The Moretti Tower rose thirty stories above the financial district.
Adrian’s office sat on the top floor, its windows overlooking all of Costa Verde.
He had been staring at the same clause for a few minutes without reading it.
His mind kept drifting back to the veiled woman at the bus stop.
He was still at his desk when Angelica walked in without knocking.
She never waited for an invitation.
The first time she’d walked into his office unannounced, he told Calvin to bar her from the floor.
His mother had overruled him the following day.
He raised his eyes to look at her.
She carried a paper bag from a nearby restaurant and set it on his desk.
“I bought lunch,” she said as she looked around his office.
“It’s the lamb from Rosetta’s.
Your mother said it’s your favorite.”
He didn’t look at the bag.
He didn’t need to.
Rosetta’s was where his mother ordered from.
Angelica wasn’t bringing him lunch.
She was delivering a message.
Adrian frowned.
“It’s not,” he said before turning his attention back to his work.
“And you don’t have to bring me anything.”
“You’re always busy,” Angelica said, ignoring the coldness in his tone.
She perched on the edge of his desk and crossed her legs.
“You work too much.
You need someone to remind you to eat.”
“Calvin is doing just fine reminding me of that,” Adrian replied without looking at her.
“I’m busy.”
“I can see that.
Your mother said you’ve been distracted these days.
I thought she was overthinking, but now that I see you, she’s probably right.”
“I’m not distracted,” Adrian said, keeping his tone even.
“I heard there’s a security review on your schedule this afternoon.
A site inspection.”
He went still for a beat before glancing at her.
His schedule was kept private.
Only Calvin and his secretary had access to it.
For Angelica to know about the site inspection meant someone had opened that file.
Someone had given it to her.
“Since when do my people need to report to you?” he asked coldly.
Angelica shrugged.
“Your mother thought I should start learning how things are done here.
So, what’s with the site inspection?”
“That’s routine,” he said.
“You don’t need to worry about such matters.”
“Is it?” She continued to probe.
“You never used to do site inspections in person.
Calvin handles that for you.”
Adrian refused to give her any more answers.
His mother surely wanted the Romanov heiress to become part of their family.
“Angelica.
If there’s nothing else, you may leave.
Close the door on your way out.”
Angelica held his gaze for a long moment.
She then picked up her bag and walked to the door.
She paused and gave him one last look.
“You know, Adrian.
I’ve been very patient with you.
Not every woman would wait this long.”
It was a warning, not a confession.
He said nothing and watched her leave.
Only when the door clicked shut behind her did the tension leave his body.
Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
His mother kept meddling.
For Angelica to know his itinerary meant his mother had a way of tracking his schedule and whereabouts.
Seven years since he’d taken over the family.
Seven long years of proving he could run the Moretti name without being managed.
Yet, his mother still treated him like a pawn on her board.
He didn’t appreciate it one bit.
Not one bit.
Maybe it was time to hunt the rats among his people.
He couldn’t have his mother following his every move.
He stood, put on his coat, and stepped out of his office.
He told his secretary to throw out the food Angelica had left on his table.
Calvin met him halfway to the elevator, a tablet in one hand.
He looked at Adrian’s expression.
‘That isn’t new,’ he thought.
‘Boss always has this face after seeing Miss Romanov.’
Calvin had learned to read his boss’s moods within the first month.
Adrian Moretti never raised his voice or slammed doors.
He went quiet.
And when he went quiet, someone was about to have a very bad day.
“Boss, these are the recordings with the timestamp you requested,” Calvin said as they waited for the private elevator to arrive.
Adrian took the tablet from his assistant and watched the three short recordings.
A veiled woman sat on the bench at the bus stop near the intersection.
Two children by her side.
The recordings didn’t show the three faces clearly because of the distance.
But it was enough.
He hadn’t imagined her.
“Do we know where the bus dropped them off?”
“The bus driver remembered them.
Dropped off at the last station.
Should we continue tracking them?” Calvin asked, though he wasn’t sure why his boss was suddenly interested in a woman in a veil and her two children.
“Where’s their last sighting?”
“A woman in a veil was spotted riding another city bus a month ago.
She was later seen leaving a pharmacy.
The children were last seen two weeks ago in a market plaza.
They go there often.”
“A market plaza?
What are they doing there?” Adrian frowned.
Weren’t those two children too young to fend for themselves?
What kind of mother was that veiled woman to let those kids go to a crowded place like a market plaza?
His jaw tightened.
He didn’t know why.
He didn’t know these people and he had no reason to care.
He cared anyway.
“They’re selling something.
I’m not sure what.
I only got reports that they’re selling stuff there.”
Adrian’s face hardened, and Calvin couldn’t understand why his boss cared so much about a veiled woman and two children selling things at a market.
In low-income families, children often help their parents raise money.
Calvin had it worse when he was younger since he was an orphan.
He had sold scraps on the streets too.
But he also knew better than to say that out loud.
His boss never asked for opinions.
He asked for results.
The private elevator finally arrived, its door sliding open.
Adrian and Calvin stepped inside and fell silent.
As Adrian watched the number slowly go down, he told Calvin, “Someone is feeding my mother my schedule and whereabouts.
See to it we pluck the weeds from our side.”
“Leave that to me, Boss.”
Calvin was already aware of the issue.
But he’d only become Adrian’s assistant after the Donna’s death.
He wasn’t sure how to deal with people who came before him.
He also knew the only reason Adrian had chosen him.
He wasn’t tied to Adrian’s parents.
A black sedan was waiting outside the Moretti Tower when they stepped out of the elevator.
Adrian slid into the back seat and gave the driver an address different from the site he was supposed to inspect.
The market plaza.