“Is your family aware of Angel’s secret?” Stephen asked as he and Robert arrived back in his office at Philip Tower. Robert chuckled and shook his head. “She doesn’t have an obligation to inform them. The only one that knows is me.” Robert explained to his friend. “Stephen, Robert.” Andrew greeted as he entered the office with his laptop. Despite everything that was happening with his personal life, Stephen still had to do a lot of work when it came to Cho Industries. Without a vice president filtering all the products before reaching him, he needed to do double the work his grandfather was doing

With everything in place, Stephen sat across Angel as if he were on a date with her. He knew that there were spies watching them, he was well aware that Gabrielle Ong and her grandfather would want Angel to keep her side of the bargain. “You seem distracted.” Angel said as a waiter arrived with their meal. She was playing her part quite well as it truly did seem like they were on a romantic night out. “Just work.” Stephen answered. He knew that even the waiter was a spy sent to listen in on their conversation when they could. “Can we talk about something more serious?” Angel asked as she reached out and placed a hand on Stephen’s. She gently caressed it and noted that the waiter was keeping a close watch over their body language. “What is more serious than work, Angel?” Stephen asked, the tone of his voice was kinder than when he spoke to Gabrielle, but there was no love in it. “I want to talk about us.” Angel said as she watched the waiter, she gave him a look as if to send

I'm sorry it's taken me a while to get back. I know many of you have been anxiously waiting, some have even gone to my social media to send DMs. Please know I've recieved them and I'm sorry if I wasn't able to reply. Aside from being busy with work (yes, I'm not a full time author, I only do this part time) and with the holidays I had to work on other novels as well. I'm back and I promise to do my best to make up for lost time and chapters. Hopefully I'll be able to publish much much more this month and on the succeeding months. Thank you all for still being around, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

“The Villanueva brothers seem to have come over for other reasons as well.” John told Stephen. “They have been asking around about the Essen Mafia.”“I’m not surprised.” Stephen said with a shrug. “Their father will want to know who the head really is. Why don’t you meet up with them and remind them how powerful our reach is.” John nodded and spoke into the phone, giving commands. The next day Stephen sat in his car, watching as John entered the restaurant where he was supposed to meet up with Manuel and Miguel.Stephen asked John to take with him several bodyguards.He was worried that the Villanueva brothers would try something bad to get a reaction from the head of the Essen Mafia.“We’re in, boss.” One of the bodyguards said, reporting to Stephen. “Keep your mic on, I want to hear what they discuss with John.” Stephen ordered. “Senor John!” Stephen heard Miguel greet. “We were surprised by your call, how did you find out our phone numbers?” “We have our ways, Mr. Villanueva.”