"Are these for Mr. Ellison?""Who would send so many flowers to him?"While everyone was busy discussing the flowers, the men carrying the bouquets unexpectedly stopped in front of Nicole and handed them to her.As Nicole could not hold all the flower bouquets on her own, she asked Lulu for help."What's going on?" Lulu whispered.Nicole shook her head, saying, "I have no clue."Then, a thought crossed Nicole's mind. 'Could it be from Harvey? Since everyone is here to congratulate Ellison Group, nobody else would dare to send me flowers on this occasion. Such frivolous extravaganza is something only Harvey would typically do.'"Thank you for coming to our annual celebration, Nicole. Your presence truly graces our celebration, so here is a little token of my appreciation. I hope you like it," Harvey announced as he sauntered into the venue."So it is Harvey's gift to Nicole.""But why did Harvey give Nicole presents?"As expected, the murmurs and whispers among the guests reac
With everything said and done, she turned around and left the crowd of screaming women. 'This is way too scary, even for me.'Nicole turned to look at Harvey after she had thrown the bouquet of flowers to the crowd of hormonal teenage girls, and in a monotonous voice, she said, "Mr. Ellison, I assume that everyone from your family is already here for the annual dinner. Shall we start? It's getting quite late."'I would like to see you try. You have the nerve for tricking me into coming. I'll show you how it's done. I can't believe he had the temerity to waste so many people's time.' Nicole sneered.Harvey smirked and gritted his teeth, trying to maintain his composure before making his way up to the stage to give an opening speech."He's flirting with you in front of so many people. Is he out of his mind?" Lulu asked in hushed whispers with a look of disgust plastered on her face.'I can't believe he really did that in front of everyone here. Come to think of it, I'm really starti
"Don't even bring it up. Harvey Ellison really is a piece of shit! He was up to no good from the very beginning!" Lulu ranted.Patricia frowned, "He really was pushing his luck, wasn't he? And in front of such a huge crowd too. He really wasn't afraid of any backlash, it seems.""I'd rather think that he's simply too thick skinned to be bothered by any sort of significant backlash," Lulu grumbled as a grimace crossed her face.Patricia nodded in agreement, "Fair point."As Lulu did not expect Patricia to nod along to her angry rants, she busted out into fits of laughter as she maintained her stare on Patricia's expression. Patricia, on the other hand, looked serious and unamused.Patricia then turned to Nicole, "Ms. Riddle, I would advise you to avoid any further interaction with Mr. Ellison in the future.""Don't worry about that, Patricia. I will make sure that he will be avoiding Nicole in every way possible," Lulu said with a smug smile plastered on her face.However, what s
Nicole sat there in silence as she pondered to herself, 'If Everett is coming back and Lawrence is already here...I wonder...were the both of them hiding abroad together and are now coming back one by one here to crack the code for the Water Crest?'But if cracking the code for the Water Crest is a piece of cake, why did it take Lawrence this much time?' she wondered. 'But if the Water Crest isn't the reason, what could have gotten Everett to come back so hastily?'Three days later, time passed in a blink of an eye, and Damien was still keeping his whereabouts under wraps. He had only kept his chef around, and had made no movements that could rouse the suspicion of those who were watching him.Patricia furrowed her brows, as worry glinted in her eyes. "He isn't plotting some kind of grand revenge plan at home, is he?"Nicole nodded. "It's a possibility we can't rule out so easily."'Something must be terribly wrong. How can he be so silent and subdued?' Nicole wondered."We could
"I find it rather surprising that he thinks you'll just sit idly by and watch as he pulls his tricks on Ellar," Patricia observed.The situation in the Riddle family was equally as complex as the situation that had yet to be uncovered, making it exceedingly difficult to solve."It's obvious they got someone who knows me well to do this," Nicole assumed.'If the person who had planned all of this wasn't aware of how everyone works, they would not have resorted to doing something like this,' Nicole surmised."Know you? Everyone in San Joto knows and has heard about you, but the people who would dare to screw with you..." Patricia trailed off with a look of confusion plastered on her face.Judging by the circumstances at the moment, Nicole could not think of anyone else who would do such a thing except for Damien.'He has been keeping under the radar for quite a while now. Does he really think that he'll be able to get away with it by maintaining his silence?' Nicole thought before
Nicole looked up at Jared, confused. "What do you mean when you say leave it to them?""Yeah, it could be a trap, so it'll be much safer to let them handle it," Jared clarified. 'If this is just a conspiracy targeted at Nicole, Charlie and Patricia can deal with it. But if Ellar really is in danger, I won't sit idly by and let it happen.'Nicole nodded at Jared's explanation. "Okay, but Why don't you let Patricia handle it alone and get Charlie to cover for you?"'Charlie should be stationed near Jared, and in the event that someone tries to go after Jared, he would be there in the nick of time to ensure Jared's safety. I think this is the easiest way to ensure that everyone is protected and secured,' Nicole thought."That's fine by me too," Jared replied before summoning Max over to pass the orders down to Charlie.Then, he darted a glance at his wristwatch. "Let's have lunch before you head back to the office."After happily agreeing to it, Nicole stayed for lunch with Jared.
Nicole raised an eyebrow and that was when she saw Martin walking up to their table with a woman in tow."This is...," Nicole trailed off before eyeing Martin with a cheeky smile on her face."A collaboration partner at my R&D Center that we're working on to develop a new project. We're almost done with it too," Martin explained."I can see that you two make a great team.' Nicole smiled before turning to look at the woman beside Martin."Hi, I'm Nicole Riddle, Martin's friend. Nice to meet you," she introduced.Then, the woman returned the smile and introduced herself, "Hi, Nicole. I'm Cindy Rowe.""What brings you here for lunch? Isn't your office rather far from here?" Martin asked, as he was not expecting Nicole to grab her lunch here."I came to see Jared for work and we decided to drop by for lunch," Nicole replied."Ah, I see. Well, I'll leave you guys to it," Martin said, and nodded at the couple before bidding them goodbye."Okay, I'll see you around," Nicole waved.M
Cindy then shot Martin a smile. "I guess I do know quite a little bit about you. You must be lucky to have me as a friend."Martin understood that there were many factors in play that were beyond his control. Therefore, he truly was lucky to have a friend like Cindy."So, since you've now made peace with your feelings, will you not consider other women as potential partners?" Cindy questioned."No." Martin answered quickly.This was not something he could help either, for it had become near impossible for him to develop feelings for another woman.Understandably, Cindy smiled and decided to drop the subject, bringing up work-related topics instead.After lunch, Nicole and Jared left the restaurant and made their way back to their respective companies. He proceeded to send her back to Riddle Corporation. Then, he left for Johnston Group, whereupon Nicole turned around and entered her company building.As the car maneuvered through the afternoon traffic, Max said, "Sir, from our c