In the opening scene, we start with a bottom-to-top view of the Crestmont building, we see Felino and Lily in her office, and he brings up the rising concern of the contractual workers’ demands; they have been working with them for approximately 3 years, which surprises Lily a little about why they have more demands from them, although they have given them a salary increase? Felino reminds Lily of the consequences for the entire company, which leads Lily to give him a directive to do everything to make sure that this not eventually gets out to the public and to the media. Lily takes an interesting approach here; instead of doing what the DOLE requires and what is right for the contractual workers, she instructs Felino to keep a lid on it at all costs. In the next scene, we see Dahlia feeding her stepmother (Belinda) some porridge; she is seemingly getting better but still looking frail but more cognizant. She apologizes to Dahlia for being a burden to her and wonders how they will pay for the hospital bill. Upon hearing her concerns and not giving her more things to worry about, Dahlia informs her that the hospital will accept an installment and even a full payment. Who gets the attention of Belinda, and she asks why and how? Dahlia informs her that she loaned the money.
In the next sequence in the same scene, we see Dahlia already inside the Crestmont building and approaching the front desk concierge. She is carrying the envelope that was sent to her by Lily, which shows the Crestmont logo in the top right corner. Dahlia, ask the person behind the front desk if she can go and see Lily. She asks if she has an appointment, and Dahlia says no. Right before she was going to be told to either leave or come back another day, another person behind the front desk cuts her off, shakes her head, and refers to Dahlia by her first name, which she says with respect. Clearly, Dahlia being the stepsister of Lily has given her a level of respect, and word has spread around that she is indeed a Chua.
Following that, Lily is seen reviewing the contract that Dahlia has signed, and she asks the necessary questions about if Dahlia has resigned from her old work already, which is in the BPO industry. Dahlia informs her that she is still waiting for the right time to resign from her work. Naturally, Lily is disappointed and weirded out by this response, but she holds back from saying something more true to her nature; instead, Dahlia explains her decision to Lily. Next, Dahlia requests that she can choose to use her last name, and she wants to not be known as a Chua in fear of rumors and people spreading false rumors.
Lily, who is no stranger to controversies, whether real or not, imparts some choice and wise lines to her, saying that no matter if she uses the Chua last name or not and whether people in the building discover she is her stepsister, it is much better to face these situations head-on than to handle them from behind. In short, “stop being a coward” is the meaning behind that, but Lily is gentle in saying that to her. Then, before Lily could say more, her phone rings, she answers it and her secretary informs her that a certain Atty. Velasco does want to see her? This leaves Lily puzzled, in which she tells her secretary that she does not remember having a meeting with this Atty. Velasco. Then, the secretary informs Lily that he is the lawyer for Violet. A stunned Lily can only be silent after hearing that while Dahlia simply watches.
Later that night, we see Lily sitting on the sofa on the second floor in what appears to be either their ancestral home (Aurora’s home) or the home of her younger step-sister, Violet. We see Violet going up the stairs, and she at once sees Violet in the corner of her eye, approaches her as if she is walking on a runway, and gives her a clearly fake shocked look as to why Lily is right there with her. Of course, Violet knows the reason behind Lily’s visit, but she is coy about it.
Next, Lily demands to know why her lawyer wanted to meet with her, despite the fact that she has been given the money that has been agreed upon with Violet plus the franchise. Violet this time again, like a broken record, reminds Lily that half of Crestmont belongs to her; a response of disgust comes from Lily, reminding her that she should be ashamed of herself and that exactly the other half, or better half, of Crestmont was built on her shoulders and those of her uncle, Felino. She then belittles Violet’s excessive spending habits and points out that maybe if she did not waste her money on these luxury items, she would have more than enough money of her own, at which point Violet treats her like a small child with a snarky response of “Why don’t you allow me to teach you the kind of luxury bags you should be owning?”
Violet’s sassy and lackadaisical response irritates Lily even more, and without a few seconds to pause and absorb everything that is going on, here comes the flagrant slip turned intentional bombshell that she openly says to Lily regarding the complaints of the contractual workers and what would happen if this leaked out or got out to the media, and, of course, we see that Violet and Julian will be behind this and responsible for the leak, and Lily is silent.
After watching this loaded and tense face-to-face scene, I am convinced that the onscreen character of “Violet” is one of the vilest people I have ever seen on local television, and for that, I commend her because she does get on the nerves, which means one thing: she is a near perfect villain or despicable protagonist here in this series.
The following day, we are back at the Crestmont building, Felino brings up the worrying issue of the contractual workers and how to solve it. And if Violet knows anything about it. Lily shuts that belief down right away and rules out Violet having any clear and direct knowledge about the legal threats from the contractual workers. She then has a lightbulb moment and brings up the name of Julian and mentions that Violet may be the person she is, but she is not that clever, and right there at that single moment, Lily is finally beginning to connect the dots and discover—without saying it—that Julian is the one behind all this and Julian is the one puppeteering Violet and pulling the strings.
This was an interesting but insightful scene here for viewers because Felino is an invaluable relative who happens to be an ally to Lily. Without him, she would be walking on a lot of potholes and walking into ditches. In mafia culture, Felino’s functions as a consigliere are comparable. Truly, Felino is the closest thing to a real father figure to Lily; he is calm, comforting, and wise.
Next, at Aurora’s ancestral home, Pressy *(I hope I got her name spelled right) informs her that Crestmont’s demise is inevitable if the squabbling stepsisters Violet and Lily do not resolve their long-standing personal and business issues. Aurora is perplexed about why she has been cursed with this kind of problematic life because of them being a constant bearer of problems in her life. Aurora still can’t figure out why they hate each other so much, but then she brings up that both have inherited the toughness of their late father, Leopoldo. While she is saying that, the camera pans out a bit to show a more complete shot of the sala and stairs going to the second floor and reveals an unknown but tough-looking man going down the stairs. He has the appearance of a goon or enforcer. Who is he, exactly? Scene ends.We then see a cheerful Violet and her puppeteer Julian having a glass of red wine on their dining table, with Julian surprised that Lily was not able to give any response to what Violet told her and the latest threat she made. Violet, feeling mighty good about herself, brags about it and implies that she will be able to get the money. Julian says “cheers” to Violet’s audacious claim, but then his phone rings. He tells Violet he has to answer because it’s his dad. A few meters away from the dining room, Julian’s dad demands an update. He tells him that everything is going as planned and that Violet will probably be able to get all the money they need for the funding needed when he runs for Mayor of the dad’s city. Next, Julian brings up the labor issue, claiming that even for them, it may be too much to handle; his father is unconcerned, simply telling him that he may know someone who can handle it.
