The executive meeting was held that afternoon itself, and even those who were not around attended through a video conference.Robin first asked everyone the solution to the matter in the meeting, and the replies were either lowering the price to sell the houses or trading the land off with a lower price. The solutions only caused the chairman, Phineas Maple, to glower.If these were what the high-level executives could come up with, why would he need these useless people? For the size of their heads and bellies? Was it all sh*t in there? While Phineas fumed silently, Robin spoke up to introduce Javier.“This is Javier Kersey. I believe everyone here knows him. He used to be the sales exemplar our company has openly promoted and is now the head of the construction company for the East Chinea region, as well as the person-in-charge for the land with the current issue.“Of course, Javier isn’t to be blamed for the land’s issue since no one could know what’s there underneath, so my p
After the executive meeting, Kaiden returned to his company, glowering. Javier had called him a sc*m in front of so many high-level executives, and he was even proven wrong after that. It disgruntled him as he felt like he was embarrassed. If the chairman had not taken Javier’s side, he would have beaten the latter up—that was, if he had the guts.That did not stop Kaiden from fuming inwardly, though, nor did it stop him from kicking his table and chair when he returned to his office.As his secretary, Jayden was fast to appease him. “Mr. Johnstone, what’s the matter? Who angered you? Don’t be mad.”As he coaxed the man, he was slapped, stunning him.“No, wait. Mr. Johnstone, why are you slapping me?”“Why am I slapping you? A slap is already a light one. I want to fire you!”Kaiden snarled, “If it weren’t for you, would Javier have picked on me in front of everyone?“I listened to you and transferred him to East Chinea Construction, making it an open promotion but an implicit d
Javier was a little unreasonably rude and tyrannical recently, almost evil, but he could not help it. The pressure he was under to “level up” was too much, and he needed to vent.The old fox had once told him that he ought to vent suitably when he should, or there would only be a greater evil accumulated from the power and authority he held.Javier’s current capability made it easy for him to instigate a war. That was why he had to vent his frustration and keep himself sane.It was just that luck was not on Jayden’s side. When Javier brazenly wanted to beat him up with one hand, Jayden charged at Javier repeatedly and recklessly. Later, though, he stopped lunging for Javier and hid in a corner obediently.His eyes were swollen from the punches, and he would not be able to see things clearly if he were hit another time!By the time things came to an end, Javier had left the karaoke room directly and seemed to be done with Jayden. Despite that, as Jayden drove away from the same pla
Nelly was Dahlia’s secretary. Her husband had gone to the sea with the commercial fishing boat not too long after they got married. She was a pretty lady with quite a good figure. Otherwise, her husband, a chief officer, would not have been together with her.Despite that, pretty women always had more temptations. Nelly, who had tried her best not to hook up with men aside from her husband, had been feeling lonely recently, especially at night. Yesterday, for example, she had secretly bought female s*x toys from the Internet. Although the delivery had yet to arrive, she was already anticipating it.It came as a shock for her to run into such an intimate scene in the office this afternoon, so she froze on the spot.Dahlia was incredibly embarrassed upon seeing Nelly freeze at the door and struggled to get up to avoid such an embarrassing scandal getting out, but Nelly had reacted faster. Before Dahlia could do anything, she had closed the door and left promptly.Nelly was flustered
Being hugged by a man who was not her husband, and being hugged so tightly at that, made Nelly feel incredibly abashed. She clung onto her last sense of rationale and pushed Javier away from her.“I c-can’t—this can’t happen. We can’t act like this.” Nelly fumbled to speak and even staggered a little as she stepped away, feeling as frantic as her inner turmoil.Javier did not give her another chance to fight back, as he pushed forward and trapped her in the corner.“Nelly, this is the only way to resolve the plight between you and Dahlia. Otherwise, you won’t be able to keep working here. Your coworkers, your career…Everything will end here…”Javier coaxed her like a devil, while Nelly was helplessly shy.Dahlia had only told Javier that her secretary, Nelly, was a career-minded girl and her goal was to become the next Dahlia Robins, as she wanted to establish herself and progress in Maple Court.This was the exact reason Javier used her career against Nelly.As expected, Nelly
“I-I don’t know. It’s probably my best friend’s. I'm staying with my best friend.”Nelly made up a lie about a best friend while she was dying of embarrassment. In fact, she was the only one staying there. There was no best friend.Javier obviously knew as much, so he pointed at the shoe cabinet at the door after tossing the toy aside.“The shoes are all yours, and there’s only one glass at home. It’s enough to prove that you’re staying alone. How is there a best friend? This is obviously you trying to alleviate your loneliness.”Javier was merciless, exposing Nelly’s thoughts directly and embarrassing her to no end. He was still rambling when Nelly snapped.“What do you want? Mr. Kersey, what do you actually want? I’m a woman living alone, and you’re at my place telling me all these things. What the heck do you want?!”Javier chuckled upon seeing that he had successfully forced Nelly into a corner. “Don’t you know what I want?”As he said this, he stepped closer to her.When N
