Vito stood there with her purse clutched beside her, her expression shifted the moment she noticed him. She blinked a few times. “Matthew? W- what are you doing here?”“I should be asking you the same question Vito, what are you doing here?” Of all the places he would think of running into her, it certainly wasn’t here. He knew Ashley and her friends so well, there was no way Vito could afford a place like this on her own.“I just moved in, I’m your neighbor… how about you?” “You can drop the act, I’m sure that Ashley must have told you about my true identity by now.”Vito swallowed, straightening her back. “Well, I’m happy for you. At least now you’re no longer a bum.”“Don’t you dare speak to the young master in such a disrespectful manner!” he barked, startling Vito. Matthew raised his hand in the air, indicating that he paused. “Let her be. She has never been one to watch her mouth. Vito, leave my house.” He said, then banged the door shut on her face. The puppy barked due to th
Lola could feel the bile rise to her throat as she held the picture up, she had to let go of it and look away. “Jesus christ,” she whispered in a low tone, moving away from the table. She turned to Karen who was already on the verge of tears. “Karen what is this?” she asked softly, voice filled with concern. Karen couldn’t look her in the eyes, so she fixed her eyes on the ground. She didn’t even realize when tears began streaming profusely from her face. “This can not be happening to me,” she muttered to herself, running her fingers through her thin hair. “Tell me what’s going on,” Lola pressed on, moving closer. She grabbed Karen by the arms to hold her still, “look at me, what’s wrong.”Karen was still quivering, her eyes already puffy and red. She moved away to go sit down on the couch, propping her palms against her knees. Her lips parted as she attempted to speak but she couldn’t say a word. “I’ll get you water,” Lola quickly suggested and then rushed to the kitchen area, sh
Matthew just came down from the car, shutting the door behind him before making his way into the faculty building. It didn’t take long before he reached the entrance and he ran into Mr Anthony. “Would you look at Mr Houston himself,” he said mockingly. Anthony was standing in the way so he couldn’t walk past him. “What do you want?” Matthew asked, already sounding irritated. “Nothing, I just hate liars, just look you’re no longer with the car that you came with the other day, I’m sure you borrowed it and that’s why, now you have gone to borrow another one, how long would you continue to pretend like this?”Matthew rolled his eyes, “I got into an accident with my Ferrari so I’m using the Mercedes now. If you don’t have anything better to say to me, I would like to be on my way to class.”“Cheap pretender,” Anthony muttered before walking away. Matthew was going to let it slide and just ignore, but then he paused, clenching his fists by his sides. “Let’s make a deal Mr Anthony, If
Anthony marched into the dean's office. “I would like to see Mr Donovan,” he said to the secretary. She looked up from her computer. “Oh, the dean is having a meeting right now. Is anything the matter? I can tell him later.“I want to see him now. How long is his meeting going to take?”“Give or take, maybe thirty minutes,” she replied. He exhaled sharply out of frustration. “I’ll wait.” He plopped down on the chair in the waiting area, tapping his legs impatiently as he waited. It didn’t take too long before the door clicked open and a man walked out, it was the deputy dean. “Mr Anthony, what brings you to the office?” he asked in a friendly tone. Everyone in the school had so much respect for Mr Anthony because he was one of the best among his peers. “I actually wanted to see the dean, I need to have a student reported for misconduct, he has to be kicked out of the school.”The deputy dean frowned a bit, his face falling. “Would you calm down a little? What is going on?” he ask
The mere mention of her name struck fear in their hearts. John could feel his stomach drop when he heard Mr Donovan’s words, even the secretary who was standing by her desk suddenly felt weak in the knees. Anthony however was still resistant, there was n way he would believe that Matthew, a man he considered to be a nobody, was a true Houston. “B-but it can’t be, Mrs Amelia Houston has only one grandson, everyone knows that, It’s Xander Houston,” he insisted. Donovan smiled. “She actually has two, she explained it to me the day she came to my office, why? Is anything the matter?” he aske, arching an eyebrow. Anthony was dumbstruck, he wanted to speak but his words failed him. He began to grow nervous, his palms becoming sweaty. “But that day you told me that a Houston was going to be in my class, and Mr Xander showed up.”“Mr Matthew was also in attendance that same day, as a matter of fact, nobody saw it coming, Mr Xander got enrolled last minute anyway.”Noticing how tense the at
A small smile parted his lips when she let out those words. “I don’t see why not,” he responded, thinking about the fact that Lola had left him for his brother. At least, that was his impression of her anyway. Elena walked into the office with a file in her hands. “Mr chairman, I need to have a word with you for a moment,” she said, faking a smile as she looked towards Selena and then back at him. “Sure thing,” he replied, getting up from his desk. “You know, whatever you want to say to the CEO, you can still say it here. I am a director, after all,” Selena replied with a small smile. “Mrs Winchester, please, not the time.” Elena didn’t bother to try to pretend to be nice, or even pretend to like her, and she was direct with it and straight to the point. Matthew was a bit confused, but he could see that the two certainly did not like each other. He followed Elena out into the hallway, and they moved towards her office but didn’t enter. She pushed back loose strands of her hair as
