“N-N-Nikki?!” 

“Now what am I going to do with you?”

His chest was still thudding from the rush of adrenalin. He hadn’t slept a wink, the moment he hopped into the helicopter and saw the devastation below he couldn’t help but imagine she might be one of those who got buried under the debris. All kinds of tragic scenarios flashed past his mind, he had seen death several times but her accident, in particular, left him with a choking feeling of despair. 

He was used to seeing her lively and cheeky. Shy and embarrassed. Rolling her eyes at him, arguing with him. Enticing him with those soul-sucking gazes. Day by day he gets to see more sides of her and he is growing greedier. But the mere thought of her suddenly disappearing on him made his whole body weak. He thought he’d hardened himself to the core. That nothing would shake him but for Sena, he was defenceless. 

I’m losing it. I’m overthinking. Please, be safe. I don’t want to lose you, not now! 

He didn’t know how he managed to hang on with his hands shaking. When he finally found her, she was playing with dirt! Relief crashed over him like a wave. The anxiety, anger and worry he felt no longer mattered, at this moment all of it faded away as long as she was okay. 

Sena's mouth parted open but not a word came out. She tried again but only managed an ugly croak. The danger looming in his eyes made her nervous.

“Boss?” 

April called but before she came back, Nicholas’ hand stretched out pulling Sena up with enough force and bringing her to a hidden partition. 

“...strange, I just left her here. Sir Nicholas was looking for her.” 

April’s puzzled voice gradually faded along with her squeaky footsteps. 

“Nikki…” she looked up with a shaky laugh. She hadn't done anything wrong but he was looking at her as if he was about to swallow her whole. 

“I was about to go crazy,” he whispered, caressing her cheek. “I didn’t want to frighten you but I don’t care anymore.” 

He brushed his hair up roughly with his fingers as his teeth closed gently on her lower lip. When she gasped in surprise for the spike of pleasure, his tongue slid in between her teeth filling her mouth with a ravenous force. His hands dropped to the side and his arms closed around her, pasting her soft body directly to his chest. He lifted her, squeezed and nuzzled her neck with a barely leashed hunger he did not bother to hide. 

Damn woman, he fell head first! 

“I’m glad you’re safe….” he murmured on her lips almost desperately. A hand came up, supporting her nape then dug through the tresses of her hair. “You have no idea how worried I was.” 

“I’m sorry.” Sena knew she was wrong this time. She was wrong for not contacting him and telling him she was fine.

“Sorry?” He growled in her ear.

She nodded, raised her wet eyes to his looking as remorseful as she was. But then she heard him chuckle. “Little liar, convince me.” 

Huhuhu… he’s not going to bite her to death, is he? 

She arched her body giving him more access then her arms went around his neck. His mouth mated with hers with fervour like he expected to die in the next instant. When their lips finally parted, a thin wire of saliva clung to the tips of his tongue from her mouth. They were breathing in soft, rushing bursts. Her neatly combed hair was tousled wildly under his hand. 

“Feeling better now?” She asked shyly. 

Nikki grabbed her back into his embrace and inhaled her scent. “I will be… in a while.” 

He sounded tired. Sena subconsciously leaned on him for comfort. Despite the coolness of the weather, his chest felt like a furnace. The flesh beneath her cheeks was warm, hard and widely reassuring. He smelled like the rainforest, she thought, a mixture of freshly cut grass and potent male pheromone.  

“If you ever scare me with this kind of stunt again—” he paused, breathing deep. “I'm going to beat your ass hard.”  

He felt her shrink in his arms. Whether she was afraid of the threat or got excited by it was a mystery.

“W-Weren't you at home?” She was back to stammering again while wriggling out of him. 

A hand came down and smacked her butt, “Don’t move. I haven’t decided how to punish you yet.” 

She stood still, never daring to even flinch. 

“You forgot to call me last night. Hell, I was worried sick that something might have happened to you.” He said raggedly, “If I hadn’t flown over for a surprise I wouldn’t have known you were trapped in the middle of nowhere. Sena, there is no next time or I’ll tie you right to my belt.” 

