An Ning emptied the conference room and told the movers, five beefy men whom Richard called at a moment's notice, to carry the creature inside. She also remembered the carnage in Moira's shop and called her contractor who arrived a few hours later to clean the place up. Moira was left speechless. Looking at her clean and ordinary face, An Ning had her first genuine laugh in a long while.

By tacit agreement, the bedraggled survivors decided to hang around An Ning's building. Reaction was setting in and n.o.body was in the mood to trudge home just yet. Besides, there were too many unanswered questions that needed answers; too many gaps in the story that Richard told them. So they stayed because there really wasn't anything they can do but ride out the rest of the night.

An Ning, however, went back to the conference room with a pen and a steno notebook. She took such a long time inside Richard had to forcibly drag her away and force her to eat the take out Moira had ordered from a nearby restaurant.

An Ning obediently sat down and picked listlessly at her bento with an absent-minded frown. She was so deep in thought she didn't realize her companions had all stopped eating and were now watching her.

Richard tagged at her hand. An Ning turned her head startled.

"Everything okay?" Richard asked.

"Hmnn..."

An Ning again picked at her food. Richard gave a helpless smile.

"I'll ask Sarai to cook you something else later," he said fondly.

"Noodles?"

Richard laughed and nodded.

"Matt, can you stay here tonight and stand guard?" An Ning said, turning to Matt.

"Why? Are you expecting something?"

"The owner will probably want to have his $20 million property back. I'm not giving it back to him."

They all gaped at her.

"$20 million?" Sam choked. "That thing costs $20 million?"

"It's state-of-the-art," An Ning pointed out. "I might be wrong but I doubt it."

"Finders keepers, losers weepers," Du Lu said, speaking after a long silence.

An Ning transferred her cool gaze on him.

"Precisely. Besides, I feel no obligation whatsoever in returning something someone sent to kill me. Would you?"

"It needs to be kept under lock and key though. This place is too exposed."

An Ning nodded thoughtfully.

"Do you have any idea who sent it?" Du Lu continued. "There were four of us in there before Richard and this girl arrived but it went straight for you. Who hated you enough to want to kill you?"

An Ning didn't answer. No one noticed that Sam visibly started at the word 'girl'. He paled and glanced at Matt, who was looking at Du Lu with a frown on his face.

"And you seemed unfazed by it all. You didn't call for the cops and you just calmly announced that you're keeping that thing. Are you really the An Ning that Richard married?"

"What was she like? That girl?" An Ning asked.

Du Lu looked at her and then at Richard.

"Is she joking?"

"Let it be, Du Lu," Richard said. "You wouldn't understand anyway even if I explain it to you."

"Not to mention that it's none of his d.a.m.n business," An Ning cut in.

Du Lu suddenly laughed.

"I think I like this better version of you," he said. "Cool cat."

An Ning snorted inelegantly.

When Richard and An Ning returned to the penthouse later that night, it was Richard's turn to be silent.

An Ning's energy was nearly spent and she was weary to the bone. She went to wash up and crawled into bed wearing only a thin robe. She woke up hours later in total darkness. She felt disoriented yet alert.

She was alone in the room. The bed was empty beside her. Yet she could sense breathing. Someone was watching her. An Ning stilled the fear paralyzing her body and lay still. She felt something cold touch her exposed hand. The coldness lingered on her skin for several seconds.

"Who are you?" An Ning whispered.

There was no answer. But she suddenly felt a sense of joy as if the presence was happy about something.

An Ning reached out to click the lights on a lamp beside the bed. A weak orange light flooded the room. She turned around and gasped. At the foot of the bed, as if caught in flight, the faint shadow of something that resembled a man stood watching her.

An Ning was startled. She didn't have time to feel frightened because the shadow vanished into thin air, as if it couldn't stand the light. But before it dissolved into nothing, she could have sworn that it whispered something. Her name.

An Ning blinked. The room remained empty. There was no shadow anywhere except the faint light that filtered through a gap in the curtains. She must have been dreaming.

The door opened and Richard came in. He clicked the switch by the door and the lights came on. An Ning blinked. Richard crossed the room until he came to the bed and sat down.

"Hungry?" he asked. "I could fix you something if you like."

"What time is it?"

"It's after five."

An Ning was startled.

"Why are you up so early?"

"I needed to tidy up some things before your father and I leave tomorrow."

"It's tomorrow then?"

Richard nodded. He was silent. When he spoke again, his expression was grave and serious.

"I've talked to my lawyer and arranged everything tight and neat. If something should happen to me, you get everything. Let me finish," as An Ning was about to speak, "I'm not only doing this for you but also our child. He is my son and my legitimate heir. I don't want him to want for anything if I...

"I am also giving you permission to marry but only until my son turned eighteen. I don't want another man calling him son and abusing him or something."

