Cixi waited for two days to hear any news about Cassian.
No headlines. No reports. No rumours even. It was as if the rooftop shooting had never happened.
On the third morning, after the children left for school, Cixi stood in front of the mirror. Looking carefully to see if anything felt out of place.
Marion had helped her with makeup, applying light foundation. A little colour. Nothing dramatic. Still, she barely recognised herself.
The cream dress she wore looked simple yet elegant, falling to her ankles. Tiny pearl beads decorated the neckline. She wore winter tights underneath to fight the cold.
It had been Marion’s favourite dress once before motherhood had reshaped her life and her body.
Cixi pulled on the red coat Cassian had given her. The warmth settled around her shoulders like sothing safe. The boots felt even better. Walking in them almost made winter feel manageable.
She tied her golden-blond hair into a neat bun. She studied the healing wound on her lip before applying a soft rose gloss, her fingers hesitating slightly as mories threatened to surface.
"You look like you belong in a magazine," Marion complinted softly from the doorway, her arms folded as quiet pride filled her expression.
A smile blood on Cixi’s lips before she could stop it. She turned to face Marion. "That’s because of you."
Marion didn’t answer right away. Her eyes moved instead to the coat. Then, to the boots. "Cixi... who bought those?"
Cixi hesitated only a second. "It was a gift," Cixi replied. "The acting president of Crowns Hotel gave them to after I cleaned his place. He probably felt sorry for ."
In truth, she believed he had gifted her the coat and winter boots out of pity for her situation.
She actually believed that.
Marion’s brows lifted slightly in surprise. "Did he offer you a job? Are you going there for an interview?!" A quiet excitent entered her voice. "Is that why you are dressed up?!"
If Cixi got a job at the hotel, she could advance in her career, gaining valuable experience in the hotel industry year after year. Marion hoped Cixi would ace the interview and land the job. Her life would settle for good.
Although she was unhappy about Cixi’s decision to discontinue her studies, it was Cixi’s choice, and she could do nothing to change it. Cixi seed determined not to go back to college. Perhaps, once she had saved enough money, she might pursue her studies further, and Marion hoped she would.
"Yes, Marion," Cixi responded. The lie slid from her mouth more easily than she liked, and it tasted bitter.
"I need to talk to President Cassian Crown about a job."
Guilt hit imdiately for lying to Marion again.
Maybe one day she would explain everything, and she hoped Marion wouldn’t be angry with her.
They left the apartnt together. At the entrance, both took different paths.
Marion walked toward stability.
Cixi walked toward uncertainty... to find out about Cassian by hook or crook.
The Crowns Hotel looked too grand for soone like Cixi. It rose into the winter sky with its shining glass walls, while expensive cars arrived one after another at the entrance.
Cixi stood across the street for a mont, staring at it. For one ridiculous second, she almost laughed.
A few weeks ago, she had been chasing Nelson for the money she had earned with her own sweat, only to be humiliated, cheated, and sent away empty-handed.
Back then, nobody had looked at her twice except to dismiss her. Now she stood in front of one of the grandest hotels in Demond City, wrapped in a red coat that probably cost around 100K.
The irony almost made her heart burn.
Drawing a slow breath, she crossed the street and climbed the wide front steps.
When she approached the entrance, a uniford doorman stepped forward and opened the tall glass door for her with respect.
His posture straightened, and his face arranged itself into imdiate respect. "Good morning, Madam."
Cixi nearly faltered.
’Madam?’
Cixi gave a small, stiff nod, stepped inside, and approached the receptionist with a calm, confident deanour.
"Good morning! How may I help you, Ma’am?" The receptionist in her black-and-white uniform greeted her with a professional smile.
"Good morning! I am here to see Cassian Crown."
The mont Cixi had walked toward the reception desk, her fashionable boots and expensive designer red coat caught people’s attention, but it was her golden hair and her innocent face, accented by full lips, that truly turned heads.
