Mia's look was brave but deep inside she was falling apart. She never should have said that, she never should have asked such a question, but she did. She wanted to prove a point.
"How brave of you." Came Rey's sarcastic remark.
"I feel the same way too." She retorted.
Rey looked at her and frowned like he did not understand what she meant by that.
"You keep butting into my personal life and I don't because I respect you as my boss, I respect you as a person and I respect the contract."
"How lovely of you." He was being sarcastic again but she ignored him.
"I don't feel comfortable with personal questions…" The word 'Sir' almost spiralled out of her mouth but she held it back at the last minute.
"Like I care." He straightened his back and Mia wondered if he would straighten it further again after now.
"You keep breaching the contract." She said, frustration lined her face, just in-between her brows.
"I will pay you for signing the contract. You fucking work for me, you benefit from it."
Mia looked at him the same way one would look at a piece of shit. She thought it was high time she stepped out of her shell and gave the motherfucker a piece of her mind.
"You benefit from it too SIR." She stressed on the last word.
"I'd be your pretend girl Sir and I haven't even seen half the payment yet."
"I haven't seen half the payment yet but you keep wrecking my world with…" She paused, the exact word she had wanted to use there was "disaster".
"I can't have a boyfriend but you can fuck around, I can't…" She swallowed the remaining words back into her stomach.
She struggled in his firm grasp over her throat, it tightened and tightened, constricting her airflow till her reddened face turned blue and her eyes rolled up into her head. She thought she was going to die because he wasn't showing the intent of letting go just yet.
Seeing her go weak and stop struggling, Rey loosened his fingers around Mia's neck and watched her sag to the ground.
"I have given you enough liberty, haven't I?" He squats to be on the same level with her but the terrified Mia refuses to back down.
"10 million…dollars is … is the amount." She wheezed roughly, coughing at the end.
Rey only looked on, wondering what bullet she would shoot this time.
It took a little moment but she regained herself, only rubbing her hand on her throat, that part of her throat was reddened but Rey refused to see it.
"I have signed the contract and ought to be paid." She states coldly and Rey scoffs, he is about to comment but she beats him to it.
"Don't pay me." She voiced, putting more effort is saying it louder.
He stills, his brain working fast to understand where she is driving at.
Mia, who is seated on the floor, darted her gaze behind Rey and tried her best to conceal her shock and embarrassment at who she saw behind him. Looking back at Rey, she squares her chin.
"Take the money back as part of breaching the contract, I will find a way to give back the last 5 million even if it means selling my soul to the devil." At her last six words, Mia's voice began to tremble, her eyes beamed with unshed tears.
She remembered her sick brother, the reason she started this madness in the first place and she bit her lips, she bit down on her lips so hard that it hurt.
Rey stared at her like he was seeing someone entirely different from the person he had known all these while.
Using his speechlessness as an opportunity, she steals her phone from his grasp, looks behind Rey and wants to stand but Rey wakes up from his reverie and holds her shoulder down.
She wanted to struggle but the cold and unfeeling voice behind Rey stops them both.
"Get your hand off her!" He knocked Rey's hand off Mia's shoulder.
Finding her feet instantly, Mia shot him a quick look of gratitude even when she didn't want to, went into her room and banged her door to their faces.
Placing her back on her closed door, Mia holds her phone to her chest, her body trembling as hot tears spill from her eyes. She was numb and scared, shutting her ears off from the heated argument behind the door.
***
"What the fuck are you doing there Fredrick!?" Rey glared at Fredrick, then at the half opened gate.
Shit! He had forgotten to close them after driving in.
"To take what belongs to me." Fredrick had his concerned blue eyes on the closed door.
"Is that where she lives?" He asked Reynaldo, the worry evident in his voice.
"It's none of your fuckin' business. I paid you off, now, leave!" Rey was pissed, so was Frederick.
"Not without my things." He had a bored look in his eyes like he was telling Rey that he was just yapping and nothing more.
"What things?" Rey frowned.
"A few of my accessories are back in there." He jilted his head towards the main house.
"Then go get it!" Rey could kill at this point. He was seething.
"Heck! You could have just called to get it delivered to you."
"I didn't." Fredrick's response.
He wasn't leaving this spot either, having his eyes fixed on Mia's closed door. In all honesty, he had left his stuff there on purpose to come back for her.
His guts were right, there was something wrong going on.
"Forget whatever you saw."
"Why?"
Both men were standing toe to toe.
"You don't like her, do you?"
"It shouldn't be your damn business." Rey's eyes were more fierce and his voice did justice to that.
"Pass her along then." Fredrick had his eyebrows raised and his tongue licking his lips.
"She isn't some sort of wrenched commodity." Rey shoved Fredrick's chest.
"At least, I would love her for her and not some sort of sick shit going down here…15 million dollars? I'd pay you off." But Fredrick had a punch delivered into his face.
"Stay the fuck away from my fiancée." Rey spat.
Cleaning his lips and chuckling slowly. "So she was really the one then? The rumored mystery girl?" He looked at Rey who took a defensive stand, ready to attack.
"That's no way to treat a girl, Rey Rey." Fredrick smiled.
"Heaven knows what you're cooking up but you are no match for me." Fredrick cleared his throat.
"I should have known this from the start, take your eyes off her Fredrick, I am warning." Rey had his brows drawn into a knot.
"See you around Friend and learn to tame your temper." He walked away with that but Rey could see that silent determination from the way he walked to the entrance of the house with Gary guiding him in.
Fredrick was out for a mission!