Chapter I

"Yes, I am on my way to the post office. The package will be delivered in five days or so. Would that be okay?"

Stopping at the side of a busy street in São Paulo, Emily turned to the side of an alley and picked up the call from her lawyer right the moment her phone vibrated in her bag.

"Good job! You made our work a lot easier. Do you know that? Oh, by the way, the next hearing is next week. Your presence here is very much needed, Ms. James, even if it is your friend's parents taking her custody. Do you want me to book a ticket for you?"

"I still need Grandpa's signature, ma'am." She started walking and tried hard to keep her voice even. "He knows that I am here, but he didn't allow me in his home or even let his butler tell me where they admitted Dad this time."

Emily's father raised her since she was little. He was always there for her whenever she needed him.

For Emily's happiness, Mr. James could give her the whole world, and he even married a woman at his daughter's wishes. But Emily couldn't be there. She lost her right to be with her father when she chose to leave her home with her three-year-old sister, Cheryl.

Advocate Winchester sneered. "I wish I could take some legal action against that man, but that would delay the process."

"And I don't want my sister to suffer more," Emily sounded deadpanned. "I will keep you updated if I get anything we could use to win the case. I might be late, but I will come back soon. Please help my friend's parents to get her custody no matter what."

"We will win this case, Emily. But you have to give me your word. No matter what happens, you will not remove the locket I gave you." Her eyes traveled down from the silk stole around her neck, and she found the locket she had on inside her shirt. "Keep your phone close to you. Call that number on your speed dial immediately if you feel like you're in danger, alright?"

Emily cut the call and held her bag close to her chest tightly.

The envelope in her bag would decide her sister's destiny. It didn't matter to the court that she had dropped her career as a professional swimmer and worked in three different places to earn more to provide for that girl.

From a distance, Emily caught a familiar model of the Cadillac XTS coming towards the stoppage where she had been standing for the last couple of minutes. Her grandpa usually traveled in that same black car. Could it be him?

Her mood lit up instantly when she remembered she still had those papers with her where she needed his signature to get her mother's share that she had in Dad's company.

It was shameless of her to demand her stepmother's assets, but she needed that money desperately to get my sister back in her life.

Emily started walking toward the car, keeping her eyes on the windshield.

The car suddenly slowed down with a jerk as it halted with a screeching sound at a distance, making her heart rate spike up in dreading anticipation. She moved closer to get a better view of the passengers inside, at least as she had seen all of her grandpa's drivers in his mansion in this city, but it killed all her hopes effortlessly when she didn't see any familiar faces in the driver's seat of that car.

After reasoning with herself, Emily walked by the side of one of the streets of São Paulo and stopped only four feet from that Cadillac XTS. Though she couldn't see who was sitting in the back seat from that distance, she felt in her skin that he was watching her. And that look she got from the bulky person in the passenger seat was enough to have her heart jump in her throat.

The light in her eyes soon dimmed when she saw a suited man in his late twenties on that seat, and her face fell in dismay before she could stop herself. Though that tinted black glass didn't let her notice that man's expression in the backseat, the jaded burn on her face made it obvious she pissed him off for good.

Emily left the stoppage far behind her, but she couldn't bring herself to turn around and go back because that car was still there. The driver was outside, checking the tires and the engine, maybe because their car broke down, and then she saw the bus stand become crowded suddenly as the suited man finally stepped out of the car with that scary-looking tall bodybuilder guy in the passenger seat.

A frown married on her face when people took out their phones and began taking shots of that platinum blonde-haired man.

"Gosh! Guys! Look who we have here!"

"Argh! This can't happen!!! May I take a picture with you?"

"Can we have your autograph? I am so glad to see you, Bash."

Some starry-eyed Portuguese beauties even came forward with a pen and pad, but that man's eyes were not on them but on Emily. And he didn't look pleased to see Emily at all, yet he ran his gaze boringly on her from head to toe, which was downright creepy.

Gulping hard, Emily looked away from him and freaked out when that cold-faced celeb was making his way toward her.

Her knees began to shake in dread. The strap of her bag turned wet from the sweat on her hands. She held her breath, and her desperate eyes looked for a cab, but they were full of passengers, and even if they didn't have one, they wouldn't stop for her.

Suddenly she caught sight of a bus coming which wouldn't pass by the street close to the post office, yet she decided to take it to avoid that possible danger. Waving her hand, Emily made that bus halt and took the stairs quickly, intending to sit close to a group of passengers on both sides. Though the bus wasn't full of travelers, she found only one vacant seat available there, so she took that.

Just when she thought she would get away from that man, her heart dropped in her stomach when he took the bus with that stud. She fixed her gaze on the striped bag in her lap, not wanting him to see her, but she felt him approaching, and he stood just by her seat.

Her throat went dry in fear.

She moved closer to her seatmate, even though she knew that lady wouldn't be much help because she was asleep. The group before and behind her were in a heated discussion and were oblivious to the presence of this celebrity here traveling with us on that bus.

Emily peeked at this man standing by her seat and hiccuped to see him in a black face mask with dark glasses.

  

His car broke down, so he had to take that bus. Anyone in his place would have done the same too.

To terrorize someone who didn't know about his identity couldn't bring him here, right?

