In the next days that followed, the employees at the McDonell Construction Company were slowly going back to their normal routines after the news of the hack. It wasn't easy for some, but soon enough they stopped talking about it. No one was able to make assumptions about who could've been the culprit and thought it better not to talk about it and move on. What's happened has happened. If the authorities are able to find the hackers, the better. For now, work had to resume. There was no use crying over spilt milk.
The results of the forensic investigations were delivered to the IT department. It turns out that there wasn't much for the authorities to follow up on to try and find the hacker. Hackers were pretty good at changing their IP locations, so that one was a lost cause. But the digital footprint left behind from the Rubby Ducky seemed familiar to them, and they reported that they would take the investigation much further and see what results may appear.
The IT department let the board in on the situation and was advised to keep the information to themselves for the time being. They even let Angel, Leo, and Eric in on it as well with the same warning not to tell anyone.
The past few days after the hack seemed like a downturn for Angel, especially when it came to dealing with Eric. Even though the rumors of her and Leo had died down, she could still sense that Eric acted weird around her. He seemed normal to everyone at home and work. However, whenever he came across Angel, Angel could tell there was something off with him even if they talked normally. She could only wonder what he could be thinking, and Angel thought the two of them should talk. But dealing with Eric wasn't the only issue.
There was Leo as well and what had almost happened between the two of them on Halloween. Angel felt stuck in a limbo as she thought of who to deal with first. It felt right to talk to Eric first and to let him know how she felt about him. However, there was Leo, and she hadn't had the time to process what she felt. It was obvious that she shouldn't be having any sort of feelings for him, but whenever she saw him, there was no denying that she felt her heart flutter. Everything seemed to be going haywire for Angel at the moment, and she didn't know how to deal with it.
Angel felt relieved when she found herself waking up a little late on a Saturday morning. She had felt tired all week because of the party and then the hack. Moreover, thinking about both Eric and Leo mentally drained her for the whole week. She felt well rested as she sat up on her bed. Maybe today might be the day she can be alone to think things through, and thoroughly.
After making her bed and getting herself ready for the day, Angel walked out of her room to head to the dining room to have breakfast. For a Saturday morning, the McDonell mansion was a little quieter than most. It wasn't until she remembered that the men of the house, including Oliver, had decided to take the weekend off and travel out of town. They left yesterday in the early hours of the evening. It's good they went out to get their minds off of things. It was good for Mr. McDonell most of all, and he was the one who came up with the idea. That meant the house belonged to the women for the entire weekend.
When Angel got to the dining room, she found Mandy and Amanda there. The table had already been set for breakfast. Mandy was pouring Amanda some tea when Amanda looked up to see Angel walk in.
"Good morning, dear," Amanda greeted her. "I see I wasn't the only one who decided to sleep in today."
"Morning," Angel replied as she took her seat across from where Amanda sat. "Some of us have had a busy week. It's good I slept, though. Morning, Mandy." Mandy greeted Angel back.
"Yes, I can imagine what it must have been like for you. Trust me, thinking about what happened drains me."
Mandy made her way to the kitchen as soon as she was done serving Amanda. Angel took a cup and poured herself a hot cup of tea from the teapot.
"I admire that the men thought of taking the whole weekend to go and enjoy themselves," said Angel. "It will help take their minds off things."
"I'm glad you brought that up, Angel," said Amanda as she smiled widely at Angel. "Diana and I have been thinking that we should have some sort of slumber party. Just for us ladies."
Angel's eyes widened with excitement. "That sounds like a plan. Will Mrs. McDonell be up for it, though?"
Amanda scoffed. "I wouldn't care if she refused and decided to die alone in her room." Angel threw an eyebrow at Amanda, who groaned. "Okay… Diana hasn't gotten back to me yet, but she can't refuse, right? It will be just us women having fun."
"I bet Carly will be excited about this too. Have you seen her today?" Angel served herself some toast and bacon.
