Chapter 223 - Angela Who? (4)

"It's a great idea, Zaria." Lucy praised her. 

"Thank you." 

"Write a proposal including the budget and period it would take to complete the installation and send it to me. I can only approve of it if it's actually worth the time and resources." Desmond added, trying not to praise her. The last time he praised her for an excellent presentation in a meeting, rumor flooded the company about her only getting acknowledgement because she supposedly had tricks up her skirt. 

The last thing he wanted was to make her everyone's enemy, especially since they already knew about their relationship. 

She nodded, immediately starting to note down what she would need to find out. 

When the meeting ended, she checked her phone for messages when she went to the bathroom. As expected, Desmond had sent her a text message, asking her to meet him in his office. She had a guess of what it was about and while it was an unfortunate topic, they would have to discuss it sooner or later. 

Skeleton was standing near his desk when she got in, puzzling her. Why was he here? 

"Have a seat, honey." Although he was offering her a place to sit, he pushed away from the desk to give her space to sit on his lap, and patted it to make it obvious what he was suggesting.

Skeleton freaked out. "Can you please be professional here? You can leave the part where you sit on each other and make out for when I'm gone and the two of you are on your own." 

"You don't have to be so crass about it." Zaria waved him off and sat on the leather chair on the other side of the desk. She had not intended to sit on Desmond's lap, of course. 

"What do you have there?" Asked Desmond, as he pointed at the USB stick in Skeleton's hand. 

"This." He held the USB stick up and placed it on Desmond's desk. "It's the evidence of the shocking discoveries I made. One of them is the fact that Angela was not ordered to send the email by Alyssa." 

"What are you saying?" Zaria was puzzled. "It's not Alyssa? Are you certain that you are not making a mistake?" 

"I am. I thought it was her and I kept an eye on her, only to find out that she is not the mastermind. She is just a pawn and all she did was give Nathaniel the information he needed about you." 

"Nathaniel." She spat hatefully. Of course it would be him. And to think she had once admired the elderly man and respected him, thinking he was a great person. 

"You are his granddaughter and may not believe this but he is out to destroy you." Skeleton pointed out. 

"Of course I know he is out to destroy me." She muttered. Ever since she found out that Nathaniel had tried to bring harm to Theodore just because Lucy had returned and he suspected that they might reconcile, Zaria knew that she was not out of his list of people he was capable of harming. 

"Alyssa told him about Angela and the kind of impact her meddling can cause." Skeleton added, pointing at the USB stick. "This is evidence of their meetings." 

Desmond didn't make a move to check it out, since he had already suspected it. On the other hand, Zaria reached for the USB stick. "Maybe they discussed something that could give us clues of their ultimate plan? I don't believe that email was the end of it." 

"Nathaniel wants to hurt you by destroying your relationship with Desmond." Skeleton speculated, to which Zaria shook her head. 

"I don't think that's it. If he has investigated me, then he knows that destroying my relationship with the people I love is not as easy as having a few one-sided messages sent via email. And if he investigated Desmond, he would know that he is not the kind of man to easily get trapped in a woman's charm. He is not going to make Angela try and throw herself at him." 

Desmond smiled at her words. "I didn't know your evaluation of me was so high, babe. You have good taste." 

"Don't be too full of yourself." She berated him with a chuckle, but she knew deep down that she would never want to be with a man who could easily fall for traps of seduction. Who would want that kind of partner? 

"There is something else. And I don't think it's only about me being forced away from the man I love." She guessed. 

"Does he know about you…" He was about to ask if Nathaniel knew about her pregnancy but it couldn't be a reason, since Zaria only found out after Angela's email. His eyes widened at his speculation and when he met Zaria's gaze, he knew it was also the thought that crossed her mind. 

"Breaking me and Desmond apart will only help him get what he wants—which is to push away the people capable of supporting me if he were to strike me down." 

"That's what I'm afraid of." Desmond ran a hand through his hair. "I would never turn against you no matter what, but we can't say the same about everyone else." 

"Natalie, Ximena, Lucy and Zeus?" Skeleton asked. 

"Ximena would never betray me." She defended her friend confidently. 

"Neither would Natalie. She values friendship too much to be used against her friend. I don't think Lucy and Zeus would be used against you either. But what I suspect is that Nathaniel would want to turn you against the people who would support you instead of it being the other way round." He grabbed her hand over the desk and held it in both of his. "Which is why, honey, I need you to promise me something." 

"What?" She asked. 

"Promise me that no matter what happens, you will not make a decision about us on your own." 

She had no idea what he meant but it was a reasonable request so she nodded. "I promise." 

"Find a room already, you two." Skeleton shook his head at them. 

"Keep an eye on Alyssa and an even closer one on Nathaniel." 

"You got it." He dashed off, escaping the scene that was threatening to unfold before his eyes. 

___

"Pearl Resort. This should be it." Liam pulled over into the parking lot of the resort and looked at the address he had been given. His mother had sent him on an errand and he had reluctantly agreed, just to escape having to hear an earful of nagging. She had brought up the topic of marriage so he dashed off with the address she had written down for him. 

He got out of his car with the address card in hand and followed the direction boards to the elevator, entering the floor number when he got in. A feeling of tension rose in his stomach, which he chalked up to fatigue. He had downed more cups of coffee in the last twenty four hours than he probably had in the week before, just so he could get his work done. What he was feeling must be a side effect of too much caffeine, which he promised himself not to take for the next one week. 

The elevator arrived and he followed the address card to the Japanese restaurant, and went to the table where his mother was supposed to meet her friend. 

She was odd, he thought. She had talked about purchasing cosmetics, but she neither wanted to pick them up at the official store, nor did she want to let the owner deliver them at her home. She preferred to pick them up at a restaurant and her reason was as unclear as her intention of having her son go on her behalf. 

Liam frowned when he thought of how coincidental it was. The person she was meeting was a young woman with long black hair and… 

Fuck. 

He cursed when he realized why his mother didn't give him a picture and made him rely on the meeting spot and time. He was halfway through running his hand through his hair when the woman walked in. He was mesmerized by the sight of her. 

She was wearing a tight black skirt paired with an emerald blouse and had her hair in soft waves. Ximena Morel. She was indeed carrying a box in her hands with an MB logo. 

"I should have known it was you." She remarked when she saw him clearly. 

"And you didn't?" He snapped back at her, believing that it was no coincidence for her. She probably knew that his mother was setting them up to meet. 

"Mrs. Preston insisted that she wanted to meet here despite me telling her that the goods could be delivered to her house. She also insisted that it had to be me delivering it instead of anyone else for security and privacy reasons. I should have realized that she wanted to make me meet her son." She huffed. When Mrs. Preston called to tell her that she would not make it but her son would pick the goods on her behalf, she should have guessed that the said son would definitely be Liam.

"Are you complaining?" He asked, relieved that the woman his mother was setting him up with was Ximena. 

"What do you think?" 

_____

Author's Note. 

Happy New year darlings! 

As a new year's gift and because I'm rejoining win-win after so long, I will send coins as a reward to the first two readers who leave a comment on this chapter within 24 hours. Spam comments do not count. 

(Blank gifts and emoji, "I'm first" , "Exp", etc count as spam.)