Rangga's footsteps grew fainter as he moved farther away from the restaurant, leaving behind an oppressive silence on the building's upper floor. The night air blowing through the vents felt like ice against the skin.
Valerie clenched her handbag until its leather straps wrinkled. Her eyes widened, blazing with anger mixed with overwhelming fear. Her beautiful face, usually plastered across the city's billboards, now looked wild and completely out of control.
"Are you happy now, Aruna?" Valerie hissed, striding quickly toward Aruna. Her voice trembled as she held back a scream so the restaurant staff, who had begun whispering in the distance, wouldn't hear.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you? You dropped that phone so all of this would come out. You ruined my career!"
Aruna slipped her cracked phone into the pocket of her cream-colored shirt. She looked at Valerie without a glimmer of victory in her eyes. There was only utter exhaustion.
"I was only answering a question that never should have existed if you'd been honest from the start, Val," Aruna replied softly.
"Honest?" Valerie gave a hollow laugh, dry and devoid of humor. "Who would buy your manuscript if my name weren't on the front cover? You don't have a face anyone wants to sell. Without me, your writing is nothing but a pile of worthless paper in that cramped room of yours!"
The words struck Aruna, but this time the pain no longer made her chest tighten. She stepped back, putting distance between them.
"Our contract is over," Aruna said curtly. "I'll return the advance for the second manuscript tomorrow morning."
Without waiting for Valerie's ready-to-explode response, Aruna turned and walked away. She followed the long marble-floored corridor toward the service elevator in the back corner of the building.
Inside the elevator, its walls lined with thick mirrors, Aruna stood alone. Her reflection looked pale, with dark circles beneath her eyes, but her gaze held a calmness she had never felt before in all her years. She touched her chest. For the first time, she didn't feel like she was hiding.
Heavy rain greeted Aruna as soon as she stepped out of the skyscraper's main lobby. Raindrops pelted the sidewalk, reflecting the warm yellow glow of the streetlights. Aruna let the hem of her shirt become completely soaked as she walked along the sidewalk, which was beginning to empty.
A black sedan slowed beside her, matching Aruna's pace as she walked without an umbrella.
The front passenger window slowly lowered. Behind the wheel, Rangga stared straight ahead, watching the slick road drenched by the rain. He didn't turn toward Aruna, but he adjusted the car's speed to match hers exactly.
"Get in," Rangga's voice sounded heavy, cutting through the roar of rain drenching the street. "There's something we need to settle."
Aruna stopped walking. Rainwater dripped from her wet strands of hair onto her cheek. "There's nothing left to settle, Mr. Rangga. Everything was made clear up there."
Rangga hit the brakes, bringing the car to a complete stop. He turned and looked at Aruna through the open window. There was no anger left in his eyes, only an intense, solemn resolve.
"This isn't over," Rangga said quietly but firmly. He reached for a thick bundle of papers on the passenger seat beside him—a draft of the original manuscript Aruna had sent anonymously by email several months earlier, before Valerie's name was put on it. "This manuscript—you wrote the unpublished closing chapter, didn't you?"
Aruna froze beneath the pounding rain. Her fingers suddenly went rigid. That closing chapter was deeply personal, something she had never given to Valerie or the publisher—a secret manuscript she had uploaded only to her old, long-dead blog.
Rangga opened the car door and stood beneath the downpour, ignoring the luxurious suit that was beginning to grow completely soaked. He stepped toward Aruna, clutching the bundle of papers tightly against his chest.
"On the last page," Rangga's voice trembled as he stared directly into Aruna's widened eyes, "you wrote the real name of a man who saved your life at the city library ten years ago. The name of the man who made you want to start writing."
Aruna held her breath. Her heart suddenly stopped beating.
Rangga stepped an inch closer, lowering his face until Aruna could see the flash of pain and deep longing in his eyes.
"How could you know my real name, Aruna?"