Over my dead body

It's been two whole weeks since Amara's death, Andrew's hearing and imprisonment. I never knew my life e would be this peaceful. For the first time in a long while, I could finally live and enjoy life in peace.

Even though all my enemies were gone and I was trying to make everything seem normal, there was still this deep feeling inside of me that keeps telling me that more problems are coming.

Immediately I had that thought, I heard my office's telephone ringing. I picked it up and placed it on my ear, waiting for the caller to say something.

"Sorry for bothering you Ma'am but there's someone here to see you. She claims it's urgent. " My secretary spoke out."

"Who's she?" I asked with a small sigh, not really expecting to have any visitor today.

"She says her name is Rachel Carthwright." My secretary announced, making my ears ting. Why is she here to see me now?

I thought she would understand and stop calling or trying to reach out to us. Ever since the accident that almost took her life, she had been calling Nicholas, trying to invite the both of us out for a get together.

Nicholas didn't want to have anything to do with her as she was his cousin and the daughter of the people that murdered his mother so he kept on declining her offer.

Seeing that there was no stopping her, I decided to usher her in and listen to what she has to say and and also text Nicholas so he would know about what was happening.

"I finally get to meet you." She said with a smile as she walked into my office.

"Have a seat." I offered with a small smile as I pointed to the seat opposite mine.

After she had settled, I decided to go straight to the point; "So what can I do for you?" I asked.

"There's only one thing I came to ask from you." She answered.

"Which is?" Before she could reply me, the door burst open from the outside and Nicholas rushed in immediately.

"What are you doing here?" He asked Rachel angrily the moment he walked in.

"I didn't come here for any trouble." She tried to explain.

"What else have you come to do? Why?? Did your plan to wreck my patnership with Rafael failed? Is that why you've come here?" He asked again, his anger was still evident.

Being scrutinized by him, I could see Rachel shiver a little. Nicholas' look was too domineering for her so I figured I had to do something. I stood up and walked over to him.

"Come on.. let's listen to what she has to say first." I said as I patted him softly so he would calm down and led him to sit on the couch.

It was a little bit far away from where we were because I didn't want her to feel intimidated by him. She already looks like she could pee her pants any moment from now because of the way he was glaring at her.

I never knew the smart mouthed Rachel could be this scared. I thought she was the famous Rachel Carthwright like she always says.

"You were saying??" I motioned to Rachel to continue speaking. She fearfully moved her gaze away from a still furious looking Nicholas and turned to me.

"Uhmm... I came here to thank you for saving my life and also apologize for what I did that day." She muttered in remorse. I stared at her in surprise, not expecting she would really apologize.

"It's fine. Even though you're an annoying brat, you still deserve to be saved." I said, making her smile in embarrassment.

"But still, thank you so much. That's all I've ever wanted to say." She muttered as she took a quick glance at Nicholas.

I turned to Nicholas and signalled to him to say something too. He rolled his eyes at me before he stood up and walked towards us.

"It's fine, I'll only accept your apologies if you can start respecting my boundaries. As you can see, I have the best wife in the world so there's no way I would ever have eyes for you." He said making me chuckle softly.

"I understand. I can finally see the reason you said she's the better choice for you. I'm so sorry once again." She apologized as she bowed softly.

"Good. I guess we are finally done here then." Nuchikas muttered and for the first time, she understood immediately.

"Good bye and I hope your beautiful marriage lasts for a very long time." She said.

"So do we. Kindly extend my greetings to your brother too." I said.

"Will do. Thank you once again fo.." She couldn't compete her words when she suddenly heard a sound from her phone, indicating that she just recieved a message.

She muttered a small sorry to us and clicked on the message. After reading it's contents, I noticed the way her eye balls almost bulged out of its sockets and she turned to face Nicholas.

"No way.."

"Uhmm.. what's wrong?" I asked, curious to know aht made her this shocked.

"You.." She muttered as she pointed at Nicholas.

"You're my cousin!!" She exclaimed in shock.

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(Later that day)

In a less crowded restaurant, Catherine, Nicholas, Rachel and Rafael could be seen sitted around a table and their discussion seemed to be really serious even without any words said.

Catherine and Nicholas were expecting the worst to happen when Rafael and Rachel suddenly uttered something they never expected to hear from them.

"We are so sorry for the problem our parents caused in your lives." They said making Catherine and Nicholas stare at them in shock.

"We heard about what happened from our family members and we both understand what it's like to lose a parent. We would never wish for that on anyone." Rafael said.

"Lose a parent?" Nicholas asked in confusion.

"Yeah... our mother died about three years ago. She was killed in the room of one of our father's lovers, who slit her throat when she tried to confront her and get her to stop seeing our dad." Rachel answered, making Nicholas and Catherine to share a look.

"We both know what our parents did to yours was unforgivable but we still want to try and plead on their behalf."

"So you don't mind that I've been lying to you right from the first time I met you?" Nicholas asked Rafael as he eyed him suspiciously, still unable to believe he would be this understanding.

"I don't. I mean, if I was in your position, I would do the same thing... probably worse so I don't blame you for the decision you took." Rafael explained.

"And to show you we are really sincere, we want to hand over our rights to the company to you." Rcahel said.

"What??" Catherine uttered in surprise.

"You are much more better than me at ruling the company and I know I stand no chance against you so we've both decided to hand over our shares to you so it would be easier to take over the company as long as you don't come after us." Rafael explained.

Catherine stared at Nicholas and noticed he still looked suspicious. He had a valid reason to be as their surrender was just too quick. He expected them to at least, fight back a little and then lose.

After much contemplation and a small nudge from Catherine, he decided to accept their offer and the rest of the dinner became light hearted like there wasn't a serious discussion before.

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Richard stared at all four of them from a far distance and watched as they dined together happily. This wasn't what he expected to happen when he told Rafael about what he had found.

He had expected a fight to break out and then their patnership would end, giving him a chance to strike them all. He never in his entire life thought that Rafael and Rachel would dine so happily with the enemy.

He would have attacked Nicholas sister instead but there were too many guards around her, making it really hard for him to even go near her. He was lucky enough to even find out she existed.

"What a weakling!!" He muttered as he glared at Rafael.

Now that there was no secret between them, it would be really hard to come in between them and that only make them stronger than they were. He couldn't let them take over the company.

Over his dead body he would ever let that happen. He just needs to find another way to sever their ties for good.