Tobias watched as Eniola got ready for the day.

He had also listened to her complains about claustrophobia and relating it to her house arrest. She had also snapped at him twice for being too quiet and she was feisty that morning. He quickly realized why though; it was that time of the month.

He knew she had the most painful cramps and would usually take breaks from work to tend to her violent self during those times. During times like this, she scared him.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" She suddenly yelled from her closet, making him look up from the news article he was reading.

"You asked me to shut up a while ago, Princess. " It was true. The woman had shut him up every time he did as little as open his mouth. He eventually gave up and just let her do the talking.

"No, I didn't." She suddenly came to view wearing the ugliest shade of green sweatpants and a yellow hoodie.

He had to bite his tongue in order to refrain from saying the colours did not exactly go well together.

"You're right, you didn't." He agreed, knowing it was much wider than arguing with her. "How are you feeling?"

She loudly exhaled, walking over to wear he sat and falling into his lap. He laughed at her antics but hooked a hand around her waist, securing her from falling.

"Like death." Eniola mumbled as she buried her head in the crook of his neck. "The pain relief ain't doing shit."

He sighed as he rested his head against hers. Being a woman was horrible sometimes. "What can I do to make you feel better?"

She hesitated in her answer before sighing. "Say you love me?"

He smiled. There was zero doubt in his mind that he loved her.

"I love you."

She still did not seem satisfied as he did as she asked. "You say it like I'm your little sister or something."

Well, he pretty much recognised her as such.

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" He asked, his voice gentle.

Eniola raised her head up, her hand tapping his to let her go. He did as she asked.

"Uhm... I need to use the bathroom. I'll meet you downstairs." She said, avoiding his question and eyes. She was gone before he could get a word in.

"Enny? Will you be alright?" He called and was met with silence.

Tobias could not help but wonder what had gone wrong. She had always been the most important person to him and to an extent, he cared for her more than he did for Rebecca. Which was understandable given their circumstances and age difference.

What went wrong?

"For fuck's sake Gato, Aristotle didn't think as hard as you did!" Alvaro suddenly flicked his boss right between the eyes. Tobias hadn't even realised that he had gotten to the living room.

"Here." Clara had already prepared a cup of coffee for him. Her face was flushed, it was obvious Alvaro was being mischievous again.

"Thank you, Clara." He thanked her, his mood lifting a bit as he saw how creamy his drink was. Finally.

"The results came in a few hours ago." Alvaro started as he sat in front of Tobias who sipped his coffee and looked at the envelopes littered on the dining table.

"The lab and Miguel's." The man explained, retrieving the papers from their cases.

Tobias could not wait to get the news.

"Both positive. They both contained a good remnant of alcohol in them. No drugs whatsoever." He said as he passed the papers to his boss gently took them and skimmed through.

"So she was not telling the truth?" Tobias could not hide the calmness be felt. It was not going to be a Rebecca 2.0. Eniola was just irresponsible.

The family was safe after all.

"Unfortunately. She was in her right sense of mind whatsoever and only a bit tipsy but somehow managed to strangle the man." Alvaro answered tugging at the identical necklace he wore with Tobias before sighing deeply.

His eyes however told a different story and it made Tobias frown.

"I have a meet-up with a detective friend of mine. Wanna come along? It would help with the case." He added as he clumsily shoved the papers back in their envelopes.

For some reason, his last statement struck a sense of urgency in Tobias who stared at him for a long moment... Before breaking the eye contact to sip his coffee.

"Gillian! Good morning. Still pissed at me? See what I did there?" Varo called out a tired looking Eniola who dragged herself to the coffee maker.

"Morning, Miss Eniola." Clara who was sipping hot chocolate quietly called from the long end of the table.

"Morning." She answered quietly before getting her coffee and sitting beside Tobias.

"You good, pequeña?" Alvaro asked, studying her appearance and look while Eniola stared at him for a long hard second. He had just called her little.

"I'm good." She sighed and blew on her coffee. Tobias guessed she wasn't going to drink it. She never took anything when she was cramping this much.

"Well, if you say so." He answered then passed on the lab's result to her. Tobias saw him discreetly slip Miguel's result inside his black blazer. "The results. They found alcohol in your system. Because of how long it took to do a test, the amount significantly dropped but the laboratory expert say it was possible that it was at least six times the quantity as at that time."

"Of course there's alcohol. I drank wine with you just two days ago." She answered weakly as she read the printed words. "What about drugs?"

"That's it, you were not drugged. It simply means you were in full control of your actions that night. As I suspected." Alvaro said not doing as much as batting an eyelash.

"Bullshit. Do another test then. I told you, I'm not lying. I was telling the damn truth. I didn't touch the man. Hell, I don't even remember what happened after I threw the fucking bottle." Eniola angrily answered, crumbling the paper and envelope in her hands and throwing it far across the table. "Fuck, I don't have the strength for this right now." She tiredly massaged her forehead.

"Do you need me to take you upstairs?" Tobias that had been quiet suggested and she shook head.

"No, it's fine. I'm fine." She almost snapped but controlled herself. "I can do it on my own." She shakily stood up with Clara surprisingly lending a hand.

"Do you need a doctor, Gillian?" Alvaro tried to help too.

"Can you both just not ask me questions? I'm tired of it. I'm just going to " She said, letting Clara help her up out the room.

