The two weeks she spent in Anthony's company was nothing but fun. It was confusing with a lot of puzzling stories, but otherwise, she had enjoyed herself immensely. Anthony wanted to prove to her that he was nothing like his brother, and he took the oath seriously.

After their discussion about Amelia last week Monday, the rest of the days were spent discussing Gabriel's failed relationships. As far as Anthony was concerned, Gabriel had never been interested in settling down before which accounted for the fails, but for some reason, he believed Gina would make him change his mind, and her guffaw had her nearly coughing up the surrogacy agreement to refute his claim.

However, with her growing relationship with Anthony, Gina could sense the growing distance between she and Sisi. Every night they met in her room for reconnaissance, putting together what they found out in a file she had created especially for that purpose on her phone. Initially, Sisi seemed ecstatic that Anthony discussed Amelia, but she refrained heavily from contributing to the conversation these past few days, and Gina was tired of the silent treatment already.

She was going to figure out what was going on in that girl's head in about a few minutes. She already had Monica and Lilah's birds of a feather to deal with, and as she wished for them to flock together in peace, she did not want them recruiting Sisi into their hate squad.

Her cover would be blown into smithereens if that ever happens!

Now, she was greedily munching on the pepperoni pizza she had garnished with mayo Anthony had bought for her earlier today to apologise for not spending the day with her, as he had something important to take care of. He wasn't expected back till later in the day, and she decided to use this moment to win back her other friend, who until recently, was conveniently her only friend in this house.

The slight tap on her door brought her back to the present, and after acknowledging it, the door was opened to reveal the skinny twig that was her partner in crime.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yes," she nodded, lifting a slice of pizza from the box. "I need you to wash all the cloth in the bottom drawers of my closet, scrub the bathroom floors so they dazzle, trim the flowers in the flower pot, mop this room, rearrange the closet..."

"Clean you nails, apply manicure and pedicure, and do your hair? Is that all, or are there any more ridiculous work you have for me to do?" She retorted sassily.

"I was going to do manicure by myself, but since you're offering." She shrugged nonchalantly, scooping an ice-cream into her mouth.

Sisi sighed heavily, hands folded across her chest as she glared at her. "Why am I here?"

"If you won't do the chores, come help me snoop on these rich people. I'm beginning to think operation 'have complete dominion' is all on me."

"Why would you say that? I'm more invested in this project than you are. More so now that you keep running off with Anthony every chance you get," she mumbled, attitude rolling off her in crashing waves.

"Damn, you just reminded me. Anthony invited me to go out with him again today, but I declined because I wanted to hang out with you. I guess I should call him and tell him I had a change of heart."

She picked up her phone, tapped some functions on it before placing it to her ear. When Sisi scoffed loudly as if in disbelief, she removed it from her earlobe to tap a function. The loud shrill of the dialling tone had the girl gasping in shock.

A click sound indicated the call had been answered, and like a lightning bolt, Sisi dove forward and snatched the phone before standing to her feet and moving away from the bed.

Stunned, Gina gaped at her. "Give me back my phone, Sisi."

"Why? So you can speak to him and continue using your feminine charms on him? I won't allow it anymore. I've been holding it in because we're friends, but not anymore."

"What nonsense are you saying? Just give me the phone. I need to speak with him."

"I've had it with you stealing everyone I've ever loved." She stomped her foot in anger. "First, you stole Gabriel, your friend stole Malcolm, and now you're with Anthony. What is so special in being pregnant? I'm hotter and definitely more curvy, so I don't get it. Why are they all smitten with you?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask them and stop giving me the silent treatment?!" She yelled, getting frustrated with the foolish girl. "Give me back my phone already. I need to answer it. It's important."

Feeling contradicted, she eyed the phone in her hand, and the scowl on Gina's face before making her decision. With mischievous intent, she slammed the phone to her ear, lowered the pitch of her vouce before speaking into the receiver.

"Hello,"

"Gina, I know we agreed on settling our differences your way, but staying indoors, in our room, and in our bed, is much more productive, for the baby, for me, and most especially for you."

Feeling embarrassed for listening in on a private conversation, she removed the device and strolled to the bed to go drop it into Gina's open palm, who placed the phone near her ear, quickly diving straight into an argument with Gabriel.

