Chapter 30: She really was here

Li Naihe grabbed at Liehen's elbow to keep her from leaving by the elevator. The sudden movement made Liehen turn her head towards him but not daring to look at the man's face.

She slowly gathered her courage and looked at him, not really understanding what was causing the president of the company to grab her arm.

"President Li, c-can I help you with something" her slight stutter showing nervousness and a bit of fear.

He was now looking straight at her with disappointment in his eyes. It was only a fleeting moment but she could feel something was wrong and it had to do with her. Liehen ws not sure what she could've done wrong, so now was worried about her job. Did she offend him in any way? Was she going to get fired?

Li Naihe was absolutely heart broken looking at the woman's face, no trace of Raven left. He only had an hour with her and didn't even get to talk to her properly before she was gone again. He was sure she was here, everything that happened from the moment they left for the lunch meeting until now, was not Liehen. She was here; and he was an idiot for not cancelling everything to have time with her. How long will he have to wait now for her to come back, will she ever be back?

His thoughts were now running a million miles an hour, thinking of all the ways he could've handled it better. If he hadn't lied to her would she have stayed? If he maybe didn't provoke her, would he have more time with her?

Raven was such a big pull for him, and he had no idea why. She felt like someone who could handle him and all his darkness, she wasn't an angel herself, judging by the way she handled those men and the cruelty that shone in her eyes when he made that idiot kneel in front of her. She was so scary and he was so excited by her.

He suddenly realised he was still holding on to his assistant, and she asked him something. He didn't hear. He didn't want to alert her at the thought that somehow that might prevent Raven from coming back, but he really wanted to know more.

"Miss Jisuanji I need to speak to you in my office for a minute." He thought this would disarm the situation and wouldn't make it look so weird. He was determined to keep her by his side in case Raven came back. 'Raven Vaughn, where did you go again?!'.

Just as he was about to turn around and head for his office, his phone binged with an email from his assistant.

She didn't have her phone in her hand, so she must've sent it just a few minutes before.

He was giddy, Raven had written something to him, and no matter what it was, he probably was going to frame the damn thing, just to make sure it wasn't a dream.

He didn't want to give anything away, so he decided to take his time and read through whatever she had sent.

"Miss Jisuanji, I'm afraid something urgent came up, lets set up a meeting today, please have a look in my calendar, I need to go through some arrangements with you."

Liehen was a bit confused by this turn of events, but she said nothing. It wasn't like she could do anything about it, plus he was a busy man.

Li Naihe walked straight into his office, excited to read the email he just received.

He now had a chance to look at the subject of the email and take it all in.

Subject: "Watch your back…"

"President Li,

I am sure you will find this message somewhat strange, but please don't read too much into it. I don't know if you were able to tell, but since you're reading this message, then I'm probably not around anymore otherwise I would've deleted it.

You're in danger, and as a peer I cannot stand the idea of someone's hard work going down the drain. If you are as smart as I suspect you are, you'll understand what I mean by looking at the attachments.

If you're not – it's a shame and I suggest you find a new accountant very quickly…

I won't explain more, good luck.

-R- "

Li Naihe was struck dumb, he didn't expect this to be the last he heard from Raven Vaughn, but here it was.

He sat down at his computer and quickly opened the attachments in the email. It took him less than a minute to realise what she was talking about and he was angry. He had become too lax in this world, and now he couldn't afford it anymore.

'What a shitshow' he thought, sighing deeply looking over the text of the email again and again.

He wasn't sure what he was hoping for when he saw an email from her, but it was certainly not this. He wasn't questioning how she found this information; she was clearly out of this world – literally- but even then, he still couldn't believe it.

It was time for him to show some of his true colours. Could he though? Would this change anything?

He contemplated for a while what would be the best course of action. He thought he needed to follow a particular pattern here, not rock the boat, hopefully get out of this mess quickly, but then, if that was the case, would this mean he'd have to fully abandon who he was?

He suddenly felt lonely, and really wanted Raven to be here. She thought of him as her peer, and he could really use someone like that right now. He had so many questions for her, not really related to what she had sent to him, but that too. He wanted to know who she was, where she came from and how come she was here as his assistant. Was there a connection between her and his old life, could she maybe help him too?

He knew Raven wasn't always here, but he had no idea if she could go and come back as she pleased. And if she could… the thought suddenly made him feel disappointed. The way she left today, it didn't seem like she would have any reason to come back again. Why would she? If she really didn't belong in this world, then she'd have no reason to come back. She'd helped him enough and it wasn't like they had any other relationship other than peers apparently. He wasn't sure exactly how or why she had said that, but perhaps they were both businesspeople. Did she maybe know about his past?!

Too many questions and so little time. It was a lot to take in and he really needed to organise his thoughts, but clearly he didn't have time to do it now. He needed to act and at least make sure he stayed alive while trying not to rock to boat too much in this setting. It would be hard, but he wasn't an idiot.

Before he could think on it more, Jisuanji Liehen strode into his office like she owned the place.

"I guess I just couldn't stay away." She faced him with a look of challenge in her eyes. "But I still quit."