Getting rid of Rebecca and Andrew should have been satisfying but for some reason, Gemma felt nervous. She knew that it wouldn't take much more to pin Yvonne down but the closer she was to doing it, the more scared she was Yvonne could have come up with plans to counter her attacks.
She read through all the information she could find about Yvonne. Her plan with Noah had not been successful because Gemma ruined it by exiling Olivia, but she could easily come up with another one. She scanned through all of Yvonne's details while highlighting anything that could be of help. "What are you doing?" Livian appeared behind her and kissed her neck from the back. She smiled and swung her chair so she would turn around to face him. She had not been expecting him to drop by. "You are here." He kissed her lips gently. "My wife promised to be home soon but I got impatient waiting for her, so I decided to check on her." He feigned disapp"I am not going to discuss such things over the phone with you." Gemma lazily leaned into her seat and put the phone on speaker to let Livian know that she had successfully driven Yvonne up the wall.Yvonne sighed audibly into the phone. "Fine. See you tomorrow at 10am. I'll pick you up from your office.""Oh no, you don't." Gemma shook her finger as though she was saying no to a little girl. "You don't get to decide where and when we meet. You will meet me at Gem Bliss's employee cafeteria at 1pm. I'll leave if you are one minute late."She hung up before Yvonne could answer her."Why would you meet her at your workplace?" Livian asked her when the call ended.Gemma placed her phone on the table and rushed over to him, sitting on his lap. She wrapped her arms around him and he held her waist to support her. "Because I intend to save as much time as possible. Besides, if she doesn't show up, I can just go back to work easily." She smi
"Drop your nonsense and get to the point." Yvonne was irritated.Gemma reclined in her chair while ignoring the latter's rant. She wanted to mess with Yvonne a lot more but she knew that if she took it too far, it might just bring out the opposite effect of what she desired.Yvonne glared at her and looked like she was about to leave and deal with it as enemies."I only have one condition, Yvonne." Gemma closed the menu and focused on the woman in front of her. "Stay out of my life and I will stay out of yours.""Fine." Yvonne rolled her eyes. "If that's all, I will be on my way now.""Not so fast." Gemma interrupted her before she could stand to leave. "If you change your mind and decide to cause any trouble for me, I will do the police a favor and help them catch you.""Whatever." Yvonne slung her handbag on her shoulder."I'll take that as a yes." Gemma yelled after her and laughed at the latter's frustr
After having their meal, Livian offered to walk Gemma to her office. He pressed the button for her floor and turned to ask, "How can you be certain that Yvonne's parents will not cause you any sort of trouble? You dealt with her but what about her supporters?"She didn't need to think about it. "She certainly doesn't want to risk offending me. She will convince her parents and supporters to stay away from me and if she doesn't, we might both go to hell but she will burn much harder." She was sure that no matter what skeletons she had in her closet, she couldn't beat Yvonne at it—not that she was proud of the comparison.She arrived to an email on her desktop. Yvonne had asked to call it a truce. That had gone much smoother than she expected and it couldn't get any better.She showed the email to Livian who looked pleased as well. "She agreed fast. It's a little too fast for a woman who vowed to turn the world upside down in her quest to seek ve
The interviews would have been much smoother if most of the interviewees had read through the requirements and checked whether or not they qualified for the job. After interviewing two candidates who thought they could still do a good job despite not having studied the complementary courses that had been mentioned on the advertisement, she had to deal with a lunatic who claimed to be able to be an executive assistant just because she had been a secretary in a different field before.Some of the interviewees didn't even know what position they wanted as long as it paid the bills and others were overly passionate. After what felt like a hundred interviews that were probably only ten, she needed a cold drink, a massage from Livian and a cold shower, not necessarily in that order.She looked up when the next interviewee came in. Just as she dreaded, she was yet another weirdo. She had written all the answers on her palms and read them out randomly whether or not th
Why would the fire department call her? The reason was obvious, which was why she couldn't stop the ball of unease from forming in her gut."We sent a team to your house to confirm whether or not it was a real alarm and unfortunately, it was." He continued.Her heart sank. She had already guessed from the fact that he called that it was a real alarm. The fire fighting system would not have called the fire department if it didn't detect enough signs of a fire."What's the situation like right now?" She asked weakly."The team is still trying to put it in control. " He reported."What's wrong?" Livian jolted from sleep and held her."It's the fire alarm." She hung up and patted around looking for her dress.Knowing what she was looking for, he shuffled out of bed and brought it to her before taking his clothes to dress up."My house is on fire." She finally spoke out. She broke down even though she had not intended