Sena cried inwardly. What had she gotten herself into? Apple threatened to ship her home while Nicholas planned to make her a human pendant! 

 

The international headlines read that a super typhoon hit Country R, devastating a large portion of the country, especially K Province. The landfall destroyed a lot of houses and livelihood, leaving thousands of people displaced. At the same time, another news about the timely arrival of humanitarian aid from Nexus Global and other partners poured in within 24hrs after the typhoon hit. 

[My God, have you seen the videos? People are left crying on their roof!]

[Yay, it’s scary. What is the government doing?]

[Don’t be too quick to judge. The government issued a typhoon warning but some people refused to leave. Fortunately, a large company sent in their helicopters to quickly rescue those who were stranded!]

[Yeah, I heard from the survivors that the evacuation place had been set up days before the actual storm came. You can see they are well prepared but people are not so easy to convince unless the actual problem is already there.] 

[I’m just so happy to hear my friends are safe. They said that one of the executives of Nexus Global came in-person to supervise the building of shelters and arrival of aid.]

[Breaking news! Have you heard that the reason why those helicopters and speedboats kept combing the flooded areas was to search for the missing successor?]

The latest update says the shipping and mining magnate’s great-granddaughter came to visit Stella for a routine check. The people in the mining area suffered no loss or damage but rumour has it that the heiress is nowhere to be found. 

News is raging online, new information would top and cover the other in just half an hour making people dizzy and excited. Nexus Global remained tight-lipped about the issue of the missing person. To quell this growing speculation Chairman Pascal Rossi sent his executive assistant to answer the media’s question. 

It wasn’t until the business giant released a photo of a girl in a black face mask and yellow windbreaker pushing a kid up to a helicopter, distributing food packs and helping out in the information centre. 

“Thank you very much for your concern but the rumour about Missy’s accident is false. She had been actively participating in the rescue since day one.” 

[So the successor is not missing, she’s doing rescue missions!]

The media also had few photos of the person and most of those were either in a bad angle or just a silhouette but everyone finally knew that Nexus Global’s new owner is not only a woman but a very young one at that. 

[I can see that she is a well-raised human being. The video clips of her sitting on a muddy motorboat eating cold bread is one of my favourites.]

[Mine when she helped rescue families from their roofs then gave her vest to the little boy.] 

[All of you, it’s for some sympathy. She will not mind doing this dirty stuff for publicity and forget about this as soon as she’s back to her fancy place.]

A netizen fired back, [Compared to your bullshit cynicism, the girl spent millions to send food, build shelters and lend helicopters to save lives.]

[Ignore them! They may have some bad experiences and have a generally bitter outlook on life. They think everyone is as dark as they are.]   

[Y’all worship the rich! For all you know she must have called the media to hype herself.]

[This moron… which large scale disaster did not summon the reporters?]

[Yeah she’s rich but my respect for her stems from her good intentions and willingness to help. I will donate my holiday bonus!]

[I pity you for being so jaded in life. I hope you recover soon. And yes, I will also donate my bonus!]

The governor of K Province called for a press conference revealing that Nexus Global sent their intentions to help even before the disaster struck. They were still monitoring the movement of the typhoon at that time and weren't certain whether it would land or continue to move out of the zone. He also thanked the other large industries that followed to give donations to the survivors. 

For a while, the video of the young heiress sitting in an inflatable boat eating bread like it was a gourmet meal became a favourite on Yu-tube. There were all kinds of jokes and laughter referring to her starving and muddy look but no one would see a single malicious comment in it. 

Many private citizens also answered the call encouraging their friends and relatives to extend help whether it be local or abroad. 

Back in Country H, Nancy, who is currently the most popular teen influencer, spoke in one of her videos about giving away the proceeds of her costume sale to the victims of the typhoon. She then jokingly mentioned some good friends who can definitely ‘send more love’ like Arthur, TK, Luan and Sena. When the challenge was issued an immediate reply was given except for Sena who was out of the country and didn’t know she was nominated.  

The celebrities followed suit after sniffing a possible way to increase their popularity thus almost everyone was wishing to be nominated on the screen to have their 30 seconds of fame. As the challenge slowly went viral, Christmas eve came without delay. 

