Allen's heart pounded in his chest as he stared at the steaming plate of lasagna before him. It wasn't just about the food anymore; it was about trust, about vulnerability. His hand trembled slightly as he wrestled with the conflicting emotions swirling inside him. Memories of how Valerie had treated him in the past flickered through his mind like a slideshow, each one a sharp pang of pain reminding him of the wounds Valerie had inflicted. How could he possibly be entangled with someone who made him lose his job and due to that, he was unable to raise any money to pay for his mother's hospital bills and free his sister from the clutches of those despicable loan sharks? Could he dare to believe that this time might be different? That perhaps, just perhaps, Valerie had changed? Or was he setting himself up for yet another fall, another crushing disappointment?As he hesitated, Allen couldn't help but wonder if he was overthinking things. Maybe it was just lasagna, after all. But deep

Allen ushered her into the house himself while his assistant trailed behind them ogling at the way the siblings were all over each other. Allen quickly ordered a maid to whip something for Stephanie to eat since she was coming from a pretty far distance. "You have a maid now?" Stephanie asked, expressing her surprise. "Well yes," Allen answered. "I've got quite a lot of hands to help around here," he said, gesturing to the house. "How can you afford to pay them?" She asked again. "Well I can," he answered again as if he had already gotten used to the life of luxury but the fact was that he couldn't be everywhere at once and the work in the house was overwhelming. "The food is ready sir," the maid, Allen had instructed to prepare food for Stephanie. Stephanie spun her toward Allen. "They even refer to you as sir, Allen!" Stephanie said in a playful tone and Allen roared out with laughter. "it's not my fault. I wanted to get them to stop calling me that but they won't, so I just

It was a typical afternoon at the estate, the sun shining brightly over the well-manicured lawns and gardens. But for Stephanie, something felt off. She couldn't place her finger on it, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen.Her stomach was growling so she decided to go to the kitchen to fix something up for herself to eat. She stepped into the large kitchen and looked around instead of whipping something up like she had intended. "Woah, this place is so huge!" She said to herself as she continued to look around. She walked up to where the plates were racked and ran her hands over the plates. The only place she had seen these kinds of cutlery was in movies. "I'm not sure I can ever get used to this." She said, smiling to herself. "Do you need something, madam?" The maid's voice startled Stephanie and she spun around to look the maid in the eye. "Uhm." Stephanie searched her head for what to say but no words were forthcoming. Even though the place wh

"Now where is it?" The man said as he began to ransack Allen's room Stephanie sat there, her eyes watching his every move, wondering what the hell he was looking for that made him look so disoriented. "Where the hell that son of a bitch keep that safe, I know it's here somewhere." The man continued to rant to himself. "That better not be Allen you're referring to as a son of a bitch you bastard!" Stephanie said against her breath making sure that he hadn't heard her. The man turned to face Stephanie. She held her breath in her throat thinking that the man had heard her and she was in for it. "You little piece of shit. Why are you making a whole lot of noise, can't you see I'm trying to concentrate here?" He yelled the words out at her. "you better don't make me make you regret your actions." He said, wagging a finger at her. Stephanie swallowed the bile in her throat. With all the chaos and noise they had caused why hadn't Allen or someone else heard them? The man moved through

The deed had already been done and all that clouded Allen's thought at that point was how to try to convince David that the safe would not be gone for long. Allen was about to speak but hesitated for a moment when he saw the look on David's face David stared at Allen, his eyes like chips of ice. "David, I need you to calm down okay?" Allen finally said. "I don't look tensed to you, or do I?" David questioned sarcastically. "That's not what meant, I....""I don't give a shit about what you mean, okay?" David bellowed. "Just bring back that safe and we're cool," David said, reducing the tone of his voice as soon as he realized that he was shouting. He turned to look at Stephanie in the face as if he knew that he was scaring her but he took his eyes off her in a heartbeat and focused them on Allen. "I'm going to bring it back, I just need you to trust me on my plan," I said as I cleaned my sweat again. "Listen here, I don't care about any of your plans. The safe got stolen from you