Relanie went silent as she processed Adrian’s words, her lips pressing tightly together. Then slowly, she turned her head toward where Reine sat on the floor.

Their eyes met at once. Reine held her gaze for one second before looking away first.

That alone was enough confirmation.

Relanie’s jaw clenched instantly.

Why the hell would she do something like that without telling her first? Though honestly... if Reine had told her beforehand, it wasn’t exactly like she would’ve stopped her either.

That thought only made her expression darken further. Slowly, she turned back toward Adrian, a mocking smile rising onto her lips.

"I should’ve guessed this is about Elara again." She scoffed softly, her eyes turning colder.

"So you can actually get this angry," she muttered. "You held her in front of the entire press like she belonged to you. You pulled her against you in front of everyone and didn’t even care who saw."

She paused, trying hard to maintain her composure. "And after that, you kissed her in the middle of the ballroom and took her to your suite." Her eyes narrowed. "Did you expect me to smile and applaud?"

Adrian stared at her like she had suddenly started speaking another language. Then a cold snort escaped him.

"I’m discussing blood," he muttered flatly. "You’re discussing a ballroom."

Relanie’s fingers clenched hard at his reaction to her complaints. She moved her gaze toward Reine again before returning it to Adrian. "Reine isn’t in the wrong here. She’s my..."

"She dared abduct my driver," Adrian cut in smoothly. The unmistakeable anger in his voice instantly froze the room.

Relanie could clearly see the tight clench of his jaw even from where she stood.

"She used my car. My security route. My name." A disgusted scoff escaped his lips. "And she let trash crawl into something that belongs to me."

His fingers tightened slowly around the armrest of the sofa before he finally spoke again. "Harris."

Harris instantly straightened beside him, though the nervousness on his face was painfully obvious.

"Sir... respectfully..." he muttered carefully.

Ah... He really missed his peaceful childhood days.

"Her mouth works too comfortably," Adrian added coldly, his gaze shifting toward Reine.

Harris froze.

What did boss mean by her mouth works too comfortably? It’s not like her jaw was making squeaky sounds or anything.

But suddenly, realization washed through his head.

Wait. Did boss mean he should manually uninstall the confidence from her mouth?

His eyes widened a bit as he looked from Adrian to Reine, then to Relanie.

God. Why was he employed by someone like this? He should’ve stayed jobless and chased butterflies peacefully.

He sighed again before his gaze met Relanie’s.

Miss Relanie... please don’t hate me after this. I truly did not wake up this morning hoping to participate in domestic violence.

He took one step forward but suddenly paused again.

Honestly though... despite Miss Relanie’s habit of ruining people’s peace, she wasn’t completely bad. Especially during the good old days when she used to bring food to boss’s office...

...which boss would later hand to him without touching.

A pitiful sigh escaped him before he finally walked toward Reine who slowly lifted her eyes toward him with an expression that looked very capable of committing murder.

"You must be joking...You told your assistant to hit her," Relanie suddenly snapped with an unbelieving laugh. "You dare lay hands on a woman?"

"Was Elara not one?" Adrian replied coldly. "The men your assistant hired seemed less concerned about that."

Relanie’s jaw clenched violently, her eyes snapping toward Reine again. Harris was already standing directly in front of her now.

That shameless goat. Must he really obey every single thing Adrian says?

Harris stared down at Reine calmly before slowly rolling up his sleeves. "Listen lady," he muttered seriously. "I was raised properly. My mother might even resurrect herself just to beat me if she saw what I’m about to do." His face turned even more calm.

"But unfortunately for all of us, Miss Veyne and her pocket sized assistant currently look like they lost a fight against a moving truck."

Before his words could even properly settle in the room, he had already raised his hand high into the air. One of his feet even lifted slightly off the ground. Then without hesitation, he brought the slap down instantly.

Smack!

The sound echoed through the room. Reine’s head snapped sideways from the force, her entire body almost crashing onto the floor beside her.

"You dare!" Relanie screamed furiously as she rushed toward him.

But before she could even reach Harris, Adrian gave a brief glance toward one of the men nearby. The man instantly stepped forward and restrained Relanie firmly.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Relanie screamed, struggling violently against the hold.

"Again," Adrian said calmly.

