Chapter 3

Layla walked out of her mansion elegantly in a beautiful short silver lace gown and black stiletto heels, with a black purse in her hand. Her face was layered with a light powder and a white lip gloss was applied to her round dried pink lips to make them a little wet.

She took her step slowly because she wasn’t comfortable in the gown and heels. It was her first time wearing such a dress, but since it fitted for the outing, she had no option.

Mia opened the car door and Layla got inside.

Mia closed the door and entered the front seat.

Layla put the bag beside her and had a second look at herself in the car's front mirror. 

“What’s the schedule for today?” Layla asked. 

Mia turned back to her a little. “We are heading to President Mason’s office now and we will attend Asher and Avery’s engagement party later in the day.”

Layla frowned her face, surprised. “Engagement party?!”

The sadness that struck Layla didn’t let her log into her social media account for the past weeks, so she didn’t know what was trending.

“Yes, ma.” Mia answered.

Michael drove the car out of the compound, and as they got out of Tribeca and got to the main road, President Mason’s call came into Mia’s phone, and she picked it up.

“Hello, sir.” She greeted him, bowing her head a little.

President Mason explained something to her for three minutes, and he ordered her to do something.

“Okay, sir. I will do that right away.” 

Mia veered around to Layla a little. “Ma, there is a change in plan. We have to go back home because you have to change your dress.”

“Hun?!” Layla looked at Mia and freed her curiosity. “Why?”

“You aren’t visiting the president again today, you have to meet someone right now.” Mia explained.

“Who?”

“You won’t know till we get there.”

KIRYAS JOEL, NEW YORK CITY.

The G****e map led Micheal, and he drove into Kiryas Joel, a village coterminous with the Town of Palm Tree in Orange County. It was the poorest neighborhood in New York City.

He parked at the village entrance and rolled down the glass.

Mia got down from the car and looked around to see if someone was coming, but she saw no one. She turned back to the car and a young lady came out of the bush.

Michael let his head out of the car a little. “Someone is coming.”

Mia veered around and walked up to the young lady, who had been looking at her from afar before she reached her.

Mia stood in front of the lady and bowed her head. “Good morning.”

The lady bowed her head in return, saying nothing.

“Please, I am going to Mrs. Camila’s house and I don’t know the way there. Can you lead me there?”

The lady nodded and waved at Mia to follow her. 

Mia looked at her, confused. She didn't understand the lady. “What?”

The lady continued waving at her to follow her, but Mia didn’t understand.

Layla got down from the car and walked to them to intervene. “What’s it, Mia?”

“I asked for directions to Mrs. Camila’s house, but I don’t understand what she’s saying?”

Layla looked at the lady and looked back at Mia. “She is dumb. She is telling you to follow her to Mrs. Camila’s house.”

Mia covered her mouth with her left hand. “Oh!”

“Can we take the car with us?” Layla inquired.

The lady nodded, shaking her hands.

“She said we can’t,” Layla reported to Mia. She looked back at the lady. “Let’s go.”

The lady led, and Layla and Mia walked after her.

The lady took her steps fast, and Layla and Mia had to run to catch up with her. And after twenty minutes of mixing a run with a walk, they arrived in front of an old house. The left part of the house had fallen to the ground while the right part stood because of the thick wooden sticks used to suck it at all the corners. 

The lady bowed her head and walked away.

Layla slightly knocked on the wooden door and an old woman with a rough face and tangled dirty hair came out.

Layla bowed her head. “Good day, ma.”

The woman eyed Layla and Mia for a few seconds before she bowed her head. “Good day. How may I help you?”

“We are here to see Mrs. Camila.” Mia interrupted.

“Okay, who are you?”

“I am-” Layla wanted to talk, but Mia took a step forward.

“I am Mia, from President Mason,” she bowed her head and pointed to Layla. “This is my boss, Layla. She is the one that wants to re-open the case about your family’s death.”

Mrs. Camila raised her eyebrows, and she kneeled in front of Layla. She held Layla’s leg and refused to release it despite how Layla struggled to free herself.

“Thank you, young lady. Thanks for helping the nation. Thank you.” Mrs. Camila appreciated it. 

Layla looked at Mia. “Why am I here?”

“To answer your questions,” Mia answered. “You can ask her anything you want to know.”

Layla sighed. She bent down and raised Mrs. Camila.

“Calm down, I know how you feel-” Layla said and Mrs. Camila cut her off. 

“No, you don't understand and you can never understand how I feel,” Mrs. Camila hit her chest, broken. “May you never witness what happened to me? I lost all my family and friends on the same day.”

