Rags to Stardom

Chapter 6

The melodious jingle from Ethan's phone woke him up from sleep the following morning. As he peered at the caller id, he became furious, “Why is she calling me. What does she want now.”

Still pissed that his sleep had been interrupted so early in the morning, he ignored the call as he struggled to go back to sleep.

Ethan had left Lopez conglomerate with Loretta earlier in the day for the Lopez estate before he drove the Range Rover back to sunrise villa, so he was extremely tired.

His phone rang out again, forcing him to pick the call in anger, “Ariella, what do you want? Why the hell are you bugging my phone?”

Before she could respond, he ended the call abruptly. 

Ariella’s voice only brought back painful memories and Ethan wasn't sure he was ready to deal with all that just yet.

But Ariella wasn't ready to give up as she kept calling over and over again, until Ethan couldn't take it anymore.

“Yes! What do you want. You have ten seconds.” He spoke sternly.

“Ethan, it’s Jake. He won't eat or sleep until he sees you. Can you come to see him?”

Ethan wondered if this was another trick of the Grays to mess with him. He was obviously not the man they once new, so if this was a trick, he would make sure they lived to regret it.

“Ethan are you there? Will you come, I am ready to pay you.” She blurted out carelessly.

Even though she was in dire need of his help, she still asked for it arrogantly.

“I have no need for your money. I'll be there as soon as I can. Tell Jake I'll soon be on my way, I'm sure he will eat.” With that he hung up.

Jake had always been fond of Ethan, so he wasn't too surprised that the little boy had acted the way he did.

He got up to quickly get breakfast as Ariella's call had marked an end to his beautiful sleep.

On Ethan's way to the Lopez estate, he saw some girls staring at him seductively. It was obvious that they saw him as a rich and powerful heir because of the car he was in.

Ethan paid them no attention as such ladies were only after what anyone had; his mind at that instant, drifted to Ariella, he concluded in his heart that she was not very different from these ladies with her treating him like she did despite all they had been through as a couple.

He remembered the countless times he had forfeited his classes just to look after her when she fell ill. He had been both the perfect boyfriend and husband to her.

If there was one thing he had come to realize since meeting Loretta, it was that there were still decent ladies that existed from wealthy families. A belief that had been previously colored by his experience with Ariella.

Ethan also realized that life of the rich was really glamorous. It was barely twenty four hours since he resumed his new position at Lopez conglomerate and invitations to prestigious occasions had already started to come back in.

He had been shocked to receive an invitation from Ariella for her wedding. The invitation had arrived the previous day and had been addressed to the head of operations, Lopez conglomerate, so it wasn't a surprise that his secretary at Lopez conglomerate had left it on his table for him.

Ariella was indeed a shameless woman. His blood boiled at the thought of her getting married to his former best friend, Jay. Ethan hadn't fully come to terms with Jay's betrayal. 

His friendship with Jay had kicked off barely a year after he got admitted into Northbridge University. Jay had accidentally knocked down Ethan and Ariella's dinner on a date night and Ethan had been furious because it had taken him months to save up enough money just to take Ariella on that fancy dinner date.

Jay had apologized, paying for both the dinner and an expensive bottle of wine. Jay had done it in such a humble manner that Ethan never thought anything about the gesture, but it all made sense to him now.

There were times after the incident when Ariella would be unavailable for hours and each time he approached the subject back then, she would wave them off by giving him one flimsy excuse or the other, yet Ethan never connected the dots until now. 

Maybe it was his mind refusing to accept such depth of betrayal from both his girlfriend and his best friend. Either way, he was smarter now, with the ability to think two steps above almost anyone.

And he had already begun to plan for Ariella's big wedding, afterall he had been invited, he laughed to himself.

Just at that instant, he spotted a group of people selling some lottery tickets. Immediately he spotted them, the medallion revealed the whole outcome of the lottery. 

“Amazing,” Ethan whispered, smiling to himself as he brought the vehicle to a halt and purchased a lottery ticket. 

Few minutes later, he walked into the living room of the Lopez family and sat down to wait for Loretta. He had barely sat down to wait when his ears picked up on a phone conversation.

Curiosity got the better part of him as he began to pay more attention to the conversation. It appeared the person on the other end of the phone was forcefully demanding money from whoever he was speaking to and Ethan could hear the phone conversation so well that it almost felt like he was a part of the phone call.

Suddenly, Samantha came out from the corner of the living room and froze as she saw Ethan on the sofa, “Let me call you back.” She finally managed to say to the person on the other end of the phone.

“You better not keep me waiting,” the voice at the other end of the line replied before the line dropped.

“How long have you been sitting there?” She asked nervously. It was strange to see her speak to him so nervously as she had totally ignored him the day he rescued Loretta from the hands of the masked men.

“Not very long.” He responded calmly. 

“Why? do you need my help?” He asked, half hoping that she would confide in him.

But instead she laughed scornfully, “So what, you want to rescue me like you did Loretta?” Her voice holding so much resentment.

“You can't save everybody you know. Some of us are beyond redemption,” she added before storming out of the living room. Leaving Ethan to ponder on the meaning of her words.

Just then, Loretta walked in with a big smile on her face.

“Hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long?” She asked apologetically.

Ethan, waking up from his thoughts, caught sight of her and swallowed hard before stammering a response. “Yes….I mean no, you didn't.” 

She was literally glowing in her cream colored gown that hugged her body perfectly, revealing her natural endowment.

“You should close your mouth now, or something might fly in.” She blurted out, feeling a bit uncomfortable with his piercing gaze.

Ethan smiled naughtily, as his body reminded of the last time he had seen such alluring figure.

As their eyes met, Loretta began to feel even more uncomfortable, “You told me your ex-wife called, can we go already!”