In the living room
"So, to talk business, I'd like for my daughter here to come live with me again." Mrs. Cooper suggests, "I'll be more confident in restrictions of the things she's exposed to in my absence – the main among others, alcohol absorption." Mrs. Cooper gives Lauren a reproachful look which immediately panged the latter with guilt.
"Your daughter is not an alcoholic ma'am." Felix rolls his eyes.
"We wouldn't want for her to become one either now do we? I am sure in your abilities to help Amy in re-building her mental state but I'd prefer everything to be done at the mansion. After all, my daughter is the sole heir to my inheritance and she's to live as is."
Lauren looks around her condo to understand what did possibly not meet with the luxurious taste of Holier-than-thou Highness here. "What's wrong with my condo?"
"Honey," Ms. Cooper starts, shunning the common aspect of Lauren's humble condo with great distaste, "for one, the neighborhood it's in is not secured enough to protect my daughter, especially because of her status." She smiles, "even for you too. I'd like for you to move out this place."
"Theo bought it for me." Lauren mentions, "you remember the son-in-law you married me off to for financial reasons and personal gains?"
Mrs. Cooper raises an eyebrow, "I do. What's the complaining? Aren't you happy with him?"
Lauren stays silent. She has no right to complain. Mrs. Cooper is right. She actually fell in love with Theo and Theo had always treated her right and loved her.
Mrs. Cooper takes the silence as a yes and continues with her suggestions. "So, I want you and Amy back at the mansion. She'll stay there until she recovers from her pity party for attention and gains back the reign of the conglomerate." She looks at Felix, "which by the way has now a deadline and I would wish you to comply." She throws her attention back to Lauren. "Now that Bruce is nominated, I have to help manage her campaign for the presidency. Last time, he didn't make it because of these two escape which made national headlines and made him look bad in front of his party. Now, he's guaranteed the seat of the White House and I'm not letting this chance go by."
"Look at that," Lauren sits back displaying a smirk, "who would have thought it? Mrs. Cooper relying on her daughter's homosexuality to advance. The very thing you rejected about her."
"I never rejected it. I just wished she'd have kept it hidden."
It was Felix's turn now to speak up, "What do you mean a deadline?"
"A month from now, I want my daughter back on her feet ready to be married."
"What?!" Both Felix and Lauren jumps. "A month? To whom?"
"Well, a slight change of plans in regards to whom she'll be wed to." Mrs. Cooper admits, "The university president in Abu Dhabi informed me that an Arabian prince is looking to take Carmen away and he is more than pleased because, apparently, Amy is too much of a troubling candidate for her daughter. And besides, it's not like she has been faithful. She had an affair with a certain cop."
"What?"
"Yes. Some crooked cop in the name of Sam Tucker."
"Sam?" Felix was completely shock at the discovery. "Sam? Really?" the world was definitely too small.
"You know this particular fellow?" Mrs. Cooper frowns.
Felix shakes his head no.
Mrs. Cooper continues, "Anyway, when I confronted her about it, she blamed Amy for not keeping her promise of loving her. Amy apparently caused her too much suffering."
Lauren rolls her eyes, "and what did Carmen say?"
"She told me she's fed up with the family drama."
"Only thing I agree on with her." Lauren admits, "she must have been tired of you. Wasn't Carmen gay?"
Mrs. Cooper shrugs, "she's a free-spirit."
"So, a month?" Felix repeats.
"Yes. In thirty days, Amy will be walking down the aisle. This decision is final. I should have married that woman a long time ago. You know what?" she changes her mind, "make that ten days."
"Ok, now you're not being reasonable Farrah." Lauren says.
"In ten days, my daughter will be married off to someone of my choosing. Now that this pest is out of the way, nothing will keep my daughter from marrying who I want her to."
Right then, Felix wanted to knock the bullshit out of the witch's mouth. But he held off but nothing could take away the hurt and anger from his heart. "I can't let you make that decision for Amy, especially when she's not at the capacity to comply in accordance to your selfish whims." Felix spat.
"And who are you to speak to me like that?" Mrs. Cooper stands up to face the insolent man, "I demand respect young man."
"Respect is not demanded, it's earned." Felix looks straight within the woman's eyes, "And so far, I'm afraid, you have earned shit from me."
"Felix, cool it." Lauren holds Felix by the arms because it looks like he was about to hit the mother of the woman he's very much in love with.
"How insolent of you!"
"And how wrong of you to impose your selfishness on your only daughter."
"Listen to me you brat, you're only her therapist. Know your place!"
"And that's exactly why I'm telling you that it is wrong of you to take advantage of your own daughter's vulnerability to marry her off." Felix protests, "Ma'am, she won't be able to defend herself."
Mrs. Cooper grins, slyly, "who said Amy needed to defend herself? I'm not asking her to do it. Everything is already lying in wait. The priest, the church, decorations, the reception Hall. Everything is ready. Amy will be walking down the aisle in exactly TEN DAYS!"
"I'll do it."
All three of them turn around to find Amy standing in front of her room. She had heard everything. There's no reason to fight anymore. And she's tired of the fighting. She's tired of everything. Whatever her mother asks from her from now on, she'll simply comply.
"Mom, I'll do it." Amy says, walking out of the room followed by Mrs. Cooper's assistant Tracey, "I will not fight with you anymore. I promise."
"Amy, what are you saying?" Felix walk towards her, heartbroken and confused, "listen, you are just saying that because you are feeling hopeless. You can't possibly agree with your mother."
