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I took my time in getting dressed for the meeting, it was scheduled to be at 10 and currently, the clock was showing 9 am which means we had enough time to arrive at the venue.

I dressed in a black Prada pants shirt with a low neckline and golden chain work at my cleavage, pairing it with a black Chanel bag and black Louis Vuitton heels I found in my closet.

I settled my hair in a messy wavy texture along with a nude makeup look, once I was done I exited my room to see Xavier waiting downstairs for me, he was wearing a cole black Valentino suit with a white shirt button-up shirt underneath, his tie on point, only his hand bandage was visible, his hair sleeked back and his eyes stuck on me.

I descended down carefully, not to trip in my heels, gesturing him to go ahead of me. "After you, boss."

He continued staring at me like entreating me to tell him that this was a joke, I glared back at him in confusion, what was I supposed to do? Settle his on-point tie saying it was crooked?

He sighed upon noticing my confused face and replied softly, "You're going as my fiáncee, not as my personal assistant baby, this is the first time we are making a public appearance together after our engagement, so I wanted to give you heads up in advance, and that being said, after you, baby." He completed smiling and gently placing his hand on my lower back, my lashes trembled when he did, I moved my gaze away, letting him play his charade while I played mine.

I kept aside my thoughts and pulled off a small smile, getting closer to him while still making sure our hands weren't brushing. The elevator ride to the ground floor was an awkward one with Luke inside with us as well, I kept glancing at him, he had a huge bruise on his jaw but his hand was alright now. I did leave his bones from breaking.

"I'm so sorry Luke, I didn't mean to hurt you—," I broke the ice, apologising for my rash behaviour yesterday, I slowly glanced at Xavier "—you too. I shouldn't have gone this far," everything has been alright if I controlled my emotions better.

"I deserved it," Xavier replied voidly while Luke nodded smiling and acknowledging my apology, I was everything but not some psychopathic fool who would hurt anyone when she wants, I save, not ravage.

I didn't want to be in regret for the rest of my life for something I did out of pure resentment. We kept silent for the rest of the ride. Once the elevators opened on the ground floor we stepped outside, Luke informed us about the trail of paparazzi outside the building, I inhaled deeply when I thought of the questions they were going to throw my way.

I felt Xavier arm encircling my waist protectively making me glance at him in hesitation, he smiled and I exhaled deeply before wearing my sunglasses on, nodding to encourage myself. He was habitual of being the centre of attention while I was so not. He mimicked my actions while shrugging his sunglasses on as well and swiftly guiding me towards the entrance.

We weren't even out properly when the flashes started going off, his bodyguards surrounding us guardingly, while Xavier possessively kept me close to him.

They were trying there their best to get shots of us together, we kept walking in the direction of his car, flashes were only going insane as the distance between us and the car dwindled.

'When is the wedding going to be Mr King?'

'When are you officially going to announce about the drug-dealing scandal of yours Mr king?'

'Ms Rajput, words have been going around of you cheating on Mr king with Mr Marino, is it true?!'

Xavier hold on me tightened possessively at the question, I restrained myself from retorting something stupid back, it will blow up the truth of this engagement and I didn't want that, Mr Gibbs was holding the back door of the car open for us, I was about to get inside when someone shoved me to the side, I barely avoided tripping due to Xavier holding me securely, I stabled myself on my foot, looking at the man with the camera uneasily.

"I'm so sorry Ma'am!" He apologised hurriedly, his face void of any apologetic glint, I didn't want to cause a scene so I merely nodded my head in acknowledgement before swiftly getting in the car but Xavier wasn't done, he turned to the man, questioning him about his company which was answered immediately by the man.

He got into the car after me, closing the door aiming the tone of the voice down a bit, turning to me "You okay?" I nodded my head in reassurance, he stared at me for a while, making sure I was saying the truth.

The car soon left the building and paparazzi behind, driving the way to the fixed venue, we were having a meeting at Diya's company which was not a problem to Xavier at all, he pulled out his phone, hurriedly typing something on his phone and placing it back again.

