Julie and Lily

In the evening after the first day of their school festival, Alex Maxwell, the Lambert sisters, Eliana Carter, and Kayla Mathias reach the Alex Entertainment HQ. The small crowd heads to the upper floor and enters the meeting area of Maxwell's office.

Three peoples were already in the room, waiting for the group: a calm muscular man, an easy-going young man in a tacky suit, and a young woman with an oversized bomber jacket.

"Did you have too much fun? Took you long enough," The carefree young man says to Maxwell with a smirk.

"I see all of you are already here. Let me introduce everyone first," Alex ignores his remark.

"Everybody knows our ace, Eliana Carter, so there is no need for further introduction. To my left are the Lambert sisters, Lily and Ivy. They will be joining us in our operation from now on." Alex introduces the girls.

Maxwell continues, "The giant man is Marcus James. He is our head of security and chief of field operation. He seems scary, but he is super nice."

"To his side is Gina Middletown, our web computer expert."

"And the rude jerks in the Christmas-themed suit is Mathiew Callaway," Alex concludes jokingly.

"Oy! Is that how you talk about your teacher?" Mathiew protests.

"Teacher?" Lily and the girls became curious.

Maxwell lets out a long sigh. "Unfortunately, I have known him since I was seven. He was my tutor until middle school. And now, he is helping me as an advisor. It seems I cannot get rid of him."

"How cold of you," Mathews retorts with amusement.

"Now, let us start the meeting. I heard we have a lot of great news." Alex suggests, attracting everyone's attention.

"Actually, you didn't tell us why we're here yet, nor what is this operation you speak about." Lily points out.

Alex smiles and begins to explain. "Previously, you made your investigation about Julie Morel supporters. Right?"

"That's correct! I found out that her uncle and someone else are backing her. But nothing about the other one." Lily becomes more curious.

"We conducted our own operation, and we discovered that Talon Hopkins, the one we saw at the golf club, is the other one behind her."

The girls stay focused and diligently listen. Maxwell tells everything, starting from the Carter incident, Talon's relationship with Julie Morel, to their current situation.

"We made our first strike on Talon Hopkins. And we are about to complete our operation to neutralize him." Alex concludes.

The girls, Lily Lambert, in particular, are astonished at the revelation. Lily also carried out her operation to lessen Julie Morel's power. However, she soon encountered several walls. Morel has many powerful allies, often carrying out her misdeed on her behalf.

And now, not only has Maxwell discovered the identity of Morel's mysterious ally, which she struggled to uncover, but he is about to bring him down.

Lily's expression remained collected, but admirations for Maxwell filled her heart. It has been a long time since she wanted to declaw Morel, and now the opportunity presents itself to her thanks to Maxwell.

____

**** Flashback ****

Four years ago, in middle school, Lily and Julie were friends. Lily was still in the journalism and broadcasting club, while Julie was a promising talent in gymnastics.

A few weeks before a major competition, the coach makes an announcement to his gymnasts. "Next week, I am going to make a selection of who will participate in the tournament. So give it your best and prove to me that you deserve the spot."

Julie Morel was excited about the news. She had confidence in her skills and was sure she would not lose even to her senior. And sure enough, a week later, she was on.

"I'm on the list, Lily! Look, look!" Julie points at the billboard and hops all around, brimming with joy.

"I see it. Juju, congratulations!" Lily, more collected, answers with a big smile.

Both were delighted with the good news, and quickly rushed to the gymnasium. However, when they were there, the coach changed his mind. He decided to choose a senior girl under the pretext that she lacked experience.

Julie was devastated about his decision. Anyone knew that she was more talented than any member. She always practiced harder than any of them. And yet another is selected.

"It's okay, Jul! There is still time until the tournament. Until then, give it your best to prove him wrong." Lily tried to console Morel.

"What do you know? You always get what you want since you were born!" Julie suddenly vents her frustration on Lambert.

"Jul, I was just,"

"Oh! Fuck off! Please spare me your speech, will you? I'm not in the mood." Julie lashes and runs off.

Lily was surprised at her friend's abrupt change. She was bewildered but did not try to run after her. Lily thought that Morel was just upset.

Little did she know it was at that time Julie Morel completely changed.

Since that day, Lily and Julie have had barely any contact.

Lambert felt guilty about their relationship. And a few days before the competition, she decided to check on Morel and rekindle their friendship. That is when she caught her and her coach in a compromising situation.

Lily saw her friend in her denuded leotard pinned down on the stacked mats. The man, old enough to be the same age as their father, was on top of her. His pant was down to his ankles.

Despite her innocence, Lily knew what was happening. She gasped in surprise before putting her hands in front of her mouth from disgust. And this time, she was the one running off.

**** End of flashback ****

____

Alex Maxwell continues to explain what happened to the girls. He tells them about the nature of the gang, how they targeted Carter, and how Morel is involved with Talon Hopkins.

When he finishes, Eliana asks cautiously. "How did you manage to corner him?" She was invested in the story as she was previously on the verge of becoming one of his victims.

Maxwell looks at James and answers Carter. "Marcus has organized an information-gathering team to track Hopkins's gang members, one by one. We cooperated with a special team of the central police department to launch a widespread arrest, and in three days, we arrested more than twenty men."

