An hour after the conversation with Nicole, I find myself parking into the driveway of Sophia's house. The guards here know me well because I have been to this place a lot of times when I and Sophia were together. Before I left the house, I had called Max and asked him to take care of Nicole while I would be gone. I don't want to leave her alone and also after finding out about the note that she got; I have become more cautious about her safety. The words written on it instantly come alive in my head, making my body fuel with anger again as I think about it.

However, with the reference of her father on the note, Nicole thinks that someone else is behind all this. But I still doubt the instinct in me which assumes that it couldn't be Richard. Because I know the extents that he could cross to get something out of his way. Maybe he is trying to mislead us by making up a story about Nicole's father. That possibility can't be ruled out.

I step out of the car after parking it and make my way towards the door. Sophia's house is huge, more like a mansion. Richard gifted it to her when she earned an accomplishment for her first design project. Sophia is a fashion designer by profession, she even owns a big clothing company here in LA. Richard had always been supportive of her work. He always showed much of how an ideal father should be with all the guidance he has lent to make his daughter's company achieve success.

As much as I am honest about admitting my hate for both of them, I can't deny my admiration for their great bonding. My mind suddenly wanders to think about Nicole's relationship with her father. It's nothing like what Sophia and Richard have, and I feel bad about that. She didn't deserve to have a father like him. What Nicole's father did to her family was really unacceptable, and I could understand that it's the reason for her indifference towards her genuine feelings. I wish she wouldn't have had to endure that pain so a tiny part of faith about love would still be left in her heart.

I immediately put on a straight face, coming back from my thoughts. I find a man already standing at the door as I approach it. His face doesn't seem familiar to me, unlike the guards. Maybe Sophia got her staff changed, anyway I don't care. He glances at me and opens the door for me without delay when I give him a dirty glare. I am surely not in a good mood today.

I don't hesitate to get in as this place is all too familiar to me.

The moment I step in, my eyes fall upon Sophia who is sitting on the large sofa settled in the center of the living room. I see her working on her laptop with a mug in her hand and my nose automatically scrunches up in annoyance. I was hoping that by any chance I wouldn't get to see her face, but alas, how can I forget it's her house. She takes a sip and lifts her head to look at me. She is wearing a white blouse with a blue pencil skirt. And it appears from her outfit as if she just came back from her work. Why is she back so early from her work?

"Christopher?" She lets out in a surprised tone, placing her mug and laptop on the table as she stands up.

I turn my gaze away with an intention to avoid looking at her face. "Where is Richard?" I ask in a straight tone, trying to keep our conversation to a minimum.

She ignores my question and chirps. "I am so glad to see you. It's been so long, Christopher. You weren't picking up my calls. You didn't even come to see me. You know how much it was driving me crazy?" Her high-pitched voice literally stings in my ears as I shift a bit back.

I know I was avoiding her, and I was planning to go on with it until Richard called and asked me to meet him at his daughter's place. He did that fucking intentionally.

I frown and turn to look at her. "Where is Richard, Sophia? I need to see him."

She scans my face and I see a wisp of irritation taking over her features. "So you are saying after ignoring me for fucking two months you came here just to see my father?"

I cross my arms and state in a bored tone. "Yes. I was not even intending to come to your house, only because your father called me to meet urgently, I had to be here."

I don't know what was so rude in my statement, which made her cringe like that. She gives me a pained look and questions. "What's wrong with you, Christopher?"

Okay, I tried to control it, but now she is getting on my fucking nerves. I take a deep breath before I turn back to hiss at her. "Sophia, how much time your tiny brain would take to understand that I have fucking nothing to do with you anymore?" I ask her in a low tone, trying to keep my anger in check.

She looks taken aback by what I just said to her as she gawks at me with her mouth hanging low. I shake my head in frustration and look at her threateningly. "I am telling you this for the fucking last time. We are fucking done. Is it clear?" Saying so, I walk towards the stairs. I don't need to hear anything else from her. I am happy that I have already found the love of my life and that's the reason why Sophia here doesn't stand a fucking chance to get back into my life.

I climb the stairs, assuming Richard to be in his office. I feel so dumb asking her about him in the first place when I already knew where Richard would be. I guess I lost my mind the moment I saw Sophia. She fucking pisses me off to an extent that I forget being in my senses.

