Rejection.

The next morning, Alexandra woke up with a banging headache. She turned slowly to see Cassidy all sprawled on the bed beside her. She sighed slowly as she got up from the bed, wondering how she and Cassidy got into the room.

After washing her face, Alexandra walked to the counter to pick up her phone.

"Oh my God. It's 10am." She gasped as she saw the time and rushed out of her room. Jade and Jace were already late for school since a long time.

"Jace!" She called as she rushed into their room, only to meet the bed empty.

"Jace?"

"Jade?" She called out but no response, then her eyes suddenly caught the note on the bed.

"We weren't late, mommy. We actually called aunt Doreen with your phone and she'll take us to school. So you can rest assured and go on a date with aunt Cassidy." She read out aloud and chuckled.

"Go on a date with Cassidy? Seriously?" She muttered as she smiled, arranging their bed slowly. She then remembered that they wouldn't have anything to eat at school and she sighed, deciding to make food and take to them.

Upon getting to the kitchen, she saw another note.

"I know you'll be trying to make us breakfast. But don't worry, I took your black card from your purse and sure enough, we'll be buying whatever we want. Don't scold me, remember I'm sick. Xoxo, Jade."

"Jade!!!!!" Alexa screamed and gasped afterwards, holding her head tightly as her headache hit her harder.

"Is she trying to take my life?" She muttered after a while.

*~*~*~

Walking into her office with her suit and palazzo pants in matching colours, Alexa ordered for coffee.

Doreen came in almost immediately, even before Alexandra could have her seat.

"Good morning ma." She greeted politely.

"Oh my God, Doreen. I'm really sorry. " Alexa shook her head slowly, walking to her.

"For what, ma'am?" Doreen asked.

"I mean, I had to stress you last night and I also had no idea Jace and Jade called you to take them to school. I'm really sorry for all the stress." She apologized sincerely and Doreen smiled slowly.

"Actually, you don't have to be sorry as you can give me something else in return." She said and Alexa raised her brow.

"Okay....and what's that?" She asked, going to her seat.

Doreen slowly placed a file with a dark cover on the table before Alexandra, pursing her lips as she did.

"This is the best proposal of the year. Money will keep on swimming in if this collaboration works out." She said.

"What Collab?" Alexa asked and stretched her hands, picking the file up. Doreen immediately closed her eyes, expecting Alexa's response as she opened to the first page.

"Doreen." Alexa called as she dropped the file back on the desk slowly.

"I told you, Doreen." She started slowly.

"I don't want to have anything to do with Glamour Holdings."

Doreen's shoulders dropped immediately as she heard those words and she opened her eyes slowly.

"The proposal has been changed. They want us to design their hotel's workers wears, motel's, gym wear and even the restaurant's workers in addition to being the main source of their dress designs in their modelling institute. This is huge. We can't miss this." She explained.

"Doreen!" Alexa raised her voice a little bit.

"I don't care if they are going to give us the hotel completely, I'm not going to sign this proposal, whether they like it or not. We are not the only fashion institute out there. There are thousands who would create wonderful designs. Look, Doreen, as long as it's Glamour Holdings, I'm not giving a chance." She ended the conversation immediately.

Doreen was about to speak again when her phone suddenly vibrated and Alexa sighed, facing her computer immediately.

"Ma'am?" Doreen called and showed her the screen.

"It's Mr Jordans." She said.

*~*~*~

After trying to work the whole morning without being able to concentrate, Liam decided to call Doreen. He wanted her to help him set a meeting with Alexandra. It wasn't really about the contract but actually because he wanted to see her. He wanted to know exactly why Alexa was back. He had a hard time sleeping yesterday as his mind kept on getting interrupted by her voice, her eyes and the cold way she looked at him last night.

"Good morning, Mr Jordans." Doreen's professional came out through the speaker.

"Good morning, Miss Doreen Walker." He replied and Doreen smiled.

"You can just call me Doreen sir." She said politely.

"If you are calling to confirm the result of your proposal, I'm sorry but it has been rejected and my boss specifically asked me to tell you not to send any proposals again." She said quickly, hoping to end the call as soon as possible, because she also felt bad that they were rejecting such a beautiful offer.

"I wasn't calling for that, Doreen. I wanted to know if Ale...your boss...would be available to set up a meeting." He corrected quickly.

Doreen blinked slowly as she turned to stare at Alexandra who was paying so much attention to her computer, it almost looked like she was forcing herself not to listen to their conversation.

"I'm sorry, but you know no one knows the CEO and if she not ready to introduce herself, it'll be impossible to arrange that." She said.

"Tell her it's Liam. I need to speak with her. Please." He said.

"I'll give you a response, sir." Doreen said and ended the call. She didn't want to prolong the discussion as she already knew what the response would be, a big fat NO!

Liam sighed as he heard her last response and the beep signifying the call was ended. It seemed like he also knew the answer to his request but he had hope that maybe, maybe she might just say yes.

He got distracted by Eugene's knocking and he sighed, leaving the floor to ceiling window where he was standing to his table.

"Did you get anything, Eugene?" He asked slowly and Eugene nodded, wondering how to break the exciting news to him.

"After pulling an all nighter and using all the secret connections I could get with your influence, sir, I found a blur picture of her in the internet." He said, placing the tablet in front of Liam. Liam raised a brow as he was clearly not seeing anything, except the outline of her face and hair.

"What is this, Eugene?" He asked, getting irritated.

"Apparently, one of her workers had tried to capture her face but failed woefully in that attempt. I sent it to the digital industry and after washing the picture, they found out who it was." Eugene said and scrolled to the next page, handing it to Liam. Sure enough, it was Alexa looking as natural as ever while standing on the staircase.

"Mrs Alexandra Jord...I mean, Chapman." Eugene said and Liam sighed.

"Did you already know, sir?" Eugene asked surprised by his reaction. He expected Liam to be shocked by the news but instead he wasn't.

"She kept her business and normal life so separate, how did you..." Eugene shook his head, admiring his boss suddenly.

"Then I bet you already know she has two kids, Jace and Jade." He blurted.

"What?"