THE FIRST BETRAYAL

Red laid restlessly on her bed. She had about a thousand thoughts forming in her mind at the same time. She was faced with the worst possible fate anyone could imagine. Although she had successfully gone through the first day of work without succumbing to the urge of screaming and punching a wall, she had paid the price by being unable to fall asleep now. She had never wished more for sleep to come. She wanted to wake up and see that it had all been a horrible dream. She was also thankful that Antonio and his cousin Mariano, stayed away from her office throughout the day. She had gone through the day hoping that they wouldn't come check up on her. She wondered if they would have noticed she was considering betraying the trust their family had put on her. Her stomach churned at the thought of playing double agent. Red hated to work under extreme rules. She had been her own boss for the longest, and succumbing to the wills of a robot she did not even know, was proving to be a difficult task.

She would be the first to admit that she was a little bit selfish and ruthless in pursuing her dreams. Matter of fact, she couldn't have cared less about screwing the Lorenzo's over, if they hadn't been so nice to her.

"But they'll never find out." a tiny voice in her whispered.

She scoffed, and shook her head. For how long would she be able to hide the truth? Sooner or later, her secret was bound to be exposed. She didn't know the extent to which her betrayal might affect the Lorenzo's, because, technically they just met. She didn't want to find out though. She tried to rationalize her thoughts. She tried to convince herself that saving her only surviving family was the right thing to do. She had lost her dad at a time in her life where she was the most vulnerable. She had lost him in the most cruel way. She couldn't bear the thought of also losing her mum, or Agnes.

Red kicked and turned on her bed, suddenly missing life before the Lorenzo's. Sure she had been poor, wasn't it better than being at the mercy of some faceless demon playing God?

Sighing, she stood up from her bed, and pranced around the room. Her room began to feel too small to contain both her, and her many problems. She felt the wall closing in on her, and all she really wanted to do was vent. She thought about calling her mum to join her in New York, that way she would be able to keep an eye on her, but she knew it was literally imposible. Her Mum would never agree to move from her beloved country. Not the woman who was of the opinion that America was the devils trap. She would always say that no one visits that forbidden land and leaves the same way they came. Maybe she had been right all along.

She wanted to vent to someone, but she couldn't risk putting anyone she loved in danger.

Suddenly, she remembered her old tape recorder she had bought in an antic shop when she newly arrived in Manhattan. She turned her room up side down searching for the device. If she couldn't share her dilemma with anyone, she was damn sure going to vent to a machine. She pulled out a box under her bed and opened it. She smiled when she saw the various items in it. One after the other, she brought them out reminiscing about the memories attached to each of these items.

There was the scarf she had tied during her first encounter with Agnes, when she literally ordered the woman to sign her. She chuckled recalling Agnes's face when a scrawny looking teenager had interrupted her work to introduce herself as the hottest writer in town. That had been the start of a beautiful friendship. She moved to the next item in the box. It was a small car toy that had been given to her as a present from her dad, for her sixth birthday. Her father had clocked his daughters love for cars from a very young age and promised to get her a real one when she was of age. Her happiest memories had been riding in the truck with her dad to and from their farm. She would stick her head out and let the wind worship her face, mimicking the movies she watched. She got more emotional as she recalled every memory she had with her dad. The man had taught her everything she needed to survive. She wished he was alive. He would have been the first person she would run to with a problem like this. He always had the right solution for everything. She found a picture of both him and her on his boat as they went fishing. Clutching the photo tight, she bawled her eyes out.

"Why did you have to leave me at this moment dad?" She muttered between tears. "Your little girl is about to face the most difficult journey ever, and she is really scared. What should I do dad?" she continued. She allowed herself cry a few more minutes until she finally felt lightweight. She stood up placing each item carefully back into the box. She only removed the tape recorder and then closed the box.

She noticed the device was worn out, so she couldn't exactly use it. She sprawled to the ground in frustration, and forced herself to sleep on the cold hard floor.

