Nora's P.O.V

The loud scuttle of sounds from the living room had awoken me from a much-needed sleep. It was the type of sound which made me think there were more people in this house than there should have been. Accompanying the noise came a deep male voice and a light-hearted laugh from my mom who barely ever showed such happiness what with all her work and tiredness.

'Why is she laughing like that?' I pondered as I got out of bed in record breaking time. Brushing my teeth and changing my clothes into black denim shorts and a blue tank top, I hurried to investigate the cause of it all. My usual unruly hair had become too much effort to try and brush, so I left it loosely cascading down my back like silky waterfalls.

As I made my bed and slowly crept down the stairs, I heard that specific masculine male voice, it was one I recognised as belonging to Elian. 'He couldn't possibly have shown up to my house, after yesterday', I argued with myself as I rounded the corner and scrutinized the living room with a hard glare.

Sure enough there he was, Elian Cooper, sitting on the couch in my mother's home with a cup of coffee in his hands and a warm smile plastered on his face. A muffin waited on the table ready to be devoured by his plump lips and yet he didn't dare touch it. Dressed in a plain white short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans with black leather shoes, his eyes captured my mother's attention as he leaned towards her and complimented her home.

Suddenly feeling underdressed in his presence, I couldn't help but to stare at him. He looked ravishing, from the way he sat laidback to the way his black wavy hair shadowed his forehead in a mysterious way.

I wanted him, for breakfast, in more ways than one.

As his eyes connected with mine, Elian shifted, placing the coffee on our table, and standing from his chair. His muscles taunted me as his body teased me and when his voice struck me, I looked away in guilt. 'He's my boss for crying out loud', I wept to myself.

"Miss Nora, how are you feeling?" Elian asked politely. My mom, still sitting in her seat at the table, looked in my direction smiling innocently as if she were an angel, yet her eyebrows wiggled suggestively. I inwardly groaned at her as I tried to heavily ignore the subtle hints she was portraying.

Before I could answer Elian my mom interjected with a sweet voice, "Nora, why don't you take Elian to your room? I'll bring you guys some snacks." I hesitated for a minute before nodding in agreement and gesturing towards Elian for him to follow me as I led the way to my bedroom. I didn't really want him in my house, not after what had happened and what I'd done to Anna.

"What are you doing here? Maybe you haven't been told yet, but I've quit the job and I'm definitely not returning there ever again", I sternly enlightened Elian. I aimed to appear confident and yet my demeanour around him had evaded the target, I was desperate for the job, that part I heatedly admitted but I couldn't turn back time now.

We entered my room and I noticed Elian scraping a quick curious glance over my belongings before his piercing blue eyes landed on me. I directed him to my office chair as I took a seat on my bed, silently wondering what Elian would want to talk to me about now that we were alone in private.

"Miss Nora, I think you forgot this", he said as he handed me my phone before swivelling the chair around in a circle. Gracefully accepting the device, I looked down and examined it for any damage. 'Oh yeah, I was wondering how I would get this back', I mused before a sudden blush overtook my cheeks and questions flooded my brain about why I'd said all those things to him beforehand.

"Elijah told me to give this to you too", he surrendered, placing a brown envelope on my desk, and waiting for me to stand up and take it. I sat in silence, not daring to take the envelope as I convinced myself that what it contained was a resigned letter the company had written.

"My brother may be grumpy all the time but he's a very good guy, and he's really sorry about yesterday", Elian apologised on his behalf.

I gaped at him before shaking my head in flared resentment, 'He's sorry? I think they're both lying. Elijah Cooper isn't someone who can ever be sorry for something, he takes what he wants regardless of how it affects others. He's like my father, the worst type of evil and I hate him.' I didn't dare say this out loud for fear I'd upset Elian and I didn't want him snitching me over to Elijah.

Opening the envelope, I read the words carefully before a frown covered my face and I looked up at Elian. It was my contract that I'd signed with the company, Cooper Incorporation. 'Why is he showing me this though?' I thoughtfully posed.

It seemed Elian yet again read my mind as he answered my silent thought, "I'm sorry Nora but you can't quit the job before the end of the first year, you signed the contract and if you break it you could go to jail."

The concerned stare Elian was giving me had me frowning even deeper as I studied the contract once again. 'I thought it might be some kind of guideline letter, but I completely forgot about the contract, and I don't remember reading this part of it', I stupidly berated myself. I must have been the stupidest person in the world for signing a contract without checking the terms and conditions or even the goddamn fine print.

"If it helps, I personally want you to come back. You know, I've never seen my brother this way before. Nobody has ever said 'I quit' to his face. He can't handle rejections very well", Elian whispered in amusement. I merely nodded at him as I thought over my options.

'This must have been Elijah's first time being rejected but that's good, he deserved it. Always so arrogant and toxic around others, he's a douchebag.' The other part of me didn't want to go to jail, I had to help my mom with the finance problems we were slowly declining into, and someone had to look after Nina and her education but at the same time I didn't want to work for the devil.

The contract burned in my hands, and I admitted defeat. I would have to go back to work at Coopers Incorporation.

"Please, Nora, just try to avoid Anna and if you want you can go back to work starting from tomorrow", he said before leaving me alone in my bedroom and walking down the stairs. I could hear his polite voice thanking my mom for the wonderful coffee and her hospitality before she giggled like a schoolgirl and invited him to the house for the future.