“Sorry about your loss.” Layla pitied.

Tears rolled out of Mrs. Camila’s eyes and she giggled. “Losing them isn’t the most painful thing. What can I do if they died in an accident?”

“Do you know why it’s so hard to get over it?”

Layla nodded. "No." 

“I can’t get it out of my head because I know who killed them. And the most painful thing is that the wicked people are living a happy life till now.”

“Who killed your family?” Layla investigated.

Mrs. Camila scoffed. “It’s the most powerful family in New York City, the Lucas.”

“How do you know they killed them?” Layla dug deeper.

Mrs. Camila smiled and looked straight into Layla’s eyes. “I don’t know why they did it, but I witnessed Asher implanting the bomb at the venue an hour before the event began,”

“And the sounds of his wicked laughter that echoes the whole place on that night is still ringing loud in my head. I can’t get over it.”

“What did you do after that? Did you stand as a witness?” Layla queried.

Mrs. Camila snickered. “We protested after the government closed the case then, and on that night, Asher led a bulldozer to our camp. They demolished and burned our houses to ashes,”

“They arrested some of us that didn’t run away and they used them as scapegoats. They framed them as the ones that implanted the bomb at the event venue, and they sent them to jail,”

“Some of us that remained then committed suicide because they couldn't take it anymore…”

Mrs. Camila took a three-second sad break. 

She furthered. “When I went to the police station to stand as a witness, one of the two police officers I met that day was Asher's man and he excused us and sneaked to a corner to call Asher.”

“What happened after that?” Mia asked after Mrs. Camila kept quiet for a minute.

Mrs. Camila wiped her tears and continued. “Before Asher arrived at the police station that night, the other police officer hid me in a corner and he lied to them that I had left. But the one who was Asher's man challenged him because he didn't see any trace of me getting out of the police station.”

“What happened after that? Did Asher leave? How did you escape? What happened to the police officer that hid you?” Layla showed interest.

“Asher didn't leave and slaughtered the police officer because he refused to open up to him.”

Mrs. Camila’s body shook in fear and she grind her teeth in pain, narrating what she witnessed. She let tears out for a few seconds before she took a deep breath and ended her story.

“I couldn't keep watching the scenes from a corner and I screamed out of fear. Asher ordered his men to run after me, but they couldn't catch me until President Mason drove to my front that night and rescued me. I'm still alive today because of President Mason.”

Layla wiped the tears that rolled out of her eyes while she listened to Mrs. Camila’s story.

“Why didn’t you move out of here and let President Mason establish a good life for you in the city?” Layla asked. 

Mrs. Camila wiped her face. “Almost all the hundred people that lost their lives that day were living here before the incident. We are just Lucas’s servants. We dug the ground till we lost one of us just to fetch mine for them,”

“They killed innocent people because our men fought for their rights and refused to work because the Lucas didn't increase the token they always gave to them. We can’t get justice because we are poor,”

Mrs. Camila held Layla’s hands tightly in her hands and locked eyes with her. “Layla, please help me. Let the wicked souls suffer. Light the world, please.”

Layla wiped Mrs. Camila's tears and hugged her. “Don’t worry, I will get justice for you.”

Mia looked at her wristwatch and moved closer to Layla. She put her mouth closer to Layla’s ear. “It’s time to go.”

Layla separated her body from Mrs. Camila’s body. “Ma, I need to go now.”

Mrs. Camila nodded, comprehending. “Okay, thank you so much. Please do anything you can do to get justice.”

Layla bowed her head and walked out of Kiryas Joel, shedding tears. She didn’t look back at Mrs. Camila because she felt a slight of Mrs. Camila's pain and it hurt seeing her like that.

PERFICIENT HOTEL, NEW YORK CITY.

The car arrived in front of the Perficient Hotel, the biggest hotel in America, and second to none in the world. It belonged to the Lucas, and it was the venue for Asher Lucas and Avery Mason’s engagement party.

“We are at the engagement party already.” Mia notified Layla, so Layla would get out of her thoughts.

Layla’s heart was still broken and scattered after she met Mrs. Camila. She couldn’t get the past beliefs out of her head and fresh ones paved their way in.

Her eyes were red because of the disobedient tears that flowed out for hours before she found a motive to stop crying and encouraged herself with the words she heard last night.

“Are you ready, ma?” Mia asked.

“Yes,” Layla answered. She drew the little make-up kit closer and layered her face with a light powder. She applied a wine lip gloss on her lower lip and rubbed it with the upper lip until it spread.

“We can go now.”

Mia got down and opened the door. And Layla got down in a blinking long black gown. 

