“Honey bunny! You’re on your way to the office, right? Oh, I’m so so so excited to see you!” Laia was smirking the entire time; watching through the grainy CCTV cameras as a man visibly stiffened.

It was nice to know she had such a great impact on people.

Through her phone’s speaker, she could hear her husband dearest taking in deep breaths in an effort to calm himself down.

She hoped he was failing. It was entertaining to see him flustered.

“Where are you? Are you at the office?” He snapped quickly.

Laia tsked internally. He was the head of a company. He would need to get a better grip on his emotions and reactions if he wanted to survive in a cut throat industry.

But the confusion was expected. It seemed she and Raine shared a similar characteristic–both would refuse to wake up at a socially accepted hour. It had been hellish to wake up at six in the morning on a Saturday just to beat Alexander here.

“Mhmm,” she hummed sweetly, “I heard that you would be interviewing for a personal assistant and secretary role! I just wanted to come over and help you pick out a candidate!”

It sounded like she was any other jealous wife that felt threatened by the presence of another female in their significant other’s life. In truth, she was merely preventing the classically angsty CEO x Secretary pairing. She couldn’t let her potential seed drown in muck like that, right?

As she was musing over the trope, her husband was swearing up a storm on the inside. “Who told you that?”

She giggled; the sound evil to Saffron’s ears. “That’s a secret!”

The feline had been taking a nap in her designer handbag. From the moment her sickly sweet tone had greeted her husband, he had jolted awake. He was glaring at her, but she paid him no mind.

“It seems like I have to inspect over at one of the studios. It slipped my mind,” her husband’s apologetic voice was faker than fake, “I can’t go over to the office now, unfortunately. If you want, you can go over and pick whoever you want from the applicants there.”

“But you aren’t going here?” She whined loudly, just to drive the nail in a little bit more.

A snicker almost escaped her lips as she watched her husband hightail away from the entrance of the building towards the carpark; his little subordinates stumbling after.

“No,” The dial tone began to beep immediately after.

Laia snorted. “Poor kid,” she remarked.

Although the male lead hadn’t done anything to her directly yet, she had him pinned as collateral damage. Why?

Well, as kidnapper kid was still MIA, someone had to bear the brunt of her pent up malice. Plus, he was still kind of her planned murderer.

A threat was a threat.

Was it reasonable? No, but she wasn’t one who who particullarly bothered by being called a hypocrite or a sadist. This was a dog eat dog world. You were either against her or with her.

If he cooperated with what she needed, then that would make his life easier. If he would not, well…

She was preparing for that outcome right now. There was no loss to having aces and pawns up her sleeve.

Everything she had to do needed to be radical enough for the story to change greatly. There would be no way in hell that she’d be dying.

Laia placed her phone down; spinning on the leather swivel chair in her husband’s office.

The design of the overall room was very industrial. Everything was in differing shades of white, gray, and blue. Stainless steel bookends and accented the decor. What differentiated this office as the one for the CEO from any other managerial office was the floor to ceiling window that looked over the skyline.

It was only a matter of time before she’d get a place like this. Where instead of a placard with his name hanging on the door, it would be hers–without her married name.

In her opinion, Raine Hastings sounded much better than Raine Norton.

She pressed a button on the intercom. “Excuse me,” she said, “Please send in all the applicant resumes.”

Immediately after, a man in glasses came into the room. He was carrying a fairly substantial stack of folders; causing her to flashback to her marriage contract.

“Madam, all of the files have have already been checked by the hiring directors so you don’t really have to go through them anymore. I’ve already sent the list of names through to the president’s computer,” he said.

Laia smiled, “It’s all right.”

She didn’t say anything more so he begrudgingly placed the lot of files on the table.

Thanking him before he left, Laia watched his retreating back with a shake of her head. He was too obvious. Then she began to shuffle through all the folders. Saffron leapt up from his multi-thousand dollar carrier; scrubbing through the files with his bean paws.

After a while of searching, Laia pulled out a crisp folder with a name and number printed onto the side. “Here we are,” she said.

Black. Bold. All capitalized.

‘871 ALISSA JANE WALKER’

The female lead.

Laia had arrived at an optimal point in the story. A fairly optimal point for her, at least. Today was the day the two leads were supposed to meet for the very first time.

It had all been seen before. Male lead makes a misogynistic and offensive comment, female lead lashes out at him–something no one has ever done to male lead before, and cue male lead’s internal dialogue with the classic line: ‘she’s interesting.’

Laia thought that they should have been glad that she was finding ways to make sure that their lives weren’t portrayals of sad D-list romances. She was saving both of them the eye rolls and humiliation.

Opening the file, she glanced through the information on it. An appreciative hum escaped her lips as she glazed through the data.

It wasn’t at all impressive. The school the female lead had gone to was mediocre at best. There were also several odd jobs listed under work experience. There was nothing indicative that she was capable of any sort of high caliber job, much less that the left hand of a business magnate.

Alexander in the novel hadn’t caught on, but she was the author. She was the one who planted these seeds.

Laia pressed the intercom button again. “Send in applicant 871,” she called out the female lead’s application number.

It wasn’t a long wait.

Like an office romance movie, it was the loud click of her heels that announced her impending arrival–even through the firmly shut door.

Leaning forward, elbows on the desk; Laia rested her chin on her palm. Two distinct knocks on the entryway. The doorknob cranking to the left.

“Good morning,” a bright voice filled the room. With a few strides, the female lead was in her full view. She didn’t miss it when the girl faltered slightly at the sight of her.

Just then, Laia realized that she had missed the opportunity to greet Alissa in mobster fashion–having her back towards her before cleanly swiveling her leather chair.

She made a mental note to do it next time.

“Good morning,” she nodded, “Please sit down.”

The female lead was in every way a visual contrast to Raine. Raine was tall and skinny, while Alissa was vertically challenged and voluptuous. Raine had black hair and sharp eyes, while Alissa had strawberry blonde locks and doe-shaped eyes. Sharp line and soft ones, a wily smile and a genuine one; both struck chords in people’s hearts in different ways.

It was as if the universe was trying to show who was the supposed good and bad at a moment's glance. Laia wasn’t afraid to prove it right for her and wrong for Alissa.

“I’m not giving you the job,” Laia said; pearly whites glimmering.