Chapter 1

IMOGEN MARK

"Ouch," I whined, rubbing the bump on my forehead. "Nikita," I called my best friend who was sprawled carelessly on the bed. 

Nikita Bend obviously heard me but chose to ignore me; she winced and turned around, covering her ears with a pillow. 

"Nikita!" I snapped, wearing a frown. 

She groaned, muttering cuss words to herself before she succumbed to roll over again and sat up straight, pulling her knees to her chest. "What the heck is your problem?" She frowned, raised her arms above her head to stretch, yawning loudly. 

"Is the bump on my head so noticable?" I asked, rubbing the bump gently. 

She stopped yawning, fluttered her sleepy eyelashes for a while then stared at my forehead. She didn't say anything. After a few seconds, she burst into laughter, holding her stomach for support. 

"Jeez, Imogen. How the hell did it get so big?" She laughed boisterously. 

"Really? Is it that big?" My eyebrows furrowed in worry. 

"Oh, you bet your ass it is." she continued to laugh. 

A frown appeared on my face. "You're so dumb. Can't you say it in a nice way without laughing like a moron?" I hissed, turned around and headed to the vanity mirror to scrutinize the bump. "Ow, this is so bad. How do I go to work with this?" I whimpered. 

"What? You can hide it with your hair." She said. 

I pivoted so she could notice my glare. "Would that work?"

"Well… duh!" She shrugged, rolling out of the bed and slid her feet into a pair of bunny slippers by the edge of the bed. 

I twirled back to the mirror. In the best way I could, my hair brush assisted me in hiding the red bump with my shoulder-length blonde hair.

"Nikita?" I called again, whirled around to face her. 

She had taken off her nightgown, ready to go to the bathroom. "Is it better now?" I questioned hopefully. 

She peered at my forehead once more. "I guess so." She shrugged. 

"Grrrr, you're no good." I groaned. 

"I know." She giggled. "Are you seriously going to the office wearing that?" She pointed her index finger from my head to toe. 

"What's wrong with my dress?" I raised an eyebrow. 

"It's too… revealing." She squared her shoulders. "It's only a few inches below your butt and shows an indecent amount of your cleavage." 

"Duh! Kade Ricardo doesn't have a problem with it so whatever." I rolled my eyes, picked my bag from the vanity chair. "I've gotta go now, bye."

"Yeah, he's dumb. Bye." She waved. 

I held the doorknob, ready to leave but she stopped me by speaking, "you're going with Lila, right?" 

"Sure, do you need something?" I raised an eyebrow at her. 

"No," she shook her head negatively but I could sense that something was fishy. 

I squinted my eyes at her but brushed it off my mind, opened the door and left the bedroom. I hurried to the kitchen, packaged the remnant of last night's cookies into my bag then left the house. 

***

Lila Austin, my second best friend, and I arrived at 'RICARDO International' where I worked as the Billionaire, Kade Ricardo's secretary. It was the best thing of my life to be so fortunate to be his secretary. 

"Thanks for covering up for me yesterday," Lila reiterated when we got into the company. 

"Silly, it's okay. What are best friends for?" I nudged her shoulder gently. "You've done a lot to cover up for me as well." 

"Sure." She smiled. "How's Nikita now, you said she's sick?" 

I chuckled. "That was two weeks ago."

"Oh…" she muttered. 

We wrote our names in the attendance book then got into the elevator. Just when the elevator doors were about to close, someone stopped them and— Jovi Brett, Kade's friend, walked into it, permitting the doors to close so it could transport us to the 65th floor. 

Jovi scanned me from head to toe with total irritation. What was her problem? "Slut." She muttered but my ears were sharp enough to pick it. What the heck?!

I scoffed, ignored her in order to avoid creating a ruckus. As it seemed, she was probably Kade's girlfriend and I couldn't risk picking a fight with her and losing my job. 

Lila held my hand and shook her head. "It's okay, ignore it." She heard too?! I simply nodded in response.

