Elizabeta didn't remember what happened that night- it all became a blur. It wasn't like the false compliments of the patrons, or the laughs and jokes exchanged between the people were of importance. But she did remember how when Julius thought none of the high-class attendees were looking; he would whisper sweet things to her, nothing short of praise reaching her ears. It wasn't anything dirty though-Julius probably had more respect towards her to whisper obscenities. Instead, it was more like he was noting things about her:

"Your laughter sounds like the peals of bells."

"Your eyes glitter so beautifully, Violet. Like jewels."

What Elizabeta also made sure to remember was that Julius was drinking heavily. Glass after glass, wine bottle after wine bottle, Julius seemed to get even more intoxicated by the second. More to her benefit, Elizabeta supposed.

At some point both she and Julius had ended up in his limousine. She directed the driver to take them to Julius' house, and that she would take it from there.

"You know something Violet, you're different," Julius choked out. He was already having a hard time sitting inside the limousine, much less talk. Elizabeta patties him and his messy hair to try and make him quiet down.

"How so, Julius?" In the end, she could only humor him.

"I think-you're the only woman who hasn't talked to me just to scam me from my money." He raised his hand to caress her cheek. A small smile appeared on her face, trying to squelch the guilt that was slowly rising.

"I couldn't do that to you; you're a very kind man," She replied honestly. He wasn't all grabby or anything like that towards her. He was a gentleman in every sense.

"And the crazy thing is- the crazy thing is I think I can actually fall in love with you."

Elizabeta froze.

"That does sound a bit crazy," Elizabeta laughed, quickly gaining her composure. Who could fall in love in one night? Well, that meant that the seduction was definitely working.

The brunette looked out the tinted windows and noticed that the surroundings were becoming woodsier—more trees, bushes, and tall grass. A huge difference from the already scarce surroundings of the museum. And the driveway that the limousine driver slowed down at looked even more out of place.

It appeared just a grandiose as the museum, without the columns acting as an arch for the door. The color scheme was an exquisite cream and gray, making it look like a plain boat amidst a sea of green. Elizabeta could tell that there were three floors easily with an array of windows slapped onto the face of each floor.

There wasn't enough time to gawk and stare, as the clock on the limo's dashboard read that it three forty-two a. m. Elizabeta fervently thanked the driver and declined the offer to drive her home. It was a struggle to drag Julius up the steps when his legs literally could not stand on their own, and he was easily twice her weight. After digging through his pockets for his house keys (all the while he was giggling like a schoolgirl), she opened his door in a few tries of twisting and turning the key in frustration.

Lucky for her, there was a couch that she set the man on, and he started snoring away. Elizabeta wiped her hands on her skirt and made her way to the staircase that was to the left of her.

Now it was time to commence part two of the plan.

"Once you enter the place, there'll be stairs that lead up to the second floor. The room you'll want will be at the way end-here- on the right." Bella pointed at the blueprints of the house, and marked with red ink the room that either of them would have to look for.

"And there'll be a desk sitting smack dab in the middle of the room, and a computer will be sitting there with everything that we'll need." Elizabeta circled the room with her finger, glancing at Bella to see the same solemn look on her features.

"All that we will ever need," Bella breathed.

Just as the blueprints had directed, the room to the farthest right led to an office with a sleek looking desk propped up in the middle. Elizabeta quickly waltzed over and sat in a leather-bound chair, turning on the latest model of some company that she couldn't name off the top of her head.

The screen was now up and loaded and was asking for a password. Elizabeta wasn't concerned, because they had both planned for this. She swiftly typed in the password that the duo had found when digging through Julius' information. Once logged in, Elizabeta clicked through various folders until she had found the one with the information that she wanted. But since life isn't always easy, the folder was encrypted with a series of passwords that would take even the most advanced hacker some time to unlock. Taking out the USB drive from between her breasts, she plugged it into the computer and tapped her fingers on the desk.

Since neither Bella nor Elizabeta knew how to hack into a computer, they had to go and find an old friend of their parents. The guy wasn't shady or anything, but he was sort of a computer whiz and they knew that one way or another, they were going to have to hack into something. He actually gave them the device out of pity and told them that in it were a series of viruses that could de-crypt just about any firewall. And the guy never thought twice about giving it to them.

In no time, the computer let her look through the passwords and numbers to Julius' bank account. Elizabeta's eyes would wander to the door and back to the computer. Her nerves were so frazzled that she jumped at almost any noise, from the whirring of the system to the whistling of the wind through the trees. Sweat had actually begun to bead at the nape of her neck.

"I hope you're already at the spot," Elizabeta murmured to the ear piece. Even whispering seemed too loud.

"Yup, ready to lock and load with all the stuff," She replied cheerily.

Elizabeta breathed a sigh of relief and continued onto her quest.

The seventy-grand was ready to be transferred to an account of an insurance firm- false, of course. If anyone were to ask where the money had gone, they'd check to see that it was deposited for health insurance and never think twice about it. Besides, with a company as big as Vargas & Co., that much money going towards something like that. After a specific amount of time would pass, the money would be transferred to Bouncing Accounts- separate accounts where the money would go from one account to another, so no one could trace exactly where the money was, and also to not rouse suspicion when a large sum of money is being transferred out of nowhere. With just a click, the money was sent out. She closed out of the folders and turned off the computer before her lips curved upward into a smile, content that everything was going smoothly.

"I thought you were different."

Or not.

Elizabeta could feel her heart stop as she looked up to the doorway to see a very grim and sober Julius.

"But you were dr-"

"Drunk? I can hold my liquor very well, you see. I'm not a bumbling idiot Miss Carranza. Or whatever your name is." He began to slowly walk towards Elizabeta. She flinched and ripped out the USB from the computer, backing up to the window behind her.

