My birthday
The hot search was an old video of Odelia when she was 18 years old, and she had been drunk and making a spectacle of herself. Thinking of that incident, she remembered that she had only sipped on some juice that night. But she didn't know Anna had spiked her juice with an aphrodisiac. Anna had arranged for some men to sleep with Odelia, and then she would act like she was looking for Odelia and mistakenly lead people to see her in the act.
Since Odelia and Anna had the same birthday, on their 18th birthday, Mr. and Mrs. Graham had planned to introduce Odelia to the people of Manhattan high society as their daughter, but Odelia didn't know what happened; she had only sipped on a few mouthfuls of the juice when she began to feel dizzy.
She had tried to walk into the washroom and splash some cold water on her face to make her mind clearer, but she had not watched where she was going and bumped into Director Nick of Second Image Entertainment Company. The man had a reputation for being promiscuous and would only allow you to work in his company if he slept with you.
Seeing such delicate and fresh beauty bump into him, Nick held on tightly and refused to let go, making Odelia, who wasn't in her right mind due to the effects of the drug, begin to struggle and yell at him to let go of her. But because he refused to let go, the effects of the drug began to intensify, making Odelia's body instinctively react to Nick's touch and want to get close to Nick's body.
When people's attention was drawn to the scene, they realized Odelia was doing one thing and saying something else; the actions of her body and what she was saying were totally opposite. Everyone started to label Odelia as a little whore who didn't mind the occasion and was just too eager and slutty to care. What a little pretender she was!
That incident had disgraced her parents so much that they began to keep her at arm's length. As Odelia read through the comments, she couldn't help but clutch her chest in pain. Some of the comments were so painful and insensitive that she began to wonder how they would feel if she decided to go through with it.
Some people even wrote that she was a disgrace to women and she should just die. And the more she read, the more she felt as if someone was tearing a piece of her flesh. It was as if she was bleeding all over her body and salt water had been poured into her wounds. She felt pain all over.
Odelia Foods and Restaurant's name was also officially going to be changed to Anna Adams Foods and Restaurant in a week.
Her parents were also saying she was their adopted daughter instead of their biological daughter. Did they hate her so much? How can they discard their flesh and blood so cruelly like that?
She realized why Philip had been so insistent on her getting a break and going on a vacation yesterday. He had even made her promise never to check on the Internet. But could she forget about everything and just go on a vacation like that? Knowing Anna's hatred for her, now that she had turned both her parents and Adam against her, she would surely make sure she lost everything.
Now was not the time to rest; she had to come up with a plan to beat them at their own game. But she needed a lot of money to beat Adam and the Graham family, and she didn't have that kind of money now, and then it clicked—the money on the Odelia Foods account. She had lost a huge sum of money when she compensated the victims of the food poisoning. Right now, she barely has enough money to sustain herself for a few months, but she has totally forgotten about the money she kept aside for expenses and unforeseen events that happened in Odelia Foods and Restaurant.
~~~
Odelia got down from the cab and saw Philip leaning on his car, which was parked in front of the building. Phillip looked at her worriedly, knowing where she had gone and seeing how she was dressed.
"Are you okay?" He asked in a concerned tone. He had been really worried when the food delivery service said she wasn't around this morning when he had ordered food to be sent to her.
"You knew," Odelia responded to his question with another one of her own, but she said it more like a statement.
"Have you eaten?" Phillip asked, trying to change the subject and not talk about that scum Adam and her family. He wished he could punish all of them and bring them to Odelia's feet, begging for forgiveness. But he knew going against the Gray family and Graham family, the two powerhouses in Manhattan, would be difficult.
Due to some recent changes and decline in the Smith Company, his capabilities are limited. He could only shield her from the pain she was going through and silently love her on the side and wish that one day she would see him as more than a brother or friend.
"I'm not as fragile as you think; I would prefer to know the truth in such circumstances than find out in such a way. If I had known what was going on, I would have prepared myself better," Odelia said to Phillip as they both walked side by side into the building.
"Odelia I… Are you angry with me?" Phillip asked in a low voice.
