Chapter 37: Chapter 37

Stacy greeted Samantha in her red satin sleepwear while holding a glass of red wine and asking the other if she would love a cup, to which Samantha declined. Samantha has her walls up, making Stacy want to taunt her more.

Stacy poured another glass of wine and said to Samantha that she would not get what she went there for if Samantha would not take a sip, and so she did. Stacy smiled a devilish smile as it is evident that Samantha is so plain, a person who is very easy to read- very easy to manipulate.

A Puppet.

A Doll.

Stacy found her new toy for revenge for what she believed was taken away.

Stacy sat opposite Samantha, and as she opened the side drawer where the picture of Kyle’s first love is, an invitation fell on the ground reminding her of the past and rekindling a fire inside her.

You are cordially invited to the engagement of Kyle Esteves & Stacy Sue

Stacy glances at the invitation that has those words embossed,

“What a waste,” she whispered and smiled, yet her eyes were honest to what she really felt.

Samantha can see the sadness in Stacy’s eyes as she picks and puts back the ten-year-old invitation of a failed engagement to the man Samantha is engaged with as of today.

Samantha wished she was half as cool as Stacy when it comes to this matter. She can’t even see herself being okay with her fiancé engaging with another human being, less working with him daily.

“How do you do it?”

Samantha was thinking out loud before she even knew it. Stacy was stunned. She did not expect that question from this person sitting before her. Stacy let out a nervous laugh, cleared her throat, and said,

“Mind over matter, I guess.”

A faint smile and sad eyes come together with this short response from Stacy. Samantha decided to stop asking questions and just focus on the sole reason why she was here tonight- finding out who is Kyle’s, first love.

Stacy handed what seemed to be a set of pictures to Samantha. The latter looked at it closely and saw the brightest smile on Kyle’s face, a smile that ignited a fire inside Samantha. Her calm and sweet aura automatically changed into a fierce one; even Stacy was stunned.

As Samantha went over the pictures with the face and name tag of a high schooler that reads Angel Kim, her left eyebrow raised. Samantha said in a sarcastic tone that even she is amazed, she could say,

“ Hmph! She’s not even that pretty,”

Samantha and Stacy locked eyes, and while Stacy laughed a hearty laugh, Samantha covered her mouth and was still in a haze as to what she said.

“Exactly my thoughts,”

Stacy removes the tear from her eye after laughing her heart out. After hearing this, Samantha cleared her throat as she demurely placed the picture on top of the table with a faint smile.

Stacy told Samantha how that picture was taken and a bit of the culprit of Kyle’s smile. Stacy said that she couldn’t find that girl no matter how she looked for her and that the last thing Stacy heard about her was her changing her name, but she does not know her name now.

“What makes you think that she is still connected with Kyle?” Samantha asked.

Stacy smiled, took a sip of the wine in front of her, crossed her legs, and said,

“Because he still has her picture on his drawer,” then Stacy winked at Samantha.

As if poured with an ice bucket, Samantha failed to move. The face of what she thought her competitor was now starting to appear in view, and she isn’t sure if she likes it.

“Where is this bi… I mean person now?” Samantha shook her head as she almost said a different adjective.

Stacy chucked and smiled a little devilish smile that was hastily gone when she said,

“I can’t find that bitch,”

Stacy told Samantha that Angel Kim, the girl in the picture, is the only daughter of an accounting firm's well-off CEO. A CEO who lost his life because he is stupid enough goes against the Esteves group of companies.

Stacy also mentioned how messy the situation was. Kyle’s father found out that the Financial Information about the slush funds, tax evasion, and other secrets the family held were sent to the higher up and the police.

One by one, the oligarchs were taken into custody, and billions of money were lost; Kyle’s dad needed to pay billions in terms of taxes and lost his plan to run for office- the reason why Angel Kim is ordered to be hunted down as if this will appease the old man’s anger or even alter anything.

“This bitch is fu’kin good at hiding,” Stacy said while pouring herself another glass of wine on the third bottle she opened.

Samantha stayed quiet and looked into the picture seriously. She had this feeling that this picture was familiar and that she had seen this person before. A thought came into her mind suddenly because the story is too similar to the novel that she has been reading these past few days.

Then,

Samantha had that eureka moment, she murmured while looking intentively at the picture in her hand and those she laid in front of her on the table.

“Have you ever thought that maybe the reason you can’t find her is that she might not be the same person?”

“What do you mean?” Stacy said, confused.

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe that girl had plastic surgery or a name change. Pretty plausible, right?”

Stacy couldn’t believe that she had not thought about that for ten years, given that she had several plaques, books, and post-graduate degrees under her name.

Stacy realized that she had been so fixed on looking for Angel Kim that she never thought about the possibility of her changing her name or having plastic surgery. What a shame.

Samantha is clearly from a very powerful family. With just a matter of a phone call, she was able to pull out the list of all the females who seem to have had a close relationship with Kyle in the past ten years.

Stacy asked his men to narrow the list, and they came up with just one person. Her name is Angel Brooks, a novel writer.

“I know her!” Samantha exclaimed.