Three

"Any chance you can double my fights for this week?" Maya asks Griffin after her third fight of that week, and it is only Tuesday.

He gives her an odd look.

"Why are you in desperate need of money now?" he asks.

"Is there ever any other reason? My mother needs help, and I need money to help her – fast. So, can you double my fights or not?"

Griffin pretends to think about it, but Maya knows full well that he has the ability to give her all the fights scheduled that week, and still make the same amount of income he would with anyone else. With her determination, he might even have the chance to double it if he takes the opportunity.

"Alright, you've interested me. I'll see what I can do, but for now take this," he says and reaches into his stack of cash, slapping on a few more bills to her earnings from the night.

"A gift from me to your mother, I hope she will be well enough one day to meet her. I'm sure she would love to know where you've been getting the money to support her."

Maya grits her teeth and clenches the money in her hands. On the outside it sounds like Griffin cares about her and is wishing her mother well, but she knows on the inside he is mocking her, knowing that her mother would be devastated if she knew what her precious daughter has been doing to help them survive all these years, and what she has really put her skills and knowledge to use for.

She doesn't comment and instead mutters a small thanks in appreciation for the extra cash and gets out of the there. The conversation leaves a sour taste in her mouth and prompts her to get a quick drink from the bar before she heads home, already knowing she will be heading to an empty house and won't feel any better once she gets there.

Not bothering to sneak a drink this time, she waves down the bartender and orders her usual shot of baijiu and slumps over the counter.

"What, we aren't acting like a thief today? How noble," she hears a familiar voice in her ear next to her.

Lifting her head, she sees it is in fact the man she dumped a drink on the other night and ran away from. She looks into his bright eyes and is surprised she doesn't see any anger or vengeance, thinking he has returned in hopes she would be here for that very reason.

Instead, it's obvious he is teasing her, turning to the bartender when he returns with her shot and putting down a couple bills to pay for her.

Expecting her to object, he is surprised when she says nothing and downs the show silently instead, never breaking eye contact with him.

"Most women object to a strange man buying their drink," he says.

Maya simply shrugs. "I'm not most women, I suppose, I won't object to a free drink. It was well needed tonight, so I appreciate it."

"Oh? How do you plan on showing your appreciation, Miss Reign?"

Maya pauses and backs away from the man. "You stalked me?" she scoffs.

"A man of my power doesn't need to stalk someone," Evander grits through his teeth, trying his best to contain his anger.

She grabs the money and slaps the bills back against his chest, pushing him out of the way. "A man of your power needs to get away from me, then. I'm no longer interested in this conversation, have a good night."

She strolls past him and towards the front door, ignoring the protests of the bartender behind her. She can feel the man smirking at her as he watches her leave, causing her blood pressure to raise even more but she fights the temptation to turn around and land a punch in his smug face.

Breaking out onto the street, she tries to take a few deep breaths of fresh air to calm down, but it doesn't work, leaving her no choice but to walk home rather than take the bus. Fuming the entire way, she doesn't realize that she wandered to her old building district, rather than her home by mistake.

This is where she used to live, before her mother adopted her and tried to give her a proper home before her health starter to further decline. The orphanage she once attended is now a barren building set up for demolition, with a large billboard of the new luxury residential houses and apartments they are going to build after everything is torn down.

Maya can barely remember her time spent at the orphanage, but something tells her they weren't pleasant times, and she is grateful her mother had chosen her back then. Although their life hasn't been ideal since then, she has been given the chance to know what love feels like, and what having a family is like. Despite only having one parent and herself, she doesn't have anything else to compare the feeling of a family to, it has always been more than enough, compared to rotting away in solitude in an orphanage.

Shaking away the shadows of sorrow creeping over her, she turns back onto the path and continues on her way to the hospital, completely unaware of the vehicle that has been following her since she left the bar.

"Are you sure this is alright, Mr. Beaufort?" Ezekiel asks from the front seat, peering at the master in the back seat. He has been as still as a statue the entire time they have been following Miss Reign, his eyes fixated on her.

"What is so wrong about a man making sure a woman gets home alright? Is such chivalry really dead in this world?" Evander mutters, though the turmoil in his stomach tells him otherwise. He knows very well this isn't right, it can practically be considered stalking if someone else were to witness from the outside.

"Is that what we're doing?" Ezekiel pipes up again.

Evander scoffs and glares at him through the mirror.

"Of course, it is. Why else did you think we are doing this?"

"I simply thought we we're monitoring Miss Reign, to figure out if she has any ulterior motives to approaching you."

Evander is quiet for a moment.

"The first time we met she couldn't get away from me fast enough, and the second time we meet, she throws a drink on me. What in either situation told you she had approached me for any reason at all?" he turns and gives him a deeper glare, a glint in his eye that could pierce glass.

Ezekiel stiffens in his seat. He is well aware that there is something about this young girl that has infatuated Evander, and he has always been a man who becomes quickly enamored and possessive of something he finds interest in, whether it be a achievement or goal, or a person. But Evander has never shown more than 5 seconds worth of attention and interest for anyone, getting his fills worth and quickly moving on.

He has spent days obsessing over this girl he met in the bar, who rather than throwing herself on him, clearly wants nothing to do with him and has even humiliated and insulted him in great ways, without knowing just how powerful his status truly is as an English royal family member.

"I apologize, I said something nonsensical. Shall I continue following her?"

Evander just nods his head.

"Why do you think she stopped here?" he finally asks. "Do you still have the file on her?"

Ezekiel reaches into the glove compartment and passes Evander the file of information he managed to dig up on Maya Reigns. He didn't have to dig far into the records to discover she is an orphanage, adopted at a young age but still rather old for someone abandoned at birth. Her mother is a widow who lost her previous children and husband in a traffic accident and grew weak and frail afterwards, needing more care as the years have gone by.

Maya has paid what she can for her medical bills and their living expenses once her mother became too sick to even leave the house, doing odd jobs and never properly attending school or continuing her education, she is unable to get any other job other than odd jobs and part-time gigs. But she doesn't appear to be a waitress or hostess of any kind at the club, and she doesn't work the bar if she is stealing drinks from it.

Yet, they have caught her there twice now.

Not much else is known about her, other than she attended some martial arts classes when she was younger after being adopted by her mother, during the brief time they seemed to be able to afford such small luxuries.

So, what is she doing there? How is she getting such large sums of money with such small paying jobs?

As much as Evander seems set on believing that there isn't anything deceiving about her, Ezekiel isn't so convinced, but he doesn't want to provoke Evander anymore while he still seems locked in his puppy-love phase with this girl.

He will just have to do some more digging until his suspicions are settled.