“Don’t act so nervous. We’ll be fine…” Ace whispered close to my ear. “But you said that we’ll never know what could happen until the results are announced…” I whispered back as I recalled his words from earlier. “I just said that to keep the reporters on the edge of their seat,” Ace replied in a low whisper so that his words were for my ears only. “Even if you say that…” I muttered softly. There were good reasons why Ace was so optimistic about the result of the competition, and I could understand where he was coming from. I tensed in my seat as my heartbeat quickened. The host kept on speaking but all his words were lost to me. It was apparent that dealing with too much suspense wasn’t something that I had a talent for. For our industry, this award was sort of like the Oscars when it came to movies. “Now, the time that everyone has been undoubtedly waiting for…” the host said before he flashed the audience a bright smile. A woman dressed in a sparkly gold dress walked onto the

When Ace walked up on that stage, I never dreamt that he would give a speech that would mark his retirement from his role. Even though I knew that it was coming, I never imagined that he would end things so abruptly and publicly like this. I wondered if the Chairman knew in advance about Ace’s announcement and then I highly doubted it. This long-awaited victory undoubtedly brought me great joy; however, it would be inaccurate to say that we didn’t see this coming. Even though I wasn’t as confident as Ace and the other members on the team were, there were many things that led us to believe that we were most likely to win the competition. Ace was probably quite certain of it and Julianna clearly felt the same way. Jeremy, being captivated by numbers and statistics, was also very well convinced. The amount of donations that we received to back the cause was a very impressive amount. The donation amount alone put us in first place, leading the competitor in second place by miles. That c

The biggest problem wasn’t finding him but figuring out why he had suddenly disappeared. The twisted sick feeling that I felt deep in my gut told me that something unpleasant was about to happen to us. After all that we’ve been through, I hated it whenever I felt insecure, but insecurity was probably the most accurate term to describe the mixed and very messy emotions that filled my heart before bringing tears to my eyes.Where did he go and why did it have to be now of all times?I stared at my phone screen as I prayed that he would just give me a call back. My hands trembled and felt very cold as I sat on the sofa in Ace’s living room all alone. The place had never felt so empty and void of life before. Anger welled up inside of me and I let out a loud growl of frustration that no one else heard apart from myself. Ace promised to tell me everything and let me know what was going on after the competition was over. Now that the time had arrived, he just somehow disappeared, and I have

He let go of me and put just enough distance between us so that he could peer into my face as if to inspect the damage that I had sustained. I wanted to yell at him to let him know that this was all because of him and how he vanished right after getting down from the stage during the award ceremony. A lump formed in my throat but no matter what I wanted, I couldn’t say anything mean to him. “I thought that you were gone…” I confessed softly and shyly. “Gone? What do you mean by that?” he asked with a blank look on his face like he truly didn’t know what I was referring to. “You just disappeared without telling me anything and I couldn’t get in touch with you no matter how hard I tried. I also didn’t know where you were…” I said accusingly. “Were you scared that I would leave you?” Ace asked needlessly. I despised myself for acting so childish and helpless and that emotion channeled itself into my irritation and anger toward Ace. He whispered my name tenderly as he reached a hand

“This is one of my family’s estates. It currently belongs to my father after it’s been passed down in the family,” Ace explained as if he could read my mind. “Oh…” I murmured as my eyes canned the mansion up and down. “As much as I would like to say that you’re welcomed, my father isn’t going to like seeing us,” Ace said before he chuckled like he couldn’t care less. “The Chairman is in there?” I asked without any excitement. Ace nodded his head before he offered me a smile that was supposed to heal my bleeding heart. It seemed like I wasn’t overreacting at all in the car when I considered that it may be possible that we would be meeting his father. I felt my heart sink and I hesitated to get out of the car. Ace got out and walked over to my side of the car before yanking the door open. “Come on. You’ll have to get out sooner or later so we might as well get this over and done with,” Ace said with a small laugh.He was clearly enjoying my reactions while I wasn’t enjoying anythin