"Maybe she's mad at us for not trusting her?" Varo asked Tobias who merely shrugged and sipped his coffee. "How enlightening. Thank you for the contribution."

~~~

"We have been driving for a while now, Varo. Are you sure we aren't lost?" Tobias asked Varo who was so focused on driving to some place only God knew.

He had been in the car so long that he was beginning to get a bit sick.

"I want to visit one of those fancy eateries first." His friend answered finally pulling up at a McDonald's parking lot.

Normally, this place was not more than ten minutes from his house. Why did Varo spend almost an hour going around in circles?

"And McDonald's just happens to be one of those fancy places?" He asked incredulously.

It had been a long time since he had come here. He hated fast food but Eniola liked it and most times, he had no choice but to bring her to the place.

"Exactly." Varo shut the car off and proceeded to take off his seatbelt. "Should I get the door for you, jefe?" He asked and Tobias quickly shook his head.

They're were too many people there.

He was not completely ready to go back to that life and even if he was, his arms were functional to help themselves.

"I'll get it." He replied, getting out of the car himself.

By the time they were seated at a booth, they had both gotten the attention of almost everybody in the restaurant.

Tobias liked to think it was because of Alvaro who enjoyed standing out of a crowd. Imagine getting dressed up to go to McDonald's.

With the lawyer in a black suit with a matching shirt and his midnight black hair that complimented his tanned skin, he was vastly different from Tobias who just sported a white hoodie and a pair of light blue washed out jeans. The only thing that showed Tobias was Hispanic except his accent was his slightly tanned skin and black baby hair that blended with the white. He had always preferred blonde since he was a teenager.

"So I take it that we are here because you have something to say but you can't because you can't risk anyone in the house hearing?" He asked Varo who was loudly slurping on one of the milkshakes a woman at the counter had decided to generously gift him with.

"Exactly, big brain." Varo complimented finally leaving his milkshake and reaching into the inner pockets of the blazer.

"I got this." He handed a small envelope to his boss whose eyebrows furrowed in thought.

It was another test carried out by Miguel. But this one had a different result. They were drugs in the sample. The alcohol remnants were barely visible.

"Another test?" He voiced his thoughts rereading the result again.

"Sì." He lowered his voice. "I had Miguel make a fake test result to match the lab's so it could match if the court decided to trace it. I made sure the test was carried out more than once."

"So she was telling the truth?"

"Yeah... Heard of date-rape drugs?" Varo asked and when Tobias shook his head, he continued. "There were residues of this drug... flunitrazepam or well rohypnol is the more common name. Usually used to drug women on dates. Tragic, I know. Miguel says it causes fatigue, unconsciousness and lapses in memory and judgement."

"If these results are telling the truth, it's obvious the lab's own were fake or manipulated somehow."

"So there are people plotting behind this. Obviously wanting her to go in for what she didn't do. I just don't understand why—"

"I'm sure it's for the money." Tobias finally spoke out, grounding himself and his thoughts.

"The money?" Varo was confused. "What money?"

"She's worth a lot of money. A few hundred million last time I checked. For a while, I took possession of her finances. I only returned it when she turned 21, as par her father's wishes." He couldn't think of any other plausible reasons.

"That's crazy. Didn't think she was that rich." Varo smiled but it was replaced by a frown as if he quickly remembered something. "My pay better be good."

Tobias sent him a look. "Twenty thousand a week and having access to my finances isn't enough for you?"

It shut Varo up.

"Yeah... I brought you here for something else." He said after a while.

"Oh? Why else am I here?"

"Got a call from Miguel around 3 in the morning. Said something about the storage number at the hospital being mixed up... I think someone was trying to jeopardise his shit. He doesn't understand it." Varo explained.

"Do you think it's the police?"

Varo shrugged. "I don't think they're working independently. There has to be someone calling the shots. What I don't know is how he's getting the police to work for him."

"Him?"

"Ah... Right, feminism. Her. I don't know how she's getting the police to work for her." The lawyer backtracked and Tobias chuckled.

Alvaro could be amusingly stupid sometimes.

"Why are we out here? We could have gotten a private room or gone for a walk." He said after a while of light chuckle and silence (mostly from his part).

The lawyer leaned into the plastic seat, running a finger down his brow in thought. "I think the house is taped." His tone was surprisingly gentle to avoid being overhead in the already noisy place. "Looked around this morning and could swear portraits don't always have dark indents at their corners. I would have brought one to show you but it's better to feign ignorance. There's also a microphone in between the AC vents in the car. Tiny, looks like a random clip, but it's definitely there."

Tobias slowly nodded, impressed but used to it. Varo had the sharpest eyesight when it wasn't about books. Open a book and it was like he was half blind.

"I suspected that." He said and exhaled deeply. "So the car huh..."

"Yep. What I don't know is who bugged it. Has anyone else used the car except you?" Tobias' mind went to one name.

"Bob?"

"Nah... He seems cool."

"Well... We need to get another car then. I never really liked the Jaguar." Tobias said quietly, still not dismissing his suspicions.

Varo's eyes suddenly went above Tobias' shoulder and through the glass windows. "There's a police officer inspecting the car right now, boss... And I think he looks like the one I spoke with at the house on the day I first arrived. Name's Paulo."

Tobias didn't bother to look in that direction. "Go talk to him. See what he wants." and Varo was up and out.

Tobias' mood dulled at the prospect of being spied on and he frowned. People really disregarded boundaries.

It seemed like it was really going to be another Rebecca case. He knew he had to do something about it.

After a few moments, Tobias's eyes wandered to his long forgotten milkshake and he hesitantly reached for it.

It tasted nice... Maybe Eniola would like it.