CHAPTER NINE

"Have you talked to any of the Stevens?" Gena asked Claire when she dropped by at her place.

It's been a few days since their weekend trip.

"No, and I really don't wanna get entangled with that family, Gena. I've decided to forget it all," Claire said, her eyes busy on the phone as she was lying on her friend's bed.

Gena's apartment was small, femininely furnished in purple and cream, a sleek modern touch of an interior designer graduate on its contents. She and Claire did the job.

"As you wish, ma'am!" Gena sighed, pushing herself towards the plush coach beside her bed. "Hey, why don't we go shopping? I think you need to stop thinking about the witch you call stepmom." She slumped down heavily, tugging her feet onto the couch.

"You're right." Claire loved shopping. Let it be grocery, shoes, clothes . . . as long as she'd get to stroll around the shops, seeing new arrivals, old displays, she'd automatically feel alive.

It was her best hobby.

The next stop was at the mall and both seem