In the following days, other than completing his work-related tasks, Javier spent the rest of his time with Nelly and Dahlia either in his office or in Dahlia’s office.Once, they were even in the ladies’ washroom. Dahlia had realized that they could not keep doing this and tried to break it off, but Javier followed her into the washroom when no one was watching. What happened in the washroom thrilled Dahlia endlessly. It felt almost as if she was a thief, and she would surely never forget it, even reminiscing about it from time to time.However, no matter how attractive this temporary lifestyle was, it was still temporary. When Javier finished his job there, the transfer notice from headquarters came.Like Robin had mentioned, Javier was transferred to Maple Court’s headquarters as Robin’s secretary. Just like Javier had said, Dahlia was promoted to general manager of East Chinea Construction after he left.When he drove off, Dahlia and Nelly both bade him farewell.As they watch
Kaiden was a very courageous man, at least on the surface.“I will never resort to being threatened even if I have to put my finger at risk! Go ahead and break it if you can!”Kaiden could tell that Javier was surely not going to be brave enough to do it. After all, Javier would have to be extremely arrogant to do such a thing to the vice director of Maple Court, which would be a very disrespectful act. Even the chairman had to show him a modicum of respect, in fact! This was why Kaiden was sure that Javier would not be brave enough to do it. Instead, the latter would try finding a way out of the situation. When this happened, Kaiden would counter-attack and ask why Javier was not brave enough to break his finger. Then, he would arrogantly ask where Javier’s bravado had gone when he ended up behaving like a coward. However, just as Kaiden was having all those thoughts, he suddenly heard a loud, crisp “crack”! What was very profound about this sound was that Kaiden could no lo
As Bernadetta launched a barrage of kicks against the restaurant door, Mrs. Greene summoned 120% of her strength, holding the fort. The older woman had made a living terrorizing others with absurd accusations and downright unreasonable demands, but this time, she had met her match. Bernadetta James put the “man” in the word “woman”—in that she resorted to violence as soon as things escalated. In the end, it took both Mrs. Greene’s apology and a deal to provide Javier and Bernadetta with three days’ meals, all free of charge, to make the young woman stop. Then—“because I actually have a weakness against people sincerely appealing to my better angels,” according to Bernadetta—she amended the peace offer, changing the three days’ free meals to…a week’s worth. Back in the inn, Javier expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Bernadetta for rescuing him. “I can’t thank you enough for standing by my side when I needed it the most, Bern. But I can thank you a bit more if you refrain from using t
Mrs. Greene opened her flap and unlocked the floodgate, the spit during her tirade so profusive that she could water an old lady’s lawn. “It’s him, officers! It’s all him! He did this to his own camera just to remove himself as a suspect, but we know better than that! He’s the guy who stole my goddamn lingerie!”She turned and trained her finger on Javier. “You vile, disgusting, degenerate piece of sh*t! Ptooey!”‘Back at you! I'd rather spend the night with my left hand than with you!’ By this point in the morning, Bernadetta had arrived at work. Her heels clicked onto the floor as she sauntered toward the commotion. As soon as she heard what had transpired, she laughed, looking clearly amused. She trained her perfectly manicured finger on Javier and piled on. “Oh, it was him. I can testify to that! He stole Mrs. Greene’s bra because he is…the Lingerie Phantom Thief! By day, he is Javier Kersey. At night, he is Jo Ker, the Bra Stealer!” Javier threw his arms up in exasperation
Javier shook his head. By the time his vision was back to normal, the dog was gone. It had escaped! “What kind of hell spawned this little sh*t?!” Javier wondered to himself aloud. “Was this really an effect of the world changing? Is this an example of mutation because of the Storm? Or is there something else at play?”Baffled and unsure what to think, Javier returned to the dorm and told the residents to open the door. Inside, he found Florence huddling the frightened kids closely. She was white from fear, and yet in the presence of vulnerable kids, she had assumed the role of the protector without a second thought. “Hush, it’s alright! It was fake. Someone pulled a terrible prank and put on this white sheet and…” Javier made up a fib to explain the haunting away exactly because the truth could land him in a mental institution. No one would believe him—and for good reason too!Javier drove Florence back to the Yuzuian restaurant, where the latter’s electric scooter was. While
