"What about him?" Skyler raised her brows, not the least bit aware that she had just let slip of the fact that she knew Ethan DeLoach.
Her eyes narrowed, Shikera stepped closer and lowered her voice to a whisper.
"When did you get to know who he is?" she asked. "I can rember asking you to et Miss Stone but I also know she would only relay your ssage to Ethan and not give you any more information about my relationship with him so...care to explain?"
Skyler jerked her up in shock, blinking nervously. She tucked her hair behind her ears, feigning ignorance at Shikera’s question, until the perfect answer ca to her mind.
"I told you what happened to my family, right? The problem with Reese and uhm, everything else. We found out everything was related to an enemy of the higher ups, The Jordans to be exact. I ca in contact with Ethan DeLoach and his assistant while they were settling things, then I got to know of everything else after my dad got released. Lucky, don’t you think?" she explained cautiously. Though everything she said was true, it was still a lie as that was not the answer to Shikera’s question. She could only hope the latter would drop the matter as soon as possible.
As if she could hear Skyler’s thought, Shikera affird her words and pulled her away from the corridor, leading the way back to the conference room where she left Maxwell.
"Hey! Sorry I took a while," she smiled apologetically at him, when they arrived at the room. Sweeping her gaze around, she noticed none of the others had left too. It looked like they were waiting for her.
"It’s alright," Maxwell’s voice broke into her thoughts. "Why don’t you and Sky take your seats?"
Shikera hesitated, tilting her head as if trying to find the appropriate word to refuse his offer.
"I know this isn’t polite but can we do this so other day, Max? If it makes you feel better, I think we can have the next show by next week. How does that sound?" she asked.
"On Tuesday?" Maxwell questioned, raising his brows skeptically. "That sounds good but we can’t just get a random guest after all the hype we created these past weeks. You are good at finding special guests though, so I guess we will just go ahead with the preparations."
Shikera nodded, elated that Maxwell could still trust her after the shitty way she pulled out the last ti. She decided to encourage the group in the best way she could by informing them of who the guest would be.
"Yeah, we will be having an out of the world guest. Ethan DeLoach agreed to reveal the face behind the mask on Elovien’s Spotlight," she announced.
An eerily silent atmosphere accompanied her words, with every single person in the room staring at her like she had finally gone insane. Skyler was not left behind; her jaws were slacked in surprise.
The silence persisted for another five minutes with all of their gazes fixed on Shikera, until she decided to break it, "Can... soone say sothing, please?"
Maxwell cleared his throat, forcing a smile on his face.
"Look here, Kera. It isn’t like we do not trust you but then...You understand, right? You worked as a reporter for three years but could not even get a blurry image of Ethan DeLoach and now? You are telling us he will be on our show as a guest," he questioned, disbelief evident in his tone.
The others seed to find their voices at that sa ti as they all began murmuring their agreent with Maxwell’s words. Shikera chuckled, her eyes glinting in excitent.
"Then why don’t you all trust one more ti? Just do your part in preparing and I’ll do mine, how about that?"
"I think we should trust Shikera and let her do her thing. It’s not like we have a better idea of a guest anyways," Skyler supported, clapping her hands to spur the others on. "It seems like you need to be sowhere urgently though, Shikera. You should leave so we can start preparing."
"If everyone is okay with that, then I will be on my way."
★★★
Lucian Rays Group of Hospitals.
Shikera stood rooted to one spot in the midst of the people walking to and fro of the lobby, her eyes widened in shock at the sight of the person walking towards her. It was too late for her to turn away or find sowhere to hide, as she too had been spotted by the person.
She could only call up a smile and greet, "Hey Ruth, It’s been a while!"
"Of course, it’s been more than just a while. Everyone missed you," Ruth retorted, a bright smile on her face. She looked around the lobby as if searching for soone in particular, before turning back to Shikera. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Here? Uhm...Well, I am guessing Krystal missed just like everyone else so I decided to co see her," Shikera lied. Telling Ruthlyn she was here for a check-up was the sa as telling Ethan; she didn’t need a soothsayer to know that.
Ruthlyn nodded, "That’s great. I think I should let you go now. I and Enoch have been more than busy handling the two corporations so there’s not much ti on our hands to spare." Before she could get a response, she waved and hurried away from her, leaving behind a confused Shikera.
Believing she was supposed to be the one hiding sothing from Ruthlyn, she could not understand why the latter was the one who seed to be avoiding her. Shrugging, Shikera headed towards the elevator which would take her to the floor on which Krystal’s office was located.
Behind her, Ruthlyn’s lips moved slightly as she chanted beneath her breath and took quick steps towards the large exit doors of the hospital.
"Don’t call back. Don’t... Don’t... Please, do not..." she chanted until she got to the car waiting for her in front. She pulled open the door and got in, slamming the door after herself before turning to the man behind the wheels.
"The doctors settled themselves in. Very soon, they will be eting with Doctor Krystal. I also booked an appointnt just in case," she reported.
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