I kept myself away to my side, scrolling through emails that Catherine sent me, we didn't know what the meeting was about but as far as I can think it will have something to do with her hotel's lines merging with King's resorts. The drive was silent, he never tried to start a conversation with me or tried to do anything, so it was okay, tolerable at least.

The car pulled up at the entrance of ex-hamilton and co. And present Shikhawat hotel lines, she brought the company recently, the building was just as lavish as KING INC., we both got out of the car but just as I did I felt my skin prickle disgustingly, goosebumps erupted on my body.

Xavier gazed at me weirdly, asking if anything's wrong, it wasn't him, I turned my head around but to no avail I couldn't spot anyone, not even a single damn soul, shrugging the feeling away hesitantly I turned to Xavier who was standing beside me in confusion.

Maybe it was just some paparazzi, I'm overthinking.

Smiling at my thoughts I laced my arm with his, ready to give them a good PDA for the tabloids, shaking my head lightly I placed a light kiss on his cheek leaving him a little shocked, he redeemed pretty darn quickly, smiling back and gently guiding me in.

The employees were scurrying around with each one of them having some sort of work in their hands, Diya was too strict when it came to work, we were received by Cameron himself which somehow made Xavier scowl while I was happy to see Cameron again.

I hugged him asking where Diya was, the same question was grumbled out by Xavier but with much grim and arrogance. "Yes, where is Ms Shikhawat?"

"Ma'am is waiting for you two in the conference room, right this way Mr king, Ms Rajput." He gestured us to follow him, this only made the scowl on Xavier's face to intensify, of course, he felt disrespected by her absence, he was used to getting vigilance and here he wasn't getting any. Not a single employee glanced our way which was weird but good in a way for me, I wasn't so sure about Xavier.

We made our way to the conference room, my heels clicking on the tiled floor in the excitement of meeting Diya while his carrying a certain superiority in them. His hand was firm on my waist all the time which was blocking my way to rush faster.

Cameron opened the door for us, revealing the huge conference room for our view, we stepped inside only to see Diya, Catherine, David, a beautiful brunette in her forties whose name I don't know till now and Aiden waiting in their designated seats, Aiden nodded his head in acknowledgement to both of us while David and Catherine greeted Xavier, which he didn't reply to.

I felt Xavier grip tighten on me a little upon noticing Diya occupying the seat of the head of the meeting, I smiled vibrantly upon seeing her and she did the same but more subtly, I guess it was part of her whole boss personality.

"Glad you could make it Mr king," she acknowledged Xavier who arrogantly sat on the last seat, away from the rest of them and opposite to her, I frowned upon realising I needed to sit beside him as his fiàncee, Huffing inwardly I settled beside him, soon footsteps sounded once again, the door opened to reveal Stephano standing there in his Black Armani suit, his hazel eyes crashing with mine, visibly lightening my crashed mood.

He was carrying a Rose bouquet in his hands, grinning he made his way towards us, settling on the other side of me, trapping me between him and Xavier and sure enough I heard Xavier whisper irritatedly. "Great, just great,"

"For you Bella," Stephano handed me the bouquet, visibly confusing the people in the room except for Diya who knew exactly what was going on, I waved my hand around in awkwardness, trying to make everyone believe that it was just a friendly gesture and nothing else, many of them didn't know about the engagement being forced and I wanted it to stay that way, my deniance didn't waver Stephano's spirit, he knew about my situation.

"Yeah, Totally platonic friendly gesture guys, don't get any wrong ideas, Right Mr king?" He smirked Xavier's way only to get a reaction out of him, making his little finger twitch in irritation, but Xavier wasn't going to show it, he smirked back placing his hand over my inner thigh, knocking the breath out of me at his sudden move and huskily replying.

