Before Amelia could completely turn around to confirm the identity of her bestie, she felt a pair of hands wrap around her arm and pull her into a long and comforting embrace.
"Oh Amelia, I thought I had lost you forever."
Stacy, being a softy by nature was already shedding tears as she hugged her best friend, close to her heart. Her body shook with unfathomable joy as she showered Amelia's head and face with lots of kisses like a loving mother reuniting with her lost daughter.
"Stacy...I can't breathe." Amelia struggled to set herself free from her friend's suffocating embrace.
"Oh, sorry." Stacy released Amelia, beaming amid tears. "I got carried away. I forgot you are still recuperating. Thank God, you're okay. I've been worried sick for days."
"What are you doing here?" Amelia inhaled and exhaled as she sat up properly on the bed, her teary gaze narrowing at her friend.
"Amelia, I came to see you." Stacy slowly stood up, troubled by Amelia's cold reception. "Are you mad at me?"
Although Amelia was inwardly overjoyed to see Stacy, she couldn't bring herself to display her emotions, not when her trust had been broken by those she once loved.
"Yes. I'm very mad at you and everyone." Amelia wrapped her arms around herself, her broken heart bleeding afresh. "You all betrayed me."
"But, Amelia, I'm not one of them. I did not partake in the wedding or anything." Stacy stretched out her open palms as if to show her innocence. "I swear to you, on my late father's grave, I would never do anything to harm you. You are my best friend and you are like a sister I never had. I would rather die a thousand times than betray your trust. Please, you have to believe me."
"Why?" Amelia sniffled, tears rolling down her flushed cheeks. "Give me one single reason why I should believe you?"
"Because I made a vow to you three years ago, to always stand by the truth even if it cost me my life."
Amelia nodded her head, remembering Stacy's passionate words three years back, shortly after she was accused by Gwen of being a fraud and a backstabber.
"Please, you have to believe me." Stacy was almost going down on her knee, her tears flowing like a river.
"Stop, Stacy. Don't kneel before me. I'm only human and I believe you. Come." Amelia gestured, opening her arms this time to receive her best friend.
"Thank you."
They both cried in each other's arms for a while before Stacy whispered in Amelia's ears.
"I'm sorry for everything you've gone through, Amy. "I swear, if I knew this was Gwen's plan all along to steal your man and take over your inheritance, I would have scratched that ugly face of hers with my claws."
"I didn't know you had claws." Amelia chuckled amid tears, knowing how much Stacy hated Gwen.
Back then, she couldn't understand why her stepsister and her best friend never got along. But now she knew better. Stacy was right all along to despise Gwen.
"Tell me, what really happened that night?" Stacy asked, wiping her friend's tears with the hem of her loose blouse.
Amelia's gaze slowly darkened as memories of that fateful night before the abduction replayed in her head.
"Jerry and I had agreed to share a special moment together before the wedding. He was meant to choose a romantic place and send me the address." Amelia sniffled, a bitter smile lacing her lips. "I was even planning a special surprise for him. I knew how much he wanted to make love to me and I was going to give it all to him that night. During the bachelorette party, I received a text from him, giving me the address of our meeting place. So I pleaded with Gwen and..."
"...me to cover up for you." Stacy completed Amelia's statement.
"Yes." A thin smile framed Amelia's lips. "After leaving the hotel building, I went straight towards the car park, my heart bubbling with immense happiness. I got into the car, shut the door and was about to start the engine when I felt a cold metal touching the back of my head."
"Ah!" Stacy gasped.
"I froze until a deep scary male voice said to me, 'If you make a sound, the last thing you would see is your brain redesigning the windshield.' Then the voice asked me to drive. Sucking in my gut, I followed his instruction and drove. We had barely gone far when the voice, instructed me to pull over by the roadside. Immediately the car came to a halt, I felt something sharp prick the side of my neck and before I knew what was happening everything went dark."
"Oh my God!" Stacy was shocked to the bone. She only thought this happened in movies and not real life. "How did they get into your car in the first place? I thought it had an unbeatable security system."
Amelia laughed bitterly as everything slowly began to make sense. "Gwen borrowed my car that evening to pick up some of our friends. She must have let the kidnapper into the car before handing over the car key to me. To think I trusted the despicable b*tch with my life."
Amelia clenched her fist in rage.
"I always knew that witch was up to something nasty. However, I never dreamt that she would go to this extent of harming her own sister after everything you've done to accept and love her. She is a poisonous serpent with a heart made of stone." Stacy hissed in disgust. "So how did you end up here with that hot scary dude whose face seems very familiar?"
"Hot scary dude?" Amelia looked up at Stacy, confused.
"You know..." Stacy gestured to the empty seat beside Amelia's bed. "...the one keeping you company before I arrived."
"You mean, Blaze Anderson?" Amelia rolled her eyes, the thought of him keeping her company warming her broken heart.
"Wait a second, did you say Blaze Anderson?" Stacy's jaws dropped as her gaze shifted to the door.
"Yes," Amelia replied reluctantly.
"The same, handsome, powerful, rich and most desired bachelor in all of Salvine city if not the entire world?"
Amelia rolled her teary eyes again, irritated by Stacy's exaggeration. "He's not that handsome. Rather his is extremely annoying if you ask me."