  

He didn't say anything or even react, which was a relief. And Emily started to let her guard down and looked toward the window.

A few stoppages later, Emily's seatmate stirred from her seat and got up after shoving her headphones in her bag. Quite naturally, she shifted to the window seat, as that one had always been her favorite, well, of course, excluding the flight, as she had a fear of heights, and then, in the meantime, she forgot about that man who now took hers with no good intentions in his eyes.

She suddenly jolted in her seat when she heard the man whose existence she momentarily forgot, believing he wasn't a threat to her.

"You live here?"

Emily choked on her saliva.

"Y-yes," Releasing the breath she had to hold for a while, she asked after forcing him a smile, "Why, sir?"

"Do you know this area?"

That man showed her a written address in red ink on the paper, taking it out of his chest pocket.

Her throat again went dry when it turned out the bar she worked at night.

She felt my palms getting sweaty because that ink was also triggering.

"I have a friend to meet. Where is the next train station, if I may ask?"

He sounded polite, and that was enough to put her at ease.

"Oh...this bus will take you directly, but you have to wait for nearly two hours as it covers most of the streets of this entire city." Getting a grip on herself, Emily suggested to him, "Better if you take a cab after seven stoppages from here...if you are in a hurry."

"Guess I have to take your advice now..."

He sighed and took that note away from her.

Emily didn't think of the need to press the matter more. As she was about to turn her gaze back to the window, she froze when he said in a deep baritone voice with his mouth very close to her, "Even though you are the first woman who looked at me in disappointment, I can't be that mean to you now that you have helped me with the address, can I ?"

Her blood ran cold with fear.

"E-excuse me?"

She was petrified of how smooth his voice sounded. The color of his eyes behind those dark shades he had on wasn't possible for her to see, but she felt how cold they were as he lingered on her face.

Judging by how pale her face was from not having a proper meal for the last few days, he mistook that for her fear that she felt intimidated by him, so he chuckled with a scoff and took out his phone while relaxing in that seat.

His brows knitted when he tapped on the screen several times, but it didn't open. Pressing the power button on the side of his iPhone, he tried to unlock it, and the result was the same. Emily turned her head to the other side with an expression of oblivion.

Her eyes enlarged when her cell phone vibrated in her bag.

She squirmed when that man cursed loudly, groaning in annoyance, "Oh, man! My phone is dead now. Can I use yours?"

Gripping her bag tight, Emily looked at him...and that didn't go unnoticed by him. It made him sneer at me, "It's from my mom. I want to call. She must be worried about me as she knows how I hate to lose. I lost my deal today to my competitor, you know."

That look on his face made her feel like she was the one to blame for having a bad day. And that boiled her blood.

Lowering her gaze, Emily lied through her teeth, "I don't have a phone."

"You don't!" He laughed drily. "Then whose phone is vibrating in that handbag then?"

Goosebumps erupted on her skin when she found his eyes on her bag.

Dear lord.

He must have heard that sound when she received a text a while ago. "The recharge plan has expired, I mean."

Emily didn't lie to him but knew he wouldn't buy that.

"Oh? That's bad!" He sounded like he was concerned about her. Though what I said was the half-truth, it turned things even creepier when he played with his expensive handset, tossing and twisting causally like he wouldn't care if that broke, and then he laughed in amusement. "How poor can someone be to do monthly recharge on her number." Bringing his face closer, he asked in curiosity, "Or is it your daddy who caught you stalking people like us, so he chose this hard way to put a leash on his little girl?"

She would have thought he was talking about the monthly allowance some parents give their children, but it didn't sound like that.

He meant something way too dirty, and an instant of disgust rose in her heart for him.

Glaring at that man, Emily stood up, "Move right away."

But he didn't take the hint.

She regretted the moment she chose the window seat when she had that creep on her side.

"How old are you?" He asked, tilting his head at her.

His gaze on her body made me uncomfortable, so she spat, clutching her bag tight, "Old enough to throw a harassment case at you."

"That I can do too...for stalking me all the way here? The footage there with you circling my car would make it obvious."

Her cheeks turned as white as a sheet after hearing him. His no-nonsense confession screamed she would be in trouble. He could use that street footage to put her behind the bar skillfully, but why did he keep calling her a stalker? He was the one who followed her there on the bus and stood by her seat. He even asked her for her phone! Didn't he have his gym guy here with him? That question made her look up, only to look down, seeing that stud standing a few rows before our seat, watching her like she was some criminal.

"But don't worry, lass. I'll not do that," His voice took her out of the trance. Moving his body slightly to the other side, he cleared her way to leave that seat and said huskily, "It is not my thing to punish pretty little girls like you. And. . .do get a real job next time."

She stared at him blankly.

"Thanks for your concern, but I suggest you get a life, sir!" Before getting off that bus, she thought about giving him a reality check. So, she brought her face close to him and smiled genuinely at him as she said, "The universe doesn't revolve around you."

His expression darkened behind those dark glasses and black face masks. Those heavy breaths said that all.

Before he got another chance to make any snarky remark, the bus halted before a stoppage, and Emily jogged down the bus.

Emily felt his eyes when she took the next bus. Turning around, she waved at him and hoped she would never see him again.