Humiliation.

Everyone looks at the door and sees Mark standing there with his hands shoved casually into the pockets of his slacks.

Andrew stands up and the angry look on Claire's face vanishes. 

They didn't realize he was here already. 

Claire feels fear settling in her bones, worrying over the possibility of Mark overhearing their conversation with Leia, but after a few minutes of his silence, she realizes he didn't hear anything. 

He probably had just seen Leia's car drive out when he was driving in. 

Mark walks purposefully towards them, his cold and arrogant expression enough to frighten them. The aura surrounding him commands respect, dominance practically oozing from his pores. 

He meets the eyes of Andrew and Claire before lowering himself to take his seat before signalling to a nearby maid and the woman rushes out of the room to get him something to drink. 

"You can sit, you know, I won't bite," Mark says with a chuckle and the couple having no other choice quickly take seats opposite to him.

They know too well what he was here for and him taking his sweet time waiting was passing a message across to them of not being prepared enough to entertain him. 

The maid rushes in with a bottle of wine and a glass before placing it in front of Mark. 

He pushes himself forward and pulls the wine open before filling the cup and resting his back against the chair again. 

"Do you have what I need now?" He asks after taking a dainty sip from the glass. Claire and Andrew feel the blood slowly draining from their faces as they stare at him in dawning horror. 

"No… not really. Mark… we're trying…"

"You had just a little job to do and yet you aren't even able to do it right. Isn't that absurd?" He raises an elegant brow as he cuts off the woman's platitudes. 

"Do you both think I have all the time in the world? I seriously don't have patience, neither do I have the energy to put up with you two idiots. Why can't you seem to do even the simplest of tasks?" 

"It's harder than it seems, Mark." Andrew points out and Mark gives a condescending glance in his direction. 

"Really uncle?" Mark asks and they both keep quiet. Mark swirls the wine in his glass for a few minutes before slamming it on the side table. They flinch at the sound of cracked glass but keep still otherwise.

"I am giving you just one month to convince Leia to back out, I don't know how you plan to do it, but I don't like the idea of her being entangled with this terrible circle you call a family. 

If it exceeds that one month, don't bother thinking about what I'll do to your son. I seriously doubt you'll be in any position to breathe, let alone think." Mark says slowly, the threat rolling off his tongue like poison before standing up and walking casually out of the building. 

Claire is still in shock as he finally walks out. The fear clogs her throat as she stands up to pace around the room. She speaks after her second cycle of the room.

 "How will we get her name on the document within a month? It's not even what I want to do."

"It's not a choice right now, Claire. It is what we are to do." Andrew massages his temple gently before letting out a sigh. "You know well that Mark meant those words." 

***

Leia stands before Mark's building with determination etched along her features. She clutches her bag tightly as she looks up at the towering mansion.

The building is surprisingly located in a neighborhood favored by celebrities and influential people.  

She is honestly surprised when she finds the address.

Leia always assumed that Mark would like a place as far away from civilization as possible.

The afternoon was declining pretty fast, and she would have arrived sooner if Rachel didn't spend hours trying to talk her out of going to Mark's because she knew it was a bad idea. 

Being stubborn Leia couldn't care less. He wouldn't even say anything about them being framed and he's just going to let her take all the blame? That's not possible at all.

Leia walks towards the gates and rings the bell twice before a security guard opens the gates and steps out, looking at her with a raised brow.

"How may I help you ma'am?" he asks her.

"I'm Leia Sky. I'm here to see Mark, my brother in law." Leia says and he examines her from head to toe before nodding his head rather to himself gently.

"Do you have an appointment with him or something?" he asks and Leia shakes her head negatively. 

"No!" She tells them frantically.

"Well Mrs Sky. 

Even if he's around which he isn't, you won't be able to see him without an appointment booked with him, and he's already out of the city for a business trip."

"Out of the city?" Leia looks rather shocked at this revelation.

As much as she wanted to believe this, the look on the bodyguard's face was telling her they were lying through their teeth.

Moreover the rumors weren't favourable as well, so he wouldn't have been away for a business meeting with such reputation.

Just thinking of how everyone keeps blaming her was irritating. 

Everyone keeps saying she seduced him, and there's nothing she can say to prove her innocence especially because the photos were real but old, except they were edited to look recent. 

She couldn't just leave. 

"Can I at least stay here till he comes back? Maybe outside, I don't mind," Leia says, and the security guard looks at her like she's crazy. Indeed, her words are because why would a sane person ask to wait outside for someone on a business trip?

"Please leave now madam before I forcefully make you leave," he says, and she shakes her head negatively.

"No. I won't leave. I must see him before anything. It's not what you understand because you're not the one in this mess," Leia says in a determined tone.

The guard keeps on trying to make her leave, but when he sees she's serious about staying till he arrives, he asks other guards to help him throw her out forcefully which they successfully do.

Leia falls to the floor with tears rolling down her cheeks. Why is her life like this? Can't she just have a normal life like other rich wives?

"Ooh, look who's there," she hears a feminine voice, and she looks up to see two ladies in gym outfits. They look like they just finished jogging, and Leia can already tell they're celebrities.

"It's Leia Sky," the other lady says. "She has no shame to even show up at Mark's doorsteps again."

"Don't you see she's been thrown out? Maybe she was trying to seduce the security guard too after seducing Mark got her nothing," the first lady says as if she's not even there at all.

Tears stub Leia's eyes as she looks down at the floor before forcing herself up on her wobbly legs. "This won't last forever, will it?" she whispers to herself as she walks away.

Mark, standing behind the thick black curtains of his room, watches in his amusement as Leia is embarrassed.

He twirls the champagne flute in his hands with a smirk on his lips. He raises his flute for a toast as he watches Leia walk away.

"Quite interesting."