Chapter 2 - Galatea K.S.
Mayne City, Esmea
The bedroom door creaked as it opened and in came Oliver in a dark grey suit. The room was cold and dark when he entered and the song "Love is a Bitch" by Two Feet was playing softly in the background — it was not the first time he found it playing in the bedroom of his sister. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked around the room but barely saw the flooring.
Waste papers on the floor crunched under the soles of his shoes as he walked towards the windows on the left side of the room. In one swift move, he slid the curtains wide open, allowing the sunlight to illuminate the cave-looking bedroom. When he turned to the bed, there he found his sister sprawled without a care in the world.
"What am I going to do with you?" he muttered under his breath before strolling towards the bed and with the back of his hand, he gently tapped his sister's arm. "Get up."
Angela groaned and shifted in the bed, instantly irritated because she was woken up from her slumber. She was not a morning person and she didn't like it whenever her brother wakes her up. "What?!" she snapped, placing a pillow over her head to shield her eyes from the bright light.
"Get up," he repeated, tapping her back that was facing him this time. He was looming over her bed when he checked the time in his watch. "It's seven and I have to leave for work soon." After proving to his father that he could be trusted, he became the CEO of their family's business since last year.
"What is wrong with you? I haven't slept a wink yet! Why are you doing this?" Angela grunted.
"Dad's coming by. Do you want him to see you slacking around?"
"It's so early, for heaven's sake! I've been working the whole night. What slacking are you talking about?"
Digging his hands in his pockets, a small smile formed on his face knowing what could make her get up. "Mhmm… But he doesn't know that. Now get up and clean up your mess. There's still a box of your books in the living room. Unless you want him to see that?"
Her eyes went wide upon realizing what her brother meant. And without another word, she scrambled off the bed and hurried towards the living room. She couldn't let her father see those!
Seeing her sister's reaction, Oliver could only shake his head and stroll out of the room.
Angela picked up several pieces of crumpled paper on the floor and quickly threw them into the trash only to pick them all out again and decided to toss them into a box in her bedroom. All the papers were drafts of the new novel that she had been working on for the past few months. She had been trying to rewrite thousands of words over and over again yet none of them seemed to be the perfect first chapter of the story.
Oliver, who could see his sister from where he was sitting in the breakfast nook, didn't bother to help her and just watched as she struggled to push the box of books towards her bedroom.
"Aren't you going to help me?" she asked, narrowing her dark brown eyes at her brother. She was 5'7", four inches shorter than him, and had ash brown hair. She was fit as she regularly ran… and did butt exercises.
Her brother didn't think she needed help.
"Nope." He sipped his coffee and whipped out his phone to check his emails.
She rolled her eyes and managed to move the box to her bedroom all by herself. The living room has been cleared, leaving her with the rest of the crumpled papers across her bedroom floor to take care of. She moved as fast as she could until she stumbled on the box and fell.
"Aw!" She rubbed the sore spot on her shin and slapped the lid of the box as an act of revenge. The lid popped open, revealing the books inside.
Eyeing the contents inside the box, she picked up one book and looked at the cover. It was a white book with red details with a title in bold font that said "Dirty Sheets" by 'Galatea K.S.'. She smiled as she ran her hand on it. It was her third book—just released several months ago. It didn't sell as good as her first book "Falling in Love With the Mafia Prince", but she loved it just as much because it was her baby.
Angela Su, twenty-eight years old—single for years but dated a lot. Although her most recent date had been months ago, she had been dry for much longer than that. She was starting to think that it was the reason why she couldn't write her next book. Maybe her best friend was right—she probably needed to get laid.
How ironic was it that she had fans all over the world, raving for how good of a writer she was. They would say they were envious of her and wondered if her love life was as colorful, as hot, as heartwarming as the stories in her books. Not.
She had never been in love. But she was a hopeless romantic. Sort of. And she loved reading a lot and writing too. Except her father didn't.
She could still remember the first time that she told her father that she didn't want to be part of the family business—at the same time that she told him she wanted to be a writer instead. Boy, did he got mad at her, telling her that it wasn't a 'real' job. That being a 'writer' wasn't stable.
Which was why she was living a double life — Angela Su, daughter of Chairman Su of Su Group — and her pen name Galatea K.S.
Because her father was against her becoming a writer, she had to keep this secret life from him. She wouldn't want him to know that she was doing it behind his back after countless times that he told her not to do it.
She surely didn't want her father to know that she became a writer and that her books were selling like hotcakes. And she certainly didn't want him to know that she was writing adult romance books.
How would her father react if he knew that his daughter, whom he once and sometimes still call his little girl, was actually a naughty—not nice writer? She shivered.
There were only two people who knew about her secret identity – her brother Oliver, and her best friend Nina who was also her agent.
As for the rest of the world—well, her fans — Galatea K.S. was a faceless author. Galatea K.S. had never been seen in public, interviewed in person, and there were no pictures of her on the internet.
"Dad's here!" Oliver called from the living room.
Angela jumped up, closed the box, and shoved it under her desk before she went out to see her father. She already had an idea why he showed up that morning and she was positive that she would not like it.
"Go shower and change. You're coming with me to the company today," Chairman Su told her as soon as she appeared in the living room.
"But—"
"I don't want to hear any excuses. You're almost thirty, I can no longer tolerate your slacking."
"But I—" Angela paused when she saw her brother shook his head at her. "Yes, Dad." With slumped shoulders, she dragged herself back to her bedroom and did as she was told.
…
Su Group
Wearing a black long sleeved dress that was too short for an office outfit, Angela walked beside her brother with their father in front of them. The employees in the company greeted and bowed as they passed, showing respect to their Chairman and CEO.
Several male employees couldn't help but sneak glances at Angela's backside as she passed by them. She didn't visit the company often so they don't get to see her all the time. The last time she came, her hair was still long. But now it was a shoulder-length balayage.
The male employees sent messages through their eyes as she passed by. They all nodded in confirmation that she looked gorgeous in whichever style she carried herself.
She took a sip from the cappuccino takeaway cup in her hand—her favorite. And tucked her hair behind her ear, slightly flipping it backward like she always did and it exposed her neck. Nina said it was one of her tells when she feels a bit uncomfortable.
Angela ignored the stares and they headed straight to the private elevator. She passed by the receptionist and saw the book in the latter's hand—her second book, "Lust and Lies". A small smile formed on her face. The sight of her book instantly brightened her mood.
One of the greatest joys of writers was knowing that people were reading their works.
'Today doesn't seem to suck so much,' she thought.