Zion Group of Companies

"Revise!" The fearsome president shouted with irritation while his hands made the documents flew out from his table.

The two marketing officers shakingly picked up the papers and immediately exited the president's office.

Sergei, who was standing beside his boss' table, sighed at the scene.

Since the day the young miss disappeared without a word, the President's temperament has become worse everyday.

Fortunately, Mr. Gates is still a fair person but because of his side attitude, their employees are more than terrified to face him.

Sergei thought of doing some extreme measures to extract any information from the people who knew Ms. Zimmer.

Heck, he even suggested to use Mr. Gates' connection with the international space agency to locate the young miss but his lovesick boss wouldn't allow it as it will only add more fuel to the fire.

Sighing again, Sergei recalled the scene last week at the Zimmer estate.

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After hearing that Natalia wanted to be left alone and flew out of the country, Alexander absent-mindedly walked out of his car and marched aimlessly.

Sergei, who just arrived that morning, immediately drove Alexander's car away from the front gates of the Zimmer estate and followed his boss as he strolled for hours without any direction.

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"Sergei." The cold man spoke as he drank his wine.

"Yes, Sir." The assistant looked at his boss who were currently drinking his fifth glass of alcohol.

"Buy the condo unit of Natalia."

"But it was already sold---"

"Then double the payment to the previous buyer and bring back the unit---now. I won't be repeating myself." Alexander firmly instructed.

"Yes, Sir."

Alexander dismissed his assistant and closed his eyes. This week has been exhausting for him. The duchess' family arrived the other day and was demanding a wedding. His parents also flew directly and went to his penthouse seeking an explanation.

Right then, he saw a familiar ring clinging on one of the fingers of the royal lady. He hastily called Sergei at the middle of the family discussion and had him check his drawers at the office. The assistant confirmed that he didn't find any kind of tiny box inside his office. 'Fudge.'

What's more, Jake Zimmer made sure that nobody would be able to trace the location of Natalia. Even his men, Simon and Zeb, were deceived as the genius man disrupted all the GPS trackers that were used for Natalia's protection since he first encountered the woman back at the Yushkova mansion.

And as always, all of Alexander's calls and messages to Natalia didn't go through which the man also assumed was the action of the woman's brother. He also hired international computer experts who seemed at par with Jake, but all of them couldn't outmaneuvered the older Zimmer sibling.

With so much frustration, Alexander stood up and drove straight at the Zion Suites. He told himself to uproot the weeds that made Natalia disappeared.

After reaching the condo, he sat down at the couch and picked up his phone.

Alexander achingly stared at the picture of an adorable woman who was munching her tuna sandwich.

'I love you.'

#######

"Your grace. How are you?" Ariel greeted the duchess as she sat down opposite the woman inside a coffee shop.

"Ariel, I'm so glad you came. To answer your question, I am great! Hope you are, too." Duchess Ruth welcomed in return. She's been feeling so well this past days. Her family already talked with the Gates family and they were already discussing about the wedding.

The Gates, even though they agreed with the ceremony, gave a condition that the wedding should be modest and intimate. The two families assented the special condition as long as the two will engage in matrimony.

"I hope you could come at the ceremony." Duchess Ruth uttered.

"Congratulations, your grace! Of course I'll be there. When will you get married, again?" Ariel excitedly uttered but somehow got envious because the duchess will be married first.

"In two or three months from now. We're still finalizing the details." The duchess winked at Ariel and sipped on her hot chocolate.

The two women talked with one another for another hour.

"Ariel." Someone called.

"Devon!" The blonde woman waved her hands happily as the two of them have a date that evening.

The man approached the two women and stood beside Ariel. "Are you done?"

Hearing the man's voice, Duchess Ruth was apalled. Her face reddened and stared at the familiar man.

"Yes. We're done here." Ariel responded then looked at the royal lady. "Your grace, is everything alright?" She asked in a worried tone seeing the weird expression on the duchess' face.

'No...'

"Y-yes! Maybe I just got a little worked out coming here. But yes, I'm fine." The duchess replied averting her eyes from Devon. A memory suddenly comes back inside her mind.

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at the night of the gala...

Duchess Ruth gave her entire attention to the brunette woman who snatched Alexander from her. She almost forgot that this is the lady whom Sergei brought, the night when she arrived at Alexander's penthouse.

After getting an idea from her new acquaintance, Ariel, the duchess waited for a while before she followed a mildy-soaked Natalia outside the venue hall. She needed to confirm if the woman will leave the celebration based on what they've planned.

The duchess vaguely heard that Alexander was looking for a room where the woman can rest. She also heard that he will be back to get some clothes. Well, she's unsure of that part because she's been hiding out of sight as few men were still lurking at the hallways.

Then there was a moment when she saw Natalia went inside a room. She took note of that room and composed herself to confront the spiteful woman.

She waited for another few minutes and checked if the hallways were already cleared. When she was sure that no one will see her, she entered the room.

To her surprise, Natalia was not inside.

'Where did that woman go?

Did she left already because of embarassment?'

Nevertheless, she scanned the room and saw something which caught her eyes. The gown of Natalia was spread over the bed. She pondered for a while. If Alexander will come back as he had promised, she can take advantage of the situation.

The woman dimmed the lights and beamed to herself. After few moments, she felt something was different. She felt that her entire body was burning with fire. A dangerous one.

Without much thinking, she hastily took off her dress and was halfway done in wearing Natalia's dress when the door flung open. She faced the window opposite the door to prevent herself from being discovered.

A man hugged and caressed her body. Immediately, her desire escalated and she subconsciously gave herself thinking it was Alexander.

--------------

Clearly it was not. The duchess lamented that night and racked her brains out to overcome this predicament and disgrace. That's the time when she remembered the female from the party---Ariel Zippi.

But now, seeing the blonde woman with the corrupted man, her stomach felt disgusted.

"Your grace. It's such an honor to meet you." Devon greeted and shook the duchess' hands.

The woman just smiled and nodded at the person without saying anything. After that, she excused herself and immediately exited the establishment.

"Oh. Ariel, Ariel, Ariel. This is very unfortunate." The duchess muttered to herself.

#######

"Piglet. How are you settling there?" Jake put a call to check upon his sister.

"Everything's good here. How 'bout there?" The woman on the other line replied.

"Same old. I'll be meeting up with Boar this coming week. I'll update you and also keep you posted with Dad's condition."

"Alright. Thanks brother. Say hi to Trish for me. I need to go now. Love yah!"

As the call ended, the woman scanned her reflection at the mirror.

"You look beautiful, young miss." Deedee praised the brunette woman as she fixed her hair.

"I need to. I'm meeting a potential investor." The woman smiled adjusting her pearl earrings.

"You mean, you will have a dinner date with a gorgeous business man, who presented himself as a gift, the first time he laid his eyes on you?" Luna Lee butted in as she opened the door to her friend's room.

The brunette woman just chuckled and shook her head.

"Oh. You trimmed your....." Luna gasped reaching her friend's hair. It's not that short as the end still passes the shoulders.

"New chapter." Natalia smiled at her reflection.