"I'm Tyler." I stepped out and hissed through clenched teeth. But the shock on her face at the revelation didn't even began to dissipate the bitter taste in my mouth. My mind was already raging with anger, and even my small frame was ready to take her on right now.

"Y-you're Tyler?" Her expression was a mixture of disgust and disappointment as she kept looking back and forth between Francis and me; putting the two and two together.

"I think that's been established, can we move on?" I spoke through gritted teeth, fisting up my hands to control myself from smashing her face.

The bulky mass of my arm was finally going to be of some use today.

"So, you're bi?" That was her question and I swore to God, nothing had made me angrier in my life before.

The violence in my head was so seething and cruel that I was surprised by myself. Brandon immediately wrapped his arm around my waist, effectively stopping me from killing her.

I felt a teeny bit satisfaction when she eyed me with envy.

"Will you fucking explain what you meant by ruining my mom's bakery?" I asked her, completely ignoring her question and it was like someone super glued the smirk back on her face.

She took a step forward, purposely swaying her hips, with the jeering tone in her voice back.

"Now this got so much more interesting. Didn't it, Tyler?" She leered, stopping a foot away from me.

All of us waited for her to explain herself in silence, with the only noise audible that of my shallow breathing.

"When I found out that my Francis was being manipulated by you. I only thought it would be best to return the favor. Don't you think?"

"What the fuck do you mean?"

"Your mother just received a huge order for her bakery," she stalled, walking closer to Brandon who looked straight ahead and then turned towards me.

I remembered mom asking me for more ingredients this morning, talking excitedly about the new order.

"But it's going to break her poor heart," she continued, "When it's going to be cancelled and the word of mouth put in the market to boycott your bakery."

The undercurrent of rage passing through my body was so intense that I feared I would break my teeth with the force I grounded them.

"Why would anyone believe you?" Brandon spat out and Bella smiled again.

"Well they would, since we were the ones to put the fake order. And don't you know? My father owns the multinational food company."

She stepped closer again, and I recalled Brandon's words,

She's the devils' incarnation.

"Ruining you would be," she clicked her fingers together, it's sound echoing, "this easy."

Brandon didn't stop me this time, and my hand flew out of my own accord, connecting with her cheek with a satisfying sound.

"You bitch!" She spat out, her hand covering her face, glaring at me full force.

"Don't you dare," my voice was as low as a growl as I warned her, "try to play with me."

"You think you are safe?" she snorted, "I was just waiting for you to do this. Now I can charge you with physical assault. Your family days are over. Low scum."

"Bella!" Francis shouted, his eyes filled with anger himself.

"Why are you supporting her? You are supposed to be my fiancé!" she screamed, clearly more affected than she had been letting on.

"I think that it should be clear by now, that I don't have any interest in marrying you," he said in a cold voice.

"But can your father afford to lose his ties with my company?" That shut him up for a moment, his expression pained as he said the next words.

"I am sad to say this, but I'll just have to report you for blackmailing-" Bella's laugh cut him off and he stared at her in bewilderment.

A new sort of fear ran through me, as I looked at her with her almost lunatic talk.

"Do you think it's that easy? Sure go ahead,"she flicked her wrist, motioning him to go away, "But remember I am going to have so much fun, sending her to prison."

Her words paled me and Brandon immediately clutched my hand, squeezing it to give me support.

I saw Seth shuffling from the corner of my eyes, clearly uncomfortable at the sudden change of conversation..

"What the fuck do you want?" Francis growled, his anger mirroring my fear.

I was in no way going to prison this young.

"Now we are talking," she pulled out a paper from her bag and held it up for us to see.

"Simply sign this, saying that you would marry me or give over all your company stocks if you fail to do so," She tilted her head, her perfectly blow dried hair, swaying with the breeze.

Francis looked at her, incredulous.

"But we don't love each other, Isabela. Why would I marry you?!" he sounded exasperated as he shouted, moving his hands through his hair in frustration.

"It's simple isn't it?" she pointed to the papers, and I wondered what sort of preparation she did before going out for the day today.

"Look--" Francis sighed, gathering up his courage.

"I won't allow myself to be humiliated and be pitied by everyone just because we didn't marry," Bella didn't give him a chance and hissed.

"B-But you can just dump me!" he countered, all of us watching the two of them like a tennis match.

"Why would I?" she smirked and the tiniest bit of sympathy I had gained for her was lost amidst her cruelty.

Brandon nudged me, motioning for us to leave and I nodded, following him out.

"I see that you don't care what happens to your bakery," her sharp voice cut me off and I stopped, turning back towards her again.

"You won't dare," I whispered but she arched her eyebrow, telling me how much she would dare.

Suddenly a cold fear ran through my stomach as I thought about my mother and her only love, our bakery.

After my father's death, the bakery, pensions and some insurance money were the only things that had been left with us. Without the bakery, we won't be able to survive another day.

"I have a proposition for the both of you," she expertly put back the paper back again and crossed her arms.

"What is it?" I asked her quickly, wary and curious at the same time. Anything to get out of this situation would be welcomed right now.

"I would let you," she pointed at me, "be excused and won't charge for assault."

