.

[b] CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
DESERTED

When Fiona told Bella how the 'Mike impersonator' had called her to say that he knew they were searching for him, Bella opened her mouth. She was beginning to think that the kid detectives were right.

"You mean the man said that he knew you were searching for him?"

"Yes," Fiona affirmed. "But how did he know?"

"Who knows?" Bella said and yawned. She was sure Blossom was not innocent.

Bella didn't want to raise an issue once again, so she decided to keep the findings to herself. However, she would be wary of her sister.

Moses kept on sending more and more messages to Frank, but the latter didn't respond any.

Blossom was sad that she couldn't make any dime from Miss Fiona. Now she became more desperate to see that the wedding did not take place.

A week to the wedding, Fiona in the company of Mary visited Bella's residence. They had come to formally invite Mrs Lucia to the wedding.

Blossom became sad at the sight of Fiona. She just left the parlour and didn't return until she had left. However, she heard all the conversation going on between Bella and Fiona:

"Bella, you won't believe that Mike is an impersonator."

"Impersonator? How?"

"He is a fake!" Fiona said. "That guy is not Mike at all."

"How?"

"We have found the real Mike. He's as gentle as ever."

"Good to hear this!" Bella was excited. "I hope he isn't pretending anyway."

"Not at all Bella," she said. "In fact the fake Mike called us while we were with the original Mike."

"You don't mean it!" Bella screamed. "What did he say?"

"He said that he was aware that we were searching for him but we would never find him."

"He said that?" Bella made a yell. "But how did he know?"

"I am surprised myself; perhaps Michael and Jennifer are still at work."

"I don't think it's Michael and Jennifer behind this."

"Then who?"

"I don't know," Bella said and plunged into a deep thought.

"So what did you tell him when he called? What did you tell that impersonator?"

"Frank was angry and told him that we would surely find him because he has no secret anymore. Frank told him that when caught, he would cough out ten times the #150,000 I gave to him."

Blossom froze with shock at the corner where she was. It was unbelievable to her that Moses had actually collected some money from Miss Fiona but had told her otherwise.

Blossom went to Moses' house later in the day but was shocked to discover that he had left without informing her. His neighbour said they saw him packing earlier that day.

"Moses is gone...just like that?" Blossom wept as she called and called his phone number without a sign that it would go through.

Blossom was empty. She was sure that she had lost it all--lost a lover, lost the money, lost all. She wept homeward and cursed Moses under her breath.

Blossom went for her abandoned school bag where Miss Fiona's credentials were kept. She brought out the certificate and tore them furiously. Then she sighed.
No! she was only in deep imagination. She hadn't torn them yet. Now for real she went for her bag and searched for the credentials but they were missing.

"What!" she yelled. "Where is it?"

Blossom knew how impossible it would be for her to confront Bella on the matter of the missing certificates from her bag. She had even lost her composure in recent times.

Bella actually had the certificate. Once she was sure that Blossom was the one behind it all, she decided to check thoroughly for the certificates in her possession. She searched through her belongings for days and finally discovered them in her bag.

Bella didn't want Blossom totally disgraced. She would simply have Miss Fiona promise her that she wouldn't tell anyone that she had found the credentials.

Bella met Miss Fiona and told her everything. She made her promise to keep it secret before giving her the credentials.

Miss Fiona couldn't take the gush of emotion that had engulfed her. She went straight to Jennifer's home to apologise for everything. Jennifer accepted and together they went to Michael's home to do the same.

Bella didn't keep her thoughts to herself. She showed it to Blossom by keeping her at arms length. She refused to be drawn into any talks with her and Mrs Lucia noticed it. She called them to ask if they were quarrelling and they said no.

Blossom wondered why Miss Fiona and Frank hadn't come to foment trouble with her if actually Bella had given them the credentials.

"Maybe it's still in her possession," Blossom thought. "I'd better find a way of getting it and implicating her with it."

If only Blossom could lay her hands on the credentials once again, she would stuff them into Bella's bag and call her mother to be a witness. Then her mother would in turn call Miss Fiona to come and see what Bella had done. However, it was all a fantasy since the owner now already had them.
[/b]

[b] Frank apologized to Fiona for not listening to her. He had heard it all from Benjamin and Bella.

"But why didn't you tell me that all these are happening?" Frank asked.

"I was scared you could take a drastic decision," Fiona voiced out.

"You don't have to be scared Fiona," Frank said. "I will only follow the right path to see that your missing credentials come back to you and the evil-doers are punished."

Frank believed that Jennifer and Michael must be responsible for taking Fiona's credentials to Mike, as well as taking all the pictures to him too.

"You said Mike said that he has two of your students as his accomplice, isn't it?"

"Yes," Fiona replied.

"Then it must be the two kid detectives. We must make sure they get punished for this," Frank said with a face squeezed up. It was exactly what Mrs Fiona wanted to avoid by not telling Frank about the missing credentials.

Frank was angry the more when he heard that Fiona had paid her ex-lover some money in order to get back her documents.

"Take me to those kids' homes," said Frank impatiently.

Bloss continued to ask Moses if Miss Fiona had paid him the money he requested. He said no when it was indeed a capital YES. Blossom got angry and vowed to burn all her documents if she did not pay the money.

"Moses, I can't wait anymore! I'm off to set all these rubbish on fire!" Blossoms said like one without a conscience.

"Don't do that yet, Blossom," Moses said and Blossom concurred.

"But why is she delaying to pay?" Blossom got angry.

Bella and Benjamin continued rehearsing the Special number, though they had distractions on every side. They believed nothing would happen to the date fixed for the wedding.

Frank, as he promised, had been to Jennifer and Michael's home. He had accused them of working with Mike and they had denied such.