"I just did what young Master has instructed," Marcus stays humble.

"Nonetheless, you did a great job." Alex compliments James. "Tighten the security around our package and continue monitoring the rest of the gang's whereabouts."

"Understood!"

"Taking out the pawns is not enough to completely neutralize Talon's importance, isn't it?" Lily notes.

"Correct! That's why with Gina, we seized all of his underground assets. She works miracles when it is about computers."

"Piece of cake!" Gina reacts with a smug and raises her hand into a peace sign.

"The best part is that we bought his nightclub, which serves as his headquarters, with his own money that we took from him." Alex brags with a mocking chuckle.

"Even so, Alex, It's great we got everything anonymously, but it is a matter of time before Leroy notices everything." Mathiew remarks.

"Anonymously? How is that possible?" Eliana asks curiously.

Maxwell turns toward her to answer. "The nightclub is part of a group of commercial real estates on the same street. And the group is present in the market as shared ownership."

"So, we set up several shell companies to buy shares until we got majority ownership."

"Wow! I see now." Eliana nods in acknowledgment.

Maxwell smiles and looks at Callaway. "We have a small window until Richmond discovers our scheme."

"We linked each company to Hopkins, indirectly after all."

"That's right. And knowing Richmond, he'll hold a grudge and not help him for a while. In that opening, we must take Hopkins out quickly," Alex says with a serious face.

"And after that?" Mathiew appears worried. "I'm talking about when the truth is out. Are you going to go all out against Leroy?"

"I will find a way."

"Just stay careful, Alex. You know how Leroy is, firsthand." Mathiew warns Maxwell, reminiscing him of a mysterious past.

All the onlookers were curious about Maxwell and this Richmond relation, but nobody dared to ask.

"I understand!" Alex simply acknowledges the warning.

"Anyway, we talked a lot about what happened. Now we need to talk about how to clean things up completely," Alex resumes the conversation, shifting everyone's attention to the new objective.

____

Since Maxwell's acquisition of a large number of the real estate group share, Talon Hopkins lost control of the nightclub. He was still the manager, however without Leroy Richmond's backing, he lost his freedom to act as he pleased.

The new landlord tightened his influence and control on the location, forcing Talon to move his underhanded activity's headquarters elsewhere.

At a new private location, Talon Hopkins met with Julie Morel.

"When are you going to take care of that bitch, Talon?" Julie asks impatiently.

"I fucking know, Julie!" Talon responds with an irritated expression. "But now is not the time,"

"You promised me, Talon! I even asked money from my uncle for your fucking club fund,"

Hopkins can't hold his emotion anymore and explodes from anger. "The money is gone! Fucking gone! Happy? Some asshole breached our system and took everything."

"And that's not it yet. A son of a bitch is now the new owner of my fucking building. And Richmond thinks I was the one who fucked him over." Talon curses loudly, screaming at Morel.

"My men are busted left and right, my money's gone, Richmond doesn't trust me anymore, and you want me to take care of some bitch?" He scoffs sarcastically.

Before she could retort, they hear knocks at the door. After Talon gives permission, Jared Thompson enters the room accompanied by Ryan Doyle.

"Who's that, Jared?" Talon looks at Doyle with a frown.

"Doyle? What are you doing here?" Morel exclaims suddenly in surprise.

"You know him?"

"Yeah! We were in the same class in middle school."

"So, what is he doing here?" Talon inquires Thompson. "Jared? You did not tell him everything did you?" He was about to erupt on him.

"Hear him out first, Talon." Julie calms Hopkins down before Thompson resumes talking.

"Before everything has gone to the worse, I approached him for a possibility to acquire a new building. Unfortunately, things happen, but apparently, he could help us solve it."

Thompson and Doyle exchange regard and nod at each other, then Doyle starts to speak. "Mr. Hopkins, my father works in the real estate industry. And with my father's insight, I may know the one behind who bought the real estate group which put you in a pickle." He carefully says.

"At first, I spoke with Mr. Doyle about the possibility of acquiring a building. In exchange, we help him with a small favor." Jared clarifies.

"Who knew, Mr. Doyle could also solve our own predicament," Jared adds, trying to convince Hopkins.

Talon begins to be intrigued. "And how can he help?"

Ryan explains. "I asked my father to look into the new owner of the group. And we learned that several companies were involved."

"We know that much!" Talon groans but continues to listen.

"Yes! But all the acquisitions took place in less than three days. Most likely, they are under the same entity. Fortunately, with more digging, we managed to trace one of them to Hope construction." Doyle reveals,

"And Hope construction was previously contracted by Maxwell Group to construct a new HQ for their entertainment subsidiary under Alex Maxwell, the group's heir." Jared continues.

Talon's eyes open wide as he begins to understand what is happening.

"Isn't that Lily's boyfriend? Remember, Talon? We met with him at the golf club with Sir Jasir." Julie reminisces about their encounter.

Hopkins knows the name. In addition, he saw Jasir, one of the two people he feared most, being warry of this Alex Maxwell.

____ End of chapter 26 ____