CHAPTER-EIGHTY:
An Old Enemy
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The door of Tyler’s house busted open; a startled gasp escaped from his maids. Multiple pair of eyes
darted towards the doorway and saw a lady in her office clothes with an expensive handbag on her left
arms. She reached for her big sunglasses with her right hand, and the jade bracelets she has on that
arm clinked against each other.
Stopping right before the red carpet of the receiving room, she placed her left hand on her hips and
gracefully removed the sunglasses that was blocking the view of her green eyes. When her eyes
settled on the person it was looking for, a wonderful, cunning, bewitching smile stretched across her
red lips, showing her perfect set of teeth.
The person that was under her gaze smiled awkwardly, and told; ‘I have a bad feeling about this-‘
“Althea!” Her name rolled on her lips comfortably. There was a hint of amusement in her voice. “I heard
your shop was set on fire!”
Althea’s smile failed to maintain on her lips, and she looked at the other like she was a headless fly
flying around for food. Her eyes were asking, ‘Is that even something to be happy about? Why is she
so amused?’
With awkwardness, she greeted the other. “Uh- hey…! Victoria hey! Yeah, uh, our shop was set on
fire…!”
“Oh!” Victoria covered her mouth, just realizing how bad she sounded like. Quickly, she put her
handbag on the carpet carelessly that made her secretary- who was tailing her with the heaps of files in
hand- give her a look of annoyance, but quickly hid it away since she’s more or less used to this.
But still, it can’t stop her from wanting to smack the bag to Victoria’s face since it feels like she was
doing nothing but throw bundles of money on the floor.
Ha! She can’t understand rich people!
Victoria took a seat next to Althea. Tyler, who was in the sofa opposite from them was alarmed when
she held bot of her hands.
“Mom-“
“Hush there, young man!” She glared at Tyler before looking back at Althea with eyes of sympathy.
Tyler shut his mouth and looked at Kai, who was quietly looking at him while being squeezed by the
armrest of the sofa and his mother’s back, helplessly.
They had an eye contact.
The kid showed a rare small genuine smile at him that made Tyler’s frustration melt. He smiled back.
Althea and Victoria were unaware of the exchange between their sons.
Victoria tightened her grip on the other’s hand and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, truly am! It was insensitive of
me.”
“No, it’s okay.”
Victoria let her hands go and clasped her shoulders before looking at her up and down. “Are you hurt?”
She looked at Kai who was behind Althea. “Is that boy hurt?”
Althea shook her head. “No, fortunately we haven’t arrived at the shop yet before the fire. We stopped
by an ice-cream parlor.”
“But if you were a little bit early, you could have gotten burned too or suffered some injuries.” Tyler
butted in their conversation; his expression was grim.
He was in an important meeting that time when he received the news about the burned shop. He
ditched the meeting and rushed towards the shop, forgetting about calling Althea first so when he
arrived there, he had a mixed feeling about not seeing Kai and Althea. Sharon was tired of her job; her
boss was not even listening to her. So, when they arrived at the scene where firefighters were
combating the licking flames, she shoved the phone to his face and said;
“Call Althea first.”
Tyler called them, not forgetting to hide his embarrassment. When he confirmed that they were safe, he
sighed in relief, and he somehow managed to convince Althea to stay in his house while he deals with
the officers. After the talk with the police and fire department, he rushes to drive back home.
They were about to discuss what happened when Victoria came into the scene.
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