A couple of days passed since that fateful evening.

Sawyer and I hadn't spoken about recent development in our dynamic ever since. Not between each other and especially not to Yuvan.

The poor boy already had a lot on his plate.

With their swim meet coming up, there had also been recent trouble poking him regarding beating up those seniors.

Their principal called me to their school the other day to discuss the matter.

Yuvan and those three seniors were present there.

The old woman with sapphire eyes and graying straight bob as hair had calmly relaid objections against my brother and made a victim out of those other boys.

Had I been the Mirasol of a few months ago, I'd have apologized and dragged Yuvan out of that room with our heads down.

But much to Yuvan's surprise and mine, I coldly demanded to speak with the real victim – Jason, Yuvan's classmate.

The principal tried her best to make his presence unworthy of that meeting, but my persistence and professional persuasive skills did not go in vain.

Jason had come and after much request and reassurance, he told Principal the truth. His statement along with the CCTV footage evidence was proof enough to declare those seniors guilty.

In the end, the principal had to suspend them for three weeks along with a written warning. He also apologized for the inconvenience.

That day, we had walked out of the principal's room with smiles and our heads held high.

It was that moment I understood that retaliation – revenge – wasn't always a wrong thing.

Sometimes it was necessary to be pushy, to be bad, only to stop the injustice.

Tonight was our last Sunday in Sawyer's mansion.

And, he had arranged a hearty feast for us all.

Lemon chicken.   

Veg lasagna.

White sauce pasta.

As for the drinks, champagne for adults and soda for the only teen member of the house.

The best part of the dinner was that the meals were made with all of our combined effort and love.

Laughter was loud. Jokes were shared. Fond memories of our childhood were remembered.

Just a good, happy time.

Especially, Yuvan's carefree grins and Sawyer's gentle smiles were the highlights of the night.

Both were rare sights, after all.

And, from tomorrow, everything would go back to the way it was.

I let out a soft yawn as I padded softly on the floor, just a couple of steps away from my bedroom.

"Hey, Hayes!" I looked up to see Sawyer waving at me from the end of the corridor, holding his silver laptop.

"Yes?"

"Yuvan fell asleep?"

I shrugged.

"I guess. He had gone to his room before the cleanup so..."

"Great. Come to the library, please. We need to talk."

"About?"

"The business."

His grave deep voice what enough for me to know what business we were going to discuss.

I pressed my lips tight.

"Alright. Just give me twenty minutes."

He gave me a knowing smirk in response before walking inside the bedroom next to mine.

I stood there in the dark hallway, hearing the soft thud of his door close.

A soft sigh escaped my lips.

Back to the same way, huh?

Guess, I had spoken too soon.

***

The dim yellow light of wall candles illuminated the red and white library in an otherworldly glow.

Soft. Soothing. Somewhat... Romantic?

I shook my head to get those weird thoughts out and stepped inside the room.

Sawyer looked up from the couch at the soft thud of the door closing behind me.

Papers, pens, and markers were scattered all over the glass table.

"You're late."

I frowned.

Couldn't he see my damp flat hair?

"Only two minutes."

He scoffed. "Still late."

I pressed my lips tight and walked to sit on the other corner of the couch, farthest away from him.

Arguing with a dead brain was useless.

I took a paper from the table.

Sienna Dalton's proud-lady smirk stared back at me from the top corner of the page.

Her full information including her bedtime schedule was included there.

One line stuck out to me the most, making my eyes go wide.

"Two tiger pups! Wow..."

"What?" Sawyer raised his brow as he was holding a file.

"This woman has real tigers for pets! Can you believe it!"

Sawyer shrugged.

"Anything is possible for multibillionaires like her. By the way, she's our first target."

I flinched at the sudden bomb he dropped last moment.

"Isn't she the second influential shareholder of our company?"

A flicker of something like admiration passed through Sawyer's honey-gold eyes as he smiled.

"You remembered."