"Christopher? Why are you doing this to me?" Sophia calls in desperation from downstairs, but I keep walking, not trying to pay attention to her.

"Is it because of that girl?" She screams behind me. Before I could hear any more of her irritating voice, Richard's office comes into my view. Thank god!

I sigh, giving a gentle knock just to indicate that I am here and get into Richard's office. It surprises me to find Richard's broad figure in front of me. He looks fine, like always wearing a white button-down shirt tucked in his suit pants, and I wonder if he could ever manage to look underdressed. He is leaning against his table, going through his phone. When he looks at me, his lips purse in annoyance.

"I assume you are aware of the shit you pulled up?" He says in a low tone, glaring at me. And here we go with papa bear's rants.

"No, I am not. Can you just enlighten me?" I ask in return, mocking him. I actually intended to ask him in a much calmer way because I genuinely didn't know what he was talking about. But the moment I saw his irritated face, my tone automatically led itself into a sarcastic lane. Not my fault.

"Don't try to act smart, Christopher. You think I wouldn't know about the deal you had with Joseph." He seethes, eyeing me.

Okay, so he is talking about the meeting we had with Joseph Brown four days back. Wait! How the hell I forgot about it?

"Have you fucking lost it, Christopher? How could you think of joining hands with him?" Richard barks furiously.

"What was I supposed to do when he got hold of our plan before we went there. He knew it that we were going to trap him." I tell him.

"That was your fucking problem." He snaps at me immediately. "You had to manage everything. How the fuck you can be so careless, Christopher?"

He places his phone over the desk behind him and pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. "We had the deal with Peter. I've told you we have known the Smiths for so long and you fucking went there and double-crossed Peter. Do you realize you fucking ruined our relationship with them?"

I scoff and look at him. "As far as the Richard Scott I know, he never cared about any of his relations." I pause for a moment and add. "Except for one." He stares at me with an annoyed look, as if he knows that I am talking about his daughter. I shrug and then continue. "The only thing that mattered to him was doing good business and making money. And we are still up to it. The only thing is, we are now going to get it through Browns. What difference would it make either if it's Smiths or Browns?"

"Now you are trying to defend your actions by pulling it on me." He quirks an eyebrow at me and says.

"I am not trying to defend myself. I am just stating the facts, Richard."

I wait for him to retort, but he doesn't say anything, instead; I watch him studying me with suspicion evident on his face. "That girl Nicole..."

"She has nothing to do with this.." I blurt, looking down before he could complete his sentence, referring to Nicole. When I look back, I see Richard's menacing eyes on me again.

I clear my throat, attempting to make my tone sound emotionless. "I mean, you don't have to worry about her. She had been no trouble so far and she wouldn't be in the future too..."

"How can you be so sure?" He glances at me with a vicious look.

"Because she isn't that important for me." I look back at him for a fleeting moment and state with confidence. Good job, Christopher! You are doing well.

Richard scrutinizes my face carefully and then asks. "Why is she living with you then?"

"I am just..." Fuck! What should I say now? Before I could come up with an answer, I see his lips curving into a dirty smirk.

He cocks his head slightly to the side and asks amusedly. "Sleeping with her?" I know how he went behind my back to threaten Nicole, but I am not going to let him learn that I know about it.

My jaws clench in anger hearing his question, but I ignore it and go on with my made-up explanation. "She had once escaped from my grip. It hurt my ego badly, so I had a score to settle with her. I was behind her for my revenge, that's it." I tell him bluntly, not trying to move into details and just for him to know what my intentions were. I hope the story would be convincing enough for him to believe.

"I knew that." He says. "It seems like she doesn't mind you using your dick to get revenge from her." He laughs, fixing his eyes on me. I instantly curl my fists, attempting to hide the rage streaming through my body from reflecting in my eyes. Don't react, Christopher. He is just doing it to rile you up on purpose. He wants to get a fucking reaction from me, but I am not going to give him that.

"She isn't as innocent as I thought she is if she enjoys getting fucked by you." He says shrugging. I want to fucking kill him right now, listening to the way he is talking about my girlfriend. I could just rip his head off with my bare hands if it had been only about me. But it's not about me, it's about Nicole too, and showing him that she is my weakness could throw her life at risk. And I fucking don't want that to happen.

