[That's because you are so careless. You cannot blame me for taking care of you, can you?] Zeus laughed, making fun of Zaria even though the situation was serious and his joke was not funny.

"Stop joking around and be serious." She bit out, resisting the urge to once again scold him. Why was he always so inappropriate when it was least needed? It wasn't like she ever needed him to fool around, she felt mentally drained every time he did that.

"I am serious too." He insisted, and he would be long dead if he were close to her right now.

She took a deep breath and swallowed. "Zeus, I want to meet you. I want to know who you are."

"Do you have to?" He suddenly sounded worried, and it intensified her urge to know who he was. Why did he always spend so much effort just to protect her? There had to be a reason, and she was starting to be certain that it had something to do with his identity. She was not certain what to expect, all she knew was that she could no longer stand living under such suspicion.

[It makes me uncomfortable to be under the watch of someone I don't even know.] She responded after thinking about it.

[I sent you my pictures.] He retorted. [Weren't those enough for you to know what I look like?]

[Those could be fake.] the mention of pictures made her frown. Innumerable girls had been cheated into online relationships that often ended up as scams, crimes and in the worst case scenarios, they ended up being friends with their murderers.

Zeus was silent for a while as though he was contemplating what to tell her, before he finay gave her a call. "Okay, see you tomorrow after work."

"Where?" She asked, but she was yet to receive a response when she heard the hang up tone on the other end. "Zeus? Are you there?" She pulled her phone from her ear and glanced at it with a sigh. He had hung up on her. Was he upset? Why would anyone be upset about such a thing? Unless he didn't want her to know who he was…

"That bastard." She cursed. He was always making her worry. As long as she knew who he was, he could think as he wanted for all she cared.

…

The next day at work, she seemed distracted. Even though she still did her work with the same efficiency as usual, Desmond realized that her mind was not in the right place.

"Are you okay?" He asked when she brought a contract for him to sign.

She nodded even though she didn't look alright in the slightest. "I'm going to meet up with Zeus."

"Where? When? Why didn't you tell me?" A myraid of questions left his mouth as soon as he took in what she had just said.

"Relax, okay?" She laughed, feeling slightly better that she was not the most affected by the news. "I talked to him about it yesterday, he didn't tell me where and when to meet up and might just pop up from thin air."

He thought about it and he would never trust any man around Zaria. Not even if it was the hacker friend she had kept for ages. One could hide their true intention for decades and suddenly let it show when least expected. "Let's meet up with him together." He looked at her seriously.

"Are you paranoid?" She laughed. Not that she wasn't in the least bit scared, but she found it funny that he was even more scared of Zeus than she was of the slim possibility that he could be someone she least expected.

"This is about my life, okay?" He frowned at her indifference.

Zaria blinked and looked at him. "Okay…" Was that a way of calling her his life?

"There's a meeting in twenty minutes. Yet another one with Ms. Roatta." She reported. The more she mentioned that woman's name, the more it drained her. Was she a ghost?

…

Meanwhile, Lucy sought Liam in his office. "Liam, we had a talk. What's your decision?"

The man glanced at the woman sitting opposite him and acting as though the entire world belonged to him, and was baffled.

"Don't think that if you send me those threatening messages, I will change my mind." He was rendered speechless by her shamelessness. She must be the devil's incarnate if she wasn't the devil in disguise.

Hearing his accusation, she acted as though she was shocked and had been accused falsely." When did I ever do that?"

"The Oscars owe you an award." He shook her head at her acting skills. How come she wasn't nominated for the Bolar Awards that had recently ended? She would have ended up as the best actress, he was certain.

"Liam, you have to think about this from every perspective. How long are you going to be stubborn?" She reverted back to her serious nature.

"For as long as I live. How long are you going to cling to me?" He retorted.

She looked at him and smiled, then looked down as her expression changed. He could have sworn that she looked sad, but then she smiled and looked up at him. "I'm going to tell you something. If after that you still don't want to sell your shares, I will not bother you anymore."

"I will not change my mind." He said, but he still listened to her—he shouldn't have.

….

Zaria and Desmond arrived in the small conference room twenty minutes later. Lucy arrived within five minutes after them, and Zaria was the first to notice her. "Ms. Lucy."

The woman walked in confidently, sitting down in all elegance and grace like a queen. Her gaze focused on Zaria. "I'm your new boss, Zaria. I mean, boss to be. You should start learning to address me as your boss." She then waved at Desmond who was frowning at her after hearing her declare herself as someone of a high position at Preston And Fort Group. The only people above Zaria were him and Liam. Was she insinuating that she would be the new CEO of Preston and Fort Group soon?

"It's alright to have big dreams, Ms. Roatta, but please don't come to my company and start ordering my assistant around."

She chuckled at his commanding tone. "Dear Desmond, I am taking over fast. I'm currently the second largest shareholder."

"What will it take for you to stop this?" He asked with a frown.

"Don't worry, I'm done. I only need one more thing." She knew that he disliked war, and she didn't like having to use war to solve matters either. It would be much better if they came to an agreement without having to fight, even if it was not a physical fight.

"What do you want?" He asked, wondering whether she was going to try and swindle him.

"Make me the COO of Preston and Fort Group. Aside from that, I would like to select my own executive assistant—Zaria." She demanded like the place belonged to her.

"She's mine." He frowned.

She was mine before she became yours. Lucy wanted to laugh out loud at his declaration, but she merely smiled. Her future son-in-law was so cute.

"It's just a temporary assistant. You can take her back once I have one I am satisfied with." She laughed as she tried to convince him, even while knowing that he would never say yes to that.

"Zaria, do you want to be my assistant for a while?" She tried to ask Zaria instead.

"No." the latter rejected the idea without flinching.

"She said no. What will you do?" Desmond gloated proudly.

"I see." Lucy could only resign to her fate. As long as she had the shares, she would be close to Zaria without needing to have her as her assistant. After all, the office of the COO was close to both Desmond's and Zaria's.

"See me off." She demanded, looking at Zaria meaningfully.

Zaria knew that the latter was acting childish and would not take no for an answer, so she could only agree to walk her out.

"See you soon, princess." Lucy waved as she walked towards her car, making Zaria stop in her tracks. Seeing the younger woman stare at her in disbelief, she looked amused. "Sorry, I thought that was what your name meant."

Zaria's expression fell. Was Lucy having so much fun playing with her feelings? She has just called her what she used to call her in the past, then came up with such a sick excuse.

After watching the young bodyguard open the door and seeing Lucy leave, she took out her phone to talk to Zeus to get her mind off the bizzare woman.

"When are we meeting?"

"We just did. Didn't you see me?" Came Zeus' chuckle.

"What in the world?" Zaria exclaimed. What was that idiot up to this time? She was about to curse when she recalled the glance from Lucy's bodyguard before he closed the door. He had looked at her mischievously, which was odd now that she thought about it. What if Zeus was Lucy's bodyguard?