A resentful wail—interspersed only by sobs that sounded more like someone was being strangled—was echoing in the middle of the night while Javier and Florence could not see even a single soul out there? Animated by the power of “hell, naw!”, Florence dove into Javier’s arms for protection. Her hands were clasped firmly on either side of her head, hoping to block out the ghastly demand in her ears. Her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut that even a crowbar could not pry them open.Javier himself was just as terrified. He would have felt better if he could see the source of the voice rather than just hear a woman sobbing about getting her head back. At least he would know what he was up against! But just hearing it without any visuals at all?! Nooooope!Then, Florence hugged him in a “help-me!” sort of way. She was soft and supple—damn, that sexy figure in combination with her silky-smooth skin sure was welcoming. She was warm, and damn did she smell good! Nothing competed with fea
The dog barked in protest as it pointed its paw at Javier with the intensity of a mob before executing a monarch. The flames in its eyes were so bright that they could incinerate Javier into ashes in milliseconds. In the end, though, all that protest was for naught. Constance tied it up in the parking garage, while Javier watched in glee. Ah, sweet, sweet revenge! The stupid dog had thought it could set him up, had it? That would teach it!The look the Pomeranian shot him almost felt like a threat: ‘Just you f*cking wait, hooman!’‘Wait for what? How much can a stupid b*tch like you do to me?’ Javier scoffed in his mind. Now that the four-legged pest was gone, Javier turned back to Constance and talked about the new orphanage. As it turned out, despite the old woman’s sentiments for the building she had founded, she was a lot less obstinate and unreasonable as she might appear. “I mean, I don’t object to it completely. I know the new place is gonna be better, but…” She faltered a
Florence called half an hour later to tell him where they’d be having dinner. After leaving the inn in Bernadetta’s care, he hurried to the venue. Florence had picked a newly-opened Yuzuian restaurant. Javier had never liked Yuzuian restaurants, but since Florence had invited him, courtesy stopped him from asking the woman to change their meeting venue. He found Florence quickly enough and sat across from her. They placed their orders, and Javier began his performance: He started sighing and doing his best to look forlorn. It intrigued Florence enough to ask what was wrong, and Javier told her about his unfortunate beef with Constance that day.“It’s so unfair, man! Why would I bully a dog for no reason?” he moaned. “I’m sure Aunt Constance misunderstood. You’re a knightly, heroic, kind man! How could someone like you possibly get off on hurting a dog? I’m sure Aunt Constance was just too worried about the dog’s welfare to think things through. She didn’t mean it. I can vouch for
Herschel was dressed quite sharply today. It was the full ensemble—black leather shoes, black slacks, a white collar, and last but not least, the good old oil-slicked hair. The typical look of a high-ranking office worker, just as Javier had requested. Ordering him to get in his car, Javier asked, “You brought all the stuff I told you to?”“Yo, I would never forget the stuff my boss told me to bring. I’ve got all the preparations down pat. You can check ‘em if you don’t trust me,” Herschel replied. He fished an ID and some documents out of his leather bag. “See? All the documentation a journalist in the most important room of a news agency would have.”After a round-check and some instructions, Javier sent Herschel on his way to complete his mission. The man was strangely reluctant, though. “Boss, you told me you decided to work in that inn, right? Does that mean, you know, that you’re gonna call me ‘boss’ while you’re there?”Javier had almost forgotten he had mentioned this. It
Javier’s suspicion turned to Constance Hellman’s white Pomeranian. He turned to the director’s office and met the dog’s eyes. With its paws on the windowsill, it hoisted itself up to look out of the window. Seeing the dog cracking a lopsided grin and baring its fangs—beaming as smugly as a teacher’s pet who had managed to subdue everyone through the power of being the boss’s favorite—made it look both amusing and chilling. It would have been had the dog not caught Javier’s gaze, suddenly dropped the smile, and put on a face that seemed to be saying, ‘I’m just your average dog! Nothing to see here!’And then it feigned—yes, feigned—a yawn as its one last measure to cover up the fact that it had been laughing smugly to itself. ‘What. The. Actual. F*ck?!’ Javier thundered in his mind. ‘B*tch’s a natural actress! What’s it doing here instead of being interviewed on a talk show after becoming viral on TikTok?’In combination with Russell’s report, the incident inside the director’s of
As Javier was befuddled, Constance rushed in from outside and picked up the white Pomeranian gingerly to carefully check its injured leg.“Oh, baby, what’s the matter? Did you hurt your leg?”The white Pomeranian whined in pain and began twitching upon hearing Constance’s concerned question. This upset Constance so much that she admonished him sternly. “Mr. Kersey, I thought that you were a loving person, but I can’t help doubting your motive now.“I’m skeptical about you taking good care of the kids here when you’d even hit a cute dog!”Javier felt extremely offended. When had he hit the dog? He hurriedly explained, “Madam Hellman, I didn’t do anything!”Constance asked angrily, “You didn’t do anything? Why would it suddenly limp now and whine so pathetically? Why did it hurry over to me? Give me a reasonable explanation!”Javier was in distress as well. “How would I know? It was fine when I was carrying it just now, but it wanted to get down on the floor, so I carefully placed