35 minutes.

Her fingers hovered over the keys of the keyboard as another minute passed by. The old but pristine wooden door, which could lead her to the answers to the questions that had been haunting her for the past week, didn't budge. Nadia glanced at the little clock, attached to the pen holder, on her desk.

40 minutes.

A sense of dread filled her as more and more time flew away. Forgetting about the program she was working on, Nadia stared at the boring wooden door. It wasn't every day that the firm owners, Mr and Mrs Johnson, visited the office to have long conversations with Anderson.

Ever since Mr Johnson retired, Mrs Johnson would stop by the office to get updates about the firm's performance and new clients but that was once in a blue moon. Her last visit had been just three days ago and the fact that she was here again, along with her husband, made Nadia anxious about the revelation, that she had been so persistent to proclaim as a lie.

45 minutes.

The vigorous shaking of her chair snapped her out of her thoughts. Startled by the harsh action, Nadia turned around to see Derek stand behind her chair with a huge smile on his face.

"I told you Mr VanAssche is a man of his words!" Derek claimed proudly. He leaned on her desk and stretched his arm for her to have a look at the watch on his wrist. "48 minutes. That's the longest they have ever stayed in that office. I'm pretty sure they're talking about selling the company."

"Or maybe, they're just talking about firing you for your stunt at Leamington," Nadia smacked his hand away and pulled her chair closer to her desk.

That wasn't the case, though. She was sure the Johnsons weren't there to talk about Leamington. Nadia had already had that conversation, with Anderson and Mrs Johnson, three days ago. The woman had wished to fire Derek as retribution for his actions and Nadia had to use her impeccable persuasion skills to change the woman's mind.

50 minutes.

Oblivious to the little incident where his friend had saved his job, Derek considered that idea for a few seconds then shook his head. "That's a thing of the past, Nadie. No one cares about that stupid hotel anymore. Not after Mr VanAssche so heroically exposed their connections with the Russian mafia to the world!" He placed his hand on his heart, a thing he always did when talking about the man.

Ignoring her friend, Nadia started to type on her computer. She didn't know if the lines she was typing made any sense but, they worked perfectly fine to make Derek believe she wasn't listening to his chatter. So, she continued the act while her mind was occupied by something else.

Even though most of the times Derek was a complete idiot, there was a big chance that he was right about this. It was already close to an hour and knowing Mr Johnson, who started to hate this place after his retirement, and Mrs Johnson, who never spent more than 20 minutes inside the office, Nadia could deduce what was coming. Though, she still hoped for her assumptions to go wrong.

55 minutes.

"Mr VanAssche helped you, Nadie. Twice." Derek shielded the computer screen from her eyes with one of his hands and showed two fingers of his other hand to emphasize his words, "He is a good man. Why do you not like him?" He kicked her chair when she titled her head to a different angle to view the screen. Nadia kicked his leg in return.

"Why are you so interested in him?" She stopped typing and turned in her chair to look at him. For the past whole week, he had been singing praises of Dylan to her. Her ears were tired of hearing how 'charismatic' he looked at Leamington and how he turned into a 'total badass' at the club. Not a single day had passed without him mentioning how much he would love for 'Mr VanAssche to buy the company'. Nadia feared if Derek ever met him again, he might actually start worshipping the man.

"Interested? I'm not interested, Nadie. I'm in love! There is a difference" He declared and Nadia realized maybe it was too late. He may have already started to worship him.

The doors to Anderson's office opened and Nadia quickly turned around. Anderson walked out first then held the door open for Mr and Mrs Johnson. Nadia noticed how he had a fake smile on his face and laughed nervously at something the old lady said. He kept nodding at Mr Johnson's words and walked them out of the building.

When he returned, the smile on his fat-swollen face had vanished. His brows were furrowed and he had a displeased look on his face. Feeling her eyes on him, Anderson looked at Nadia. "In my office. Now!" The frown on his face turned into a scowl as he spat the order at her.

