Chapter 288

288 Conspiracy (1)

The incessant ringing of the doorbell woke Ximena up barely minutes after she fell asleep.

“Who has a death wish?” She groaned as she slid out of bed. She grabbed a floor lamp on the living room floor on her way to the door, opened it, and waited for whoever it was to get in.

Liam was startled when he caught sight of her with a lamp in hand as a weapon.

“If I were a burglar, do you think that would be enough to take me down?” He wondered why she didn’t check before opening the door.

“Trust me, it doesn’t matter what I have in hand.” She put the lamp down and closed the door. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in L’Hotel Luxe La Rive?”

“The date would have ended ages ago even if it went well.” He stopped mid-step when her ambiguous question made sense. “And if you were my date, I would want to get a room for the weekend.”

She brushed past him. “That’s good to know.”

He followed her towards the open office and frowned when she sat at the desk.

“You look sleepy.”

.....

“I was asleep until you woke me up to grace me with your benevolent presence, so thank you, Mr. Preston.” She picked up the cup that had fallen over and spilled its contents all over the mess of files and paper.

“Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed.” He muttered under his breath and rolled his sleeves to help her clean the mess.

“Don’t touch that. It’s none of your business.” She snatched the file he had picked up and glowered at him.

“Last I checked, I was a partner of Morel Beauty. What’s gotten your panties in a knot?” He leaned against the edge of the desk as he asked.

She slammed the file shut after ensuring none of the documents had been stained.

“Thanks to whatever you did at L’Hotel Luxe La Rive-which I honestly don’t want to find out-your future wife decided to wreck hell in Morel Beauty. All this,” she motioned at the mess that had become of her office. “This is her doing.”

“What are we dealing with here, exactly?” He offered to help.

“She made a report about Morel Beauty using counterfeit and poor quality ingredients in the products. I need to prove that all our purchases were made from trustworthy producers. Good heavens.” She glared at him. Was there anything she gained from being with him apart from one hell-sent enemy after another?

“Don’t even think about it.” He knew she was considering shutting him out of her life.

“I’ve never had to deal with so many problems because of one man.” She admitted.

He inched closer to her to help her compile the records. “Fortunately, I can clean after myself so you have nothing to worry about.”

If he was still talking about Abbie, she had a feeling she was not ready to know how exactly he planned on cleaning his mess.

Since some of the records were stained, they took much longer to compile them and by the time they were done, it was almost dawn. She yawned and rested her head on his shoulder to take a nap.

“Ximena,” He called out softly, taking the chance when she had lowered her guard to strike a conversation he didn’t think he could start when she was awake. “If worse came to worst, would you agree to elope with me?”

“Mh? Where would we go?” She drawled, and he was not certain whether she understood him or was muttering gibberish that just happened to be an appropriate question in response to his own.

“I don’t know. Anywhere we can be on our own, where no one knows us. I heard Luxenville is awesome and Ciel is heaven on earth-both literally and figuratively. Or we could leave Olphire altogether and go somewhere else. Italy sounds like a good idea.”

“What a hassle.” She protested. “We could just wipe out the Watson family and be done with it. No other family would agree to a business marriage alliance with your family.”

She sounded so serious that it startled him. He kissed her forehead. “Remind me never to mess with you.” He was not ready to die.

She was dead asleep not long later, but picking her up was a vicious battle. In her sub-conscience, she believed she was being attacked and retaliated with all the strength she could muster in her slumber. He finally put her in bed, tucked her in and gently pulled his hand away. He was lucky to have made it out with his jaw intact.

He stood by the bed and watched as she finally relaxed and allowed herself to sleep. It was fun witnessing her sleepy battle but once she was calm, he couldn’t help wondering why anyone would be so guarded. “No one is born with such heartless beliefs. What the hell happened to you, Xim?”

His phone rang with an incoming call and he stepped aside to answer it.

“Did you do it?” He asked.

“See you at the golf course.”

____

Earlier that night.

Evan crossed Abbie’s path, nearly making her trip on her skyscraper high heels, but held her in time.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” She exploded.

“I’m sorry.” He gently steadied her. “I lost my cool seeing such a beautiful woman. What’s a beauty like you doing on your own?”

She scrunched her nose. “You are Evan West.”

“Oh, you recognized me. Is it because I’m so charming that every woman knows my name?” He studied her eyes.

“Everyone knows that you, Liam and Desmond are best friends. Some sort of clique?” She huffed.

“You missed out one name. Natalie.” He joked, making her glare at him for making fun of her. “This is not the right place for a chat with all these people milling past us. Do you want to grab a drink?”

She hesitated.

He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “If anyone knows Liam Preston, that would be yours truly. Don’t you want to find out what you have done wrong all these years?”

“How tempting.” She admitted. She had always been curious why the man never spared her so much as a second glance but at the same time, this was Olphire’s most notorious playboy she was talking to. What if someone took pictures?

...

In the end, curiosity overcame rationality. A few drinks later, she was nervous.

“If you are out to prank me, you better stop now or you will not like what I will do in retaliation.” She tried to read his expression. They had decided to have their little chat in the bar down the street, where everyone was too busy having fun to care about anyone else. The place was packed and noisy and the only way to communicate was by yelling or speaking in one’s partner’s ear-and Evan had chosen the latter.

“What would I gain from pranking you? I would rather charm you.”

Her heartbeat stopped for a second. “You are so annoying and cheesy. How come every woman in Imperium can’t wait to hop into your bed?”

He rested his head on his fist with a snicker. “Every woman except Zaria Williams.”

Abbie’s expression darkened. “Can we not talk about that woman?”

“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow when he detected a hint of hate. “What did she do? I mean, we will not talk about her once I know what she did to make you so angry.”

She leaned over the bar and gulped down her tequila. “My family is falling apart-that’s not a secret anymore. At least it won’t be if things don’t go as planned.”

“How is she in your way?” He probed.

“If she wasn’t engaged to Desmond, I wouldn’t have to face this kind of humiliation. The aim is Preston and Fort Group and if you ask me, Desmond is a better man to have a loveless marriage with. He has a heart, at least.”

“Oh, trust me he doesn’t.” He mumbled.

“He’s not ruthless enough to dump a woman in public.” She defended him.

“If that woman is Zaria, he will not even want to dump her. But why are you defending him instead of your crush of decades?” He exaggerated the last word mockingly.

“It doesn’t matter. So what if I love him? Even if he were to fall in love with me, it wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Why am I telling you all this anyway?” She sighed deeply and downed another tequila shot.

“Do not underestimate the power of those. They tend to loosen your tongue.” He pointed at the tequila with a satisfied grin. He had just found out a conspiracy that would interest Liam much more than explicit pictures of them together.

_____

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AN

I’m trying to resume writing all my books but to be able to update all of them, I will alternate the update days for a steady schedule. I’ll publish at least 3-4 chapters per week for each book, TTW’s days are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.