"What am I doing?" squawked Lulu. "I'm trying to get past. Why are you getting the way?" Lulu focused her disapproval on Angela and slipped two pairs of disposable slippers on the ground for her and Nita.

Angela tried to mellow her painful arm by rubbing it. 'Take it easy, ' she reminded herself. 'She's only Arvin's sister. Don't get mad. Take a breather.'

When the entry was sealed shut, Lulu stood in front of Angela, browsing her pajamas up and down. "It boggles me why you think you could ever hold a candle to Nita. You're a little girl. When I see Arvin I'm going to ask him, 'Why let this riffraff in?'

Angela pulled a resentful face. "Riffraff? Little girl? Well, you're a little girl too! Go ahead and ask your brother if you think you're so great."

Lulu couldn't believe in her ears. "My god! How arrogant you are! Do you know Who I am?"

"Of course, I do! You are Arvin's sister, Lulu!"

"And yet you still behave so rudely! The insolence!" Lulu's vision was red with fury. In any other situation, she would have welcomed Angela, and Angela would in turn bestow flattery on her with an air of pomp and parade. But the opposite was true. It was a moment of bedlam.

"You're not the only princess!" caterwauled Angela. "You have no right to query me and it's really impolite for you to talk to me in this way!" Although Lulu was the little princess of the Gu family, Angela was the apple of her parents' eye!

Arvin sensed something wrong outside. He turned off the faucet and heard the hullabaloo. He dried and dressed quickly.

He held the doorknob, but decided to listen quietly first. He smiled as he listened to Angela's dissonant clamor.

Actually, he changed his mind, and decided to let the histrionics play themselves out.

"Wow!" said Lulu, eyebrows raised in stupefaction. "Then, tell us, whose princess are you?" The cornered expression returned to Angela's face.

All this was Nita's doing, she supposed. But she had no proof.

Nita, as it turned out, had tried to get some dirt on Angela by hiring someone to tai

When her sister ran away from the wedding, Autumn was forced to marry Charles.

His name had been linked to innumerable ladies.

He had different girlfriends for every day of a year.

Autumn had never thought that she would fall in love with him.

ask casually.

"She disappeared for seven years." Maybe he did have a foot in two camps. After all, he was Rosa's fianc.

She looked into the middle-distant pensively. 'Disappeared... for seven years. Arvin must be overwrought. He must feel very sad. So...he did have a foot in two camps.' Of course, Angela could only speculate as to the ramifications of his mind. She couldn't truly know its depths, and she would have to be satisfied with whatever answer he gave. But...how could she?

Her only solace was to say, "Of course, I can't say you have a foot in two camps. Because...we are just friends."

He loved her dearly and hugged her into his arms tightly.

Angela had kept her distance before, but she nestled in the crux of his arms. Gradually she faded into unconsciousness, breathing low and softly.

Touching her face, Arvin was lost in thought. He came to a decision.

'Angela, ' thought Arvin from his inmost heart, urging her to hear his prayer in her dreams, 'Wait for me.'

The next morning, Angela turned over in the bed, and hugged against his strong chest.

Under a spell, Angela rubbed her eyes and found the handsome face. "You're up...it's so early."

Arvin enveloped her in his arms. "I'm used to it."

Angela kissed his. "Good morning, Big Wing!"

"Good morning, Angela!" He lowered his head and kissed her coral-colored lips.