Heels fluttered through gray tiles as I rushed through the police station.

I had followed the NYPD Mercedes Benz for the past half an hour. The reporters had already been swarming like bees around the station. Cameras had flashed. Questions had been hurled. Sawyer had been pushed through the crowd and I swear someone even elbowed his side on the way.

How I knew? Because I was right behind them, Sawyer and his cop escorts, when they were taking him inside. And right now, I saw them turn around a corner, probably taking him to a cell or an interrogation room.

A cellar unit it was.

"You can't go in there, ma'am."

My feet came to a screeching halt and I frowned at the middle-aged lady in black uniform typing something on the desk laptop.

"I wanna meet Sawyer."

"His lawyer isn't here yet," she drawled, never looking up from her screen.

"I just need to see him—"

"Are you his relative?"

"No. But—"

"Friend?"

"No."

"Girlfriend?"

"No," I gritted my teeth hard. "Not his girlfriend."

"Sorry, ma'am. Then we can't allow you until his lawyer—"

"Partner."

Her eyes finally raised at me and it felt so damn nice to cut her off just this once.

I lifted my chin. "I am his partner."

Her pale lips flattened. "His wife?"

I shook my head. "Business partner."

Her brows furrowed and I sensed my grave getting an inch deeper. But I pushed through anyway.

"Look, it is important that I see him. Right now. I-I have some information that might help the case. I just need to meet him. Please..."

I bit my trembling lips and straightened my shaking shoulders as best as I could.

The officer assessed me with a cold gaze for a while before picking up an office phone on her desk.

"Send in Joe."

She put the phone down and went back to her laptop.

This was my cue. I turned on my heel and pivoted toward the noisy cellar corridor.

"Still can't go in there, ma'am. Officer Joe's coming to get you to questioning."

I sighed. "Listen, you have to understand—"

"Where is my grandson!"

I whirled around just in time to see a woman in her seventies in a lush cream suit and shoulder-length bob hurled inside the station.

Her caramel-golden eyes were cold as she pierced through whatever was on her way. Her destination seemed to be in the same direction as mine.

I had heard Vienna Romanov was a force to be reckoned with, but this? With that sharp stride in crisp black heels, she seemed a ruthless woman on a mission.

She walked past me and leveled the desk officer with a look.

"Where is Sawyer Ronnes?"

Her cold voice only roused a thick black brow from the lady.

"And you are?"

Why I had this weird idea that this officer might know who Vienna was. She couldn't have literally missed the Grandson scream earlier. She was just baiting her.

"Vienna Romanov." Vienna's voice turned colder.

"Lawyer?"

"Here."

A man I didn't notice until a lean six-something feet giant in a crisp black suit and white shirt jumped out from behind Vienna.

He stood taller and looked down at the officer with a calm look. "Jack Gardence from Shelby and Jackson. I'm defending Sawyer Ronnes."

The officer nodded. "Okay. Go to the interrogation room down the front. Mr. Ronnes will be there shortly. Oh, there's Joe. Good. He'll escort you three."

"Three?" Vienna frowned, eyeing me once.

"This miss here—what's your name?—will be joining you."

"Who is she?" Vienna's lips curled in irritation.

"Sawyer's partner. Mirasol Hayes." I offered calmly and turned just in time to see a lanky redhead cop running toward us. "Looks like our escort is here."

***

We were sitting in the interrogation room at the moment. Sawyer had yet to come.

I curled and uncurled my fingers. Vienna was as stiff as a taut elastic band ready to snap. Jack was as calm as ever.

After a couple of more minutes, the door swung open and Sawyer finally arrived with two people in uniform on his toe.

They sat in front of us. Well, the officers. Sawyer sat adjacent to my left, beside his grandmother, not looking at anyone.

"Okay, so let's start, shall we?" The officer on the right clicked a square black device and put it on the table. "Hello, I'm officer Davis McNau and this is detective Olive Straford. We're here to investigate the allegations of fraud and attempt to murder Trexon Empire brought on Sawyer Ronnes."

"Hello officer, I'm Jack Gardence, Sawyer Ronnes' lawyer. This is Vienna Romanov, his grandmother, and Mirasol Hayes, his... partner."

"Partner?" the pale-skinned officer pinned me with his cold blue eyes. "How?"

I clenched my hands beneath the table to stop the tremble and breathed. "We worked together."

"In the office?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"What about outside?"

My heart jumped. "What do you mean?"

"You are here, aren't you? And you are not a relative."

"I'm his friend."

"We're here for Mr. Ronnes' interrogation," Jack cut in. "Not Miss Hayes."

"We're informed she has information regarding this case. Miss Hayes, kindly tell us." Officer Davis leaned his arms on the table.