Mia bowed her head and directed, “it’s the last floor.”

“Okay.”

Layla led her onto the first floor, and before she got to the elevator, Mia walked faster and opened the elevator for her to go inside first.

The elevator closed and Mia pressed the top floor plus the green activation button and it lifted them.

The elevator opened, and Mia notified Layla. “We are there, ma.”

“Okay.” Layla feigned a smile and walked out of the elevator. She raised her gaze and looked straight into the hall, her eyes set on the smile on Asher’s face.

Seeing the smile, thunder rattled in Layla’s head and her heart escaped breath for a second. She felt dizzy and wanted to fall, but Mia held her back.

“Are you okay, ma?”

Layla quickly stood straight on her feet. “Yes, I am fine.” 

“Can we go in now?” Mia asked.

“Yes.”

Layla sighed and closed her eyes. ‘You can do this, Layla. This is just the beginning.’

She opened her eyes and set her chin facing slightly down and kept her mouth closed in a natural position. She focused her eyes on the hall ahead of her and stood straight, hanging her arms at her side and her hands relaxed. She placed her left foot in front of the right and walked into the party with long strides.

“Welcome, Miss Theodore Layla, the CEO of HighEnd Investment.”

The server at the hall entrance announced immediately as Layla stepped into the hall and everyone inside shifted their attention to her.

“Wow! She is a goddess!”

“She is gorgeous!”

“Why did she hide herself for this long?!”

People whispered to each other and glanced at her till she got to the VVIP table. They penned her name on it.

Three minutes after she sat down, a server came to her with the menu list in her hand. “This is the menu, ma.”

Mia collected the food menu and marked food. She returned the menu list, and the server bowed her head before she walked away.

Ten minutes later, a light set on the stage, and the MC greeted. “Good day everyone,”

“Now, the engaged couple will come out to share their love story with us.” The MC announced.

Asher and Amelia stood up and people clapped for them till they walked arm in arm to the stage. They turned to the crowd and bowed their heads.

“Thanks for coming.” They beamed, excited. 

They released their arms and faced each other. Asher opened his mouth to talk, but after he had a long stare into Avery’s face, he smiled.

“What’s it, dear?” Avery asked.

“Avery,” Asher began, “remember when we were kids and I saw you sitting on a bench? You were crying because you fell off the swing and everyone laughed at you.”

“We were only eight back then. Why does that matter?” Avery queried.

“It matters because that day I knew you would one day be my wife. After hanging out with you, I ran home and told my mom that I had found the one. She said, ‘good for you, now go to your room,'”

Avery laughed.

“It’s true. She didn’t even believe me. I mean, kids have crushes and puppy love, but no one knows if it will ever work out. Do you know what she said to me the day she died?”

Avery shook her head.

“She said, ‘son, if you don’t marry that woman I’m coming back from my grave to haunt you.” Asher chuckled. “I told her I will, but not until I’m ready. That was years ago. And now, after thinking about it long and hard, I realize I can’t imagine a life without you, Avery. You complete me… it’s like you’re my other half.”

Asher took off his coat, dug his hand into his pocket and took out a box, and got on his knee. “I love you, Avery. Please be mine forever.”

The crowd clapped, and Avery started to cry. She circled her mouth with one hand and allowed the tears to fall. The world seemed to vanish and they couldn’t look away from one another.

“Yes, I will be yours forever.” Avery collected the ring and pulled Asher up.

 He wiped her tears and affirmed. “I love you, babe.”

“I love you more.”

Asher placed his hand on the back of Avery’s head. He rounded his arm around her and pulled her closer to his body.

“Congratulations!”

A female voice filled the whole hall, and people traced it to the entrance.

Asher moved away from Avery and quickly walked down the stage before people would shift their attention back to them.

Avery smiled and walked down the stage elegantly.

“Now, it’s time to party!” The MC informed.

Mia stepped up onto the stage and whispered into Mc’s ear.

The Mc notified the DJ to pause the music, and the music stopped.

“I am sorry everyone, Miss Layla has a few words to say."

Layla stood up, and people clapped for her till she got to the stage. She faced the crowd and curtsied. “Good day, everyone. I am sorry to take a few minutes of your time,”

She raised her head, beaming. “My name is Layla Theodore. This is my first public appearance," she introduced and took a break for people to clap for her.