Twenty minutes later, with the call done, she stood fidgeting as Gina darted flaming eyeballs at her. "Next time you grab my phone like that, I'll speak with Gabriel to deal with you in a way you won't like."

She sighed heavily when the girl whimpered, letting the anger simmer down. "But I won't do that cause I'm not the kind of friend who is inconsiderate of other's feelings. In fact, I'll fight for you if someone hurts you, and I expect the same treatment. You've come to mean much to me in this house, and I'd never hurt you like that."

Now that she was no longer angry, she trailed the path of this meet-up. She had to gain back her trust, not scare her away. "I'll also have you know that I'm not blind. I know you like Anthony, and I would tell you not to get your hopes up when it comes to him, but your heart knows what it wants, so I respect that."

"But you hang out with him every chance you get, even though those hangout don't yield anything." She accused, eyes glinting with unshed tears.

"I hung out with him cause I wanted to gain his trust, but he lives a pretty guarded life, so it's getting a bit hard to get him to talk about Gabriel. Which is why I need us to restrategize. I know we are focusing on the males, but I was thinking, why don't we scoop out Monica. Befriend her, find out what she knows and use it."

"That seems like a nice idea, but aren't you guys like enemies now?"

Gina groaned heavily. "Did you have to remind me?"

She shrugged dismissively, clearly unperturbed. "Well, I'm tired of standing around. Is that all the chores you want me to do, or did you call me here for another reason?"

"Yes, I did." She rolled her eyes before tapping the ledger lying on the bed. "The real reason I called you here was so that we can make notes and compare all the information we have gathered so far. We need to weed out irrelevant ones and find those we can use to wield our power."

Nodding, she strolled to climb into the bed, inching close to Gina who handed her the ledger and a pen, insisting she was pregnant and couldn't be stressed.

"So, what do we know?" She asked, turning the ledger to scribble down notes.

Positioning the tub of ice-cream between her laps, and the packet of pizza on her left, Gina scrolled through her phone, searching for their puzzle pieces.

"Amelia and Gabriel were an item," she began, chewing on a slice of pizza.

"They weren't an item. I thought your conversation with Anthony proved that." Sisi gave her an eye roll when she sucked on her fingers to get the sauce off.

"Well, I'd say he lied. They're siblings, of course his loyalty would lie with him." She took his words to her with a pinch of salt, which was why she was adding both sides of the story together to make a perfect whole. Besides, she was still using a long spoon to sup' with Anthony.

"Fine, let's agree to disagree. What else?"

"Umm, Gabriel dated four women in the past decade, which is the summary of his love life. He dated Tracey when he was eighteen; nearly tied the knot with Ada when he was twenty-three; had an affair with Isi when he was twenty-five; and engaged Queen when he was twenty-eight. That's more than a year ago. All of these relationships didn't last more than six months, although the one with Ada lasted longer than the others."

"I met Queen when I came to his house, and she wouldn't stop rubbing it in my face that they were getting married. Only for her to go about sleeping with his friend, that playboy called Thaddeus," she muttered with a disgusted look.

"Anthony mentioned he wasn't sure of the strength of his relationship with this Thad, but he seems pretty close with Christian. There's another friend, Sebastian, who is the only married one among them."

"Do you think we should snoop around for more information on his friends instead? I'd be happy to help out."

Of course she'd happy to help out Gina thought with sarcasm coating her thought. The girl flickered through men like a recently metamorphosed butterfly.

"You don't need to, at least not now. We don't know much about his friends or their importance in this scheme, so let's worry about them later." She dismissed the suggestion with a wave of the hand. "Moving on, let's discuss the reasons why those relationships were a total fail."

"Remind me again why we are focusing on this aspect when it's clear it's irrelevant? Just tell me you're checking up to make sure you don't get dumped as well."

"That's not why I'm doing this and you know it," she retorted sharply. Ignoring the raised brow directed at her, she continued evenly, "He broke up with Amelia because she cheated on him with his brothers, or a particular brother, and then I found out the pattern is pretty common. According to Anthony, Tracey was found on the morning after her eighteenth birthday party with a boy, both were naked. He ended things with her quickly after that. Years later, he broke off his engagement to Ada when he walked in on her in bed with Malcolm, his own brother. Isi went home after a drunken party with a random dude, and he wasn't very happy about that sort of behaviour, and Queen just couldn't decide if she liked Gabriel, or his playboy best friend better. Don't you think it's weird and needs proper attention?"

