"It is you, right," the guy smiled and said to her, and she strode past him like she didn't even hear him say anything. 'Geez! Who was he anyway and what was he doing there? It would not do her any good if he recognized her as the heiress from the party,' Zoe wondered furiously, as she tried not to roll her eyes disdainfully. "Hi, it is me. Remember me from the party?" He asked her again with a bubbly and bright smile, as he turned and followed after her instantly so as to get her attention. "I don't know you," she murmured under her breath and gritted her teeth, while thinking of possible ways to get him off her neck as she continued to walk away. Even the sweet scent of his cologne made it hard to get angry effectively because it smelled so soothing. "Hunhhh. Your face tells me that you remember me," he smiled at her again and walked beside her so elegantly, looking like they were perfectly matched to one another. Her mind remembered the same thing she had seen rich people do, w
The past days over the weekend were hectic for Zoe, as her late nights and early mornings blurred together in an unwavering dedication to studying everything that was acquainted with the nuances of her role. Considering her level of experience and knowledge, she didn't find it quite easy because of how complex the ANCLAIR corporation was. It was known as the top conglomerate in the city which could never falter from its position. Though it was intended by Francis to lay her off indirectly if she was not able to land them the company buyout project, she had done better than he had expected her to ever be able to do, and was willing to do more regardless. She didn't care whatever his initial intentions were, concerning the skepticism of entrusting his company into her hands, because she had many plans in mind to execute. And to carry them out, she needed power. By Monday of the next week, the stocks of ANCLAIR conglomerate corporation had risen even more than they had done in the past
"You look nervous, Ivy. Do you want to ruin this recital?" Isla muttered irritatedly as she strode into the dressing room, where Ivy was sitting with her head hung down. She was dressed in a beautiful, moonlit white silk dress, which was adorned with intricate laces, embroidery and shiny pearls, which shimmered under the bright light in the room. She looked like a broken celestial being in her seated position, as she raised her eyes, which mirrored deep sadness. "Why wouldn't I be, Isla? You know that I shouldn't be sitting here. I shouldn't! I am not ready for this!" Ivy clamoured angrily to her sister, even when she knew that there was nothing that she could do about it. "Since when have you not been ready?! Since you spent more than one year lazing around while your mates were climbing at the peak of their music careers?!" Ivy glared contemptuously at her with no words to say to her, because she would not have come there in the first place if their mother had not asked her to c
Things had gone crazy just one day after Ivy had been exposed, and was arrested after her recital for fraudulent charges involved in her career. Though she was released in less than two hours after her arrest because of her family's favor, her image had taken the worst turn on the internet as people tore her to pieces with their words. To make everything worse and unbearable, Malcolm and his assistant, who usually took care of messes like that effortlessly, were on a business trip. It made things even worse than they were supposed to be. The incident also caused a lot of losses for them because they had to refund everyone that paid the expensive ticket prices, the hall that was rented for hundreds, and the fine that was paid to bail her out and settle everything. Still, her image had taken a tank on social media, as she became a face for frustrated people to lash at. Especially those that didn't know her before, but heard she was part of a multi-billionaire conglomerate family. "
A stunning young lady alighted from the luxurious white car which pulled in front of the tall, majestic, imposing six-star hotel, with her every move exuding grace and authority. Dressed in a tailored designer suit that accentuated her figure and elegance, Zoe made her way into the building casually, with Gary close to her. No one in the hotel was informed of her presence as wished, and she made her way inside without drawing too much attention to her arrival. As she walked through the hotel's grand lobby, she could not help but draw attention to herself, regardlessly, even if many didn't realize who she was. Zoe took her time to examine and observe everything that was going on in the hotel, as she and Gary took the elevator together, while he explained everything that she needed to know about the hotel as one of their newest subsidiary companies. He showed her everything from the presidential suites, to the fine dining restaurants, spa, gym, private beach and golf course club cent
Zoe tiredly made her way home after a long and hectic day she spent at the hotel, observing every account statement of Pheng Hotel for the past months. It turned out that there was some mismatch of transaction numbers when she singlehandedly did the calculations herself, and the director, Mr. Mark was given an ultimatum of three days to fix everything that had gone wrong in the records. Failure to do that would land him in jail.With all the strength in her, she entered her room and kicked off her heels with a heavy sigh, while rubbing her temples with a circular and gentle motion. It was to seek relief from the persistent ache that throbbed in her eyes and head. Barely stepping out of her dress, she slumped onto the softness of her bed as it made a light dip from her weightless body, and craved the solace of rest beckoning to her weary body. Her mind moved in a daze, which was dulled by the persistent fatigue that clung to her relentlessly, and her mind wandered back to the thoughts