I eyed Vienna who assessed me with a cold look. Sawyer still didn't look up from his lap.

With a shaky breath, I met the officer's cold eyes.

"The allegations... They are not right."

"We have valid proof." the detective spoke for the first time, his gray eyes never betraying his thoughts.

"Proofs granted by Trexon Empire's CEO," I countered with a straight face, trying my best to hide my queasiness. "I would like to mention that I worked as his PA for the last two years and we were classmates at Yale. I know well about his dealings better than anyone in this room."

"We're not interested in his dealings, Miss—"

"I'd like to hear about it, officer." Detective Olive cut the officer before he faced me. "Go on."

I slowed my breathing.

This was my chance. My only chance.

"I'll start from the beginning. Mr. Devon Harlington studied with me at Yale. His uncle, Jones Harlington, was our professor. He was the one to offer me a job in Trexon Empire under the contract stating I could never leave his company unless I was terminated."

"And why is that?" Officer Davis asked.

"Devon Harlington is ambitious but he isn't a hard worker. I have well coordination and dedication to work to counter that. His uncle knew that. He was also aware of my student debts and poor financial status at the time so he decided to offer that deal to benefit both parties. I saw my chance and took it." Just not willingly until he showed his true cards and I wasn't about to tell them that if I could help it.

"Just like that?" Detective tilted his head a little to the side.

I nodded, tasting sourness on my tongue.

"How is Devon Harlington as an employer?"

A deceitful slimy liar.

"He likes perfection. Anything less makes him either overwork the employees or fire them on the spot. It was the reason that led to my recent demotion."

"And you thought it was better to join the rival side of Sawyer Ronnes and play against Mr. Harlington out of spite." The officer leaned back, crossing his arms.

I frowned. "I did not have to join any rival side, sir. We already work together in the same showroom as sales service. However, I have him to thank for revealing the truth of my demotion."

"And what truth is that?" Detective Olive rubbed the tan skin of his clean jawline.

Rather than telling them, I pulled out my phone from the purse and tapped a few times to run a video.

Devon and Cara lit up my screen as I showed them to the officers.

"I'm close, my precious. Just a few more loose ends need to tie up and we'll be done." Devon caressed Cara's cheek as he offered her a tender smile.

Cara held his hand over her face and smiled back.

"I know, Devon. It's just that Dad's pressing me for marriage more these days. I need to give him a positive answer. Besides, that PA of yours-"

Devon clicked his tongue, waving his hand as if chasing away a fly.

"She's not a bother to us, my precious. She never was. Don't worry. Besides, I got rid of her so she's old news."

"Really? That's good news! Finally, she's out of your life." Cara breathed out with a smile while clutching her chest.

Devon chuckled. "No, babe. Not out of life yet. Just the office building."

Cara pouted her red lips as she frowned.

"No! Why couldn't you just fire her for, I don't know, getting the alphabetical order of files wrong."

"No, my precious, it's not that simple. She's a topper with an MBA who's working here solely on Uncle Jones's request. He was her professor at Yale. Getting her out of Trexon Empire won't be easy."

"Then what did you do?" Cara frowned.

Devon offered her a cold smirk.

"The oldest trick in the book, babe. I made her overwork with short deadline periods. For six sneaky slow months. The result was as expected."

"She finally made a mistake."

Devon chuckled, wrapping his around her and bringing her closer.

"Nu-uh... Not just a mistake. A grave error in the report that could've been a deal breaker for us. But she didn't know I had already prepared a fool-proof copy of that file days ago."

And the video ended here.

The silence in the room is heavy.

"So, he sabotaged you for personal reasons. I'm sorry for that but while it's a crime, we're not here for Devon Harlington."

"No. We are not. But it shows Devon Harlington's character," Jack, Sawyer's lawyer, chimed in. "He's desperate enough to remove any threat in his way and it shows."

"He also asked me to keep watch on Sawyer and spy his movements," I said.

"Yes, while you were away possibly assisting Mr. Ronnes in his quest of buying shareholders. You passed him information like a double agent. Mr. Harlington told us." the officer said.

I tried not to stiffen.

Devon knew? Who was I kidding? Of course, he did! Why else would he have suddenly asked me to stay close to Sawyer? That cheap bastard!

"You played on both fields only to ride back to your promotion. He also suspected you'd come to clean your image. Didn't know it'd be so soon. Well done, Miss Hayes."

A row of biting ants crawled through my bones.

"You are lucky he didn't press any charges on you. Only because you helped uncover a criminal, no matter how unintentionally."

My veins burst with unadulterated fury.

I opened my mouth to tell them what other crimes their Devon Harlington had committed.

"She had no choice."

