Chapter 87 - A Lifetime With You

"Mr. Hitoshi, can you please show us LY's designs?" Wade requested Mr. Hitoshi.

Lina had already sent Aya the new designs so there would be no problem regarding that. They can just tell the others that LY is busy and has only sent the designs through them.

So Uncle Mitsuo stood up and handed over the small flash drive to Kirk that Mr. Hitoshi had passed on to him.

"Lina" Mr. Hitoshi called out and Lina who was busy playing with Nao looked over in his direction.

"Yes?" She asked innocently because she really was oblivious to why he was calling her name.

"Do you mind introducing the collection to us?" He gently smiled at her and Lina understood what he was doing.

'He wants me to introduce my collection huh?' She nodded her head and stood up.

What Lina thought was true because only she could explain what her thoughts were when she was designing those pieces.

"Sure!" She happily said and went towards the projector but the others looked at her in confusion.

"LY and I discussed these designs before so I know more about them." She briefly explained and then typed a password to open the flash drive.

Only two people had access to this password, they were Lina herself and the next person was Mr. Hitoshi.

As soon as the file was opened it would work perfectly fine but once the flash drive was ejected from the computer, all the files inside it would be wiped clean.

Lina had commissioned these special flash drives to avoid any unfortunate situations of theft or fabrication of her designs.

After all, many people were after her designs and she needed to safeguard her intellectual property. 

Wade had told her that she was just being paranoid about it but it was always better to be safe than to be sorry.

"So shall we start?" She asked after the first image was displayed on the screen.

"Proudly introducing LY's new collection based on the concept of 'A Lifetime with you'." She beamed when those words projected on the screen and looked at the women in the room swoon at her words.

Well the only women in the room, excluding herself were Irene, Julia, and Maxene. But to her surprise, even Maxene smiled while looking at the screen.

'Why are there so few women in a position of power in this place?' Lina thought of discussing this with Wade later.

"LY has designed three sets of jewelry for the auction. But there's a catch to it." She grinned at them.

"As you know we have decided to auction each piece individually, the reason for this is because though the pieces in the sets have the same theme they are not meant to be worn at the same time." She saw confused faces so she explained further.

"Each design is so intricate and beautiful that just wearing one would be all that you need. They were never meant to be worn together because each one is a star in its own sense and hates to share the limelight." She cracked a little joke and laughed at it herself.

"Without further ado, let me introduce the theme of LY's collection." She clicked on the next button and three beautiful flowers were displayed side by side.

They were all flowers that everyone knew and admired.

The first was a delicate Yoshino cherry blossom, next was the black tulip called 'Queen of the night' and last was the beautiful red amaryllis.

Lina then went on to explain why LY had chosen these particular flowers.

She looked at the pinkish-white flower on the screen and started speaking.

"The cherry blossom indicates how quickly life passes by, just like our youth so we need to cherish it dearly. They also symbolize innocence and purity. Just like a young girl in her teens, so pure and innocent." Then came the black tulip.

Though she called it a black tulip, these were very hard to breed and the closest a tulip came to it was a deep purple wine color.

"Black tulips symbolize power and strength. Their mysterious and elegant shade depicts royalty. This flower depicts the power a woman holds in her hands. The power to shape her own future and to live life on her terms. That she is the queen of her own life." She pumped her fists all hyped up.

"Finally, the red amaryllis represents determination, pride and radiant beauty. These flowers are also associated with strength. The strength that women achieve after going through all the toils in their lives." She then looked at everyone sitting before her.

"Now you must be wondering why LY named this collection as 'A Lifetime with you' when it has nothing to do with romance and love, right?" She asked and everyone nodded their heads.

Lina chuckled and then looked back at the words on the screen.

"In 'A lifetime with you', the 'you' does not represent a husband or a boyfriend, it signified 'you' as in yourself! How can you love someone else for a lifetime if you can't even love yourself?" She shook her head and stared at the screen.

Her thoughts were disturbed when she heard claps coming from behind so she turned around.

"That was great!" Irene said as she sniffled trying to stop her tears.

