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
MIGUELTHE NIGHT BEFORE:It was two AM but Miguel had not slept a wink. He paced from one end of his room to the other, thinking of a solution to his current problem.In eight hours or less, Mrs. Maria would assemble all the staff and ask them for the results of their search. He had to find a renowned baker who was willing to bake an elaborate cake before the day of the banquet and so far, he hadn’t found someone who was willing to take up such a Herculean task.After calling about thirty bakeries within and outside Spain, Miguel was starting to feel completely hopeless.He picked up his phone and called his wife. Angelica had already gone back home. Unlike the cleaners, she was not obligated to stay overnight at the mansion.She answered on the second ring, sounding groggy from sleep.“Hello?” She said, her voice muffled by a long yawn.“Angelica.” Miguel growled. “How can you be enjoying your sleep when I’m almost going out of my mind here?”All the sleep in her eyes disappeared in
“Hello. My name is Miguel Santorini and I’m Philip’s assistant.”Antonio paused.“Philip has an assistant? I thought he was a cleaner.”Miguel and his wife exchanged glances.“Actually, he does have an assistant. What’s your current location, please? Philip asked that I deliver the details of the cake to you in person.”Antonio was surprised.“Really? But he said he’ll just send through a text message. Can I speak with him?”“I’m sorry, sir, but Mr. Philip is extremely busy with preparations for the banquet right now. He asked me to meet you personally with the details because it’s top secret. Where’s your bakery located, please?”Antonio hesitated for a moment. Philip was his childhood friend and he’d never once told him about an assistant. What was going on?Finally, he broke the tense silence.“I’m sorry, Mr. Miguel, but this is not how I run my business. For all I know, you could be a total stranger who somehow got ahold of Philip’s phone. I apologise but I will only take action
Miguel stared at Antonio in shock.“Wait… you really made these?”Antonio shrugged.“What? I don’t look like someone who attended the most prestigious catering school in Paris and graduated top of his class? I don’t look like someone who has handled catering jobs for Presidents and Prime ministers? I don’t look like someone who once owned Dedos Magicos?”Miguel’s eyes widened even further with every single sentence that Antonio spoke. “You once owned this place?”He lowered his gaze. “Yes. Dedos Magicos was originally mine. Let’s just say my father made some really bad decisions before he decided to take his own life, and his greedy brother saw the avenue to pounce… and pounce he did.”Miguel was confused.“Hold on, start from the beginning, please. What really happened here?”Antonio gave him a hard stare. “Do you want the short version or the long version?”“The short version, please. I don’t have a lot of time.”“Well, Antonio’s father and mine were always at loggerheads. Antoni