I froze at the rasped voice of Sawyer and snapped my head toward him.

He still looked down. "I lured her into this mess, exploiting her distressed mind over Devon's betrayal."

I shook my head. "No. It was our decision."

"I made her believe so. It was convenient to use her that way against Devon."

What a fucking bullcrap!

"This is not right, officer!" I shook my head at Devis who now paid attention only to Sawyer. "Yes, he convinced me of Devon's ill intentions but I saw proof of them myself. I've worked with Devon. I know he had secret meetings with shareholders. He's been cutting off shareholders' wages for the last couple of months, delaying their payments. Shareholders were already agitated about this. He'd have eventually bankrupted Trexon Empire if Sawyer hadn't intervened."

This made the officer raise his brow at me. "So, you think you saved the company. Sawyer only schemed to stop this supposed bankruptcy. Well, Miss Hayes," He leaned forward on the table. "Tell me this. Why did you steal papers from Ben Holmes and James Sutherton then? You could have simply arranged a formal meeting with shareholders."

"And do what? Ask them to vote for us in the acquisition nicely?" I gritted my teeth.

"Yes."

"The same shareholders who conspired with Devon Harlington and helped uproot the previous CEO and chairman from Trexon Empire?"

"Do you have proof to back your accusations?" Detective Olive asked.

"No. But I'm aware of the shady businesses Ben Holmes and James Sutherton run." I sat straighter. "Did you know, Ben Holmes runs an illegal betting business in a downtown bar."

I didn't tell them about Ben keeping me at gunpoint and betting to buy me—well, the disguised me—for that would swirl the already murky water.

"And how do you know that?"

"I did research on shareholders. For business purposes."

Officer smirked. "For business purposes indeed."

I didn't bother responding to that jab.

"And what about Mr. Sutherton? He runs a legal casino business as far as we're aware." Detective said, eyeing me with keen curiosity.

I paused, taking a moment to breathe before facing the man.

"I have some information about him that can prove he's not someone he seems."

"Such as?"

"They are not on me at the moment. I can bring them soon for verification."

"Well then, that's settled," the officer leaned back. "Until you can prove Mr. Sutherton is not to be trusted, we can not take actions based on your words alone. However, we will investigate further on the matter."

I remained silent.

"So, we have questionable shareholders with a questionable CEO. How does that prove Sawyer is not guilty, Miss Hayes?" the detective asked. "He did manipulate their decisions in whichever means possible."

"Yes, officer. I did," Sawyer spoke, "And I am responsible for tampering with papers."

"And Miss Hayes must have stood guard. You were not alone." the officer raised his brows, making Sawyer's jaw tick.

"She is as much a victim of my manipulation as the rest."

"Sawyer!"

"You can see how she is still trying to defend me, clearly I did better job than I thought."

I scowled hard. "You don't get to play the devil here, Sawyer. Devon forced you to do this!"

"He did not force me to lure you," he met eyes for the first time and my breath hitched. "Rather you were the one to warn him of me when I had yet to get you in my grasp."

So much resignation...

So much pain...

"Sawyer..." I whispered, pressing my trembling lips.

"It's the truth, Hayes." he sighed, looking down again. "I used you. I wanted to meet my goals. You were just a stepping stone. Nothing else."

A thick lump clogged my throat. My eyes burned.

No... This couldn't be happening. This... God, I couldn't think. I couldn't believe.

He was playing the sacrificing goat! Now? Of all the time...

I licked my lips and cleared my throat. "Sawyer, look. Tell them what Devon did to you. Tell them how he and his father used Trexon Empire's bad time to acquire the company. Tell them they kept you in the company to keep a close eye on you. Just tell them damn it!"

Sawyer's lips curled into a sour smirk and he looked up at the officers. "See what I was talking about? She's gone."

"Sawyer..." Vienna spoke for the first time, resting a hand on his slouched shoulder.

Un-fucking-believable.

This was ridiculous! This man was crazy! Here I was fighting for him and look at him—playing a fucking martyr!

I shook my head.

I couldn't watch this. I couldn't simply stand this guy anymore. I just...

My gaze snapped to the officers. "Can I be excused? I think I'm done here."

Officer Devis nodded. "You can go. You are not on official interrogation, anyway. Saved by Devon Harlington."

Well, this definitely felt otherwise.

"We may call you for further investigation," Detective Olive said.

And I all but bolted out of the door, ignoring the familiar prickle of someone's gaze.

❤ Okay... so things are messy. Don't worry it may get messier in the future. Let's sit in the middle and cheer for the upcoming disaster, what say?

See you guys in the next week. Till then take care of your mind, body, and soul. Always remember - you're worth it!

Love,
Sabrina ❤