Not a question. Just a frank statement.

But why her, though?

"I don't understand. What's the plan, Sawyer?"

He sighed and dropped the file on the table before turning his body toward me.

"Let me tell you from the beginning. That'll help you understand things better," Sawyer paused to take a deep breath. "Okay, so, it all started at the acquisition event five years."

"Acquisition?"

"Yup. Back then, Trexon Empire had been facing financial downfall due to unstable waves of share market. It was a just small setback. Papa and I could've passed that phase. But then some other company which was still standing strong in the economical storm began to buy out our employees."

Another company. Could it be...

"Who were they?" I frowned, tilting my head to the side.

Sawyer offered me a thin smirk, making my heart jump.

"You tell me."

There he was!

I sighed and looked away.

"Harmolt Inc. Reynold Harlington's company."

Guess, I knew the answer to that question.

"Bingo!" Sawyer chuckled low and snapped his fingers. "Anyways, back to the story."

I leaned back against the couch and looked out the floor-to-ceiling window.

It was a full moon tonight.

The whole garden area was flushed in an ethereal white glow.

Stunning...

"It was just a small portion of employees who sought out big paychecks. We could've easily replaced them so we didn't pay much attention. Little did we know, that was just the beginning of our downfall."

I looked back at Sawyer.

His lips were smiling. But his eyes?

Dread coiled in my stomach at the hollow gaze in those dark golden pools.

Sawyer continued in a low raspy voice.

"Harmolt Inc. slowly began to sink their dirty claws through our company shares. One by one, from insignificant to influential, all of our shareholders began to leave us. They secretly sold our shares to Harmolt Inc."

My lips parted at the sudden revelation.

"But that's illegal! Without the consent of Trexon Empire's board of directors..."

Sawyer scoffed, waving his hands.

"Money talked dirty to them, Doll. They were seduced by Harmolt Inc. and blindly so. We couldn't do anything."

"What about filing a case against them?"

A tired breath escaped his lips.

"We were barely floating on the surface that time, Hayes. Affording the extra cost of lawyer and case was the last thing we could do."

I backed down, lowering my head.

"But still, I proposed Papa take legal actions," I looked up at Sawyer's calm deep voice. "He denied it at first, as expected. But my constant pestering and persuasion made him agree in the end. We talked to a renowned lawyer and filed a case. The very next day, the company called for a meeting from the board of directors."

Hmm...

"Acquisition event. That was soon."

"Ha! You don't say," Sawyer snorted. "It was all planned. Harmolt Inc. finally pulled out their big guns."

"So, what happened at the acquisition?" I crossed my arms.

Sawyer breathed out, stretching his legs further and resting his right arm on the couch head.

I clenched my jaw and sat straighter as he began to twist my red strands between his fingers.

That prick chuckled softly in response and moved his hand away.

"Well, it started as a regular meeting. We still didn't know this would have led to acquisition later on. Reynold Harlington. Devon. Papa. Shareholders. The entire board of directors. All were present in the acquisition. After a long discussion for hours, it was decided that shareholders would no longer be involved in Trexon Empire. Not after the case filing incident. They would rather choose Harmolt Inc."

"How did they know about the case!" I jumped in my seat, eyes turned wide.

"Patience, Doll," Sawyer smiled. "We're coming to that."

I pressed my lips and frowned hard at the floor, trying to understand the deeper parts of this conspiracy.

Sawyer cleared his throat.

"So, those shareholders pulled out of our company, leaving Trexon Empire stranded and on the verge of bankruptcy. Our board of directors tried their best to save the company. But each offered advice was turned down until Devon proposed an interesting solution."

I think I knew where this was going.

That didn't mean my hands didn't turn colder. Or, was it the cool air-conditioner?

"To save Trexon Empire, Harmolt Inc. proposed to buy out our entire company. That way they could keep the shareholders and investors involved in this company as well as ride the wobbly share market waves together safely."