 

Where was Sena at this moment? 

She was chasing the lead about the lost package together with Nicholas and finally retrieved it while They were on their way back to Nicholas’ friends’ place when the borrowed car ran out of gas. 

“Good timing,” he muttered under his breath.

A truck filled with pigs rattled past Nicholas, going straight to the warehouse they passed by five kilometres away to be slaughtered. Pungent air whooshed directly at them flowing through the half-open windows of the car making him and the sleeping companion beside him wrinkle their noses.  

“Welcome to the countryside I guess,” 

A week after the typhoon, the water finally receded and the folks began moving out of the shelters to return to their houses. There were less than a hundred casualties from either drowning or mudslides. People missing. Houses destroyed. The aid from every part of the world is a timely blessing that can alleviate the grief the survivors are feeling, if even for a little.  

The person on the passenger seat groaned and then puckered her mouth before making a lazy stretch. 

“Where are we?” Sena asked, looking around groggily. 

Nicholas took his right off the wheel and reached to fix her dishevelled hair. “A town away from Caesar's.” 

The further they went, the more potholes appeared on the road and the lesser signal their mobiles got. 

“Um, are you sure this is the place?” Sena asked, poking at Nicholas’ shoulder. 

“I’ve never used this road before.” He murmured. 

The boy who pumped their gas said that Caesar’s Cabins is just over the next three bends and a bridge so there is no need to worry. 

“Thank you for coming along with me,” Sena said, easing to a comfortable position. “You’re probably wondering why I was so bent on chasing after a package that wasn’t mine. I’m not saying what I did was ethical but I have a valid reason for it.”

Nicholas smiled without taking his eyes off the road. “I didn’t take you as the kind who’s interested in a fake antique jar either.” 

“Yep, I’m not.” 

“So after we peeked in the package and rewrapped it for shipment. What’s next?”

Sena blinked, tapping the box lying on her lap. 

“I was thinking of giving them a taste of their own medicine.” She said firmly. 

Them? A brow shot to his forehead. 

The box she held wasn’t anything special, it was just a cheap wooden thing about two palms wide with an iron hook as a latch. Anyone can buy it at any local souvenir store. Sena fiddled with the weak lock, and with a slight brush, it popped open revealing two items hidden in cotton pouches. Gently she pulled the strings loose and poured six shimmering pink gems from the lightest colour to the most vivid one. She did the same on the other showing an extremely rare violet diamond in rough-cut about the size of a pigeon’s egg. As the leading producers of the rarest diamond in the world, these fascinating gemstones were naturally mined in Stella but years later they will resurface as a tender of a business rival. They auctioned the last of Stella’s pink diamonds, took it as something of their own and thoroughly removed Stella’s mark on them. 

Sena happened to receive a special invitation to the tender and watched how bidders and jewellers fought for these stones. She thought she was asked to come cordially, however, it turned out to be a show informing her of her naivety. It was the traitor himself who laughed at her face telling her how it fell on their hands. In accordance with Stella's recovery process, after the rough stones are washed in acid solution they will be weighed and sealed.

These special containers where the diamonds are kept come with a tamper-resistant seal. They get their number on-site and all the certifications stating their origin. But the former head and his cohorts smuggled the stones out before they were put in their containers. As Stella’s former owner, they wanted her to realize by telling her how easy it was for them to play with someone like her. 

Well, not this time! Sena clasped the rough stones in her palms. 

Before going on a hunt, she sent April and Apple to Stella once again to check the monitoring of last month's diamond haul in the processing plant. Although it would be nearly impossible to get evidence from erased monitoring footage, as long as the possibility is not zero she will not give up. 

“How much do you know about rebirth?” She asked Nicholas in a quiet voice. 

She took a calming breath and let herself relax for a moment. The outcome of the past has completely reversed but that doesn’t mean she can just ignore the cause. There are things she can brush off such as small incidents. For some that lead to several lives being ruined, she will not let go. 

Never. 

Nicholas tapped a finger on the wheel. “I know rebirth as the process of the soul being reincarnated to a new body.” 

She smiled lightly. 