Vito walked back into the house with a bag filled with groceries. She dumped them on the couch and then made her way to the room, she had a lot of cleaning to do, but for now, this would do. A smile formed on her face when she swirled her head around, taking in every inch of her luxury apartment. “This is life,” she said to herself, entering the main bedroom and plopping down forcefully on her bed. Even the fabric of the material was far better than what she was used to in her former low end apartment. The only thing she didn’t anticipate was that she would be neighbors with Matthew Houston, she had no idea that he even owned a flat here. She was still deep in her day dreaming when the doorbell rang, “oh great, it must be the food I ordered,” she said to herself as she skipped towards the door excitedly. Even though she had gone to shop for groceries, she didn’t actually plan on cooking just yet. She had just set up her apartment and for nwo was more concerned with resting. To her
Xander and Lola shared a look with each other. He pressed the phone against his ears. “Yes, what did you find out?” He asked, his face twisting into a small frown. “We were able to trace the address of the person who sent the mail. I spoke with the editor and he provided me with some details. I can send the address to you right away.”“Please do, and thank you.”The call ended with a characteristic beep. Lola raised her head. “Have we found this blackmailer?”“Something like that.”Just then, Karen opened her room door with her phone clutched within her grip, she looked a little worried like she had just seen something bad. “He texted me, the monster behind this just sent me a text, he wants me to send him money.”Lola sighed. “You won’t send that bastard a penny, I assure you, Xander and I are already on it, we have the address of the man trying to do this to you and we’re going to see him.”“Now?” Xander asked in disbelief. “Yes, is there anything wrong with it now?”He shrugged.
Matthew faced his mother as soon as Serena exited the room. “There was no need to be harsh to her,” he said. Amelia looked stunned and she faced him. “Her family is the reason why you're here in the hospital and you're defending her?”“We don't have any evidence that they were actually behind the explosion, at least not yet.” “The winchesters are our sworn enemies, they have no business being around. Come on Matthew open your eyes. Do you think that they sent their daughter over to our company for no reason? They sent her as a spy, they planted her so that they could get inside information.”He took a deep breath. “Well if that's true, then why would they have the company where their daughter works bombed?” “Was she in the office when the building exploded?” Amelia watched Matthew's expression shift slightly. “Exactly,” she continued. “This was a deliberate plan I can assure you and the moment the truth about the investigations comes out, Vanessa is going to regret everything.”The
Matthew and Charles were alone in the hospital room because Xander had left to go and get some food for them. “How is Henry? is he in the house?” I ask, leaning forward.Charles cleared his throat and straightened his back. “So far they're still safe and I assume things are going to remain that way.”“Good, the moment I recover I need to go ahead and find out the truth. I have a feeling that everything that has been going wrong is linked to the truth about these red vipers.”The butler was a bit taken back “What do you mean young master?”“I just have a feeling that everything is related, the attempted kidnapping and all, it's not just random. I think there's someone behind all of this, maybe it's not just the Winchester's.”The room fell silent as Charles was deeply considering the possibility that the red vipers could have had a hand in what was going on. Suddenly the door clicked open and Xander returned holding packs of takeouts in his hand. But he wasn't alone, behind him was L
The history behind the Winchesters and the Houstons was a rather complicated one. Back then, Edward Winchester and Henry Houston used to be really close friends. And so was Vanessa and Amelia before they got married to their husbands. Amelia came from the Briggs family while Vanessa came from the Carter family.Edward and Amelia were the first ones to fall in love with each other, they spent so much time together and had even gone to the same college. The four were a tight knitted friend group, almost inseparable. However Edward had to move abroad because of work, but he couldn't take Amelia with him.In order to fulfill their dreams of starting a family and pulling themselves out of an ordinary life, Edward took the opportunity to go abroad and work in the sea as a marine engineer while Amelia was to stay back and wait for him.Unfortunately during his absence, Henry and Amelia had begun to grow close. At the time Vanessa was in love with Henry so this turned her bitter.Vanessa ha
