Rina liked to think about things in compartments, consisting of contents that never crossed parts no matter how hard the cosmos tried to shake and pull them together. It was like her deals with acting, and her life when she was still married to Finn. As much as possible, Rina tried not to let these two distinct worlds get mixed up, and the minute she’d realized there was a chance of that happening, she’d chosen one over the other, even though in the end, it had turned out to be a very bad decision.
It was like that now, with working at the fashion house. She’d compartmentalized her impending contractual relationship with Zayn and her duty here at O. S. N into different boxes, wanting them never to get mixed up. The first attempt by the cosmos was Joel’s application for a sponsorship, but Rina had thought she’d had nothing to worry about since Zayn wasn’t the kind of person who easily granted sponsorships.
But he did, and that had brought the compartments in her head to a test. Maybe Rina should have taken it a tad more seriously, because she had never imagined that Zayn would actually come to see her at the fashion house, that he would be under the same roof as her during working hours, breathing the same air.
But now, they were standing right in the same room, a casual bored look on Zayn’s face. He crossed the space quickly and planted himself on the chair at the other end of the desk, looking around while she remained on her feet.
“I like it,” he murmured with pleasure in his tone, like the theme of the office was the one thing to worry about. Rina’s question was still hanging in the air, and Zayn was purposely evading it because he hadn’t thought too hard about why he was in her office. All he knew was that he felt an urge to see her and made it happen. Of course, there was no way he was telling her that.
“Zayn!” Rina whispered harshly, glaring at him. “Did anyone see you coming here? Are you trying to put my identity on the line? Do you know how dangerous this is?”
“I had a business meeting with the CEO, Rina,” Zayn finally said, bringing his brooding gaze back to her. “I needed to know who exactly I was giving that much amount of money to. It’s how the business works.”
“And my office?”
“I took a personal tour,” he answered shrugging. “Your office is a part of the building, isn’t it? And how was I supposed to know it was your office?”
Even though Rina knew Zayn had purposely come in there, fully aware that her office was at the end of the hallway, there was nothing she could say to that. So, instead, she dropped into her seat and sighed.
“You can’t be in here for too long. What if someone comes looking for you?”
“I locked the doors.”
“Of course, you did.”
“A parcel came in this morning for you before I left for work.”
“A parcel?” The skin on her forehead scrunched up as Rina tried to remember if she had seen anything sticking from under the door on her way out of the house. Coming up empty, she mentally searched the dining table where she’d had coffee, bringing up the items she’d met on the table and trying to picture anything strange on it.
“I didn’t notice…” Rina looked up at Zayn suddenly, as the realization hit her. “You have it, don’t you?”
“Why didn’t you tell me Finn was suing you for ownership and possession of the cottage?” Although Zayn’s voice was calm and borderline unbothered, his palms folded into fists by his side. His displeasure was not directed at Rina but at Finn and the fact that Rina still didn’t want him to meddle in her business.
But Zayn couldn’t stay on the sidelines for this. He just couldn’t make it happen. The minute he saw the contents of the parcel, he called his lawyer to set the wheels in motion. Finn wouldn’t know what hit him until it was too late.
“Zayn,” Rina breathed. “I didn’t want to get you involved in this, okay? You didn’t know me when I was married to Finn, so it would be unfair to drag you into that mess. And besides, we agreed to keep this away from everyone. Informing you would have done the exact opposite of that.”
“I promised that I wasn’t going to do anything until you asked me to, but Rina, you need to tell me when these things happen. If you’re going to be my wife, I need to be brought up to speed with every single thing that happens with and to you.”
“I can handle this.”
“I know you can.” Zayn didn’t doubt it even for a minute. “But you need to let me in.” He knew who Rina Powers was, and how her strength and defiance had made her climb the ladder in the industry so fast after her debut. It was what got her back on track after being tossed aside by the industry.
But at the same time, Zayn knew the amount of power he wielded, and how fast things would get cleared out if he did them himself.
“He called when you were out of the country,” Rina revealed, understanding that Zayn wasn’t going to leave until she told him what he wanted to know. “He said he was bored and that he thought about how to get rid of that. The only thing he could come up with was to make my life a living hell, more than the way it is already. I told him the property is in my name, but of course, Kayla’s parents are backing him up. My title deeds are practically useless against that.”
“Thank you for telling me.” Zayn got out of the seat and bounded across to the door.
“What are you going to do, Zayn?” Rina was back on her feet, her eyes anxious.
“You don’t have to worry about that. Just climb up that ladder like you did in the past while I take care of this.”
“Zayn…”
“You can’t stop me.”
The moment he pulled open the door, Joel’s frantic eyes stared back at him.