After we waited in total silence, the elevator doors dinged then separated. I was the first to step out of it with Lila behind me. 

"I'll see you at lunch." She smiled, took out the key to her office, from her bag, inserting it into the right hole.

"Yeah, sure." I forced a smile at her. I was still so furious from hearing Jovi's word. Was she insane? Just because I dressed like— well, not so decent to work, didn't make me deserve to be called a slut.

"Hey!" Jovi's voice caused me to automatically stop walking. "Let Kade know I'm around and will be with him shortly." She said. 

I didn't bother to look at her, neither did I say a word. I only nodded and continued waking. 

I reached my office which was literally in Kade's office but separated by a wall and door. 

I exhaled deeply, gave a slight knock on the door. I could've entered into it since I had the right to but I had to be careful. 

"Come in," Kade's thick voice vibrated through the air from inside. 

I pushed the door open and shoved myself into the office. Kade was comfortably seated on his chair behind the huge mahogany table with his laptop, mug of coffee, flower vase, and other files on it. He had his eyes fixed on the laptop in front of him. 

"Good morning, sir." I greeted with a polite bow of my head, resuming walking to my office. I remembered Jovi's words. I could easily not tell him but what good was it going to be. 

I pivoted. "Kade," I called. Still, he didn't raise his head from the screen. What was his deal this morning? He had never been this ignoring. "Jovi said to tell you she's around and would be with you shortly."

"Jovi's here?" He snapped his head in my direction. Dummy!

"Yes." I nodded.

I was about to take my leave but he stopped me by calling, "Imogen," 

I narrowed my eyes unintentionally. "Yes?" I responded before quickly adding, "Sir?"

"Come over." He wiggled his fingers, indicating that I walked to him. 

Muttering cuss words internally, I ambled to him, my heels sound filled the room as I walked. All I wanted was to sit comfortably in my office chair and do fun things before I started the day's work. 

"Why are you late today? Again." He questioned, sitting up straight. 

Was that seriously what he had to say? "I'm sorry." That's what I said most of the time when he asked me the same question. 

"Okay. Let me get to my main point." He exhaled, rubbing his palms together. His eyes scanned the table like they were searching for something. 

"Main point?" For some reason, I felt nervous at that. 

He picked up a file then opened it. He glanced through it shortly, raised his head from it, "you're fired!"

"Fired!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Kade, you can't fire me!" My eyes instantly became tear-filled. This job was all I had to sustain myself. "Wh—why— what did I do?!" My bag fell from my hand. 

"No, you didn't do anything." He shrugged, glanced at the file once more. 

My head moved around in confusion. My hands were vibrating as I tried to think of what could possibly be the reason for it. "Why then are you firing me?" Tears streamed down my face, obviously ruining my makeup but I cared less about that. 

"See…" he trailed, scratching the back of his neck. "You definitely didn't do anything wrong. Jovi, my girlfriend, is facing some financial crisis with her family and she wouldn't accept money from me directly so I'm making her my new secretary because she's fit for the job." He grinned. I swear I felt like scraping that stupid grin off with a butter knife. 

A frown appeared on my face. "That doesn't make so much sense to me." 

He frowned too. "What? I get to decide, not you." 

My sense jerked back to life. Without thinking twice, I dropped to my knees, joined my palms together. "Please I beg of you, Kade— Mr Ricardo." I called him formally for probably the first time in forever. "You can give Jovi some other job like your Personal Assistance or girlfriend representative." I didn't even know what the hell I was saying. 

"What the hell are you doing? Get up." He ordered. 

To make things more dramatic, I bowed my head and wailed, shaking my head negatively. "No! I won't. Please, this job is all I have for now to sustain myself."

"Why are you being so dramatic about th—" he paused. "Wait, did I say I'm firing you?"

I slowly raised my head up, confused. "Yes?"

"Oh." He chuckled. "I'm not firing you, I meant I'm TRANSFERRING you. My best friend, Hames Hendrix is in need of a new secretary and wants you so I'm transferring you to him." 

***