Harris nearly choked.

"Of course. Your wish is my command."

To be honest, he truly did not want to continue this. But if he was being sincere, what Miss Relanie’s assistant had done was very insane.

This had already crossed far beyond simple violence. It was attempted murder.

And truthfully... Miss Reine was lucky Boss hadn’t ask her to be dumped into a crocodile river reserve or tied her beside hungry lions for reflection time.

Actually, scratch that.

From the direction boss was heading with Miss Veyne, Harris could swear with his precious life that he could do it.

Another loud slap landed hard across Reine’s face.

Relanie screamed again. "I swear I’ll kill you Harris!"

Harris froze immediately.

Kill him? Like... permanently?

His head slowly turned toward Adrian with pleading eyes.

’Boss, please. I don’t want Miss Relanie adding me to her personal revenge list.’

He had seen the things she did to Miss Veyne and he absolutely did not think he could survive one.

Imagine attending a business meeting beside boss and suddenly his trousers dropping publicly in front of investors.

The image flashed through his mind making him squeeze his face in displeasure instantly.

Yet Adrian acted as if he hadn’t heard anything. His expression only turned colder. "Again," he repeated. Then after a pause, he added flatly, "Harder."

Harris nearly lost his soul. Finally, unable to take it anymore, he looked up weakly. "Sir... this is becoming concerning." He complained carefully. "I’ve been raining thunderous slaps on this woman’s cheeks and now she’s staring at me like she’ll transform into an anaconda and swallow me whole."

But he didn’t wait for his reply. His eyes returned nervously toward Reine. "Miss Reine stop looking at me like that," he muttered pitifully. "You arranged an industrial area beating using my boss’s vehicle. That’s actually insane behavior."

He slowly raised his hand again. "Do you even know how expensive that car is? Forget the beating. Boss looked more offended about the car."

Adrian sat quietly for a long time, his lips pressing into a thin cold line as he watched Relanie still struggling and screaming against the man’s hold.

Then without another word, he stood up, straightened his cuffs calmly and walked to the exit door...

–

The car finally came to a stop in front of the apartment building.

Elara immediately reached for the door, preparing to get down. She had already changed out of the soaked gown and into a dry set of clothes Carris had gotten for her at the hospital.

But before she could even step out properly, Carris had already left the driver’s seat and walked around to her side. "Let me help you," he said without hesitation.

Elara’s jaw nearly dropped.

Help her? Again?

Of course she couldn’t allow that. Back at the industrial area, he had already stressed himself enough trying to check her injuries before the nurses arrived. He had even offered to carry her into the hospital earlier.

That was already more than enough.

"It’s fine," she muttered quickly. "I can walk."

Her ankle was just badly sprained, not broken completely. Though to be honest, with the way pain kept throbbing through her leg every few seconds, it truly did not feel far from broken.

Still, Carris ignored her protest completely. One hand held her carefully by the shoulders while the other rested against her waist as he guided her toward the building entrance.

Ziva followed quietly behind them, her face still pale from the terrifying events earlier.

Elara really wanted to walk properly to save herself at least a little dignity, but the sharp pain from her bandaged ankle made her limp no matter how much she tried to hide it.

Not long after, Carris carefully helped her sit down on the sofa inside the apartment. Then he straightened up immediately. "I’ll be back," he said.

Elara nodded softly in reply.

The moment Carris left the apartment, Ziva walked toward the kitchen. In few minutes, she returned holding a cup of warm water.

Elara didn’t refuse. She took the glass from her and drank deeply almost emptying half of it immediately.

Ziva sat beside her for some seconds before suddenly moving again. She knelt carefully in front of Elara and gently held her bandaged leg. Her lips pressed tightly together as she stared at it.

"Elara..." she muttered in a soft voice as she looked up.

"Hmm?" Elara replied quietly while meeting her gaze.

"If you hadn’t changed our direction back then..." Ziva said slowly, her fingers tightening around the bandage, "...we would’ve stepped into that water."

Elara went silent immediately. Her jaw clenched as she realized Ziva was talking about the moment she had suddenly pulled them away from the puddle.

"How did you know not to step there?" Ziva asked again, curiosity glittering in her eyes as she stared at Elara.