Chapter 56

"What? Have you lost your mind!" Emily shouted over the phone at Susan.

"Susan, I told you once and I am telling you again, Aurora won't like it. Mind you, she will never forgive you for what you did. Whether she wants Gabriel in her life or not is her decision. Stop interfering."

Susan rolled her eyes. "Don't preach to me Em and tell me will you help me or not? It's about our Aurora. If you help me she would be able to move forward in her life and accept Liam and let's get real you helped before…"

"Stop it, Susan, yes I helped you but it was important at that time. Aurora needed to focus on the competition. And you need to stop with your white knight syndrome. Aurora is mature enough to make her own decisions. Stop interfering in her life for god sake!" Emily knew Susan had this obsession with mothering Aurora but she didn't understand that Aurora herself didn't like it. She wanted Susan as her best friend, not an overprotective Mama.

"Will you help me or not?"

Emily sighed. "Just this once, and I won't do anything except for involving her in useless chattering. What you do in that period is your headache and for once and all, I am not involved in your plan, Susan. For me, this thing ends here.".

Susan thrust her elbow downward with her hand in a fist. " yes! " she muttered at the success of coaxing Emily to help her get Aurora's phone.

Meanwhile, Alexandrios listened to every word Emily said over the phone. He smirked because right now he knew his tricks were not going to work on the girl he wanted. With no other option left he tried his luck one last time and entered her cabin.

"Miss Emily? Have you finished the reports or not?" Alexandrio asked, putting his one hand in his pants pocket and standing his fingers on the desk.

Slowly and with a frown, Emily stood up. "It will be on your desk Mr Kyschove."

His lips tugged downward as he gave a short nod to her. "No need, I am here in your cabin and you can show me here."

Emily gulped. "Sure."

She searched for the file on her iPad. She was feeling nervous or the right word would be jittery. She just wanted to stay away from him but every time he came on to her with even more determination.

She opened the file and showed him the report but obviously, his mind was not on what she was saying. "Mr Kyschove?"

Alexandrio felt her hand on his elbow. "It's nice…" he scratched his chin with his forefinger and said. "Emily, be ready tonight we are going to dinner."

"Excuse me? I am not going anywhere with you."

Alexandrios smiled. "You are, you see Emily I have enough of this cat and mouse game. Now you have two options, whether you tell me what stopped you from seeing me, give me a good reason or I won't accept you ditching me like a one night stand."

Emily gasped. Suddenly all the memories of the past ran through her vision. The mockery, the pain, the same she felt in front of her class.

"Get lost!" She snapped. Alexandrio leaned a little and glanced into her eyes. "Na! I won't get lost that easily, you played with the wrong guy this time, Emily. You can't just throw me away like a used tissue paper. Now let's get the thing straight, after listening to your conversation I think Aurora should know about your interference in her life."

He smirked. "I want you, Emily and I will have you. No matter the cost."

Emily's eyes widened hearing him. "You…" she stopped and inhaled sharply. "You don't know anything, Alexandrio…"

"Nice, from Mr Kyschove to Alexandrio," He chuckled. "Is it hard to find out? I don't think so, I can always have a long chat with Aurora and figure it out but as far as I heard it has something to do with Gabriel."

"You are blackmailing me to date you?"

"Take it any way you want. Be ready at seven," he said before walking out of her cabin. Emily's legs turned like jelly and she slumped on the chair.

"I can't lose Aurora. She is the closest thing I have to my sister," she kicked the desk hard. "Damnit Susan, damn you and your interference."

She inhaled sharply. "I can't lose her. I can't."

In the evening, Susan was standing silently in the corner while Emily was scolding her. "It's all because of you, you and your overprotectiveness."

"You are being too rude now. If you don't want to help just say so, Em. I mean, you helped me before because it benefited you right, you got what you wanted this contract, this…"

Emily had enough. "Stop right there Susan. You are accusing me of taking advantage of Aurora. How dare you?"

Emily shook her head in disgust. She crossed her hands to her chest and looked inintousan's eyes. "I helped you because I wanted Aurora to achieve her dream and that man was a hindrance in the way. You might be her best friend, her God sister or whatever you call yourself but she is my friend as well and I value her friendship but more that I respect her right to make her own decisions. You are no one to tell him what she should be doing, you are not her mother."

Susan fisted her hands. "Don't cross the line, Emily."

"Oh, now you understand what crossing the line means? What you just said to me a minute ago was not crossing the line. You accuse me of taking advantage of her talent while it was you who betrayed her trust every single time, Susan."

Susan remained mum because she needed her help. "You agreed to help me," she reminded Emily.

"And because of that I am stuck on a date with a man I don't want."

She shook her head, "I am going to meet Kevin so why don't you go and play your part," saying that she went to Kevin Rawls cabin.

Emily didn't feel good doing that but she had no other option left. She knocked on Kevin's door and entered.