After the sounds of the claps went down, she kept on. "I am delighted to be at this event, because I may not forgive myself if I miss the engagement of these two successors, Avery Mason and Asher Lucas,”

“Avery may not know I am her fan and an avid follower. And I have always hoped to tell you I love you and to encourage you to keep shining,”

“To Asher Lucas, it’s been a long time since I have been out of the country, but the international news that featured you and I haven’t read wasn't published. Keep going and, one day, you will reap what you sow,”

Mia handed Layla a box. Layla unlocked the box and took out Leviev’s Vivid Yellow Diamond Pendant.

Layla turned to the crowd, staring directly at Avery. “Avery, I am not a fan of jewelry or expensive things, but I made my secretary do lots of work in finding a gift that will match your taste, and thanks to her worthwhile effort, this necklace is for you.”

She raised the necklace, and people admired it.

“Wow!”

Avery walked to the stage, thrilled. She collected the pendant and hugged Layla. “Thank you.”

Layla embraced Avery. “You are welcome.”

They separated their bodies and walked down the stage.

Immediately as Layla returned to her seat and sat down, conglomerate heirs and business executives came to greet her and they urged a meeting with her, but she let Mia attend to them.

“Good day, Miss Layla.”

A voice came from behind and Layla looked back to see Zane Victor. She wore a welcoming smile and responded, “good day."

He placed his hand on his chest. “I am-”

“Zane Victor.” Layla completed his statement.

“Yes…” Zane smiled. “It’s nice meeting you here.”

“Okay.”

“Can I have your contact? I would love to do things with you in the future.” Zane put forward.

Layla smiled. She glanced at Mia and gave her a sign to attend to him.

Mia bowed her head and gave Zane Layla’s contact.

Zane bowed his head and walked away.

Mia scanned around the hall and caught sight of Asher sitting alone in a dark corner of the hall while Avery was busy greeting the guests.

“Go meet Asher now. He is alone.” Mia whispered.

Layla stood up and paced to Asher. “Good day,” she greeted him.

Asher raised his head and looked at Layla from head to toe, annoyed. He took his eyes off her and sipped the wine he served himself before she came.

Noticing Asher’s behavior upset Layla and her mind boiled with fury, but she kept patience. 

Layla tried to be positive that Asher didn't hear her, and she curtsied her head. “Congratulations on your engagement.”

He sipped the wine again and had a second look at her before he stood up and walked out of her.

Layla's mind burned in another version of wrath and she grind her teeth in disturbance. Looking at him from behind, she desired to drag him back and give him a heavy smash that would make him land in a coma, but she looked around and squeezed her hand. 

She swallowed her saliva loudly and discharged a deep breath. “Son of a bitch.”

Mia walked to Layla. “How’s it?”

Layla sat down. She drank the glass of wine on the table and gobbled four glasses of wine she served herself. 

“I need to use the restroom.” She excused herself and strode out of the hall.

Mia sat down and picked up the wineglass on the table. She saw the label on the wine bottle and opened her mouth, shocked. “The drink is alcoholic!”

Layla felt dizzy as she turned to the corner of the toilet. She looked up and read wrong, and she mistakenly turned to the male toilet. She opened the door and Asher turned to her with his trousers unzipped.

Her eyes fell on his cock, and she opened her mouth in awe. “Wow!”

She bites her lower lip in admiration. “This is huge and long!”

His cool-golden eyes trailed over her and fell on her breasts. “What’s that on your chest? Why are you backing twins on your chest?”

He stepped closer, and she backed away until her ass touched the door behind her.

“Do you like this?” He asked, shaking his cock and her core throbbed at his words.

How did someone she despised have such an intense effect on her?

He cut her off by placing the back of his hand against her lips.

The fabulous fireworks that erupted from his touch were dizzying, sending a dangerous jolt to her core.

It made sense… all of it, the way her lips craved the touch of his lips.

A single touch from her enemy drove her nuts, and she could not stop herself from softly kissing his fingers that were pressed against her lips.

His eyes flashed a steely golden as their eyes met, and the moment he removed his hands, she slowly licked her lip.

He rested his arms against the glass above her, forcing her to back up against it.

The faintest smirk crossed his lips as he ran the knuckles of his right hand down her waist, making her heart thump in anticipation.

His body was barely inches from her and the urge she developed for him to press her thigh together was incredibly strong.

“Are you sure?” His question came, taking a break from the seductive actions.

She quickly nodded and kissed him.

“Good, let's just hope you will handle me well.” He said seductively.

They were chest to chest, and he parted her legs with his knee, making her core clench.

“Shall we try to see?” She asked seductively, with a challenging glint in her eyes.

She locked her arm around his neck, pressing herself against him, placing her left hand on his abs.

“Fuck me, man…”

He is Asher Lucas, and she wasn't just anyone anymore.