"Of course, Mr Marino, she is mine already, right baby?" Leaning closer to me, trying to place a kiss on my cheek but I don't know what crossed his mind, he diverted it to behind my ear, on my sweet spot that he knew too well, my body reacted naturally and I crossed my legs subconsciously.

He smirked at my reaction, seeming satisfied by displaying his claim before casually leaning back, I wanted the earth to swallow me whole, Stephano smirk turned to a scowl upon noticing our exchange, I cleared my throat, turning to stephano with a smile.

"Thanks for the Roses Stephano, they're beautiful,"

"Stop lying baby, your favourite is bleeding hearts," Xavier's cocky voice sounded from behind me, I turned to see him leisurely sitting on his seat, smirking at Stephano's scowling glare, I sighed knowing that Xavier was indeed right, I told him about my favourites way before.

The brunette turned the topic around smoothly and I was thankful for that, I felt a little suffocated by sitting between these two, she introduced herself to everyone, "Good morning everyone, I'm Emily Lopez, Ms Shikawat's legal attorney," so she was the infamous heroine of the lawful world.

I thanked her for taking such good care of Diya, she was my small sister, after all, she politely replied saying it was her job. I could tell Xavier was getting impatient beside me with the introductions, and his liking to Diya wasn't such a great one so yeah, he wanted this to end quickly.

"When are you going to propose your demonstration and partnership Ms Shikhawat?" Xavier asked impatiently, and I could see the same glint in both Stephano and David's eyes, Aiden's on the other hand were shining with hearts prominent in them.

Diya smiled upon noticing Xavier's impatient tone and smoothly stood up from her chair, dressed in a beautiful black Chanel dress, her long legs trailing along in her black stilettos when she stood up, every single gaze in the room wandered to her stature subconsciously, she was too sexy and she knew it.

"There isn't one Mr king, actually I'm here to propose something else," she answered encircling her seat and standing behind it, her defined hands sensually resting on the seat.

"Mrs Lopez," She called her lawyer and the other was quick to type something away on her laptop, soon the screen in the room started showing a video footage on it.

A man in a black V neck casually sitting on the bar, swirling his drink around leisurely, his face was away from the camera, dark black hair and muscular body, there was something similar about the bar I couldn't point my finger on, I was confused at why she was showing us this video, Xavier, on the other hand, scoffed beside me, Aiden, Stephano and David scowling at the screen too, I confusedly focused my attention back on the screen.

The man was talking to the bartender for a while before he swiftly passed him a bag, the latter opened it to pull out a white stack, my eyebrows furrowed automatically, I could recognise that stuff anywhere.

"Don't tell me that's Drugs," I asked disappointedly, I had my fair share of drugs cases and they always end up nasty, I slumped down on my chair looking at Xavier to see his knuckles turned white from clenching them close too tightly, veins in his forearms bulging out, Stephano beside me was stiff as well.

"Bingo, play the next one Mrs Lopez" Diya replied casually, like wanting to be anywhere but here.

The next video started playing, exactly the same scenario but with a different guy and this one was just too obvious, an employee of KING INC. Passing the bag this time. The ID could be seen properly in 4k. I huffed surprisingly, everything finally started making sense.

"Someone tell me that's not Starlight, and that's not KING INC's employee drug dealing in there," I asked in disbelief, Starlight was the same club I first visited with Noah and got batshit drunk and Xavier owned it, Diya, on the other hand, replied enthusiastically.

"Bingo again!"

Before I could ask her where she was going with all of this Xavier snarled from beside me, "Why the f*ck are you showing me these?!" making others flinch except me and Diya who didn't even glance at him. She kept her gaze focused on me.

"Tell me, Shana, don't you recognise the person in the first clip?" She asked smirking my way, I frowned in confusion before focusing on the clip yet again, the man in the black V-neck had a red rose tattoo trailing along his wrist, a red rose.

Recognition dawned upon me once she mentioned it, "No way," I mumbled unbelievably. This can't be.

