"I told you I am really fine," Amber smiled and said."Wh"
Her face was flawless, not even a hint of scar from what had happened during the graduation party.
"Shocking isn"t it? That is why I have to wear a mask."
She finished her first cup cake and drank from her cup. She took another cup cake and started eating it.
"I have wanted to hide it the moment I realized that my face matured to this point. But simply wearing mask would make people want to see my face even more."
"So that incident gave me the chance that I needed."
"You deceived everyone real well, didn"t you?"
"Well the doctor gladly helped me out after I asked and promised to pay her. It was a small matter and so she didn"t reject."
That"s right, back then the wound she received from the mirror shards were actually shallow enough that with proper care the scar would disappear.
(Flashback)
The doctor sighed after treating her wound inside the operating room.
"You are lucky the wound was not too deep to leave a hideous scar. If it got deeper just for a bit more then your beautiful face could no longer be saved."
"Say doctor, can I ask for your help?"
Amber touched her bandage and asked the doctor.
"What is it? If it is for scar removing creams, there are plenty of creams you can use and they are pretty easy to find."
"No, that"s not it."
"What is it then?"
"Can you declare that the woud was deep enough? Deep enough that it would leave a scar?"
The doctor looked at her with confusion all over her face.
"Uhmmm we can sign a contract and I could give more doctor"s fee. Please understand my difficulty right now. With this face, there are plenty of jealous people."
Amber shook her head and gave a sad smile.
"How many more times must I get hurt in order for them to stop?"
The doctor"s heart suddenly felt sympathy for her. She must have lived a very difficult life in order for her to want to have a scar.
"That way I could live a much more peaceful life."
"Peaceful in a way that there wouldn"t be anymore suitors or jealous ladies."
She added in her mind as she stuck out her tongue imaginarily.
(End Of Flashback)
"I feel pity for that doctor, she believed your reasoning when you truly are just too lazy to mind those people. You just wanted to be left alone."
Ashton shook his head as he replied, drinking his own coffee.
"I was not, it was very difficult on having this face you know," Amber puffed her cheeks as she glared at him.
Ashton looked at her indifferently, "This side of yours still haven"t change at all."
"But in the end this face was too much of a clue for the Price Empire."
Amber sighed as she touched her face.
She had someone make her a scar like mask that once placed on the face, no one would notice that it was prosthetic.
"I must admit, her face could really cause the downfall of a country. Her great grandmother was once like that."
He thought as he watched her devour the pastries in front of her.
"What are you looking at?"
"What about the other stuffs?"
"Well, you have seen all those cellphones right? All of them were designated for every Empire. Well, of course, Wright has none because you know me."
"How about that flip phone?"
"That? That was something the pianist created when she was 10 years old. Amazing aren"t I?"
She moved her brows up and down. To which Ashton ignored.
"I once helped them through hacking but I was planning to have their help to bring down the Price Empire, in the end I was still naive back then."
"I have heard from mother a while ago while you were asleep that you asked her help regarding Thomas Barbers daughter, she said it was a wireless bomb in her head."
Amber nodded as she continued what he was talking about, "That is why Thomas kept following Mario. I had the police disrupt the signal between the switch and the girl herself."
"You actually mobilized such a big number of people for this? You could have just entered and made them do your bidding since you already have everything."
"Not at all, it was Thomas who made sure that Jacob was also there. Plus that girl is innocent."
"I have no idea where the switch was so I had told Thomas that the moment he lead Jacob to Mario"s office he must contact the number I gave him and gave the signal to start the disruption."
"What the police had was a one hour one, so your mother had to remove the bomb within an hour. And since Mario and Jacob are with me, even if the guards were to contact them."
"It would be useless," Amber shrugged.
"And you also made sure that Cooper Empire would not interfere, making it an easy capture for you," Ashton continued as well.
"It looked easy because of the preparation. But without all of my connections I would have not been able to do everything so easily."
"What do you plan about that face anyway?" he changed the subject and returned to her face.
"Well, I already have aesthetic scar, so from time to time, especially my first appearances, I would be using it. I will allow all the people to know that I do have a scar."
"Making sure that no one would actually be curious of what was behind that mask?" Ashton continued.
The two of them had been talking while continuing what was in the mind of one another.
"We really do understand each other don"t we?" Amber smiled as she yawned.
Maybe because she ate a lot during dinner and once again ate a lot of desserts, she started feeling sleepy all over again.
"Go on and sleep, I shall clean this up myself."
"You have no more questions?" Amber asked as she rub her eyes.
"I"ll ask when I come up with more, somehow I already got the gist of everything that you have been doing."
Amber no longer bantered as she went up, took a bath and returned to sleep.
She has no desire of working on anything at all, the one month...
"No not just this past month, the whole past seven years was completely tiring. I feel so drained somehow."
*****
"..."
Ashton was sitting in the study room, he received a phone call right after cleaning up.
"Are you mad at us?" asked the voice on the other side.
"It was my fight why would I get mad at you?" he replied.
"We called ourselves your friends after all."
"You somehow have this same characteristic of wanting to help those who are close to you," Ashton replied in his mind.
"You still don"t have that much of a standing within your family. How will you help me?"
"..."
"Don"t get hurt over such words, I am not saying it in a negative way."
He heard a sigh on the other side of the phone.
"Look, we all are still weak, I am starting on a new path to get back at all those who stepped on me. Don"t you have those people as well?" Ashton once again said.
"I have... just that..."
"Xander do you remember the girl whom you spoke to back in star country?"
Xander thought back, it was that one time that they called him and found that a girl was close to him. The first girl after the receptionist.
"That girl have taught me a lot. Without proper preparation, everything you wanted to do cannot be done on plain drive alone."
"You must understand that certain steps should still be taken. My revenge, don"t think that it would ever end."
"But we heard that the Barbers are down," Xander asked as he looked at Timothy beside him.
"They are not the only ones who has a score to settle with me," Ashton replied.
"We..."
"Do you really plan on staying being a puppet? I don"t think you guys are that stupid to understand that you are being used."
"Hearing that from someone younger than me, I really felt ticked," Ashton heard Timothy"s voice on the other side.
"Well get used to it, I might do it always. I got used to it myself, being reprimanded over and over again by someone younger."
"Why do I hear fondness in your voice instead of irritation?" Xander asked.
The heavy feeling he had moments ago was gone replaced with joy that Ashton and the others were fine.
"Oh, well, I am going after her. I just want to tell you both."
"Hoho, we haven"t even met her yet and you already are placing a barricade? Don"t worry, we won"t even try to stop you."
"Then you have to promise me."
"Hey since when have you become this childish?"
Xander and Timothy looked at each other, "Fine , we promise."
They finally understood why Ashton turned out to be okay, it was because she had arrived. They after all heard quite a lot of stories from Blake and Devon regarding Amber.
Ashton after hearing their reply sneered, "Well you already said it. No matter what happened in the future you could no longer object."