Hello, Kenzo

True Friends

"Come with me," I exhaled as I realized that I badly needed someone to help me with this messy situation I had ended up in just to fight the relationship I had with Kenzo.

"This is getting more interesting! Does anybody know? I mean, how are you a secret billionaire?" Tim asked loudly. My face turned heated in embarrassment.

"Let's just go into my apartment, and I'll explain. If you say that Kate is a genius hacker, I am expecting that by tomorrow my secret will be busted, and it'll be more than chaos, so we have to come up with a plan!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the building of my apartment.

"Based on your words, how are you living in an apartment and not in a condo? Or penthouse?"

"Shut up now, okay? I am not like any billionaires out there who spent their money in so much luxury." I shook my head before leading him inside the elevator that was waiting for us.

We stopped talking about my secret while the elevator ride went up, but the whole journey was filled with laughter and jokes. My smile never left my lips, no matter how much I tried to conceal it. Oh, my gratitude to Tim would never end as I am breathing. The laughter was interrupted when we got to my floor, and as soon as the elevator door opened, Nai came rushing to hug me while Kenzo stood still by the kitchen counter. His eyes were puffy from crying, and he had a few bandages wrapped around his right arm.

"STELLAAAA!" My focus was drawn back to Nai. She cupped my cheeks and rubbed her thumbs against them softly. "I was so worried about you when the news came to me. I went looking for you, but I could not find you!"

"I'm fine! But what happened to your face?" I asked her, cupping her face back and scanning the little cuts and bruises she had on her cheek, below her eyebrow, and beside her lips.

Nai grinned. "Well, while I was looking for you, I could not contain my emotions; I had to let it out. I'm sure it was his sister and your useless friends doing it again to sabotage you!"

"Hey, I told you to leave my sister out of this! It was my fault!" Kenzo cut in, and I immediately rushed to him for a hug.

"How are you? I'm sorry I had to leave; I had to go to my parents. What happened to you? What happened to your arm? And why do you have many bruises?" I asked him in worry.

He sighed heavily before pulling away from me after he heard my question. "I am used to this now whenever I go against the Illominus will! Are you alright? I'm sorry, I was just trying to help. I know how much you love Dani, and the friendship you were going to lose because of me was filling me with so much guilt!"

"Hey, it's fine!" I wiped his tears and hugged him back tightly.

"Yeah, I am worried about you too, but you seemed not to be thankful about it!" I heard Nai blabber behind us.

"Yes, I am grateful, Nai, for getting into trouble because of me! I appreciate that!" I smiled while I watched her sink the sofa while I hugged Kenzo.

I saw my personal assistant, who was also puffed out of crying and was about to say something when I stopped her. She immediately stopped and realized the consequences if she continued her drama.

"As much as I wanted to indulge with all the drama I am feeling at the moment, Stella, we had some greater things ahead that we should be preparing if you would not want to lose them all!" Tim interrupted my time with Kenzo by pulling me away from the hug and leading me to the sofa.

Kenzo did not protest being separated from me; instead, he quietly followed us, sitting beside me.

"So, where should we start?" Tim exhaled, clasping both of his hands with an expression of so much excitement. "Ah, yeah! You asked me to come with you to explain to me how you ended up being a billionaire!"

Nai and Kenzo gasped at the same time, looking at each other and then at me with widened eyes. Both fell into a great shock.

I cleared my throat, but Nai blurted out, "I knew it! I knew it! Oh, you b***h! You told me you are not a secret billionaire and that you were not hiding anything! You got me there!" Her voice sounded higher, and the trace of excitement in it heightened as her face looked like wild imaginations were running through her mind.

"Shut up, Nai! I was just so afraid to tell you because you cannot keep a secret. But now that some issues were going out of hand, I guess your unfiltered mouth would be of great help!" I grinned as I was challenged very much on how to play a game for the very first time where the winner takes all.

"What?" Nai raised her left eyebrow and pouted her lips in anticipation.

"OK, to begin with. I never knew that the stocks I bought overseas would bring me so much more money than I was expecting. Later, when the owner of the child clothing company died, the ownership was transferred to me out of the owner's will. Besides the fact that I hold the second largest share, I was designing clothes for her for free. The others agreed to put me at the top. Why did I choose to live a simple life here? Well, because at any moment, I could lose all those privileges as I am well aware that the top position is a war that no predator set foot to lose! They were just waiting for the perfect time to launch an attack and to my calculations, I thought that this was the perfect time to get me down, but I could not just let them win without putting up a good fight for what I worked hard," I smiled bitterly.

I felt Kenzo twitched beside me, looking uncomfortable. "Hey! You do not have to worry about anything. You did nothing wrong!" I took his hand and caressed the top of it with my thumb.

"I just didn't expect that you are such an important person, I don't deserve you," Kenzo heaved, taking his hand away from my grip.

"No one knew about this except now, you all know now. I never tried to let anyone know about it as I wanted people to stay with me without the influence of money because trust me, I knew how people get to treat you so well and special when you reek the smell of money!" I lowered my gaze as I thought of how my family had treated me my entire life after I had established myself with enough income resources.

"Ok, I understand now!" Tim exhaled in a bitter smile. "It seemed that you should prepare yourself for losing a lot. Wooh! Never did I imagine I'd sit in a room with a billionaire and I never even had a clue!"

"Now, since I never expected that my misfortunes would come all at once, I need your help," I asked of them humbly.

"You got us!" Nai grinned. "What is the plan, then?"

"OH! What do we have here?" Narih barged into the room, and we all turned to look at her, I could not help but smile as her homecoming was just as perfect. She just come back from her out-of-town trip for a construction project she had won the bidding on.

"Well," I said, standing up and hugging her before kissing the top of her head. "We were just talking about how to get out of the mess I made without losing Kenzo, my family, and all my assets, which I worked my ass hard for."

"Yeah? And what does that have to do with me?" Narih looked creeped out as I was smiling so hard when I was supposed to be in sorrow.

"You will buy all my assets and be on top while I finish all these issues! I am a genius! No one knew we were cousins."

"And how will I do that? I can never attain such money." Narih panicked.

"I will lend you!"

"Then?"

"Well, Hillary would do the job for you. But first things first, I want you out of my apartment."

"And where will I go?" Narih heaved in shock.

"Wherever you want, just tell me!" I grinned as everyone looked more than distraught.

"So what do we do then?" Nai cut in.

"Well, we still have the whole night to discuss that. For now, we have to eat! F*ck, I am starving! "I announced.