"Mr Rawls I have found some issues in your design, Mr Kyshove has stated some concerns regarding the shape of diamonds…"

Emily knew that Kevin didn't like Aurora, since she joined TheBelle, he feared his position as the head designer here is at risk and in Aurora's own words that man wants her to work like a machine. He always tries to find flaws in her designs.

When Emily finished talking, Kevin took an angry sharp breath and called her through the intercom which obviously went unattended. He threw the receiver back and gazed at Emily. "Aurora is your friend right?"

"Yes," Emily nodded.

"Then go and bring her to me in five minutes, I won't tolerate her laziness to affect my designs and name," Emily nodded and ran out of his cabin in search of Aurora.

On the other hand, Susan went to Aurora's cabin and found her working. "Are you busy?"

Aurora raised her eyes, smiled at her friend and nodded. "Kind off, you know Mr Rawls is just a second away from finding something in my work. Anyway, what're you doing here again?"

"I got tired working so wanted to have some coffee, wanna join?"

Aurora accepted the invitation eagerly, she can finish off her work later. "Why don't you sit while I order, cappuccino, right?"

Aurora smiled and grabbed a seat, her phone placed on the table. Susan came back with brownies and coffee. They were enjoying their snack time when Aurora saw Emily running towards them.

"Em? Why are you running?" She stood up and went to her.

"A blunder happened, Aurora. Kevin is fretting over some design. He called you but you didn't attend it, he asked me to call you ASAP…"

"Call, what call? I didn't receive any call,"

"He called on the intercom, but stop chattering, let's go please he is getting one the rooftop in anger," she grabbed her hand and pushed her to walk.

"Wait, let me grab my phone…"

"Oh God, take it later but run now please," she said and practically ran towards Kevin's office.

"You were searching for me like this, you could have called me," Aurora said while running towards the elevator.

" I didn't think about calling you. Susan asked me for coffee but I was busy. I already knew you would be in the cafeteria."

"I just wish nothing is wrong…" Aurora prayed before knocking on the door.

But her stomach dropped when she entered Kevin's cabin. The look on his face said that there is something really wrong with her design and she was about to receive the worst scolding of her career till now.

On the other hand, Susan sighed in relief and picked Aurora's phone. She smiled seeing the wallpaper of her and her mother on the lock screen. She unlocked it and the home screen had a wallpaper of her and Ethan on it. Without wasting any time she did what she was best at and changed Gaberial's number, unlocked it from every platform and checked if he sent any new message to her anywhere.

She was shocked to see that the man who was calling every single day when they were on that cruise had not called or sent a single text to her in almost a month.

Strange! Has he given up on her so easily?

She checked everything one last time before putting the phone back on the table and messaging Emily that the work is done and finished her coffee.

Meanwhile, Aurora tried to make Kevin understand that her design was perfectly fine. "So are you telling me that you know this work more than me?"

"I am not saying this Mr Rawls but we already talked about this design, and even Liam agreed to it. I don't know where you are getting the idea…"

He chuckled when she mentioned Liam's name and Aurora didn't like it. "Look, Miss King, I don't know what your relationship with our boss is, but here you work under me, as my intern and I won't bow down to your tantrums just because you know our boss personally. You know that's the only reason I didn't accept your proposal because I didn't want to work for a girl who doesn't even know the alphabets of designing."

Aurora gasped. It hurts hearing him saying that. Even Emily stiffened beside Aurora and cursed Susan for making her go through this verbal abuse.

"Mr Rawls I think you should not talk to her in this way. It was a small issue Mr Kyschove pointed at…" Emily tried to intervene but in doing so even she suffered his verbal abuse.

"You stay out of it. You are not my intern and don't think that I don't know why you are working under Alexandrio. It has nothing to do with your work and everything with your legs…"

Emily was stunned and Aurora had enough. "Just shut this vulgar mouth of yours, Mr Rawls. How dare you talk to Emily like that."

She stood in front of Kevin and glared at him. "Till now, I suffered every hurdle you put in my way but not this time, because you take it too far this time. You are right, I know Liam personally and one word of my mouth and you will be searching for a new job, do you understand me?"

Kevin glared at her. "Are you trying to scare me?

"Yes, I am. So do yourself a favour and apologies to my friend right now."

Kevin held her gaze for a while trying to show that he was unaffected by her threats but when she didn't down her gaze he knew that he messed up. He was well aware of Liam's real identity; he knew who Liam was and what he could do to him. But he was not going to just let an intern insult him like that.

"You are right, Aurora. I should not have talked to her or you like this," he glanced at Emily and smiled apologetically.

"What I said to both of you was in a heat of anger. I hope we can move forward without holding any grudges between us."

Emily nodded and looked away. Once again she was tagged as a girl who was taking advantage of a rich man by sleeping with him.

Kevin turned at Aurora. "I hope you also forget what I said now, Aurora."

"You were right Mr Rawls, I think we should treat each other professionally and I suggest you greet me as Miss Kings, always."

Saying that she grabbed Emily's hand and walked out of Kevin's office without caring about him anymore.