He was in the middle of a video call with Jess when Antonio barged inside his inner office to inform him that the lawyers had arrived.

He glanced at his vintage Rolex watch. The time is quarter to seven. His lawyers were already waiting in one of the conference rooms. The lawyers that Antonio announced the arrival of were Nicole's lawyers.

He requested to have a talk that involved their lawyers first before taking the matter to court, even though his lawyers were already ready to fight tooth and nail to get shared custody—this time, for Lucille.

Nicole agreed easily, and that made him more nervous, given the fact that she was the one who asked for this custody thing again. The whole morning, he was on the phone with his lawyers, overseeing the preparation they were doing. And now, the time to sit down has come.

Nicole would be joining them through a video call from Shanghai.

"Is everything ready?" he asked Antonio after a cheeky Jess pursed her lips in front of the camera of her phone and made a kissy noise.

The nervousness that he was feeling, disappeared with Jess's antics. He will get back to her later, but for now, he has to face Nicole's leeches of lawyers.

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, let's go."

He picked his coat that was hanging at the back of the couch in the receiving area of his inner office, wore them, and followed Antonio to the conference room where the lawyers were waiting.

When he entered the room, he raised his hands to keep all the lawyers on their seats. Nicole's face was already on the TV screen. Miss Garcia cast the video call from her laptop to the big screen.

He grimaced seeing his ex-wife's face fill the TV monitor.

"Good evening, Noah," she said casually.

He popped the button of his coat and took his seat on the conference table. "Good evening." He greeted Nicole back. It didn't escape him that Nicole was in her home office. He wondered if Lucille was just in her bedroom.

"Lucille is with Soraya and her math tutor. She was working on some new worksheet," she said, guessing what was running in his mind.

"Is she okay doing advanced math?"

The last time he talked to Nicole, she mentioned in passing that Lucille can answer her math worksheet at school and finding it boring. Thus, Nicole was planning on getting her a home tutor that would introduce new lessons in hope of keeping her interested in her math studies.

"She started last week and she seemed to be having great fun. The tutor has nothing but good words about her," Nicole smiled proudly.

Noah, despite being on guard with what's going to go down, couldn't help but feel proud that Lucille was doing well with her studies.

"I just hope she still has time to do other things at her age," he reminded Nicole.

"You don't have to worry about that. All of her extra classes, even though I introduced most of it, she only kept studying or doing what she likes."

He nodded and chose not to say anything more. He knew that Nicole was telling the truth because Lucille kept him updated by sending him a message every day, on top of Soraya who also reports to him of Lucille's everyday activities.

It was the only thing he could do to feel that he was taking a part in his daughter's life.

"Can we talk about the topic now?"

"Go ahead. You are the one who called for this—let us hear what you and your lawyers had to say," he said in a grumpy tone.

"The issue arose when I got headhunted for one of my studies about CAR cells and genome editing in a company—still confidential, but it's in Switzerland."

Noah's eyebrows were tightly knitted with what he heard from Nicole. He threw a meaningful look at his lawyers because if Nicole thought she could drag his daughter to another part of the world—far from him, she has another thing coming.

"The study could easily take two to five years, and I would be extremely busy."

Noah gritted his teeth, glaring at Nicole's face on the TV screen.

"That's why, I had my lawyers reach out to you, to have some changes in our agreement in regards to Lucille's custody—"

"And what are the changes you want for Lucille's custody?" he snapped at Nicole, not letting her finish her sentence.

"The research would take time and it would be unfair for Lucille if I kept on dragging her around me...so, I would like to ask you to take care of her while I'm in Switzerland."

Noah's jaws dropped. "Excuse me?" his voice raised an octave with disbelief.

"I'm not giving up my full custody of Lucille! That's why my lawyers are there. I just want you to take care of her for me while I do this project. This opportunity doesn't come easy in my career. I'm not saying that being Lucille's mother isn't important but...Noah?"

Noah heard what Nicole just said. But the only thing that registered in his mind was the fact that Lucille will be staying with her while Nicole chases an advancement in her career. "Okay," he agreed, nodding to his lawyers.

"I'm not giving you full custody of Lucille! Let's just be clear on that, Noah."

"Go do whatever you want with your career. I wish you good luck," he said to Nicole but he already turned to Nicole's lawyers on the table. "Let my lawyers have the copy of whatever agreement Nicole wanted."

"Noah, I'm still here," she yelled at him.

But Noah was busy scanning the documents that Nicole's lawyers prepared.

"Noah!"

"Let me know when I can fly to Shanghai to pick up Lucille and Soraya," he said, dismissing Nicole's presence and focusing on her lawyers instead.

"We will go through this one and let you know tomorrow," Noah told Nicole's lawyers. He stood up from his seat and left the conference room.

Antonio hurriedly followed behind Noah. The moment they entered his office, he abruptly stopped walking, and Antonio, who was closely following him, hit his back. Turning to Antonio, he grinned, "Lucille is staying with me."