free

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I and Catherine were making coffee for all, stirring around to mix it well, all of us have decided to have black coffee, we were going to need it.

"You sure you don't want sugar?" Catherine asked, picking up the sugar cube in a spoon in indication.

"No, I need caffeine in my system now." She shrugged before mixing it in her coffee, after stirring it completely she took a sip and nodded in approval.

In terms of 'we,' I meant me, Catherine, Xavier, Aiden and David, after all, he is the company's attorney. rumours arose about many more other unethical stuff due to the Solkovov scandal. Xavier had struggled immensely to get here to find a solution together, we all did. I was a little lucky with Diya helping me by disguising herself as me and getting the press off my back.

I came to know that Xavier mistakenly ordered someone to discard the contracts on his office's floor when he rushed to look for me, I was regretful to say the less, he was more annoyed at himself than at me, and he never once blamed me for it. Since we were the only big conglomerate company that hadn't ended the partnership with solkovov hotel lines, our company was dragged along.

"Let's go," Catherine said sipping her coffee and I nodded while picking up the tray and following her into the convention room. It was luxurious like the rest of the building and everyone was already settled down, casually discussing the scandal.

I handed the coffee to Aiden and David before putting Xavier's in front of him, he directed his gaze to me, his golden-brown eyes boring into mine hazel-green ones.

"Thank you." He thanked me gently and I nodded, diverting my gaze away and taking my seat beside Catherine's.

"So now that everyone's here, I reprinted the solkovov contract and Xavier need to sign them to end the partnership before taking any other further steps," David explained settling the copy of the contract in front of him, Xavier signed them and proceeded to further explain exactly how deep we were into the scandal.

"We all know that our company was framed into false accusation regarding illegal adultery of our guests, this totally caused a loss of three hundred fifty-two million to our company in just one day worldwide. So if we wait for the scandal to diminish itself then we are probably going to lose billions until then." Xavier said loosening his tie and opening his upper buttons, he noticed me staring but didn't respond to it.

"There are only two options left, suing solkovov hotel lines for false reputation infringement, which will continue our losses as usual until the winning of the case and I don't think a liquidating company at the verge of bankruptcy would be able to pay the forfeit and compensation." He continued.

"The second option is to clear up the rumours among people by holding the press conference tomorrow, it will be faster to convince our clients than suing Solkovov to bring out the truth." He finished swiftly taking a sip of his coffee, we were silently listening to his excellent ability to control situations.

"So you aren't going to sue them?" Catherine asked thoughtfully.

"Who said I wouldn't? I was preferring the press conference in short terms." Xavier answered her with a grim expression. I was much more peaceful than I should be, my mind was numb barely even catching anything, I was in deep thought of solving my issues first, he could f*ck himself for all I care.

"Why are you even here?" I asked Aiden before I could stop myself, my cup firmly settled in my hands, he pointed his index finger to himself in question and I nodded.

"I'm the third significant shareholder in this company after Xavier and Robert." I boredly continued staring at him, my mind was rotating around Diya's unusual behaviour nowadays and I was worried about her.

"Did you f*cked her?" I asked casually leaning back, Xavier and David confusedly glanced between us, Catherine was more interested in the gossip than others.

"Who?"

"You very well know who I'm talking about," I replied boldly back, he uncomfortably shifted in his seat.

"We did have sex, but she told me that she didn't want any strings attached." He answered my indirect question and I slit my eyes in accusation at him.

"That's it?"

"Yes, was she perhaps asking about me?" He asked with twinkles prominent in his eyes, his neck turned slightly red due to blushing as he leaned forward in anticipation, he is one whipped of a romantic jerk.

"No." His face fell at my reply and he slumped back in his seat with a frown contouring his face, directing my gaze back to Xavier I said.

"I apologise, please continue."

He perplexedly glanced at David and Aiden before starting again, leaning forward on the table and braiding his fingers together.

"We needed someone who had a partnership with solkovov as well, by our side, supporting our claim of not being involved and who's better than Aiden in that criteria." All of us nodded synchronisedly in approval, Aiden did a good job in dismissing their partnership than us.

"What about the venue?" I asked.

"It will take place in the conference auditorium here, you and Catherine can prepare it by tomorrow, take as much as help you want," Xavier answered while intensely looking at me, I nodded casually writing up the venue in my diary.

"Aiden make sure to prepare a formal sermon for tomorrow," David advised him and Aiden offendedly turned to Xavier and mockingly pointed his finger at him.

"What about him?"

