THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS

"What are you talking about? And why are you the one with the phone?" Kathleen’s decided to use the "attack first" formula.

"You know damn well what I’m talking about." snapped Shawn, ignoring the second part of Kathleen’s question. "Don’t you think you owe me an explanation?"

"I don’t think so," Kathleen answered.

"Well I do," Shawn shot back. "Meet me at The Masters Place in the next ten minutes."

"Why should I obey your orders? I’m not one of your lackeys." Kathleen retorted stubbornly.

A slight chuckle was heard from the other end of the phone. "It may interest you to know that I am presently at Wyatt Corps and they are about to offer me a room in your office after seeing our affectionate picture on social media. Maybe I should just wait for you there."

"What! Don’t you dare act recklessly," she threatened.

"Do you want to bet on that?" Shawn’s voice came out in a lazy drawl.

’How come I didn’t know he was this shameless," Kathleen muttered to herself.

"Did you say something?" Shawn asked, which earned him a hiss from Kathleen.

Seeing there was no way she could talk herself out of this one, Kathleen uttered a weak. "Ok, you win."

"Where are we meeting? Wyatt Corporations or The Masters Place?"

Kathleen could literally picture the triumphant smile on Shawn’s face when he knew he had succeeded in forcing her to meet him.

"The Masters Place, you Scumbug," she cursed then pressed the end call button as if it was the originator of her problem.

"So irritating," Kathleen grimaced but still picked up her handbag.

"Who was that on the line?" Cheryl asked. It was obvious the person she just spoke with was not Ariel.

"Who else but the devil’s incarnate," snapped Kathleen.

Cheryl’s brow furrowed in a frown. "The devil’s incarnate? Who might that be?"

"I don’t know what trick he pulled on Ariel but Shawn found out I am Janice Wyatt."

"But is there a problem with that?"

"Not just a problem but a big flop." Kathleen uttered with an exaggerated sigh.

"What do you mean?" Cheryl asked innocently. Her identity as the daughter of the chairman of Wyatt Corporation was not something to be ashamed of. Why is she making it such a big deal that President Hudson found out?

"Well, I.. I.. I never told you this but..." Kathleen stammered as she found her own actions ridiculous. "I was using my brother to ward off Shawn’s advances and now that my cover has been blown..." she trailed off.

"Wait! You mean..." shrieked Cheryl, her voice caught in her throat and her words halted in mid sentence as she gaped in disbelief.

She stood up all of a sudden, grinning like a Cheshire Cat as she made her way to stand right in front of Kathleen.

She doubled over with laughter at Kathleen’s puzzled expression, holding her sides as if the hilarity might cause her to burst.

"This is getting way more interesting," she managed to say in between peels of laughter.

After a good round of hearty laughter, she wiped her eyes, her cheeks flushed with the exertion, a satisfied sigh escaping her lips.

"So all these while Shawn thought, or rather you made Shawn believe you were dating Jason?"

"He only saw us together once and arrived at that conclusion himself," Kathleen defended. "I couldn’t help but play along. That way, it will make him give up on me, or so I hoped but it turned out the reverse is the case now."

"Is Jason in on this?" Chery pried further.

"He is, and have been doing a good job untill he traveled out."

"Did it include kissing?" The corners of Cheryl’s mouth crinkled as she darted a suspicious look at Kathleen who instantly threw her a bitter look that almost choked her.

"Are you being serious? That’s my brother and your fiancé for crying out loud."

"But you didn’t think of that when you kept such an intriguing drama from me all these while," sneered Cheryl. "How can you two conniving siblings be so heartless?"

"What would you have done if we told you?" Kathleen blurted. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"At least I would have appeared one of the days to play the aggrieved wife of a cheating husband while catching you two red handed," Cheryl remarked with feigned anger.

"I wonder what else you have packed in that brain of yours beside your awful and unhealthy plots," fumed Kathleen.

"At least it can still send a few miscreants to jail apart from putting up with a conniving friend like you," Cheryl argued shamelessly.

"Whatever. I have no time for your nonsense. His majesty had asked me to meet him in ten minutes."

"Is that how you are going to abandon me here after taking advantage of my fiancé?"

"Who also happens to be my loving brother," reminded Kathleen.

"Yeah, your loving brother who will always indulge his only sister." Cheryl acknowledged in an aggrieved tone, her lips coming together in a pout.

"Hey, are you jealous?" Kathleen teased as she sat back down.

"Why would I? Jason loves me as a woman but he only loves you as a sister. What is there to be jealous about."

"But jokes apart," Cheryl said as her expression turned serious also settling down on the second chair beside Kathleen.

"How do you intend to deal with Shawn? Today he has discovered your true identity, what wil happen when he finds out about the children?"

"When we get to that bridge, we will cross it." Kathleen replied flippantly. She didn’t like diving into that topic and always avoided it like plague, but today, Cheryl seemed to have a special nark of bringing it up.

"If you ask me as a friend," Cheryl continued, not taking Kathleen’s dismissal serious. "I think Shawn is not a bad person. He just made a simple mistake that any man would have made at the spur of the moment given the circumstances under which he saw what he saw that year."