“What happened?” Gage said as he bent and picked up the phone from the floor.

Abruptly, Eva turned around and faced the wall to hide her expression from him. “Nothing. Please help me turn the phone off,” she managed to say in a small voice.

Gage looked at her for a long time before turning the phone off as she had requested. His gaze fell on her shaking shoulders before his head suddenly whipped towards the threshold.

His mouth twitched a little before he spoke. “I have an unwanted visitor, pet. You wait here. I’ll be right back.”

As soon as he left, Eva buried her face in her palms and screamed within her mind. ‘What?! Fraud? Misconduct?! Are you all kidding me?! Why? Why must you go to this extreme? How could you do this to me? Are all of you really serious about planning to destroy me completely? Why?!’

Slamming the side of her fist against the wall, Eva swore under her breath, “I will never forgive any of you!” Her eyes were gleaming with utter anger and unshed tears. “I swear, I will make you all pay tenfold for every single wrong you have done to me!”

Overcome with anger, Eva walked out of the kitchen. She still did not know what to do or where to begin. She just wanted to do something right now, or else she was going to totally lose it. First things first: She had to leave this house so she could start dealing with her situation! If she just stayed here and waited around, she might end up exploding in anger! No! She refused to just let those b*tches do this to her!

Her steps were hurried as she stormed towards the living room, but she halted the moment she saw Gage sitting leisurely in that same chair again. Her eyes were immediately drawn to a man, handsomely dressed in black and wearing fine wire-framed glasses, who was standing in front of Gage.

Eva’s eyes widened as she recognised him. ‘Wait! Isn’t that…Mr. Park? That’s the infamous secretary of Mr. Carlson, the CEO of ACEON Enterprises! What is he doing here?!’

Before she had realized she was doing it, she hid herself behind the wall.

“Sir, Master sent me here to ask you one last time," said Mr. Park. "If you’re still not interested in taking the CEO position for ACEON, the chairman will give the position to someone else. He has already prepared a list of candidates to choose from.”

Eva was taken aback. ‘What? Wait…this man…he’s being offered the position as the next CEO of ACEON? My rival company? What the hell’s going on? Who is this man?’

Gage only raised a brow and replied, “Hmm…CEO, huh? But that’s a lot of work, Mr. Park.” Surprisingly, Mr. Park didn't look taken aback at all by Gage’s attitude.

“Oh, come on, Sir. You’re the one who co-founded the company when you were younger. You and I know you can handle this position easily.” The secretary coaxed. He was patient, and it seemed like he was already used to Gage's responses.

“I long ago lost interest in this, Mr. Park. You know that very well. If I become the CEO, I’ll most probably cause the company’s downfall.” Gage smirked evilly. “Lack of motivation is a serious flaw, and you know you can’t force that. The only thing I can gain from this is more money. Why would I want to work my ass off to earn more money when I already have more than what I can never even finish spending in this lifetime?”

The secretary sighed, looking defeated. “Err… well, the master just thought that maybe you’re bored now and might want to work hard, again?”

“Ah, I’d be bored to death if I actually took on that position, Mr. Park.” Gage teased.

Mr. Park sighed again. “Al…alright, I understand, sir. I will forward your message to the master so he will be able to start choosing from the list of candid –”

“Wait!” Eva’s voice echoed in the spacious living room.

The secretary looked shocked as he whipped his head towards Eva, while Gage just smiled faintly upon hearing Eva's voice. But Eva’s gaze was so focused on Mr. Park she missed the smile that flashed across Gage’s face.

Hastily, Eva walked towards them, her face extremely serious and determined.

Mr. Park, who was already taken aback at the sight of a woman actually inside the mansion, was baffled again when he recognized who that woman was. “Miss Young?! W-w-what are you doing here?" He was so shocked at her presence that he was stammering when he spoke.

“She’s my guest.” Gage told him.

Mr. Park was dumbstruck, and his head continued darting from Eva to Gage and back again. He was seemingly unable to accept that there was some kind of relationship between these two people.

Eva looked at Mr. Park and addressed him, “Please wait a moment, Mr. Park. We’ll be back in a bit.” She then grabbed Gage’s hand and unceremoniously pulled him back into the kitchen.