CH.56

Serena jolted awake to the incessant buzzing of her phone on the nightstand.

She groggily reached for it, squinting at the bright screen that seared her sleep-blurred vision.

Serena's brow furrowed. Why was her manager calling so early in the morning?

"Hello?" she mumbled in a voice still thick and groggy with the remnants of slumber.

"Oh my god, Serena! Have you seen the news?" Kate's voice was high-pitched with panic on the other end, causing Serena's stomach to clench with a tendril of dread.

"Seen what news?" She rubbed her eyes, trying to shake off the lingering cobwebs of sleep clouding her mind as wakefulness slowly seeped back in.

"There's a video circulating online of you being intimate with some strange man!" Kate babbled in her frantic rush to get them out. "It's going viral as we speak! There are also medical reports of you undergoing a virginity patch three years ago, before you and Alex met, as well as another from the night you were detained. It says that you had a vaginal rupture after taking multiple men at the same time. Llast night, there were photos too but someone thankfully took them down before they spread too far. The internet is currently in full chaos. If we don't act quickly, I doubt you'll have a reptation to fall back on."

Serena felt her blood turn to ice in her veins as Kate's words penetrated the hazy fog still clinging to her consciousness.

Video? Photos? Of her being intimate with a man? Medical reports…

A strangled sound of disbelief escaped her constricted throat as she immediately put Kate on speaker and did a quick search. Her heart sank like when the lurid video and the false medical reports filled the screen.

It was unmistakably her image in the poor-quality footage, tangled up in the rumpled ivory sheets of a hotel suite with...the same mysterious stranger she had met at the bar that day and nearly kissed. And those reports… they bore her name.

“Additionally, your nasty sister has made some inferred comments about this,” Kate added.

Rage burned through Serena as the realization set in. Of course this had to be her wretched family's doing, some pathetic attempt to sully her reputation and ruin her life out of petty jealousy and spite.

She instantly searched for Kylie's most recent video. The latter was clothed in black, with Alex standing by her side as she sobbed excessively about losing her father's leftover remains while attempting to avoid netizens after Serena's sex video was posted on the internet.

Serena could feel the flames of fury licking at her insides, turning her blood to molten lava in her veins.

As was to be anticipated, the public felt sorry for Kylie and started calling Serena horrible names.

As if on cue, a message notification from Jenkins popped up in the corner of her screen. He was urging her to call him immediately,

Serena knew it had something to do with the recent scandal.

Her head was spinning with immense anger swirling through her mind like a raging storm. She felt like she was caught in the eye of a hurricane with no idea which way to turn or what to do next as everything around her seemed to be crumbling into chaos.

Serena hurried toward the bathroom for a quick shower and got dressed in a red two piece slim-fit short-sleeved suit with trembling hands. Then she stormed downstairs, intent on going straight to the place she once called home. But the moment she tried to exit the villa's ornate double doors, she was stopped by two towering men in crisp black suits.

"I'm sorry, madam, but you can't leave the estate grounds," one of them stated in a flat monotone drawl, not even bothering to meet her blazing eyes.

"Like hell I can't!" Serena snapped, trying to push past them, only to be blocked by an immovable wall of muscle and finely tailored Italian wool.

"Get out of my way, you overgrown gorillas!" she screamed.

Her eyes involuntarily took in the sprawling villa and its lavishly landscaped grounds surrounded by towering mountains and lush evergreen forests that stretched miles.

Under different circumstances, Serena might have admired the breathtaking scenery and appreciated the almost surreal beauty of her surroundings. Sadly, all she felt right now was a simmering fury threatening to erupt into an inferno of unbridled rage, consuming her from the inside out.

"Where's Knox?" Serena demanded of the stoic guards. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides as she fought to rein in her turbulent emotions. "I want to see him right now!"

"Master is not on the premises at the moment," another guard replied blandly.

"Then get me Killian! I'll talk to him instead if I have to." Serena could hear the slightly hysterical edge creeping into her own voice but found herself powerless to control it as everything seemed to be spiraling wildly out of her grasp.

"The third master is also unavailable, madam. Please try to understand that we are only trying to protect you. It is dangerous to be outside this estate.”

Serena was rapidly losing what little remained of her patience and control. She opened her mouth to argue further when a familiar sneering voice cut through the tension like a knife.

"Having fun throwing a tantrum over there, are we?"

It was the same rude, disrespectful maid from yesterday, accompanied by her equally unpleasant friend.