I silently prayed that God would part my mom and Elian like Moses parted the red sea in the Bible. Once the front door slammed shut, I slouched down into the covers of the bed, an annoyed huff escaping my guarded behaviour.

"He didn't eat the muffin!" Shouted my mom's disappointed voice from the living room. I rolled my eyes before picking myself up from the bed and strolling out of the room down to where my mom was located.

"Maybe he wasn't hungry", I suggested as I glared at the muffin before picking it up and taking a big bite from the succulent baked good. I was annoyed with the Cooper brothers, but I tried to get over it before my sister would return from school. I didn't want her to see me angry.

"Well, you didn't tell me he was THAT drool-worthy looking Nora", my mom yearned after him in an obvious manner. One which I cringed and made puking noises at before she thwacked me over the head in irritation. 'Oh my God mom, I know he's handsome but seriously?' I shuddered in mortification.

The only upside to my mom's comment was the fact that she seemed preoccupied with his looks which meant Elian hadn't told her about yesterday's events. 'Good, I don't want her stressing even more than she is right now', I nodded in agreement to my thought.

Mom ordered me to wash the dishes as punishment for embarrassing her over her admiration for Elian which I obeyed respectfully before heading straight to my room and checking my phone for any notifications. Twenty-one messages laid in waiting before I started to access the most important ones, meaning my best friend's messages.

Two messages had specifically arrived from Jane Smith which meant she finally had some time from her current excursion to converse with me. I hurriedly read them in anticipation:

Hey girl, how are you?

I'm coming to New York tomorrow, missing you so much!

'What? Jane's coming to New York?' I excitedly wondered, sending some happy faced emojis to her. Finally, we could hang out like the olden days, 'It'll be fun again', I giddily thought.

Reminiscing on the past memories, scenarios of when we were younger and used to go to parties flashed through my mind. We'd both tried to flirt with guys and by 'tried' I meant I unsuccessfully attempted to flirt whereas Jane webbed silky trails of spider netting over a bunch of guys, trapping them into her spells.

She was extremely good at flirting and plenty of men had infatuations with her but I, on the other hand, had no one infatuated with me. I was alone.

I couldn't flirt then, and I can't flirt now which means no one has ever had a crush on me, 'How sad', I sarcastically ridiculed myself. It wasn't a surprise though I was shy, an introvert by nature, so what could anyone expect?

Jane had a bubbly personality, one that magnetised you towards her and evoked a friendly conversation from you. She could chat your brains off, and you wouldn't even realise that three hours had gone by due to her communicational skills. 'She was a witch in disguise', I decided through laughter.

She did have a boyfriend at one point in her life, named Erick, but she had dumped him after high school once she discovered that he was cheating on her. The sleazy bastard was like a cockroach and Jane hated dirty insects. 'I wonder what she would have done to Elijah Cooper', I brooded, 'Guess we'll never know.'

Eventually time dragged and once I'd checked all my messages, I became bored. Deciding it would be best to do some useful digging I searched for any information on Anna Brown before startingly heading down a rabbit hole. I was curious about her and although Elian had told me to stay away from her, I debated as to the reason behind his words.

'There's so much more to this group than meets the eye', I ventured in inquisitiveness as I thought back to how Anna had behaved like she was the boss of the corporation. I couldn't place a finger as to why Anna didn't seem like the type to be Elijah's best friend.

The intelligence I'd gathered on her was heart-breaking. She was an orphan, taken into care by her grandmother and the Cooper family. 'It explained why she was so close to Elijah', I mentally noted. It also seemed that Anna Brown was after all an important key figure in the Cooper business, there were two other gentlemen alongside the couple that seemed to radiate danger and power.

'If Anna and Elijah were important members then who are the other two men?' I mulled over before arguing that maybe, just maybe, they were people with whom they shared a partnership with. There was only this one photo of the two men, and they remained anonymous in tags and accounts, it was like they never existed and that nerved me into thinking something dodgy was going on. Through some more digging I had come across the two names of the men that seemed suspicious: Rico and David, their surnames anonymous.

There was no evidence of them being involved in the company, but I wasn't sure why anyone would bother hiding their personal information like their surnames in the first place.

Taking a break from my detective-led investigation I went about taking the time to do some daily chores to try and keep the house in a cleanly manner, but that was difficult enough by itself considering my mom was breathing down my neck every two seconds telling me how to do everything in the correct way. Because in her mind, everything had a way to be done, and if you didn't do it her way then you didn't do it right.

It was a game to which I'd constantly lose my temper and my patience would run thin like ice, but I gritted my teeth and kept quiet as my mom knew best and I really did want to help her.

The sudden beep of my phone notified me of a message, specifically a message from Jane.
I have a surprise for you. I know you'll love it.

Flabbergasted by her message I tried to text her a reply asking what the surprise was but as expected she didn't send one back. I loved surprises but I also wanted to know what it was as I couldn't wait, but Jane would never reveal anything until the time was right. I guessed it was some kind of food or a floral dress as I had always wanted a colourful floral dress with knee length height.

'I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow', I pined in surrender as my mom re-entered the room, inspecting every little crevice with a magnifying glass and a silent judging aura. She was a nightmare, but one that I loved, nonetheless.