"It was so obvious Clara, I can't believe you. " she shook her head and sighed.
" Huh?" Clara gazed at her confusedly then shrugged. She was about to say something when two maids suddenly rushed past them while muttering some words among themselves.
" Do you think this house is hunted?"
" I hope not... Hmmm."
" But everyone is speaking about the ghost."
Clara sighed exasperatedly and Mira chuckled.
" You know what? I'm beginning to find this whole situation funny, " she said nonchalantly and started walking away.
" Yeah... Me too." Clara nodded then hurried behind her while glancing back at the two maids.
********
Lily closed the door behind her and sighed softly then splayed a hand on her chest as her heart thumped rapidly.
She strolled toward her bag then took out a book and slowly sat down on the bed.
After glancing through the book for some minutes, she sighed heavily and finally closed it then lay her back on the bed while facing the ceiling with both palms on the book which was now resting on her chest.
Her eyes lingered blankly on the white ceiling for a while and she bit her lips then opened her book again and tried to read it once more but finally dropped it on the bedside table after a while.
Hearing footsteps coming toward the door from outside, she stood up from the bed and walked toward the bathroom.
" Mira, are you sure?" Clara said with widened eyes as they both walked inside the room.
Mira nodded affirmatively then sat down on the bed.
" We have to do it, besides I'm also helping that dumb guy... I can see that he's totally out of his mind, " she replied nonchalantly with another bout of sigh.
" Oh." Clara slowly nodded with a grow while stroking her chin with two fingers in a thinking manner.
Sitting instantly on the bed beside Mira with a new profounded delight she quickly grabbed her hands with a look of ambition. " So what's the plan."
" Now, that's the spirit girl... Hehehe" Mira laughed softly at her excited expression, then her eyes darted around the room cautiously before heaving a deep breath.
" So this is what we're going to do. . . " she moved closer to her friend then started whispering some words to her.
While listening, Clara's expression was changing from anxiousness to delight while her eyes would widen now and then.
After Mira was done, her head snapped up with a jerk and she slowly muttered, " Mira, are you sure it will work?"
" Trust me, my dear friend... It would surely work." Mira patted her friend's shoulder with a chuckle then slumped her back on the bed with a huge sigh of contentment while facing the ceiling.
Clara also plopped down beside her and sluggishly muttered, " It is going to be a long night." and Mira nodded.
********
Meanwhile, at another side of the mansion, which was very quiet compared to the other sides where many preparations were going on, as the servants walk around while holding chairs and tables with many other amenities for tonight's event. and the guests continuously arrive in their lush cars.
Inside a large room where different kinds of playing equipment and pieces of furniture ranging from a table tennis table that sat at the middle, to the game consoles under a huge TV screen on the wall that faced a huge sofa, to the bunch of huge cars, bicycles and airplanes toys that were neatly standing at each side of the room.
The door suddenly opened and stepping inside were two men with one having on a surprised expression while the other one calmly walked forward toward the dusty materials.
" Sir, so this is the playroom you spoke about?"
Jack's assistant walked behind his boss while admiring the room.
" Yeah." Jack nodded with a chuckle as his finger grazed the couch whose white color had changed to brown due to the clouds of dust that had settled on it for many years.
He paused in his steps as his thoughts wandered to this type of exact room he had back in City M but which was only filled with both girls and boys toys.
Remembering how he would be the only one playing while his best friend who mostly visited him at that time will either be scribbling things on his books or silently watching his little cousin who he always carried around.
He shook the happy but painful memories out of his head then walked toward the bar counter in a corner which was the only clean place in the room.
His assistant slowly walked behind him and watched as his boss retrieved two glasses with a bottle of wine then sat down on one of the tools and he also sat down on the other one.
Jack slowly uncapped the wine bottle then poured it into the two glasses and pushed one glass toward his assistant and in the next second, he had gulped down his glass.
Eric watched perplexedly as his boss drank three glasses of the wine in just a few seconds and he sighed then also took the one in front of him and slowly drank it.
" Sir, are you still in love with Clara?" He asked some minutes later, after seeing that his boss was slightly tipsy.
" Clara?." Jack chuckled and calmly poured himself another wine. " I still love her... a lot, " he added slowly while his assistant listened to him silently.
" But, I've come to realize something. . . It's the kind of love that I always want to protect her__ I've been fooling myself that I really can't love anyone else besides her. But, maybe it was just because Carl was in the picture."
" Then... does that mean you don't love her anymore?" His assistant tried to confirm again, with furrowed brows.
Jack slowly shook his head with another sigh. " I don't know, " he muttered softly then poured himself another drink.
His assistant sighed and took the bottle which was half empty from him. " Then what about..." He trailed off while watching him sluggishly retrieving something from his pocket.