Hilary remained distracted and had little to contribute to their banter.
Though that was how she had always been in front of outsiders, Yvonne did not particularly appreciate her speaking in front of them.
She secretly despised Hilary, and would rather that the latter kept her mouth shut, especially in front of her own fiancé.
Hence no one found Hilary’s silence unusual.
When she got home, Hilary stayed in the room by herself and sifted through her smartphone for information on Shermaine. The more she saw, the more her mood devolved. She went on to look up on James Smallwood and immediately knew that it was him.
Hilary understood now why she had found Shermaine awfully familiar and even took an instant liking to her.
She began to sob uncontrollably away in the washroom with the showers left running so that no one could hear her and continued this way for some time.
By the time Zach entered the room, Hilary was already fast asleep.
Or rather, she pretended to be asleep, as she was worried that Zach might notice something amiss.
The next morning while Zach was away at the office, she immediately called up Clarissa.
Clarissa was a little miffed that her mother has asked to meet. There was a chill in the air which encroached upon her skin, so she would rather sleep in.
“What’s so important that we’ve to do this so early, Mom?”
Hilary’s words were almost upon her own lips before she swallowed them back down. She opted to adopt a more measured and casual approach.
“Early, you say? Is this your daily routine? What kind of work are you doing that doesn’t pay and leaves you so undisciplined? Look at how hard everyone else is hustling. You aren’t bad looking so even if you don’t want to work, you should put in a little effort to doll yourself up when you go out.”
Clarissa laughed a little, only to patronize her mother.
“Why aren’t you talking?”
“Your observations are spot-on, Mom. I’m not able to defend myself!”
“You know, I’m this close to giving up on you, girl.”
You had never cared about me that much anyway.
That was what Clarissa thought. Hilary paused before she asked, “Remember that we’ve met Shermaine last time? Do you know her? I really like her, so do you think you could introduce us?”
“Huh?”
Clarissa’s brows perked up. “I don’t really know her as we operate in different social circles. I’ve only interacted with her back then because she’s a friend of my classmate.”
“I see. That makes sense.”
Hilary fell silent, mildly disappointed, yet oddly relieved.
“Since when did you become a fan of Shermaine’s?”
Her mother chuckled. “Do I have to explain this? I just enjoyed one of her movies that I’ve seen recently.”
“It’s okay that you like her movies, but is it necessary to try to reach out to her? Haven’t you have anything better to do recently than chase idols?”
“You’re one to talk. I was wondering how you’re ever going to meet anyone when you’re holed up in the house with your so-called essays. You’ll be turning thirty soon. At this rate, you could wind up becoming an old spinster.”
An awkward silence ensued.
Clarissa would have slapped herself if she could.
She cussed at her own mouth for saying all the wrong things at the most inopportune times recently.
That strengthened her resolve to speak less going forward.
“I’m sure things will work out fine eventually. The weather is getting colder, so I should be heading back to spend winter in W City. Probably be back next year. Got a deadline to meet so I really should get back to it. Love you, Mom.”
Clarissa was a little blasé, and only because she did not understand that the purpose of Hilary’s call was not actually about getting on her case.
After she left Hilary, Clarissa did not return to Zen Highlands, but made a trip down to her studio instead.
As a business owner, her subordinates would be fortuitous if they saw her in the office once or twice a week. She was practically like a junior employee who needed supervision. Mandy in particular had constantly pressed her for updates to her works, amongst all the other things she promised off the cuff.
The girl was a rabid fan of her writings herself with an insatiable appetite for more.
She would nag at Clarissa every single time she came in, so much so that she had to have snacks at the ready with which to pacify Mandy so that she may be able to get herself off the hook.
Rocky and Christian proved to be able assistants to Yael. They were able to bring in more sources of income in the form of a video game adaptation and peripherals within the short time they were here.
“Now that you don’t have to think about these things anymore, why aren’t you posting new chapters? Even if you write only a thousand words a day, you should have consolidated quite a lot by now. Why haven’t you provided updates? I’m going to have to jump to my death from here if you keep this up.”
Mandy spoke as she stuffed her own mouth with the pastries that Clarissa bought.
Clarissa had gotten quite used to this by now. “Alright, you do whatever you have to do. I’ll send them to you as a tribute after I’m done.”
“You’re an evil mistress.”