Behind the desk, a young woman in a fitted black blazer looked up with a professional smile. Her eyes, however, perford a quick, involuntary scan when Cixi ntioned Cassian Crown, the acting president of Crowns Hotels. Starting from Cixi’s face, travelling down to the coat, the boots, the small purse hanging from her shoulder, before returning to her face.
She was undeniably spiffy, yet she did not look like the type Cassian Crown usually kept around him.
Every woman working for the Crown family knew that much.
He preferred won with sun-kissed skin, a toned, feminine figure, and hair colours ranging from black to light brown. That was his preference.
And this woman was nowhere closer to that.
"Do you have an appointnt, Ma’am?" she inquired politely, concealing her suspicion behind a skilled smile.
"Of course," Cixi lied without hesitation.
"May I know your na?"
"It’s Cixi McLore," she replied with quiet confidence.
"One mont, please." The receptionist excused herself and reached for the corded phone resting near the desk. She pressed a single digit and waited. When the call connected, her smile remained perfectly in place.
"Good morning, Vice-President. We have a guest here who inford us that she has an appointnt with President Cassian Crown."
"Who is it?" The voice on the other end was authoritative and carried the faint edge of a woman who had been interrupted from sothing more important.
"She said her na is Miss Cixi McLore."
"Send her away." The receptionist’s fingers tightened on the phone, but her expression remained flawless.
"And do not call for such trivial matters. You should know by now how many desperate, worthless won appear from nowhere claiming they are pregnant with Cassian’s child, or that he personally invited them here. I am sure she is one of them. Next ti, ask for a visiting card, and if she looks unimportant, send her away imdiately."
"Yes, Vice-President."
The receptionist gently placed the phone back in its cradle. She turned to Cixi with the sa polished smile.
"I am afraid President Crown has not arrived yet. You may wish to contact him personally and arrange another eting." The polite version of get lost.
Cixi understood that much.
"It’s fine," she replied, forcing her voice to remain steady. "I will wait at the reception." She lightly pointed towards the seating area, where several elegant couches had been arranged for hotel guests.
The receptionist’s smile thinned almost invisibly. She leaned forward, just slightly, the way people lean when they are about to repeat themselves and want you to understand that this is the last ti.
"Ma’am, I do not think you understood . What I ant was that President Crown will not be coming today, so there is no reason for you to wait. I am sure you can call him or his assistant to reschedule the appointnt."
Cixi’s heart sank, but she held the woman’s gaze for a long mont.
What had she truly expected?
He was not so ordinary man she could walk in and ask for. He was the president of one of the grandest hotels in the city. Ofcourse, it would not be easy to reach him or his family mbers. And if she now asked for his assistant’s number, the lie would collapse on the spot.
For once, couldn’t her cursed life go according to her plan?
She couldn’t even find the bodyguards Mark had said would keep an eye on her.
The only ti she had seen those four guards again was when Mark had walked her back to Marion’s building. Since then, they had vanished as though they had never existed.
She did not even know whether they had still been watching her from a distance or whether they had simply been called away.
If she had seen even one of them again, she could have asked for Cassian’s number or Mark’s.
But life had not granted her even that small rcy.
Why did nothing ever happen the easy way?
She swallowed the frustration rising in her throat. Her shoulders drooped, and the fragile hope that had carried her here began to wither. Coming here dressed in his coat, trying to look presentable enough to be taken seriously, now felt foolish.
"Thank you," Cixi said quietly, turning to leave.
She would go to Cassian’s apartnt building instead. She decided.
Perhaps she might find sothing there... anything ...
Keeping her head low, she had barely taken a few steps when soone walked straight into her, too absorbed in his phone to notice where he was going.
The impact made her stumble sharply sideways. Her boots slid on the marble, and before she could catch herself, she hit the floor hard. The cold of the stone shot through her palms and up her wrists.
At the sa ti, the man’s phone slipped from his hand and hit the polished floor with a hard crack that echoed through the reception lounge and spun twice before settling face down.
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