18 Victoria Declared Another Battle Against Her

"You are doing it well. I love this," Gabrielle whispered into her left ears smiling.

"Do you think that I am a kid that you can tell such cheap lies? How dare you mock me in such a downgrading manner?" Victoria shouted madly taking out her anger on her assistant standing beside her.

"Do you think that you are something now that you have friends in high places? Even when you were an actress and model, you were still under me and mum's clutches so do you think it is now that you are the President of some lousy company that you can get away from us?" Victoria asked panting heavily. "Don't delude yourself because you can never win against me. I will teach you a lesson you will never forget so that next time you will never speak to me in such a disrespectful manner," Victoria said furiously.

"Is that supposed to be a threat or what?" Stephanie asked coldly. Her respect filled voice turned to a mean one.

"What do you think? If you don't want to be covered in dirt on your most important day send me the damn invitation," Victoria ordered like she was a benevolent person.

"Bring it on Vicky. I am not afraid of you, " Stephanie said sternly. "I know you will rat me out to mum like you usually do so while you are at it relay this to mum. Tell her, I am done playing nice. I am so f*cking done playing the perfect daughter. I don't want to fight you but I won't back down if you try anything stupid with me and may the better man win in this battle you have declared against me," Stephanie said cutting off the call on her.

"Well done girl. I am so proud of you. You should have done this long ago," Gabrielle said applauding her.

"I didn't plan for it to get heated as it went but she provoked me. All she said reminded me of all the text messages mum bombarded me with," Stephanie said trying to calm herself down. When she was a child she thought her mum hated her because of her ruined face but she was so damn wrong because her attitude did not change even after she became extraordinarily beautiful. After she became beautiful, her mum often called her bad luck because everything she wanted for Victoria was exactly what she became and she despised her for that.

"You know what if your sister is not careful I will so much slap her silly with cash when she is holding one of her programmes. By so doing she will gain the popularity she is so desperate to get; for so many years she will be remembered all over the universe as the only TV presenter to get slapped with cash in her live show," Gabrielle said seriously.

"You don't have to do that for my sake. I am the one she is after not you. She will take out her frustrations on you too if you challenged her so let me handle her and my mum. I also have Cliff's support so you don't have to worry about me," Stephanie explained.

"I can't promise you anything. All I know is that I will not let her off the hook if she dares mess around with you on the launch day," Gabrielle said with a tone of finality. They kept on talking for the best part of their journey. Both friends dropped by at a restaurant to grab a bite. They ate and talked and afterwards resumed their journey. Despite their family's big Mansion and comfortable bed, she prefers sleeping over at Stephanie's apartment.

As the day of the launching drew near, Stephanie schedule became tighter. She was so grateful for her employees who were so cooperative. They did as she instructed with little or no mistakes. Out of all her employees, Lily was the one who suffered most because she was directly working beside Stephanie.

Since Gabrielle was not gonna be around, she organised a dinner outing for the four of them but Vincent could not make it.

"Cheers to your successful launching event tomorrow," Gabrielle proposed the toast and they click their glasses at the same time.

"Steph baby, I know you can do it. With your level of experience and intelligence I am sure you can do this without any of our support," Gabriel said. Gabriel Adams, a twenty-five years old man who is always fashion conscious. He is Gabrielle's twin. His hair colour is always dyed brown. He is a lovable guy but he can be so naughty and mean.

"Without any of our support? Does that imply that you won't be coming too?" Stephanie asked suspiciously. She gave Gabriel a questioning gaze.

"I didn't say so," Gabriel quickly denied. As much as his sister loves Stephanie, he liked her the same way. In fact, he had a crush on her for a long time. His love for her diminish when he learned that she has been in love with someone else all her life.

"Then what did you mean?" Stephanie asked dropping her wine glass on the round table.