Someone knocked on her door, so she put her phone away and said, "Come in."

Kylie frowned when she saw that it was Khloe. She had a plant in her hands. "You must be illiterate," Kylie said. "The plaque on my door is clear. You are not welcome here!"

​​

Khloe's face turned red, but she pressed on. She walked into the room, placed the plant on a table, and said, "I have brought you a little housewarming present. I mean no harm. Furthermore, I am tired of all this bickering. I would like to put it behind us. Obviously, we will never be bosom buddies, but I would like to foster a mutually beneficial working relationship."

Kylie sighed and said, "I am agreeable to your suggestion. Don't take this the wrong way, though, but I am exhausted, and I am going to have to ask you to leave…"

After humbling herself before Kylie, Khloe could not believe that she was being dismissed so soon. She glared at Kylie, picked up the plant, and smashed it on the floor. "You obviously aren't taking me seriously," she snapped, "so I retract my peace proposal. If you think you are going to be successful, you will be greatly disappointed. The only advice I can give you now is this: go kill yourself!

"If you insist on there being a rivalry between up," Khloe continued, "so be it. I could have helped you, but now I will just sit on the sidelines and watch you self-destruct. By this time, next year, I will be your boss, and you will be nothing. You will be a pariah. Even Aiden won't want you."

Kylie was just about to reply when Laurence appeared in the doorway. He looked at Khloe and said, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I came to apologize," Khloe replied, "but she scolded me and smashed the plant I gave her. If you don't believe me, you can ask my assistant… She saw it all!"

Laurence turned to Kylie and asked if that was true. Kylie just shrugged and said, "It isn't, but I don't care if you believe me or not. Your opinion means nothing to me."

Laurence's face turned red with anger, and he moved towards Kylie with the intention to hurt her. Before he got more than two steps forward, though, he tripped on the pot and fell to the ground. Watching this unfold, Kylie couldn't help but laugh. She enjoyed watching giants fall. Khloe, on the other hand, hunkered down in fear. "Daddy," she cried, "Are you alright?"

Khloe looked at Kylie and said, "This is entirely your fault!"

Kylie shrugged and said, "You were the one who smashed the pot. Take responsibility for your actions." She turned to Khloe's assistant and said, "Make yourself useful. Call an ambulance."

The assistant nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Kylie looked at Khloe again and said, "He is bleeding much worse than I'd first realized. It looks severe. He must have cut himself on a piece of the broken pot. I shouldn't have laughed. I know First Aid and C.P.R., though. If you move aside, I will save his life."

By the time the ambulance arrived, Kylie had successfully stopped the bleeding. Unfortunately, by that time, he had lost too much blood. First, he lost consciousness, and then he stopped breathing. The first paramedic on the scene took one look at Kylie and said, continue doing compression while I run back for our defibrillators."

Once the paramedics had Laurence breathing again, they transferred him to the ambulance. Before they left for the hospital, one of them turned to Kylie and said, "You did a good thing today. He wouldn't have lived if not for your quick thinking."

Khloe felt like she'd been waiting at the hospital forever. She'd chewed her nails to the quick as she mumbled quietly to herself. She was pacing the hallways when Laurence's doctor finally emerged. Nervous, she rushed the doctor and asked him if her father was alright.

"The wound on his arm has been treated. He is old, though, and he has lost a lot of blood. At the very least, he will need to remain here for at least a few days. If you haven't done so already, you should go to the front desk and fill out his profile. It is too early for him to have visitors anyway, so you may as well make use of your time while you wait."

Kylie, who had been sitting close by, got up and said, "Don't worry. I will take care of the paperwork."

Khloe glared at her and said, "Don't pretend that you're a good person. Everyone can see through it. You should be responsible for all of the medical expenses. This is your fault."

Kylie scoffed. "How could this be my fault? If it weren't for my quick thinking, our father would be dead, and you know it – so shut your fucking mouth! Your breath smells like cock and balls."

Lucas approached Kylie in the hallway. He stopped her and said, "It doesn't matter what Kylie or her assistant says about what happened. Neither of them knows that there is a security camera in the hallway outside your office. I captured everything that happens, from Khloe throwing the pot, to Laurence tripping on his own, and you gave him First Aid and C.P.R. – don't say anything though. The more people she tells her lies to, the more she will look foolish when the truth finally comes out."

By the time Kylie returned to the waiting room, the doctor had cleared Laurence to have visitors. When she entered, she found Laurence lying on his bed. He looked gaunt. There was a blood bag on a hook above him that fed his right arm. On the other side of him, Khloe was hand-feeding him ice chips.

When Khloe saw Kylie, she looked at her father and said, "Dad, you really scared me. If you'd died, I don't know how I could have gone on without you. You have to admit, though, that this was all Kylie's fault. If it weren't for her, you wouldn't be in this predicament."

Kylie just shrugged and said, "The truth will come out eventually."

Khloe suddenly looked afraid. "What does that mean?" she demanded.

Kylie laughed and said, "You will see."