CHAPTER THIRTY;Meeting At Last--Weekend came.Althea was busy preparing to leave and telling her staff that they could have the day off. They were delighted and didn't even ask why they were closing on the weekend. To be honest, Althea was a little disappointed but, well, she can't control them. She wore her grey sailor pants and partnered them with a white turtleneck top. She gathered her long blond hair on the back of her head in a high ponytail, exposing the small scar she had on the back of her left ear. She checked her face once more before wearing her fancy purse and her white saddle shoes. She was ready to go.Satisfied with everything, she stepped down and entered her car. As she was about to turn the engine on, her phone vibrated. She fished it out and saw a familiar ID. It was Victoria.[Dear, I'm sorry, but can you both wait for me at the cafe? Something came up and I'll be late.]Althea let out a small chuckle. Victoria said she'd come too. Althea thought that it wa

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO; Something She Forgot -- It's early in the morning, and Althea is embarrassed as fuck. So embarrassed that she just wanted to stand up and flee. She can't even look at the smiling yet not-smiling bastard sitting in front of her. She can feel his gaze penetrating her body. She wants to snap at him and tell him to cut it out, but she needs to deal with the embarrassing situation she made for herself. She needs to get out of the hellhole she stepped in. She said she was meeting an important person just to ditch him, but who could have thought that it was him in the first place?! Important person? Plain bull-!!! She calmed the raging flame inside her. Althea again counted backward from ten. After that, she is more or less calmed—just a little ripple on the sea. The silence between them was deafening. There were other people in the cafe, but the surroundings were oddly quiet. Not that people just go around shouting and stripping inside a cafe. It was like the w

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR;A Phone Call--Althea received a text from Melanie, one of her staff in their main branch. She said in the text message that there was a problem- one of the staff in a certain branch defrauded her customer and stole the earnings in her shop. After that, she left the shop without any of the other staff noticing. Since then, the staff has been on the run. The crime didn’t come to light until the customer raised a ruckus in the shop, saying she’ll sue whoever runs the business. Because of this, she had to drive back in a hurry. She doesn’t want to because it only delays the business deal with the Browns. Also, if they still have many unfinished discussions, surely, they have to meet again for it. Something she wants to avoid the most. There’s no way she wants to meet him again. It would be nice if it’s only his mother, Victoria, but she can choose not to meddle in it because she only offers the help of her son. Not her personally. She can choose to decline, yes,

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX; A coincidence -- Althea was busy the whole week and the next thing she knew, it was already the day before her birthday. During this short period, many things happened, recruiting new part-time workers in the shop where the scammer was in, observing them work, and briefly teaching them things she knew. Because of that, she had to go back and forth from the city to that province. It was exhausting and mentally draining, but at least she didn't have to carry the burden of managing two shops. One was the main branch and the other was in the province—because Melanie was there. She's indeed efficient, just like what Emily told her. She carried half the burden Althea was about to carry. She also took the initiative to look after their somehow airhead cleaner. Also, during these times, Victoria visited her shop with a grin of something she failed to understand. She will just smile back and briefly glance at her back, then look away and drag her eyes back toward

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT;Birthday—ARC FIVE:Shrouded in Mysteries—The sound of the broken glasses invited silence in all of them. Victoria widens her eyes in shock while Jack and Melanie share glances. Tyler, on the other hand, has his brows furrowed as he watched Althea pale from the shock of his mother's question.The question, too, shocked all of them, especially Jack and Melanie. They never thought that their boss's parents were already dead. What's more, it's both of them.It might not be shocking, because she's not the only one who lost all of her parents after all. But the two of them always thought that her parents were alive. No wonder Althea never talked about them before.Tyler was also shocked, but he didn't say anything. With his eyes, he just observed her every movement.Victoria was also wondering, she's wondering why Althea reacted like this to the mere mention of her parents' death, but she can ask again bluntly. She, more or less, caused this (but really, she's the