Mark looked up from his plate of waffles when he heard Amy scuffling along from the terrace, her two children chased after her happily.

“Good morning, Ames.”

“I thought you already left for work.” She said as she sat across him and got a piece of fruit from his plate.

“Well, I thought you’d still be asleep. Should I be surprised that you’re up early?” He mused at her, Amy rolled her eyes at the male.

“How are you feeling? You’ve been moving a lot lately.”

“Better, I mean, I have these two to keep my sane. They’re better company too. No offense.”

“None taken.” He snorted at her, she chuckled.

“I just....” Amy paused, she was fiddling with her fork, Mark noticed her discomfort and he looked at her.

“What is it?”

“Mark, in case you haven’t noticed, I am the sibling who has almost zero experience working in this field. I don’t even know what my brother does on daily basis at his office.” She murmured before setting the fork down and opted for coffee instead.

“People there might not like the sudden change, Jackson is the friendly sibling. I don’t know how to put up an act an pretend that everything’s okay when it’s not.”

“Ames,” Mark put some bacon on her plate and pushed the syrup towards her.

“You can do it. Of course, no one’s expecting you to take over right away, it’s a process. We all had to learn before.”

“Easy for you to say.” She muttered at him, he grinned at her.

“You’re a vet, right? And you’re going to run a pharmaceutical company. It wot be so bad.”

“I’d really rather hang out with animals, but fine.” She said darkly before slicing her waffles.

“Just call me if its get too much. Or if something happens.” Mark spoke before finishing off his plate.

“If I get bored, can you come over and play fetch?”

“Be nice to me, Ames.”

Amy puffed her cheeks as she walked into the room, she could all the eyes on her as she stopped by her seat, which was at the head of the table. She was aware that everyone was a stunned and confused when it was announced that she was to take over. Why? She has never showed her face at the company ever since, she attended parties before but she never really stayed and be bothered to care.

She mentally sighed.

“Welcome to the company, young miss.” One of the directors spoke, and Amy also noticed that the board was very male dominated. She wanted to roll her eyes, she had a feeling how this meeting would go.

“Thank you, director Oh.”

“I must admit, well, in behalf of everyone here, we admit that we were quite shocked and confused when we heard about you joining us.” He said in a very sugary tone that made her pause, she sat down and gestured for him to continue.

“We all heard about the chairman’s youngest daughter, but we all assumed that she would rather not participate in any of all the hard work, you know.”

“Why?”  She asked, the male seemed to be taken aback by her response. The whole room turned quiet.

“For generations now, the company has been controlled by the male side of you family. We were expecting a cousin or one of your uncles~”

“Oh, so, you all are basically saying that I shouldn’t be here, no, scratch that. You mean, I am not qualified to be here because I’m not a man.” She nodded to herself, she saw how her secretary paused, his eyes scanned the room.

“Well, not exactly that. It’s just that the board would like to express that we are slightly uncomfortable with you giving us orders and deciding for the future of the company.”

Amy’s jaw twitched and crossed her arms, they were all looking at her with disdain.

“Okay, I heard all of you, so, is it my time to talk now? Or, your testosterone filled egos wont allow that?” She chuckled, her secretary panicked.

“Now, I would like to have you explain to me,”

All eyes were on her, Amy smirked and drummed her fingers on the table.

“Whose idea was it to illegally import some of our raw materials in the country? Is it to save on tariffs? Or..import something else?” 

The men in the room were stunned at her words, some started to fidget on their seats.

“Or, some of you here have been receiving cuts on that? Cool.” She mused, enjoying that they weren’t even meeting her gaze.

“Vice~”

“You can explain this to me after I speak with my father about this. Or, since I don’t want to be judged as being the type who runs to daddy for help,”

She stood up and smiled at them.

“I should decide on this myself. Since, I can.” She chuckled humorlessly before leaving the room.

Mark loosened his tie as he headed towards his car, he felt his phone ping in his pocket and he took it out. He paused as he realized that he had received one of those auto-generated self-deleting emails. He quickly opened it and halted.

Please take care of Ames. I’ll try to be back as soon as I can.

I need this. Thanks, Mark. -Wang

Mark was about to take a screenshot of it, but it was already gone. He let out a relieved sigh and got in his car.

“At least he’s safe. And still able to send out messages like that.” He mumbled to himself before starting the vehicle. It took him a few minutes to reach their main office and he was confused to find his secretary waiting for him at the lobby.

“Did I forget a meeting? Or an appointment?” He questioned as they walked towards the elevators.

“No, sir. I just wanted to give you heads up. Your parents are waiting in your office.” He said amiably, Mark nodded, his quickly fixed his tie as they got in the machine.

They reached the floor and Mark quickly got inside the room.

“Ma, Pa, what~” He paused when he noticed the stranger sitting next to his mother, Mark looked at his parents.

“Good, now you’re here. Sit down.” His father spoke to him, Mark nodded back took his seat across the lady. 

“What brings you here? I thought you two were still in Taiwan? Or...Finland.” 

“We got back a few weeks ago, darling. We’re here to introduce you to someone.” Mrs. Tuan spoke with a smile.

“Ah, okay.” Mark looked at the girl again, then at his parents.

“This is Soyeon, Mark. We’d like it for you two to get to know each other better. For the future of both our companies.”

“W—what do you mean, pa?”

“She’s going to be your wife, son.”

Amy shut the door of her Mercedes Benz coupe so loudly that the valet and security guards stared at her.

She marched towards the doors, crossed the lobby and stood before the elevators.

“What? Slightly uncomfortable? Did I blurt out how gray and dry they look? They even look like they smell bad.” She hissed under her breath, the doors pinged open and she stepped in.

Amy was fuming. She was basically seeing red. She didn’t expect that working for her father’s company would expose her to so much trash and negativity. And ism.

She huffed as she stepped out of the door, she glanced around cluelessly before approaching one of the employees.

“I’m looking for your boss. The young one.”

“Yes?”

“Mark. Or....how do you address him here?” She blinked back at him, the male pointed towards another hall and excused himself. Amy padded towards the set of double doors, she ignored the person who was chasing after her and just simply pushed the doors open without even knocking.

“You will not believe what kind of I had to witness today, Mark.” She barked as soon as she walked in, the girl carelessly tossed her purse on the carpeted floor.

“I quit. I don’t want to be exposed to that kind of negativity in my life. And if only I can ask for those men to be castrated~”

“Amy.” Mark's tone was a little different, her brows rose.

She finally stopped, she realized that she was already standing by Mark’s desk and he wasn’t there. She turned around and balked.

“I—I’m sorry, I’ll come back an~”

“No, you don’t have to leave.” Mark stood up from his seat, Amy’s eyes looked at the middle-aged couple, obviously his parents.

And then she saw the girl beside them, and of course, her discarded purse on the floor which was now being picked up by the Tuan patriarch. She mentally screamed in embarrassment.

Why am I such a brat?

“Mark, it’s fine. I can~” Mark grabbed her arm and made the girl face him, she noticed how stressed out and agitated he was.

“No, I want you to stay.” He said before grabbing her face and placing his lips on hers.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++