"And you," she said, pointing to Francis, "Can be free of me and marry whoever you want."

It sounded too good to be true and I waited for her to drop the bomb.

"Just beat me in the competition," she stated.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, turning to look at Francis.

His eyes confirmed what I had been fearing to guess.

"No," The steadiness in my voice surprised all of us. But it was one thing that I could be sure of from the whole night.

"What?" her voice sounded shocked but she concealed it, realising her mistake, "Are you scare-?"

"No. I am not scared, I know I can beat you," My voice carried enough confidence that it shook even Bella up.

"Why then?"

So even the devils are curious, huh.

"Why? Because I don't even consider you worthy of competition," With this I turned on my heels and stalked away.

"Your wish! Enjoy watching your bakery crumbling down," she screamed and I stopped dead short.

But not because of Bella's words.

There was a dead silence that followed as I saw my mother and Brandon's mother standing there, having clearly witnessed the whole ordeal.

"Mom."

"Tyler, everything alright?" her voice carried so much warmth and comfort that I immediately felt soothed.

She doesn't know everything then.

But the comfort didn't last for a second more, as I saw Bella stalk towards them.

Suddenly all the possibilities of what would happen if my mom got to know about my situation ran through my head. She would never allow me to do anything other than what I wanted.

Even if it cost us our everything.

So there was only one thing left that I could possibly do.

"Yes, mom! I am participating in the competition!" I shouted on an impulse, grabbing Bella's hand before she could walk further.

"That's great, dear. But what are you participating in?" It was Brandon's mother who spoke, giving me an affectionate smile and a curious glance towards Bella.

"The Senior Baking Competition of course!" I said but my words were directed towards Bella.

If she dared to speak even a word to my mother, she would see the depths of hell on Earth.

My message apparently got across because she snatched her hand away from mine and stalked away.

Leaving all of us with a mixed bag of emotions.

To be honest, I was never happy to see someone go this much.

Liam and Leo immediately busied themselves with both of our mothers, leading them away from the 'arena'.

"Tyler I am so sorry, I never expected this to--" Francis grumbled but stopped when I put a hand in front of his face.

"It's alright. I got this letter from them so I don't have to apply or shit like that. Saves me time."

"You got that too, huh?"

"Yeah. Stop beating yourself up for it. And go do something productive..."

"So you are okay with this year's terms and conditions?" he asked curiously and I frowned.

Terms and Conditions?

"I haven't read it properly," I shuffled through my handbag and with dread realized that the paper was not there.

Kaboom! Gone.

"It's not here," I panicked, remembering that a few things had fallen down from my purse when Brandon and I had been chased.

Apparently Brandon was thinking the same, because we both immediately cursed.

"Look stick, we might, no definitely, need to run. Seth, let's go!" he shouted grabbing my hand, as I motioned for Seth to follow, leaving a perplexed Francis behind.

"What happened?" he asked us, and I snatched my hand away from Brandon's.

No need to get used to it, even though it felt totally right and more.

"I got this letter from the competition thingy, and I dropped it," I explained as we jogged around, searching for it.

Curse my rotten luck if some stray dog ate it and we spent the whole night searching for it.

"Okay, I'll go this way, you both go there!" Brandon shouted and ran off in a different direction.

Seth and I went near the Ferris Wheel which was totally barren now.

"I am confused, how did you manage to get a blackout?"

"It was simple really, they have this huge generator outside, and when the security followed us there, we just switched it off."

I looked at him quizzically and he grinned.

"Well in my defense I never expected it to shut the whole thing down," I rolled my eyes and punched his biceps when my phone beeped.

I saw Brandon's text and grinned.

Found it! Meet near the ice-cream parlour again.

"He found it, let's go!" I pulled his arm and he snorted.

"Already? He sure is fast.. When it comes to you," he mumbled and his words sent a flurry in my stomach.

When it comes to me...

"Here," Brandon handed it to over to me as I reached there and I immediately opened it, scanning over everything before speaking aloud.

'Miss Tyler M. Anderson,

Welcome to the Senior Baking Championship! This is an exclusive opportunity given to our top three finalists in their respective Junior Baking Competition.

Hereby, you are invited to compete in the Senior Baking Championship 2015, gaining direct entry into the third round.

All the details are enclosed in the next page. Thank you for participating.

Bake away!'

I flipped over the page and continued reading.

'For the past ten years this competition had been exclusively shown just to our participants and their members...

But this year we have gone ahead with TVL, the famous producer of all the cookery shows and made this event a live TV show.. '

"Holy mother of God!" Seth exclaimed and I hushed him.

"There's more," I said and continued.

'All the selected participants will have to come up with a pair as we have set our theme as 'Love Never Grows Apart' as the concept. So each member would work with another... '

"Holy hell!" I groaned this time, thinking just who might be the partner.

'And you cannot team up with another participant or a professional cook. Your partner should not be your relative or family member...'

"Mom out, Francis out," I grumbled, seriously stressed.

"The location of the shoot will be in Singapore and of course it's an all expenses paid trip," I finished, my mouth hanging open.

"Is this a honeymoon package or what?!"

****