Almost Yours

Unscathed

MILENA

The elevator dings at the top floor also known as the executive floor. I step out, making my second trip on this floor since the first day of my appointment five years ago.

Surely a lot have changed in those years, from decorations to artifacts. Though two things persevered, a large portrait of the Torres family, excluding my mother and I of course.

Then second is Reina’s ass-licking assistant who’s still stuck at the same mahogany desk.

“Hi Ashley, I’m here to see my cousin,” I drawled the last word, tormenting her loyalist ass to the true Torres.

Ashley was a breath away from giving me her bullshit when heavy footsteps echoed through the hall.

It sounded like a military parade, a glance at Ashley told me she wasn’t expecting this display as well.

We watched on as four hefty men in black suits and matching dark shades pull up to the receptionist table. If not for the man behind them in all his bravado, I would have thought Reina hired assassins to take me off the face of earth once and for all.

The man in question wore a simple grey tailored suit, and unlike his security detail—I’ll like to belive, he was less bulky, with muscles just in the right places and a corporate recommended glasses on his nose.

He was everything out of our men’s issue magazine with the typical dark hair tousled on his head, and a face that could blind a mob.

When his eyes met mine, it widened in shock and I couldn’t help but mirror his expression cause he looked too familiar for my liking.

“You. Why are you here?” He inquired accusatorially.

I giggle nervously, my face moving from each of his security guards. “Am I not supposed to be here?”

“Mr Silveria-Hernandez, it’s lovely having you here at Times Roman.” Ashley said with the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard her speak.

Wait. Did she just say Silveria? What’s a Silveria doing here? More or less a meeting with the infamous Torres b***h.

“Your appointment with Miss Torres is scheduled to hold, I’ll just let her know you’re here.” The man tipped his head, just as Ashley sauntered off to the telephone that’s located at the other side of her large mahogany desk, leaving me with the stranger.

He was watching me behind his glasses, a knowing look on his face that I didn’t like, especially since he’s a Silveria and you can never tell with them.

“Uhm! Can I help you?”

“I see you’re the inquisitive type. Bad stock”

“Excuse me?” I bark in his face, earning me hard glares from his security. But I don’t care.

“I believe we’ve met at my family home,” he supplies, though my memory vaguely remains intact and there isn’t any record of an encounter with him.

Besides, the familiarity I saw earlier was due to his similar looks with Rafael Silveria seeing as they belong to the same family.

“I don’t recall seeing you,” I try to explain, only earning an amused smile on his annoyingly handsome face. “Of course you wouldn’t, you were just leaving with my sister-in-law after having a face-off with my cousin.”

My cheeks burn a shade of embarrassment, was he there to see the whole thing?

Ashley saves me from a moment of shame with her return. “The lady is ready to receive you.”

His eyes never left me even after Ashley’s latest announcement, it was like she hadn’t said anything at all. His voice dropped to a whisper only for me to hear as he spoke his next words.

“How about you keep put, I’ll be right back.” And he walked away, marching past me towards the door that held Reina’s office.

I didn’t dare breathe until the sound of the door opening and closing came, then, did I heave a sigh.

As if operating on steroids, the security men he left behind scattered across the hall, with two taking position at the elevator and the other two manning the length of the room.

“Ugh! What a man,” Ashley’s diabetically sweet voice fawns on the stranger. I cut her a stare, spotting a fantasy filled look like she’s just met the man of her dreams. “Who’s that?” I take a chance asking. “That is THE Tobias Silveria-Hernandez.”

When I didn’t show any indication of understanding, she added for more clarity. “Best Lawyer in town Tobias, and Prince Charming of the Silveria Empire.” She narrates still caught up in her dreamy haze.

I wasn’t about to find out why a Silveria suggested I wait on him, nor face a raging Torres cousin. So I take the easy route and escape when Ashley is preoccupied.

Gladly the security details let me go past the elevator and on the ride down to where I belong, I hope for the life of me that I get through this day unscathed.

Arriving the ground floor, there was a significant change in the air. If I wasn’t here just a while ago, I wouldn’t have noticed. But it’s there, like the way all eyes snapped at me immediately I approached the cubicles, or how whispers filled the room at every angle. Something’s happened—a bad something.

“So, what’d she call you for?” I hear Patricia’s voice from behind, startling me a bit. I didn’t know why I got easily terrified, maybe because of the events of the day, who knows.

“I didn’t get to see her, she’s preoccupied with a guest,” I inform as we walk together to our stalls.

“Oh! That must be the shareholder.”

“What?” I stop dead in my tracks, “you mean to say the Silveria and Torres family are partners?”

“He’s a Silveria?” Patricia shot back at me confused as hell.

Both families have maintained a longterm feud for centuries, even my mother who’s the one to know every gossip story doesn’t know the cause. Yet here we are, with a Silveria sauntering into Torres territory, and not just any Silveria, the family lawyer.

I shook my head, this can’t be good.

The next hours, I spend it poring over work, though part of my mind still focused on how and why this partnership existed in the first place. And most importantly why both a Silveria and Torres wanted to see me.

Immediately the time for work hour came to an end, I packed my things, bid Patricia and Nathan goodbye, and sped to the parking lot for my car. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it past the huge building entrance.

A familiar bulky security guard accosted me, blocking my way with his mountain of a body.

Even though I know the reason for his action, I still felt the need to say something.

“Excuse me, you’re blocking my way,” I say with the smallest voice I could muster in the presence of a giant.

He glared at me for a whole minute before speaking with a voice like some boombox

“My boss wants to have word.”

So much for going through this day unscathed.