"He doesn't need it," David replied glancing at the leaning Xavier in his chair.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he does! Remember, he was the one to fail to end the partnership, not me." He retorted, an annoyed pout involuntarily reaching his face, he's cute.

"I'll prepare it too, just to be double sure," Xavier said passing his fingers through his hair.

"Mr King, what about the press? How many should I let in?" Catherine inquired while paying her full attention to him.

"Star entertainment belongs to me—" he glanced at me at the mention, "—people won't believe the word of a company which belongs to me. Let everyone else in since I'll order star entertainment to restrict broadcasting it." He finished and Catherine nodded in understanding, writing everything down.

"I need you to be present there if anything's goes south." Xavier acknowledged David and he nodded.

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The meeting continued with discussion proceeding on timings of the press conference and on who else would be present there as important executives and directors, I kept my conversation with Xavier to minimal, only talking when it's absolutely important for my work. This didn't go unnoticed by Aiden. He raised his eyebrow at me in question and I lightly shook my head to assure him that there wasn't anything wrong.

We were into a deep conversation when my phone started going blastic with calls from Samantha, I calculated the percentage of this being a prank call and ended it.

"Why is Ms Smith calling you?" Xavier asked and I shook my head lightly while checking to see several messages from her in the last half an hour.

"I don't know—" I was interrupted by my phones buzzing again with her call, I received it without wasting any more time and her nervous voice passed through to me.

"Shana?"

"Samantha, what happened?" I asked worriedly, all of the eyes in the room focused on me.

"Everything is going insane here, people are being arrested for drug dealing in our clubs all over Newyork and yet I didn't notice a single pouch of it. I need to talk to Mr King but he isn't picking his calls." Her voice was much hushed like she was whispering.

"Where's your phone?" I asked Xavier and he confusedly pulled it out of his jacket, it was switched off.

"Turn it on, Catherine turn the T.V. on," I urged Xavier and then Catherine, both of them did as told, just as his phone turned on, it started ringing with calls upon calls. Catherine pulled up the news channel.

Aiden phone started going off in sync, soon followed by David's, Mine was currently occupied with Samantha's babbling.

Xavier received the first call and soon a panicked male voice came through. "Sir LAPD is arresting our employees for suspecting that we were drug dealing in our nightclubs! What should I do?!" His voice was not so calm and collected as Samantha's on my phone.

Everyone was silently listening to the reporter spitting out bullshit, it was clear that someone was trying to rip Xavier's company apart.

I glanced at him to see his lips twitching repeatedly in anger, his hands were fisted on the table while he quietly gaped at T.V. The male on his phone was anything but quiet, he was repeatedly asking what to do.

Xavier swiftly stood up from his chair and buttoned his jacket, he ordered the man on another side.

"Close every nightclub in Los Angeles till I order you to reopen them, check if the rumours are true and someone is really involved in drug dealing, inform me of the result." He ended the call with that and extended his hand in my direction, I handed him my phone without any question.

"Ms smith I need you to inform all branches of nightclubs in America to close down for a brief time, we are holding a press conference tomorrow, you have to be here as the director of nightclubs." He ordered her and there were few murmurs before the call was ended. He handed my phone back to me.

He turned to David with a murderous look making him stand from his seat immediately, "Find the m*therfucker who is trying to f*ck with my company."

"Right away sir."

"If anything is messed up in tomorrow's conference then consider yourself out of this building." He said to Catherine and she nodded nervously. Before I could ask him if this applies to me too he veered to me.

"Not you. You will deliberately try to mess something up to get yourself fired." I closed my already open mouth, Jesus just fire me already!

"I need everyone present tomorrow vigilantly and who don't follow my orders, never let them inside this building again." He ordered before striding out of the convention room, David and Catherine nodded their head in acknowledgement while Aiden continued accessing his phone.

I on the other hand was already contacting people to gather in the Conference Auditorium of the building.

Whoever was behind this all certainly knew what he was doing.

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Xavier was relaxed on the leather couch in his office when I entered, swirling his drink around in his glass, he seems in deep thought with his eyes focusing on whiskey.

"Where did you go yesterday?" He asked gradually focusing his attention on me.

I huffed before walking straight to the couch opposite to him and plopping down, filling myself a drink as well, it was already 8 in the evening and we were nowhere near finishing the preparation, I needed this drink to calm my overexerted senses, we were all working overtime and I just came up because he called me.

"I was hiding in the storeroom" I answered after thinking of putting it most decently but it can't be. He smiled while gaping at his drink due to my answer, his smile was followed by an amusing deep chuckle, it was contagious, and now that I think about it, it really was very stupid to hide there. A small chuckle slipped through my lips at my stupidity.

