The next day, I mustered my courage and decided to go to the office.

Elian was right; I couldn't avoid him forever. So I got dressed up in a white blouse, light pink suit, and black formal pants and marched out of my apartment with a smile plastered to my face. I wanted to be completely professional.

I took the public elevator, instead of the private one. I would take no risk of bumping into Elian today. After all, I had a meeting with him two days later. Until then nothing would require me to see him. Therefore, it was going to be an Elian-free day!

I entered my cabin to find Anya arranging my desk.

"Good morning, Ms. Fleur," she greeted with a bright smile.

I smiled back. "Good morning, Anya."

"I missed you so much yesterday," she whined and came to give me a hug.

I chuckled and returned her hug. "Did anyone give you any trouble in my absence?" I inquired, pulling away from the hug and putting my bag on the desk.

Anya was thinking hard, and just when I noticed a familiar red file resting beside my laptop, she started to say, "Oh, I remember! Sir didn't accept the weekly financial report from me. He told you to give the report yourself."

Just when I thought it was going to be an Elian-free day... Just great.

I felt like shooting someone. Either myself or Elian.

"And also, the meeting from Friday was rescheduled. It's today at two."

Never mind, the person I was going to shoot was Anya.

"Why didn't you inform me earlier about all of this?" I demanded.

"But I did send you yesterday's briefing," she said in utter confusion and started to check her phone. Her eyes widened in horror before she looked at me sheepishly and murmured, "Sorry, I forgot to press 'send', so the mail became a draft. I sent it to you now, though."

I shot her a flat glare and sarcastically let out, "Very helpful."

"Espresso, Ms. Fleur?" she offered, trying to sound cheerful.

I tried to keep glaring but ended up sighing and slumping on my chair. "Yes, please. This is going to be a long day," I groaned.

And indeed, it was.

I was dreading for the clock to hit two when Anya came into my cabin and informed me, "Ms. Fleur, Sir is on a round."

I glanced at the time which read eleven. I gave her a nod of acknowledgment, and she left.

Elian always came on rounds once or twice a week randomly so that the employees stayed on their best behavior all the time. But I had never seen him check up on the executives back when I was a regular employee, so I was safe, right? He wasn't going to come—

Someone knocked on my cabin door, and I immediately ducked under my desk in fear.

"Ms. Fleur, I brought the files you asked for," a feminine said from outside.

Oh, phew, it's not him.

I sighed and sat back up on my chair. "Come in, Ms. Green."

She came in and handed me the files and left. I started looking through them when there was another knock. Thinking it was her again, I called out absent-mindedly, "Come in."

"Ms. Fleur."

My eyes widened hearing the familiar deep masculine voice, and I raised my head slowly to meet his green eyes. I stood up and hurriedly said out of habit, "Mr. Storm, good morning."

Elian closed the door and walked inside. "No more 'sir' then?" he asked, taking a seat in front of my desk, but I was frozen.

Be normal, Alena. Be normal. Don't let your fear show on your face. Think of whatever you saw as a live murder-mystery movie. Nothing else, I reminded myself.

"Oh, right, sorry. Sir, good morning," I corrected.

He shot me a glare. "Call me 'sir' one more time and you will see."

I was almost going to ask if he was going to kill me for it again, but I resisted the urge and let out a huff before uttering, "Mr. Storm."

"That's better."

I sighed and sat in my chair. "Are you here for something or did you just come to annoy me?"

"Actually, both," he said cheekily. "I haven't received the weekly financial report yet, Ms. Fleur."

"But I sent my assistant with that file yesterday, but I heard you sent her back," I replied.

"Yes, because it's your job to give me the briefing, not her," he pointed out.

"Fine then. I'll give it to you now."

I was just about to open the red file when he stood up abruptly and said, "Come to my cabin if you want to give the report."

"But you're already here. You might as well as just—"

"See you in my cabin later, Ms. Fleur." With that, he left my cabin.

What the hell is wrong with this guy?

I almost felt like going after him to slam the red file in his face, but I controlled myself. But God, how was I going to survive working with this kind of rude and unreasonable boss?

I was sitting in one of the front seats in the conference room. I was a little earlier because I wanted to sit somewhere away from Elian's chair, which was at the head of the table.

