When Laurence heard that news that Lord Ethan had broken up with Kylie, he had chuckled. He had predicted that the relationship would not last, and he'd been right. Lord Ethan was a good and honorable man and was completely out of Kylie's league. As was her way, she had likely pretended to be something other than who she was. Over time though, Lord Ethan must have seen through her façade.

Thinking of this, Laurence smiled as he faced Kylie. She looked cool and calm, but he assumed that this, too, was a mask that she wore. "This is not over," he told her as he stepped out of the car.

​​

***

The next morning Kylie's face was on the cover of every newspaper. She was the topic of every on-line chat, and, while she ate her breakfast, Faith proudly read some of the comments that people were leaving. The things they said made her happy, but she worried about what Khloe might be thinking about all of this, and what recourse she might take. She turned to Lucas and said, "How far along are you with the things that I asked you to prepare?"

"Nearly complete," Lucas replied.

Khloe lay in her hospital bed, frowning as she read the news off of her cell phone. Speaking to herself, she said, "It is no wonder that Garcia Entertainment is going downhill. Laurence Finch must be an idiot! Kylie is obviously a cash cow, but she was always a ticking time bomb. She probably isn't even his daughter…"

Now that things had gone awry, Khloe assumed that Garcia Entertainment would drop Kylie from their roster and that she would be blackballed from the industry. It would be her own fault, Khloe thought to herself. Even a dog knows not to bite the hand that feeds it…

The one thing she could not get over though was the amount of public support that Kylie was receiving. It made her furious. Comment after comment; page after page – Every word that was written about Kylie was filled with kind words and praise. When she could take it no more, she angrily shut down the internet on her phone and slammed the mobile device down on the table beside her bed.

After being dumped by Lord Ethan, Khloe didn't believe that Kylie had any right to be on the top of the world. Anyone else in her place would be curled up in a hole and wallowing in their own self-pity. Khloe sneered and vowed that, as long as she had a voice at Garcia Entertainment, Kylie would never again have a platform like she'd been given the night before. Furthermore, if given the opportunity, she would crush Kylie under the heel of her foot.

There was a knock on the door, and her mother, Alice, entered bearing a bundle of flowers. Alice saw that Khloe was upset, so she hurried over to her and asked her what the matter was.

"I'm fine," Khloe replied, "I am just upset about what Kylie did yesterday at the press junket."

Alicesmiled, smoothed out the hair on Khloe's forehead, and said, "Sweetheart, try to let it go. Try to focus on the positive things in your life. Now that you are engaged to Aiden, shouldn't you be planning your wedding, and getting the house prepared for the baby? The baby is alright, isn't it…"

"Don't worry," Khloe replied. "I did not miscarry. I just wanted to force Aiden to pay more attention to me. Sometimes he is so busy that I don't even know if he actually sees me… Even when I am around people, I often feel lonely…"

As Khloe finished talking, her cell phone rang. Before picking it up, she looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Ken White. Impatiently, she took the call and snapped at Ken: "Why are you calling me?"

"I'm a little tight on cash these days," Ken replied, sounding drunk, he continued: "Give me 300,000 dollars."

Khloe did not want her mother to know the absurdity of Ken's request, so she excused herself and went into the bathroom. She closed the door and, in a low voice, she hissed, "That's enough, I already gave you a hundred thousand dollars!"

Ken: "One hundred thousand dollars barely enough for a meal. As you should know, I have a lot of people, my brothers included, who count on me."

"I am not your personal ATM," Khloe snapped. "Wake up and stop dreaming! You will not get any more money out of me!"

Khloe was about to hang up when Ken said, "I've recorded this conversation. Should I send it to the press so that everyone can see what a cheap and selfish person you are?"

No longer able to contain her anger, Khloe shouted, "Ken White! Are you threatening me? If you even try to blackmail me, I will charge you with rape!"

Ken: "It is interesting that you call what happened between us rape. What you don't know is that I videotaped the whole thing. When people hear your moaning, do you think anyone will believe that what happened was rape?"

Khloe trembled with anger and fear. She had no way of knowing if Ken was bluffing or not. If she had him in front of her, she would have tried to kill him. She did not, though. She felt like a beaten dog when she hung her head and said, "Fine. You win. What must I do to get the video back?"

"I'm not a fool," Ken replied. "Let's take this one step at a time. If I don't have 300,000 dollars in my account within the next sixty minutes, the video will go viral."

After saying this, Ken hung up the phone without leaving Khloe any time to speak.

When Khloe came out of the bathroom, her mother could see that she was upset and asked her what was wrong, but her daughter refused to say. Khloe looked at her mother and said, "Everything is fine, but I need to go out for a bit."