I didn't notice that he was intensely staring at me by the time I had stopped laughing.

"Your smile is beautiful." He said in trance and I awkwardly cleared my throat before stopping smiling. I gulped my drink down and filled another one.

"Your best friend tossed me out of your apartment yesterday." He said amusingly sipping his drink, his words made me smirk at my precious bestie.

"As she should," I answered crossing my legs to get comfortable.

"Why did you call me?" I asked.

His face turned to an uncertain one "I just—sorry, I shouldn't have, you can go back." He tried to state the reason but stopped midway, I frowned when he ignored my presence and continued downing his drink.

"No thanks, I would like to have some more of this," I said pointing at the expensive whiskey bottle. He smiled at my answer.

We fell into an awkward silence, both of us sipping our drinks to avoid conversation, I was a little stunned when he suddenly said.

"I just wanted to see you." I didn't know how to answer that, so I kept quiet for a while, thinking about what to ask.

"Why did you do it?" I asked meekly, involuntarily trudging away from him in fear when the recollections rushed back to me, tears brimmed my eyes so I gulped down my whiskey to replace the emotions or better yet forget them, I glimpsed at him in hope of an answer but all I saw was his eyes filled with so much guilt and shame, he lowered his gaze from mine, almost as he was shameful, but I wanted to hear the reason for all what he did to me from him.

"Did you do it because you were jealous?" I asked again, remembering the condition he found me and stephano when he arrived at my apartment.

"Jealousy? Hmm." He hummed, neither accepting nor denying, he was acting like he was keeping something very important from him, I didn't believe that jealousy would alone make him do something like that, there was something else that he wasn't telling me.

"I at least deserve to know the reason why I was assaulted." I urged and he flinched at his spot upon hearing my words, his face paled and his hands loosened making the glass slip through his fingers and landing on the floor, smashing into millions of pieces, I continued staring at him for an answer, the crashing sound pulled him out of trance and he stood up almost immediately.

"You should go now. There's a lot of work remaining." He said hastily, turning his tense back to me, I sighed before standing up from my seat and settling down my glass on the table after gulping down my drink.

"Thanks for the drink Mr king." With that I stepped out of his office, leaving him with his reason.

I went back to the ground floor where the auditorium was, it was stacked up with luxurious comfort and all that we had to prepare was the stage, it was still a lot of work.

The auditorium was themed cream and black paired up with dark purple seats, overall it was better than any other venue to hold the conference, I walked down, near to the stage in between which was currently getting ready for tomorrow, Catherine was spitting out orders here and there while Ann was trying her best to keep helping her. Preparing myself I dived into the sea of work.

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It was around 11 pm when we checked the speakers to find that some of them weren't working and till we discovered the profound problem it was too late, marts were closed, I defeatedly slumped down on one of the seats, taking a break for a while along with trying to find a way to solve the problem.

Catherine was focusing in the direction of the entrance of the auditorium, reflexively turning around in her line of sight I saw Diya, casually strolling inside in her Minnie Mouse hoddie and crocs, anybody could have mistaken her for a teenager prowling around.

Upon noticing me she grinned and hurried to me, I confusedly kept standing in my place, when she was right in front of me she said flashing her perfect teeth.

"You were taking too long and I was getting worried so I came to watch over you."

"In those?" I asked, pointing to her humorous outfit.

In sync, greets sounded as well, I saw Xavier and Aiden walking in side by side. Both of them stopping beside us.

Diya had her hood up and Xavier perplexedly stated.

"Kid, who let you in? You aren't supposed to be here, don't you have something productive to do instead of strolling around in companies?"

I inwardly facepalmed myself, Diya turned around to face him, trying to cross her arms on her chest sternly but she ended up looking like a cute child throwing tantrums.

Xavier blinked before hesitantly questioning.

"Ms Shikhawat?"

"Is it that difficult to recognise me without makeup? I'm sure I look quite mature." She pouted angrily, her glare was killer but its impact got degraded due to her absurd outfit.

"What the—heck are you—wearing?" Aiden wheezed out from beside xavier before he could apologise to Diya, leaning on the chair to keep himself upright, he would glance at Diya in between before returning back to cracking up, he was literally dying and it caused me to laugh as well, slowly I too broke into full-blown laughter, tears were flowing down my cheeks and it looked like Xavier was trying to stifle his laughter as well. Catherine was already cracking up.

"You people are horrible! I look cute in this!" She pouted angrily before plopping down on a chair.

"You're even acting like Minnie Mouse!" Aiden laughed again.