Several heads turned to look at Anderson and then at her when her colleagues realized who was at the receiving end of their superior's anger. Megan raised her brows at Nadia to ask what had caused the sudden change in his mood and Nadia shrugged.

"He looked like he is going to kill you, Nadie. What did you do?" Derek asked, genuinely worried for her.

Nadia, on the other hand, had been waiting for this moment for an hour now. Wasting no time, she sprung out of the chair and rushed inside the office. She took no notice of the pitiful glances thrown at her by her co-workers as she closed the door to Anderson's cabin.

Her superior kept glaring at her as she politely pulled the chair, in front of the desk behind which he sat, for herself and took a seat. When he did or say nothing except give her murderous looks, Nadia cleared her throat and smiled at him with utter politeness.

"I'm guessing you called me here to tell me why they both were-"

"How did you know Mr Johnson was going to sell the company?" Anderson cut her off mid-sentence.

That's it, Nadia thought. There it was. The nightmare she had two night ago just became a reality.

All her hopes and plans of never seeing the man again in her life went down the drain with that question. For the past week, she had been trying to convince herself that he would not do it. That he was barely teasing her for rejecting the fake job offer. There was no motive. Her little firm would do no good to his multi-national company. She was wrong. Nadia shook her head in disappointment. So very wrong.

She looked at her boss, who was waiting for an answer and thought back to how much she had pestered the poor man throughout the week. Time and time again, she would walk inside his office to inquire if he heard any rumour of Mr Johnson planning to sell the company. Every time Anderson had said no and even threatened to fire her if she didn't stop bothering him.

"The deal was finalized last night. Mr Johnson told me about it today. You knew it even before I did. How?" He asked with gritted teeth.

Nadia thought about answering him honestly and confess to him that it was the Dylan VanAssche himself who told her the news. But, knowing Anderson, there was a high chance for him to call her a bluff so, she went the classic way instead.

"I have resources" Nadia replied earning no reaction from him for the first few seconds.

"And what are these resources?" Anderson asked prepared to not get a proper answer which was almost always the case when he was talking to her. He wasn't disappointed with her next reply.

"That's confidential information that I'm not allowed to disclose" Nadia answered with a straight face and Anderson sighed.

He opened his desk drawer to take out a piece of paper. Placing it on his desk, he slid it towards Nadia. As soon as she brought her hand forward to pick the paper, he slapped his palm over it angrily and Nadia had to pull back.

Why slide it towards her when he wasn't going to let her read it? And why was he so mad at her anyway? It wasn't her fault that Mr VanAssche bought the firm.

"That's a direct order from the headquarters of the company that bought our firm" he tapped on the paper that lay below his palm, "they will be sending a new boss here next week. She will be looking into every employee's records and decide whether they deserve to continue working here or not. Many of us may lose our jobs. Including me" Anderson told her.

That was the usual procedure followed after any acquisition of a smaller company by a larger one. Employees working for the smaller company were always at a higher risk of losing their jobs. Nadia wondered why Anderson was teaching her the basics now.

"But you, Ms I-have-resources" Anderson let go of the paper and leaned back in his chair, staring icily at her, "not only your job has been secured but also you have been offered a spot at the headquarters."

Nadia's eyes went wide hearing the words and she grabbed the piece of paper lying on the desk. Unfolding it, she read it twice. The formally printed piece of paper had both, the company's logo at the lop left and the owners signature at the bottom right, to prove its authenticity.

Anderson was a little wrong about the contents of the letter though. She wasn't offered a job at the headquarters. 'Offer' was an exaggeration. She was outright ordered to stop working at the firm and move to the headquarters. Nadia stared at the huge signature at the end and could imagine the smirk on Dylan's face as he signed the paper.

"Tell me, Nadia. How did you know? And why do they want you to shift there?" Anderson asked the same question for the third time.

"Good question, Anderson" Nadia folded the paper and got up from the chair, "but honestly, I want to know the same. So, just give me a few hours and I'll come back to you with answers," she told him as she hurried towards the door.

