THIRTY TWO (Mr. CEO's little wife)

Later that evening, the farewell party…

Since the week had quickly come to an end, the kenatos decided to throw their guests, a farewell party. It wasn't just the guests that were present though. They had invited some friends and other investors.

After the meeting, Ethan didn't return to the ryokan, so Mia had to go alone. As usual, she felt completely out of place, but this time she had this feeling of something she couldn't quite place her finger on, she couldn't find Ethan either. Luckily, she came across Suzie in the hallway, Suzie seemed quite hesitant to talk to her.

"…Hey Suzie, have you seen Ethan—"

"You shouldn't have come here." She said with disappointment in her eyes as she quickly stepped away from Mia.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Mia questioned with a puzzled look.

"I....I've got to go now." Suzie stuttered as she quickly walked away.

"Okay?" Mia shrugged and turned in the opposite direction, and as she did, she came face to face with Wendy, Lena and Tamera.

"Oh Wendy!" Mia chuckled as the trio paused in front of her. "Thank goodness ladies, um, have you seen my husband—"

She was interrupted by Lena's loud laughter,

"Your Husband?! Oh poor Mia, you're still in the dark." Lena chuckled,

"Playing Mr. CEO's little wife." Wendy sneered,

"What are you talking about?" Mia questioned with a puzzled look,

"Oh quit the act Mia, the game is up, we already know who you really are…An imposter." Tamera spat.

Mia's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"Oh Mia Anderson, Mr. Regal came clean about your real identity at Mr. Kenato's office and somehow, the news has spread the entire resort, everyone knows who you are Mia." Lena sneered

"Ugh! And to think I was starting to like you, lying to us about Paris! And to think I nearly went on a girl's trip with a peasant." Wendy angrily said.

"…Jesus! I suddenly feel sick." Tamera sighed.

Mia flushed red with embarrassment as angry tears fell from her eyes. She just wished the ground would open up and swallow her up. Now she could understand why Suzie looked so disappointed, she could understand why Ethan had been away all day.

"Oh quit the crocodile tears Mia," Lena began, "People like you are just gold diggers, who would do anything for money—"

"That makes you a gold digger too, Mrs Hamilton. If I'm correct, you and Brian have been separated for three years now. You only agreed to do this because he promised you a huge amount of money if he got the deal. And you Mrs Griffin," Ethan paused as he turned to her direction. "You and Luke got a divorce six months ago, but I wonder what exactly you're doing here. " At that moment, Tamera gasped and quickly held her mouth. Ethan turned to her and straight forwardly.

"Mrs Kareem, the only reason you're here is because your marriage is on the rocks and you're hoping this deal could be the glue that would fix it. Ale Xavier's business is failing and you can't afford to be with a broke man. So who are you to judge another person? The list is endless, do I go on?" He corked his head at them.

They all scoffed and immediately scurried away without another word.

Ethan immediately turned to face Mia whose face had turned bright red from all the crying.

"…Mia…I....I'm—"

"You're what?! Sorry, huh?—"

"C'mon Mia, I got rid of them, let's talk about it some place—"

"Oh so because you spilled their dirty little secrets and made them run off, I'm supposed to feel better?" she chuckled painfully, "You know what?" She sniffed,"…I was so stupid to have agreed to this, you're nothing but a selfish jerk! An egomaniac!" She snapped, and then quickly took off, running out of the hall and the resort entirely.

---

Ethan slowly slid the door of his ryokan suite and quietly walked inside. The lights were turned off, but he was smart enough to find the switch. He walked over to the living area and there Mia was, snuggled up in huge blanket and pretending to be asleep.

He let out a small sigh as he gently dropped her coat.

"Here, I got your coat back." He told her. When she didn't reply, he continued, "…I know you're awake and you can hear me, I told the Kenatos we would be leaving in the morning, Noel's packed up, you should too..." He gently said then walked into the bedroom and shut the door.

In there, he realized she had already packed her things. A small sigh escaped his lips as he recalled the events of the day.

---

"…There's….Something you need to know…"

"What is it Son?" Mr. Kenato questioned with a puzzled look,

"…Um, the thing is…" Ethan paused as he swallowed hard, "Mia isn't really my wife—"

"Well, is she your fiancée, or your girlfriend?" He managed to smile,

"No Sir." Ethan nodded,

"Then who is she?"

"Apart from his nanny, she's the only female my son can stand…"

----

The following morning came quite earlier than they had anticipated; Ethan's thought had drifted him to sleep. He was five am when he woke up, and surprisingly Mia was all finished and dressed. Without a word, she gave him a look that said, "I'm ready to go now."