"Don't come any closer," She whispered, her features turning hostile.

"Your eyes looked so sad. It reminded me so much of the statue in the museum. We could have been something so much more! I honestly love you." Julius' steps were measured, but Elizabeta knew better than to keep talking to him. The police were on their way, there was no arguing that.

"I don't need anyone to make me more than what I am. Only I-" She kicked the glass of the window with her heel, sending the glass falling two floors high below her. "-can do that myself."

"Violet, don't!"

She jumped out of the window.

Midway down, she scrambled into a position that would hurt less and tried to land as close to the grass as possible. It still didn't make the impact any softer. Come on, jumping from two floors high is sure to leave its bruises and cuts somewhere.

Elizabeta groaned, clutching her throbbing head with one hand and gripping the USB with the other. She was lucky enough that none of her bones had fractured. Through her hazy vision, she saw Julius looking below before turning away, most likely going down stairs and outside to her.

There wasn't any time to rest! She tried to slip off her heels as fast as she could, and when she got up, she began to run. To run as fast as she could, and to never look back.

She didn't know how long she was running until Bella had pulled up beside her in the car and gotten her in, driving all the way to the airport.

It was a somewhat-successful raid in the end. Successful because they were able to pay off seventy grand of their half-a-million debt, but "somewhat" because they had now committed their first crime. Not necessarily a fraud, but they would commit fraud which would later be added to their list of crimes. Julius certainly didn't show any mercy when they found out that a thick wad of cash was offered for their heads, just like a bounty. It was so Midwestern.

But every now and then, Elizabeta would remember Julius and the hurt in his eyes. Even more so than that, Elizabeta would always remember the statue of the woman behind the glass. Her image would always play behind her eyes over and over and over and over. . .


There was a sudden knock on their door.

Bella was the first one to snap out of the reverie. "I'm coming!" She shouted towards the door, getting up from her seat.

Elizabeta took in a few deep breaths before getting up from her own seat. She crossed her arms over her chest and attempted to clear up her features into something less intimidating.

Moving towards the exchanging of words in the living room, the brunette peeked around the door to see Gilbert and two strange-looking men on either side of him. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why were they here in the first place? Not to be rude, but she didn't want any more weirdos in her house.

"Oh, Lissa! I was just introducing my friends to Bel. I hope there isn't any harm in that, right? Anyway, Lissa, these are my friends Antonio and Francis." Gilbert waved happily at Elizabeta as he gestured to the brown-haired man and then to the blonde. Antonio, it seemed, was staring intensely at Bella, and she was looking at him with uncomfortable anger.

"Do I have something on my face?" Her face was scrunched up in frustration. Bella didn't really like it when people stared at her for too long- eventually she'd get a little paranoid and harp on them.

"No, no, you just look familiar," Antonio muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. Bella huffed.

"Nice to meet you," Elizabeta took Antonio's hand while he was still in thought. Francis took her hand and kissed it gently, surprise evident on her face.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Jones." Francis looked up from her hand, a small smile on his face. For some reason, everything this man did reminded her of-

She slipped her hand from his, trying to hide the discomfort on her face and attempting to stay polite. Gilbert caught on though, and tried to change the subject.

"I was just telling Antonio and Francis how we had all met, and that you guys were helping me find my parents." Somehow they had all gravitated towards the couches, but the trio of men were the only ones sitting down, while the women were standing up in similar poses: arms crossed, leaning mostly on one leg, and faces completely neutral.

Both of them didn't completely trust the men. If they were friends with Gilbert, then they were automatically bad news.

"Yes, we thought it was only fair if our cousin could meet his actual parents-our aunt and uncle. A very kind gesture if I do say so myself." Elizabeta turned her head towards Bella, a prideful expression on her face.

"But isn't that too kind? Why help a strange idiot without any benefits for yourselves?" Francis leaned back in his seat, his lips set into a line.

"You ass," Gilbert grumbled.

"But he isn't a stranger. He's family and we love him." Bella nodded as if to reaffirm her statement.

"So how did the two of you find Gil in the first place? It mustn't have been easy, no?" Now it was Antonio's turn with the questions. If Elizabeta didn't know better, she might have assumed they were being interrogated.

"I don't think it was that difficult; his blog is kind of well-known. I mean, putting two and two together wasn't much of a challenge." Elizabeta twirled a few strands of hair between her fingers, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. Well, it actually wasn't that hard to find Gilbert. With his personality, it would've been odd if they couldn't have found him easily.

"Yes, that's true. Besides, he's so flamboyant he would have probably popped first for the results." Antonio laughed, ruffling his hair while Gilbert shot him a glare.

"He actually did appear first," Elizabeta snickered, covering her mouth while Gilbert looked at her incredulously.

"That's not true!" He crowed, his face turning a bright red.

"Actually it is; Gilbert, you have to accept the fact that you're so narcissistic that even Google thinks so," Bella chimed in, her tinkering laughter being heard in addition to Francis' low chuckles.

In the end, everyone was laughing about how much of a little shit Gilbert is, and Gilbert fuming in his seat, arms crossed.

"It was nice talking to you two." Bella was grinning from ear to ear as the trio made their way to the door.

"No, no the pleasure was ours." Antonio shook both Elizabeta's and Bella's hands before he went to the other side of the door to wait for Gilbert and Francis.

"Stop by any time." Elizabeta kissed Francis on either side of face as he did the same, holding both of her hands in his.

"We will definitely take on the offer, especially coming from beautiful ladies such as yourselves." His eyes crinkled as he smiled.

"Okay, well I'll see you two tomorrow," Gilbert called after the girls as he went over to join his friends.

"Okay, bye bye!" Bella called to them as she shut the door.