“This is very lousy auditing. You’re fired”, Ian deadpanned and threw the papers in his hand on the floor. This wasn’t the first time this branch had audited lazily. He knew there was a launderer somewhere and he would fish the person out even if it was the last thing he did.“Ah Zhen, Kevin”, he called as he walked out of the office of his prime suspect, the police would be coming over to do their jobs soon. The man wasn’t the only embezzler. They took advantage of their ridiculous location to do their dirty work and the people he often sent were not thorough enough in their search. They most likely hadn’t expected Ian himself to come to their branch.Yu Zhen came up behind him, looking tired as hell. Kevin had long since given up looking put together. “Close down this branch. Permanently. Check out the good employees and transfer them to the closest branch.” If there was Ian thing Ian valued it was useful people and he wouldn’t let the innocents take the fall for the evil ones.Yu

In the dimly lit confines of Leon's secluded office hideaway, Ashley's senses were on high alert. The room felt like a cage, its walls seemingly closing in on her. Leon, her captor, rambled on about subjects that were inconsequential to her heightened state of anxiety. His voice, a relentless drone, filled the room with a suffocating tension.He was truly crazy.As Leon prattled on, Ashley's mind became a whirlwind of thoughts, desperately searching for any avenue of escape. Her eyes darted around the room, examining every detail. The windows, once overlooked, seemed to hold a glimmer of hope. They were high and seemingly unyielding, but the mere sight of them ignited a spark of determination within Ashley.The room itself was a tapestry of shadows, the dim lighting casting an eerie glow on the impersonal decor. Leon's monologue, a seemingly endless stream of words, resonated in the background. He seemed oblivious to Ashley's internal turmoil, engrossed in the sound of his own voice.

"Oh my goodness! Ashley are you o- LEAVE ME ALONE YU ZHEN, Ashley are you okay?!", Rita bounded over to Ian the moment he got out of the door."Am I actually married to this asshole?", Ashley asked seriously, not removing her head."I take offense at that", Ian grumbled.“Yes you are, how are you feeling?”, Rita asked frantically.“I’m great, there’s nothing wrong with me!”, Ashley glared at everyone at the same time.Yu Zhen threw a look to Ian in confusion.“Short term memory loss”, Ian said simply, still holding the strangely calm woman. Ian walked down to the elevator and pressed the buttons after Yu Zhen, Chloe and Rita came along.“Prove you’re my husband”, she looked at him calculatively.“How?”“My husband would know!”, she exclaimed triumphantly. She didn’t actually expect him to know. She was convinced she was actually married to him because those photos were absolutely not photoshopped, she took one, she could remember taking one of them, but why would she get married to Ia

‘Spoilt brat’, Ashley thought and buttoned her top fully again. She was a little glad that she didn’t have to sleep with him. It was jarring to be carried by her worst enemy – fine, exaggeration – and even more jarring to be married to said enemy.“We don’t get intimate”, Ian said calmly. The day had been one of the most horrible days for him and he was ready for it to end. Ashley being stubborn was counterproductive to the quick end of the day.“I can see why”, Ashley taunted and leveled him with a ridiculing gaze that seemed to be aimed pointedly at his lower half. Ian did not respond to taunts. Ian was dignified. Ian would lay on the bed and wait for her peacefully.“What’s that supposed to mean?”, he asked, standing at his full height, towering over her easily. The height difference was so large that no one could even see that Ashley was in the room if they were looking from behind Ian.Ashley, never one to back away from challenges, stood to her full height too. Unfortunately it

Ashley came out of the bathroom, peeking first to see if Ian was in the room and sped into the closet he had walked into previously, she would at least find something she could wear there. Cementing the fact that she was apparently married to the man was the amount of female clothes in her size in the closet. She gaped and rotated as she looked up and rows of clothes met her line of sight everywhere she turned. She had never seen so many clothes at once. The big sized shirts dwarfed the female ones and she furrowed her brows at the fact that she and Ian shared the closet.Ian didn’t seem like someone anyone voluntarily shared anything with, she wondered what possessed her. She wondered even more what possessed him. Ian Hills and Ashley Toma, the weirdest pairing alive. She wondered how he even wooed her to acceptance with his soily attitude. She picked out what looked most comfortable and sat on the bed, successfully subsiding her unbidden thoughts of her best friend’s brother – her