend the rest of your life paying it back. Is that what you want?"
"You really think you know me, don’t you? You really think you can stand here and judge me? But let me tell you something, Desmond—you don’t know me at all. You never did. If you think I can’t handle this, then you’re sorely mistaken."
"I know you are now rich, even though you are trying so hard to hide your real identity from me. You are rich, so rich that someone was trying to extort three million dollars from you. Keep in mind that I'm not approaching you again because of your money. I'm still rich and doing so well for myself. I don't need your money. All I want is for you to stay away from Sylvester so you won't regret it."
"I won't regret anything. I know what I'm doing."
"You don't. You have been blinded by love." Desmond replied. "And if I may ask, have you tried to find out if Vanessa did the surgery? Like...did you see the cuts? I'm sure you haven't."
Anabel’s posture stiffened, her expression faltering ever so slightly. For the first time, she didn’t have an immediate reply. Desmond’s question had struck a nerve, one she didn’t want to acknowledge.
Anabel knew that his words were true, that there was a possibility he was right. But admitting that would mean questioning everything she believed about Sylvester and Vanessa.
"I don’t need to check anything," Anabel shrugged even though she was already thinking of checking. "Vanessa had the surgery, and she’s recovering. They can't pretend to stay in the hospital for days just to pretend and extort money from me."
"Are you sure, Anabel? Are you sure you don’t need to check? Some people can go to any extent to get something, not to talk of a huge amount of money—three million dollars". Desmond said, and Anabel clenched her fists, her thoughts racing. She didn’t want to admit it, but deep down, Desmond’s words had planted a seed of doubt.
The truth was, she didn’t know for certain if Vanessa had undergone the surgery. She had trusted Sylvester’s word without question, but now, that trust felt more precarious. She had even sensed some things that didn't register well in her last visits. She turned away from Desmond, unwilling to let him see the uncertainty in her eyes.
"Just leave me alone, Desmond," Anabel replied. "I don’t need your advice or your opinion. Just focus on your family and leave me alone." She said and turned to leave, but Desmond's next word made her stop in her tracks.
"I won't leave you, Anabel. Besides, I already know how this will end." He said.
Anabel turned slowly to face him and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh, really? Enlighten me, Desmond," she said with some trace of sarcasm in her voice.
Desmond took two steps closer to her. "Yes, I do. You and I…at the end...we will end up back together. No matter what Sylvester does to delay it or how much you resist it now, I know this will come full circle. I still love you, Anabel. I never stopped loving you. And I believe, deep down, you still have feelings for me too. Don't let Sylvester delay this."
For a moment, Anabel was stunned by his audacity, but it quickly melted into a derisive laugh that echoed through the space around them. She shook her head in a mixture of disbelief and annoyance. "You have got some guts, Desmond. I wonder what is giving you this kind of confidence." She laughed, which transformed into a smirk immediately.
"What exactly are you basing this fairy tale on? Do me a favor, Desmond. Don’t let the movies you have been watching get to your empty head. This isn’t some sappy romance where the guy magically wins the girl back. This is real life, Desmond. And in real life, people like you and I don’t come back together. Not now. Not in this life. Not even in the next life."