Loving A STRANGER

They had known that the drainage in the old building was poor, but neither of them had realized how poor it actually was.

"What should I do now?" Khloe whined. "I"m waiting to use the toilet! I have to take a s.h.i.t! Why did you rent such a s.h.i.tty apartment? I"m sick of it!"

Alice raised her voice and said, "You were the one who sold our home for next to nothing and invested all of our money into worthless stocks. We could barely afford this s.h.i.t hole so, the next time you want to point fingers, point them at yourself, you b.i.t.c.h!"

The two women had been pampered all of their lives, so a life of poverty was a real shock. Their servants had all been laid off, and they had to depend on themselves for everything now. Alice waved her hands as if there were an odor in the living room, and she asked Khloe if the shares had gone up at all since she"d last checked.

On hearing the question, Khloe impatiently lashed her out at her, and when she spoke, she nearly spat. She said, "Of course they"re not doing better. Aren"t you watching the trends? They are going down! All we can do now is trust Duncan and cross our fingers!"

Alice couldn"t bear the stink in the house, and she opened the windows. Then she turned to Khloe and said, "I went to the hospital to see your father today. The doctor said his brain was very damaged. I"m afraid that he won"t wake up. I don"t know what we"ll do about his bills. It is very expensive to stay in the hospital, and the doctors have been nagging me to get some form of payment."

"I don"t know what to say," Khloe cried. "It is not like we can just turn him off. And I don"t have any money. If he was well enough to come home, we would take him home, but he"s not. So, for now, there is nothing we can do, and there is no point in even talking about it…"

"If your father gets well," Alice warned, "he is going to be so angry when he finds out about what you"ve done."

"Whatever," Khloe snarled. "Leave me alone!"

Khloe returned to her room and slammed the door.

Alice was about to go to her own room when she heard Khloe cursing. "What the h.e.l.l is wrong with this bed?" she shouted. "It"s harder than the bottom of a coffin!"

Alice sighed helplessly and went into her room to cry. Alice truly regretted everything that Khloe had done so far, and the fact that she could no longer trust her did not make things easier. She lay back in her bed – which was as hard as Khloe had said it was – and closed her eyes. She often had trouble sleeping, so there wasn"t any chance of her getting any rest so long as Khloe was ranting and roaring. "Argh!" she cried, "How am I supposed to sleep under these conditions?"

Alice got up and went out to knock on Khloe"s door. When Khloe didn"t reply, she barged in and turned on the light.

Khloe was sitting on her bed and, when Alice barged in, she rolled up her sleeves and showed her arms to her mother. "Look at these!" she said.

"Great," Alice sighed. "Bed bugs!"

 There were only a few small red dots on her arm, but Alice recognized the bites immediately.

"I"m going to join the crew in a few days," Khloe cried. "If people see them, they will laugh at me and call me a disgusting wh.o.r.e!"

"Don"t be such a drama queen," Alice sighed. "This is your life now. Get used to it. We can cover the bites with make-up. If you want to, we can switch rooms. Maybe there aren"t as many bugs in mine."

Without hesitation, Khloe grabbed her bedding, stormed into Alice"s room, and threw Alice"s belongings into the hallway.

Alice rolled her eyes and muttered, "I should have aborted that one. She has been nothing but trouble since the day that she was born…"

Sitting by the edge of her new bed, Khloe"s gently touched the bug bites on her arm. They didn"t hurt, but they were really f.u.c.king itchy. She hated her current living conditions. She wondered though if Kylie could hold up better than she was holding up. Kylie had always seemed more independent, but there was no way of knowing if it was anything other than a thin façade.

***

Ethan and Mathew sat in the Century building conference room with a few of the other board members. Ethan pushed a doc.u.ment to Matthew and said, "The geological report came out."

Matthew looked awkward as he stared at the doc.u.ment. He knew that the land they were looking to build on was not allowed to have anything built. He stared at the doc.u.ment for three seconds, and then he pounded on the table with his fist.

One of the board members looked up and shivered with fear.

"The son of a b.i.t.c.h," Matthew snarled. "How dare he lie to me?!?!?!! He guaranteed us that we would be able to move forward without any impediments! What the h.e.l.l is going on?"

The director was slightly stunned by Matthew"s words, and he whispered, "Should we ask Aiden to come over?"

"Do it," Matthew replied, "but put him on speaker."

The director dialed Aiden"s number and put him on speaker so that everyone could hear the conversation. When Aiden picked up the phone, he said h.e.l.lo, but he sounded weary.

"Aiden," the director began, "this is Century Group. There"s something wrong with the land you recommended to Mr. Parker."

"Bulls.h.i.t!" Aiden snarled. "There is absolutely no problem with the land. I have seen it for myself!"

The director and Matthew looked at each other, and then the director spoke into the phone and said, "Please come to the headquarters now. Let"s talk in person."

"I"m busy!" Aiden shouted.

Ethan scowled, and he said, "I cannot believe the audacity of that man. He says he is busy, but what could be more important than coming when he was summoned?!?!"

"The b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Matthew hissed as he stood up. "You can rest a.s.sured that I"ll handle it!"

Matthew stormed out of the room, and the director followed behind him. "Matthew," he called, "will everything work out in the end?"

"It"s all right," Matthew replied. "We will relieve Aiden of his post, and all of this will go away."

As soon as the door of the elevator opened, Dora stepped out with a box in her hand, and Matthew was surprised. Upon seeing Matthew, Dora was also a little startled. She looked at him and said, "I"m sorry. I didn"t make it to the appointment. Something came up."

Matthew faintly smiled, and his cheeks turned pink. At first, he didn"t know what to say because he couldn"t tell her that he"d been with another woman. In the end, he simply returned her apology and explained that he hadn"t been able to make it either.

Matthew kissed Dora there, in front of the director, and gave her perky little breast a quick squeeze. He kissed her again and let her go about her business. A minute later, the elevator opened up, and the director walked in.

Once the elevator closed, Dora barged into the board room and said, "I need to see Lord Ethan."

"Do you have an appointment?" The secretary asked politely.

Dora turned to Ethan and said, "Can we cut the bulls.h.i.t and have a G.o.dd.a.m.ned conversation?"

"I"m sorry," the secretary smiled, "You can"t see the president without an appointment."

Matthew walked in behind Dora as if she weren"t even there. Angry, she pushed him aside and said, "I will not be treated this way! I may look like a sc.r.a.ppy little n.o.body, but I am a strong independent woman – and you don"t want to see me when I"m angry!"

The secretary sighed and said, "Go get him a coffee, and he will meet you in his office."

By the time Dora returned with a coffee, Ethan was sitting behind his desk. He offered her a chair, and he said, "I hope you don"t mind a little office humor. It gets boring being stuck behind a desk all day, so we like to liven things up with random pranks. No harm, no foul. I hope you can take them in the spirit that they were intended for.

Dora closed the door before she sat down. She put her box on his desk and said, "I went shopping earlier today and saw a very beautiful dress. I know that Kylie and I got off on the wrong foot, so I wondered if you could give this to her as a kind of peace offering?"

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