Red woke up the next day with a terrible headache. She looked around and noticed she was on the floor.

"No wonder." She dragged herself from the floor, when she heard a vibration.

"Agnes?"

Her suspicion was confirmed when she heard a loud bang on the door, worsening her headache.

"By all means, break the door please." She dragged her feet to the door, with her hands on her head.

"You look like shit!" Agnes mouth fell open when she saw Red.

"And you look happy." Red said dryly, her eyes more interested in the paper bag Agnes held.

"You're not going to the office today?" Agnes pushed past her into the house.

"Debatable."

"What is it baby?" Agnes dropped the paper bag on the table, and turned to her friend.

"Nothing Ag. I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm tired."

"Ohhhh. Someone was up all night thinking about the hot Mr Antonio." Agnes made kissy faces, and Red frowned.

"Let it go Ag. Antonio was the lady thing on my mind last night." She scoffed, and walked to the paper bag.

It wasn't exactly true. She had thought of Antonio, but it had been more in line with her impending betrayal on his family.

Her stomach growled, and Agnes was immediately beside her.

"I should have known you're hungry," She touched her forehead, as worried wrinkles spread across her face.

"Stop being a mummy, and let's eat," She opened up the bag. "Agnes! Did you bring me Chinese this morning?" Her smile lit up her pretty face.

"That will be Agnes Musk to you now. Dig in baby. We'll only it fancy from now on." They both laughed, and dug into the food.

Reds mood was finally lifted, as they arrived at the office.

"You know I adore you Ag.?" Red began, fishing for trouble.

"Of course you do." Agnes replied smiling.

"So you can't get offended when I sincerely tell you that you need to change your wheels yeah?" Red presented the cutest face possible, while Agnes stared at her confused.

"Why? What's wrong with my baby?" Agnes pouted.

Red scrunched her nose, causing her mouth to hang open, "Oh absolutely nothing."

She sighed knowing she still had a lot to do to convince Agnes, to change her car.

The duo strutted into the company like they had worked there all their lives. They dropped the act immediately they stepped into Red's office.

''Oh my God!'' Agnes jumped, and twirled around. ''It looks even better in real life!'' she rushed to the window to get a look at the fountain view.

''I told you it was lovely.'' Red said proudly.

A knock sounded on the door, and they quickly picked up the professional act again.

Agnes quickly moved out of the window, and sat crossed legged on the sofa. Red straightened her short suit gown.

''Hello my gorgeous. Grace told me you had arrived.'' Mariano sashayed into the room, but paused when he saw Agnes.

"Now who do we have here?"

Mariano sat besides Agnes, giving her a once-over. Agnes grew uncomfortable under his gaze, and tried to put some distance between them. Red watched, and laughed.

"Don't be scared my darling. I'm Mariano, Antonio's cousin." He finally said, stretching out his hands.

"Oh." Agnes laughed nervously, taking his hands.

"Mariano, meet my agent and friend Agnes." Red said, breaking the awkwardness.

Mariano looked at the blonde petite woman amused by how uncomfortable she was. While Red would look stunning even in hell, her friend wasn't ugly either. She just had an interesting fashion sense. He was already fantasizing about giving her a makeover. He would start with the hair. Her face would eat up a well cut bang. Then he would cut the ears of whoever told her to wear those loose sleeves that had her looking empty. She looked like someone who had been in both ends of the weight scale. she had a little fullness to her face which made him think she had definitely been overweight before. If he was correct, then he envied her. Going from that weight to having the body of a model was miraculous. She wasn't that tall so he wished she wore more heels like Red. She was a bombshell beauty. She just didn't know it yet.

"So what are you girls up to for the weekend?" Mariano asked.

"There's presently nothing in my schedule. Agnes?"

"I'll probably go to inspect the site. Why?" Agnes asked Mariano finally warming up to him. His directness had initially taken her by surprise, but he seemed like a genuine person.

"Clear your schedule girls. The queen of the Lorenzo empire is hosting an event." He clapped.