"Exactly," Diya smirked and I for the first time in forever knew what was going in her head. She diverted her sneer smile on Xavier, meeting his arrogant gaze head-on. Superiority literally flowing through both of them, on either side of the long conference table, one fuming in rage while the other calmly placing traps and winning, none of them ready to accept rout.

"I have an extremely modest proposal for you Mr king," she completed, sophisticatedly sitting back on her chair. Xavier kept quiet and so did the others, all the other males having a scowl plastered on their faces.

"The choice is in your hands, accept my proposal and I'll give out the first clip, deny my proposal and I'll ruin you." Her smirk was never once staggering. Her brown eyes glowing with manipulation and satisfaction, if the first clip goes out then KING INC. will have nothing to do with scandal but if the second one did then she was right, she'll ruin him, I was so surprised at how things were taking turns.

At some point, David got his sense back and he snapped from his seat, standing in reflex, "We can sue you for propelling false shreds of evidence against KING INC. Ms Shikawat!"

Diya smiled at David, before asking in a very polite voice, "How Mr Jones?"

"You just admitted to ruining us with false accusations and evidence!" He snarled back, looking around the room for cameras, we all did and nothing, nada, not a single camera in this whole room, Xavier chuckled beside me grimly, glaring at Diya and asking amusingly.

"It was you, it was you all along," Diya shrugged casually, not showing a tinge of regret or guilt, she was sure of her choices, I was quietly taking in the exchange, what the f*ck could I even do in this.

"You messed with the wrong person Mr king, this is me giving you worse retribution than assault." She finished grimly, her hands shaking beside her, I glanced at her in pity, I should have known better, she wouldn't stay calm about that. Xavier tilted his head mockingly in her direction, smirking and asking casually.

"What do you want Diya?" The first time actually using her first name, it sent chills down my spine with the amount of hatred he was calling her, waiting for her to unfold her cards. I was so confused, surprised, I didn't know she was going to threaten him in this way.

She flashed a billion-dollar worth smile, calling someone on her phone, not breaking her eye contact with Xavier once, the door opened a few seconds later, tons and tons of men following the same man inside, a red rose trailing along his wrist, dressed in a black suit, his black eyes and black hair giving him an exact view of the actual devil.

I stopped breathing upon seeing him again, he stopped right behind me, I could feel my heart thudding in my ribcage from his closeness, his hands resting on my seat and slowly twirling me around to face him, leaning down until our faces were mere centimetres away, his hot breath flowing on my face, his hands caging me in my seat, his thick Russian accent piercing through the room like a knife, shattering my world, I staggerdly inhaled before finally meeting his black eyes, similar black holes prominent in them. Darkness consuming me in. Vladimir Ivanov.

"Collect everyone's phones," he ordered, not breaking his eye contact with me, I saw Xavier fuming from the corner of my eyes, he huffed at the man before tossing his phone aside and standing in front of me, looming over Vladimir like a deadly storm making him step back, I was a little stunned when he intimidated him by abling to put some distance between us. He turned to me worried, checking me and then turning back at Vladimir again.

"I suggest you stay the f*ck away from my fiáncee," he grimly retorted, which was followed by Stephano beside me as well.

"Exactly, stay the f*ck away from her!" I cringed a little when Vladimir raised his eyebrow at me mockingly, smirking at me and then at Diya.

"Oh, look lover boys trying to save their girl, is this some type of truple or something?" He asked me and I shrugged embarrassedly.

He shook his head at me in amusement before extending his hand in my direction, I placed my hand in his without hesitation, shocking the hell out of everyone in the room except Diya, he smiled and so did I, the genuine ones, he guided me to Diya, three of us standing beside each other, I kind of can see where this was going.

Diya clapped her hands in enthusiasm, getting everyone attention, "Now that everyone's phones are taken, I can finally state my terms and conditions," everyone was silent, Xavier and Stephano glaring at Vladimir while Aiden looked absolutely crushed, I felt a little bad for him.

"As some of you know, this engagement is forced—" Diya was interrupted by a shocked Aiden.