ACTRESS

He tiptoed and followed the sound and saw Anne whispering, making a phone call with someone.

"They said they are going to a place called spotlight." Anne whispered.

"Who are you talking to?" Neo was loud enough and caught the attention of his friends in the dining.

She gasped, ended the call and hid the phone behind her. "Why are you here?" she was whimpering.

"I asked you the question first, who were you on the phone with just now?"

"What business do you have to do with that?" Anne summoned courage.

"Is everything okay?" John asked as he joined them at the scene.

"Your voice attracted us Neo, what is the problem?" Lydia asked too.

"I heard a squeak when I was at the dining and I decided to check. I saw Anne receiving a call and he mentioned that we are going to spotlight yo the person." The look on Neo's face was getting tough.

"What?" John faced Anne. "You now have a boyfriend?"

"Oh my goodness!" Neo was pissed with the question. "How can you ask that John? She clearly mentioned that we were going to spotlight, would she say that to the person if it were to be her boyfriend?"

The question threw John under the bus for a second or two, in his head he tried to put things together. "Could it really be that this young girl is a spy?" John stared at Anne for a moment again. "Who were you on the phone with?"

"I was on the phone with a friend of mine." She stuttered.

"You told that friend of yours that we are going to spotlight? Why is that?" He asked again.

Anne shake her head and was trembling in fear.

Lydia whispered in John's ears. "This girl is so suspicious, she even hid the phone behind her."

"Anne, can I have that phone?" John tried his best to be polite.

All the little Anne could do was to move backwards.

"Why are you moving backwards?" Neo asked.

"You want me to force the phone from you?" John wasn't being polite anymore.

Anne closed her eyes and smashed the phone on the floor.

Everyone was surprised except John, as at that time he was getting irritated, it was so obvious that Anne was hiding something.

John pulled out his cell phone from the inner pocket in his tuxedos. "I am going to ask a good friend of mine to help me check the numbers you called in the space of two weeks."

********

The atmosphere was so tensed yet quiet, Mirabella sat on the tall chair in the second sitting room, she wanted to avoid anything that would make the domestic workers gossip, so she insisted that they had the long talk in the second sitting room which was a bit secretive.

By his mom's right foot, John sat, resting his head on her thighs. His sitting position made his mind travel far back to when he used to sit and rest his head on his mother's thighs. The sharp smell of her perfume and the seductive smell of her lotion would be his oxygen.

Anne was on her kneels, her eyes were fixed on the portrait of Mirabella. The woman was smiling, grinning from ear to ear. But for some reasons best known to Anne alone, she held a lot of resentment.

Lydia, was hoping she turned down the dinner invite again. "Why is all of these happening when I'm here?" she asked in her mind.

Neo had his mind in one place, it was on Anne, he was a hundred and percent sure that the young girl was working for someone, that she was a spy.

Diva was the only one not disturbed with the situation, she buried her head in her phone and was busy shopping online.

"Anne." Mirabella called calmly. "Please, tell me everything I have to know before John's friend calls. I have addressed you as a daughter for years, don't make me feel betrayed."

"I have nothing to say." Her tone was stern enough for everyone to realize she had something in mind.

"How dare you raise your voice at her?" Neo was upset, he doesn't like anyone raising his voice at his boss, or should we say his lover?

"Why? Why are you the most offended? Even John isn't acting up as you are, is it because you ha-" A call interrupted her.

"Hello." John answered the call as he raised his head gently from his mom's thighs. He kept quiet for a while, listening to the caller. "Okay, thanks a lot man. I owe you a big one." He ended the call and sighed heavily.

"What happened?" Asked Mirabella, she was nervous and restless.

"Only one number has been calling her ever since she had a cell phone."

"What?" She asked again.

"He said he already sent the number to me." John buried his head in his phone to check for the number and was shocked to his bone marrow with what he saw. "Holy shit!" He cursed.

"Is everything okay?" Neo and Mirabella chorused and they exchanged short glances after that.

Lydia suspected something peculiar between the both of them as they exchanged glances but couldn't dare to say a word.

Diva was too busy to notice anything, she was still shopping.

"Anne." John called with pains and stood. "How could you do this to us?"

"John, what is going on?" Mirabella asked again but there was no reply. "John!" Her voice was loud.

"All these while, we wondered how uncle Richard managed to stay one step ahead of us always." His voice was low. "Anne has been the one spying."

"No! That's not true! I have taken care of Anne as if she were my own daughter. She wouldn't do that to us."

"You have never for once regarded me as your daughter." Anne snapped bitterly. "Do you even know how to be a mother? Do you?!" Mirabella's slap halted her.

"What did you just say? I never regarded you as my daughter? How dare you say that? After I took you in as my own blood and flesh?" Mirabella scoffed. "How exactly did Richard get you?"

"He promised to allow me be a actress, unlike you who keeps forcing to be a doctor!"

Diva's phone fell from her after hearing the yell, but the content of Anne's words was what bothered not only her but everyone else in the room.