"Who?" Reds face creased, and Agnes nodded in agreement.

Mariano giggled.

"Who else? Antonio's mother of course!"

"Oh." they chorused.

"I'll take that as a yes then. Lovely to meet you Agnes. Now let me go pretend I actually have a job." Mariano joked, and they all laughed. He blew them a kiss as he walked out of the office.

"I never really asked," Red said just after mariano had closed the door. "What do they really do here. I know they own an app, but does that really require so much work to maintain, I mean judging by the large amount of staffs they have?"

"Well love struck is just one of the many business they have. They're majorly a tech firm, and rumour has it that they're developing something amazing." Agnes replied browsing through her phone.

"Ohhhh I see. No wonder they're filthy rich. Surely, they must have lots of enemies." Agnes head shot up.

"Of course they do. All rich people do." Sensing something, but not wanting to push it.

"You know I need to get some work done right?' Red brought out her laptop, changing the conversation.

"True. Any update?"

"Nope. Kim Anderson was private in all her account as at yesterday morning. By the evening, she had deactivated." Red sighed, drawing circles with her thumb.

"George did say you will be working with a private investigator. all information he gathers will be passsed to you, and you'll have the sole power to put it out."

"That would be lovely. I don't plan on really doing investigative work. Things could get nasty really fast."

"True," Agnes stood up. "George just texted. He is in the company now. I'll see you later, and you'll give me the complete deets of your encounter with the dashing heir." She threw her a wink, and Red rolled her eye. She laughed, as she dashed out of the office.

She switched on her laptop ready to make her very first post on the Lorenzo's. She had done a quick write up on Matteo himself and his rise to the top. The write up was meant to spring forth a lot of questions in the minds of the readers. "Would a man who did dirty jobs with his bare hands for years really rip people off their desrved benefit?" that was the question she expected to see when everyone read her article.

She hit post and reclined in her chair smiling at her efforts, when the beep of her phone caught her attention. She opened her phone to see a message notification. The dreaded feeling she had managed to tuck aside, began to build up again. Beads of sweat formed in her forehead, and her hand shook as she read the text.

"Hello miss Red. Trust you're having a good day. we thought to call you, but you seem to love texts the most. That's totally okay though.

"There is a file attached in this message you've receive. It contains details of the Lorenzo's we want you to write and put out.

"Prepare the write up down and wait for our confirmation to post. Also, there's a link provided in this text. It's a link to your anonymous site we've created. The login details have also been sent to you.

"I hope we've made ourselves clear about the consequences of disobedience. We believe, we would be able to cooperate and achieve our respective goals.

"Have a nice day Miss Red."

Trembling, she opened the attachment . The first item was a picture of Matteo with his hands around a younger woman. Beneath it were the written words, 'Cheater and liar'

She had seen at least one picture of Natalia, and knew it wasn't her. They wanted her to stir the pot, with that picture. But what if it wasn't true?

She didn't have a choice though. Her fingers vibrated, as she began to type.

"Hello my lovelies. Welcome to the very first episode of keeping up with the Lorenzo's.

"Don't you just love this family? from fraud scandal to sexual assault allegations, this family know how to cause quite a stir. They say the upper echelons are much more sophisticated, less vulgar than we the average man, but is this really true? Rumour has it that the lovely, perfect relationship between the beautiful Natalia, and handsome Matteo might not exactly be all that. Not to accuse anyone of anything, but below is a picture captured secretly, showing our handsome billionaire frolicking with a girl half his age. Shame is one of the cheapest things out there, but it seems our billionaire has doubled down on not spending his 'hard earned' cash, purchasing it. how do we believe a man that breaks his marital vows when he says he is not a fraud?

That's all for now mi amors. I'll let you know when there's another interesting scoop on our favourite Italian family"

She leaned back, and read what she had just written. Dread washed over her at the betrayal, but her mum's life was in danger. She would always protect the ones she loved, even if it meant biting the hands that feed her.