The next morning,
Inside the car on the way to work, Lina shot a glance at the man sitting next to her with her cheeks puffed up.
'He hasn't said a word since last night.' She shook her head in disapproval as she turned her body sideways to face him.
"Oh come on, Benji!" Lina called out to her assistant who turned his face towards the window when he noticed her movements.
Ever since he had come back home from his day at the office, he had been annoyed at her and refused to speak to her.
"I said I was sorry now can you let it go already?" She held his arm and shook it vigorously to make sure that he would turn towards her.
Just as she had expected, Benji did turn in her direction but only to shrug her hands off his arm.
"That was an invasion of privacy and a crime!" He scoffed at the woman who was acting cute to save herself now.
Lina nodded her head to show acquiesce with his words and sighed as his frustrations were valid.
When Benji had returned to his apartment building after the impromptu meeting yesterday, Wade had accompanied him.
This was because he too needed to visit Lina to inform her about their plans.
The men had separated when the elevator reached Benji's floor and Wade continued to ride upstairs to Reuben's penthouse.
When Benji had entered his apartment, he noticed that certain things were out of place which made him vigilant about his surroundings.
His first reaction was to check his bedroom and when he investigated the place, he realized that no one had entered it.
This made him puzzled as to why someone would break into a house if they didn't plan on stealing something valuable from it.
He soon decided to check the entire house and make sure that the person was not yet inside hiding in some corner.
Sneaking into each room skillfully, he was once again bewildered when none of these rooms showed any signs of forced entry.
His suspicions about whether he had imagined the entire break in the incident were cleared when he entered Lina's bedroom.
This was when he found that the only thing remaining in the room was the furniture.
Her clothes, her bags, shoes, her accessories… Everything she owned was missing.
The panic he felt at that moment made his legs weak as he held onto the wall for support.
"She will kill me!" Was the only thing running through his mind.
He was aware of how precious Lina's clothes were to her. After all, she spent a lot of effort and money to collect such limited edition pieces of clothing from all over the world.
His first thought was to call the cops and make a report for break-in and theft.
However, before he could dial the number of the cops, his phone rang and the caller ID displayed was of the same woman whom he was fretting to face.
"Benji, come upstairs. We need to talk." Lina's voice was heard over the phone before the call was disconnected.
With a heavy heart filled with dread, he made his way to Reuben's penthouse and grimaced when he saw her smiling face.
'She will be so sad when she hears about her stolen clothes.' He surmised and inches in her directions.
However, when he had disclosed what he had discovered after his arrival, he did not receive the sorrowful expression that he had been expecting.
Instead, she chuckled and dragged him to the bedroom she had slept in the last time and pushed the wardrobe open.
The view he was met with made him open his eyes wide in surprise and then narrowed when he put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Ever since that moment, he refused to talk to Lina and had even stayed mum the entire time while Wade had explained the plans to her.
Now looking at the same expression of displeasure and annoyance on his face, Lina did not know what else to do to appease his anger.
"Benji, Ruby was just trying to do something nice for me. I'm sorry that I forgot to fill you in on the details…" She apologized once again in a whisper.
Her meek voice made Reuben's driver glare at the big man who was making such a sweet lady beg for forgiveness.
'Scoundrel!' Driver-san cursed as he diverted his attention to the road.
Since Lina had forced Reuben to spend another day at home, Driver san was assigned the responsibility to drive Lina and her assistant to Obsidia today as well.
Observing that their office building was just around the corner, Benji turned towards his boss and looked her in the eyes.
"Act as though you know nothing and let the others do their work in peace." He scoffed and then looked away.
"Sourpuss!" Lina's aggrieved mumbles made Driver-san chuckle as he pulled up the car to the entrance of Obsidia's building.
Soon, Benji got out of the car first and held the door open for her as though he had not just ignored her very existence in the car.
'He should have been in the acting line of work!' Lina scoffed at this pretense and then strode ahead.
If he was not going to accept her continual apologies then she would treat him the same way he did.
'Ruby was wrong to enter Benji's house without permission but we entered his house without permission as well.' She recalled the argument she had made in Reuben's defense last night.
This was also the reason why Benji had been so mad at her.
'She already took her boyfriend's side in the argument!' Benji rolled his eyes as he stared at the woman who was walking ahead of him.
The security guards who would always greet her with a wide smile had displayed an awkward and scared smile as though he was afraid of something.
'I hope she does not hear the bad rumors about her.' The guard wished as he watched her entering the building.
Benji kept his distance as he followed after his boss all the way to the elevator.
The moment the elevator doors were shut with Lina and Benji inside it, the employees who had been silent as they passed by began whispering among themselves.
"I cannot believe that she came to work on time today." One woman snickered after Lina was out of their sights.
In response, one of the older men shook his head and shot a disapproving glance at a couple of women who were gossiping right in the presence of everyone else.
'Have they not learned anything after the last incident?' He sighed and went on his way.