Amanda shook her head as she raised her cup of tea to her lips. "No. I bet she's sleeping in just like the rest of us. There has been something that I have been needing to talk to you about, Angel."
Angel had already taken a bite out of her bread, and she looked at Amanda, slowly chewing. She could tell that what Amanda wanted to talk about was really serious.
"What is it?" Angel asked after she swallowed.
"I wanted to talk about Carly and Leo."
Angel's heart skipped a beat as she tried her best to keep up a straight face. "What about them?" She bit into her toast again.
"I have noticed that the two of them hang around each other a lot lately. Is there something going on between them?"
"Like… are they dating or something?" Angel tried to look confused when Amanda asked the question.
"Are they?"
Angel slowly shook her head as she looked down at her toast. "Not that I know of. Carly is pretty private with me about her dating life sometimes. I have noticed that the two of them seem closer than ever."
Amanda remained silent for a while, and Angel couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about. Angel sipped on her tea slowly.
"If they are dating—secretly, I mean—then I don't approve of it," said Amanda.
Angel almost choked on her tea but stopped herself from sipping her tea any further. She put her cup down and looked at Amanda, shocked.
"What do you mean?" Angel asked.
"What I just said," said Amanda as she took her knife and fork and cut through her bacon on her plate. "Just like Kim, I feel Carly isn't for Leo." Amanda looked at Angel. "I'm sorry to say this about your sister, Angel. But she isn't the right fit for him."
"I'm surprised, honestly. I never expected you to say it without any hesitation."
"You know me well enough by now that I'm a very blunt person." Amanda smiled as she put the piece of bacon in her mouth.
"Okay, I take it that you don't approve, but why… if you don't mind me asking?" Angel slowly raised the cup again, back to her lips.
"Don't get me wrong, Angel. I have nothing against your sister. She's a good person, but all my life I have relied on my gut, and it tells me Carly just isn't right for him. They look like a picture-perfect couple, but I get weird vibes from her sometimes that make me think otherwise."
"What weird vibes?" Now Angel was curious.
Amanda paused on her chewing as she looked up at the ceiling, searching for the right words to use. "I don't know, really. I can say I haven't gotten to know Carly more closely than I have with you. But there's something about her that seems off. It's as if she's here one minute and then gone the next. She has a lot to do with school, I get it, but I just get the feeling that she isn't who we think she is. Like, one minute she's Carly, but who knows who or what she becomes behind closed doors?"
Angel thought of what Amanda said as she sipped on her tea. Her thoughts went back to the day she discovered that Carly was working as a call girl. From that point on she didn't know who Carly was anymore. Could it be that once again Carly is hiding herself, but this time with Red Lion, Andre, and who knows what? Angel thought.
"Look at me blabbering about my gut feelings," said Amanda as she chuckled. "I have your head in the clouds too."
"Well, sort of." Angel put her cup down. "But isn't it like that with every person we meet? We never really get to know them until we personally interact with them on a deeper level. Maybe you and Carly should hang out more for a change."
Amanda waved her hand away at Angel. "Oh, she wouldn't want to hang around an old geezer like me. I feel like I know her well enough, but not entirely. There's a side she wants to keep hidden. All I can hope for is it isn't as bad as we perceive it to be."
Angel nodded her head. "I understand. But what if it so happens she and Leo really are dating? What are you going to do about it?"
"Hopefully, it will just be a dating phase. But who knows? Maybe my perception will fade with time, and I might have been wrong about her all along. I did that with Kim, and my gut feeling never wavered. I just hope they aren't dating for real."
Oh, those two will be disappointed, Angel thought to herself. She wondered if she should tell Leo and Carly about this. Probably not.
"So, did your gut feeling warn you about Mrs. McDonell before she married Mr. McDonell?" Angel asked.
"Oh, you're a sneaky little devil," said Amanda, surprised that Angel had asked such a question. "But I give my hats off to you on that one. Do you really want to know the truth?"
"Yes, please." Angel was anxious to hear the answer.