A soft gasp escaped my lips as realization dawned upon me.

"What a devious plan! They could've merged companies. The profit would've been low for Trexon but still, the company would've stayed yours. But no! Company and shareholders. They wanted both in their pockets."

"That's your Devon," Sawyer smirked, making me glare at him.

"He's not my Devon, Sawyer!" I looked away. "He was never mine."

A tense silence hung in the air for that moment.

Velvet fabrics ruffled as Sawyer shifted in his seat on the couch and cleared his throat.

"Uh, sorry. Didn't mean to... Okay. So, let's move on to the best part, shall we?"

Best part. Really?

I deadpanned and eyed him with utter annoyance.

Sawyer offered his best fake grin in response.

"Alright. So, the board agreed and shareholders were already on their side so they managed to buy our company at a far cheaper rate than the market price. It was all part of Devon and the shareholders' scheme. They most probably have been spying on us for a long time. That's why they staged the game this way."

I frowned.

Devon was a devil it seemed.

Sawyer sighed.

"Papa and I were left to deal with the inevitable harsh truth of bankruptcy, afterward. Had it not been for Nonna, we'd have been on the streets in rags and showing off the homeless cardboard to the world."

My blood began to boil at this point.

I knew Devon was cruel. But I had thought that was all for earning financial profits. Not to ruin someone's life to the dust in the process.

What baffled me more was the nonchalant way Sawyer was speaking about this.

It was as if we were talking about the weather. Not the dark days of his life.

"What happened to that case?"

Sawyer shrugged his shoulders.

"They closed it. Rather, they forced us to drop the case. We barely had the fund to feed ourselves without nonna's help besides-"

I frowned at the abrupt cut-off in his words.

A dark shadow flickered in his honey-gold eyes before he offered me a smirk.

"We've gone way off the track, Hayes. I think it's time to discuss our plans."

I watched Sawyer rummaging through the papers on the table in a rush.

He was smiling but never met my eyes.

His shoulders were tensed.

His adam apple often bobbed up and down.

He was hiding something.

His entire body screamed 'secret' to me.

But I let it slide. For now.

"Take a look at this."

Sawyer handed me a gray file.

I flipped it open, only to raise my brows at weird graph charts.

Names, numbers, and places were scrawled out in messy handwriting on the bottom side.

"What's this?" I looked up at a calm Sawyer with a frown.

"Success rate calculation in my head. Leave it. It's messy. Turn the page."

I did and found the real gold mine.

It was an index that covered the name of many shareholders of our company, including those five influential ones.

I knew some of them from our various official meetings.

Their names and info page numbers were written in a neat row.

Most of the shareholders' name was cut in a blue line. A couple of the names were still intact as well as the untouched fives.

"These are the current shareholders of Trexon Empire. Mostly insignificant ones and have small side businesses. Some of them are even frustrated with Devon's way of playing with share. These people either don't get their due shares on time or their actual amount gets cut off in size."

"So... What's your deal with them?"

Sawyer offered me a thin smirk.

"I've been working on them for the past one and half years. Crossed ones are the little fishes in the ocean who I've managed to convince and bought their shares."

"What!" My eyes bulged out at his words. "What if you get caught?"

He showed off that eery, sinister lopsided grin.

"Well, who's gonna catch an untraceable, anonymous account?"

My frown deepened.

"What do you mean?"

"I've got a friend in an international security agency. He handles the veil job for me. Anywa- close your mouth, Doll."

Sawyer chuckled, gently pressing his warm fingers under my chin and closing my hung jaw.

I was speechless.

This guy was insane!

"W-What if he rattles you on later?" I hurled those words out after much difficulty.

I didn't fail to notice that he did not reveal his friend or the agency's name. He still couldn't trust me completely and understandably so.

Anyone would be wary of people after facing a rough world like Sawyer.

Besides, I had just given my words. Not helped him for real, yet.

Sawyer sighed.

