April received a distressing call from her intel at the hospital and placed a call to her mother, asking to meet.
Evelyn was in the Rivera headquarters, seated in her office when April came to her. “What is it? Why do you look so distraught?”
“It’s sister. She’s looking for clues. She wants to send me to prison. We need to do something.” The words spewed out of her mouth, her fear clear as day.
“Calm down and speak so I understand!” Evelyn said, trying to calm her daughter who was panicking.
“June was at the hospital. She went to see the medical director of South City Hospital.” April paced around the room. “I don’t feel comfortable with having her go around. What if she is planning something? What if she has something on me?”
“She can’t.” Her mother said, “I made sure that-”
“In the same way you made sure that she was killed and here she is, back from the grave! Can’t you see the more we plan for her, the more she seems to escape death and return to haunt us?”
“What do you want to do?” Her mother sighed, getting tired of her daughter’s rudeness these days.
“I want to meet sister, I need to know where she is, who she has on her side and how she is able to survive it. If I will be able to take her out, I need to know exactly what I am up against. Who is on her side.”
“Then find out.” Evelyn returned her gaze on the reports she was reading, “She showed up at the party, and you didn’t send out an invitation to her. Maybe you should start there.”
April looked like a lightbulb went off in her eyes. Her mother was right! If she could find out how she came into the party, she could trace her to whereever she was and finally put her out of her life for good.
“You are a genius mother!” She said with a big smile, rushing towards her and engulfing her in a hug. “I will get to it immediately.”
Although Evelyn didn’t appreciate that her daughter seemed to be losing respect for her these days, she loved seeing her daughter so happy.
April skipped out of the place to carry out her research on how June managed to gain entry into the party and soon enough, she received reports of everything that went down.
“That wench! I told you she was a traitor! I will deal with her!”April swore in Ethan’s office as she watched June come in with Lucy.
“They once worked together. You can’t mark her bad just because they came together, April.” Ethan said with a sneer.
A double take, “Whose side are you on? Mine or my sister’s?” April’s words were cutting ans straight to the point.
“You know I am on your side, I just don’t think you need to punish Lucy any further than she has been punished for nothing.” Ethan tried to reason with her, “Her father is in the hospital battling for his life. Her only surviving parent, cut her some slack.”
April’s brow arched at the mention of Lucy’s father. “What are you saying?”
“Her father is going through third stage of Blood cancer.” Ethan said, “Please, just let her be. You can do whatever you want to June but leave her out of it. She is going through a lot as it is.”
“And you care, because?” She prompted him, forcing him to purse his lips in silence. “You see, for someone whose father is down with stroke, you sure have a lot of time to worry about others.”
Ethan looked like he had been dished a slap by his fiance. These days, April had grown so insensitive and flat out evil towards him and his family. He wasn’t even allowed to speak to his mother any more.
Not to mention the fact that his father had fallen with stroke after the revelation and he was forced to hide the state of his father’s health and go on with the wedding preparations for the coming week.
His life had suddenly become a nightmare and he wasn’t even married yet. The future looked so bleak and there was nothing he could do about it. He made his bed and now he had to lie on it.
“Just focus on the wedding and I will take care of things like I always do. Then we won’t have a problem.” She said, and made her way out of the office, only stopping when she got to the door.
“Also, I hear that Joel Patel is going bankrupt. I want you to buy that firm, offer him money, whatever it takes. I want that company in my name as soon as possible.”
“Yes, ma.” Ethan said with gritted teeth.
These days, April acted more like his boss than his wife. He couldn’t even remember the last time he touched her. She had become so high and mighty and he had been reduced to a puppet.
His heart burned with anger at the unfairness and betrayal but what could he do? Not only was she the biggest shareholder of the company, she was also the mother of this unborn child.
Ethan watched April step out of the office without as little as an aknownlegement. This was his life now. His painful new reality.
***
Lucy was walking out of the hospital when she came face-to-face with April Rivera. “Just who I hoped to see.” April said with a huge smile. “Think you can join me for a snack?”
Lucy squared her shoulders, refusing to be intimidated. “I’m sorry but I am not interested.” She said, hoping that was the end of it as she stepped away.
“I think you are missing something, Lucy Amana Garfield.” April smiled when she saw her stop in her tracks, definitely surprised on how she came about her name.
“This is not a request, Lucy.” She said walking up to her and placing a comforting palm on her shoulder. “I know you came to my party, and stole a lot of contacts after posing as the project manager of my company.”
“Tell me, other than the fact you are broke and your father is currently in critical condition, why should I not throw you into prison?”
Lucy’s jaws flexed. “I did nothing wrong.”
“Oh yes, of course you didn’t.” April stepped in front of her, “When I first fired you, I did that because you looked too good to be close to my husband.” Lucy’s shock betrayed her, “Yes! Shocking, evil, whatever floats your boat, I know.”
“But you see, when you decided to come to my party, and bring that scum with you, it only proved that my instinct is not to be trifled with. You were going to betray us one way or the other.”
Lucy couldn’t understand where she was going with this, she needed to go get some provision for her father and was running out of patience and time.
“What do you want from me?” She sneered, hitting the nail.
“Good question. For starters, I want you to have lunch with me.” April gestured to her Prado jeep parked on the sidewalks with security standing beside it. “Come on, I don’t bite. It’ll be over before you know it.”
It was clear there was no getting out of things with April. Soon enough, Lucy was seated across a table with April who smiled as she ate heartily.
“You haven’t had a bite of your food.” April said once she had her fill. “I know the food is beyond your standards. Perhaps you are not as hungry as you look.”
Lucy swallowed the insults with gritted teeth. “What do you want from me?”
“Impatient.” April remarked and took a sip of her water. “Okay. I’ll make it short, simple and sweet.” Her eyes grew cold. “I want to know everything, everything you know about my sister. Where she lives, what she does, how you met her, everything.”
“And what makes you think I would tell you anything?”
“Because you are smart. And in debt. And know just how fast I could ruin you and your pathetic sickly papa.” April adjusts on her seat. “Let’s try that again now, shall we?”
“What do you know about that wench and what she is up to?” She sneered but Lucy was not having it.
“I know nothing about her.”
A smile, “Do you realise that I can make your father stop receiving treatments with the snap of my fingers? Send you to jail where you will spend the rest of your pathetic life, wishing you were dead? Don’t be foolish now, Lucy.”
“Tell me all I need and if I am impressed, I might consider helping you out of the horrible condition that is your life.”
Lucy got on her feet. “I think we are done here. I will leave first.”
She turned around and April lost her mind. “Move an inch and I promise to make you regret it. Do not test my patience.”
Lucy left.