In Five Years

Chapter Four

"Three wicked mice on a roll, will never end well in trio." - Chloe K.

I dedicate this chapter to my friend who recently made me smile too much. Thank you, Sambiti.

Chapter Four OST - 'Malibu Nights' by LANY.

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Beatrice refused to move in, but Liam's in.

"Babe," Beatrice rose her voice alarmingly, "We're only here for a few days, right? We can hire someone else to handle it for us. Specifically, a professional." Her eyes narrowed visibly at Reyna.

Reyna sank in her seat at the embarrassing truth. She indeed wasn't exactly a Harvard graduate manager that got displayed in Forbes 30 under 30 like Beatrice would've preferred it. But she didn't think that her work habits were that bad.

Her current biggest concern however, was the thought of Liam living close to where she lived--- which was quiet an uneasy idea considering she was still stuck in the confusing grey area as to why Liam did what he did. It weighed her gut like a small undisturbed stone.

Should she confront him now that he's here, then?

"Beatrice," Liam started firmly, "We will stay."

"No," Beatrice rejected as quick and stood up, pushing the chair back noisily against the floor that made Chloe and Jake winced, "There's no way I'll stay in this place. I'm going back to Paris."

Liam shrugged, his face is indifferent to her dramatic rejection.

"Sure. You can go back if you want, I'll stay." 

Beatrice fumed, the creases deepened on her botox forehead, "Like I said, we can hire a professional--"

"A professional won't be enough to handle Liberia." Liam counteracted.

Beatrice was so close to screaming her guts out.

And, you think you can? Chloe thought silently with a poorly masked sneer.

"I can't believe we missed out on the dinner banquet... for, this? Do you have any idea how much preparation I have done for that doomed party that we both skipped, just for you to splash your money at some crappy old building and waste our time by dealing with these money leeching people?" Beatrice's voice increased In volume with each passing sentence that leave her lips.

Chloe scowled at what she said. But as she opened her mouth to defend, she was immediately cut off by an annoyed Liam.

"Money-leeching people? Baby, this is our future business partners."

Reyna winced at the pet name he gave her. She looked down, and felt her heart unawarely had sunk further with the news that Liam had made Beatrice sacrificed her effort just to come and help Liberia. She felt badly indebted to Beatrice for one minute, until a realisation struck her back to the unfair reality.

Hell, he should pay us back. It's not our fault.

"Business? You call this... Un-profiting cafe, business? Please. If you want to crack a joke with a mind-blowing ten thousand dollars, at least don't come all the way to Northlake to do it. You're unbelievable." Beatrice scowled further and the creases deepened.

Her skincare doctor surely won't be happy when she returned for the next check-up.

Liam stayed quiet, obviously too worn out to fight on the decided discussion further. Lucky, that Liberia was heavily secured by the bodyguards to avoid unnecessary drama with the press. At this note, Beatrice made a mental note to request these three idiots to delete the CCTV footage too.