There were many large office buildings in the area and people take lunch break around the same time of the day, so it was to be expected and I had nothing to complain about. Just getting to have a proper lunch with my colleagues already felt great. Although it started off as quite a big challenge, I think that the lunch ended decently well, and I was kind of glad to have lunch with Richard. Maybe I could get closer to him and learn more from him just as Ace had suggested when he staffed me on this project.

We were very close to the office when I felt my phone vibrating in the pocket of my suit. One look at the screen and I found out that the call was from Ace. My first thought was that the call might be about something urgent at work and that made me answer the call immediately.

“Ace?” I said his name questioningly.

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“Where are you?” he asked, and his tone felt rushed.

“Umm…” I murmured.

“Where are you right now?” he repeated his question, this time with more urgency than before.

Something about his tone told me that something was wrong. Ace usually did not sound so flustered and disturbed like this. For a moment, I wondered if I was in trouble or if I had done something to make him mad. It was strange because no matter how much I racked my brain for a possible reason for him to react like this, I couldn’t come up with anything.

“I’m...walking back to the office from lunch…” I replied softly.

“Don’t come back. Just go home,” Ace said loud and clear through the phone.

I had no idea what he was talking about at that point. His instructions sounded very serious, but I didn’t understand it at all. The workday was far from over and I had a lot of work to do, there was no way that I could just go home.

Why do I have to go home?

“Go home?” I asked with clear confusion.

“Yes, go home. Go back to your place and not my place,” he instructed hurriedly.

“Is something the matter…?” I asked in a small voice although I already knew that something was wrong.

I froze in my tracks as I stood on the opposite side of the road from where our office building was. Since we had walked all the time while I was on the phone with Ace, we had arrived right opposite our office building. Richard and Jeremy stood frozen to my side as we all stared at the unusual crowd in front of the office building. There wasn’t supposed to be any big event that would draw a crowd of reporters this big as far as I was aware of. What I saw in front of me and the call from Ace told me without any trace of doubt that something had gone very wrong during the short period that I was out having lunch with my two colleagues.

“Ace…” I whispered his name as I took in the scene unfolding before me.

“Go home, Rina,” he repeated and this time his tone was an absolute command.

I need to go home…but what about Ace?

“Where are you?” I asked in a shaky voice as my eyes travelled up the height of the building.

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“I’m in my office,” Ace replied to confirm the answer that I had already known and feared.

“You need to get out…” I murmured as I tried to suppress my feelings of panic.

I had no idea what was going on, but if my gut feeling was correct, I was sure that the swarm of reporters in front of the building was here for Ace. As for why they were here for Ace, I had no clue, but from the tone of his voice, I was sure that it was nothing great.

“Don’t worry, they’re not here to kill me. Just head home and wait for me to contact you,” Ace said while sounding quite carefree.

“Wait!” I quickly said but it was already too late.

I removed my phone from the side of my face and stared at the screen after the line had disconnected.

“Something big must have happened…” Jeremy said from close to me.

“Is the CEO, ok? He just gave you a call, right?” Richard asked observantly.

I did say Ace’s name out loud a few times, so it was no wonder that they figured out who I was conversing with on the phone. Since Ace sounded so worried and troubled when he called, I had completely forgotten that I wasn’t alone. Thankfully, I didn’t recall saying anything that would give away our secret relationship.

“I think he’s fine. He just gave me some instructions to run an errand for him, so I’ll be leaving for the day…” I replied with the best cover up that I could think of.

“I guess that can’t be helped,” Richard muttered.

“I’m very sorry. I can still work, though, so if there’s something that you need me to do by today, you can just email it over,” I told him with a smile.

“It’s fine. I doubt anything would take precedence over the CEO’s orders,” Richard replied with a serious look on his face.

If only he knew that I was just ordered to go home for the day, I wonder what kind of face he would make. I stared up at the office building to the top floor where I now knew that Ace was. This was far from the first time that something like this had happened, so I didn’t know why I felt so worried all of a sudden. A large group of security guards were out already to secure the perimeter of the building.

“Can we even get back in there? This is such a hassle…” Jeremy started to complain.

“There’s a staff-only entry at the back. It’s really a walk away but I guess we have no choice,” Edward replied thoughtfully.

“Guess we’ll have to use that entrance. Hopefully, the guards haven’t sealed it off,” Jeremy said before he heaved a sigh.

--To be continued…

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