“What?”
Claudia gushed immediately as she opened the documents in front of her. She couldn't help but gasp in shock.
They were papers of a house bought by Mr. Edmond under his daughter Valerie's name.
“Edmond bought a house for Valerie without letting me know about this? Why would he do that? Is she that important to him? Curse you, Valerie! Why did you have to show up in our lives again? I mustn't let this happen again”.
Pacing around the house, Claudia was so restless. She needed to do something, if not, her husband would definitely will every single thing that should be her daughter's to her stepdaughter.
She picked up her cell phone and dialed her daughter's number.
“Hey, mommy”
She heaved a sigh before speaking, “There's something you need to know, Pat. It's urgent that we take care of this if we don't want it to get out of hand”.
“What's the problem, Mom? You don't sound okay”.
“Patricia, that conniving witch of a half-sister of yours have succeeded in coaxing your father into buying a house for her at Northridge” Claudia fumed.
“I beg your pardon?”
On the other hand, Valerie was still pinned to the wall while the President was peering into her face.
“I said, strip!” The President yelled at her, and she shivered in fear.
“Huh?”
Fear was all that could be traced in Valerie's voice. She stared at him in fright, and he looked at her without blinking his eyes.
“Does he mean what he just said? Does he really want me to strip naked in front of him? Oh, God!! I hope this is a dream and that I'll soon be awake”.
“Isn't it said that an eye should be for an eye? And for me to get even with what you just saw, you should let me see your nakedness too” The President smirked at her, and she swallowed hard.
Valerie's eyes watered immediately. She bit her lips as she felt the hot President's warm breath on her nose. “Sir, I'm truly sorry. I didn't… I didn't mean to walk into your room last night. Actually, I thought it was the servant's quarters. I was feeling so sleepy that I couldn't tell it was your room”.
Tears filled her eyes, and dropped her cheeks. The President stared at her for a few more minutes before turning his back at her. Probably, he felt bad for her because she was crying, right?
“You actually thought I meant it?” He mumbled.
Valerie's eyes flew open, and she swallowed hard before speaking, “Sir?”
“You must think highly of yourself because I wanted you to strip? Stay off my path” Ethan turned to her with fierce eyes, and she choked. He wasn't smiling or smirking anymore, he was damn scary.
Valerie opened her mouth to speak, but the fear in her didn't let her say a word. She gulped hard, and nodded her head.
“I don't want to ever set my eyes on you. I'm just letting you stay here because my daughter likes you, if not I would have had you thrown out of the mansion”.
“Yes, Sir”
President Ethan turned to leave, but halted after two steps. He reluctantly turned to Valerie, who was still panicking. He walked closer to her, and goosebumps ran down Valerie's spine. Likewise, he grabbed her arm, she gasped, and whispered into her ears, “Let no third party hear what happened last night. If I hear it from anyone, I'll slice your tongue off, and feed it to you. I mean every single word I utter”.
“Yes… Yes, sir. I swear with my life, I will never tell that to anyone. As a matter of fact, nothing happened last night” Valerie breathed heavily as she spoke.
“Good”
President Ethan walked out of the room, and Valerie exhaled deeply in relief. She sat heavily on the bed, still shivering.
“Oh my God! He's so scary. How could such a scary man have an adorable daughter like Audrey” She thought within herself.
The door creaked open again, and she almost jumped out of my skin, thinking it was the President again. It was Clara.
“Hey, Val. Are you okay? Did I startle you?” Clara rushed to her, and she breathed rapidly with a nervous smile.
“Uhm… I was actually lost in thoughts that's why I was scared” Valerie lied.
Clara nodded her head before sitting close to her. There was silence between them for a few minutes before Valerie asked, “About the President, why haven't I seen the mother of his daughter? I mean, I haven't seen even her pictures”.
“Ever since I started working here, I haven't seen anyone introduced as Audrey's mother. But there is a beautiful young woman who always comes on intervals. I'm uncertain if she's her mother, but I think she has something going on with the President” Clara explained, and Valerie nodded her head slowly.
“Is that so?”
Clara smiled softly, and said. “Yeah! But the woman who always comes here lives in the states. One more thing, I just want you to know that whenever she comes here, you have to stay off her path. Make sure you don't get on her bad side. She's really very mean”.
Valerie narrowed her eyes while swallowing hard, and thought to herself, “Does this mean that everyone in this house is actually so mean. God! I'm so scared already”.
“Valerie? Are you listening to me?” Clara tapped her when she noticed she was absent-minded.
“Y…yes” Valerie stuttered.
“You look distressed. Are you sure there's nothing bothering you?” Clara asked, and she shook her head with a faint smile.
Clara walked to the drawer to get some of the chips she had in it, and gave one to Valerie. “Don't ever get on Miss Rebecca's bad side. She's a very dangerous person, and she's close to the President”.
“Miss Rebecca? That's her name, huh?” Valerie nodded her head slowly.
“Yeah”
Valerie walked into Audrey's room with well-washed bedspreads. She was going to change Audrey's bedspreads.
She took off the old one, and then a picture fell out of it. It was a picture of a young woman, but the face had been ruined with a marker pen.
“What the hell is this?” She wondered.