The Queen's Back

"What's wrong if I'm a little bossy? Maxwell doesn't mind getting bossed by me," Mona said to Albert as she looked at Maxwell with a pleased expression. "Aren't you afraid he won't be able to take it anymore one day?" Albert asked. He meant it as a friendly reminder. Mona was his sister after all. Even if he didn't particularly like her, he still had her best interests at heart. "That's not going to happen," Matthew answered decisively on Mona's behalf.

The siblings looked at Maxwell in unison. Maxwell was still driving, and he continued to explain, "No matter how domineering your sister is, I can live with it."

Mona's eyes were filled with surprise that she couldn't conceal. She thought this might be the confirmation she was waiting for, that Maxwell already had feelings for her.

She wanted to

I to find a chance to test her theory.

just spoil her then," Albert replied.

well (ached softly, and with a full smile on his face, answered, "Yeah, I'll do that."

As long as Mona stayed by his side, no matter what she did in Nathontown, he wouldn't object.

Albert knew for sure then that Maxwell was completely smitten with Mona. If he wanted to play video he'd have to go through her.

games with Maxwell,

He looked at Mona in the passenger seat with eyes full of hope. "Hey sis, why don't you let Maxwell play a round with me? You're the best!"

Albert's words reminded Mona of a time long ago when he used to say that, except that it wasn't to her, but to Barbara. Thinking of her teenage brother's tragic past, her heart ached for him.

Right now, Albert was a freshman in high school, and he hadn't fallen into the cycle of drug abuse, getting into fights, or skipping classes to play games. She thought if she somehow helped him to focus on his studies, he might not have to go through that. "Tell you what, it's going to be Friday in a couple of days, if you write your weekly report by yourself, and don't skip any classes for the rest of the week, I'll let Maxwell play video games with you on Friday. What say you?" Mona offered.

She knew she had

to coax Albert step by step into listening to her. If she could get him to attend classes dutifully first, she'd have a shot of getting him to improve his grades at a later time.

"What do you think, Maxwell?" Albert asked reluctantly.

The whole studying and preparing for exams thing was a real pain to Albert.

"I second your sister," Maxwell said eagerly. It was rare that Mona needed him for something.

Seeing the hesitant look on Albert's face, Mona added, "There isn't anyone who can give you a proper challenge at school when it comes to video games, right? You must be bored of winning all the time. Maxwell is probably the only one who can give you a run for your money, so think carefully."

Mona was speaking the truth. The people in school sucked. They were no match for Albert at all.

Albert's heart seemed to have decided for him. He clenched his fists as he tried to convince himself. It was just two days of attending classes and studying. He can handle that.

With gritted teeth, he said, "Deal. I'll go to class and study hard these two days, so don't go back on your word."

"Of course," Mona replied with a smile.

After they dropped Albert off at school, Maxwell began the drive towards Clem Group.

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Mona gazed at Maxwell's side profile. The more she looked at him, the more handsome she felt he was. She didn't understand why she had ever been afraid of him.

"Thanks for agreeing to play video games with Albert," Mona said to him.

"What's there to thank? It's no bother for me. Anyway, I'll pick you up from the office tonight after you get off work," Maxwell replied.

Mona nodded, but then asked, "Isn't it troublesome for you to chauffeur me back and forth every day?"

She had I been considering buying a car, but couldn't find the chance to do so lately.

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"Not at all," Maxwell replied easily. He was happy to do anything for Mona.

"Well, I might have to trouble you for a few more days. I'm going car shopping this weekend, but I'm not very good at driving, so might have to rope you in to teach me." Mona clasped her hands together with t***ng eyes, as if she were pleading with him... The timing of Mona's decision seemed right to Maxwell. After all, Mona had started working and needed to get her own ride/Sure, I can teach you. I'll also go with you to look at the cars."

Mona smiled at Maxwell as she gestured okay to him. She hadn't asked Maxwell to accompany her, but he wanted to do so of his own accord. Mona felt like he really cared about her.

When Mona arrived at the office, she went straight to her desk and sat down.

As soon as Elara saw that Mona had arrived, she immediately jogged over and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but no words came out.

Sensing Elara's hesitation, Mona said, "Just spit it out!"

Elara let out a breath and replied, "Well here's the thing. Our design department prepared a place for clothes production, right? When I went there this morning, it was already taken over by Barbara's group. What should we do?" Elara had sounded matter-of-fact and calm, but in reality when she had gone over, Barbara's team members had said some awful things to her, like Mona's group had been allowed to participate only because Artemis had taken pity on her, and in the end, Barbara's group would be the one to win anyway.

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Elara had been p***d off, but her rebuttals fell on deaf ears, and they refused to remove their things or vacate the space. "It's okay, I'll figure it out. At the worst, we'll just have to rent a space somewhere for about a month." Mona replied.

That might be the only solution, actually. Clem Group was a huge company with many employees so there wasn't much room to spare. Barbara probably had her eyes on the space that Mona prepared from the get-go, so there was no way she would give up even half of it so easily. Even if Barbara was willing to share the space, Mona wouldn't dare to accept. God knew how much trouble there would be again if there were any problems with the gowns. Mona would never hurt anyone on purpose, but she'd learned to protect herself well, especially against someone like Barbara who had harmed her before.

"Alright then, I'll go ahead and make the necessary preparations. Elara answered.

0

After Elara walked away, Mona stared blankly at the building outside the window, spacing out. If they were going to rent a space, it should be a location that was near the office, and it'd have to be an open space with plenty of room. As she thought about it, she suddenly felt she'd been quite busy lately.

At noon, Mona took a walk around the vicinity, looking for potential rental spaces. It was proving to be quite a challenge. Some of the offices were still under construction, or they were too expensive, or too small, or they had a minimum lease of a year.

It looked like she'd have to find another time to continue searching. If there were really no other options, she'd have to rent that space for a year even though she'd only need it for a month. It was a terrible deal, but she'd just have to suck it up. O