"Ms. Fleur, you're not supposed to sit here. Your assigned seat is over there," said the first person who entered after me, pointing at the seat adjacent to Elian's.

"Oh, don't worry. It's fine," I dismissed. I wasn't going to move an inch from this seat—

"But Sir will be mad. He doesn't like disorganization," another person said.

Oh, shit, if I make Elian mad, it wouldn't take him two seconds to go back on his words to keep me safe.

I quickly got up and settled into my assigned seat. Soon enough, the conference room was filled with people, and when Elian entered, I kept my gaze low.

I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn't dare look up. I paid extra attention to the words being spoken. I was doing okay, even with a cold-blooded murderer like Elian sitting adjacent to me.

But when the lights were dimmed for the multimedia presentation, the scene from that night flashed in front of my eyes. Everything started to seem blurry. I couldn't concentrate anymore.

In that conference room filled with people, I felt alone and scared.

All I could hear and see were the gunshot, Elian's apathetic eyes, the blood, the dead body, being held at gunpoint—

I was gripping my Apple Pencil too tightly when I felt a hand on top of mine. All at once, the flashes from that night vanished. I let go of the pencil and clutched that hand like a lifeline.

"You're okay. I'm here for you. Calm down," I heard someone whisper in a soothing voice, and it helped my heartbeat slow down and my breathing got stabilized.

Even after I was calm, I didn't feel like letting go of that hand. I didn't know why, but this... it felt so familiar, like something I had been used to and I wanted to keep holding on to.

Wait a minute. Whose hand was I even holding in the first place?

My eyes followed the owner of the hand, only to land on Elian's handsome face. His eyes were to the front, but when he felt my gaze on him, he turned to look at me.

I immediately pulled my hand back and turned away, bashing myself internally.

But why was he holding my hand? He had no reason to, especially when he was the reason behind my mini panic attack. And that voice... was that him too?

Or, was there a ghost in this conference room? There was no way that soft, gentle voice belonged to Elian.

I snapped my head around, looking for any supernatural creature lurking.

"Ms. Fleur, is something wrong?" the head of the technical department, Mrs. Woods, asked.

"Huh? No. There was a fly here just now," I quickly responded, otherwise, people would think I was distracted in the middle of an important meeting, which was true, and would judge me for my promotion. Mrs. Woods was one of those unhappy people.

"A fly in here?" Mrs. Woods asked.

I was about to reply when Elian spoke up, "Yes, I have seen it too." That shut Mrs. Woods up. "I think I saw a cockroach near your feet just now."

Mrs. Woods and all the other women, including me, stood up screaming.

"God, where is it, Sir?" Mrs. Woods asked in a panic.

"Oh, never mind. That's just someone's pen cap," Elian corrected.

"Mr. Storm, you gave us a heart attack just now," I let out, removing my hand from my chest.

Elian's lip curved up into an amused smile, but he covered it up by feigning a little cough. Was he just now amused at all of us screaming, or to be more specific, me?

"Everyone, sit down. And Rowan, just in case, get the pest control to inspect the whole office this weekend," he instructed his assistant, who was standing right behind him.

"Okay, Sir," Rowan replied, and with that, the meeting resumed.

After the meeting ended, I decided to go and give Elian the weekly financial report and be done with it.

But before I went, I informed Anya, "If I don't return in an hour, come look for me. And if you don't find me, call my mom and let her know that I loved her and Dad a lot."

Anya just looked at me like I had grown two heads and continued to do her job.

I made my way to Elian's cabin and knocked on the door. The automatic doors opened up as he said, "Come in, Ms. Fleur."

I entered and asked in amusement, "How did you know it was me?"

"I don't know. Gut feeling, I guess," he answered and looked up at me. "So you finally brought the file?"

"Yes." I handed him the file and took a deep breath before starting, "So the last week, the sales on—"

"Save the briefing for later, Ms. Fleur. We have somewhere to go right now," he casually informed and stood up.

"Where?" I gave him a perplexed look. He did so much drama about the report, now he had somewhere to go with me? Just what went through that head of his?

"Remember what I said yesterday about getting you a gun?" Elian asked.

"Yes?" I answered skeptically.

"Well, then let's get you one."