"No, I just think that everything could have played differently if I had a heads up, but I think I also have myself to blame. After all, I had taken a leave of absence for two weeks before my wedding, and I had also spent over a month in prison." Odelia's confident voice was cracking the more she spoke. It was as if her voice was choking.
Remembering everything that had happened to her within almost two months, she felt like crying and giving up. She was tired of being strong all the time.
"I don't blame you; I blame myself for going there without any proper planning and investigation and making a mockery of myself." Her tears were running down her cheeks now, and when she reached the door, she fumbled with the keys, but she couldn't even see the keyhole to insert the key.
Seeing her predicament, Phillip took the keys away from her shaky fingers, opened the door, brought her into the living room, and hugged her. Her tears were falling hard and soaking his shirt, but he didn't mind. In a span of two days, he had seen Odelia in her most vulnerable state. And it was all because those scumbags had dragged her to the hell they had created for her.
He had to do something; he couldn't watch the woman he loved continue to suffer like this.
"I'm sorry, I stained your shirt," Odelia apologized when she saw the wet patch on his shirt. Phillip broke out of his reverie and shook his head, smiling gently at her and wiping her face with his thumb. 'Oh, how he wished he could kiss her gently and make her forget about everything and just rest in his arms?' Phillip thought inwardly, staring into her mesmerizing gray eyes that looked so bright like shiny stars and could make a person drop their guard and willingly surrender to its alluring beauty.
Phillip coughed awkwardly, feeling a rush of heat within him, diverted his gaze, and looked elsewhere.
"Let's eat some food; knowing you, I bet you have not eaten since morning." He said and started arranging the food on the dining table. Odelia didn't have much appetite, but seeing him put in so much effort, she decided to take a few bites.
After a very quiet late breakfast slash lunch, Phillip looked up at Odelia and asked, "Have you thought about going on a vacation to unwind as I suggested?"
"I don't want to run away; I want to face my problems head-on," Odelia answered.
"You are not running away; you deserve a break; go somewhere else, forget about everything for now, heal, and mend your heart. When you return, you will feel rejuvenated, and then you will decide what to do next," Phillip explained.
"But I think I will go crazy if I don't pay them back for what they have done to me; I don't think I can even feel at ease if I decide to go on a vacation," Odelia countered, making Phillip breathe out a sigh. 'It seems she was right,' he thought.
"So tell me, what are your plans now? How do you plan to make them pay?" He asked. Feeling vengeful, she decided to beat them at their own game.
"I plan to beat them at their own game. What if, during the change of name ceremony, I pay someone to add a little something to the food that would be served to VIP's? What would happen if they began to have diarrhea and began to run about during the ceremony?" Odelia said with a devilish smirk on her face.
"You plan to do..."
"Yes, food poisoning," Odelia interrupted Phillip, looking at him with a dangerous glint in her eyes, something that Phillip had never seen on her before.
"And then by the time they would have addressed the issue with the food poisoning, I would start a restaurant to rival theirs. It would have lower prices, and the food would be tastier. I would just keep my identity as the owner of the restaurant hidden for the time being. What do you think?
"Brilliant!" Phillip said, smiling at her; he prayed he would never become her enemy in this life.
"But do you have the funds for that? I can help you raise it if that's okay with you," Phillip told Odelia, who shook her head and smiled.
"Thank you, but I still have some money from Odelia Foods in a separate account; I will just withdraw some and make a down payment for a restaurant space I have been eyeing for some time now. The location is very good and close to Central Park. Let me do the withdrawal first and show you what I'm talking about," Odelia said and logged into her bank application on her laptop, typed in the details for the transfer, and saw a pop-up message saying she had insufficient funds.
Thinking it was a glitch in the system, she tried again, and the same thing happened. She went to the balance side to check her balance, and the $0.00 balance stared at her from the screen. The words of Adam a few days before her wedding played in her mind,
"The pin on all my bank cards is your birthday; what about you? What is your pin?" He had asked that night with Odelia nestled in his arms as he rained kisses on her neck, trailed the kisses along the crook of her neck until he got to her ears, and nibbled on her earlobe, eliciting a gasp from her.
"My Birthday," she answered breathlessly.