The article read "A Real-life Cinderella Story."

The glaring words in the magazine added by Crisanta Luz's smiling face made Sena spit her morning coffee. Dumpling, who was hovering under the table, jumped and rushed across the dining room towards the living room to escape the line of fire.

"Sena?" April asked.

She placed the magazine down and pointed at the front page spread of her stepmother's heavily makeup face. She was dressed in a pastel blue flounce gown, lying sideways on a recliner by the pool and smiling at the camera. Bedecked in all designer items from head to foot with her pinkish and smooth complexion, no one would ever suspect what she did for a living before.

"This is horrible." April muttered while skimming through the interview. 

Sena stifled a laugh. "I know her face is awful. She had done so many procedures that she looked like a mummy."

"No, look at the article. It says here Crisanta Luz was your father's first love!" 

She stopped grinning and briefly looked at the magazine. "Yeah." 

She expected this thing to arrive sooner or later. The whole Luz family twisted up a story to cover up their embarrassment. Now that the company is facing a huge deficit in funds, they could not afford a single scandal that will further affect the already falling stocks.

"Are you okay with this?" April asked worriedly. 

She smiled mysteriously.

"I've been through this a few times, maybe it's time to put a stop to this clown show."

Half a day later a much more explosive news came. 

"They really went and did it this time." April exhaled a harsh breath as she pressed the remote control to pause the recorded video showing Crisanta Luz' crying and pitiful expression while being interviewed in a talk show. 

The interview was all about her hard childhood, squeezing in a few more dramas to gain sympathy. After which she proceeded to talk about her love story with Alber Luz and their tragic separation due to inevitable circumstances.

Circumstances? Sena snorted disdainfully. She really takes herself as some helpless Cinderella. 

From the interview, snippets of it became a hot topic that many influencers and bloggers feasted on, occupying social media spaces back home.

The so-called love story of Albert and Crisanta Luz wouldn't have sparked a buzz if Maya did not become popular lately because of the charity ball incident. After laying low for almost a month here she is again making her way to the platforms, utilizing her fanbase to whitewash her image and draw blood from her enemies.  

As everyone knows, audiences are fickle and have short attention spans when it comes to issues online. Out with the old scandal and in with the new as time goes.

This strategy of dumping all the swill on her mother worked a lot in her previous life. They vilified and destroyed Paula Erde's image so much that anyone who had seen her picture in the internet would always spit on the comment section and curse as if they have known her all her life. The publing lynching went on for a long time and was fueled even more by  the internet trolls hired by unknown individuals.

Sena suspected Patricia Larsson had a share in that as well. 

Speaking of her, after the embarrassing meeting regarding the Will she had not tried showing up again. It wasn't until she accidentally met Patricia with her niece Winona shopping in the mall that they saw each other again.

In a coffee shop, the aunt and niece were talking about the clean up within the Corwell family and Winona Larsson was throwing a fit over being fired from her job. Apparently she is also facing a lawsuit for corporate espionage but because she had only stolen so little information she could only be jailed for three to five years at most. 

Sena snorted indifferently. Three to five years can do a lot of things to a person inside, especially a woman. But it's not even a quarter of the horrors Jordan and Eunice went through. 

"I can't believe Jordan would do this to me!" Winona hissed and cried at the same time. She wore a thick layer of makeup but it still could not cover up her haggard appearance. "I've worked hard for him all my life and he could just throw me away for that bitch Eunice. What's so good about her aside from coming from a well-educated family?!"

"The Corwells are ungrateful, the same can be said to the Erde family." Patricia spat, downing on her tea with a bitter look. 

"Aunt?"

"Paula's daughter came back and the little bitch tried to set me up. I lost everything overnight because of them."

April turned to Sena in silent inquiry. She smiled meaningfully and gestured to continue listening.

"They also have a copy of the Will Paula left and has finished the inheritance formality over a year ago and did not tell me until I went there."

"I thought Paula Erde entrusted you to be her daughter's guardian and CEO of Nexus Global. How did it happen that…"

"I lost. I lost everything." She said angrily. "I could have been CEO if those three old men did not interfere. They were prepared!"

"Then it must have been them who convinced Sena Erde to take over early. I don't think she had the ability to take over the position." Winona frowned. "You told me before that she has a very soft personality. How can someone like her, an airhead rich girl, lead such an industry like Nexus Global to a new height? Aunt, if you had become CEO your position would have been higher than that of the president Pascal Rossi and two other chairmen."

"Yes but everything is gone now."

