Nolan looked at James with a calm but pointed expression. “So, I’ll suggest this,” he said slowly, making sure James understood every word. “Cherry can pay you your money in installments. She can also sign an undertaking that she would be paying you weekly and for no reason should she miss any of the days she promises to pay.”James scoffed loudly, crossing his arms. “I don’t think I like that idea,” he said sharply, glaring at Nolan. “Why should I agree to that? When she spent the money, she spent it all at once. So why should I collect it in bits? It makes no sense at all.”Nolan raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk playing on his lips. “But she doesn’t have any money to pay you right now,” he replied calmly. “So you clearly have nothing else to do except accept this offer.”James’s jaw tightened, and he opened his mouth to argue, but Nolan’s confident tone and the truth in his words left him with nothing to say. He knew Nolan was right. There was no other way he could get the money fro

“Did… did I say something wrong?” Debby asked worriedly, moving closer. “Is it a very touchy subject? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”“No, no,” Cherry interrupted, sniffing. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” She wiped her tears angrily. “I just hate how everything is right now. My life, my dad’s company… everything.”Debby frowned. “What happened?” she asked carefully. “Is your dad okay?”Cherry took a deep breath and explained everything to Debby, from how things were suddenly looking good, to how everything turned terrible again within hours. She talked about the investors, the meeting, and how they all pulled out again without explanation.Debby’s eyes widened in shock. “How can that happen?” she asked. “That’s very suspicious and weird.”“I’m just as confused as you are,” Cherry replied weakly. “Everything had been fixed. It looked good. So how did it all get bad all of a sudden? The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.”She hugged herself tightly, her chest aching. Nothing ab

“I have to go…” Cherry said, sniffing as she turned around to leave.Debby quickly ran to her front and stopped her. “Where are you going looking like this? If you’re going to leave, how about you clean yourself up first?”Cherry shook her head slowly. “I don’t think I want to. I don’t even deserve to,” Cherry said as fresh tears formed in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “I have to go and see my dad. I need to know what’s going on and at least explain what has happened to him, if there is going to be a fix or not. At least, if what you said is true, then Nolan should be able to help my dad and not me, right? Since it would be my dad asking for help.”Debby sighed. “Okay… that’s not a bad idea, but do you think it’s a good time to meet with your dad? You just said things aren’t looking that great,” Debby said carefully.“If I don’t go now, things will just keep getting worse. It’s better I inform my dad about it myself,” Cherry replied firmly as she flagged down a taxi.“I’m comin

Mira and Rosy were dragged a few steps back by the staff, but they didn’t look scared at all. Instead, they were smiling, the kind of smile that made Cherry’s stomach twist.Mira scoffed and pointed at Cherry, who was still on the floor. “You’re lucky people came to save you. If not, you wouldn’t be sitting here crying right now. You would have been in serious trouble.”Rosy laughed harshly. “Serious trouble is even an understatement. You wouldn’t even be able to use your two legs to walk again.”Cherry’s heart skipped a beat as she looked up at them, her lips trembling.Mira bent slightly and looked straight at her. “And don’t think this ends here. You better watch your back when you’re walking at night. You don’t know what’s lurking in the shadows. Anything can happen to anyone.”Rosy hissed loudly, leaning closer. “Anything.”The two girls exchanged looks, smirked, then hissed again before turning around and walking away like nothing had happened.Cherry stayed where she was, sitti

It was another school day and when Nolan walked into the class, he realised that everyone was on their phones, watching something, including Cole. The whole class felt unusually quiet, not the normal noisy chatter and laughter. Almost everyone had their heads bent down, with their eyes glued to their screens, focused.Nolan frowned slightly. This was strange.On a normal day, Cole would have rushed to him immediately, eager to tell him the latest gist, all the things that happened while he was away, especially over the weekend. Cole was always the first to talk, the first to gossip, the first to complain. But today, Cole didn’t even lift his head. More like, he didn’t even know that Nolan had walked into the class at all and that alone made Nolan curious.He dropped his bag on his chair and walked closer to Cole. “What are you watching?” He asked but Cole didn’t even respond. His eyes were still fixed on his phone, his mouth slightly open, completely lost in whatever he was watching.