"Have you heard?" She said in a gossipy tone of voice. She called Reagan instead of calling her boyfriend because she had realized Reagan has more use for her in the current situation than her boyfriend who suddenly became poor because his parents disowned him for not taking a pre-med course.
She loved Andrei but she can't live in love alone. Just like what her mother said, she needed to secure her own life.
"What is it?" He was going to ignore the call when he saw the caller. Tiffany doesn't call unless it is necessary. His foggy brain from last night's booze, special pill, and women was woken up the moment he heard Tiffany's tone of voice. He missed something important that had happened.
"Are you with another girl?" She asked, laughing wryly when she heard a soft groan. "You shouldn't let Lilly know if you wanted to have the upper hand."
"W-what?" He glanced at the naked back of the woman who was grumbling in her sleep next to him. He could not recognize her face because it was buried in the pillow. But then, he didn't really care about her name, just that she was an awesome playmate in bed last night.
"Reagan, you owe me one." She clicked her tongue as a devilish smirk curved the corner of her mouth. Of course, Reagan would sleep with other women. Lilly was such a prude princess that wouldn't indulge in pre-marital sex because of some promise with her mother. Another thing that annoyed the hell out of her.
"Tiffany, I know that you won't call me unless it's important," he put his phone between his ear and his shoulder as he bent down on the floor to pick up his discarded jeans. "How about we cut the chase for I know your time is important?"
Tiffany laughed. "Your public girlfriend just came by to my house to inform us that she had gotten married…and apparently it wasn't you."
Reagan froze in the middle of zipping his pants. He furrowed his eyebrows as he cocked his head to the side, trying to process what he just heard.
"What did you just say?"
Hearing Reagan's cold tone of voice, a smile curved at the corner of her lips. Excitement cruises her veins.
"Lilly married Matthew Grayson, the youngest heir of the Gray Empire in a private ceremony yesterday. Don't tell Lilly that I told you, okay?"
She made sure to convey that she was betraying her best friend by telling him the truth because she needed to keep Reagan on a leash for him to be useful for her.
"Motherfu—" He grabbed the lampshade on the side table and hurled it on the wall. The woman who was sleeping deeply on the bed woke up at once and surveyed the room to see what had happened.
When she saw the broken lamp at the far end of the room and how red Reagan's face was, she didn't say anything but wrapped the blanket over her nakedness, got up from the bed, and strode to the bathroom to wash up, totally ignoring Reagan or the fact that he was breaking hotel properties.
"I don't care what you'll do with Lilly or how you two will talk out things but I'm telling you, do not tell Lilly that I called you." She made sure that her fake discomfort could be heard in her voice.
Reagan threw some explicit curses in the other line that even Tiffany could not help but recoil with disgust. She wondered if Reagan would say those words to Lilly, but then it wasn't her problem anymore. She was just the bearer of the bad news.
After listening for a few more seconds to Reagan's cursing, she could not take the words that were coming out of his foul mouth that she hastily said goodbye and dropped the call. And then, called Andrei. She checked on him, making sure that he won't forget that he has a girlfriend that needed attention too and not just bury his nose in his studies.
After calling Andrei, she turned off her phone and decided to visit her father. Even though she was holding grudges over her father with his decision to exclude her from the family business just because she's a girl, she still has to maintain a good relationship with him. According to her mother, she might not be able to get a piece of the company in the future, but it doesn't mean that she can't enjoy the privilege that it has to offer right now.
If she plays the gender card well, she will be able to get something now that will somehow keep her afloat in the future. One of those was the apartment that she bought in one of the most expensive high-rise residential buildings in the city.
Save money for yourself was the only sensible advice that she got from her mother. And her mother made sure that she understood that she meant it. She opened her bank account and bought some bonds under her name without her father knowing on her sixteenth birthday.
She gave them on her eighteenth birthday, the same day that her father told her that she would not get a piece of their family business. When she received her mother's gift the realization came hard and fast.
She had to take care of herself.
It was a difficult pill to swallow at the beginning but then it slowly became addicting to acquire money and properties under her father and brother's noses. She slowly built her own stash. She would make sure that by the time her father had to kick her out of the family, she would not be destitute—which would be on her twenty-fifth birthday.
She only has a few years left to secure herself. Her mother told her to get a rich husband before the time comes. But then, she wasn't as lucky as Lilly. She didn't get to marry a Matthew Grayson.
She grabbed a porcelain vase from the console table and hurled it across the room in anger. She would make sure that Lilly won't be the only one that would get a good life. And if she can't get her good life, she would make sure that Lilly won't have it either.