in love with a villain | choni

-16-

2 days later

"Ronnie, you okay?" Archie asked the girl who's leaning her elbows on the metal fence of the balcony.

She sighed. "I'm not. I'm worried about Ace."

Archie furrowed his eyebrows. "Since when did you two get along? Or become close? That's fresh."

"Just then. It's a long story...just...I hear his voice screaming every time CM will torture him to speak about something. It's awful."

Archie shrugged. "Get used to it. Rats have no room in CM's governance."

Veronica gulped. "I know...just, he's her cousin."

"Business is business. Blood doesn't count, Ronnie." His phone rang, cutting the conversation off.

"Yeah? Where to?...okay, yeah...I'll be there in 20." He ended the call and then turned to Veronica after.

"I need to get going. Lim needs my help. Good luck with whatever for your day," he said before leaving the scope.

Meanwhile, Cheryl was furious enough about looking for Ace's replacement. She has seen everyone's application files, but she does not coincide with their profiles at all.

"Hey, I heard you yelling so loudly from the living room. Everything okay?" Toni asked, walking to where she was standing by the outdoor receiving area.

Cheryl looked at her, stunned by her new look of caramel-colored wavy hair. Still gorgeous. She looked away and scoffed, placing back her phone in her pocket.

"It's none of your business," Cheryl replied, looking ahead with her blazing eyes.

"I just want to offer help? Maybe?"

With cabled eyebrows, Cheryl looked at her. "You said what?"

"I wanna help you...be Ace's temporary substitute until you find someone more competent."

Cheryl tilted her head, considering. "If so, let's be clear that I didn't ask for it."

"Huh," Toni derided, "you need it, that's why I offered. Set your pride down for once."

"Well, I didn't ask for it. You insisted."

Toni rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. When am I going to start? Surely, there's a lot to clean up from that mess."

"Now. Come on, we're going to his office." With that reply, Cheryl led her to Ace's post, upstairs, just a few meters away from her office.

"I'll talk to the helpers to clean this up later," she said, and Toni nodded, looking around. "Can you open his computer? I know it's secured."

"Well, I can, but do you have CCTV here?"

"Of course. What do you need with it?"

"Just show me the monitor," Toni replied, giving a sass with her voice.

"What are you doing?" Cheryl asked, slightly pissed while Toni was looking through the past few days' footages where she said Ace was typing his password.

"Haha! Gotcha!" She quietly cheered, attentively watching Ace's fingers, running through the keyboard. After the third replay, she stood up, smiling.

"What now?" Cheryl asked, irritated.

"I got the codes, let's go."

Cheryl raised her eyebrows, surprised. "I- uh have somewhere to be. Update me when I get back."

Toni shrugged, heading to the stairs. "Okay, be safe," she said while Cheryl gazed at her, smiling through her eyes.

Toni did the job of cleaning up the excess computer files, and prioritizing the main folders, neatly organized. She wiped the shelf to arrange its portfolios when the door burst open, presenting a surprised Limuel.