"Why would you do that?" Zaria asked in the mildest, most innocent tone she could muster.

What was with the sudden submissive attitude? Samantha was confused, but it pleased her so she merely snickered. Dumb bitch, she had finally learned not to cross people she shouldn't think of offending. Too bad, it was too late. She had already done too much and should not be left alive. Otherwise, what would happen if she continued wrecking other people?

Zaria knew what was on the other woman's mind from the footage and Samantha's calls with Desmond, but she pretended not to know. "Can you at least tell me why you want to kill me?"

Samantha scoffed. "You know too many things that you shouldn't."

Zaria took a deep breath while pretending to calm her tense nerves, while cracking her knuckles and sneaking glances at the door. "What do you think I know? That your eldest brother murdered your dad, or that you helped him clean the crime scene and destroy the evidence?" She shrugged when Samantha narrowed her gaze. "I promise, I deleted the video."

Samantha sighed and wondered whether to believe her. It would be a relief if she had really deleted it, but it was still uncertain. Remembering that she had shown Jaime the video on her phone during the banquet, she stretched out her hand. "Your phone."

Zaria placed her phone in Samantha's palm,only for the other to throw it back at her. "Don't be stupid. Am I supposed to guess the password?"

She took it back and keyed in the password, making sure not to take too long, before giving it back to Samantha who then went ahead to search every folder of it.

Seeing that there was nothing useful, Samantha was irritated. How could there be nothing she could use? She started to draft a message.

"What are you doing?" Zaria asked.

"You don't get to ask me questions." Samantha glared at her and went ahead to send a text message to the contact saved as Mr. Preston.

[We need to talk. See you tomorrow at 11pm, your office.]

She smirked and deleted the text message, then wondered how entertaining the outcome would be. If there was nothing for her to use against Zaria, then she might as well cause trouble in paradise before murdering her. It would be awesome for a tale to erupt about Desmond murdering his mistress because he realized that she was cheating on him.

Satisfied with the tale she had come up with, she returned the phone, not knowing that Zaria could retrieve the message any time she wanted to, with the help of Skeleton and Zeus.

"Now, where were we?" Samantha crossed her arms. "It's a great thing that you have nothing against us. But do you realize how many lives you have ruined? We have to make sure you don't do that anymore, don't you think?"

"No, she doesn't." A male voice spoke from the door.

Samantha froze when she recognized the voice as Desmond's. What was he doing here? Wasn't he out for an emergency? Skeleton called him out so he shouldn't be back so soon!

She had the urge to attack Zaria on the spot, but knowing her brother, she would end up dead too, if she wouldn't be the only one dying.

"I came to say hello to Zaria. It's been long since we last saw each other. Right Zaria?" She smiled pretentiously, which made Desmond almost awed at her talent at bullshitting. Perhaps only women had the ability to pretend to be friends despite hating each other to the point of wanting each other's lives.

Zaria nodded and went to Desmond's side to cling to his arm with a smile. "I was about to show Samantha out. I asked her to sleep over but she did not want to ruin our fun, so let's show her out together, my love."

"I didn't know you were so close?" Desmond raised an eyebrow while secretly rejoicing in what Zaria had just called him. He knew that it was part of her act but it still made him immensely joyous.

"What are you saying? A friend of Natalie's is my friend too." Samantha smiled kindly, stressing on Natalie's name to indirectly remind Zaria that she would never be in a legitimate relationship with Desmond—an engaged man.

Zaria played along with the sweetest kind of smile. "Yes, a friend of Natalie's is a friend of mine. This has nothing to do with you, by the way."

Desmond chuckled at the women who were trying their best to pretend to be friends but who were scheming for each other's death behind their sweet smiles. As long as Zaria was having fun.

At her request, they showed Samantha out.

"You should come to visit again." Zaria smiled kindly, then lowered her voice. "Just don't appear like a psycho anymore. Otherwise, Desmond's bodyguards might mistake you for an enemy and try to end you."

Her words had Samantha's eyes twitch in confusion. If Desmond's bodyguards were protecting Zaria, why didn't she scream for help? Why didn't they come to intervene when they saw her sneak in?

Deciding that Zaria must be bluffing, she forced a smile and walked into the dark.

___

"How did it go?" Desmond asked when they were back into the manor.

"What a waste of late-night ambush." Zaria flopped onto the couch, groaning about how much of her time had been wasted.

"You didn't get anything?" He asked, feeling bummed. She might not have felt it but what they did was a risk and he did not want to do it again. What would they have done if the first thing Samantha did upon her arrival was firing a bullet through Zaria's head?

She shook her head. "Not what I wanted, but it will suffice."

After speaking, she rushed upstairs and took his laptop, then transferred a video that had been taken from the camera she hid behind a painting as soon as Desmond left.

Going through it, her eyes filled with excitement. "This is better than I thought."

"What is it?" Desmond sat beside her to watch the video, but she clicked the window shut and turned off the laptop with a smirk.

"Not so fast… there is no such thing as free lunch."

"Surely there has to be something that's free, right? Like a video or two." He chuckled, to which she waved her index finger in front of his face in denial.

"Nope, not that either. You have to bribe me before you get to know the content." She looked like a corrupt government official asking for a bribe.

"I see. How much for a video then?" He played along like a good civilian.

"I don't know. How about a couple of drinks accompanied with kisses and a movie?"

"Deal. What should I start with? The kisses or the movie?" He asked, looking forward to it more than she did.

"How about we start with drinks? We still need to wait for Skeleton's signal." She suggested.

As if on cue, Skeleton called. "She threatened my life. She knows I betrayed her, but never mind, Go through the rest of the plan and I will keep my head intact." He said in one breath.

The phone was once again on speaker, so she asked "Do we have the rest of the plan in mind yet?"

"We can draft one." Desmond suggested. They had only decided to trap Samantha, and they didn't know how to do it without arousing suspicion. It was only out of luck that a chance had presented itself in such a manner.

When he hung up, she was about to talk about the plan when he shut her up with his lips. "We can't go on until I know the content of the video. Let me bribe you."

"It wasn't supposed to be that serious." She stopped him by placing a finger on his lips, which he pulled away to kiss her gently. He started off gently before the kisses grew more intense, taking her breath away.

"Wait, Desmond." She spoke as soon as she pulled her lips away.

"Mmh?" He tried to kiss the corner of her lips, but she sat up to evade it.

"I can't really concentrate. Let's get this out of the way first."

He didn't have much choice, so he sat beside her and let her play the video she had recorded. There wasn't anything new, since he had witnessed half of the argument between the two women from Skeleton's broadcast. However, when Samantha turned to leave, he noticed what she had termed as 'better than expected outcome'. Samantha had a gun in the pocket of her pants!

Only a small part of it had been revealed because her jacket had lifted at some point, but it was enough to be certain that it was a gun. Even if she later claimed that it was a toy gun she was playing with, she would still be on the losing end since she had threatened to murder Zaria.

"This makes our work much easier." Desmond smiled in admittance. "Thanks, sis. Indeed, good siblings should help each other out and you did just that."