"Get back here, Nadia Hayden!" Her ex-boss called after her.

Nadia had already reached the door and she paused to look at Anderson who was glaring at her again with a murderous look. The man could lose his job, his anger was completely justified but Nadia had far more important things to do than deal with his wrath.

"Don't worry, Anderson. I'm not gonna let you lose your favourite employee" she said as she reached for the knob and opened the door. Before Anderson could tell her she was his least favourite employee, Nadia had walked out of his cabin, closing the door behind her.

All her colleagues' head snapped towards her once again as Nadia rushed out of Anderson's office. Assuming their boss might have finally fired her, they looked at her with pity as she walked to her cubicle. Oh the irony, Nadia thought.

Megan and Derek had been speculating Anderson's sudden anger and the Johnsons' surprise visit when they saw Nadia walk towards them. With a few clicks on the keyboard, Nadia saved the program that she was working on her computer and grabbed her handbag.

"Nad, please tell me you're not fired," Megan said as she watched Nadia sling the bag over her shoulders in a hurry. Derek, on the other hand, instead of asking flung his arm to snatch the paper from her hand.

With pure reflex, Nadia pulled away. Not wanting either one of them to know about the contents of the letter yet, she unzipped her bag and carefully placed the paper inside.

Acquisitions were a complex process. It changed the consolidation of an organisation. A perfect strategy had to be formed for a smooth transition and even though she was well aware that her firm was merely a grain of sand to the desert Dylan's corporation was and there was hardly anything she could do to cause harm, Nadia didn't want a spot higher, than she already had, in her boss' hitlist. Broadcasting the acquisition when the news was yet to go public, was something Anderson would spare no effort in hunting her down and annihilate her with no mercy.

"I'm not fired. Don't worry" Nadia answered as she zipped her bag. Technically, she was the only one who wasn't at risk of being fired but Nadia didn't have the heart to tell her friend about that. Anderson could do the honours himself.

With a last look at Derek, who was waiting for an explanation that he wasn't about to get any time soon, Nadia walked out of the office.

It took nearly an hour drive, thanks to the heavy traffic, for her to reach Dylan's headquarters. As she stopped her car outside the gates, on the security guard's request and stepped out of the vehicle to look at the tall buildings, Nadia couldn't help but reminisce about the countless hours she had spent surfing on the web going through hundreds of images of this place. Oh, how her past self would have loved to see it in its daunting physical reality.

Nadia showed the official letter to the guard when he asked her for her ID. He was going to dismiss both, the letter and her, due to the lack of an entrance pass when his eyes caught the signature at the bottom of the paper. After examining it briefly, she was allowed inside the area. Her car, however, wasn't.

As she walked towards the majestic glass and steel building, Nadia tried her best to not look around. She was here to reject the order and she wasn't going to be swayed by the fact that working here was once a cherished aspiration.

Another guard stopped her at the entrance of the building before checking the letter and directing her to Dylan's office on the top floor. Nadia marvelled at why the place was so heavily guarded but then recalled about the creep and the bombing incident and sighed. Every job had its challenges. Apparently, this job came with the challenge of dealing with weapon dealers and car blasting creeps.

Nadia reached the top floor of the building and headed directly to the waiting area outside the main office. A woman sat on the desk, next to the waiting area, working on some documents and Nadia, as instructed by the guard, went to her.

"You're Elyse?" She asked. The woman stopped making notes on the file and looked up. "I'm here to meet Mr VanAssche" Nadia informed her. Before she would be told that she couldn't meet Mr VanAssche due to the absence of a prior appointment, Nadia passed the letter to the woman.

Elyse glanced at the familiar letter on her desk. Not feeling the need to unfold it and read the words that she herself had typed the previous evening, she handed the paper back to Nadia. "Mr VanAssche has been expecting you," she gestured towards the doors to his office.