They eyed Serena with undisguised disdain and contempt, their lips curled into mocking sneers as they boldly looked her up and down.

What was so specially about this wore that their master would let her inside his home?

They had loathed Serena since they first saw her, and their feelings had grown stronger now that her sex tape was spreading online.

"You may have the masters all wrapped around your little finger, but you don't get to make demands around here like you own the damn place," the first maid taunted.

Something inside Serena snapped like a taut wire being cut, the last threads of her restraint fraying and unraveling in an instant.

She moved with a speed that took them all by surprise and her palm connected with the maid's cheek in a resounding slap that sent the woman reeling back with a cry of shock and pain.

"How dare you—" the other maid started, raising a hand as if to retaliate against this unforgivable insult. However, she was cut off as Serena whirled on her with eyes blazing like twin blue flames of pure, unbridled fury.

“Who are you to talk back at me? How dare an insignificant lowlife like you disrespect the mistress of this house?” Serena’s body was shaking with fury. Since these people wouldn’t budge, she had only one last card to play in order to get out of this place.

Serena only grinned wickedly, a look of unhinged desperation glinting in her eyes. She made a show of reaching for the buttons of her suit with her free hand.

The guards shifted uncomfortably, exchanging uncertain looks while the two maids sneered openly. They could tell at once what trick Serena was trying to pull.

"Go ahead and strip, you tramp," one of the maids taunted with a disdainful curl of her lip. "Like Master would ever believe your lies over our word."

"Oh, I think he'll believe me alright. I could tell from the second I met him that Knox is a possessive, controlling bastard who wouldn't take too kindly to other men leering at his wife's body."

"That's quite enough of that nonsense!" a stern voice sliced through the tension.

It was the same older woman Serena had met briefly yesterday - the head of the household staff or butler if her regal bearing was any indication.

She fixed Serena with a look of mild disapproval, seemingly unruffled by the crazed young woman trying to strip naked in front of her subjects. No doubt their master would have their heads if that happened.

"You there," she barked at the guards, who immediately snapped to attention. "Take the young madame wherever she wishes to go at once. And have a second vehicle follow behind just in case." Her tone brooked no argument.

The guards exchanged uncertain looks but knew better than to disobey a direct order from this woman. "At once, Mrs. Ricci," one of them muttered.

As if on cue, the roar of a powerful engine sounded from a short distance away, followed quickly by another and stopped in front of Serena.

One of the burly men held the rear door for her while the others got into the second car.

Without a word or backward glance, Serena slid into the luxurious rear seats of the sedan, her chest heaving with each ragged breath as she fought to regain her composure.

"Where to, miss?" the driver's toneless voice crackled over the intercom.

“Star City’s Presidential Villa!” Serena replied absent mindedly, having no idea what she would do when she got there. All she knew was that she couldn't stay trapped in that Villa moment longer, not with her world crumbling all around her.

Her phone began buzzing insistently in her pocket, no doubt Jenkins or Kate trying to reach her again. But she couldn't bring herself to answer, not yet. She just needed a few moments of solitude, of silence, to collect her scattered thoughts and decide her next move.

Meanwhile, the maid Serena had so brazenly slapped across the face was left seething with rage and humiliation.

‘How dare that good for nothing human lay her hands on me?’

The stinging imprint of Serena's palm still burned hotly on her cheek, a constant reminder of the insult she had suffered.

No, this transgression could not be allowed to go unpunished.

‘I will make that weak human pay for her arrogance if it was the last thing I do!’ But she knew she didn't have the power, means or standing to take her revenge directly against Serena. She would need to enlist some help from people with far more persuasive capabilities and sway.

A slow, vindictive smile curved the maid's lips as she pulled out her phone, thumbing through the contacts list with a practiced air of nonchalance, as if she weren't about to set into motion a series of events that could potentially bring the entire household crashing down around their ears.

There were two numbers in particular that she knew would be very interested to learn about her master harboring a strange woman under his roof.

‘But which one should I call first to plant the insidious seeds of malice?’

After a moment's contemplation, the maid decided to dial them both - one after the other. That way she could skillfully manipulate the information, revealing just enough to pique their interest without overtly implicating herself in any nefarious plots or schemes. Plausible deniability would be key here.

The phone rang twice before a brusque, no-nonsense female voice answered curtly. "Who is it?"

"I have some news you might want to hear about your future husband." the maid replied in a conspiratorial whisper, unable to keep the hint of vindictive glee from creeping into her tone.