"No. It never did." Amanda quickly sipped her tea.
Angel looked on with shock. "What? After what you said about listening to your gut, I thought otherwise."
"Trust me, Bertha has always been a pain from the get-go. I can say our arguing goes way back, even before she married Fred. I know we fight, and I did doubt Fred's decision, but I'm glad I never stopped them from getting married. The two complement each other like Yin and Yang. Fred is quiet; Bertha is a loudmouth. Fred is self-tempered; Bertha is a hothead. You see what I mean?"
"Yeah, but not every couple has to be the opposite of the other, do they?"
"You might be right. There's a lot that goes into a relationship apart from love, I'm afraid." Amanda looked down at her bacon. "Sometimes it's when the couple feels at home with each other. You need to understand and communicate with each other too. It gets to a level where the two of you can be vulnerable with each other. I feel that's an important aspect a lot of couples miss out on these days. Are the two of you willing to share your insecurities, your worst side, and the raw side of you? And are you willing to accept your partner's weird quirks as well?"
Angel couldn't help but pause over Amanda's question. For some reason, her mind started to wander over Leo and Eric. Whatever Amanda said gave Angel more of a starting point in what she had to think about over the two.
"And where has your pretty head gone to now?" Amanda asked.
"Oh, nowhere," said Angel, as she picked up her piece of bacon with her hand.
"Really? For a second there, I thought you were thinking of either Eric or Leo."
Angel choked on her bacon, and she couldn't help but cough out loudly as she beat her chest. Amanda smiled devilishly.
"What makes you think that?" Angel asked as she continued to cough a little more.
"I was just messing with you. That's for the question you asked about Bertha earlier."
"Fine." Angel cleared her throat as she calmed down. "We're even." She sniffed as she felt tears form in her eyes.
"I wouldn't mind if Leo dates you, though, dear," said Amanda as she smiled. "I feel the two of you will be perfect."
Angel scoffed as she gently rubbed her throat. "Mrs. McDonell wasn't lying when she said you are crazy."
"Oh, darling, crazy is an understatement."
The two women laughed wholeheartedly. Amanda leaned her head back while Angel had her head on the table. The two simply couldn't stop laughing. Carly and Diana soon appeared in the dining room and shared a look, wondering what they could've missed out on. Amanda slowly started to stop laughing and noticed Diana and Carly with bewildered looks on their faces. Angel slowly lifted her head from the table.
"Oh, goodness," said Amanda, as she wiped away the tears from her eyes. "I hope our laughter didn't cause a racket."
"Well, kind of," said Diana. "Mind telling us what you two were laughing about?"
Amanda and Angel looked at Diana, then they looked at each other and burst into another fit of laughter.
While the four women had their breakfast, they made plans for their slumber party. Carly was in on the idea, and she volunteered to help Diana buy some snacks and sweets for the night. Diana was a little worried Mrs. McDonell might refuse the whole idea. When Bertha finally came down for breakfast and was told the plan, she surprisingly agreed.
With the slumber party all set, Diana and Carly set out to the mall. Mrs. McDonell already had plans to meet someone and had also left the house. That left Amanda and Angel, and the two of them spent their time in the garden tending to some flowers. Since the gardener was off on the weekend, Amanda needed some flowers to be attended to. Lucky for her, Angel was more than willing to help. And the two of them told each other stories as they worked.
It was close to 1 P.M. when Angel and Amanda went back inside the house. Amanda decided she needed to go and take a nap. After Angel escorted Amanda to her room, Angel went to her room and changed out of her muddy trousers and shirt. Afterwards, she went on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Now that she was alone, it meant she had time to think over how she would handle the situation with Eric and Leo.
It surprised Angel a bit that when she had that talk with Amanda, she guessed right that Angel was actually thinking about them. It wasn't easy to figure out what she should do. It might seem straightforward, but looking at the situation on the other side of the coin, it was more complicated than most.
