Early the next morning, Angelina's cell phone started ringing non-stop. She hadn't been able to sleep straight through, having spent the night tossing and turning, remembering everything that had happened at the party, and had trouble waking up to answer her cell phone.
"Hello..." Angelina answered in a voice hoarse from sleep, without even looking at who was calling.
"Angelina!" Tiffany exclaimed euphorically. "I've been calling you for hours. Where the hell were you at that party when I couldn't find you?"
Still drowsy, Angelina got into bed, struggling to think and answer her friend.
"I left early."
"I had to say hello to your insufferable sister to see if she knew where you were." Tiffany complained. Stella always treated her badly for being friends with Angelina.
"I can't believe it..." Angelina said, running her hands through her hair, which was a mess. "I'm sure Stella will want to know where I was and I'll use you as an excuse. Now I can't."
"I don't know why you worry about what she'll think. She always thinks the worst of you." Stella shrugged. "Yesterday, when I asked about you," she said that you must have been "making out" with some boy. "Stella snorted angrily." She can't keep talking about you like that, Angelina. That's how gossip becomes true.
"Well, this time she wasn't lying." Without meaning to, Angelina thought aloud.
"What do you mean, Angel?" Tiffany asked curiously. "You and Bernardo..."
"No! Of course not. He didn't want to." Angelina said, twisting her lip.
"What do you mean? He didn't want to? Tell me everything. I've got time." Tiffany asked anxiously.
"Nothing happened the way I wanted. I confessed to Bernardo, I even offered myself to him and he turned me down. He's engaged to Giovanna Rotolo." Angelina said in a tearful voice. Her head ached just thinking about how everything had gone wrong the night before.
"Friend... we know that our marriages are defined by our family. It's a shame your father can't arrange your marriage to Bernardo..."
"There's more." Angelina interrupted Tiffany. "My humiliation had an audience."
"Was that in the middle of the party? How could I have missed that?" Tiffany said dumbfounded.
"No. I took Bernardo to one of the guest suites that I thought was empty, but the suite belonged to a guest of Don Vito's who was on the terrace... well, he heard everything and when Bernardo left me alone inside, the stranger came in to mock me."
"But you were too careless, Angelina. There must have been a suitcase or something inside."
"I was so nervous that I didn't notice. I just wanted to tell Bernardo everything I felt." Angelina took a deep, sad breath.
"Who was this man? Do you think he could comment on that?"
"I have no idea who he was or what his name was." Angelina answered sincerely, remembering the stranger's beauty. "He kissed me."
"The stranger kissed you?! And you let him?!" Tiffany was shocked by everything that had happened.
"Well... at first, I tried to stay away, but he had a lot of experience and I was very sad about everything that had happened between me and Bernardo..." Angelina tried to justify the attraction she had felt for the stranger. "He was really handsome and had a strong accent. He's not from here, although he speaks English perfectly well."
"Let's take a look at the social networks that covered the event." Tiffany suggested, wondering who the man was. "There should be photos of the guests and with luck, you can identify him."
"Good idea!" Angelina replied excitedly, getting out of bed to grab her laptop.
After half an hour of searching, logging on to various gossip sites that commented on Don Vito's event and posted photos of some of the guests, Angelina gave up. She didn't have a photo of him or a photo background in which the stranger could accidentally appear.
"But did he know who you were?" Tiffany said, trying not to lose hope.
"He knew my name, but I don't know if he can know anything more than that..."
"Why don't we ask for the guest list of Don Vito's party?" Tiffany suggested. "Then we can cut out the names of the people we know and the unknown ones, we can research on the internet. Surely, we will identify him."
"And how am I going to get that list? What excuse am I going to give for such a ridiculous request, Tiffany?!" Sometimes, Angelina was sure that some screws were missing in her friend's head.
"Calm down, but don't get mad. I just want to help."
"I think it's better to forget all of this. I don't want to see that man ever again in my life."
Shortly after, Angelina ended the conversation with Tiffany and went to take a shower. She still hadn't had her breakfast and needed to clarify some things with her little sister who had been extremely unpleasant with her.
"Wow, I thought you had also disappeared from our house." Stella said as soon as Angelina showed up at the breakfast table, alluding to her disappearance at the party the night before.
"We need to talk about the things you said to me in the elevator, Stella." Angelina said in a serious tone. She wasn't going to tolerate any jokes from her sister.
"I don't even remember what I said." Stella replied, rolling her eyes pretending to be clueless. "What I do remember is that you disappeared at the party yesterday and didn't come back with us. Did you sleep here in the penthouse or with some man?" Stella inquired with a feigned voice.
"Don't change the subject!" Angelina exclaimed angrily. "and stop insinuating these things about me! Of course, I slept here and came back early from the party because I had a headache."
At that moment, Mary, who had heard the argument from the kitchen, entered the breakfast room to try to calm things down. Olivia had left early in the morning and could return at any moment since both Stella and Angelina had woken up late for breakfast.
"What's going on here?" Mary asked, seeing Angelina's furious expression. "Don't you ever get tired of provoking Stella?"
"What? Me provoking her?! Spare me, Mary. You always take Stella's side without even knowing the reason for the argument. Yesterday, in the elevator," she said horrible things to me.
"I didn't tell any lies." Stella mocked, discreetly looking at Mary, who already knew what it was about.
"Stop insisting on nonsense, Stella." Mary scolded her not because she was defending Angelina, but out of fear of the trouble it could cause. Luckily, the boss was traveling and Olivia wasn't home.
"Mary!" Stella spoke impatiently. "You also know it's all true, and I think it's important for Angelina to know about her origins."
"You said my biological mother was a prostitute and that I was a bastard!" Angelina shouted, losing control. She was already quite upset with everything that had happened the night before and ended up exploding. "You are a liar, envious, and disgusting, Stella! You never accepted that I'm much prettier than you and that all the boys desire me!"
"It's all true, Angelina!" Mary shouted, seeing Stella's eyes filled with tears from Angelina's insults. She knew how much the older sister felt diminished compared to the younger sister and couldn't allow her to continue throwing those truths in Stella's face like that.
"What?" Angelina spoke in a thin voice. "Mary, I always knew that Stella was your favorite, but you can't support her lie. This is very serious."
"It's not a lie. Except for the part about your mother being a prostitute, which no one can confirm, but the rest is true." Mary confirmed everything Stella had said, and the young woman laughed satisfactorily. The crocodile tears dried up instantly. "You are the biological daughter of Mr. Joseph."
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