Clarissa laughed, “I’m not yet a missus.”
She thought that she might run with that and have some fun with it.
“Ha, if you have a boyfriend and are cohabiting with him, what else would that make you? Missus, Missus…”
Her expression and tone left Clarissa red in the face.
“Are you teasing me now? Aren’t you afraid that of getting fired?”
“Oh, I’m so scared!”
At this moment, Yael came out of the office. “Mandy’s right. You should finish up whatever articles you have on hand soon, cause that’s what the production company is keen on. There are also a few more requests for you to do some screenwriting. It would be better to step it up before the end of the year, or we won’t be able to hand these guys their bonuses otherwise.”
“What?”
Clarissa was dumbfounded. It would seem that she would not only need to avoid speaking but also avoid getting out of the house.
Rarely had she the opportunity to slack off. With winter around the corner, the only thing she had on her mind was idling and sleeping in. She had not expected her workload to suddenly balloon.
“What do you mean by what. Didn’t you say you want to earn more to make rent? How is this lackadaisical attitude going to help?”
Clarissa perked up immediately. “I’ll get down to writing right away.”
The thought of the rental brought her focus back. She wished she had more arms with which to speed things up.
Yael nodded in approval. “Your office has been underutilized all this time. You should get in there. It’s quiet and you won’t be disturbed.”
“You mean like right now?”
“Yes, now. Questions?”
“Nope. None at all.”
Clarissa slipped into her own office. It was really quiet once the door closed behind her.
Outside, Mandy was in stitches. After a while, she turned and whispered to Christian, “You know, Clarissa could just marry into wealth. I mean like, why’s she even working so hard? I’d do absolutely nothing were I in her shoes. I’d fly to Europe to feed pigeons every day and return the same night.”
Even if the employees did not know about Matthew before, it would be impossible not to once they had been around the building long enough.
From admiration to fearfulness, to normalization. Clarissa was away when they were going through all these emotional stages. By the time she appeared, they were already more or less settled in.
Rocky sneered, “That’s why you’re just an assistant while Clarissa continued to grow in stature. She would be just as successful even without Mr. Tyson.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know that I’m an underachiever and I lack ambition, all right? But what’s wrong with living it up a little?”
Mandy was not really upset. That was just the way she was.
Rocky merely shook his head and got back to work.
Christian offered her some words of consolation before he too returned to his own affairs.
Meanwhile, in the office, Clarissa went through her friends’ profiles, browsed Twitter, listened to some music, and stepped out to the balcony to catch some sun. An hour passed before she was able to finally settle down to work on her drafts.
Meanwhile at Shermaine’s home.
She was not that dense. After she has simmered down, she sensed that Sienna was hinting at something.
What did she mean when she said that it was improbable for Matthew to not be seeing anyone?
That she would let him continue to have his fun even after they were married?
Shermaine’s brows knitted in apprehension.
When she recalled how coldly Matthew treated her whenever she was in his proximity, she thought that that was just his personality.
But what if he genuinely had a woman on the side?
She paced back and forth as she tried to wrap her head around this.
There was no way she would be able to rest easy without getting to the bottom of it.
Shermaine immediately got in touch with her regular contact. This time, her target was Matthew. She had to know whether he was seeing anyone, no matter the cost.
It would be great if there was no woman. However, should there be one, that b*tch was going to get it from her. As far as Shermaine was concerned, Matthew was to hers and hers alone.
Even Sienna would not be shown mercy.
The gall of her to even think about becoming Matthew’s wife.
Sienna, like any woman that her Matt might have, had to be considered a threat.
Shermaine smirked. She understood Sienna’s intention to rid herself of a rival through her hands.
Was Sienna trying to be the beneficiary of a proxy war?
Was she being serious?
Shermaine had her ways to deal with the likes of her.
The very next day, Shermaine found herself someone to teach Sienna a lesson. As for the investigation surrounding Matthew, she could only wait patiently for a report from the person tasked.
Sienna could never have anticipated the consequences that were forthcoming from that nudge she gave Shermaine. She found herself beaten unto the point of near disfigurement. At first impression, it might look like a random case of drunken rage, but Sienna was no believer in coincidences. Even though she had not investigated the incident properly, she had a hunch that Shermaine might be behind it.
Shermaine’s viciousness left her deeply worried about what the woman would do should she discover the existence of Clarissa.
