CHAPTER 21: SURVEILLANCE VIDEO

He did not let her go even until the music stopped. Marco gave Nana Maria's son a wink, and he played a love song. She blushed and leaned her head on his broad chest.

Though she doesn't listen to music, she sometimes overhears Nana Maria arguing with her son to lower his radio each time she's in the mansion. She knows the song is a popular song these days. And the music that he's playing has been in the top ten for a while now.

The song is about promising his lover that he will love her for the rest of his life. The message was touching, and she could feel the love that the singer was trying to convey through his music. She wonders if it was from the singer's personal experience because of how dramatic he sings it.

She tightens her embrace on Marco's waist. She was flabbergasted. She wasn't expecting him to kiss her intimately in front of their employees. They could not see how embarrassed she was from his public display of affection. They didn't move until it was over.

Marco let her go after the kiss that she felt like a lifetime, grinning at her. Nana Maria and others clapped their hands simultaneously, smiling at them.

Athena elbowed Marco, trying to hide her teary eyes. Athena was pleased to accept her thoroughly as their master's wife even though they were initially distant to her except for Nana Maria.

They respected her even at the beginning when Marco brought her into his cabin. Though they seemed to be unfriendly, the respect was there. She did not hear them gossiping about their relationship even when Marco married her.

Her life in the cabin and mansion was beautiful, and she will miss them one day.

"We're heading back, Nana," Marco said, gesturing to Athena to climb on his back. She hesitated, but he pulled her closer. "Go on, babe." He said, looking back at her with a smile on his face.

Athena climbed on his back, and Marco started walking back to their cabin. Nana Maria looked at the couple and smiled. She's like a mother to Marco, and she can tell that Marco loves her so much. And she's happy that Bea has arrived in his life.

They started putting everything up and headed back to the mansion and took a rest as well.

"It was amazing," she said when Marco put her down on the bed. "Thank you for a wonderful night," she said with a smile.

"I told you many times, and I'm telling you again... I'll do anything for your happiness, love." He said dotingly. Making his wife happy is his goal each day.

"I know, and I love you more for that," she said shyly.

"You should," he said, winking at her. Marco gave her a peck on her cheeks and said, "wash up first, love."

"Okay," she replied and went to the wardrobe to get a set of pajamas and entered the bathroom. Marco then went to his study. Although he told his assistant not to bother him and only call if necessary, he still wanted to check his email to ensure he did not miss anything. Marco trusted his assistant, but he was used to checking things himself.

After checking that everything was okay, he opened the surveillance videos of the hotel.

Unlike the videos that Benjamin Baltazar's men gathered, the one he has is unaltered. He has a remote connection to the hotel's surveillance and is saved automatically on his secure cloud account. No one knows that he has a secured cloud account for every surveillance video of MC Group. Even his long-time assistant is not aware of it.

He ensured that there wouldn't be any problem with the surveillance videos on the conference day, especially when that woman showed up in the ballroom.

Looking at the videos, he made a copy of a video where his wife walked, showing her back, and saved it to his USB drive. He did the same thing with the woman's video in the ballroom. After saving copies of those videos on his drive, he called his assistant to find someone to analyze the videos for him and do it secretly. He hung up even before his assistant said a word and walked back to the main bedroom.

Athena had just finished taking a shower and barely put her pajamas on when Marco walked in. She turned around to see him enter the room and smiled.

"You're back," she said sweetly. Athena still has her hair wrapped with a towel. She bowed down to remove it and gently rubbed her hair to remove the remaining water.

Marco walked closer to her and said, "let me do it for you, babe."

"Mmm... okay," she was shy to let him do it, but since he offered, it's okay with her. He is her husband anyways, and being pampered by him made her the happiest woman on earth.

Marco reached for the hairdryer to dry her hair. Holding the hairdryer in his right hand, he used his left hand to comb her hair. Her hair strands were so soft and silky that it was naturally slipping on his fingers, especially when it was almost dry.

When Marco offered to dry her hair, Athena sat in front of her vanity dresser. He gently dried her hair. She imagined how he looked like sitting in his office, 'he must be so handsome while flipping those documents.' His expression is like he was dealing with a critical business transaction.

A few minutes later, Athena fell asleep on the chair. Marco knows she has been staring at him while he was busy drying her hair. But when he looked at her, he discovered that she had fallen asleep. He chuckled and shook his head.

He turned off the dryer and put it up. He then went to his wife's right side and carried her bridal style. Her vanity dresser is twelve feet away from their bed, and it only took Marco six steps to reach it.

Marco slowly put her down on her side of the bed and covered her with a blanket. He watched her change into a comfortable position before he decided to enter the bathroom to take a shower himself.

He smiled when he thought of how his wife stared at him while drying her hair. She's like a teenage girl spying on her crush. He pretended that he wasn't paying attention to her, but the truth was, Marco was restraining himself not to tease her because Marco knew how embarrassed she would be if he did.

He just did a quick shower and joined his wife on their bed. With her back facing him, he pulled her closer and wrapped her waist with his arms before he closed his eyes to sleep.

The next day, Marco went to work already when she woke up. She can't remember how long Marco dried her hair. Her only recollection was sitting on the chair and watching him. 'Ugh, Athena! How come you fell asleep!' She murmured to herself.

She had just changed her clothes when the landline in their room rang. She picks it up and knows that it must be from the mansion.

"Madam, your breakfast is ready. Where do you want to eat it?" It was Nana Maria's distant niece.

"I'll go over there," she replied in a low voice. She doesn't want to bother them to bring the food to the cabin. Sometimes, she let them do that, only if she was too tired to walk back and forth from the cottage to the mansion.

She tied her hair up and put a casual sneaker on. Athena is wearing black leggings and a loose blue t-shirt.

The shirt is Marco's. Athena saw it when she went to the mansion. She followed Nana Maria into the storage room when she said she would clean it. Nana Maria told her that Marco always donated his clothes to the orphanage he sponsored and his cousin. Marco and his cousin will go to the orphanage every year on a particular month to secretly donate used and new things.