“In the many types of religion, reincarnation has been mentioned in various examples. There are even those in our society today who state they experienced the same.” 

“Do you believe them?”

He shot her a grin, “What those people claim is only enough to fascinate passersby of some shady alley. Put them up on a table for questioning and they would start crumbling.” 

“I guess you don’t.” She said a little at a loss. 

“It’s not that I don’t. It’s because I have met a few credible ones.” 

Sena stared at him open-mouthed. 

“You wanted to say that I don’t look like someone who is fascinated with voodoo, are you?” Nicholas teased lightly. “Remember my return trip a few months ago? I told you I sat on a plane with a tribal shaman beside me.”

Sena can only nod for a reply. He did mention the shaman but she did not put too much thought into it because she was concentrating on how he was slightly whining about getting lectured on his seat. Her interest was piqued, she put the rough stones back on their pouches and turned to him. 

“What did he tell you again?” 

Nicholas dug something out of his neck and showed it to her. When her eyes saw the familiar wood pendant hanging on a brown string, cold fingers slid down her spine. This can’t be a coincidence… 

“He told me a lot of interesting things, he also said I should wear this wooden amulet in case I don’t meet the person who came back to save me. I didn't quite understand at first but he was empathic.” He stopped the car after turning to a bend, then studied her the way he would to a highly intricate piece of work of unknown origin. 

“You are looking at me the way a tiger looks at a goat.” She said after a minute. 

Nicholas tilted his head to the side, “I doubt goats are as adorable as you sweetheart.” he reached for her cheek and smothered her with a kiss.

“What was that for?” 

“Nothing, I just want to kiss.” 

It was her, wasn't it? The one the shaman said who returned from another life to save him. He doesn’t have the evidence yet but he could feel it in his gut. The traitor who betrayed Michael, Layla’s accident, those women who wanted to frame up Chang’an, the traffic cameras, murder incidents and this package. If you dig deeper, you will find that at the centre of it all there is her. 

Sena Erde.

In ordinary times, these incidents were hard to avoid but they escaped certain terrible endings because of Sena’s intervention. 

She subconsciously licked her lower lip. Her eyelashes quivered as her eyes moved downwards. After a long stretch of silence she spoke, “Nikki, would you believe me if I tell you that I came back from the future and I’m—”

“A lost soul, a returnee. Honestly, I don’t care even if you’re an alien,” he interrupted roughly. 

Sena looked at him stunned. “You’re… you’re not scared? You don’t doubt me?”

Nicholas laughed softly, shaking his head. Except for losing you, nothing can be scarier. 

She looked at him puzzled. 

“You’ve given the game away the first time we met sweetheart. Besides, I still have faith in my judgment. So why would I be scared of the woman who made plenty of effort to save strangers when she didn’t have to?” His voice was warm and mellow. “You have a temper but you were not malicious. You’re not a dumb spoiled rich girl. You’re kind and sophisticated. You are bright but not proud.” 

“Don’t count on it,” Her voice cracked. “I was not… I was terrible in my last life.”

He was taken aback by the bitterness in her voice. “Sweetie…”

She shook her head. She was afraid to expose her ugly self to him. If he knew what she did before, would he still look at her the same? She held back her tears and bravely began recounting the events as far as her memory took her. She knew that she should stop talking but she couldn’t. The enormity of what had occurred kept haunting her repeatedly like a torrent, dragging her down into the whirlpool of guilt and self-hate. It was she who opened themselves vulnerable for the enemy to attack. 

She couldn’t look at him when she finished. 

“Because of me… because I was arrogant and selfish.” 

He groaned and snapped his seatbelt off to hold her shaking body. “Your only fault was that you were raised so carefully. You trusted the wrong people so much and did not know how sinister people’s hearts are.”

He knew she was special, he just didn’t expect there was such a dark tale hidden behind it. 

Nicholas felt more sad for her than sorry. After what he heard, he understood more things about her, clearing away the mystery he couldn’t completely analyze. She always thought she was the cause of her loved one’s tragic outcome despite knowing she was taken advantage of. The people who held her by the string thoroughly used and manipulated her to shoulder all the blame. Although she looked like she was free by virtue of her rebirth, there are telltale signs of trauma. He saw them and her abnormal sensitivity to events is the manifestation of it.

