"Girl get up", an asian girl with long black hair tied into a ponytail slapped her friend's butt.
"Luc, it's only five", the brown-haired british girl said.
"So?".
"So, leave me alone".
"Come on…", her friend didn't move. "Fine then. You. Shall we go and be ready for the day?".
"Fine by me", the red-haired girl who was Holly's bedroom-mate answered.
"Okay, Holly we'll see you soon".
Holly waved without looking and went back to sleep. Lucinda and her had been friends since forever that's why she also hated her morning routine of always waking her up.
Lucinda, Holly and their other friend Georgia sat down at a table as they ate some lunch.
"So, girls how was your lecture by the famous Jude McDermid. Is she as strict as the rumors say?".
"More than that. The woman is so uptight that she could use some sex to release her tensions", Georgia joked.
"Ah, the wonders of sex", Lucinda took a zip from her cola and burped. "Holly what do you think of Professor McDermid?".
"She seems like a very capable woman".
"That's it?".
"Did you hope for more or something?".
"Well, I just thought your intuition would tell you that something was off but since you don't then she's probably fine to trust".
Holly couldn't help but eye her friend.
"Are you thinking that there's something shady about her?", Holly took a bit from her sandwich.
"I think that there is something shady about Solasta Finance but hey, that's none of my business. The world is filled with corruption anyway".
"What are you trying to say exac-".
"Hello, Georgia!", a happy go lucky Phoebe greeted her in the girly typical way of kissing and hugging the met friend.
Georgia was so happy that Lucinda couldn't help but roll her eyes. In her mind the girl was too ambitious for her own good.
"We just wanted to invite to the party tonight", Louise told them. "You guys are welcome too if you wish to come".
Georgia threw them a look that said that she definitely did not want them there. Lucinda simply ignored her and looked at the alpha girls. Immediately her eyes locked onto Louise's and the alpha girl had to look away. Lucinda did not dig further into the situation.
When night came and the driver came to pick Georgia up Lucinda was already asleep and Holly was just anxious over her friend that after some hour she ended up going after her. Of course Lucinda was dragged along.
At the party while Holly looked for Georgia, Lucinda went to some room where she could sleep. She really lied down against the wall with the blanket covering her face and everything. She had no idea about the conversation she was just about to hear and she was quick to record it too. When the guy, called James left the room and Fay stayed Holly came inside. That was just about when Lucinda fell asleep. After awhile she was woken up by a quarrel. James was back and Holly was nowhere to be found. She didn't need to hear the backstory of their fight she already understood from the words that came out of their mouths and she felt like she was in such deep shit. Lucinda knew she couldn't tell just about anyone about the conversation before there was proof.
After some shouting it became quiet and the door clicked as it opened and closed. For insurance sake she sent the recording of the conversation to her computer. She in't want to jump to conclusions without more information and if what happened to James and Fey was true then she had to make sure Holly wouldn't get hurt. In other words she had to get to Fey and check her side of the story.
Georgia had been so distant with Holly, and Holly simply missed her best friend. She knew something was off with Solasta Finance and that Fey was suffering because of that. She simply didn't want Georgia to be part of any of that.
Meanwhile Fey was choking by the reality she lived in. There was no one she could go to because no one would believe her. James idea to take the whole Solasta Finance was a great idea but... it was an impossible thing to do.
"We need to talk", Fey almost screamed out loud but her mouth was quickly hushed by the palm of Lucinda's hand.
"What are you doing here?", Fey was so shocked and overwhelmed.
"I found out about the corruption going on in Solasta Finance and I want to bring them down before anything bad happens to my friends but I can't do it alone".
"It's impossible to bring them down".
"It's not, not with your help".
"And what can I do to help you?".
"I need to hear you and your story from the beginning. After that it will be easier to find concrete evidence".
Fey had no idea what Lucinda was capable of but if she made one thing clear to her was that as long as she kept silent many more girls like her would suffer and Lucinda wanted to make sure no one else had to come to harm.
"So this is what we are gonna do…".
Holly received a message from Fey as she heard a crying voice at the other end of the phone and then water splashing and some metal falling to the ground.
Just like they had predicted Holly came to the scene soon and found Fey dead in the bath tube. Suicide they deemed.
Lucinda and Holly went to Fey's funeral. While Lucinda went along and pretended to weep for the doll inside the casket, Holly was eaves-dropping on a conversation between Rory and James.
On her phone Lucinda received a message from a blonde-haired girl in France. The girl's face was completely covered in bandages and although a lot of her facial and body features had changed her smile remained the same. Now the only thing Lucinda needed to do was to wipe James' existence off the earth.
Because she was so bored off seeing all those sad faces while feeling a bit guilty she needed to release some tensions. She heard there was gonna be a party. She filmed everything from where she stood at before becoming bored and took a walk outside.
While walking around the city Lucinda never thought about who she would bump into.
