Jarek.

I walked into one of the most fascinating scenes I have ever witnessed in all of my career life.

I walked into the suite designated for my meeting with Mister Valemont today only to find Yvette looking all flustered and confused, with her cheeks stained a bright shade of pink and her breasts almost spilling over from her very tight blouse.

Her eyes widened when they found mine just as I stepped into the room, but before she could recover, Mr Valemont cast me a soft glance, smiled smugly and drawled;

"Ah, thank the goddess you’re here! I was just asking Ms Yvette to explain what this concept at the top of this paper means, especially since she so sweetly informed us that she worked on the project herself."

"Herself?" I dragged out, letting my words roll out of my tongue very slowly.

Something about it probably unsettled Yvette because she then turned away, tried to hide the blush on her face and cleared her throat, "I... I didn’t exactly mean it in the way it came..."

"Oh, that’s fine!" I chirped in, sounding exceedingly sweet, especially since I now have a new gossip to take up with Leilani later today. "You can continue. I’d just continue from wherever you stopped." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

My response made her blanch. She looked at me like she couldn’t quite believe her ears before she slowly rose to her feet. And with a smile that never left my face, I watched her walk up to the front on wobbly knees, rewrote the entire statement out on the small make-shift board and began to explain utter nonsense over and over again to three men who weren’t even listening.

"Oh," that was Mister Valemont who was obviously having the time of his life, but at this point, all of the fun in this had slowly dissipated, leaving me feeling embarrassed and irritated.

One I was embarrassed that she had managed to turn a simple instruction: ’interact with them until I am free’ into this circus, and irritated because she had the effrontery to go ahead and claim intellectual rights to something she could never have done.

I tried to act cool but I couldn’t take out the annoyance in my tone as I seethed; "Thank you, Ms, you can leave now. I’ll continue from where you stopped."

She lowered her head, cast one last longing glance at Mister Valemont and then rushed out of the room like the devil was hot on her heels.

Which he ought to be.

"That girl should be at your company’s reception desk, not behind a desk at one of these exclusive floors." Valemont commented, making my eyebrows scrunch up in confusion.

"I do not understand what you mean, sir?"

"Oh, you do." He hissed, suddenly looking so bored, I was instantly doused in embarrassment. "She doesn’t have the skills or the brains for the kind of workload that you’ve given her."

"But I didn’t—"

"I know that she didn’t do this," he snapped, waving at the paper in front of him. "The words written on it are too eloquent and too smart to be written by her, and those words on the top paper which she has been explaining to us for the past three minutes were too personal to have come from ’this particular’ employee. So it has to be someone else."

Something about those words made me understand that he knew way more than he was letting on, and that in itself made my heart skip a beat.

I tried to play it cool but I was too nervous; And for this reason, I could only stare at him, nodding until he finally said;

"Has that employee— the one who you told me was dead—somehow suddenly come back to life?"

I froze.

"Sir?"

"You are a smart man, Alpha Frostclaw, hence the reason you’ve come this far in this business at such a young age. So please, start answering my questions in the way that fits your reputation and stop acting like your favorite sport is Barbie."

For a couple of seconds, the insult didn’t make any sense to me until it stung.

And boy, it stung hard.

I lifted my eyes to meet his own only to be met with that overwhelming force I talked about with Leilani a couple of days ago. Then I looked away and hissed;

"’My employee is still dead. That was done by someone dear to me."

"Mhmm." Valemont mused but didn’t comment any further on the topic as he soon turned away and began to read through the documents spread out before him one after the other until a couple of minutes went by.

"I am satisfied with this." He finally said softly, his voice carrying a tinge of pleasantness, "this feels like some of your old works that pulled me to you in the first place."

"Thank you."

"You should keep up with whatever you’re doing right now to keep the contract going. Else..."

"Nothing would happen," I tried to assure him but he bluntly shook his head.

"If I am exposed to mediocre one more time, or I am forced to be entertained by the clown who just left here a couple of minutes ago... What is her name again?"

"Yvette," his PA supplied dryly and he nodded.

"Yes Yvette, if you present her to me one more time, then this contract will be off. And mind you, Frostclaw, I never take little compensatory damages."

The threat in his voice was as clear as day, but what was clearer was the fact that he knew something. Something about me... about everything... and that unnerved me.

His piercing eyes bored into my face for a minute too long before he picked up his pen and began to sign away, and then a couple of minutes later, he rose to his feet, hissing under his breath;

"And tell the lady that I said thank you."

I frowned. "What lady?"

"The lady who made this. The one whom you’re protecting like it’s an apocalypse."

I let his words sink in— more like slam into my chest— and then I nodded briskly. "Yes, I would." I said softly, "I’ll tell her you said hi."

"Good, do that," he drawled, and with that, he turned around while his PA picked up their copy of the signed documents. "...and also let her know that I am keen on meeting her. You hear me? I would love to meet a smart mind, not one who is willing to shove her ugly ass bosoms in my face."

I would’ve laughed if the situation wasn’t so dire, so do you know what I did instead?

I nodded like a puppy even though I knew that he meant each word he said.