"Your presence is not mandatory, It’s up to you." Says Rex with malice. Mind games are his specialty.
Lily desperately wants to shout but she keeps it together and remains professional, "Five years ago,
you took the victim side claiming it was the right thing to do, what about now? Shouldn’t you be doing
the same and treat me as such?"
What hurts Lily the most is that the victim takes a back seat. Davy's case must be solved. What Rex
did is nothing else but forcing her to choose between facing him and giving up the case.
Lily doesn’t want to give up, she confronts him.
"Are these games fun? Are all my efforts and hard work so insignificant to you?" Lily goes rampage,
"What President Rex thinks is none of my business, but the case itself yes!"
Being unaware of the apology statement he ordered Kevin to make, she completely misunderstands
Rex’s actions.
Rex is caught off-guard, he was expecting some anger but not that much, all he wanted is to make her
go see him, and then he can explain it all.
"Such determination suits you quite well." Says suddenly Rex full of confidence.
Lily feels like the ground vanished under her feet after that sentence, and panics.
She squeezes her phone and looks at the clock. It is three o'clock in the afternoon, not too late, so she
decides to take the matter in her own hand going straight to the point, it's better to strike while the iron
is hot.
Lily is no longer afraid, she takes the courage and says “Are you available now President Rex? I’d like
to speak about the details of the case."
"Always for you." Keeps up Rex with the mind games.
Lily’s worst dream, "Alright then, when are you available?"
The table is turning and now she is asking for favors. She acknowledges that no matter how angry she
is, she must be humble in order to win in the long run.
"Well," Rex takes his time to answer her, and then, after a long while, "Come to my house. It’s the best
way."
House?!
Lily grits her teeth. If anyone would have told her before, she would never have believed it, but now,
she cannot deny the truth. All of this was to get to this point exactly!
"London is a big city and I am sure we can find many places suitable for our meeting, like a café. There
should be one not far from your home. If President Rex does not have time, I can drive over to pick you
up later..."
"Reluctant much?" He interrupts Lily and says flatly, "Then don't come."
"..."
The silence fills the air.
Lily is resentful. Before thinking on how to deal with him, she hears his impatient voice, "Alright, I gotta
go."
"Wait!" She grits her teeth, and after two second, she agrees, "Okay, I’m coming, now!"
...
Forty minutes later, Lily parks her car in front of the gate of Rex’s house.
The sight of the magnificent villa stretches before her eyes. She found a café on the way just a mile
back, just in case. Probably he is not feeling well and wants to stay in his house, and hopefully, he does
not have bad intentions.
Lily gets off the car and rings the buzzer, no one answers that but the gate begins to move.
She drives in smoothly, gets off the car again with the related documents and in front of the house door,
she takes several breaths before raising her hand to knock.
The heavy solid wooden door opens slowly revealing a man figure.
He is wearing a dark gray pullover knitted sweater, a pair of straight black trousers, and white slippers
on his feet, that is not the outfit for formal talk.
Lily's puts herself on defensive mode from the start. She looks beyond him towards the living room.
The person in front of her suddenly takes a big step forward, blocking her vision firmly.
Lily jumps backward frightened, "What are you doing?!"
"What did I do?" Rex gets angry, his temper prevailed when he saw that scared look on her face. "Is
this how you handle business nows?"
Lily knows that he wanted to embarrass her deliberately and keeps her mouth shut. She clears her
throat and says, "Let’s get in to talk."
Rex raises his eyebrows and turns on his side to make room for her, mimicking a butler. Lily quickly
walks past him with woody movements.
The living room of the villa is huge. She sits on the sofa and puts the documents on the tea table,
"Please take a look, President Rex."
Rex sits in front of her spreading his long legs in a very casual posture. He glances at the papers and
grabs them. He only flips couple of pages before throwing them back on the table, "I was going to tell
you soon but since you are here today, let’s take out the tooth: Davy's compensation and apology can
be granted, but Miss Lily, you must answer me few questions."
" Questions?" Lily looks at him in the eyes, "What questions?"
The man's eyes are burning, "Non-work related."
Lily's heart trembles. She knew it. She endures the rapid heartbeat, and says calmly like a qualified
professional lawyer, "President Rex, during working hours, I do not discuss private matters."
"Is that so?" The man raises his hand and glances at his watch, and as it is the most normal thing he
says, "Cool, we are done here."
"..."
Lily's eyelids twitch. Is Rex gone rogue completely?
"President Rex..."
"As I said, as long as you answer me, I don't even need to look at the papers and I would agree to all
reasonable requests from you and Davy." He hates when she calls him President Rex, like a stranger.
Lily looks away and lets out a deep breath, pondering carefully.
In the end, all is asking is few answers. On the other hand, if she refuses she could compromise
everything.
But facing the man's compelling gaze makes Lily lose all her courage. She had nowhere to hide from
him five years ago, and it is the same five years later.
She had grown and matured, but it is undeniable that this man also, he is now stronger than five years
ago.
After a long silence, he brings her a cup of warm water and says with his thin lips opened slightly, "So,
what is your decision?"
Lily finds extremely ironic when his gentle voice makes such implicit threats.
Lily wants so hard to win this lawsuit, and this seems to be the only way to get it, "Alright, shoot."
"OK, one condition. No lies admitted."
Lily is sure that he can detect any lies coming from her, therefore she can only agree to that, "Condition
accepted."
"You know?" He regains a normal position, and stares into her eyes for an instant, "I can tell when you
lie."
‘Tump-Tump-Tump’
The sound of her heart is deafening her own ears. Lily breathes and says calmly, "I won't lie."
Rex's satisfaction is visible and with all the muscles in his body tense, he begins to articulate his first
question, word by word,"When did you and Ryan meet?"
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