Billionaire's Perfect Revenge [18+]

THIRTY ONE

[ARMONICA]

"Wait, wait, wait—slow down first. I can't understand a word you just said." I sat up straighter the instant my phone rang and Zara's half-panicked, half-furious voice blasted through the phone.

"You need to come here right away!" she shouted over the phone and I had no choice but to move the phone a little away from my ear, flinching. If she continued to scream like that, it wouldn't take long before my ears bled rivers.

"OK. OK." Despite not being aware of the kind of emergency she might have gotten herself into, I hopped off of the couch in the living room and rushed back to my bedroom to grab my car keys. I dropped them in the bowl while changing for the shower.

"But you still need to tell me what happened, Z. I'm kind of panicking here. Are you alright? Should I call Brandon? Wait—no, he isn't here," I cringed nervously. "Sorry, I forgot, he's in Australia."

"Just come as soon as you can. It's a high-priority emergency."

Once she disconnected the call, I dropped the phone in my handbag and almost ran down the stairs.

"Where are you going in such a rush?"

But of course, how could I leave without one of my brothers catching me in the middle of the act? When you have three older brothers to control and dominate your whole life, it's almost impossible to become your own person.

Sighing to myself, I stopped and turned around, only to come face to face with my second eldest brother. Kevin. He was sitting in the dining room, eyes fixed on the laptop as he took a bite of an apple and turned to face me. Silently expecting me to spill all the beans I probably held in my guts.

I flashed him a cute smile. "Just to a small emergency, nothing much."

"Emergency?" he frowned. "What kind of emergency?"

Great. Now, he was hooked. Way to go, Mona, way to go.

"Did I say emergency? Naw," I hopped foot to foot. "What I mean is, uh, I've plans...for lunch...with one of my friends."

"Didn't you already have your lunch fifteen minutes ago?" He shot back and I had the instant urge to smack myself in the head.

Shit. Why was he so interrogative today?

"I did. But she didn't," if that made any sense.

"Hmm," holding my gaze for a long second, he brought his attention back to the laptop screen. "Fine. But be back before dinner. Mom and dad will be out tonight. And I too have some business to take care of. Frank would be at home, but he didn't give me an exact time. So..."

"Oh. No problem. What about Zach?" I asked. Zach was our eldest brother. Maddox and him were almost of the same age. But they hardly ever got along.

Kevin shrugged. "He comes when he wants and leaves as he wishes."

Ah, yeah, that made sense. Now that Zach had taken over almost half of our family's business, he had become a little...distant. It might be because he was busy. He even bought himself a separate mansion last month. Though he still stayed here most of the days so it was hard to tell what the hell was going on in his head.

"Aren't you getting late now?" Kevin reminded me with another frown while my eyes almost bulged out.

Zara.

Shit. I got distracted.

"Yes, yes yes. I'm leaving right away. See you at dinner."

"Wait. I said I won't be—" but before he could finish what he was about to say, I skipped outside. Found my car. Tossed the bag in the backseat and drove to her place.