Those bastards, they broke her! 

The Luz family used her deep longing for familial affection. Sophie Qin took advantage of her kindness and generosity. And the Bacchus pill eroded the once promising youth into a hollow and mindless woman. Nicholas’ amber eyes turned savage. A thorn stuck on his chest after hearing how she suffered before. 

“It wasn’t you, sweetheart. You did nothing wrong.” He whispered soothingly. “You’re not God. Even if you’re sober, it was still out of your control.” 

If the world burns, it wasn’t because she did not do her best. How could a single girl fight off a conspiracy that had been woven intricately? Perhaps it was fate’s pity that it took her back to this timeline where everything is not yet broken. 

Her eyes watered and with a quivering mouth she could only utter a shaky, “Yeah.” 

Nicholas had no idea how much those words meant to her. It was as though the taut strings holding her down snapped setting her free finally. All this time she was waiting for someone to agree with that tiny voice in her heart. 

“Cry out until you feel better. After that, I want to see you smile.” He hugged her tightly, wishing to absorb all her sorrow all the way from another life. “You’re such an amazing girl making it through several years despite losing a lot.”

She sniffled pitifully. She couldn’t stop her eyes, and neither was the rush of emotion pouring out of her system. “I’m not good— I’m flawed and I’m ashamed… so ashamed of myself.” 

Nicholas took her trembling fingers off the box and rubbed it to his stubbled jaw. “What a coincidence, we’re the same. Hell, I don’t deserve you but I want you so much I’m willing to be chopped into pieces by those old men in your family.”

And Leonard Tang will surely have his head on a plate. 

For several long moments, the car remained unmoving on that quiet road. Streaks of remaining sunlight peeked over the mountain range on their right side. A faint murmur of a stream nearby can be heard.  

“Sena, I love you and nothing will change that.” His angel from the billboard, she deserves all the best. 

She cried harder. 

Heaven help him, it seems he did nothing impressive but make this adorable woman cry. At this rate, it will be justifiable for her grandfathers to murder him. 

“Let’s go back to our cabin, alright?” He coaxed softly and restarted the car after a while. 

The sun was slanting west when they returned. Sena had swollen eyes but her heart was light. Compared to before, she now feels genuinely liberated. Free. 

 

Today is their flight back to H Country after the long days of participating in rescue and humanitarian aid missions. K Province is slowly getting back on its feet and Stella is at its final phase of inspection. The retrieved diamonds were resealed and documented in Stella under the watchful eyes of the executives, news about them will later be revealed in the media along with the invitations to the annual Stella Diamond Tender to be held next year.  

She believed that these pink gems alone would set off another record-breaking bid. What more the impossibly rare once in a decade violet diamond? 

Finally, the mine crisis was averted. Sena rolled on the warm couch, bare feet hanging on the armrest she surfed for relevant news from H country on the internet down to the gossipy bits.  

[Horizon Group stock prices continue an upward trend.]

[Government debunks claims about insufficient funds for the light rail project.] 

[A certain newcomer star playing temper in the set]

[XX businessman suspected of tax evasion]

[Shock! News of a well-known CP in the entertainment industry is at odds in real life.]

Nicholas was in the bathroom lathering cream to his jawline when he heard Sena shuffle out of her room. Absently tapping the disposable razor on the sink, he watched her slump on the couch like a boneless cat. He couldn't see what she was looking at on her cell phone but it didn’t take long enough for her to jump back on her feet and walk to where he was.  

When Sena slipped into the bathroom, he was just wearing a pair of jeans, a shaving cream on his face and a mischievous smile in his golden eyes. Startled by the scene for a moment, she took a step back and then belatedly realized that the action was too silly since it was her who broke in. She leaned on the doorsill and watched him run the razor smoothly to his sharp jawline down to his throat. 

The two of them didn’t speak and merely looked at each other from time to time with Sena doing most of the blushing. Surprised by this kind of intimacy, the relationship between them has subtly gone through an overwhelming change. 

Just like Nicholas once said, he fell spectacularly head first.