Lilia walked around the garden alone while trying to organize her chaotic thoughts.
She was forced to marry a man she didn't know for the good of a family that never loved her. Even though Lilia had accepted that fate, her mother still pressured her to follow her wishes. Sylvia's presence felt like a boulder pressed against Lilia's chest, making it difficult for her to breathe.
Lilia kicked the pebbles on the ground hoping that someone would cheer her up at this time.
Suddenly Jean's face flashed across her mind.
Lilia hurriedly erased the thought. Even though that man had helped Lilia in several ways, he was still the source of all her troubles right now.
In the stillness of the night, Lilia's ears caught the sound of a car engine that stopped nearby.
She frowned and looked around restlessly. If she got into trouble here, no one could help her.
Lilia picked up a fairly thick tree branch from the ground before approaching the source of the sound carefully. She hid behind a bush and peeked at the car. However, the lack of lighting made it difficult for Lilia to recognize the car.
Lilia opened her cell phone and dialed the emergency call number 112. She positioned her finger on the 'Call' button so she could immediately call when needed. Lilia looked up again to watch the car—
"Hey!" A hand held her shoulder.
Lilia jumped and immediately pressed the 'Call' button while screaming. She swung the log in her hand wildly, hoping it was enough to keep away whoever was trying to attack her.
"Woah! Lilia! Calm down! It's me, Vivi!"
Only after Lilia heard that familiar voice did she stop swinging the tree branches. She dropped the 'weapon' in her hand and looked at the person standing in front of her.
"…Vivi?" Lilia parroted blankly.
Vivi sighed, "You really startled me suddenly screaming like that. Do you think I'm a ghost?!"
Lilia immediately defended herself with a red face, "Then don't sneak around like a creep! It's only natural that I screamed when I got ambushed from behind!"
"Huh?! Who was in ambush— ?!"
"Hello, this is an operator for an emergency call number. Is there anything I can help?"
The two's bickering was interrupted by a voice from Lilia's cellphone. She hurriedly apologized to the operator and hung up on him. For a moment, the two women stared at each other.
In the next second, the two of them laughed out loud. That action helped them get rid of all their tension.
"Vivi, why did you come looking for me here?" Lilia finally asked after they were satisfied laughing together.
"Hmm, this may sound strange, but Jean Widjaya's assistant called me. He asked me to look for you because maybe something happened…" Vivi was silent for a moment, "Aren't you supposed to meet the Widjaya Family tonight? What happened?"
Lilia's heart was beating fast when she realized that Jean had deliberately told Vivi to come to comfort her. Could it be that the man had expected that Sylvia would scold her all out? But why did Jean bother doing that?
"Lilia?" Vivi called her again worriedly.
Lilia realized that she had been silent for a long time, "Mm… there's a problem with my mother, that's why I left home. When I realized, I had arrived here."
Vivi smiled and said, "I see. When I came to your house, Uncle Robert just said that you ran out of the house after the fight. I knew right away that you must be here. You always come here whenever you are sad."
Hearing the tenderness in Vivi's voice, Lilia's tears welled up again and she threw herself into her best friend's arms.
That night, Lilia stayed at Vivi's apartment.
*****
After three days of taking refuge in Vivi's apartment, Lilia's mood finally improved. She spent every day practicing yoga and doing fitness to keep her body in shape.
In two weeks, Lilia was leaving for Milan Fashion Week. She planned to give her all as a model and bring out the best in her first international fashion show.
During those three days, Robert called every day to ask her how she was. However, he never said a word about Sylvia or their bickering. Lilia did the same.
Even though she was used to Sylvia's coldness, the wounds in her heart still hurt sometimes, so Lilia tried not to think about that woman.
Another thing that currently occupied Lilia's spare time was following the development of the scandal about Sara Hartanto.
Sara's reputation and image were devastated to the point where William's fans demanded him to change his manager.
On the other hand, Lilia's name was removed from the viral topic at her request of Harold. Her manager even hired people to post the best photos of Lilia and discuss the upcoming Milan Fashion Week on the internet. All of this was done to improve Lilia's reputation after the incident with Sara.
That afternoon, Lilia was relaxing in the living room after practicing yoga and started thinking about buying an apartment for herself. Lilia turned on the TV and accessed the internet via her cell phone. She wanted to look at apartment prices, but instead she found a notification from the Other app.
Lilia opened the application and saw that someone named 'Tom' had sent Lilia a friend request. That person even sent her a message.
[Tom]: "Sis, add me!"
Lilia frowned, 'Sister?' She didn't remember having any younger siblings besides her little brother Daniel, so who was this person? Lilia accepted [Tom] 's request out of curiosity. Just a second later, Lilia received an invitation to join a group chat.
[Tom]: "@Lilia, welcome to the group!"
Lilia opened the list of group chat participants and found that there were three more people besides Lilia and [Tom] in this group.
[Tom]: "Bro @Jean, I've brought my sister-in-law here!"
Lilia raised an eyebrow. [Tom] 's way of addressing Jean sounded so familiar that Lilia was encouraged to open his profile picture. She immediately recognized him as Tom Wibowo, the only son of the Wibowo Group whose wealth was almost equal to that of the Widjaya Family.
Lilia remembered that she had run into Tom when she met Jean in his office, but Lilia was in a bad mood after Jean refused her request at that time so she didn't really pay attention to him.
[Alex]: "Oh, so this is our sister-in-law!"
[Chris]: "Greetings, Sis!"
[Tom]: "Sis, are you coming tonight?"
[Chris]: "I can't wait to see our sister-in-law!"
[Alex]: "You have to come to the show tonight, Sis!"
Lilia smiled a little when she saw them keep calling her 'sis' and 'sister-in-law'. They must have been pretty close to Jean too if they thought of her as a sister.
She was a little curious about the events they mentioned. She waited for Jean or one of them to explain, but the group suddenly turned quiet.
As Lilia continued to wait for someone to appear, she grew suspicious and checked the list of the group's members. As expected, only Jean and herself were left in the group.
At the same time, Tom sent Lilia a private message, "Sis, Bro Jean kicked us all out of the group chat!" The message was followed by a crying face sticker.
Lilia couldn't help herself and started laughing. Tom sounded more innocent and friendlier than she had expected.
[Jean]: "Where are you?"
Suddenly Jean sent her a private message. Lilia immediately replied, "In a friend's house."
[Jean]: "At the Metropolitan Apartment?"
Lilia raised her eyebrows and replied in surprise, "How do you know?"
Jean did not reply to her message. Twenty minutes later, he only sent three words, "I've arrived."