"Cora." Gemma was still in denial after reading the note for the fifth time. She would try to find signs of a prank every time and when she didn't find any, she shook her head in disbelief."This can't be from Cora. Someone has to be playing a trick somewhere." She lamented.Livian had seen the content even though he had not intended to snoop.He placed his hand on hers. "No one is playing tricks.""Why would Cora ever do this to me? What would she gain?" She asked aloud, unable to find any reason for anyone to pretend to be her friend for an entire decade if the plan was to do such a thing. Why didn't she do it before? Why only now?Livian looked out at the road and felt disgust for himself. Why didn't he consider it before? Everything about Cora was a red flag but he didn't notice them even when they were being waved in his face._____Three months ago.Livian had finally gotten Gemma to marry him but he s
"Do you think she could really be that kind of person?" Gemma asked uncertainly when he stated that Cora had really sent the parcel after burning down her mansion.Livian hated to be the one to break it to her but he didn't have much choice. "Think about it, honey. The servants all had a reason or another to have been away from the mansion when the fire started and none of them seemed to have been lying. It's as if someone used your name to give orders to them. Who aside from you would have such access? "She hated to admit it but only Cora did. She had also found it strange that everyone thought they had been given orders by her."She was keeping them away because she didn't want to harm unrelated parties." She finally pieced it together but it got her even more confused. If Cora cared so much about the innocent, why would she attack her without rhyme or reason?They drove off to his house and she slumped into bed as soon as they got to his roo
Since she was not planning to hand the evidence over to the police, Rudolf guessed that she might want to do something dangerous. However, it was not his place to probe into her personal matters so he didn't ask further."I'll leave it to you then. You know that you can seek me for anything."She inwardly groaned. How many times had she heard those words? How many of the people who said them at every turn actually meant what they were saying?She chose not to respond to any of it.___Cora showed up soon after Gemma sent her an email. The latter had proposed to meet her at a hotel two days later but instead, Cora went to Gem Bliss the following day.The company was in an uproar as soon as the employees saw her. While the CEO was too terrifying for them to have the courage to ask anything, it was easier to approach Cora who had been revealed to be Gemma's close friend."Miss Cora, is it true that the fire was caus
Wendy had her eyes shut when he opened the bathroom door."What's the result?" He asked.She didn't intend to tell him without playing a guessing game with him, which he quickly found out. Luckily, it was only a two choice option."Is it positive?" He asked hopefully. She shook her head.His mood dimmed in the slightest but he still asked, "Is it negative?"She shook her head, and he was baffled. Was she going to make him have a gazillion options even though it was a question of yes or no?He tried again. "Were you unable to take the test?"She shook her head to that too, and he was about to ma
It had been several weeks since Mia learned the truth about the past but it was not in the slightest bit easier to bear. It was still hard to imagine that the woman she had hated all her life was also the one who had saved her life. She had not had the courage to tell Carlos about it. Maybe he already knew the truth but kept it to himself. It was probably one of the things that would become clear with time and she was not willing to pry into them before they naturally unfolded. It made her feel guiltier because they were growing closer by the day.They had agreed to be friends but spent a lot of time together, doing things that friends definitely wouldn't ever do—not that she was complaining.On Friday evening, she went to his office as soon as she clocked out. This was how it had been for weeks. He would either seek her or she would seek him, every day. They would either have dinner together or he would drop her off. On weekends—like today—they would coo
“What in the world…” Gemma was rendered speechless by the insanity she had just heard. “Why the hell would such a rule even exist?”The elderly lawyer had no definite answer to that, because it was not he who had written the will nor had he set the rules that his granddaughter was finding absurd. He could only hypothesize. “The old man didn't want his bloodline to go extinct. He had to set some rules, and you are lucky that he did not specify that you must have a son before inheriting his estate.”Gemma sighed when she imagined that such a thing was possible. She had not known her grandfather when he was alive, because her family was yet to find her when he passed away. From the tales she had heard about him from her parents and grandmother, she knew that setting such an absurd rule did sound like something he would do.Even so, it still made no sense when she thought about it. “But I'm a w
