CHAPTER 5

"What!" Nick yelled. "That is absolutely not happening grandma." He added.

"Really? Are you going to disobey me because of your secretary? Are you really gonna take sides with your secretary and not your fiancee that you're gonna spend the rest of your life with someday? And go against I, your mother? Huh Nick!" Grandma Nadia was suddenly feeling so vexed.

She didn't expect Nick to argue with her or go against her. Whatever she was doing, it was for his sake – for his own advantage.

Alice could not help but smile where she sat, she was loving everything that was happening. She had known that grandma Nadia would work in her favour and that is the reason she loved the old woman so much.

"Calm down grandma, I don't mean it that way. I would never disobey you grandma and you know it." Nick sighed despondently.

"Then, you have to fire your secretary and replace her with another person that wouldn't give Alice problems in your company." Grandma Nadia said sternly. Nick knew she wasn't going to change her mind and if he doesn't do as she heard said, there's gonna be a big fight between them and that was the last thing he wanted – to have a fight with grandma Nadia or exchange words with her.

"Okay grandma, I would do have you've said. But you know, Lia is going to be very unhappy because she'd have to start looking for another job which is gonna be very difficult. And grandma, one thing to should know about Lia is that, she is very hard-working and competent – finding someone like her would be very difficult." Nick said rudely and walked away, heading upstairs.

"Nick!" Alice called out with a frown on her face, running after him.

Nick got to his room and slammed his door shut, angrily. "Nick! Grandma is doing all her best to make sure that nobody comes in between us and you know it. I see the way you look at your secretary Nick and it's so obvious that you lust after her body. I'll be going with you to the office and watch you fire her." Alice scoffed angrily.

"Look Alice, I don't want to have an argument with you this morning. Grandma already ruined my morning and I don't want you to add to it. You are finally happy right, you're happy that Lia would be out of my office for doing nothing wrong even after making her end up in the hospital." Nick spat out bitterly.

Alice sighed sadly and walked up to meet Nick who stood beside his bed, looking very pissed off. She tried touching him but Nick glared at her, making her to stop.

"I'm sorry Nick. You know I'm doing this for our relationship. I..." Alice was saying but Nick just walked away, going into the bathroom. Alice paused what she was saying and stomped out of the room, crying. She was supposed to be happy that Nick was finally going to get rid of his secretary but she was sad instead. Nick was mad at her and giving her the silent treatment and that's what she hated.

**********

Amelia got to work that morning and started work in earnest. She went through Nick's schedules for the day, accepted the ones that was necessary and deleted the ones that weren't necessary. It was past the usual time her boss comes to work but she was surprised that he had not arrived.

There was a knock on the door and Lia got up enthusiastically from the chair, thinking it was probably her boss but as she got to the door, she realized that Nick doesn't knock before stepping into his own office.

She shrugged her shoulders and opened the door. "Hey best friend." Clara smiled at Lia as soon as she threw the door opened. Lia rolled her eyes and walked away from the door.

"Hey Clara. What are you doing here?" Lia asked as she walked into the office while Clara closed the door behind her. "What's with the worried look? You don't want me here?" Clara asked with a crumpled look. "No, that's not it. I was thinking that boss had arrived." Lia said truthfully.

"Okay. What's up with boss? He hasn't arrived yet? And I brought an important document for him to sign." Clara stated. "I don't know Clara and I'm worried. It's to unusual for boss to come to work late and if he had any emergency, he would have called me and told me he wouldn't be coming to the company on time." Lia expounded, placing her palm on her forehead.

"You have to calm down okay? Boss is not a child that you should worry about him or his safety, I promise he'll be fine." Clara encouraged with a smile and tapped Lia lightly on her shoulder.

"Okay, thank you." Lia smiled at her. "I'll just leave the file on his desk, when he comes, just help me remind him to sign them." Clara smiled and placed the file in her hands on Nick's desk. "Okay, I'll do that." Lia assured her.

"And Lia, don't forget to give me all the details about last night that happened between you and boss. We'll have the discussion during lunch." Clara smirked and before Lia could say anything, Clara was already out of the office.

"That girl! What would I do with her!" Lia groaned and laughed to herself.

Few minutes later, Nick walked in with a frown on his face.

"Good morning boss." Lia greeted with the usual smile on her face but to her surprise, Nick ignored her. "I was so worried about you boss, I thought maybe something bad had happened to you because you didn't come to the office at your usual time." Lia told him.

"Do I look like your boyfriend that you should be worried about? Just stay out of my business okay?" Nick yelled at her.

Lia was totally confused, she couldn't understand where she had gone wrong or what she had done to Nick to have gotten him angry. "I'm sorry boss." She apologized and walked back to her own office.

Nick sighed despondently as he watched Lia leave his office sadly. This was all a charade so he could finally fire her but it was getting difficult than he expected.

*********

Throughout that day in the office, Nick was either yelling at Lia or throwing things at her for doing any slight mistakes. Lia couldn't understand what was going on with her boss and why he was so upset with her.

He wouldn't stop giving her loads of works to do, even unnecessary ones and she knew it was to punish her – but what she couldn't understand was why.

"I told you I needed this papers photocopied in five minutes time but you're just bringing it and yes six minutes already." Nick yelled angrily at Lia.

Lia was angry at her boss too for treating her like she was some machine. She hadn't even rested or sat for a minute since Nick stepped into the office.

He had told her to photocopy two hundred papers of the one he gave her. It was just a plain sheet of paper and she didn't understand what he needed them for but he was her boss and she dare not complain or ask him why.

"But sir, I tried my best. It's impossible to photocopy two hundred papers in just five minutes." Lia grumbled.

"Your best wasn't enough miss Miller. You know what? I'm fed up with your incompetency, you're fired!" Nick spat out the words to her.