Jasmine’s POV:

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was how unnaturally still the man beside me was. For a few seconds, I didn’t think anything of it, my head was pounding and my body was sore from last night, a night I’d rather not remember.

I stared at the ceiling, I hated doing this but I had no choice, It was the price to pay to keep Liza alive. It was all for her, everything.

I took a deep breath and turned my head to face the client. He was lying with his back turned to me.

I hesitantly pushed through the pain in my body and reached to press my hand against his shoulder to wake him, but the moment my fingers brushed his skin I froze. He was cold, too cold.

“Hey sir, please it’s time to wake up.” I said, with my hands still pressed against his shoulder.

No response. I glanced at the clock on the wall and frowned; it was already 12 noon, I was late. Aunt Mika hated when her clients made their payments late, I’m sure she was already at the reception, fuming and waiting for me.

I turned toward him again. “Sir, please it’s time to make your payment.” He didn’t move, why isn’t he waking up? Was he a deep sleeper?

That wouldn’t surprise me, he had barely spoken the whole night. I found that very strange, most of Aunt Mika’s clients liked to talk, they always boasted about how important and rich they were. Making sure I never forgot how powerful they were.

This man was the complete opposite, he’d arrived in a casual outfit with surprisingly no security and a black mask covering half his face. I'd thought nothing of it, important men came to the Red Velvet all the time, so it wasn’t surprising that he hid his face. He barely looked at me the whole night, avoiding eye contact anytime I glanced at him.

I shook him lightly, this time his body loosely slid against my hands. I touched his arm, it was cold. I leaned closer, his chest wasn’t moving, panic immediately flared in my chest.

“No. Sir please wake up.” I pressed my fingers against his neck, in hopes of finding a pulse. There was nothing. My heart started pounding, I scrambled backwards, almost falling off the bed.

“No, no, no, no.” This can’t be happening, he was fine yesterday people just don’t die next to you overnight. I opened my mouth to call for Aunt Mika, after all it was her client, she should know what to do.

Before I could get a word out, the door suddenly burst open and five armed men in uniform stormed into the room. “Put your hands where we can see them.” They yelled, scanning the room with their guns.

I froze immediately. “Why?” I asked shakily. “Get on the floor now, we’re not here for games.” I hesitated, one of them grabbed me and pushed me down, “Now!” He yelled.

I screamed, “please I didn’t do anything. Why are you here?” He twisted my arm behind my back and pushed me further down. “Don’t resist, or else.” He said, pointing his gun directly at me.

One reached to touch the client’s neck, “He’s dead!” He shouted. Those two words nearly made me faint, a part of me knew he was dead, the other refused to accept it. I didn’t kill him, so how could he be dead? The rest of the men instantly pointed their guns at me and carefully scanned my hands.

Oh my goodness, were they looking for a weapon on me?

“You did this?” One said looking at me with sheer disgust, “I…I.” I stuttered, how could I possibly explain myself. “She definitely did.” One said nodding at the rest, another officer was already moving towards the bed.

Everything happened so quickly, one minute I was kneeling beside the bed, the next I was being put in handcuffs and being dragged towards the door.

“Wait please.” I begged, “can I talk to my Aunt first, please she’ll know what happened.” One of the men hesitated at first then nodded and motioned for the other to let me slightly loose. I hurriedly scanned the hall for Aunt Mika and finally saw her in the back corner. She was wearing a red silk robe, her grey hair tied loosely behind her head.

“Aunt Mika!” I screamed, she didn’t answer,

instead she stared blankly at me. I noticed something in her hands, a thick stack of cash. She was counting it calmly one after the other, my heart dropped.

Was she counting money? Where did she get that money from? I pushed my questions aside and screamed “Aunt Mika, please help me, these men are taking me away.” She looked at the officers and gave a small nod then she turned into the office beside the lounge, without sparing me another glance. What was happening? Why didn’t she say something?

The officers dragged me out of the Red Velvet and searched me throughly, they took everything off me, my phone, my purse, my identity card, my keys, everything. They put everything into evidence bags.

I looked back at the door. “Wait, please ask my Aunt what happened, she brought him here. She can explain everything.” I screamed. No one answered, they didn’t care.

They shoved me into the back of a police car. In the car, I held my cuffed hands over my head, I was shaking from the cold in the car, traffic moved along the road as if nothing happened. The world continued like normal, but mine had ended.

I tried to steady my ragged breathing, who was that man? Who killed him? How did the police get here so fast? Who called them? A hundred questions raced through my mind all at once.

I was supposed to leave the Red Velvet as a free woman today, instead I left in handcuffs.

I left a dead body in my room, with every finger already pointed at me.

I didn’t kill him, but it damn sure looked like it.