“I see…” I mumbled, although I couldn’t quite see anything in that situation. “In the end, as you can see, the engagement was dissolved and our companies are still rivals with me as the CEO and Elizabeth as the new CEO of her company,” Ace concluded before he smiled at me. “Right…” I said with a nod of my head. “Why are you so speechless? Don’t worry too much. Elizabeth and I have nothing but respect for each other because we work in the same field. She’s still young and has many things to learn, though…” Ace said teasingly. “Sorry, I honestly never expected this kind of outcome. You know, both for Project Alpha and also your relationship history with her…” I admitted honestly. “That just sounds very misleading. I never had a relationship with her,” Ace corrected me with an amused smile. “Right. Ok…” I whispered.“You’re clearly still confused. Sleep over it. Let’s head back, I’m bored out of my mind,” Ace said.He got up from his seat before turning and offering me a hand. “Ok

“How do I do that?” I asked. “I don’t think Elizabeth is willing to publicize the fact that her husband was directly involved in stealing confidential information and she would probably appreciate it if you didn’t mention it to anyone. I guess keeping it vague would be better…” Ace advised. Oh, right. I did not anticipate how Elizabeth wanted this all to play out. This case was a complex one. It was the prime example of how one mistake led to another. How one lie also led to another. I stared at Ace and nodded my head softly. Ace was right. During the entire press conference, Elizabeth never mentioned Kyle as the culprit. She just said that her company was guilty but never highlighted her husband’s involvement. I was starting to wonder what Kyle did that made him deserve a woman like Elizabeth and then I hoped that he would suffer severely for the problems that he’s caused all of us. After snapping out of my thoughts, I looked straight at the panel of board members who were eager

Finally, we decided to settle for a safer choice of going out to a newly opened fusion restaurant that I wanted to try. I was relieved that in the end, Ace decided to drop his idea of visiting my mother, at least, for now. It would hurt me financial to not get my bonus and promotion, but it was definitely better than losing my job. In a way, I had Ace to really thank for that. I doubted that he would be wiling to take much credit for it, so I didn’t verbalize to him over and over again how thankful I was that he saved my ass this time around. However, I did make a mental note to do something for him in return. As he liked to say, there was a right time for everything. That night after dinner, Ace drove me back to my place. It felt like the calm after a storm had just past. After the dust had settled somewhat about the information leakage, I felt like we had some down time before we needed to jump into working on Project Alpha in full force. Now that we got our storyboard back too, i

“Yes…” I replied truthfully. It’s no use to lie about it now. “I can’t believe it. What is going on? Please explain to me, Rina!” my mother started wailing through the phone. I knew that she was extremely upset and confused. My chest felt tight when I imagined my mother crying because of me. Although I tried to make her proud and happy, I’m the one breaking her heart right now. I wiped my tears from my eyes with the back of my hand. Not surprisingly, I had started crying for real. My mother’s tears only triggered mine to flow even more than before. “Give me that for a moment,” Ace said softly. Before I could protest, Ace pulled my phone out of my hand. My eye widened in shock, but it was already too late. I watched through my tears as Ace pressed my phone to his ear. “Hello. This is Ace Hills, the CEO of Jessen’s and Hill’s and Karina’s direct supervisor,” Ace introduced himself calmly to my mother.I couldn’t hear what my mother said to him. Apparently, she had stopped shouting

Suddenly, I saw a scene of my mother scolding Ace and Ace looking all remorseful. The corners of my lips curved upwards before a small laugh escaped from me. That would be so funny…“Rina!” I heard my mother calling my name and knew that they were finally finished with their private conversation. Time for me to return to the living room to face the two of them again. When I sat back down in the chair next to Ace, the atmosphere in the room seemed to have changed completely. The strain and heavy atmosphere had entirely disappeared. “What did you two talk about?” I asked curiously. “Nothing much. I just told your mother here how serious I am about you and how you’ve always refused to be my girlfriend,” Ace said before he smirked devilishly at me.“Why did you tell her that?!” I snapped at him. I turned in panic to see my mother giggling a little. Whatever Ace said to her, it seemed like she was now more relaxed and assured than before. The change in my mother’s reaction and demeano