Joshua sighed heavily. "Sit down Saika-chan." He gestured to the couch and she sat silently.Though she looked a lot older than her real age, Saika's still the same girl he used to know. Willful and straightforward. "I've met Ariel last night. Your daughter's beautiful." He said sincerely.

"Thank you." She replied simply and looked straight onto his eyes. "Is this the new scheme of my father?" She asked, her tone thick and menacing.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't take me for a fool En Qi! Otousan wanted me to marry you and since that didn't happen, he wanted to use my daughter! I thought you're not that kind of person but I think I was wrong." She shook her head.

He was astounded by her outburst. She was not suppose to know about the agreement he and Toshiya had before. "You got it all wrong, Saika-chan! I didn't know that my son's engaged with your daughter until last night."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No, I guess not. But that's the truth." He answered truthfully. "Joe loves Ariel. I believe you've met him."

"No. I met Joseph Yuan and not Joe Cheng. He fooled my daughter, he fooled us all! And now you're saying that your son loves Ariel?" Sarcasm laced her voice. "Now, if you still honor the friendship we had, I want you to tell your son to stay away from Ariel."

"I am afraid I cannot do that."

"Why not? What's in it for you, Cheng En Qi? My daughter's not rich. She wasn't even able to get into college. All because of that--that man!" She can't even say the word 'father'. If her father didn't hinder all chances they got to a better life, Ariel couldn't have suffered like she did.

"Yamato Sensei has got nothing to do with this." He fondly calls her father sensei since he taught him everything he knows about business. "And I already promised myself I'll let my children decide about their love life. I am only here if they need help." He saw how hurt Ella was when he had her ex-boyfriend investigated.

"I've known you as a good person, En Qi. Why are you letting yourself be used by him?"

*****************************************************************************

"Ariel?" Ella was standing on the doorway of the laundry room. She was not wearing her usual uniform but a very chic eyelet mini dress and lace up sandals, her bob was elegantly styled. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ariel nodded. "I'll just finish this one, Ma'am." Referring to the remaining pieces of towels she had to fold. Surprise crossed her face before it became neutral again. She entered the room and helped her fold the towels. Nothing's being heard for quite sometime aside from the whirring sound of the machines.

"You're still mad at me." That was a statement. She didn't respond. Ella bit her lip, she looked like she was fighting her tears. "God knows I opposed his idea. You've been real good to me and--"

"It was all over now." She cut her off.

"Ariel, my brother loves you. . .I know he can make you happy--"

"How did you know?" Her voice calm and composed, her face a blank canvass. "Can I trust you, Ella? Or whoever you are?"

Ella sighed. "I was just trying to help my brother by learning everything about this business. I want to start at the bottom and that's when I got to know you. And then he saw and fell in love with you at first sight. For the first time, he wanted to be regular guy and go after you."

"And since you know I want to marry a rich man, you asked your brother to pretend as a bellman so you have something to laugh about at home." She supplied.

"That's not true! You know that day when you first met them? We fought the night before because I didn't want him to do it! You don't even know us to judge us, Ariel." She didn't hide the bitterness in her voice.

"Come to think of it, you're right. I don't know you. And now I am engaged to someone I don't even know."

"You have the rest of your lives to get to know each other."

"Why are you here, Ella?"

"I just wanted to say, I 'm sorry. . .I know it wasn't easy to forgive but please try. Especially now that we're gonna be sisters." She bowed and left the room. She even caught a glimpse of two burly men waiting for her outside.

***********************************************************************

"You're being called to the President's office." She nearly jumped when she heard Ms. Ma spoke behind her. She didn't even try to hide the malice in her voice.

"W-why?" She asked.

"How would I know? You'll know if you've done something terrible so I'll ask you the same thing. Why would they call you?"

"I-I don't know." She lied.

"If you jeopardize my work here, I'll kill you, you understand?" She hissed.

Seriously, when will she stop bullying people? Ariel nodded and exited the break room. She didn't want to go see Joe. Not now. She didn't know what to say to him. But she's afraid he'll do something if she won't show up. She let out a deep breath before making a warning knock. She opened the door to the empty office. Even the secretary was not in his place. *Are they locking me up again?* She shivered at the thought.

"You're here, Honey!" Carlene appeared from the anteroom. She kissed both of her cheeks and hugged her. She stiffened. "I didn't know Joe still allowed you to work!"

'I-I insisted that I work, Ma'am." Now, why did she have to defend Joe? Truth was, she haven't spoken to him in days. She was praying that they could just forget about the silly engagement.

"Mama. You should start calling me Mama. And Joe ask me to help you out with the preparations while he's in Guam."

"Guam?"

"You didn't know that he's in Guam? Oh, I bet he'd been burning telephone lines so you thought he's just here in Taipei." She let out a ringing laughter. "Now, go get changed and we have some serious shopping to do." She pushed her into the anteroom and closed the door. She found a portable clothes rack filled with dresses. She sat on the day bed and just stared at it. After a few minutes, she heard a soft knock and Carlene entered. She looked surprised she hadn't changed yet.

"Having a hard time choosing?" She asked instead. She picked a gray and yellow boatneck dress. "This will look good on you." She picked a box on the floor just beside the rack and gave it to her. "Five minutes, okay?" She winked and went out of the room.

The BCBG MaxAzria dress looked so good as well as the metallic heels. But she almost fainted when she saw the price. It was more that her one month salary!

"Ariel Honey, your time's up!"

"Where are we going?" She managed to ask.

"Darn, you look gorgeous! We're spending the boys' money!" She laughed. "Ella can't join us now. She has a presentation to make. We'll look for your wedding dress. Your wedding's in a month so--"

"A month!"