Jack felt a certain coldness and woke up in a room he had never seen before. There was a balcony outside and he took a look outside. He had no memory of how he got here. There was a knock as a guy outside the door said "room service" and Jack understood he was inside a hotel. Inside a very nice suite. Jack opened the door and the room service guy came in with some fancy breakfast.
"Um, excuse me I didn't order".
"We know. The owner of this suit has already done it. She asked me to give this letter to you".
Jack read it while the room service guy packed up to the breakfast unto the table on the balcony.
"Dear, Stranger. I had the most amazing night. Well… granted that it was my first time too. Anyway, I did notice that you were kind of drugged as we fucked and I'm sorry I took advantage of you like that. I hope that you will forgive me and I thank you for being the first guy I ever slept with. I loved it. Thank you. L.T".
"Sorry but who is the owner of this room and is it possible if I could meet her?".
The room service guy simply laughed.
"Don't ever try to bother. The mistress is very mysterious to even us and comes rarely to the hotel. However she does tip us very good whenever she is here".
As the room service guy left Jack checked the walk-in wardrobe and noticed all the jewelry and crowns? Apparently the woman who lived here and who had given her virginity to him, and also who he had no memory of, was someone very wealthy and probably influential. He needed to find out who she was.
Meanwhile James death had made Holly panic further about the situation going on in Solasta Finance. She panicked over Georgia but she woul make sure that things became right with the things "James" had sent to her only... now she knew that it wasn't James that had sent her all those evidence against Solasta finance. Then there was also Rory who she didn't know if she could trust or not. Soon the truth would be revealed and make it easier for her to decide.
"Lucinda? Rory?".
Her childhood-friend and the-guy-she-was-interested-in turned around as they faced her.
36 hours later…
Jude McDermid stood proudly on stage as her brother stood beside her. Around them stood influential and wealthy people and some were investors. There was also journalists. Just when they were about to talk about Solasta Finance their presentation was hijacked. A big video was shown on the screen. Jude's brother simply stoo frozen beside her but the other guy who was as sinful as he and worse made a run for it while he could. Only that he didn't come too far. The police had waited at every entrance around the hotel building. Louise and the rest of the alpha girls simply stood shocked at the scene of arrests. Not only was there a video of where the CEO of Solasta Finance and his biggest partner had raped a young girl there was also concrete evidence of their dirty finances.
Rory came out and took the credit for everything. He was worried though that "Lukas Steiner's" guys would come after him however Interpol had gotten a list of men who worked for "Lukas" from an unknown source and hunted them down. It almost seemed like a slaughter.
Holly was deemed as a hero and Alistair ended up in jail for about a life-time while "Lukas Steiner" (whose name wasn't really Lukas Steiner) was killed.
Georgia and Louise are glad that they did not end up working for Lukas Steiner in the end.
It was found out that Rachel was never Rachel at all and she and Holly met regularly at a mental hospital.
So how did this happy ending happen?
Flashback
"Someone tell me what is going on immediately", Holly demanded.
Lucinda sighed and closed the door behind her as she started explaining everything.
"It all starts with the party where we met Fey. I was in the room and heard Fey and James fight. Then you came inside after awhile and started talking. I was in the room but I was half-sleeping and so I didn't hear everything that went on in the room however I understood from what Fey's and James' conversation what was going on within Solasta Finance. I started doing my research and I found a lot of corruptions tied to the company. I talked with Fey and she had lost all hope but then I told her my idea and we came up with a plan to make her existence disappear. Holly you helped the world think she was dead. After the funeral I came in contact with James who came in contact with Rory. I had told James that Rory worked for Steiner and was a corrupted cop but that he also was scared of Steiner's power. So we came up with a bulletproof idea. We made Rory think he had killed James and I relocated James to a place where no one could find him. With Rachel's help we gained enough evidence of Solasta Finance corruption as well as Steiner's dirty deeds. However we knew that we couldn't reveal everything just by having the evidence. Everything has a perfect timing and we have to nail it otherwise those filthy guys will get away. That's why we are planning to strike tonight at Solasta Finance gala where everyone will be at".
The information was a lot to take in for Holly but she did.
"How can I help".
Present
Lucinda and Holly was at the back of the cruize as everyone else partied hard.
"Lucinda, do you remember when we were little?", Holly started.
"Yes, most of it".
"I used to think that you were the weirdest girl I had ever met. You weren't into groups, you preferred to be alone and when you talked you could talk for hours. I thought at that time that I wanted to be you. You always did what you thought was right and stood by your beliefs even when the whole world was against you. I was always ashaed of myself to let my emotions get in the way of doing what was right. Remember that time with the little girl i forced to jump into the sea".
"Yes, you guys were messed up for making her do that".
"That's why I'm thankful I have a friend like you. Thanks to you I didn't become a murderer and although I feel guilty it wouldn't weigh me down as much as if it would have had I been truly guilty of murder".
"Well, you've got my swimming coach to thank for that".
"You did a pretty awesome dive".
"Totally agree… Shall we go visit Millie tomorrow?".
"Yes, we really need to catch up on stuff".
