They all waited silently as Tariq placed a call to the surveillance unit of the mansion.“…okay, okay. That’s fine. Please be here soon.”Finally, he shut off his phone and faced the crowd.“Good news. The surveillance unit is sending one of their tech. guys over right now with the footage from twenty minutes ago. I’m sure all of this will be cleared up very soon.”Diego slowly got to his feet. The drama he’d put up a few minutes ago was long forgotten. Miguel’s face was twisted like he’d just swallowed a gigantic toad. After what felt like an eternity, the tech. guy finally arrived. He was a dark skinned young man with thick curly hair and large, chunky glasses. He bowed before Mrs. Maria first before going to stand beside Tariq.“Everyone, this is Thomas Vegas from the surveillance department and he’s here to reveal the truth.” Tariq quickly introduced.“Thomas, do you have the footage?” “Yes, sir.” Thomas held up a tiny flash drive. “That’s great. Play it. We want to know who’
Alex paused and turned to him.“Excuse me?”Ethan held his gaze.“I know you’re probably thinking that Camila and I are dating.” He repeated. “We’re not. We’ve never dated… because she’s my cousin.”Alex froze. “Wait, what?”Ethan nodded.“I’m Mrs. Maria’s last son, Ethan Guerrero. Nice to meet you.”Alex stared at him for a moment, shock written all over his features. He was not shocked at the fact that Ethan thought he and Camila were cousins. They weren’t because Maria and Camila’s mother were not related by blood anyways.He was shocked because if Ethan was Maria’s son, that means he was Alex’s…“What’s your father’s name?” Alex asked out of the blue, staring at Ethan intently.Ethan’s expression instantly became shuttered and all the light disappeared from his eyes.“Why are you asking?”Alex looked away, realising that he might’ve overstepped his boundaries.“I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me.”“Alexander Stephan.” Ethan deadpanned. “My father’s name was Alexander Stephan.
WARNING: UNEDITED CHAPTER (chapter will be edited tomorrow.)***For the first few seconds, Alex was speechless.“I asked you a question, Alex.” Mrs. Maria seethed. “Why didn’t you do as I asked?”He finally snapped back to reality.“Ma’am, I promise I can explain.”Mrs. Maria folded her arms and stared at him.“Well go on, I’m listening.”“I promise I cleaned the room, ma’am. Infact, I cleaned both rooms. I just returned a few minutes ago to find out that the Italian Enforcer's dogs had not been leashed and they ended up messing up the room all over again. I promise this was all sparkling just a few minutes ago.”Miguel shook his head, his expression dripping with disgust. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Blaming your incompetence on poor, innocent dogs. How pathetic.”Mrs. Maria turned to him.“What do you mean by that, Miguel? Are you trying to tell me something?”Miguel stepped forward.“Forgive me, ma’am, but I believe that what happened here is quite clear. No dog whatsoever w
WARNING: UNEDITED CHAPTER (chapter will be edited tomorrow.)***After making sure that Amanda and Caleb cleaned the dining room thoroughly, Alex took both of them to his room for a round of questioning. He did not want to risk asking them questions in the dining room where anyone could just barge in and see them.“Now, I need both of you to tell me everything you know and do not leave anything out. If I find out later that you’ve lied to me or omitted an important part of this conversation, I might change my mind and report you both to Mrs. Maria anyways. Although Amanda had stopped crying a while ago, she still looked on the verge of tears. And did he forget to mention that Camila was here, too? Despite his warnings, she’d insisted on coming along and here she was.“During midnight, Miguel called us for a meeting…”When Amanda was done telling her story, Alex was pacing his room like a caged bulldog. His veins bubbled with barely restrained anger and he fingers itched to punch som
Mrs. Maria could not believe her ears. She stood completely silent for the first few seconds, trying to understand what she’d just heard.“Miguel, what did you say?” She whispered, disbelief written all over her features.“Ma’am, the cake! It just fell. It’s ruined!”Her stomach tightened with dread.“I really hope you’re joking because that cake cost me over two million dollars and it’s one of a kind. Is this some kind of sick joke?”Miguel shook his head.“I wish it was, ma’am. I really wish it was. You can come out and see it for yourself. The cake is ruined.”Despite the war that was raging within her, Mrs. Maria took a deep breath, turned to her caterer and gave her a tight smile.“Please hold on for a minute, Miss Tehila. I’ll be right back.” Then she slowly followed Miguel into the lawn.Back at the lawn, the atmosphere was a frenzy of cries and screams.While the female cleaners were crying and freaking out over Mrs. Maria’s reaction to the destroyed cake, the men were plannin
Alex did not make a single sound and neither did he struggle as the guards walked over and roughly grabbed him. Amanda was panicking. She kept exchanging glances with her colleagues but none of them offered to join her in speaking the truth. She was all alone… or so she thought.Miguel and Philip watched the guards drag Alex away with smiles on their faces. When they finally disappeared from sight, Miguel walked up to Mrs. Maria and said gently;“You made the right decision, ma’am.”She looked over her shoulder and gave him a cold stare.“How on earth will that replace the cake, Miguel? The banquet is the day after tomorrow. At this rate, we’ll have to postpone it and I already added dates to the invitation cards we sent out.”Miguel couldn’t care less about the bloody cake. He was just happy that Alex was finally under lock and key. Now, he had a hundred percent chance of getting the promotion because he had no serious competitors.“You know what? I have an idea.” Mrs. Maria suddenl
“Ever since my father was fired about a month ago, life has become increasingly difficult for my family and I. The mafia stopped paying him and no one would hire him because they feared Mrs. Maria’s wrath. We lived on the little money he had saved for weeks until we eventually ran out. Last Monday, I came to pack the rest of our stuff from the staff quarters and saw a plate of leftover toast from somebody’s breakfast on the dining table. My brother and I had not eaten since that morning and since it seemed that no one wanted the food anymore, I walked over and picked up the toast so my brother could at least have something to eat for the day.”His face fell.“Unfortunately, I was caught.”“By who?” Alex was curious.“Miguel Santorini.” Eden deadpanned. “He caught me just as I was about to put the toast in my bag. I remember explaining our situation to him and expecting him to let me go since he was a my father’s colleague.”Alex already knew what was coming.“But that was not the c
Three hours into his captivity, Alex was silently staring into the darkness when he heard the gate open. Eden, who'd already dozed off, shot upright and sent him a wide-eyed stare.“Who is it?” He whispered. Alex shrugged and slowly got to his feet.“I have no idea.”Footsteps echoed towards their cell. The closer it got, the harder Alex’s heart pounded in his chest.Finally, the dark shadow came to a stop under one of the torch lights. Alex called it a dark shadow in his mind because that was exactly what it looked like. The man was tall, almost as tall as Tariq. He was dressed all in black — black shirt, black pants, black combat boots and a black trench coat. “Who are you?” Alex asked, trying to quell his thumping heart. The man slowly took off his hat until only his thick, black hair shimmered under the torch’s glow.It suddenly hit Alex that he’d seen this msn somewhere before. Where had he seen him?Just then, the man abruptly turned around in the direction he’d come from a