With anxiety and a sense of urgency, Zoe checked the phone number that sent the message to her phone and dialed it instantly. With her fingers trembling unnoticeably, she waited patiently for the person at the other side to pick up the call, while contemplating on what she would say to start the conversation. "I thought you would not call," she heard the obnoxious voice from the other side of the phone, and Zoe could swear that she felt her head spin dizzily at the words of the person she could never mistake for another. She didn't even need to ask how he got her phone number. "You bastard!" Her lips trembled as they shot out words of despise, as the veins of her neck stood out in livid ridges. She stood up from where she was sitting sharply like a controlled marionette, and began to walk to her living room where she could stare at her surroundings through her floor-to-ceiling window. She imagined tilting Malcolm from that point so high with his hands and legs tied, while watching
Ivy had not left the house for days ever since the scandal and all, because she could not risk being seen by any reporter that was still willing to get a direct news scoop from her. Though things had died down in just a few days, her career had taken a plunge, regardless of how hard her mother was trying to help her minimize the damages. The few big commercials that she had featured in through her mother's connection and help, had taken down her images and videos from their advertisement pages to minimize problems for their companies because of her scandal. She also had to pay for the damages for cancelation of contracts due to her misconduct. Following Audrey's call to the school was Aaron's withdrawal instead of expulsion to prevent the issue from escalating more than it had done, and for it not to tarnish the image of the Meyers more than it has been messed with in just a day. However, she didn't have it easy with Irina, who had heard of the news already.The air in the elegant
The air in Malcolm's office was filled with so much tension the moment he let his sister, who had come to momentarily disrupt his schedule, in. It had been days since they saw each other, ever since the unfortunate incident that almost cost her life. He had been expecting that she would come to see him after the information he had gotten about what she had been up to for the past few days, and unlike before, he didn't even give her the chance to speak first, before he lashed at her. “Do not come and shout in my office like you have been going around doing!” He warned gravely as soon as she stormed into his office, with all of her entirety quivering uncontrollably. “You know well that I should not keep calm at all!” She glared at him, “You of all people, know that I deserve to rant. At least if you treated me like trash, I should have one thing for myself!” “Why, in the name of everything sane, do you keep running back to fight with them?!” he demanded, his words seething with ange
Malcolm Meyer sat on the plush leather armchair in the living room of his new home in a faraway estate from the city that whispered wealth in every detail, from the vaulted ceilings which held huge modern diamond five-tier chandelier whose lights art reflected on the ebony floors of the huge mansion, to the floor-to-ceiling windows and perfect walls that were lined with first editions arts and rare artifacts.For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he allowed himself to sink into the quiet of his living room right after he returned from work and took a warm bath, instead of retiring to his room as usual. As he swirled the colorless wine in the wine glass he was holding and took a slow sip at each unconsciously calculated rhythm, his thoughts could not help but drift to the one person he had seen by chance earlier that day at a conference meeting. And even though they didn't get the chance to talk, and he just got to watch her from afar, he was relieved that she had risen f
Dressed in a white silk robe that blinked and waved smoothly in the direction of the wind, Irina Meyer lounged on the chaise longue in her private suite at Le AVARSON wellness resort, as she basked in the lights of the sun's rays that seeped in through the wide, floor-to-ceiling windows. On her right was a crystal glass filled with freshly pressed grapefruit juice on the side table, and right before her face was a fashion magazine which she buried her eyes in, as her right hand occasionally flipped to the next page. However, her mind was barely on what she was reading. It was deep in the thoughts of the confrontation with Andre earlier in her room that morning, and the words she hadn't expected that she would say to him. Though she felt a little guilty that she had smacked him hard with the bitter truth, her face scrunched up with the unwillingness to go and appease him as she continued to enjoy the peaceful repose of her environment. Irina was just beginning to let the peace of t
