Amani's appointment was scheduled for ten in the morning. She has already called the DeVille's mansion the previous day to confirm with Leonardo's father when she saw the address and the number to call inside the envelope the boss left for her.
She meant to wake up early because she would rather arrive at the mansion before ten and wait inside her car for the appointed time than risk arriving late for the interview.
Maybe because of the late-night talk she had with Becca or because of the terrible dream she had about Percy trying to drown her by pulling and holding her down at the bottom of a lake, the time was almost eight when she woke up with a headache and the feeling of uneasiness that something would seriously go wrong with the interview.
As much as she tried to shove the annoying man's words to the back of her mind, while she was in the bathroom and getting ready for work, Percy's hateful words kept playing over and over again inside her head...
'You're going to fail! You're going to fuck this up, Amani!'
By the time she was done and ready to leave, the time was almost nine. 'God please, don't let this go wrong.' She prayed silently in her mind as she tried to push that feeling of uneasiness to the back of her mind.
"Bec I'm off... See you later in the day." She said to Becca who was busy making breakfast before rushing towards the door.
"Hey, wait up!... Aren't you gonna eat breakfast? You don't know how long the interview would take or if these people are nice enough to offer you a cup of coffee, so I suggest you eat something before you leave young lady." Becca said firmly with her maternal tone of voice.
Amani signed deeply "Becca my appointment is scheduled for ten, and this is almost nine...." She said consulting with her wristwatch, one of her newly acquired possessions
"Yeah, I know what the time says..." Becca pointed towards the small table clock she had placed on the kitchen island.
"The drive down to the DeVille's mansion would take thirty-five minutes if the traffic is slow and since the traffic report says your route is clear of traffic, I figured you could spare fifteen minutes to eat," Becca said while she placed a plate of scrambled eggs and toast on the island for Amani
"Thanks..." Amani gladly said and sat down to eat her breakfast when she realized her friend was right. She's not a superstitious person but seeing Percy trying to sabotage her in her dream on one of the most important days of her life really jinxed her.
She's been called the trouble magnet all her life mainly because of her personality, and she just wished today was an exception. Maybe if she paid extra attention to herself, watch what she says and her actions towards people, maybe everything would turn out okay.
Becca also brought her plate and sat opposite Amani, watching as her friend eat in silence with her head down. Becca knew instantly that all was not well with her. She's finally gotten the biggest story that every reporter has always wished for, normal Amani would be excited and continually talk about it not look somber.
"Ama are you okay?" She asked with concern
"Yeah... I just couldn't help but wonder... What if things go wrong? I have this weird dream about Percy and..."
"It was just a silly dream Ama, don't talk about it and don't think about it too much..." Becca cut her off midsentence. "Don't allow it zap that bubbly and positive energy out of you. Every reporter at Pinnacle News knows you're one of the best, If not for Percy that has been sabotaging all your efforts all this while. Now that you've been handed the golden opportunity, please don't let him into your mind. Today is going to be great, don't worry about it too much, alright?"
Amani looked at her friend and her spirit got lifted. "Yeah, today is going to be great!" She replied and smiled
"You looked beautiful by the way. I love how you paired this particular blouse with the pencil skirt..." Becca immediately change the topic to the one that was sure to get her friend excited and laughing in no time.
The two girls ate while they chatted about fashion and then the DeVille family, then to Becca's schedule for the day. When they were done eating, Amani bid her friend goodbye feeling more better than when she woke up.
Becca was right, the traffic on her route was free-flowing. She checked the clock on her dashboard and saw she was even twenty minutes early. She arrived at an intersection and was about to turn right to the road that lead directly to the DeVille's mansion when she noticed, by her left vision, far across the road away from her, what seemed like a big ball of white yarn, was about to be blown towards her side of the road.
Then realization struck when something pink, like a small tongue, slipped out of the fluffy yarn.
"Oh my God!... It's not a ball of yarn, it's a fluffy ball!" Amani screamed to herself inside the car
Without thinking, she slammed on her break, left her car running, and dashed across the road, nearly getting run down by a black sleek car that suddenly applied its brake, to avoid hitting her
"Oh my God!... I'm so sorry!... It's a dog!" She raised one hand towards the car owner while her other hand pointed to the fluffy ball that was moving back and forth from the sidewalk to the road.
Amani ran as fast as her high heel shoes and pencil skirt would enable her to cross the road till she got to the dog that was now going round and round and jumping up with excitement after seeing her approach. She bent on her knee and picked the dog up...
"Hey, you!... What are you doing out here, on this dangerous road alone all by yourself? Where's your mommy?..."
_____
The courthouse doesn't work on Sundays, so on Monday Leonardo's legal team immediately file a lawsuit against Lisa for defamation of character. Leonardo didn't receive any court summon from Lisa's lawyers, neither was any complaint from her was filed against him in court. She just disappeared, and all efforts to locate her proved abortive.
How could she defame his character and disappear into thin air? Did she think he would allow her to get away with what she did? Lying against him on social media!? He thought furiously to himself. That's not happening! She will be found and anytime that happens she would wish she was not born into this world. He swore to himself angrily.
His public relations team has already started working on repairing his image and putting everything right. What he didn't like was the interview his father granted to the Pinnacle news reporter without his permission.
His father knew he dislike reporters, so why didn't he seek for his permission before granting one an interview on his behalf? He thought angrily. Reporters are all liars. They print lies about people just so they could get popularity and reads at people's expense.
He initially didn't want to go to the office early today but he had to quickly leave because of the reporter his father invited to his house. He didn't wish to talk to her, contrary to what his father thought, he didn't believe the stupid reporter could help repair his image, his PRO team got it all covered.
He has always valued his privacy. If Lisa hadn't decided to be a scornful bitch, no damage control would have been needed and no stupid reporter would have had the opportunity to take advantage of his father because she wanted to get her own piece of the action, in the name of helping him clean his image.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became at Lisa and the stupid reporter. He just wanted to forget about them, at least for the moment and get his mind back to work. He picked his laptop that was already opened to the file he wanted to attend to and started working on it. All of a sudden, Toni stepped hard on the break and his car screeched to a stop, hurling him hard against the front passenger seat.