Ethan managed to clean up quickly, and by 5:30, they were all ready. Ethan knew the wanted to be out of there before sunrise to avoid any more gossip. With the help of one of Chief Jim's men, they drove to Henada airport where Ethan's private jet was already being prepped so they had to wait.

Once they were finished, the pilot announced the departure time and soon they were in the air. They took off at exactly fifteen minutes to eight, but the entire plane ride was awkwardly quiet, and this time, Mia didn't make any attempts to lighten the mood. Noel noticed the whole mood and decided to keep to himself, while Mia kept staring outside the window and sleeping and waking up.

They finally arrived B-City on Sunday morning by six am, Ethan politely offered her a chauffeur driven car, but she declined saying she'd opt for a cab.

The weather was very chilly, and there were obvious signs that it had snowed lightly the previous night.

It was just six in the morning, but B-City was already full of life. The cold but stuffy air, the Christmas spirit in the air, the snow, the blaring of horns and sirens in the distant, people hurrying back and forth through the busy streets, Mia was just grateful to be back home.

She got up to her apartment and the door was locked, a sign that meant her aunt wasn't at home. Mia let out a small sigh as she reached for the keys from underneath the foot rug. Hiding the keys there was the only thing Aunt Megan usually did right.

She walked in and turned on the light of the small apartment, as to her greatest surprise, the entire was squeaky cleaned. The tiny living room didn't like a dumping ground anymore, the clothes on the couches were gone, the beer bottles and ash tray on the coffee table had been replaced by a small dainty but pretty flower pot.

"…Okay??" Mia thought, "Did I walk into the wrong apartment?" She murmured as she marched to the refrigerator. On it was her sticky note that read, "I'm off to a culinary training in Japan , I'll be gone for a week."

Beneath that note was her aunt's reply, it read, "I care about you a lot, I'm off to rehab. I wanna be better for you. Love, Aunt M—"

"So that's what this is all about." She smirked, "See you in a week." She scoffed then opened the fridge, hoping to scavenge something out of the all the beer, because she was sure they were all hidden in there. To her greatest surprise, there were no beers. Instead, it looked like a regular person's fridge.

"This is a first, good luck to you Megan." Mia smiled as she grabbed a box of cereal and went back to the couch. Usually, she would go to her room since it was the only inhabitable place in the apartment.

Slowly, she took her souvenir and gift bag and went through all the things she had gotten, a sigh escaped her lips as she reached for the photo album Ethan had gotten her. She went through the photos and suddenly threw it across the room.

"He should have at least told me first!" She snapped as she let out an exasperated sigh and ran her fingers through her hair.

She picked up her phone as if to call him, but instead, she found herself in the photo gallery clicking on one the videos she had taken at Minoo.

---

"....And here's Ethan, the slowest of the entire trail—"

"Face forward, you're going to miss a step." Ethan said as he tried to block Mia's camera, she could hear herself laughing in the background,

"Oh don't worry the steps aren't that steep, there's no way—" she paused as she missed a step and started falling backwards, her phone was already recording the clouds, but then, Ethan quickly caught her by her scarf. The video recorded Ethan's face the brief seconds he held on to her scarf, it was this poker face that made Mia annoyed.

Suddenly there was a small thud as the fell on her legs.

"Who drops a lady like that, rude!" She heard herself saying in the background.

Mia let out and exasperated sigh as she quickly ended the video recording ad slammed her phone against the couch.

"Two faced jerk!"

----

Monday morning was a grumpy one for Mia, she just wanted to do her job and be left alone, but off course going to Japan for a week wasn't something to slide pass her friends; Ashley and Betty.

They couldn't stop blabbing about their week either, but somehow, Mia managed to slip past them right to her duty post.

Christian Oh wasn't on seat which made Mia quite relieved, she had totally forgotten him the entire week, and she felt bad and wasn't exactly in the right mood to face him.

Judging by the look on the faces of most of the chefs, it was obvious they weren't so pleased about her return.

"I thought they already fired you." Jan, one of the station chefs snickered,

Even the junior chef who was a only few years older than her didn't fail to hide her distaste,

"Stay away from Mr. Oh you whore!" She whispered sternly as she walked pass her.

Mia simply ignored her as she walked over to Ashley who was already doing her job.

"Great, you're back…You get to do my shifts too for an entire week, see you in a week." She told her flatly as she handed her the mop.

"Have fun." She winked, "And quick advice, don't listen to these folks, if you want Mr. Oh…Go get him." She smirked then quietly walked away.