The door to the room slammed open with a crack like thunder, and Andre emerged from his room, his face a storm of furrowed brows and clenched jaws. The sound of his shoes clacked so hard as he strode down the hallway that led to Irina''s room, his breath coming out in uneven huffs, and his hands balling into fists at his sides. There was a wild urgency in his eyes amid a simmering frustration that seemed to radiate off him like heat, as he burst into his mother’s room without knocking. Irina, who was in her dressing room while getting ready to step out for an anniversary event, was visibly startled by the noise of the abrupt entrance in her room, as she rushed out instantly to see what the ruckus was all about. “Mother!” He called sharply, “Who else had been to that room?!” He demanded heavily, his voice heavy with anger and anxiety. “What do you mean?” Irina scrunched her eyebrows up in confusion, as she stared at him with questioning eyes, almost stumbling against the large s
Sitting slumped in his high-backed chair, with the city skyline stretching out beyond the window behind him, Andre’s hand rested heavily on the armrests of his chair, his chest rising and falling in shallow, controlled breaths, even if the storm that was brewing inside him was anything but calm.He had gotten yet another rejection. Another blow to his pride. He had poured days into crafting the new proposal, painstakingly aligning every detail with the vision he thought Malcolm wanted for their flagship company. And yet, the same words were delivered to him again. “It doesn’t fit our strategy.”The words rang in his ears, colder than the polished marble of the boardroom where they had been uttered, and he swore he almost punched Malcolm right at that moment in his face. He made him feel like a fool again! He effortlessly dismissed his proposal yet again. “You have to be very cautious. Though Malcolm is sitting back, he is watching you with his might! Do not make mistakes. Just wai
“You want to find out the truth too, don't you?” Zoe stared at the cryptic and blunt sentence that flashed in her eyes as soon as she slipped her phone out of her purse, when it sounded with a soft chime signaling the arrival of a new message. She had just stepped out of her car after they arrived at the underground parking lot of the mall, when she received the message that had her pausing on her tracks. Her heart skipped a beat and a cold shiver traveled down her spine immediately she read it, as her head turned sharply to the left and right, to see if the person who sent the message was somewhere around her. ‘Who could have sent this?’ She wondered, her eyebrows furrowing high in worry, as she tapped the screen on her phone, ready to reply to the message and ask who the person was. However, she restricted the urge to do that, cautioning herself that it was not the time for impulsiveness, as she slipped the phone back into her bag, straightened her blazer, and made her way t
Zoe returned home late in the night after a long day at work, had her bath, and changed clothes, before she went to the most quiet place in her house, which was tucked away in the farthest corner of her house, while carrying a bowl of neatly cut fruit in her hands, shortly after she went over some office papers in her study desk. Though feeling tired and stressed out with her entire body extremely sore, she knew she just had to visit the room to do a review of the last discovery she made. Turning on the light in the room, she moved to the wall by her Eastside, and instantly raised the white veil she had pulled over the series of photographs which were pinned in neat rows and newspaper clippings. Each was marked in red. Some had the letter ‘X’ written on it boldly and definitively, while others had circles drawn around faces in the pictures, and were connected with taut strings of thread that crisscrossed like a chaotic spider’s web.Carefully, Zoe sank onto the plush armchair that
Seated in her new office, which was a masterpiece of modern elegance, was Isla, whose aura of calculated grace radiated strongly in every corner of the room. Rather than the usual custom-made suits she usually donned to the office when she was still the CEO of Hila jewelry, she was wearing a stunning turquoise blue dress, with its off-the-shoulder design this time around, revealing her delicate collarbones which were adorned with a simple but exquisite diamond necklace. However, regardless of how stunning she looked, her face was bunched into a disdainful mark, her left fingers tapping rhythmically on the table and her mind momentarily lost in some other place, as her eyes constantly darted to her phone which was before her. Barely a few minutes later, while still seething uncontrollably, her phone began to ring, and she quickly snatched it from the table. Instantly, her lips, which were painted in rich, pepper-red lipstick, curled into a smirk, as a hint of malice instantly flicke
ZOELVA’s luxurious structure, erected tall, reflected the shining bright lights of the afternoon sun from the east, with its luxurious designs radiating across the core and surroundings far and beyond the huge city. Inside, shoppers went from floor to floor, wandering wide corridors that were lined with top-tier brands, with staff moving around to guide and direct everyone in the most orderly manner. Groups of families made their way to food stands, their laughter and shouts mingling with the savory scents of sizzling burgers, crispy pizza, and sweet, sticky treats. On another side, fashion enthusiasts, elites, and socialites were gathered around numerous designer boutiques, their eyes fixed longingly on the glossy displays of haute couture, while others anticipated getting their hands on the most sophisticated top-notch tech devices. Amid the crowd’s awe and excitement and the hubbub of purchasing endlessly and engaging so many sections in the mall, a moment of stillness fell int