"He won't. Trust me. Now listen up. I'll take other shareholders and do my job. You will help me with the main five. They are the important pieces of this game."

"What are you planning to do with their shares exactly?"

He smirked slightly. "Soon, Doll. You'll know everything in time."

So, he wasn't going to tell.

Another proof that he didn't trust me well enough.

I sighed.

"Very well. What do I have to do?"

Instead of replying, Sawyer flipped a couple more pages of the file.

He stopped at a page with Sienna Dalton's name.

Why was he giving this lady so much importance?

"Check this out." He poked at the page, leaned back, and crossed his arms.

I glanced at him once before roaming my eyes over the black, printed words.

'Spa schedule on Sunday 1:00 pm.

Two lady bodyguards.

Loves to get pampered by riches.

Preacher of old age.

Easy to persuade if offered praise about her hair and tigers.'

"Wow..." A snort escaped my lips. "She's some character."

"The easiest as well as the toughest target too. Persuading her into signing up is purely a game of luck and skill."

Game of luck and skill, huh?

A rush of thrill thrummed through my blood.

So familiar, yet, so foreign...

"Very well." I dropped the file on the table.

"Good. That's what I like to hear."

"One question."

"Hopefully, the last."

I deadpanned in response.

Sawyer chuckled.

"Okay, Doll. Go on."

"Why are you so keen on giving this particular Sienna Dalton to me? There are others and far more important shareholders in the sea. I could've dealt with any one of the-"

"Can you?"

I flinched at his abrupt cut-off, eyes slightly widened.

Sawyer's intense golden eyes bored holes in mine.

"I want to see you play, Hayes. I want to see your skill level. That's why I'm giving you Sienna first. Consider it as your test drive. Prove that you're worthy of a partner for this revenge scheme."

The fuck!

"So, after all this time, I'm going be a mere puppet playing partner in your game, huh? Sneaky, Sawyer. Real sneaky!"

He huffed, bending over and holding his head with his hands.

"Must admit, you have the wildest of imaginations, Hayes!" I frowned as he drawled on in a tired voice before looking up, "Look, I have a pretty neat outline of this plan. I just needed someone to carry out some important tasks. Things I can't do alone. But for that, I want someone capable. Someone who wouldn't mess up at the last moment and ruin my plans. That's why I need to test you. Otherwise, I'd have to manage somehow which would be difficult but-"

Hmm...

"So, that's why you were so insistent in persuading me for the revenge."

Sawyer stiffened on spot.

I raised my brows and crossed my arms.

"To help you in these evil schemes."

He remained silent for a long moment. His eyes slowly looked up to meet mine.

Deep. Intense. Burning flames of bright golden pools.

"Yes..." He breathed out. "But now, it seems like the battle is not only mine to fight."

His low, raspy voice rumbled, making my heart clench.

A cold shiver thrummed through my body as I let out a shaky breath.

My gray eyes never left his burning golden pools for once.

We didn't know for how long we stayed that way, speaking through the windows of our souls.

But when we became aware of the reality a smile crept up our faces.

My resolve strengthened further. My will for revenge grew.

It was so wrong, yet, somehow so right.

The dilemma was overwhelming. But I chose to ride this strong current of emotions and reach the shore.

Wherever that would take me.

❤️ The stage is ready, fieries.
The first schemeing will take place in the next Friday.

Tiger pups, here we come!

Hope you enjoyed the feast along with Mirasol, Sawyer, and Yuvan? Let me know if the dinner was well-cooked or not.

See you soon, guys. till then, take care of your mind, body, and soul

Love you
– Sabrina ❤️

P. S. — This chapter is dedicated to sweet (and, sometimes spicy) bubble of honey star_dyst. You guys have this amazing girl to thanks for getting an early update from me. So, I'd love if you guys go and check out her book Way Out of Hell. That's one hell of a ride to Hell. Trust me, you won't regret it *winks*