"A black coffee," Zoyar ordered. "Another cappuccino. Two ham sandwiches. And that pistachio pastry by the window."

Lily’s fingers moved briskly over the computer as she entered it all. "Anything else to make you comfortable—Sir, now that you are apparently living here?" She gave him a fake smile, once more flashing her teeth.

A flash of amusement crossed his face again. "If this continued, I might soon find a second home somewhere else as well."

She hit the final key harder than necessary. "Good to know—Sir. Make sure you do not cause problems for others. Every customer is our priority."

Zoyar only inclined his head, again ignoring that she had insulted him once more, then turned and walked back to his seat.

Cixi placed the sandwich on the plate and gave it to the server before she started to work on another order, and once Zoyar was gone, she finally let herself glance at Lily.

Lily was glaring at the coffee machine as though it had personally offended her.

"You do know when he said another home, it could mean—" Cixi murmured and did not complete the sentence, knowing exactly how Lily would react.

Lily picked up a cup with short, sharp movements. "He is a plague."

From the corner of her eye, Cixi saw Zoyar settle back into his chair, one arm draped lazily over it, his attention returning to the men.

By the time afternoon came, Cixi had already checked her wristwatch more times than she could count. During her break, she unlocked her phone again, hoping at last to see a message from Emily or at least a missed call from her, but there was none. Not even a cold little reply to tell her she was not welcome and that all the family members had rejected her.

Worry began gnawing at her.

It stayed with her when she returned to work, and it stayed with her while she stood behind the counter preparing coffee.

Her thoughts were so tangled around Emily’s silence that she barely noticed her own hand slipping at the wrong moment, and the hot coffee splashed over her skin, and she hissed sharply, sucking in a breath.

Lily reacted at once. She caught Cixi by the wrist and pulled her to the back before Cixi could even protest. Cold water ran over the reddened patch on her hand while Lily held it beneath the tap with more firmness than gentleness.

"I was watching you," Lily muttered, throwing her a sharp look. "You were not paying attention at all. Your eyes kept darting back to your watch every five minutes." Then her gaze narrowed. "Was it the presence of Zoyar that was disturbing you?"

Cixi shook her head immediately. "No. It was not because of him."

Lily turned off the tap, grabbed some ice, and quickly wrapped it before pressing it against the burn. "Then what was it?"

Cixi let out a breath and looked away. "I was waiting for an important call. Or at least a message. And I hadn’t received anything yet. So I started to worry."

Lily’s expression softened, though only a little, knowing it was not because of that gangster, or else she would have asked him to leave the place right then and there.

She uncapped the cream and dabbed it carefully over the red mark. "Then call them back. If they are not calling you, call them. It is that simple. Sitting around and staring at your watch won’t drag the phone into ringing."

That was sensible enough. So Cixi listened.

With the cream cooling the burn and the unease in her chest growing heavier by the minute, she took out her phone and dialled Emily’s number without a second thought.

The call went through, but Emily did not answer.

Cixi tried again. And again...

Each time the call rang normally, Emily let it pass unanswered.

By the fourth attempt, frustration flared hot enough to rival the burn on her hand. "Damn it," she muttered under her breath, locking the screen with more force than necessary.

She did not know what game Emily was playing. If the family had refused, Emily could at least have sent a message and ended it. If she meant to cut contact, she could have blocked her. But she had done neither.

So, what was happening?

That question stayed with Cixi until the end of her shift.

Before going home, she stopped by a second-hand clothing shop and searched through the racks until she found a few loose summer dresses suitable for a pregnant woman. It felt absurd buying clothes for a lie, yet she did it anyway because the lie needed to look convincing from every angle now.

She also met Marion in between and received a fake pregnancy belly.

After that, she went back home, washed everything she had bought, and hung the dresses up to dry.

And then she waited.

Waited for Emily to call, or to receive a message that still hadn’t come.

*

*

*

So she did something she had never thought she would do in her lifetime. To be precise, she had been doing a lot of things that surprised her more and more as the days passed by.

Sitting inside the hired black SUV, her fingers clasped tightly over the swell of her false belly while the car waited before the gates of Crown Palace.

This time, she had intentionally booked an expensive vehicle. She knew very well that places like this judged first with their eyes, and she had no intention of arriving in something ordinary and giving the guards any reason to turn her around before she had a chance to speak to Michael Crown.

The guards at the entrance moved towards the vehicle. One checked the back of the car to see if it carried anything deadly, and another bent slightly to look through the tinted glass after the car had been checked.

"May I know your name?"

Cixi lifted her chin, steadying herself before answering. "My name is Cixi McLore. I came here once before with Emily Crown. About six months ago. I am here to see her."

For a brief second, the guard only stared at her face, but then another one stepped closer and peered in more carefully. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"I remember," he said after a moment. "She came with Miss Emily before," he informed the other guard.

Relief loosened inside Cixi, though she did not let it show too openly.

"I am here on business," she added.

The first guard’s eyes dropped to the curve of her stomach before his face changed just slightly, and after a pause, he stepped aside and let the car roll inside.