He is? Nadia thought. All of a sudden she didn't want to step inside that office and demand answers from him anymore. She stared sceptically at the extravagant steel and wood door and then at the ostensibly simple piece of paper in her hand. Was it really necessary to talk to him? She could just give the letter back to Anderson and pretend she never knew about it.

"Ms Hayden? You may go in" Elyse repeated when Nadia stood there pondering her options. Coming out of her thoughts, Nadia looked at the professional woman and gave an awkward smile before heading towards Dylan's office. She had come all the way here so why not just go inside and end it for once and all.

During the one hour drive to the headquarter, Nadia had planned to storm inside Dylan's office and slam the paper on his desk demanding him to take it back. But when she opened the door to his office, he wasn't sitting behind his neatly organized desk. Instead, he was standing behind the glass wall, admiring the buildings with beautiful architecture encompassing the city, with mountains in the background adorning the California skyline.

Sleeves of his perfectly tailored white shirt were rolled up and he rested his hands in his pant pockets. The muscles on his shoulders strained the fabric of the shirt as he stared at the breathtaking view in front of him.

Dylan appeared to be lost in serious thought as he still hadn't noticed the office door open behind him. Nadia raised her hand to knock on the wooden surface but stopped herself just in time. It was very seldom for Dylan VanAssche to not be aware of every single little thing happening around him.

Not wanting to let go of this chance of a lifetime, Nadia took a few little steps inside. She turned on her heels while trying her best to be as noiseless as possible. This man was always trying to get on her nerve, it was only fair to give him the taste of his own medicine.

Clutching the door and pulling it wider for the maximum impact, Nadia was prepared to slam the door shut to announce her presence when she felt the resistance.

"Aren't you a sneaky little thing" the voice startled her. Caught in the act, Nadia released the door and spun around. Instead of standing at the far end of the room, where she last saw him, Dylan was right in front of her. His right hand held the door just above her head, preventing it from closing.

There was a sparkle in his hazel eyes as he stared down at her. A mischievous smile played on his lips. Realizing she was sandwiched between the door and him, Nadia ducked under his arm and took several steps away from him.

"You're lucky I forbade weapons inside my office" Dylan closed the door while his eyes were fixed on her face "or else you'd be shot dead for trying to sneak in" he ended with a smile.

Nadia narrowed her eyes at him. That's the second time he had threatened to shoot her. The man was always surrounded by guards to protect him and it made her wonder if he ever even had touched a real gun, let alone point it at someone. Actually shooting a person was totally out of the question.

"I wasn't sneaking in" she clarified.

"All evidence to the contrary" Dylan retorted.

Nadia stepped further away from him as he took slow steps around her to walk to his desk, "Have a seat" he pulled a chair for her to sit.

"No, thank you," Nadia refused, not sure what to make of the uncanny gesture. Without wasting more time, she unfolded the letter in her hand and placed it on his desk. "I'm not going to transfer here" she announced.

A frown appeared on Dylan's face as he heard the words. Picking up the letter, he leaned on his desk with his long muscular legs stretched out. "And here I was confident I didn't make it sound like a question," he frowned deeper, pretending to read the letter.

Nadia glowered at him as he feigned skimming through the letter. "I don't think you read it right, Hayden," he said, flipping the paper towards her, "why don't you give it another try."

"Why did you buy my firm?" Nadia dismissed the letter and folded her arm across her chest.

He stared at her for a few seconds then sighed. "Your boss was begging me to buy it for the past month. I just took pity on the old man" Dylan stated, his tone turning serious.

Nadia knew Mr Johnson had started to hate the firm after his retirement. He was getting older with every passing second and the company's never-ending work, even after his retirement, was taking a toll on him. But then, his wife had started taking care of the business so it had never occurred to Nadia that they would sell it off.

"You always wished to work here, Hayden. I'm giving you a chance now. Why reject it?" Dylan asked. The teasing in his voice was long gone.

It wasn't only a wish to work for his company. Nadia had a plan. A perfect strategy on which if she worked hard enough, she would be able to acquire a spot for herself. But that was before he told her how undeserving she was.