Before Alia 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 Alia, 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 Alia's head and face with lots of kisses like a loving mother reuniting with her lost daughter.
"Stacy...I can't breathe." Alia struggled to set herself free from her friend's suffocating embrace.
"Oh, sorry." Stacy released Alia, 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?" Alia inhaled and exhaled as she sat up properly on the bed, her teary gaze narrowing at her friend.
"Alia, I ca to see you." Stacy slowly stood up, troubled by Alia's cold reception. "Are you mad at ?"
Although Alia 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." Alia wrapped her arms around herself, her broken heart bleeding afresh. "You all betrayed ."
"But, Alia, 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 tis than betray your trust. Please, you have to believe ."
"Why?" Alia sniffled, tears rolling down her flushed cheeks. "Give 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 my life."
Alia nodded her head, rembering 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 ." Stacy was almost going down on her knee, her tears flowing like a river.
"Stop, Stacy. Don't kneel before . I'm only human and I believe you. Co." Alia gestured, opening her arms this ti to receive her best friend.
"Thank you."
They both cried in each other's arms for a while before Stacy whispered in Alia'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." Alia 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 , what really happened that night?" Stacy asked, wiping her friend's tears with the hem of her loose blouse.
Alia's gaze slowly darkened as mories of that fateful night before the abduction replayed in her head.
"Jerry and I had agreed to share a special mont together before the wedding. He was ant to choose a romantic place and send the address." Alia 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 and I was going to give it all to him that night. During the bachelorette party, I received a text from him, giving the address of our eting place. So I pleaded with Gwen and..."
"... to cover up for you." Stacy completed Alia's statent.
"Yes." A thin smile frad Alia's lips. "After leaving the hotel building, I went straight towards the car park, my heart bubbling with imnse happiness. I got into the car, shut the door and was about to start the engine when I felt a cold tal touching the back of my head."
"Ah!" Stacy gasped.
"I froze until a deep scary male voice said to , 'If you make a sound, the last thing you would see is your brain redesigning the windshield.' Then the voice asked to drive. Sucking in my gut, I followed his instruction and drove. We had barely gone far when the voice, instructed to pull over by the roadside. Imdiately the car ca to a halt, I felt sothing 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."
Alia laughed bitterly as everything slowly began to make sense. "Gwen borrowed my car that evening to pick up so of our friends. She must have let the kidnapper into the car before handing over the car key to . To think I trusted the despicable b*tch with my life."
Alia clenched her fist in rage.
"I always knew that witch was up to sothing 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?" Alia looked up at Stacy, confused.
"You know..." Stacy gestured to the empty seat beside Alia's bed. "...the one keeping you company before I arrived."
"You an, Blaze Anderson?" Alia 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," Alia replied reluctantly.
"The sa, handso, powerful, rich and most desired bachelor in all of Salvine city if not the entire world?"
Alia rolled her teary eyes again, irritated by Stacy's exaggeration. "He's not that handso. Rather his is extrely annoying if you ask ."
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