"Now tell me why you think it is the right thing to betray your teacher?" Frank spoke harshly to them. "I am disappointed in you both."

Michael and Jennifer ran out of words. They felt humbled by Frank's touching but wordy speech, yet deep down their hearts, they knew they had done nothing to deserve such.

"We know nothing about all these!" they protested but Frank left them in fury in the end.

Michael and Jennifer stood all alone at the gate of Michael's home as they saw Frank and Fiona drive off. They were speechless.

"Wh-what can we do n-now to prove our innocence?" Jennifer asked.

"I don't know," said Michael. Now their parents too had reprimanded them.

Moses kept on sending threat messages to Frank, warning him to desist from Fiona because she belonged to him.

Michael and Jennifer had a plan. They thought to share their ideas with Bella and Benjamin.

"Bella, you said that Blossom had once asked you who owned miss Fiona's key, isn't it?" they asked.

"Yes," Bella replied.

"Now let's try a trick and see if it would work out," they said and Bella felt it was a great idea. The idea was that Bella would always engage Blossom in talks about Fiona and Frank, sometimes updating her with wrong information. Then they would see if Mike would work with such information or not. If he worked with it, then it would mean that there was definitely a connection between Mike and Blossom, they thought.

"Blossom," Bella called as she sat beside her sister. "Do you know that Miss Fiona's wedding is likely not going to take place on the fixed date?"

"Why?" Blossom asked loudly as though she was shocked.

"It's a long story, Blossom," Bella said. "In summary, Frank discovered that Fiona is double-dating. Could you believe that Fiona is dating her ex?"

"Abomination!" Blossom screamed. "Tell me more!"

Bella began the story in full.

Blossom fell for the tricks. She updated Moses on everything she had just heard Bella told him.

"Moses, we are winning," Blossom said. "Do you know that Frank is having it hot with stubborn Fiona right now? She refused to pay our money, so that serves her right!"

Moses worked on the information and sent a message to Fiona:

"You want to prove stubborn, don't you? Now your fiance won't go ahead with the marriage. Why can't you just pay the #300,000 once and for all and forget about it all?"

Miss Fiona smiled when she saw the message.

"This Mike will never stop amazing me," she whispered.

When Bella and Benjamin told Jennifer and Michael about the latest message sent by Mike to Fiona, the kid detectives said, "Definitely Blossom is the villain we are talking about!"

"What if she isn't the one?" Bella defended her sister.

Frank asked Fiona for the account details he paid the #150,000 into. They would track the account and find out its owner. Definitely it was not Frank's account number because it was not having his name at all.

Frank was shocked when he was told that the account holder had been confirmed dead since five years back.

Frank made some findings and got to know Mike's new residence. He took Fiona along and luckily, they found him.

"Mike!" Fiona yelled.

"Fiona!" Mike was shocked to see her as well.

Meanwhile Frank and Fiona wetr in Mike's home, Blossom and Bella were discussing heart to heart about the couple-to-be.

"So Bella, what's the latest about Miss Fiona's wddding plan?" Blossom asked with much interest.

"I don't think they would get married as planned. Anyway, at the moment, Fiona and Frank are searching for Mike."

"Searching for him? Do they have any information about where he stays?"

"Of course yes! They would pay him a surprise visit."

"So...tell me...where does he stay?"

"Why do you ask?" Bella was suspicious.

"Oh! Just asking anyway!"

"I don't know," Bella said.

"Excuse me a minute," Blossom said and walked away. She knew that Miss Fiona would soon discover that Moses was a fraud if she eventually met with Mike as Bella claimed.

Blossom sent a message to Moses at once.

Frank was angry at Mike. He held him by the collar and accused him of everything. Mike was disappointed in Fiona.

"So...you...you bring your fiance here to threaten me, Fiona? What have I done to merit all these?" Mike spoke up in innocency.

"Frank! Leave him alone!" Fiona screamed and burst into tears. "We are in the wrong place?"

Frank was shocked.

"Why?" he whispered as he let Mike have his freedom.

"This is not the Mike who threatens me on phone."

"Why do you think so?" Frank said in embarrassment.

"His voice," Fiona whispered. "This is Mike's real voice. The voice out there was a fake!"

Frank and Fiona looked on in silence. They were embarrassed. While still in that mood, a call came in for Miss Fiona. She picked up her call.

"Fiona, I learn that you and your fiance are searching for me. Just forget it because you can't see me. I, Mike, am like a breeze. So, don't look for me anywhere in the world. Ha, ha, ha," Mosed laughed.

Fiona allowed the phone to slip down her hand as she broke into tears. She had to kneel before Mike her ex-lover to apologise. He forgave her.

Mike was jovial. He hugged Frank and said they should not feel sad.

"Fiona, I have long moved on," Mike said. "Getting to marry in November."

"You don't mean it!" Fiona screamed.

"So...when are you guys planning to have your wedding? I would need an invitation card."

"Oh! It's September 12. Here, have it!" Fiona gave him a copy of the I.V she just took from her bag.

Just then, Frank whispered to Mike's ear, "We need to talk privately."

The man smiled.[/b]

Essyprity:
Hey Sammy! Hope ur good? I want to ask politely for more updates and to say am really enjoying ur story. Keep up d good work

So sorry for not updating...just because I'm human(a Nigerian for that matter) that's why. You know hustling things na, trying to market my published storybook WE ARE ABLE, meeting with clients for Home LEsson services offered by my org, etc.

Anyway sha, I'll try to update b4 d Champions League match start today. I want to follow the match

aprilwise:
Hope it's not a crime to ask for more updates? I need more

definitely not a crime.