"Your analogy is awkward." Skeleton chuckled, but he had to admit that Desmond did make some sense. If he was destined to either be with Zaria or be alone forever, then he really would have killed his future wife by hitting Lucy's stomach at the time.

"Get lost." He frowned at Skeleton who was still sitting on the couch like he owned the place.

"Hey! Are you going to discard me right after having me help you out? How heartless!" The man complained. He had not even been offered a glass of water to quench his thirst, forget a meal.

"My mother has developed a habit of dropping by at the most random timings." He explained. He was not kicking Skeleton out, but he didn't want Alyssa to know about his existence.

How ironic, he thought to himself. In the past, he wouldn't have minded it no matter what Alyssa found out about him. However, he was trusting her less every other day. At the moment, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Alyssa knew that the video provided in court was fake. Would she rat him out, with the reason that Jaime was her son too and didn't deserve to be punished for a crime he had not committed? It wasn't impossible, considering how she had blamed him for being insensitive about Samantha's fate.

__

Later, that night, in Liam's villa.

"Sir, there's a call for you." The housekeeper carried the telephone to the study, where Liam was finishing up on his work.

"Who is it?" He asked irritably, wondering who would call his house so late at night. Were they tired of living?

"It was a man but he did not introduce himself." The housekeeper reported and handed the telephone to Liam when he opened out his hand to receive it.

"Who are you?" He asked in evident annoyance as soon as he answered the call.

"I'm wondering the same thing." Came a masculine taunting voice, which made him frown. Who was so idle?

"You better introduce yourself."

"Or what, Mr. Preston? Will you investigate me?" The man taunted, then burst into laughter. "I forgot. You don't have any such ability. You cannot even investigate a fly, let alone a human."

Liam was about to hang up and call one of his experts to check whoever it was when the man spoke again, having had enough fun messing with him and wasting his time. "I called to tell you, don't seek trouble. Stay away from people you shouldn't mess with."

He frowned when the call ended. When did he mess with anyone? No matter how hard he thought about it, he had always minded his business and there wasn't any reason for there to be a fewd between him and any man. Unless…

His eyebrows knitted at the thought. Desmond wouldn't be that childish, right?

…

The following morning, at Preston and Fort Group.

"Do you think I would give you a call in the middle of the night to threaten you? How childish do you think I am?" Desmond burst into laughter when his friend confronted him about the mysterious call he had received the previous night, from a caller whose identity couldn't be traced.

Liam's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm certain that it's related to Zaria. She is the only one I have tried to investigate in the past few months and according to that man's tone, I should keep my nose out of matters that are none of my business."

Desmond had a sudden thought. "That could be Zeus."

"Who is Zeus?" Liam wondered.

"Forget it." It was merely a suspicion, based on the fact that the man's identity couldn't be traced. He was the only person around Zaria who couldn't be investigated. "Now that we're talking about it, why don't you want me to be with Zaria?"

Liam glanced at the door that led to Zaria's office and looked back at his friend. "Does it still matter? You are already together."

"I'm glad you know." Desmond nodded in approval, picking up a pen from the crystal holder on the desk. "However, I still want to know what you had in mind."

Liam knew that this might be the only chance to mend his relationship with his best friend. Even though he knew that Desmond might not believe him, he still explained it anyway. "There is something about her past…"

"That sounds like what Skeleton said." Desmond chuckled lightly.

"Maybe. Even if we ignore the fact that she has too much missing information, there is something peculiar. Take a look at these photos."

He took out his phone and unlocked it. He then scrolled through his gallery and showed Desmond pictures of them. They had been retrieved from the city's surveillance system, considering that they had been captured from the windscreens of their cars.

"I found these on Zaria's computer." He stated sternly.

"I'm yet to ask what the hell you were doing spying on her computer but what about it?" Desmond asked with a displeased frown.

"These photos were taken long before the Fort family's scandal erupted. She is investigating us. Don't look so nonchalant." Liam was helpless when he saw that his friend had no reaction. "She is the daughter of our families' enemy. At least that's what I suspected after investigating her. Take a look at these."

He showed a picture of Zaria, and it was her younger version. "This is seventeen-year-old Zaria." He then scrolled to another picture which looked almost identical, but the second one was much older and was not colored. "This is seventeen-year-old Lucy Roatta. Is it far-fetched to imagine that these two are mother and daughter?"

Desmond sucked in a breath. It turned out, Skeleton wasn't the only one who had found out that Zaria could be related to Lucy.

"I see." Was his response, and Liam could only shrug and leave. He hoped Desmond would not blindly fall into her trap, if she was trying to trap him.

Zaria arrived to hand over files soon after, and Desmond stopped her from leaving.

"When is your birthday?" He asked out of the blue.

"Desmond, we are at work. Don't ask such personal questions. Save them for later, not during working hours." She reprimanded.

"It's related to work." He insisted so she would answer him, without making him wait for all those hours.

"December 27th." She answered but was curious. "Why would you ask?"

"I just want to know. How old will you be turning this year?" He once again asked.

"28." She blinked in confusion. The point was, wasn't this information in her employee profile? He didn't need to ask and merely had to glance at her work ID, which she had with her. Perhaps he merely wanted to hear her talk? What a weird hobby.

"I just wasn't certain. It's not uncommon for people to lie about their birthdays. If they have something to hide, that is." He explained, looking at her to see her reaction.

"Well, I have nothing to hide." She shrugged at his dramatics.

"Okay. Moving on to a different topic. I received an email this morning, from someone from the Roatta family." He stated, with his gaze still fixed on her to see her reaction.

her heart skipped a beat when she heard the surname she had almost forgotten about. "Roatta?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No. I'm just shocked that they didn't contact me." Her hands clenched to fists at the side. There weren't many families with the Roatta surname in Imperium, and only one of them was capable of directly contacting Desmond. It had to be the very family where her mother belonged.

"It puzzles me too. Especially since the sender seemed to know you." He glanced at her clenched fists and pretended not to notice a thing.

"Who was it?" She asked, as expected.

"Lucy Roatta. Do you know her?" he feigned nonchalance, and noticed how she held back a gasp before her gaze turned stern.

"No." She denied without flinching.

If it wasn't because she had mentioned her mother before, he would have thought that she had something to hide.

However, her mother had left her. If he were in her shoes, he might also view her as a stranger the next time they met. Even so, he still found it unbelievable that a kind woman like Lucy could dump her own daughter. But then again, she had turned out to be a murderer in a flash, so the kindness might have been a facade.

Zaria left, and his personal phone rang almost immediately.

"Who is this?" He asked since it was an unknown contact.

"Desmond, dearest, do you miss me that much? You even had me investigated." A woman's voice cooed.

Speak of the devil, he thought. The devil that no one had seen or heard of for years had suddenly given him a call. And how amazing it was that she even knew she was being investigated by him. Most importantly, where the hell did she get his personal cell phone number?

___

AN