CHAPTER III

CHAPTER THREE

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

The first day of work has come after the weekend, and Dean still couldn't believe that she had the nerve enough to show up in front of him again. After all, she has done. To him.

He had expected, or maybe hoped, that she would not deal with him much because of the past between them, but, much to his dismay, she called on him whenever the opportunity allowed her. She did not have a driving license, so she couldn't drive and hence it became one of his duties as her assistant to relocate her from her apartment to the company and vice versa, which meant that he was literally forced to see her face from the beginning of his day at work to Its end.

As for Valentina, she was trying to make sure that she did not make any mistakes in order to save the image of her family's company. She was only here to work hard and make the branch thrive, so she asked for help as much as possible.

But Dean didn't see it that way.

All he saw was that she was using any opportunity available to her to summon him just to anger him and torture him more, or perhaps she had a plan that she wanted to use against him. He couldn't wait any longer to know what exactly was her goal coming here, and he had to know soon, and that's why he spent the whole day waiting for the end of the shift to talk to her. And indeed when everyone went out at the end of the day's shift, no one but himself and she was left in the company because there were still some papers that she needed to review and sign and he had to wait for her in order to drive her back to her place, he seized his moment to confront her.

"I think I can finish this myself, Mr. Edgar. You can go and wait until it is over." Her eyes did not turn from the papers as she spoke to him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, without any warning or introduction.

She expected this would happen, so she was not surprised and answered in a dull tone, "I am here to work in my family's company, so I hope you do not worry because I am not here for you, and please stop thinking about the past because this problem has ended long ago."

"Now you remember me then! Of course, you do now, and only now, since we are the only ones here in the room, and there is no one to hear the little dirty secrets that you do not want anyone to know about that may harm your family's reputation," he smiled sarcastically.

Quick with her intuition, she knew what he wanted and said, "If I'm not being wrong, you are trying to threaten me." She moved off her chair and stood in front of him, looking directly into his eyes, confronting his bare hatred. What do you need in order to compensate you Mr. Edgar? You can ask for anything you wish, after all, that has happened it's the least I could do for you. I have to apologize. "

He looked at her with disgust, "Apologies? Do you think you can end everything with just a simple apology?" He shook his head as he tilted his face lower to whisper in her ear, "I want you to disappear from the earth-- from existence."

He was very close, his scent, his deep voice. All these things brought back memories for her .. but they couldn't weaken her before him again after all that had happened. She should not lose herself to it again.

She put her hand gently on his chest, then put a distance between them and responded firmly, "What do you want? Let it be realistic, I will not throw myself off a cliff for you."

"Quit."

"Excuse me?"

"Resign. A person like you doesn't have a place here. Truthfully, I cannot trust you with a puppy, so how can your uncle entrust you with an entire branch of a company!"

Dean did not care if this was the only thing Valentina could do right now.

He just wanted not to see her, so she felt very offended even though a part of her wanted to kick him out of the company, but she knew very well what he might do with her, so she tried to explain; "I cannot fail my uncle, he made sure that this branch was under my management due to the company's negligence of it! ''

A wave passed through her back when he answered her in a raised voice, "didn't you just say that I can ask for anything I want or are you just lying as usual? I want you outside of this company, so obey my orders without arguing, what you did to me is a punishable crime by the law, so you better obey!"

There was dead silence.

" Obey me, or else I will expose you and put you in prison," he warned.

She grabbed her palm to control herself, but she couldn't stop her voice from shivering. "I can't, please choose something else, whatever the price, I will pay for it."

He smiled as he looked at her disdainfully as he folded his arms to his chest, "Why do you all rich people think that every problem you have can be solved with money, so what is the price of a person's freedom with you?"

She didn't answer him, so he said, as his patience was running out, "I told you to quit, can't you understand my language? Do you really want me to hurt you? You know I can run you under my feet, do you really want that?"

"I will never be able to leave my uncle's company. I am truly sorry. He was the only one who accepted the responsibility of raising me after my father and mother's death: so I cannot let him down." She begged.

Trying to control his emotion, he exhaled "So be it, Miss. Cuthbert, do not resign and I will not resign either because I will not waste my opportunity to work here for an attention whore like yourself, which means that we will be in the same place, which means that I will make every second you spend here a living hell until you wish for death, then I will expose you and put you in jail. "

He turned and violently closed the door behind him, just to find out that in front of him stood Joe who had heard everything.