Amy stares at the man with tired eyes. And Felix could read the desperation and exhaustion in them. He could also read sadness, resignation, uncertainty, and complicity. And Amy always had fire in her eyes, and that fire seems to have now extinguished. He can't find Amy's arrogance nor her will to live. Amy looks dead and abandoned. And all of this is his fault. Everything is his fault. Everything could have been avoided if Amy knew the truth that Karma is not dead and that Karma is him.
Amy breaks away from his grasp and steps away to stand in front of his mother, "I will marry the person you tell me to. I will not rebel. I will not fight your requests. Everything that you want me to do, I will do."
"Amy, you will regret this." Lauren adds, still not believing what's being unfold in front of her. Amy had always been a rebel. Never, not even once, did she comply with anything that Mrs. Cooper had asked of her to do. What's going on now?
"I will," she says, "but I'll also get over it."
Mrs. Cooper takes Amy in her arms, and hugs her. "Come here my love. I know what's best for you. I'm your mother after all."
"I know."
Felix couldn't take it. He couldn't handle this situation at all. This will forever change his life. His whole life depends on whatever is happening right now. There's no way he's going to let Amy get away from him. He loves her. He loves her too much to lose her like this. In his rage, he grabs a vase and throws it across the kitchen wall.
"Calm down Felix!" Lauren scowls.
"You're not getting married Amy and that's final!" Felix fumes, grabbing Amy from Farrah's embrace.
And in his haste thinking, he ends up pulling her tight against his body. He then kisses her. His mouth urging her lips apart. And it wasn't like their other kisses. This one was demanding and staked a claim over Amy without caring whether she'd be OK with it. This kiss had enveloped her into an eternal wave of passion, searing her soul to a fate of imprisonment to him for the everlasting period of lifetimes to come. There was no way for her to escape even if she had desperately wanted to. Instead, Amy let his mouth wash over her, overpoweringly penetrating the deepest being that was her soul to possess it and awakening the oddest of feelings and inexplicable sensations that have overwhelmed her.
Felix breaks away, breathless from the kiss, "I can't let you do this." He breathes, "Pooka, I can't."
"Why do you feel so familiar to me?" Amy gives the man a meaningful look. "Why do you call me Pooka?"
"That's because I'm…" he starts, with a tear rolling down his cheek, "I'm…"
"Ok, this is where I come in." Lauren pulls Felix away from Amy, "I think we've taken this conversation too far and I'm putting an end to it."
"From what I've seen so far, I can't let Amy stay here any longer." Mrs. Cooper grabs her handbag, "pack up your things Amy, I'm taking you back to the mansion."
Bad memories come flooding back along with painful realization of not having Amy by his side. He got scared. Just like how he lived in fear and emptiness for years when he was away from Amy the first time and had to live away from her. "I can't let you do this." Felix reaches out to grab Amy one more time but Lauren keeps him, "I can't let you take her away from me again."
"Again?" Amy raises an inquiry eyebrow.
"Will you shut the fuck up!" Lauren nudges the man beside her. "Damn!"
"No," Amy silences Lauren, "I want to hear what he has to say." She divers the attention back to the man. "He confuses me. What do you mean by 'again'?"
"Amy, I'm sure he meant nothing." Lauren insists.
"No, I don't think he meant that." Amy persists in finding reason, "he called me Pooka and it's not the first time either. Only one person calls me Pooka. Who are you?"
Felix looks at Lauren begging him with her eyes to not spill the truth or everything will just go to shit. And then, he looks at Amy. Amy. The love of his life. If only he could tell her the truth. If only, he could grab her and tell her everything about him, about them. But he can't. He looks her in the eyes and for one second, as if a sparkly and brief nuance of hope flashed within the girl's eyes. But it was only brief, so brief that Felix thought maybe it was just him imagining things. Because, what would Amy be hoping for from him? He's only her therapist. Nothing more and nothing else.
Meanwhile, Amy is curious to understand why the man kissed her the way that he had done. And it did make an impact on her and she can't or refuse to accept the feelings. But oh wow! And it felt so familiar and so real that Amy thought she was being kissed once again by the only person that ever awoke so many feelings in her all at once. She doesn't know how they are going to get past this episode or respond to each other now because something just changed. There's no denying it now. Something just shifted in their relations to each other and that something can't be ignored either. But she'll be damned if she gives in to a man. That's not who she is.
"I…" Felix begins to answer but he couldn't find it in him to say the truth. Though stronger his love and his will to come clean to Amy, his need to finish this whole dilemma weighted more on him. He had to clear his name. No matter what. No matter how. He needed to clear his name and take revenge on Amy's mother. He'll have to risk his love but for sure, he'll gain it right back. Amy was his and only his. Or so help him God, he'll kidnap her at the wedding when the time comes.
"I can't…" he pleaded with his eyes, "I'm sorry for my behavior. But now that I'm thinking about it, you should go with your mother. I think it'd be best for you."
Lauren silently sighs in relief. That was a close one.
"The car is waiting for us downstairs ma'am." Tracey finally speaks up, "Gregory is ready whenever you are."
"Thanks Tracey." Mrs. Cooper heads towards the front door, "I don't think Amy will need her things. We will buy new clothes on the way." She says, opening the door, "Let's go Amy. I don't have all day."
Amy is about to walk out but she stops. She had to say something even though she didn't know what but leaving just like that, didn't feel right to her. Especially since she's so confused with everything that just took place. "I'm leaving. Thanks for everything."
"Don't mention it." Felix simply responds.
"I hope we get to see each other again. Don't be a stranger." She says, then she hugs Lauren and walks out of the place with Mrs. Cooper and Tracey follows behind.
"I promise I'll get you back Amy." Felix says, as soon as the door closes behind them, "I swear on what I hold dear to my heart and everything that is Holy. I swear."