“That man has betrayed you!” Rey pulled out some files and spread them out on the table. After finding out Sage was the CEO he planned to win over her trust while also pulling Jun down. He prepared the secret files of V-tech and planned to reveal Jun as the sole conspirator. “These are files taken from inside V-tech. They were retrieved and sold by your secretary Jun.” Whether it was true or not Rey didn’t care.

“Hmmm…” 

“Moreover. He was the one who exposed your identity to me. He is a disloyal man who will only run your company into the ground. As a businessman, I recommend at the very least fire him.” Rey knew part of it was a lie, after all he hadn’t got the information from Jun rather, it was from Zana but he thought that by blaming it all on Jun he could get Sage to hate her secretary.

After speaking in his regular deadpan voice, Rey looked up at Sage, he expected her to be angry or at the very least shocked, but instead she let out a rare evil grin. 

“Is that everything?”

“Yes…” 

“So let me get this straight, you expect me to believe that Jun, secretary to one of the greatest companies in the world, would go selling information from the inside in order to earn petty cash. Moreover to jeopardize his job, reputation, and company in the process? Jun is smarter than that, he has to be in order to be the sole secretary to one of the worlds greatest companies, moreover I trained him.” Sage unknowingly gave a gentle smile as she said the last part. 

Rey’s deadpan face started to crack as he realized how stupid his claims sounded. Why would that man Jun, try to sell information when he was already the top secretary in the country, he probably had no lack of money, so why would he need to sell information?

Moreover, since he had been able to maintain his spot as V-Tech’s sole secretary it also meant that he was very wise and skilled meaning that he would never try to pull such an obvious betrayal. 

“If you dare go spreading such information I will sue your company for everything it’s worth.” Sage’s words were emotionless as her cold eyes shone.  

Rey truly felt foolish, he wanted to say something more but before he could, Sage’s next words stupefied him. 

“Whether Jun betrayed V-tech or not matters little to me. He could betray this company 100 times over and I wouldn’t care. If he really was the one who betrayed V-tech then he’s only hurting himself... After all I have already wrote him down to be the next successor to V-tech. Soon I plan to “retire” and in the process he will gain everything down to the last penny. So doing such things would only hurt himself.” Sage looked indifferent as she spoke, it was as though she were talking about idle chat, if anyone else heard her they would be spitting out blood from her laid back tone. 

Rey was truly astonished upon hearing her words, his usual cold face started to crack hearing such ridiculous words. 

He was not the only one...

Jun had also been diligently listening in on the chat since the beginning.

Knowing that Sage would probably discover him again if he followed her, he had placed a listening device on her jacket for insurance. Although he knew it was wrong, Jun couldn’t help himself as he desperately wished to hear what Sage wanted to talk about with Rey. 

As he listened he grew angry thinking how Sage could have loved that bastard Rey. “What was so good about him in the first place?” Jun wondered. Whatever it was, Jun hoped he could make Sage forget about the stupid man. 

As he listened on he became stunned with the accusations placed against him. He didn’t care what others thought about him or false rumors but he was terrified of what Sage thought. Sage was the only one he wanted to never misunderstand him. 

If she ever despised him he felt as though living was pointless. 

However Sage’s next words calmed his heart. She easily dispelled the accusations and even defended him! His heart completely shook hearing her words. In his life he was always hated and blamed for everything, no one had ever taken his side before, let alone defended him! 

Her next words also completely stunned him. She claimed that the next to inherit V-tech would be him. He was completely speechless as his heart beat rapidly sped up. He couldn’t understand Sage. 

All his life he always felt as though the world was against him, no one ever loved or cared about him, he was always alone surrounded by darkness. For some reason he never expected anything different, rather, he felt as though it had always been this way, and forever would be. 

Yet, just when he had completely lost it, she showed up.

 At first he was sarcastic and yelled at the beauty to leave but instead of leaving like everyone else, she stayed, outreaching her hand and promising to save him. 

Of course he didn’t believe her at first but after awhile she succeeded in all that she promised, far exceeding his expectations. 

She gave him a large home, an enviable job and salary, and allowed him to stay by her side. Although she was emotionless, he enjoyed her company and over time he realized that when she spoke to him, and him alone, her voice held a subtle hint of gentleness. 

For him, it was the first time that someone had been so kind. 

Now, to top it all off, she was even giving him her company. His cold soul was really starting to thaw as his black eyes slowly brightened. Truthfully, he didn’t care about inheriting the company, all he wanted was to forever be together with Sage. 

As he thought this, he felt a twinge of pain in his soul. As though it were warning him that such a wish was impossible, but before he could dwell on the strange feeling his phone rang.

“Hello?”

“This is Sage, I’m gonna need you to pick me up at Sunrise restaurant…”

While Jun had been lost in thought Sage had finished her meeting with the shocked Rey. 

Afterwards she had said her goodbye and walked out of the restaurant. 

At first she was gonna call a taxi but then she decided it would be more interesting to call Jun. She surmised that he was still probably close by while he had been listening in on her conversation. 

At first she had thought about speaking right into the mic to get him to come but instead she decided to be nice and play dumb calling his cell phone instead. 

Through Rey she had learned that Jun didn't plan to betray her using Rey. If he had, then Rey would not have been so willing to throw him under the bus. She couldn’t understand why he loved listening in on her meetings but since he wasn’t planning to betray her for the time being, she decided to let it go and forgive Jun for his spying tendencies.

As she called Jun he seemed a bit dazed but eagerly agreed to picking her up. Just as she predicted, within a couple minutes he came.

Sage couldn’t help teasing Jun as she got in the car. “Hmm, that was pretty fast. Were you perhaps in the area already?” 

Jun quickly fell out of his dazed state and instead started stuttering. “...Y-yes, I had a few errands I needed to do in this area.” 

“Ah, I see. And you aren’t inquiring why I’m not still at work but instead at a restaurant?”

“No, I don’t need to know, I trust you…” This time Jun gained a little more bravery as he blatantly lied. 

Sage eyes lightly laughed at the shameless man who dared to spew words of trust after tagging his boss with a listening device. Still she played ignorant as she decided to fully let him off the hook. “Hmmm, I see…”

That night Sage was given her fill of all her favorite foods. 

Desert

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I wanted to but ended up being busy till late at night and by that time I thought it would just be better to post a long chapter today. Also exciting news, it's official now, I posted to Wattpad, so if you want to see what the cover I drew looks like head on over there and follow me at "Desert_S" (v^ー°)  Also stay tuned for the next chapter, it's one of my favorites for this Arc so hopefully you enjoy.