Chapter 2 You Have Two Choices

"Zander Yates, you're an asshole!" Lena exclaimed, her voice crackling with rage.

As soon as the words escaped her lips, a cold wetness splashed across Zander's face.

Lena, clutching the ink bottle that had previously rested on the desk, had flung its contents at him, drenching him in ink.

Zander's ink-smeared face contorted, his temples throbbing visibly. However, before he could respond, Lena was already pointing the bottle right at his nose, nearly touching it.

She restrained herself from hitting him with it, thinking it might somehow bring good luck to her grandmother's plight. "Do you know why I chose your face instead of your writing? Even though your writing is hideous, it doesn't disgust me as much as your face does. One glance at you is enough to make me sick!"

With a loud thud, she set the ink bottle back on the desk, upending it and ruining the calligraphy.

She then deliberately wiped her stained fingers on a blank section of the paper, declaring, "Now, it looks much better."

"Y-You!" Zander, spluttering and visibly shaken, struggled to form words, his anger nearly sending him to an early grave.

Lena, uninterested in lingering, turned on her heel and strode away.

Zander called for assistance.

The final act of the study room drama concluded with Lena being intercepted before she could even make it to the stairs. Her phone was seized, and she found herself confined in a tiny, windowless attic at the top of the villa, which doubled as a storage space.

After futilely pounding on the door for a response, she discovered a cherished childhood doll of Regina Anderson, her half-sister, flung it to the floor, and sat defiantly on it.

Given her past experience, Lena anticipated a confinement of two or three days. Yet, the thought of her grandmother filled her with dread.

As she was isolated without her phone, Lena's anxiety grew in the pitch-dark attic.

Curled up in a corner, she wrapped her arms around her knees, the oppressive heat making it difficult to rest.

By the next morning, her stepmother, Evie Anderson, burst in, her face seething with fury. "Come out now," she commanded.

Lena rose to her feet.

"Where's Regina? Where did she go?" In the living room below, Evie slammed a piece of paper on the table, her voice sharp with accusation. "Lena, what were you thinking? Posing as Regina on a blind date? Do you really think you're suitable for that?"

The handwriting on the paper was as untidy as Zander's, all slanted and erratic. Lena scanned the lines quickly, her brow furrowing. "She did come to me last night to ask, but I said no."

Indeed, Regina had approached her the previous evening, proposing that Lena attend the blind date in her stead. Lena had declined. She hadn't anticipated Regina would run away!

"You said no?" Evie's sneer cut through the air. "And just who do you think you are to refuse? What? Do you think my choice is beneath you?"

Lena was momentarily at a loss for words.

She wondered what had got into Evie.

"Is there anything else? If not, I'll be heading out," Lena said.

Throughout this exchange, Zander had been a silent observer, sitting on the sofa. Lena reached out to him. "I need my phone back."

"You'll have your phone returned later, and we will also continue your grandmother's treatment," Zander responded, his expression dark with barely contained anger. "With Regina gone, you're going to fill in for her."

Lena shot back, "No way!"

"Jean, get her ready and do her makeup," Evie commanded, her teeth clenched.

A servant moved towards her, and as Lena was about to object, Zander issued an ultimatum. "You have two choices: I call the hospital and cut off your grandmother's treatment, or you go on this blind date and I add $200, 000 to your grandmother's medical fund."

The funds currently in her grandmother's account would last barely two days. Without any money of her own, Lena had been desperate enough to take drastic actions the other night. The offer of two hundred thousand was too significant for her to ignore.

"Transfer the money first," she demanded.

Earning two hundred thousand just to play a part? Her stakes were unexpectedly high.

As soon as the transaction was confirmed, Lena was ushered to get her makeup done.

With the expertise of the makeup artist, Lena, who already bore an 80% resemblance to Regina, was transformed to look more than 90% like her. For a moment, even she was fooled into thinking she saw Regina's reflection in the mirror.

Evie looked on with approval. "Lena, today you are stepping into Regina's shoes. You are Regina today. If anyone recognizes you're not her, consider the implications for your grandmother," she warned, reinforcing this as Lena prepared to enter the car.

Imitating Regina's voice, Lena replied, "Understood." She then rolled up the car window.

Lena arrived at the restaurant at 11:30, half an hour before the scheduled meeting.

After she announced herself, a waiter escorted her to a private room set aside for the occasion.

Out of sheer boredom, Lena ordered Regina's preferred watermelon juice and sipped on it.

As the clock struck 11:59, the door swung open, and a figure entered.

Lena looked up and nearly spit out her drink.

She coughed, her shock evident.

"Damn, of all people, why does it have to be him for Regina's blind date?" Lena thought.