"So inspiring!" Leon was even worse, he was bawling his eyes out and gladly accepted Anthony's tissue to blow his nose loudly.

'This guy has an endless supply of tissues." Lina smiled looking at Anthony patiently patting Leon's back.

"But I haven't even shown you the designs yet!" She pouted and the others laughed seeing her whine.

Maxene too was impressed with Lina's little speech but she did not let it show on her face.

She started speaking once again when she saw Wade's signal.

"So each flower set has three pieces of jewelry. The tulip and amaryllis sets have a necklace, earrings and a ring but the cherry blossom has a bracelet instead of the ring." She said and slowly displayed each design starting from the cherry blossom.

They were just her rough sketches that she made on the plane ride back to this country. 

She did not like showing people what her final designs looked like after she used the app that Wayne had created for her, to fit different stones in the designs.

So right now they just viewed black and white sketches but they were more than impressed by LY's designs because they were elegant yet not monotonous, edgy yet not vulgar.

After showing them the designs, she safely removed the flash drive and put it in her pocket.

'The file must have been deleted by now.' She thought.

"The stones used and the material required have already been procured and are kept ready for when Mr. Hitoshi and his team will start." She looked at them and they nodded.

"We will be transporting all our equipment to this building today and we can start with our work tomorrow." Mitsuo said and Kirk whispered something in Wade's ear.

"The 20th and 21st floors have been reserved for LY and his team so you can shift them there. Lina is in charge of showing you around so ask her for anything you need." As Wade said this, Lina saw Nao's wicked smile.

'What is he planning to do?' Lina wondered and had an ominous feeling because everything that Nao planned would always backfire on her in the long run.

Soon the meeting ended after they discussed a little further about the auction and slowly everyone left the conference hall.

Mr. Hitoshi and his team decided to go back to the new house that Kirk had arranged for them to prepare all the stuff they required to start their work.

While the other heads of departments went back to their own floors, Stuart walked away with Irene and Julia.

As Lina was about to walk out with Leon and Anthony, Maxene blocked their way and gazed intensely at Lina.

"Did you not find it weird how she spoke so eloquently about those designs? It's almost as if she came prepared for it." Maxene asked Anthony this question and eyed her suspiciously.

"What are you trying to say Maxene?" Anthony frowned and answered her with another question.

"I'm just saying that she's hiding something from us." She answered and stared at Lina from top to bottom as if she was trying to gauge her.

Lina just rolled her eyes at Maxene and stood straight with her hands folded on her chest.

"It's not my fault that LY happens to be a close friend. Isn't it every girl's dream to have a designer as their best friend?" She mocked Maxene for trying too hard at getting close to Talia Zheng.

"What did you just say?" She raised her voice and took a step forward but stopped in her tracks when she saw that Anthony and Leon had formed a human barrier before Lina.

She heard whispers and found that the other employees were staring at her and giving her nasty looks.

"Just you wait! I'll expose you!" Maxene whispered through her gritted teeth and strode towards her room.

'I know that was mean but I just couldn't stop myself!' 

Lina did not feel bad for blatantly mocking Maxene because she was already aware that her being nice wasn't going to improve the relationship between them.

'Anyone who disrespects my company will have to face me first!' Her golden eyes glowed when she glared at Maxene's door.

"Are you okay?" She woke up from her trance when she heard Anthony's concerned voice.

She smiled at them and just nodded her head.

"I better get back to work." She waved at them and walked back to her room.

'I really need to calm my brain down!' She planned as she entered her room.

"Will she really be alright?" Anthony sighed after looking at Lina's closed door and they entered his office.

"Forget about her! Will I be okay after seeing that?" Leon rubbed his arms to ease the goosebumps on them.

"Even I was shocked to see her like that." Anthony nodded and thought of how Lina's eyes glowed menacingly when she was staring at Maxene's room.

At that time, Leon had already taken a few steps away from Lina when he saw her eyes.

Anthony had called out to her when he finally couldn't take any more of that unnerving feeling he felt in his stomach.