Eric is a nice guy, and everyone, including Carly, thinks Angel and he would make the perfect couple. Angel knew how much he liked her, and there's no doubt in her mind that he would stick by her no matter what. But did she feel the same for him? Yes, she cares about him. But to what extent? Angel tried picturing herself with Eric, them having a good time like they always have. Then the scene in her head changed as she tried to picture herself trying to kiss him. For some reason, the scene vanished as quickly as it came.
Angel quickly shook her head. Am I being ridiculous? She asked herself. Eric is a great guy, and I know he's good for me. I know he would make me happy. But why don't I feel I'm right for him? Angel sighed. Could it be that I'm the problem? She asked herself.
Then Leo. Angel found herself pausing for a while as she thought of him. She thought of the weird coincidences that the two of them were ever alone together. Angel didn't realize at first how easily those memories played in her mind. The scene she was really stuck on was for the Halloween party when the two of them almost kissed. Her body trembled at the thought of how close she was to Leo that night. Angel started to wish that she should have taken her chance and kissed him. All of a sudden, she paused.
"What the hell am I thinking?" she asked herself aloud.
Angel quickly sat up on her bed. This felt wrong on many levels, and she knew it. Was she having feelings for Leo? No, it can't be, she thought to herself. He is her sister's boyfriend. Won't that be stealing? Angel thought.
The thought of Carly made Angel jump out of bed all of a sudden and head to the door. As soon as she walked out of her room, she quickly went down the hall, reached the flight of stairs, and climbed up. When she got to the top floor, she went straight to Carly's room. There was no one around aside from herself, Amanda, who was in her room downstairs, and Mandy, whom they had left in the kitchen. Angel opened the door to the room and went in. As a precautionary measure, she left the door partially open so as to hear if there was anyone coming up the stairs.
Since Carly left the house with Diana, Angel remembered that she could finally get the chance to look for Carly's other phone. Hopefully she would be able to find it. She didn't know how far out Diana and Carly were from coming home, so Angel needed to hurry. Angel felt like hitting herself in the head for not thinking about all of this sooner.
Angel looked around the room, contemplating where Carly could have hidden the phone. She first went for the bed and checked under the pillows like last time. Nothing. She expected that. She went on ahead to check the drawers at the bedside. There was no phone in any of them. Angel had to be careful with the way she moved Carly's things aside. Her sister shouldn't know that someone had been in her room.
Angel turned around to face the closet, and she soon made her approach. As soon as she opened the closet door, she was greeted by Carly's neatly packed clothes. Most of them hung on hangers, while others were neatly folded on shelves. If Carly were to hide anything, it must be in between her clothes on the shelves, Angel thought. She started to check her sister's folded jeans. Nothing. Next she started to check her sister's neatly folded jumpers, careful not to remove them out of place. She was just checking the bottom of Carly's pink sweater at the bottom when she finally felt something. She took hold of it and carefully pulled it out. In her hand was the other phone she had seen Carly with.
"For it to be hidden from everyone, she didn't want anyone to know about it," said Angel as she stared at the phone like it was some mysterious object. "I wonder what I will find."
Angel pressed the power button. The phone was still on, and it still looked brand new. It seems she wasn't using it much, Angel thought. Lucky enough, there wasn't a password, and Angel had access. She carefully looked through the phone. There weren't many new apps installed. She then went on to the contacts. She found a most recent call from a contact saved as Red Lion. Angel's heart skipped a beat when she saw the name. Could this be the notorious criminal she had read about? She continued checking the call log, and a contact named Hugo and another named Alex came up a few times along with some unknown numbers that Carly hadn't saved. Then she found the contact she was looking for, Andre. Angel looked at the date. That was the day she came back home from Mexico. She checked the previous call logs, and it seemed Andre had called quite a number of times. Angel went on ahead to pull out her phone from her trousers. It was too late to pull out a pen and paper. She might make a mess of things in the room. She quickly took pictures of Andre's contact details, Hugo's, Red Lion's, Alex's, and the other phone numbers that weren't saved.
