Chapter 37: The Media Trouble

“Mr. Xavier wants to see you in his cabin, Miss!” I heard Nancy, the assistant say to me as she entered my cabin.

“Okay, thanks for informing me,” I smiled and replied. She smiled back and left.

I read the lines in the document for one last time, before getting up. Suddenly, I realized that I had not been watching the news for some time, so it was only relevant to watch it before going out to the journalists.

I turned the TV in my cabin on and turned on the BBC news channel.

Even though the headlines were following up on some political news, “Mr. Valencian” caught my attention on the footer lines.

I concentrated to read the entire sentence and my eyes widened. What?

I took out my phone hurriedly and searched for his specific news on the Internet.

“Many companies, including Cooper Textiles and RC Entertainment have publicly shown their distrust in Mr. Valencian. The official reason wasn’t that he hid the truth about his child since everyone has the right to keep their private life private, but that according to their contracts, he was to have no heir as of the moment. Companies like Cooper Textiles are even planning to sue the Valencian Corporation for fraud and Contract Violations, as told to the public by the public speaker of the said company.”

I kept a hand in front of my mouth as the realization came upon me. Of course, how could I forget? The truth was out just before I decided to go with Max. All this time, he had been dealing with losing the thing he loved so dearly. That’s why everyone was working so hard, they had to make up for the loss.

Why didn’t he say anything?

Even if it wasn’t mentioned so, I was pretty sure that this incident had a massive effect on his company’s economy. And it was all because the truth about my son came out.

I shook my head and was just processing everything, when I suddenly remembered that I had to go to Xavier’s office, so I turned off the Television, picked up my laptop, and went. I knocked on his door.

“Come in.”

As I opened the door and entered, he looked at me. “Are you done with learning the three lines in the last hour?”

I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm and walked over to him. “I just saw the news.”

“About?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He looked at me and shook his head. “I told you to get your head in the game. Don’t think about useless things. We can’t afford any mistakes today.”

“I know! I asked you something. Tell me!”

“Even if I tell you, what can you do, Scarlet?” He put his document down and looked at me. “You can’t help me in this situation. I will deal with it.”

“I can help with stopping Cooper Textiles from suing you!”

“Really? And how are you going to do that?”

“I know the CEO’s to-be-bride!”

He raised his eyebrow and sighed. “You mean Jazelle?”

“Yes. I will talk to her about this. I am sure she will understand this and everything will be fine. You are an amazing businessman; Xavier and I know that people will trust you again soon.”

As he was about to say something, Nancy knocked on the door. She came in and told us that the reporters were waiting outside already.

“We will talk about this later, yeah?” he said to me and I nodded.

As I was walking out, he took my hand and kissed it. I looked at him with confusion once again but he smirked. “And you can enter my office without knocking. I promise I will not be naked.”

I gave him a glare to which he chuckled. I sighed and shook my head.

I guess I had to really think again about destroying him. Somehow, behind all that ruthless façade and actions, he still was a human… I suppose.

“Let’s go,” he continued to walk out of the building with my hand in his. I took a deep breath.

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“Mr. Valencian, who is this woman?” One of the reporters asked as soon as we reached the outside. The security of the building had only allowed selective reporters to stay. They were mostly the company’s trusted reporters — so they had their manners, thankfully.

“She is…” He looked toward me with a smile on his face. “She is Scarlett Walker, my… girlfriend. Our son, whose information was allegedly released earlier… uh, his name is Andrew Walker-Valencian, and I think that clears up most of the things needed.”

I smiled inwardly. I didn’t know how to feel about this, about him referring to Drew as his own — even though he really was, but the surname change seemed to make things more apparent than they’ve always been.

“Have you caught the hacker who illegally released your son’s information?” Another one popped in.

“Not yet, but I will. My personal life, in no way, should be of such interest to inhumane people.”

“Ms. Walker, how long have you been together with Mr. Valencian?”

I glanced over at Xavier with a worried expression. I didn’t know they would ask me too, and such a hard question! How long have we been together?

Xavier gave me a calm look, as if trying to ask me to answer anything.

“We’ve…” I looked toward the reporter, “…been on and off in the last six years but we’ve learned to grow for the better of it.”

I looked back at Xavier to see his expression and it held a genuine happiness. His contagious smile made my lips curl and I looked back at the front.

“Mr. Valencian, what are you going to do about the economic drop in your company?”

“I think this concludes our conversation. Please see yourself out now,” Xavier said casually and I sighed. I have to talk about this to him.

Two or three of the reporters were persistent but they stopped — hopefully — because we went inside.

As soon as we stepped inside the building, he took my hand again and we went to his office.

“So, Xavier, I—” I stopped when he looked at me with an intense gaze. He pulled me closer by my hand and then grabbed my waist, making me gasp.

“Around my neck.” His deep voice was music to my ears.

“What?”

“Put your hands around my neck.”

I used my few working brain cells to understand his words and followed his instructions.

As soon as I put my hands around his neck, he picked me up. My first instinct was to wrap my legs around his waist — and I guess that’s what he wanted too.

As soon as that happened, he joined our lips. “Scarlet Walker, do you prefer the hyphen in the surname or do you want it to be completely Valencian?”