"You're right, it is weird. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's lousy in bed?" Sisi winked knowingly at her.

"Or he's very good at what he does." Manipulation was the first word that came to her mind.

"Either way, he knows how to avoid his responsibilities like a pro. Apart from the baby drama with Amelia, he's kept it in his pants until you, which is the only thing not adding up here. Are you sure you can't ask him why he wants you pregnant?"

He'd rather kill her than let her expose him like this, so she shrugged instead, scooping ice-cream into her mouth.

"Now, we still need to find out how Amelia fits into this timeline and see what made her stand out. According to the stories, he was twenty-two while she was sixteen at that time."

"She was eighteen, not sixteen." Her response was automatic.

"How did you know that?" It wasn't until Sisi shot her a quizzical brow did she realize her blunder, so she spun a tale instantly.

"I figured she should be. Besides, if she was underaged, they wouldn't be talking about it so openly. His family would have been against them even with the baby."

"Okay. So, Tracey was the first one, and he was pretty young too at the time. According to what you said Anthony said, they were in love."

She scoffed, dumping the spoon in her mouth. "Anthony thinks they were, but with what I've seen, I have my doubts."

Sisi nodded at that, falling backwards to lie on the bed.

"The only person who would give us a clearer picture here would be Tracey, and I wish we could get her to squeal. Do you know any of these girls so we can talk to them?"

"Well, there's a Tracey that's friends with Anthony." She offered, shrugging. "I only know this cause she's treated specially anytime she visits him. She's a lawyer, definitely married and has a daughter. They don't come around much as I've only seen them once. If Anthony is hosting some friends, it might be them."

"If that's true, we might actually discover something worthwhile. And after that, We'll move on to drill Monica."

"What about Malcolm?"

"What about him?" She was lost, and didn't bother masking it.

"Have you tried your charms on him yet? If Anthony was willing to tell you all these about his brother, Malcolm might too, cause he's a man, just like Anthony. Besides, he hates Gabriel, so getting him to talk will definitely work in our favour."

Gina clapped in awe. "I love your suggestions. It's like we're on fire, and this is why we make a great team. You know all the juicy inside scoops, and I'm the brainbox behind their successful execution."

Sisi scoffed loudly, rolling her eyes. "Are you sure you have brain? With the way you're eating anyhow, I'm sure you've eaten it, as well."

That she was pregnant couldn't save Sisi from enduring an unhealthy dose of laughter from the tickle monster.

++++++

After their plan was agreed upon, Gina decided to carry it out sooner than later. Anthony was hosting his lawyer friends today, and there was a high chance Tracey would be there with the way the maids scurried around trying to get things done -even Sisi was not left out as she hadn't seen the girl since morning. The plan was to get an alone time with the lady and get her talking about the issue.

Truthfully, Gina wasn't sure what that would accomplish, but Gabriel's words about 'hating women' and 'women being dangerous' must have an origin. Most playboys got their heart broken by their first love, and she could bet an arm the same principle was applicable to him.

Now, she was standing on the balcony of the room, looking down at the pool party currently going on. Most were males, in varying shades and styles of monochrome colours, but she had caught sight of two women, and the robust lady who greedily snacked on a barbecue stick was her target. Since she was permanently glued to the food table as if her life depended on it, Gina knew luring her away would be quite the challenge, and since she was a foodie herself, she knew the woman wouldn't leave. Ever.

Contemplating what to do, and bidding her time, she decided she had wasted enough time already. The meeting was concluding, judging by the raucous laughter sounding from down below, and guests would start leaving soon. Pushing away from the balcony, she prodded back into the room to go suit up. Getting dressed in maxi gowns was itching to be her favourite thing now.

Once she had made her way past the stairs until she was standing in the front porch, the delivery guy arrived. Grabbing the still hot box full of crusted flour slices, Gina beamed, fairly certain nothing could go wrong now.

A gift from a stranger --who so happens to be Gabriel's girlfriend-- as directed by her wealthy boyfriend, was enough to get a gluttonous woman out of her chair.

Getting impatient, she began to make her way to the back of the house determined to go deliver the message herself. Just in case, she had Gabriel's limitless card with her, ready to impress if need be.

