My Company

Ivy sat down on the white swing in the front yard. Her beautiful green eyes glistened like northern lights as she looked up at the beautiful scenery of the starry night sky. She stared at it as if it was telling her something that only she could understand.

After a while of closing her eyes in deep meditation and thought, she opened her eyes and stood up.

She was now standing in front of the diamond and silver large double door, she hesitated for a while before she pushed open the door.

She was greeted with the sight of her brother smiling widely at her. Anytime he was bored and he came back home before her. He will stand at the door waiting for her return, practicing the smile he will give her, ready for when she enters to lighten up her day.

Ivan pulled her in for a hug and a small smile formed on her lips and she laid her head on his muscular, toned, chiseled chest. She always felt like a burden has been lifted off her shoulder anytime he does this.

"When did you come back. I thought you were still out," she spoke against his chest.

"I went through the back gate. I just went on a long drive cause I'll miss my country once I go to Italy for a project."

"Oh, okay. I will miss you so much," she said, tightening her grip around him.

"I will miss you more, little one," Ivan said patting her head gently.

"When are you leaving?" she asked still engulfed in the embrace.

"In a week or two," he said fiddling with the strands of her hair.

"Huh, so fast?!" she asked as she quickly withdrew from his embrace with an arched brow.

"I'm sorry, but I have to," he replied in an apologetic tone.

"You don't have to apologize, brother, I understand... really. You're following your dreams. Who am I to stop you?"

"Erm... the one and only Ivy Li," he answered her rhetorical question as they both let out a small laugh.

"So, how long are you going to be there," she asked, walking inside and he closed the heavy-looking door behind her.

"About three months," he said with a hint of nervousness in his voice when he began scratching the nape of his head with an awkward smile.

"Kill me," she replied almost immediately, "You're kidding right?" she asked, turning to face him but he shook his head slowly with the awkward smile still plastered on his face.

"So you're not going to be around for my birthday?" her eyes widened in realization and he shook his head again apologetically.

"Hmm, okay," she said and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion when she started walking away.

"Where are you going?" he called after her.

"Where else? To my room, have a bath and sleep of course. I had a tiring day today, y'know, and we have A LOT of scores to settle," she said and she glanced over her shoulders and let out a sinister smile as she gracefully ascended the grand stairs.

'What scores,' Ivan thought in his mind, following her with his eyes till she went out of sight.

"I need to know what's cooking up in that head of yours, Li Lan," he said to himself and he shook his head.

.....

Ivy's bathroom

The big bathtub was as cozy as a bed. The bathroom was filled with a beautiful, delicious scent of vanilla bubble bath, it was so foamy and bubbly and the scent whirled around the whole room.

"Roses are red, Ivies are green," she smiled to herself. She decided to check up on Mia and turned on her phone which she switched off after her call with her brother.

When she turned it on, as usual, she was greeted with the sight of many messages, one was from Mia, she sighed and opened the one from Mia, she decided to give Mia a call but it was switched off.

'She's probably sleeping,' she thought.

A wicked smile curved on her gorgeous face as she put her phone down.

"Looks like I have to take your advice, bestie," she said to herself, then leaned back to rest her head with her eyes closed.

After some minutes, the water was cooling down, she opened her eyes and gently stepped out of the tub.

She grabbed a white, fluffy towel and wrapped it around her fair body and one for her hair.

She went out of her bathroom and entered another room that looked like a walk-in closet, she walked towards her dressing table, sat down, and put one leg over the other, smiling unusually at the mirror.

She grabbed a bottle of body lotion, poured some amount into her hands, and applied it onto her body sequentially.

Her face was bare from any makeup but her eyes looked as sharp as a cat and her plump lips were as pink as ever.

She poured a generous amount of face cream into her palms as she rubbed it in between them, she rubbed it on her face along with a massage.

She removed the towel from her hair and it poured gloriously onto her back down to her waist. She took a hand drier and blow-dried her hair after which she applied a few drops of scented oils to it.

After a while, she got dressed in her PJs and strode elegantly to her room. She approached her bed and dimmed her light to the lowest. She didn't like completely dark places, she hated it.

She gently laid on her pillow after switching off her phone and putting it on the bedside table then drifted off to sleep.

★★★

Qin Villa...

"Missed me?" a man in his early fifties voiced out with his arms spread.

Xander and Ava glared hard at the man.

"What do you want, now?" Xander was the first to speak. This was the first time he was as serious as this and his hidden aura started emanating from him, but it wasn't as dangerous, deep, and deadly as Xavier's.

"Have you maybe forgotten that you are my son, and this is my house?" he asked, approaching them with his hands deep in his pockets.

The resemblance was striking between his two sons, especially Xavier, with the sharp, chiseled jawline, pitch-black midnight eyes, a powerful aura, he could be said to be the older version of his sons

Xander scoffed at his question as he shook his head with a disgusted look on his face.

"Princess..." the man quickly threw his gaze to Ava, "Did you miss your daddy? Come and hug me. You both haven't seen me in two months and you're acting all cold and arrogant," he said with his head tilted to get a better view of her.

The man turned and sat down leisurely on the couch, putting one leg above the other.

"So how's my little company doing?" he asked, bringing out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, he took one out and put one end into his mouth, and took out a lighter from his pocket and lit the butt of the cigarette.

"Huh, your company?" Ava spoke to him for the first time.

"Yes my company, the Qin Empires, remember now? I built it many years ago."

"Oh you mean the company you left for your dirty business. The company that almost collapsed that your first son had to work hard on in hopes that you will someday change your mind? The company he brought to greater heights, one of the best in the whole world? That one?!" Xander rose his voice for the first time in anger.

"Yes," he answered nonchalantly which made Xander fume more, then he continued, "I'm impressed, you're getting better with that sarcasm of yours," the man nodded while letting out smoke from his mouth.

"But..." he continued, "Let's not also forget that I'm a major shareholder in that company and I have more power over that super brother of yours. You know what..." he stood up as they were now facing each other. "That was one mistake of his, he left forty-five percent for me in hopes that I'll come back, he must have forgotten about that though," he said as a smirk formed on the side of his lips.