After checking the call logs, Angel soon became curious and decided to check Carly's messages. When she checked, she found that Carly only ever made contact with four people: Andre, Hugo, Alex, and Red Lion. She checked Andre's messages first, and what she saw stunned her. It was clear to see that the two of them were having an affair, but there was something off about Andre's messages. It seems he was addressing her as Loren. Loren? Who's Loren? Angel wondered. Could it be that maybe she had this all wrong and Loren might be the owner of this phone? If that's the case, why was Carly having it?
Leaving Andre's chat, Angel went on to check Red Lion's. Angel was surprised to see what she found. Most of the messages were of the person asking Carly to meet him somewhere or for her to contact Hugo over some instructions. What instructions? Angel wondered. The earlier messages talked of Andre and trying to make him fall for Carly. This made Angel even more confused. In the messages, Red Lion addressed Carly as Carly. Then who is this Loren? Then it struck Angel. Could it be that Loren and Carly are the same person?
Angel thought about it long and hard. It could make sense that Andre didn't know who Carly was and that Red Lion had been using her to get to him. For what reason, though? And could this Andre be the notorious drug dealer that had died in the fire in Mexico?
Angel quickly left the messages and went to the phone's gallery, hoping to find some photos that might be of use to her. She found the camera folder, and Carly had taken a few pictures. It was weird to see the number. Carly loved taking photos. When Angel opened the camera folder, she saw a few pictures of Carly on a patio with a nice view of a swimming pool and lovely green lawn. Angel could only wonder where she had taken the pictures from. Then came pictures of her in a lovely furnished room. Angel got a little curious and checked when the photo had been taken. It was the same time she was in Mexico for her school trip. Could this be one of the hotel rooms she was sleeping in? Angel wondered. She shook her head. The room didn't seem to fit as that of a hotel no matter how well furnished it looked. If anything, it looked like the bedroom of a personal household.
As Angel continued to scroll onto the next pictures, there was one where Carly stood in front of a long dressing mirror taking a selfie of her reflection in a short, black dress. Angel could tell there was someone else who stood behind her, but the person wasn't in clear view of the mirror. Angel checked the next picture. This time the person who hadn't been clear in the previous picture came into full view. His arms were wrapped around Carly's waist from behind, embracing her and looking into the mirror. Angel's eyes grew wide when she saw the face of the person who held her sister's waist.
"This is definitely him," Angel said out loud.
The sound of the door opening made Angel panic so much that she almost dropped the phone in her hand. Her heart started to beat so fast as she looked up at the door. There was no one there. But then she heard Carly and Diana's voices downstairs. They were back!
"Oh, shoot," Angel muttered as she quickly left the gallery and blacked the phone screen. She also made sure to put her phone back in the pocket. She quickly made her way to the closet and placed the phone right where she found it, under the pink sweater. After doing so, she looked around the closet for the last time and checked to see if nothing was out of place. At the last minute, something caught her eye at the bottom of the closet where Carly's shoes were. The white envelope that had Carly's name on it. It looked like it had been abandoned, or Carly simply forgot to put it somewhere properly. The first time Angel saw it, she never had the chance to read the whole thing. Could she still do it? She had to decide fast, for she was running out of time, and Carly would be coming to her room any minute. It might just help Angel with finding out more about what Carly is up to.
Angel could still hear Diana and Carly downstairs, and they seemed to be laughing. Angel quickly bent over to take the envelope, and she quickly closed the closet. She folded the envelope into her pocket. On her tiptoes, Angel made her way to the door. Before she stepped out, she took a little peek. None of the two women had made their way up. She slowly got out of the room and closed the door quietly behind her. For once Angel was glad that she was barefoot, and the carpeted floor made it easy for her to cushion her steps. She carefully made her way to the stairs. She used the wall to lean her back and look downstairs at the foyer. She saw Diana, Carly, and Mandy make their way to the kitchen carrying some grocery bags. As soon as they disappeared from sight, Angel started to make her way to the stairs and silently made her way down.
