Chapter 17

Dean's POV:

"About what?" I asked into the phone.

"I'll tell you when we meet. I'll send you address. Please come, okay?"

I sighed before replying." Okay." And then hung up, then continued with my meal. After a while a notification beeped on my phone and I saw it was the address of where she was.

"Hey guys, I'll be going out soon."

"To see who?" Jayden asked.

"Ximena "

"Oh…" He muttered.

"See you guys later." I said and walked back to my room to have a bath.

***

I came out of the bathroom and dried my body. Then I put on my clothes, nothing fancy…just a designer t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and Nike sneakers. Then put on my jewelry and combed my hair in place. Once I was done with all of that, in used my body spray and picked up my car keys. The boys were no longer in the living room and I could spot a few of them in the pool.

Once I got out of the house, one worker came towards me and I gave him the car keys. He hurriedly went to the car I would use and opened the back seat. I got in and he entered the driver's seat. Then I passed him my phone after clicking on the address message Ximena sent.

"Take me to that place."

"Yes, sir." He replied, and we began driving out. I put on my EarPods and music from my favorite artist, CG, began streaming out.

***

We arrived at the place and I came out of the car, wearing my facemasks and bending my face a little lower. I walked in and discovered it was a restaurant. I made my way across from them and walked upstairs, a more reserved area.

I spotted Ximena after a brief eye search and then walked towards her. She saw me and her face lit up with a smile. I tried hard not to scoff. I pulled out a chair, the only chair, and sat on it.

"Hi." I greeted curtly.

"You came!" she exclaimed softly. "I was starting to think you wouldn't make it," she continued and just stared.

"Why did you call me up?" I asked, instead.

She tried to wave it off. "Why don't we eat first?"

"I already ate before I came here. Now back to my question, why did you call me up?"

She looked pretty uncomfortable as she tucked her hair behind her ears, an act that was once pretty but now disgusts me.

"I wanted to talk to you… Well, I wanted to talk to you about us."

"Us?"

"Yes. Us. Dean, I know what I did in the past was wrong, but I can still change for the better. I just want you back."

"I'm sorry, but that can't happen anymore. What you did was unforgivable."

"Everyone makes mistakes!" Ximena stressed.

"Yours was deliberate. You cheated Ximena, not once, not twice, not even thrice, and you knew very well that I was aware. It wasn't even with people that had the same status as I did. You were so bad you slept with a male hotel attendant. So why did you continue? You thought I'll never leave?"

"No Dean… It's not that way…" I cut her off.

"You know what? I don't think I want to hear this anymore. I'm leaving," I said, standing up.

"Dean, wait!" Ximena called out and stood up after me.

"Don't try to talk to me, Ximena." I said with my back facing her. "I still can't believe you're CG's daughter," I said and walked out on her.

***

(Beamlights Entertainment's training base)

Lila's POV:

I was in one of the dance rooms in the building, listening to music and trying to get a choreography in time for our presentation. Ever since the announcement was made, everyone had been really busy. Being a voice to be reckoned with is no joke.

Right now, I'm waiting for Paige to show up. She said she'll be here any minute soon. I removed a rubber band from my wrists and used it to pack my hair into a ponytail. Once I was through, the door opened and Paige hurried in with a laptop in her hand.

"Sorry I'm late. I needed to do some research concerning, and I found some really lit moves. I'm just wondering if we can learn it in time for the presentation."

"Let me see," I said and walked closer to her. We sat on the floor and she put her laptop in front of us and played the dance videos in her device.

"This shouldn't be hard to do and we might memorize it just in time." I said.

"Oh… This is just the beginning, there's a lot more, and it's way harder than this."

"There is?"

"Yep. But first before we get into that, what song are we using?"

"Let me help with that." I said and brought out my phone. I went through my playlist and picked one of my most played songs, which is my favorite, Villain by AleXa.

"Here, listen to this." I said, as I played it out for us to hear.

The music streamed out, and we soon started bopping our head to the beat.

"Oh… I love this! We're definitely using this." Paige said excitedly.

"Then without further ado, let's learn those dance moves and come up with our own choreography." I said and we stood up facing the mirror, preparing for our rehearsals.

***

(Two days later, presentation day)

The stage had been set, and the judges were already seated. The usually nice officials in the training base wore a stoic expression as they planned to filter out nothing but the best. I was nervous, but so were the rest of the girls that were around. Paige couldn't stop rubbing her palms together.

"Lila, do you think we'll do well?" She asked as she came closer to me. We had already worn our costumes which were provided to us by the company and they made us look older and meaner than usual in accordance with the song we were dancing to.

"Well, we can only hope," I replied. The MC came up on the stage. There were a few celebrities sitting in the audience, but so far, the Sparks or even the Beamer girls were not here.

"Good day, all, and thank you for making yourselves available for this show. As you all know, we would have a presentation from the trainees that are in the company as we see them give their all to help get to the next round. The judge's will write their scores and whichever group doesn't make the cut, will be disqualified." He said and there were gasps and murmurs erupting from the trainee.

"So without further ado, let's get this show started." He said, and we all clapped. He glanced at the paper in his hand and called out, "Emily Lewis and Sara Torres, you're up first!" And an ovation was heard as the girls came out.

The stage darkened to prepare for their show and after a while their choice of music booked out of the speakers and they soon began their choreography.

***

Mason's POV:

I was watching the trainee presentation along with Alya, who kept grumbling and frowning at the TV screen because of Alya's relationship with the Beamlights Entertainment. We were given the luxury of enjoying it.

"So these are the girls they want to replace me with? They can't even dance properly!" She yelled and threw the remote at the TV.

"Careful Alya." I scolded, and she pouted.

"Sorry dad." She muttered and continued watching in utter displeasure.

Some groups did well, others not so well but there was a particular group that caught my attention and I guess Alya's as well.

"That Lila is good…" Alya muttered, stuffing her face with popcorn.

"I noticed that as well. What about the girl with her?"

"She is too… But Lila's talent seems to stand out. Look at how she's dancing so effortlessly even when the choreography is complicated. There's only one person I know dances like that and that's late CG."

"Yeah, wait…" I suddenly stopped as my heart pounded once in my chest. Alya glanced at me.

"Dad, are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said and continued watching their performance. Then I got what I was looking for. The camera man who was recording zoomed into Lila's face and I noticed something familiar. Why does she look a lot like…?

I quickly stood up and walked into my room. Then dialed Nikita's number. She picked up at first ring.

"What is it again, Mason?" She asked, displeased. I ignored her question and continued with what I wanted to say.

"Where are you right now?"

"In my office. Why?"

"Are you watching the trainees' presentation?"

"No…"

I cut her off.

"Switch on your television right now!"

"Okay…"

I heard silence for a moment as I paced around the room impatiently.

"I've turned it on and I see two girls dancing. What's the problem?"

"Inspect those girls. Does one look very familiar to you?"

"Um… No. What are you trying to get at, really?"

"Look at them properly, I'm sure you would be able to recognize one!"

"Okay… Wait, what? Is that what I think it is? "

"Looks like it might be what you think it is," replied.

"No! This can't be… CG's daughter is still alive!? She was supposed to be dead!" Nikita exclaimed through the phone.

Oh God, this isn't good.