"I am glad that you admitted this." He shakes his head and says. "I don't mind her as far as you keep her up to your bed." He suggests and I take deep breaths, trying to suppress the nerves which are threatening to pop out of my head. How can he talk such filthy shit?

Before I could lose my fucking control listening to his shit, the door opens and I see Sophia entering the room. For the first time, I feel thankful to Sophia for interrupting us because I wouldn't know what I would have done otherwise if Richard kept talking. I sigh and instantly divert my attention from her when she narrows her eyes at me. Richard catches me doing that and purses his lips.

Shaking his head in displeasure, he says. "You know you can't ignore Sophia forever. She is my daughter, Christopher."

He glances softly at Sophia and then turns back to me. "I hope you two would talk about it and make things better."

"Richard, there is nothing to be sorted out between us. She slept with another man behind my back." I protest, trying to make my point.

"Sleeping with someone doesn't imply that you have to be in love with them." Richard arches an eyebrow and jeers at me. "You do understand it very well, don't you?"

"But sleeping with someone else while you are in a relationship is fucking disgusting." I look at Sophia and say. "At least for me it is."

"I don't give a damn about your opinion, Christopher. I haven't called you here to argue with me." Richard announces in an authoritative tone disregarding my statement and moves behind the desk to take out something from the drawer. "Here is your flight ticket. You are going to Paris." He says handing it to me.

I frown and look at the ticket. "Paris?"

"Yeah, our men there have some problems in receiving the shipment from Italians. I want you to go there and have a look." He declares with a warning, looking into my eyes as he stands in front of me. Is he really trying to intimidate me?

"Why it has to be me? You could send anyone. It's not even a big job." I question him, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion.

He studies my face for a minute with his eyes blazing with fury, and then he says in a low voice. "I see, you have been running your mouth a lot lately. Try to keep that in check." He stares at me angrily. "Sorry to remind you, but you are not the boss yet. You still have to obey my orders."

"But Richard..."

"You are going to Paris because I want you to." He cuts me off and says, glancing at me with his cold eyes. "Besides, you definitely need a change, Christopher."

He steps closer to me, placing his hand over my shoulder, and squeezes it threateningly.

--------------------------

"What did he say?" Nicole asks me as soon as I get home in the afternoon. Max is standing next to her as she looks at me worriedly.

"I have a flight tonight, I have to pack things for it. Richard wants me to go to Paris." I tell them.

"Paris? But why?" Nicole asks, appearing baffled.

"I don't know. He said I have to look into our work there. It's urgent."

"If you want, I can go there for you," Max suggests.

"No. He wants me to be there." I purse my lips and sigh.

Max glances at me in confusion. Then after a moment, he shakes his head, smirking. "That's the Richard that we know." He lets out an amused laugh and says. "Doing something scandalous when you least expect from him is his thing."

I scoff at his statement. "He found out about our conversation with Joseph."

"Ohh." He smiles. "I am not at all surprised." I roll my eyes at him. What the fuck is his problem? Max can be super annoying sometimes.

"I want to come with you." I hear Nicole's voice and turn to look at her.

"No, you can't Nicole. It could be dangerous. Besides, you have work and other things. You wouldn't want to leave it, right?"

"But..." She begins to protest, but I stop her.

"Cole, try to understand." I walk closer to her.

She looks sad as she sighs in defeat. "How long would it be?"

"I can't say it. But I'll try to get back soon." I cup her cheeks and say.

"I'll miss you." I feel terrible thinking about leaving her, but I have to go. Because it's Richard's order.

"You better do." I smile and plant a kiss on her forehead. When I pull away, I frown, noticing that little puppy doing circles around Max's leg, wagging his little tail and making that annoying whiny sound. I don't know if Nicole has even decided to give him a name or not because it's fucking annoying me to call him the white little pup all the time. Max bends down and starts playing with him, making him wag his tail more frantically. I glare at Max asking him what the fuck is he actually doing?

"What? Don't you think he is cute?" Max pouts, rubbing his belly, and asks. The pup looks at Max and then turns his eyes towards me and barks as if he is defending him. So, I am the third wheel here. Nicole shakes her head looking at us and grins, picking up the dog into her arms. And I roll my eyes in response, making both of them laugh.

I smile, and after a moment I look back at Max and say in a serious tone. "Max take care of her until I come."

"Yes, boss." He says.

"And yeah, don't let that little guy take over the house in my absence."