“Where is Emelia?” she asked, standing up from the sofa, her gaze darting around the tons of maids lined up.
The staff all exchanged glances, her eyes speaking volumes of obliviousness. Silence filled the room, with each of them unwilling to answer.
“Are you all deaf?” Zack yelled, his gaze fierce with seething anger. He glanced at Xavier, whose eyes were rolling on the floor as if searching for an escape from the chaos.
“Xavier…” At the mention of his name, he seemed to electrify his body. His limbs, helplessly laying by his side, stiffened; his head sprang up as his eyes widened with confusion and alarm. “Y… yes, sir…”
Zack continued staring at him, expecting a response. His gaze was firm and piercing, sinking deep into him. Xavier blinked profusely as he had totally forgotten what the case was.
“I told you to get all the staff; is this all of them?” Zack asked without breaking eye contact.
Xavier’s lips twitched as his eyes scanned all the individuals present. Inwardly, he counted until awareness sparked within him.
“Where is Stella?” he asked one of the females in the middle. The woman’s shoulder rose in a shrug, her head shaking with a negative response.
“What about Emelia?” Xavier asked again but got the same reply.
“We haven’t seen her for nearly an hour now,” another maid who seemed older than the rest spoke up.
Ivy’s eyes narrowed, her mind recalling the name ‘Stella.’ She didn’t even notice another was missing, as she only knew of Emelia; the rest of the staff were like shadows in the villa. But wasn’t Stella the one who had made her breakfast this morning? And why wasn’t Emelia among the staff at the moment?
In that instant, her heart skipped a beat, unleashing a maelstrom of wild thoughts raging like a tempest. Dark possibilities and worst-case scenarios erupted within her as the recent demise played in her mind. Is Emelia fine? Why does it seem like they don’t know her whereabouts? And why is Stella absent at the same time? Is it possible she is the one behind the poisoning?
“Find both of them now!” Ivy’s sudden order jolted all the staff. A few of the guards rushed out of the living room, their footsteps echoing with urgency.
Ivy began pacing back and forth, her mind like a stormy sea with waves clashing against the rocky shore of her sanity. Every fiber of her body screamed uneasiness, and the fear of the unknown swallowed her in a vortex of anxiety and dread, threatening to consume her.
The next moment, one of the guards returned, his gaze fierce with the unspoken dread of the news to be delivered. “We found one drowning in the pool.”
Ivy’s eyes widened with shock, her pupils dilating as if trying to absorb the enormity of the news. “What!” It had dawned on her, and the fears haunting her seconds ago surged through her with a rush of adrenaline.
Ivy hastened to the pool located in the middle of the villa, with Zack following behind. The eerie silence intensified her fear. The water’s glassy surface reflected the surroundings like a mirror, creating an unsettling sense of symmetry. As she approached the pool, the silence seemed to thicken like a fog clinging to her skin, and her heart raced with every step.
There on the tiled floor was Emelia, sopping wet. Her eyes were tightly shut, her breathing ceased, but her chest bounced up with every compression exerted by the guard trying to revive her.
The man continued to press her chest until her body jerked violently. Her head raised as she coughed profusely, water streaming out of her mouth like a macabre fountain. As her eyes fluttered open, she clutched her chest, the imprint from the CPR palpable.
“Emelia…” With a stride, Ivy shortened the distance between them. She gripped her shoulders, her face contorted with a mix of fear and concern. “Are you okay? Who did this to you?”
Emelia continued coughing, her hand gliding to her neck while her head shook frantically.
“S… Stella…” she stuttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Ivy’s jaw tensed, her hand clenched with her nails digging into her flesh. Anger slowly rose to the surface, her every being screaming with uncontrollable emotions. This was it! Her intuition was right! The mastermind never ceased to wipe off anyone standing in the way, and Emelia nearly escaped the claws of demise.
Again!
No more deaths, and she was ready to do whatever it took to put an end to this terrible and eerie situation.
“Find that bitch! Don’t let her escape!”
Her ferocious holler propelled the guards into action. He immediately scattered throughout the whole place in search of Stella.
This Stella person could point out the lead they had been searching for.
Zack was a distance away from the two women, fully grasping the sinister plot from the unknown enemy. He hated to admit that he was getting the shorter end of the stick. He had failed in retaliating over and over and over, and this time around, he was one breath away from losing his wife twice in a row, and now another staff just returned from the brink of death.
He was damn tired of Ivy being a victim; he was tired that she had to go through all this, and he was fed up with losing staff to a monster who didn’t really care what he did to get what he wanted. It was painfully clear that the culprit had broken through the wall of protection he had constructed for Ivy.
Ivy, on the other hand, had shattered the shackles of indecision; her mind was now a razor blade cutting through the tangled web of doubt and uncertainty. She was firm in her decision to solve the situation her way. She exhaled deeply to calm her nerves as she stared at Emelia huddled on the floor, her eyes wandering over nowhere in particular.
Ivy signaled one of the maids close by to get Emelia warmed up. Then she sauntered toward the doorway where Zack was standing.
Both of them exchanged knowing glances, swirling in their convictions. They broke eye contact, taking deep breaths to prepare their minds for what was about to come and the next course of action they needed to take to bring the pickle to an abrupt end.
Ivy’s eyes gleamed with unspoken resolve to free herself from the fetters of constant danger lurking somewhere in the shadows.
She whispered a promise to herself, her voice barely audible yet laced with steel:
“Irene. Jake. I’m coming for the both of you.”