Winona does not seem to give up. "It's not. As long as you have not completely broken off ties with Sena Erde! Aunt, if you can gain her trust again you can still become CEO and you can help me take revenge on Jordan Corwell. But first, you have to make sure to separate Sena Erde from those three old men."

Sena stifled a laugh hearing them picture out their delusions. 

The aunt and niece noticed something odd and turned to the table just beside their booth. April was nibbling on her sandwich while Sena was sipping her tea when she met Patricia Larsson's horrified eyes.

"S-Sena!"

Sena smiled coldly, put down her tea cup and faced her, "Yes?"

"Sena, I can explain. I-It's not what you think it is."

"My hearing is good, no need to repeat it for me and I understood well enough either." She said simply much to Patricia's horror. "One wrong thing though, it was not my grandfather who convinced me to take the position. I took it myself because it was mine originally."

Patricia gripped her hands, looking at her with a mixture of shame and resentment. Her niece Winona was rooted to her seat looking at Sena in silence. 

"You had a good plan," Sena said, getting ready to leave. "Unfortunately, you put your ideas on the wrong target. Patricia, you were after all my mother's friend. It's a pity you were never sincere to her, your greed and pettiness is written all over your face. From here on, let us cut further contact. April?" 

April stood and swept the two ladies on the other booth with a disdainful gaze before following her boss. Not even five minutes after leaving the café they heard the frantic blares of police sirens and several uniformed officers came to take Winona Larsson away in front of so many onlookers.

Patricia Larsson stood on the side shocked and indignant but could do nothing about her niece's arrest. It's over, the plan they had for years fell just like that and they did not even know who went against them. Her shoulders slumped and she looked like she aged ten years older. 

"Uncle Jess, please help me check something." Sena said when she called Jess to the study later that day. "Patricia Larsson appears to have given up her interest in Nexus but I know her, she's too greedy and ambitious to give up so easily. She's not going to lay low without giving it a last fight. I figured she would try to investigate where I currently stayed at and all my activities within the past years. Give her a clue, she's a little smart and she will be able to piece it together soon." 

"Are you sure about disclosing your whereabouts in Country H, Miss? What if she stirs up trouble?"

She smiled faintly, "Since she wanted to dip her dirty hands into my life, I'll let her experience what it's like to get burned."

"By the way, Miss. We caught the worker bribed by your father to sabotage the construction site in the East District. We recorded his confessions and filed them for the time being before submitting to the authorities. As for the last issue of the leaked bar photos of you and the gossip online about your sugar daddy, we found it was the starlet Aera Shin who used her dummy account to post and made a threat. We have also collected evidence regarding that. Her multiple accounts came from the same IP addresses and it also included her transaction to tabloid writers which she pays to attack her rivals and spread malicious slander about them."

"Is this enough to file a lawsuit?" Sena asked. 

"Of course, because aside from that there are several payment transfers and emails to several infamous internet trolls that can be used as evidence."

"I've let her go once but she keeps coming at me for some reason. I would be a wimp and be very sorry for myself if I didn't take action." 

Jess scoffed. "With the likes of her who had stepped on others to gain fame, it's no surprise she would turn to you next after embarrassing herself in the Fleur ad campaign. Miss, I heard she auditioned for one of the movies you have recently invested in." 

"Oh, which one? Did she get a role?" 

"The apocalyptic movie with Director Lee. It seems she has some friendship with the main actor."

Sena shrugged indifferently, "As long as she behaves she may even take this as her breakthrough in acting. But if she creates trouble on the set, I'm afraid we'd have to take her out and find someone more suitable."

Jess nodded his head then went to report the next. 

"In these past few days the Luz's stock has stabilized because they managed to find an investor to patch up the shortfall on the construction disaster. Mr. Luz also went out of his way to drag Maya Luz to face the bereaved families of the workers to apologize and promised compensation."

Sena raised an eyebrow, "Good publicity earns good reputation. Surprisingly they found someone foolish enough to invest in their project in such a short time. Who is it?"

It's not Dresden Troy for sure but could it be Timotheé Rosamaria? 

"Lyndon Miles." Jess said. 

That's a name she did not expect. Sena's eyes turned dark. She found many enemies in her previous life including the former mayor and his despot son Linsy but Lyndon barely came up. In fact, she hardly even saw him aside from those few coincidental encounters so she never really put any thoughts about him.

Why was he suddenly getting involved with the Luz?

"Uncle, I need more information about this please."

"Alright, Miss." 

Finishing their discussion, the door opened and April came in to inform her that Nicholas came and lunch will soon be served.