Chapter 8: Are you kidding me?

Anthony had everything planned out. He was tired of Mabel and he finally wanted to take her out.

She would die without him having to touch her and he would take down Christian. The two biggest problems in his life would be out for good. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

“Keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t mess up the plan. Use force if necessary,” Anthony instructed his son.

“With pleasure,” Kelvin responded with a devious smile on his face. It had been a long time since he had fun with Mabel and he had missed it a lot.

After Mabel left her father’s study, she headed straight to her room. Thankfully, she hadn’t unpacked yet and so she didn’t have to go through the stress of packing her bags once again.

She was however met by someone when she got to her room and that was her stepmother.

Mabel took a deep breath as she knew that the woman didn’t have any good intentions coming there. “Mother,” she called.

Claire turned to look at her and in her hands was the takeout container she had eaten last night. “How did you get this?” her stepmother asked, her voice laced with anger.

She had hidden it under her bed which meant for her stepmother to be holding it, the woman had searched her room hoping to find something incriminating.

Mabel knew her stepmother had intended to starve her and finding out she had eaten was a huge slap to her plan, hence the angry look on her face.

“I ordered it before I came home. It was one of the reasons why I was so late in returning home last night,” Mabel lied.

Claire smiled and Mabel instinctively took a step back as, knowing her stepmother, she knew the next thing Claire would do, would be to slap her. She was the family's punching bag and they didn't hesitate in utilizing her.

"Don't worry, I won't hit you today as I am in a good mood," Claire assured her as she threw what was in her hand away.

"You've heard about the task you've been assigned to do?" she asked, and Mabel nodded.

"Now between me and you, we both know you're going to fail at the task and miserably as well but here's the fun part Anthony refused to mention," she paused and looked at Mabel who was listening to her with her utmost attention.

"Christian Romero isn't interested in getting into a relationship and he has an infamous reputation for ruining any woman who tries to make him fall for her,” Claire informed Mabel and she smirked as she watched the colour drain from her stepdaughter’s face.

“If you don’t get Christian to fall for you, you risk losing your grandparents and on the other hand, if you try to make Christian fall for you, then he could kill you. What will you do?” Claire gasped.

“It was your idea, wasn’t it?” Mabel asked Claire. There was no way her father would come up with such a full proof plan. Her stepmother, however, was a different story.

“Wow, it’s nice to see you’re smart,” Claire praised Mabel. “I’ve always wanted to get rid of you and very soon, I will. Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

She then proceeded to leave but as she got to where Mabel was, she stopped and turned to face her, and before Mabel could process anything, a heavy slap landed on her face.

“When I make a plan to ensure you starve, make sure you starve, you bastard!” she growled and left the room.

Knowing that she would be frustrated if she stayed home, Mabel quickly showered and got dressed, after which she left the mansion. “Have you seen Rufus?” she asked one of the guards when she got outside and didn’t see the driver around.

The guard didn’t consider her important enough to answer the question and so, he kept mute. Seeing that the guard wasn’t going to give her an answer, she left.

Taking a taxi, she decided to go to any coffee shop she could find just to get some peace and quiet and the driver took her to the nearest one.

There was however an issue when she got to the door as she was stopped from entering by a worker. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you can’t come inside as we are not open yet,” the worker informed her.

Mabel looked at her watch and frowned a bit. Weren’t coffee shops supposed to be open by this time? She wondered.

“Alright,” she however said and turned to leave. After walking a distance, she heard someone yell after her. When she turned, she found the same worker who had told her the coffee shop wasn’t open running after her.

“What is it?” Mabel inquired.

“We are open, you can come in,” the worker panted as she was out of breath from running.

“What? You just said you weren’t open,” Mabel frowned.

“My apologies for that. We are now open,” the worker repeated.

Not wanting to go through the stress of finding another coffee shop, Mabel decided to go into the coffee shop. There was no one else in the shop and she wished it would stay that way as she wanted peace and quiet.

“Can I get a cup of coffee with two teaspoons of sugar,” she asked the worker.

“Sure, please have a seat,” the worker said, and she left. As soon as she was seated, Mabel brought out her laptop to search for the Christian Romero guy she was supposed to seduce.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she heard an annoyingly familiar voice just as she finished typing the words, ‘Christian Romero.’

The colour drained from her face when she turned and found the crazy man from the previous day glaring at her.

‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Mabel cursed under her breath.

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