5 Aftertaste 2

Young Master Gio Albarez woke up with full memories of how his stepmother somehow drugged him and almost forced him to bed her in an attempt to frame him of all crimes related to a beast son preying on an 'innocent' stepmother.

"What a disgusting woman. Not content of climbing my old man's bed, she even wants to condemn me to prison after enjoying me before enjoying all the family's wealth and power for herself."

He laughed in amusement. The woman almost succeeded, except that stepmother of his forgot to include in her plan how he was a former military man. She had no one else to blame for dying on his bullets.

Gio stood up without bothering to cover himself up. Anyways, he found his clothes had disappeared. There were pieces of torn clothes on the bed serving as decorations. The flowery patterns burned in his mind together with the red on the bed sheets.

"Who is that girl?"

Gio frowned while making his way to the bathroom. He could not remember much. However, he knew the girl who suddenly appeared on his doorstep last night had a very beautiful pair of eyes. His lips curled up as he remembered the anonymous girl's stamina and body. He had to admit. It was one of his best experiences on bed so far.

After donning a bathrobe once he finished bathing, he picked up his phone that he unknowingly left atop the television set.

After pressing a few buttons, the call connected.

"Bring me a set of clothes. So Go. Top. Third room."

He waited for less than twenty minutes and his assistant arrived. As he changed, his assistant started clearing up the room for traces of last night's murder.

"Young Master. The body has been delivered out. No one sees, rest assured."

"Good."

"Young Master. The torn clothes are also cleared up. How about the eyeglasses?"

Gio snatched away from the assistant a pair of thick eyeglasses framed with sky blue. In an amused tone, he spoke. "She's the owner. Find the girl. Check the CCTVs. She's a careless one so I'm sure you'll find her easily."

"Got it."

Gio paused for a while before he added. "Don't view the records from this room. Delete it all. No evidence must be found of my stay here. As for the girl, she should be the only one you'll see on other captures fleeing the night wearing a man's clothing."

The assistant didn't comment on that and merely assumed the boss didn't want people to know he had silenced a slut stepmother in this place.

Later in the afternoon, the assistant reported to the young master about a high school girl named Sofony Mendez.

"She's in a heavy debt due to his father?" Once again, an amused smile escaped from Gio's mouth.

"Yes. As for why she suddenly appeared on this floor, we found captures of her in a park one hour before. She's crying in the video feeds and from the way she stared at her phone, our experts considered the possibility of her receiving directions or blackmail from somebody. We don't know who. There's no way of tracking the content from the phone. The person probably has a higher hacking skills than our people since we can't also find anything even after we peeked at her phone's networking system."

Inside his office in one of the tallest and most sophisticated building of the city, the young magnate Gio Albarez comfortably leaned on his seat. For a reason he couldn't name, he can't erase the girl's face in his mind.

The assistant hesitatingly asked, "What should we do next, young master?"

Gio remembered the look in that girl's beautiful eyes when he was still continuously pounding her. He found his heart beating more furiously than a while ago. He could even feel his body suddenly becoming excited.

He said, "The girl is probably blackmailed. I don't care though. At least she helped me tide over the treacherous drug."

Gio then laughed and called out to his assistant. "George."

"Yes, young master."

"Give me more records about that girl's life." He said so because he knew his people only investigated how she appeared in the hotel. He added, "Take care of her debts. One million credits is a very cheap price for a nice and helpful girl like her."

The assistant, George, nodded. "Got it. And that woman?"

"Oh? Just find someone we can manipulate to act as her stand in. Plastic surgery is easy nowadays. There's already many fake faces in the world that adding one to the number barely makes a difference. Meanwhile, tell the people looking for her that she's in a short vacation and will be back after a few days."

George's expression did not change as he replied, "I will make sure to do that."

....

Three days passed in peace. No rogues asking for money owed by her father ever visited her humble house. Sofony was, of course, confused. However, the feeling of relief filled her more.

It was already Wednesday. It's the second week of August.

The rays of light coming from the transparent windows of the room made way to her seat. When her naked eyes wandered outside to the clear blue skies decorated with some clusters of clouds, Sofony smiled. She had learned early that it's a must to treasure this kind of rare moment of peace and calm.

Next to her, her classmate Wendy poked onher shoulder and asked with a teasing smile, "Thinking of your crush?"

"No. I have no one to crush on. Haha," she giggled.

"You look better these days, that's why I asked. You're not even wearing your glasses and your eye-bags disappeared."

Sofony was previously plagued by worries because of her fear of the debt, but now that the sharks were temporarily not around, she managed to gain some sleep for the past three days. The blacks under eyes naturally lightened as a consequence.

"I lost my eyeglasses. Actually, I'm broke these days so I plan to take a few part time jobs. I'm not sure when will I have enough money saved for another pair of eyeglasses," she half-heartedly replied.

Actually, she no longer planned to wear eyeglasses because her eyes were no longer as faulty as before. She could now see clearly from afar and it's not by wearing contact lenses.

'Friend, do you know? I painfully paid a hundred points to cure my eyes.'

When Wendy saw Sofony shaking her head lost in thoughts, she assumed her friend was having another difficulty in her life. Wendy admired her friend for being tough, unfortunately, she hated how Sofony never shared problems with her.

Sofony indeed did not mention to anyone how precarious her situation was. She's never had the habit of broadcasting her problems to people. If the problem was so tough and heavy, she'd only cry to herself and never to others. In her mind, she always says that others also have their own problems and that it's unfair to add her own to theirs.

Now, given Sofony's character, even if she committed suicide in the future, she'd surely make sure to not let other people know why to not get them involved.

Wendy remarked. "No matter what, I'm happy to see you at least picking up yourself now. Last week, you always came to school looking like a walking dead."

When she heard that, Sofony dryly laughed, guild evident from her tone, "Sorry for worrying you."

In front, the teacher had his back to his students as he wrote using his chalk. This was the reason why students like Sofony who were at the back could continue their chat.

Wendy laughed, "No biggies. I'm your friend so it's natural. By the way, did your eyes brighten up after graduating from your eyeglasses? You really look better this way. Don't wear eyeglasses anymore in the future."

Sofony laughed. Her eyes revealed some stiffness though. She, without knowing why, suddenly remembered that a man named Gio also uttered something like that to her a few days ago. She secretly shook her head.

'I should just forget it.'