The sound of someone calling my name immediately caught my attention. I felt my heart race for a brief moment as excitement bubbled up inside of me. The feeling was only fleeting and was soon replaced by a sinking feeling when I realized that the voice that had just called my name did not belong to the man that I was yearning to see. “Jeremy…why are you still here? Did work end late for you too?” I asked while trying to contain my sense of disappointment. I tried to remind myself that it wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t Ace and that I should still treat him kindly despite my sour mood. While putting on a smile that I hoped looked natural, my mind was still thinking of reasons why Ace hadn’t replied to my text. Hopefully, the meeting went well, and I would hear some good news from Ace soon. “Yup, we just managed to wrap things up. Are you done for the day?” he asked. “Yes, I’m done…” I replied before reaching for the lip of my laptop and closing it. I watched in silence as Jeremy w

**A few days later **“Is Miss Karina here?” Having been too caught up with thoughts of my work for hours, I wasn’t sure if I had heard correctly that someone seemed to be looking for me. With quite tired eyes, I looked up from my computer screen to find that many of my colleagues had left already while I had been too focused on work. Apart from Richard and me, there were only a few people left in the project room. My attention turned to the middle-aged woman standing in the doorway to the room. Her tidy suit and matching skirt clearly weren’t meant to make her stand out. It didn’t take me long for me to realize that I had never seen this woman before and that was precisely why I had no idea what business she could possibly have with me.“Umm…I’m Karina. Are you looking for me?” I asked although it was obvious that she was searching for me. The stern look that she had on her face as she turned her attention in my direction made my stomach turn and my body stiffen at the same time.

Simply because I wasn’t dating Jeremy, I thought that we could do anything because we didn’t have any dirty secret to hide from the world. It felt very different from when I was dating Kyle in secret. Back then, he made sure that I was more than extra careful about how I interacted with him at the company and around the area. Looking back, that was probably more to keep our relationship a secret for the sake of protecting his relationship with Elizabeth rather than saving his career and his job. I should have paid more attention to Richard’s warning, and I should have been more careful. I should have realized that although I didn’t think of it as anything special each time that I went out for lunch or even dinner with Jeremy that other people may have perceived it otherwise. Always having to be careful and watchful was very stressful for me but it seemed like I couldn’t just do whatever I wanted to. A heavy feeling filled my heart and I quickly realized that it was something very sim

Jeremy stared at me in silence, and I was disappointed and surprised at his lack of reaction. I wished that he would say something or tell me something along the lines of requesting for the committee to reconsider his case. Anything that would give me some hope that he wouldn’t need to take the blame for something that he didn’t do. Since my words didn’t seem to get to him, I pleaded to him silently with my eyes as our eyes met. “Maybe they haven’t gotten it all wrong…” he said in a whisper.What did he just say?At first, I wasn’t even sure if I heard him correctly. “I said that they might not be all wrong…” he repeated again this time clearer and slower. “What do you…” I began asking what he meant before I trailed off without continuing.The way he looked at me told me that I should have known better. I was about to ask him what he meant by that, but it seemed like there was no longer a need to because I could already sense the answer. But…that couldn’t really be, right? How ca

Why didn’t I think of checking my phone before this? I cursed softly under my breath when I laid eyes on my phone screen. It felt like I was facing war on multiple fronts, and it was driving me insane with anxiousness and worry. While being swept up by Jeremy’s unexpected confession and then the heated argument that I had with him, I hadn’t paid any attention to my phone. Although I knew that it wasn’t right to have my priorities backwards, I had to admit that I was too distracted by what was going on that I momentarily forgot about Ace and the fact that I had been waiting for him to contact me. “Shit…” I whispered before grinding my teeth together. My feet began moving a little faster as I stared at the numerous miscalls from Ace that appeared on my phone screen. It wasn’t usual for Ace to leave so many miscalls on my phone and that only meant that he knew that something was wrong. I sighed again when I realized that he must have found out about the little invitation that I receiv