"Grace, you did what? Have you already met him? Weren't you supposed to meet him in the evening?" Jade bursts into the room, practically tripping over her own feet. She rushes back to the hostel, promising to help Grace prepare for her big meeting with the guy she will marry.

"Yeah, well, his sister-in-law called me this morning," Grace says, plopping down on the bed, clearly exhausted. "His dad's very sick, and they want me to meet him ASAP. I didn't call you 'cause you were in lectures. Didn't wanna mess up your day."

Jade raises an eyebrow. "Mm-hmm, sure," she says, giving Grace a once-over as she sits on her bed. "You're acting all weird, girl. You're not even looking at me!"

Grace avoids eye contact like the plague.

"Are you hiding something?" Jade's eyes narrow. "Don't tell me he's some old uncle or something."

"What? No, no, no!" Grace's voice cracks. "He's just a few years older than me." She doesn't dare mention that he is also Angelica's ex-boyfriend. That's a detail she's definitely not ready to share.

Jade isn't buying it. "Why do you look so sad, then? Spill. You know you can tell me anything."

Grace takes a deep breath, feeling like she's about to confess a crime. "I'm fine, really," She says, putting on a brave face. "I'm just worried about my mom. Things are getting worse for her every day." It isn't a lie—but it isn't the full truth either.

-----------

"Little bird, I don't like the smell of this soup. I don't want to drink this," Kostas declares, scrunching his nose in a way that makes him look like a stubborn toddler refusing to eat his vegetables. He's turned it down three times now, and Karen decides it's best to let him have his way for once.

"Okay, Mr. Kostas. I'll ask the cook to whip up something with a different aroma. Deal?" Karen says, whisking the soup away like it's a bad date she can't wait to escape. It looks scrumptious, and she feels a twinge of guilt about wasting it. It seems so wrong to toss out a perfectly usable soup when countless folks are starving out there.

"Nancy, are we seriously throwing away food no one touched?" Karen asks one of the maids, raising an eyebrow as if she's just spotted a cockroach at a fancy dinner.

"Oh no, Ms. Karen! If they didn't eat it, we eat it! Why waste good food for no reason?" Nancy responds, her eyes lighting up like she's just discovered a hidden treasure.

"Alright then! Here's some delicious soup. Not a single sip is taken, and it's still warm! Someone grab it before I change my mind," Karen hands the bowl to Nancy. Nancy stares at the enticing soup with the kind of eagerness usually reserved for a kid on Christmas morning, ready to dive in.

After a few minutes, the kitchen buzzes with activity like a busy café.

"Nancy, oh my gosh! What happened to this girl?" Bibi, a petite maid with curly hair, screams, her voice piercing the air like a car alarm. "Help! Somebody call an ambulance! Nurse! We need a nurse!" Bibi wails, her panic turning the kitchen into a scene straight out of a sitcom.

Karen, a tall woman with warm brown eyes, dashes toward the kitchen, her heart racing as she sees Nancy, a bubbly girl with freckles, collapsed on the floor, foam bubbling from her mouth like she just chugged a soda too fast. At that moment, Karen knows something is very wrong.

"Nancy! Oh no! What happened?" Karen exclaims, shock washing over her like a cold wave.

"She was eating this soup and just fell off her chair like a sack of potatoes!" one of the kitchen boys exclaims, his eyes wide with worry.

"This soup?" Karen stares at the bowl, dread sinking in her stomach. It's the very soup she handed to Nancy—the same one Kostas was supposed to enjoy.

"Oh my gosh!" Karen gasps, a shiver running down her spine. "Mr. Antonios! Mr. Antonios!" she shouts, racing to find him.

Rumors start flying around the house like confetti. Someone tried to poison Kostas, but poor Nancy paid the price by eating the soup. Who would want to harm Kostas, and why? Family members spin wild theories, each more dramatic than the last, but they all know it's about the inheritance. Only Dion, a tall guy with tousled hair, seems genuinely upset about Kostas; the rest are too busy calculating their potential windfall.