The entire room was listening to the manager of the IT Department to speak about the new projects they had obtained. Although Noah's gaze was at his phone, he was listening to all that was being spoken. He had been eagerly waiting for Aria to reply to his text. But he was yet to receive any response from her. The manager stopped when he felt that his Boss was a little distracted. As soon as he stopped, Noah looked up.

"Why did you stop?" He asked. Although his voice was cold, he was still happy because his office had been progressing well even in his absence. His employees were quite efficient. The manager continued, giving out the cost estimates and the finances. He also provided all the details of the profits they would gain after the successful completion of the project.

Noah listened until the end. He thought for a while. He looked at his secretary. "Tell the finance team to provide all the employees with two months bonus. Also mail me the reports, I'll take a thorough look at it."

All the people in the room cheered. They knew their Boss appreciated hard work. Behind the cold face, there was a beautiful soul.

Noah walked out of the room, followed by Shane.

"Mr. Carter, wait a minute." A beautiful woman stood up. She was the manager of the Human Resources Department.

"Yes?" Noah stopped. All the managers had been waiting for this moment. Nobody had the guts bring out the topic.

"We have kept a party the Friday night. It's to celebrate the successful venture of our company in the Britain market."

Listening to the woman's words, Noah took a look at all the hopeful eyes of the people around him.

"I'll think about it," Noah said.

Everybody became happy at once. Though their Boss had not accepted their offer, he had not rejected it too.

"Anything else?" Noah asked.

"No Sir. That's it."

Noah nodded and walked away with Shane. He went to his office and ordered his assistant to get him a cup of coffee. He took his time to finish his coffee.

"Let's go and take a look at how each department is working," Noah said. He sauntered in his company, going to all the departments personally. He started with the IT department. It was the largest department in the company, occupying five floors in the company. There were more than 450 employees. He casually entered one of the floors of the department and looked around. Nobody realized that their Boss had walked in. Everybody was busy working on their computers.

Noah walked slowly and stood behind a man who was working seriously typing some codes on his laptop. His fingers were flying fast and he was typing at an extraordinary speed. Noah realized that the man was building a software firewall. The man stopped typing when he found a shadow on his computer screen. He turned to look at the person and stood up immediately.

"Boss."

Hearing his words, his colleagues lifted their heads to find their Boss standing in their department.

"I am sorry, Boss. I didn't know you were here." The man was scared.

"Relax," Noah said. "I was just looking around. You did nothing wrong."

The man relaxed at once. "Thank you, Boss."

All the people in the department stood in attention. It was the first time they had seen their Boss in such proximity. Many female staff's hearts were pounding fiercely, looking at the handsome man. The manager came running out of his cabin.

"Boss." He gasped. "Is there something wrong? You could have called me."

"There is nothing wrong. All of you are doing a good job. Now continue your work. I won't pester you anymore." All the people returned to their seats.

"But, don't inform the other departments that I am going on inspection." He ordered. His voice was loud and this time it was looked like a threat.

Next, Noah visited the finance, marketing, operation management, legal departments and he was quite happy with the employees. In the end, he visited the Human Resources Department. As soon as he approached the department, he heard two female voices.

"Have you seen our Boss? He is so handsome." One woman spoke.

"Yes. I could stare at him all day." Another woman agreed.

"How long had I been waiting for this day to see him personally."

"Hmm." The other woman sighed.

"What are you two doing? Why are you not doing your work?" The manager approached them and scolded them. It was the same woman who had invited Noah to join them for the party. Although she looked like she was serious about her job, she was in fact putting an act. She had seen Noah standing at the entrance and listening to the two women. She scolded them loud enough for everyone to hear. This way she could impress her Boss.

"Boss." The woman exclaimed after scolding the two female staff for some time.

Everyone stood up at once. They were terrified, especially the two women.

"Boss, is there any problem?" The manager asked politely.

"What was the commotion about?" Noah questioned calmly.

"No Boss. Everything is fine." The manager said. She didn't want to complain about the two ladies as it would seem highly unethical and they had not done anything wrong.

"Boss, Mr. Liam Brooke's assistant is on the phone." Shane interrupted and handed Noah the phone.

"Yes, Noah Allen Carter speaking."

"Mr. Carter, I apologize. Mr. Brooke cannot have lunch with you today. His wife has gone into labor and he has to accompany her. He has asked me to send you his apologies and he would definitely make it up to you someday."

"It's okay. I understand. I'll give him a call later." Noah said calmly and returned to his office. He was not the type of person who got angry when people canceled the appointments. He was in fact happy that Liam was about to be a father. He too wondered how it would be to be a father and a smile crept on his face. He had actually imagined Aria being pregnant with his child while he was softly caressing her belly. Just the thought itself filled his heart with warmth.

Noah took out his phone and sent Aria a text. 'What are you doing?'

Meanwhile, Aria and her team were sitting in their respective chairs, listening to the speeches from prominent doctors all around the world. This was scheduled till the lunch hour and after that, they had nothing to do, since it was just the first day of the conference.

Aria was sitting in between Mason and Stuart. While she wanted to listen to the speech, Mason was attempting to distract her by using all sorts of methods. He tried talking to her and every few minutes he would nudge his elbows against her. His behavior was making Aria angry. Yet she endured it, as there were many people around her and she didn't want to cause a scene.

Stuart sensed Aria's discomfort. He tapped her shoulder.

"Aria, can you come over here? I have something important I must say to Mason." His voice was loud enough for both Aria and Mason to hear.

Aria exchanged seats happily, while Mason frowned.

"What do you want to talk about?" His voice came out quite rude. But, Stuart was not offended. He smiled at him and mouthed, "Later."

Mason cursed. He was quite angry. However, Aria was quite happy. She realized that Stuart had exchanged seats on purpose and he had nothing important to tell to Mason. She gave him a smile of gratitude and continued to listen to the speech. At that moment, her phone vibrated. She saw that it was a message from Noah.

'What are you doing?'

'I am at the conference, listening to speeches.' She texted back.

'Are you free today?' Noah replied at once.

'Yes. My schedule is free after 2. Why?'

'I have a surprise for you. See Ya.'

'What is the surprise?'

'Be patient. A surprise will not be called a surprise anymore if I say it beforehand. Now be a good girl and concentrate on the speech. I'll see you at 2.30 after lunch.'

'Okay.' Aria smiled and started to listen to the fourth speech for the day. However, her mind was somewhere else. She was looking forward to Noah's surprise.