An Ning didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Until he turned eighteen? I'll be in my 40s then. No one will want to marry me. Is that really written in the will?"

"Yes."

"Oh well. I could always live in sin with my lover, I guess," An Ning said blithely.

Richard grabbed her arm and tumbled with her to the bed.

"I'll come back as a ghost and haunt both of you," he said grimly, then prevented any arguments by forcibly kissing her mouth. He licked her lips as if it was the most luscious thing in the world. He captured her tongue and sucked and played with it until her breath grew ragged and her body melted against him.

Richard tore the thin robe from her body and kissed and bit on her skin, his mouth lingering on the tiny mound on her stomach until he reached the apex between her thighs. An Ning tried to keep her legs close in embara.s.sment but Richard licked and sucked until her limbs fell open of their own volition and he attacked her sweetness with his mouth and tongue.

An Ning was close to fainting from pleasure. Her breathy moans filled the room while she called his name as if she was in the throes of delirium. Richard slid back up her body and kissed her mouth, letting her taste her own sweetness on his tongue. His breathing was tortured and his sleek body slightly trembling with hunger.

Richard carefully parted An Ning's thighs and cradled her hips gently on his st.u.r.dy legs. He slid inside her, her body contracting blissfully around his hardness as he thrust in and out. An Ning moaned and clutched at his shoulders, her nails digging deeper into his skin. The movements of lovemaking intensified; An Ning's legs tightened around his waist as she gasped and fell deeper into bliss and beyond. Richard clamped his mouth on hers, sucking and licking her tongue as he, too, fell over the edge with a loud groan.

They stayed joined together until An Ning pushed him away. As if charged by the feel of her hand on his body, Richard again initiated a wet and hungry kiss that reignited the fire between them. Richard groaned and sank his teeth on her neck, biting and licking at the soft and tender skin until she cried out in both pain and pleasure.

"Richard, stop," An Ning moaned.

"You're mine, An Ning. You're mine," he rasped, his body hardening and thrusting deeper into her.

An Ning was swept again in his red hot pa.s.sion that made her blood sing. He loved her all morning and only allowed her to get up when hunger rumbled in her belly. They showered together and went out, going straight to the dining table where they found An Ma reading the business paper with his coffee.

An Ma's eyes zeroed in on the strawberry redness dotting his daughter's exposed throat but he didn't say anything. An Ning felt a blush suffused her cheeks and she averted her eyes. Richard sat her on a chair while he went into the kitchen.

"I heard about what happened," An Ma said. "Do you think it was Maya?"

"Definitely her," An Ning said. "But dad, what I don't get is how could she have built a drone like that. Not only was it sophisticated beyond words it was expensive as well. Does she and Yu Yan have that kind of money as well as the capability?"

"I don't know. The more this mystery unravels the more I find myself knowing less about Yu Yan. What scares me though is that Maya knows where you are now. Makes me more afraid to leave you behind now that she's back in the picture."

"I'll be fine. Richard said something about bodyguards. And I can take care of myself."

An Ma studied her in silence.

"Do you realize that I believe that with all my heart? You've been phenomenally awesome since this thing started. You've changed, An Ning. You've become stronger."

"It's the survival instinct kicking in," An Ning said. "I seemed to find more of that in me since I lost my memory. I don't want to die. And I certainly don't want anyone to hurt my child if I can do something about it."

"The love of a mother," An Ma murmured. "That woman never loved anyone except maybe Maya."

"Stop it, dad. Stop thinking about her anymore. She was a fraud and a liar. And she never loved anyone except herself."

An Ma smiled a bitter smile and sipped his coffee. After a while, he looked up and his glance fell on An Ning's belly.

"Should you be still doing that thing when you're already what, five months pregnant? Might hurt the baby."

An Ning stared at him foolishly then as the meaning of his words sank in, her face turned almost purple from embarra.s.sment.

"Dad!" she cried. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I'm just worried that's all. I can't believe that idiot would do something like that in my own house. I let him stay here because I'm worried about you but what does he do but take advantage of my kindness and continue to hara.s.s you."

An Ning was so embarra.s.sed she could just sink into the floor and stay there forever and ever.

"Anyway, that's water under the bridge now," An Ma's expression was gloomy. "There's something I need to talk to you about. I talked to my lawyer and...."

An Ning gaped at him in amazement. He continued to drone on and on about stocks and receivers.h.i.+p and about a seat in the board but she had already stopped listening by then. There really was nothing more embara.s.sing than listening to your own father casually talk about your s.e.x life then segue the conversation into what you're going to be worth when he dies. s.e.x and money. First you're a s.l.u.t then you're a gold digger. An Ning groaned inwardly. It was going to be a long day, after all.