Chapt 6: The Game Begin

Abby and the man with a thick mustache and a brown leather coat wrapped around his body are now sitting in the same place as a few days earlier. The man suddenly asked to meet again, even though it was only two days ago that Abby received the results of his work.

Especially after Abby's defeat in the business war some time ago, the man happened to follow the news as well, making him impatient to convey the results of his investigation.

A smile spread across the side of Abby's face. The bright red lipstick on her lips added a dominant and perhaps antagonistic impression to most people who did not know her background.

The meeting didn't last long. The information she got from the detective was enough to point her in the right direction. All that was left was to plan the next step.

After the detective left, Abby picked up her cell phone, dialed a line of numbers, and waited for a response from the other side. She justified sitting down, folding her legs gracefully, as if she was about to come face-to-face with the other person. Her every move attracted the attention of the several pairs of eyes in the room looking at her unblinkingly.

"Hi, Zac. I just wanted to let you know that I accepted your invitation," Abby said with a faint smile.

"Wait, what? After all this time? Abby, you had me on edge, thinking you might be upset about my invitation. But thank God you accepted it. By the way, wait, what did you call me earlier? Zac? I think I like it," Zac joked, which managed to make Abby laugh.

"Come on... don't tease me," Abigail said, and this time she really blushed. However, she quickly brushed off the feelings that momentarily appeared to disturb her focus.

"Alright, sorry, I was just happy to see your flushed face. Well, I'll tidy up the apartment so that it won't be embarrassing when I have special guests."

Abigail closed the conversation with a short laugh, then left her place to prepare to fulfill Zac's invitation.

***

Zachary opened the door at the sound of the doorbell to find Abby standing in a cocktail dress with a bottle of champagne in her hand. A smile spread across his face as his eyes met the blue eyes of the woman before him.

He pecked Abby's cheek and then invited her in. Letting his special guest scan the room and wander around, he lit the candles arranged on the dining table. Abby slowly stepped closer to him, who was busy preparing everything.

"Hmm... did you prepare all this yourself?" Abby asked, which was met with laughter by the dimpled man standing next to her.

"Are you sure I'm a man who usually prepares everything himself, Abby? Of course not. The servants do all this."

Abigail looked at the man with one eyebrow raised.

"Why is your face like that? Sorry if I couldn't impress you at our first dinner," he joked to Abby's crisp laughter.

"You're right. Your good looks have suddenly gone down a notch, Zac, really." Abby covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hide her white teeth as she laughed.

"Ouch! You're too honest, and it hurts, you know?" Zac said, clutching his chest, then joined in the laughter.

Zac didn't want to linger and waste Abby's time, who, he was sure, didn't like long-winded things. So, he pulled out a chair and invited her to sit down and enjoy the dinner they had interspersed with some non-work related small talk.

He would always bring the conversation back to something more casual whenever, unintentionally, Abby brought up business and the company.

They ended the dinner by relaxing on the balcony of Zac's apartment. The two chatted some more while looking up at the city from high and the stars in the night sky.

"I can't believe a girl as beautiful as you don't have a boyfriend. You must have been an idol since childhood," Zac said as he sipped the champagne in his hand.

His eyes couldn't escape looking at the beautiful figure before him. Although he tried to keep his lover in mind, Abby's current charm was hard for him to resist. Just looking at her beauty doesn't hurt, right?

"Nah, I'm serious, Zac. No man has ever come close, let alone become my lover. I'm very picky." Abby took another sip of her drink. "After all, they must be afraid to see me look like the antagonist in the detective series," she added

Zac laughed and was still unable to take his eyes off Abby until finally, her beady eyes returned his gaze. She seemed to predict where their conversation was going, as well as what would happen next.

However, she deliberately did not avoid the events that would happen a few seconds from now because that was the purpose of fulfilling Zac's invitation. And sure enough, it happened anyway.

Zac slowly brought his face closer and then gently touched his lips to her luscious lips. It wasn't her first kiss, but it was a momentary shock to her because she hadn't experienced it in a long time after her first kiss with a boy in her past. And what Zac gave her made her lulled for a moment.

Meanwhile, Zac, who already had a girlfriend, couldn't resist his attraction to Abby and, for a few minutes, let himself get lost in her charms and the moment between them.

He was not the type of man who liked to change lovers. He and his girlfriend had been together since they were in college. However, being around Abby made him forget the girl he had been dating for several years.

The kiss between him and Abby became more intense. Zac, who really didn't want to let the moment pass him, let himself get caught up in the current romance while Abby began to realize what they were doing was too much.

It was too soon for her to let him get many things from her. Not that easy—not now.

Abby slowly pushed Zac's body away from her, glanced at the clock on her wrist, and realized that it was too late for her.

"Uhm, sorry, I think I should go home now. It's too late."

Zachary smiled slightly in response to Abby's words, and all his nerves still couldn't react properly after the kiss. "One more thing I'm starting to know about you: you're a modern-day Cinderella," he joked, making Abby couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, you can think of it that way. But for one thing, my father is very strict. He'd lock me in my room if he knew I was coming home too late."

"Really? That's amazing. That means he really cares about you." Zac rounded his eyes, which made Abby giggle even more.

"I'm kidding, Zac. He cares about me, but he doesn't strict. Not in that way. Well, I have to go. Thanks for the dinner." Abby got up from her seat and waited for Zac, who seemed to say something. But he didn't do that.

He just nodded and walked her out to the elevator.

"Thank you for your time." Zac once again kissed Abigail's lips, then brushed her lips with his thumb.

Abby noticed the blush on her cheeks, so she looked down for a moment and then lifted her face to see Zac still smiling. She waved her hand, then walked away and disappeared behind the closing elevator doors.

***

Abby opened the brown envelope in her hand, reading the list of names again. The name of the highest power holder of the Emerson family was one of her father's mortal enemies. She began trying to go back in time to remember what the man who came with the woman eighteen years ago looked like.

His face was different from Zac's father, who appeared on stage. So, who was the man who beat her father into paralysis? What was his relationship with Zac's father, and was he also listed as her father's enemy?

Unfortunately, Zachary Emerson's name was not on the list. Of course, it was. Zac was probably the same age as her and didn't know what crimes his mother and father had committed. Abby wondered how he would react if he knew that his parents were criminals who had destroyed the lives of other children.

Would Zac still worship and be proud of his father? Or would he think the same as Abby, that the man was nothing more than a demon in human form who had the heart to take something by dirty means?

Abby opened the safe, taking out a pen and paper on which a chart had been drawn. Several names were written on it. She scratched the ink and wrote down Zachary Emerson's name, then added the number one and put the file back in the safe.

She smiled wryly, remembering the night Zac stole a kiss from her. "Zachary Emerson, the game starts with you, my dear..."