As soon as Angel reached the bottom of the stairs, she was just about to make her way to the hall leading to her room when she heard footsteps and Carly's voice behind her.
"Hey, Angel," said Carly.
"Hi, Carly," said Angel as she turned to look at her sister with a huge grin on her face.
"Were you going back to your room?"
"Um… yeah. I heard you and Diana, so I came here. But I remembered that I had to put my phone on the charger."
"Okay. Diana thought it would be nice to have some takeaway dinner tonight. Sound good?"
"Yeah, that will be great."
Carly smiled at her sister and turned around to head back to the kitchen. As soon as Carly had gone round the bottom of the stairs, Angel quickly ran back to her room. When she reached her door, she quickly opened the door and closed it as soon as she entered. She leaned her back against the door, breathing deeply as though she had just run a marathon.
When Angel started to grasp what she had discovered in Carly's phone, she slowly sank onto the floor, feeling completely drained and shocked. What she had assumed at first was true. Carly had been involved with Andre. Angel remembered seeing a photo of him in one of the articles she read about him after his mansion burnt down. It was definitely him. Angel shook her head in disbelief, as she wished for none of this to be true. Could Carly be involved with a drug cartel? It seems like it, judging by the messages Red Lion and Carly had shared. Could this be the same drug lord that no one knows has been able to identify? Angel wondered. She was now more than convinced that Red Lion could be the one.
There was still so much for Angel to process as she remembered the photo of her and Andre. No doubt the two of them had an affair. And he addressed her as Loren in his messages. Had Carly been leading a double life once again? Angel felt a sharp, painful feeling in her chest. This brought back the memory of when she discovered that Carly had been working as a call girl. After she got caught, Carly promised that she would change. But what did Angel just see in her hidden phone? Angel felt like she was going nuts as she couldn't think straight. As much as she was trying to put the pieces all together, her heart and her head ached like hell. "This is too much," she told herself as she held her head in despair.
With Angel's brain processing the information, a sudden realization came to her. Not only has Carly been lying to Angel, but also to everyone else, including Leo. She has been cheating on Leo with Andre. Angel tried to breathe, but she felt like she had just found herself in a vacuum. She tried to stop thinking, but her mind wouldn't let her. She fought the will to think, but it didn't work, as the thought of Carly with another man kept coming to her. A drug lord, as a matter of fact.
A sudden knock on the door Angel was leaning on brought Angel back from her spiraling mind. Angel found herself still on the floor, holding her head in between her legs. Her heart quickened a bit as she wondered who was at the door. She cleared her throat.
"Who is it?" Angel asked, hoping her voice would come out clear and normal.
"It's Mandy," came the response from behind the door. "Diana is asking for you in the kitchen."
"I'll be right there."
As soon as Angel heard Mandy walk away from the door, she stood up, holding her aching head. She ran over to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror above the sink. For a second, Angel couldn't even recognize herself in the mirror. Her face looked distraught, as though she had been in the psych ward for years. Her eyes looked red and teary. She quickly went on to wash her face and quickly dried it with a towel nearby. No one was supposed to see her as she is, or else they would know something is wrong. After drying her face, Angel absentmindedly dropped the towel onto the bathroom floor and walked out of the bathroom. All the time she had been thinking, she had even forgotten about the folded envelope in her pocket.
She made her way to the door, and as she held the doorknob, she stopped. After all this, how was Angell going to face her sister? This was still too much for her to bear, and she didn't know if she would be able to face Carly without losing her mind.
Angel told herself to calm down and to take in a few deep breaths. She closed her eyes as she did so. Even when her heart continued to beat so fast, she felt a little calmer. There isn't any other choice for Angel but to put up a cheerful face. She didn't know how to bring up the matter with her sister if the two of them ever had the chance to be alone. Angel knew now wasn't the time for it.
Breathing out calmly for the last time, Angel opened her eyes, opened the door, and walked out of the room.