Status: Sequel is posted :) !

Cinderella for Hire

twenty-nine.

I was sitting on my bedroom floor in my dark red cocktail dress with an apple in hand. I hummed a soft melody as I took out my things from the cardboard box. I figured before I go, I would sort things out in my new room first. I bit into the apple as I stuffed my old scarf into my wardrobe and pinned the Hello Kitty birthday card on the corkboard at my little study area. I hung my student ID (I loved keeping mementos) at the edge of the corkboard and behind that student ID dangled my bedazzled Hello Kitty USB drive. I took it and plugged it into my laptop and browsed through the songs.

Maybe I should download new ones.

Yawning, I went around the room to the sound of my playlist blasting over the laptop's crappy speakers as I shuffled over things that I needed and things I didn't need. After I done that, I walked over to my laptop to see the time.

Oh crap, I was going to be late!

Hurriedly I closed my laptop and placed the student ID and Hello Kitty USB drive back to the corkboard when the twinkle of the fake gems on my USB drive caught my eye. And I frowned.

Did I ever even find the time to tell Nick about the whole Olivia in his office thing—

The colors drained out of my face.

No.

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Well, Nick wasn't answering his phone again. I couldn't say that surprised me. But the moment my phone rang back, I answered it on the first ring.

"I did something horrible!" Andrea's voice came out, sobbing. Actually sobbing. If there was anything that Andrea didn't do, it was crying.

"Andy?" I asked, shocked. It was like one problem after another! "What's wrong?"

"Oh my God, April. Oh my God," she spat out. "Last n-night like I got wiped out drunk and I kind of told that guy I…I was sleeping with about…you and…you know, since he wanted to know so much I can't—"

What the hell was she talking about? Was she still drunk?

"Wait, you told someone about my true relationship with Nicholas?" I said slowly as I banged my head against the window over and over again. Well, that didn't help the headache at all!

"I'm sorry, April. But it's not like he's going to tell anyone, he seems like a really nice guy and he told me he wasn't to—"

"Andrea, it's fine," I said after a long pause in which I had to endure to listen to her sobs. It wasn't a nice image, Andrea, crying. It made me feel bad somehow. "I trust you, so I guess I just have to trust him. What's his name anyway? I've never asked."

"Ian."

My jaws dropped and I was getting faint. No, it must've been a coincidence. There was no absolute way this could be happening right now. This was a terrible, terrible joke on life's behalf. I get the idiom 'when it rains, it pours' but my goodness this was taking the phrase to a whole new level. This was taking the phrase and shredding it to pieces before blowing it all up so it was a scattered, frenzied mess.

Shut up, April. Shut up! Don't think about it.

Plenty of other 'Ian' out there, right? It was a common name.

I mean seriously, this couldn't be happening.

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The first thing I did when I got out of the cab was take off my fabulously painful heels and ran barefooted to the gate of the house. At the same time, I texted Nick that I've arrived at the front doors, basically. Everyone was either inside or at the backyard I guess. Wincing at my bare feet, I was stopped by a stranger with jet black hair and blue eyes. Actually, I wasn't just 'stopped' by him – in the midst of walking swiftly towards the front doors, he grabbed my upper arm and yanked me to the sides, away from the main pathway.

Panicked, I instinctively hit the stranger with my heels but he had better reflexes than I expected.

"Miss Bennett, pleasure to have finally met you in the flesh."

Oh my God, I didn't have the time for this.

He oddly looked like Caleb, only older and his gaze was much more piercing – even in the dim light, I could tell.

Oh no.

I was having a slight mental breakdown at that point.

"You!" I growled, pushing him away from me. "What the hell are you doing here? Did you stalked Nick or something?"

He frowned, angry at being pushed around I suppose. "You know who I am?"

"If you're not Ian Fulton then I have some serious apologizing to do."

He smirked and backed me up against the brick walls of the house again. And for the first time in my life, because of the adrenaline pumping through my veins and the ridiculousness of it all, I didn't feel intimidated as a Fulton stared me down.

Okay, maybe just a tiny bit. But still.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed.

"I don't like people pushing me around, Miss Bennett. And rest assured, I didn't come here to stalk your boyfriend, Nicholas. Oh wait, he isn't really your boyfriend is he?" he said with a gleam in his eyes.

Angry and hurt, I hit him again but he didn't budge. "How did you know Andrea?" I demanded first, surprised by the firm confidence in my voice.

"I'm a man of resources, Miss Bennett. There are private investigators everywhere nowadays. Mine just happened to be more…capable. You see, the news that Nicholas had a girlfriend was really shocking to me. Ever since I've banged his girlfriend, he had been a heartless bastard, that guy. So I thought it'd be a good idea to investigate in this matter further."

I hit him again. "So you used Andrea? And you're the one calling Nicholas a heartless person?" I said, laughing almost hysterically. Oh god, everything was just moving too fast. Everything. I couldn't understand anything anymore. I just wanted to hurt this guy.

"She was delicious."

Hot tears of anger spilled over my eyes as I roughly pushed him away and made my way to the front doors again but I found myself being dragged back to the same spot, a bit more roughly this time because I resisted. "I will scream," I threatened him.

"You wouldn't want to cause a scene now, do you?" he said, taking a strand of my hair and twirling it around his finger. I pushed his hand aside.

"You…and Olivia," I spat out her name like it was toxic. "What the hell are you guys up to? Why are you doing this?"

He smirked. "Not only Nicholas, darling. That isn't our main course but hell, he did make it easier for us," he said. "We're here to crush his father. I'm here on behalf of my father to force Richard Fulton to feel small. Incapable. Just like how my dad felt all those years. It's about time someone put him in his place."

"Richard Fulton worked hard to be where he is now. You people are cheaters and liars. Look at how immature you're being," I said, rolling my eyes. "Like father, like son."

I get that part. Olivia was probably working with him now too so that explained everything. What I didn't get was the whole crushing process. What was he doing here? Okay, taking down Richard Fulton. But how?

Olivia stole the files, that was obvious now. But honestly what use was it to steal the files but—

"You're stealing their biggest client," I said aloud. "The meeting between Nick's team and Simmons failed, didn't it? What's happening right now then? What are they going to say to the shareholders?"

A gleam of mischief appeared briefly in Ian's eyes. "You do the math, Miss Bennett."

I needed to see Nick.

"Get out of my way before I disfigure your face."

I needed to see what was going on. I couldn't let Nick be in there with his pitiful Bambi-look. Hell no. I pushed Ian out of the way again but again, he grabbed my arm. It was as if he wanted to say something to rile me up once more but he was cut short when Nick appeared out of nowhere and punched him.
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The Internet connection trolled me so badly tonight. Just as I was finishing up on this chapter and was ready to go on Mibba to post it - I got disconnected for a good half an hour or so.

Well, here you go. The 29th chapter. Thanks for reading and hope you've enjoyed it.

What do you think? c; Comments are appreciated!