Amelia was in the back seat lost in thought as the car drove towards the conference center. She was thinking about the kind of speech she would deliver.Speculations were already flying left right and center, there were a lot of affected families and some people might even started to spoil the Houston name.When the car arrived at the venue, the driver got down to open the door for her. A small crowd had begun to gather and the moment they saw Amelia Houston getting down from her car they all rushed towards her, Mics and cameras pointed in her direction.The bombarded her with questions but she ignored and simply just walked in. Amelia was only going to give her press conference once and once alone. They welcomed her, parting the way as she mounted the stage. She scanned the room with her eyes, her gaze confident.“Today is a dark Day, not just for the company but even for my family. Because of this senseless act of violence lives have been lost. To the families of the victim, know t
By now it was all over the news and images of the burning and collapsed Houston office building were all over the internet and media outlets. Lola was facing back and forth in front of the TV. “Okay you need to stop moving around you're making me dizzy,” Karen complained.“This kind of thing doesn't just randomly happen, an explosion that brought down the whole building? They said they are still yet to confirm how many people have died. Karen I used to work there,” she whispered softly. “The police have started an investigation and I'm sure we will soon know what exactly happened.”Lola shook her head. “You don't need an investigator to tell you the truth in this situation. I mean we saw in those videos how each floor seems to be going off. I think whoever planted the bombs put it on several floors.”She whipped out her phone from her purse and failed Xander's number. “Hello, Xander, any news so far?” “Nothing yet. Matthew is still unconscious but the doctor says he's getting bette
Lola's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her palms in shock. “He was caught in the explosion? How is he? Is he okay?” “I don't know but I think I have to go to the hospital.”Xander quickly grabbed his car keys and was about to back away when Lola spoke. “I should come with you.”He grew worried, remembering the last time that they had gone to the hospital together. “I think you should just stay here for now, grandma probably still thinks that you are Matthew's girlfriend and I don't want things to become awkward.”She nodded, understanding where he was coming from. “Just keep me updated when you get to the hospital okay?” “Of course.” He planted a soft kiss on her forehead before leaving. He rushed into his car and got in driving straight to the hospital. As he moved down the road he turned on the radio. The presenter was already talking about the bombing of the Houston company building. Several speculations were flying about, there were some arguments that there was an
Amelia covered her mouth with her palms as her eyes grew wide. An enormous amount of dust rose, enveloping the area.For a moment it was impossible to see anything, and people began to back away slowly. As the dust was beginning to settle, it became clear that the building had crumbled. Yet there was no sign of Matthew. She grew nauseous, her legs buckling and threatening to give away under her weight. Charles was quickly behind her and he supported her as she fell backwards, resting against his body. Tears quickly filled her eyes. “Matthew!” She screamed at the top of her voice. She had never let out a hoarse scream like this before and even Charles did not know how to react. If this woman were to suffer another loss of a loved one, he was not sure to what extent it would damage her. One of the reasons she had dedicated her whole life to finding Matthew was because there was no evidence that he was dead. She made sure that until her last breath, she would not stop looking for h
The scene outside of the Houston office building was simply just chaos. People were running about in the street screaming for help.From a distance the sound of sirens could be heard which meant that the firefighters were on their way. Most of the staff that had managed to escape from the building gathered outside, waiting for more to troop out. As soon as Elena was spotted coming out of the building, a group of men rushed forward to receive her. She leaned on them, her lungs already filled with smoke.She kept looking back expecting Matthew to come out of the building anytime soon. By now the flames had grown much stronger and could even be seen from outside as the smoke rose to the heavens.Amelia's SUV pulled up just by the corner and she didn't waste time before getting down from the car. Her eyes surfed the crowd until they landed on Elena.“My goodness! My company!” Amelia screamed loudly, drawing attention to her.Elena dragged her feet towards Amelia. “Matthew–” she pointed
There was chaos all over the executive floor as people began to hurriedly get up from their seats. Elena rushed out of her office, leaning by the door frame for support as the floor was still vibrating. “What the hell just happened?!” Before Matthew could even have the time to think, another explosion set off, knocking everybody to the ground. “There is a bomb in the building!” A masculine voice screamed. At this point it was everyone for themselves. People try to scamper to their feet and rush down the stairs. The room seemed like it had tilted and they were already cracked on the wall. Some of the ceiling lights had popped out from their fittings and were dangling loosely. Matthew rushed over to assist Elena, just as they were trying to make their way towards the stairs another explosion rocked the building, throwing them to the floor. The explosions didn't stop, in fact it seemed like they kept coming in waves. A final huge blow sounded, making segments of the wall break. M