Mia translated the document and while she didn't think there was anything secretive about it that would make Carlos unable to give it to someone else, she got the work done within the deadline nonetheless. It was the only way to get him to stop seeking trouble. She hated having to do everything he asked of her but he was the boss and there was nothing she could do about it. At least not yet.He was still sitting at his desk when she returned."That took you half an hour,." He remarked when he saw her.She placed the folder on his desk. "I'm done." She muttered, wondering why he sounded like he was complaining when he had given her two hours. She had not even taken up half of the allocated time. Was he going to scold her for being too fast?"Thank you." He half whispered. It was the first time he was appreciating anything she did and she was baffled."You're welcome." She smiled. He was smiling back at her and for the first time as well. She not
She thought he would ask to spend more days of the week with her or something along the lines but what he said surprised her."Promise me that you will sue Declan and that you will definitely go through with it no matter what happens."She frowned. "How is that paying you back? It's in my favor either way." She looked at him in confusion. Did he have a misunderstanding about the meaning of paying back?"It does pay me back. It's a win-win situation for both you and me."She thought hard about it and still couldn't understand how that was remotely possible."Is it because the man who hurt the woman you love will be behind bars and you will no longer have to see his face around? or, do you have personal grudges with him? Are you planning to use his term in prison as a way to end him?He smiled at her vivid imagination. "It's nothing of the sort. Well, those would be added benefits of putting him behind bars but the main reaso
"You are so beautiful." Livian ran his hand down her shoulder and kissed her cheek. She would have thought that he was just saying it to get on her good side but when she met his gaze, she had to believe that he truly meant it. His eyes were filled with adoration and if it was humanly possible, his attraction for her seemed to have intensified after what they had just done.She purred like a comfortable kitten when he kissed her cheek. She was lying against his chest with her body half sprawled against his. She pulled her knee up against his thigh and it drove him crazy. He groaned in pleasure."You are insatiable." She chuckled. They had done it twice in a row and she was beginning to realize that it didn't take much for him to be hard again.He wrapped his arms around her waist and chuckled against her neck. "Who am I to blame for that? If the wife is too sweet, is it the husband's fault that he got addicted to her sweetness?"She looked
Liam and Wendy had a shotgun wedding and it was baffling to everyone. The first thing they had to do was fulfill a part of the contract, which was for Wendy to make an appearance in the Dumont family as his wife.Their plan was to pass off as a real couple but they were shocked when they found out that Gemma was not falling for it."The two of you broke up two years ago, didn't you?" She questioned them."We reconciled and realized that we didn't want to risk losing each other again, so we decided to get married." Liam held her hand.Gemma chuckled. "Or, Liam had his assistant get him a suitable wife for hire so he would be able to access the trust fund from his great grandmother and since his assistant couldn't get a suitable woman, you decided that it would be more believable if it was you and him getting married." Gemma teased."That's not…" Wendy didn't know how to defend herself."It's okay. It's perfectly
She was certain that if she chose to agree to the contract marriage, the money she would earn would be enough to pay all her debts including her rent. Forget paying rent. Even if she wanted to purchase the entire estate and kick the landlady out of the apartment complex, she would have the power to do so.She was only in such a predicament because she had a falling out with her parents and decided to leave.It was impossible to count the number of bosses and managers who had tried to take advantage of their position to sexually harass her.Even so, she did not regret her decision, nor was she going to bend her will for that man. She shrugged. Many of her problems would be solved once she received her salary from the diner.After eating her snacks, she took a shower and prepared to go to bed.…It was already 7pm and the traffic couldn't get any crazier. Wendy was already an hour late for her evening shift and she kne
Evenings were the busiest time of the day at the diner and when Wendy was finally done with her work for the day, it was already 7pm. Even so, she couldn't leave until her replacement who would be working the night shift arrived since it was a 24 hour restaurant.She glanced at her pocket watch in irritation. Alma, that bitch, was late again. What irked her was the fact that she knew Alma disliked her and she was doing it on purpose like she always did whenever she had to take over the night shift from Wendy.Clara had already changed out of her work uniform and sent it to the laundry, so she was ready to go. She offered a smile at Wendy as she made her way towards the back door. "Want to go home together? My boyfriend will pick me up. We can give you a ride. Go on and change, I'll wait for you."Wendy looked up from the orders she was preparing for a couple and their daughter, returning the smile. "It's alright. I'll take the subway." She was gratef