She had just made it past the walls, as she rounded the bend only to run in sharply with a figure dressed in white. The collision was too sudden, the impact throwing both women off. While grabbing onto the walls to steady herself, she inadvertently let go of the box, which went flying into mid-air before plummeting forcibly to the ground under the force of gravity. The resulting action left more slices on the green lawn than they were in the box itself.

Gina bit her lips against cursing in Spanish.

Ignoring the woman she had bumped into, she stood firmly to her feet and made her way to the box, quickly lifting it up. Luckily, two slices were still nestled inside. Dusting the box, she turned to regard the woman she had bumped into, only to notice her eyes were trained on her belly.

"Are you okay?" She felt it was insensitive that she was more worried about the Pizza at that moment, so she tried to be friendly.

Her hands flicking off stain from her body hugging white gown with a slit parallel to her breastbone, she nodded, "I'm alright. A little shaken that I bumped into a pregnant woman carrying Pizza, but I'm fine."

"Why is that?" The smile the young woman flashed at her was heartwarming, and Gina couldn't help thinking she was a lovely person all through.

"My cousin is pregnant, almost due, and she does not joke with food. If she was in your shoes, she'd be balling her eyes out. So, please, allow me to pay for the Pizza."

Gina returned her smile, feeling slightly silly that she was angry earlier for the little accident. Pizza could be replaced, missing out on making new friends cannot. "You don't have to, but since you insisted."

For some reason, her words were humorous, and they burst out laughing at that.

"You're really pretty. How come I've never seen you in any of our monthly meetings? Were you called to bar recently?" Somehow, she had hinted at the patio, and Gina followed after her wordlessly.

"Thank you for the compliment, and no, I'm not one of you guys, even though I'm thinking of pursuing a career in that profession. Actually, I'm here because of Anthony. You see, Gabriel Asika is my boyfriend."

Her jaw dropped at that, and it took her a few seconds to recover.

"Oh, you are," cried the woman in a voice that had gone a pitch higher making Gina crease her brow. "Don't mind me. Anthony had mentioned you were staying here, but I never imagined you so young. I guess I was expecting someone a little bit older," she clarified with an apologetic shrug.

I guess Anthony didn't mention his brother was eight years older than his girlfriend.

"Yeah, well, love is blind." Even she knew Gabriel was not part of the statistics of people that believed in this phrase.

"It sure is," The woman concurred, her eyes darting around as if she was getting ready to pull off a vanishing act. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Gina. I guess we'll see some other time."

Gina frowned at her lack of courtesy. Opening her mouth to remind her, she was stunned at the high-pitched squeal that cut her off harshly.

"Mommy!"

Drawn to the musical sound, she  turned around, and watched in amazement as a little girl of about six in a pink princess dress coupled with a tiara flew into the woman's waiting arms, grinning up at her.

Wait, this young woman with the perfect curves was a mother? Gina was filled suddenly with overwhelming jealousy.

"What did I tell you about running, Lia?" The woman scolded the girl once they broke the hug.

"I'm sorry, Mommy. But I went to look for Uncle Gabriel and I couldn't find him anywhere. He said he'd be here next time we visit, and today is next time."

"Don't cry, baby boo. I'm sure your Uncle Gabriel knows you're here, and he'd be here soon."

Feeling left out of a conversation she knew wasn't any of her business, she harrumped loudly to draw attention back to her. Suddenly remembering her manners, the woman looked up to face her, the action forcing the little girl to turn around as well.

The world tilted on its axis when her eyes came in contact with familiar brown ones. It was the same facial structure, the same high cheekbones, the ears weren't hers but the nose were, as well as the lips. The resemblance was shocking. It was like looking in a mirror!

"Forgive my manners. I get forgetful sometimes," she explained, her fingers intertwining with her daughter's who sent a quizzical stare in Gina's direction, her interest seemingly locked on her weird looking belly. "My name is Tracey Ibru, and this is my daughter..."

"Amelia!"

~~~~~~~~~

Bish say whet! Iz you high? How is that stuff even possible? Gina, dear, this book does not have a reincarnation tag, alright?

Don't mind me. I needed to rant a little. What are you thoughts concerning the little girl?

Vote, comment and share.

Thank you 😄😊