Clara sat down across from Ethan, her face calm but satisfied.
“She was kind,” Mr.s.
Clara said.
“Not the kind that is acting, the kind that is natural.
” Mr. Gabriel nodded slowly.
She spoke to us with respect, even when others were insulting us.
Ethan listened without interrupting.
His face didn’t change much, but his eyes stayed attentive.
She didn’t rush us, Mr.s.
Clara continued.
She let me try things without pressure.
She even told us not to buy if we didn’t want to.
Ethan leaned back slightly, thoughtful.
Before he could speak, the office door opened.
His assistant, Felix, stepped in.
Felix was a neat, sharplooking man who always spoke like someone who had been trained to avoid mistakes.
Sir, Felix said respectfully, holding a file.
I have the report you asked for.
Ethan’s eyes flicked to the file.
Go on, Felix opened it.
That sales girl, Daisy Okafor, Felix began carefully.
Some staff say she’s a gold digger.
They claim she’s snobbish, flatters rich men, and sleeps around to sell items.
The room went still.
Mr.s.
Clara’s face changed instantly.
“No,” she said sharply.
Mr. Gabriel’s voice followed, calm but firm.
That is not the girl we met.
Mr.s.
Clara leaned forward, her eyes fixed on Ethan.
People can lie for many reasons, she said.
Jealousy is one of the easiest.
Ethan didn’t speak immediately, but something shifted in his expression, small, almost invisible.
He looked down at the report again.
Then he looked up, and in that quiet moment, a decision began to form in his mind.
If Daisy Oafur was truly as kind as his parents claimed, then he needed to know.
Not through gossip, not through staff rumors, but with his own eyes.
And that was how the real test was about to begin.
Ethan stayed in his office long after his parents left.
The report Felix had dropped on the table was still open, but Ethan wasn’t reading it anymore.
He was staring through it like his mind had moved somewhere else.
His parents’ words kept replaying.
She was kind, not fake.
Natural.
Ethan wanted to believe them.
He truly did.
But life had taught him that the people who smiled the sweetest could hide the sharpest knives.
He had learned it the hard way more than once.
Women who looked innocent until money entered the conversation.
Women who acted gentle until commitment appeared.
women who knew exactly what to say to make a man feel chosen, only to later make him feel used.
And there was something else, too.
Something his parents didn’t know.
Ethan had noticed Daisy before, not the way people noticed a sales girl in a boutique.
He had noticed her the way a man notices the one person in a noisy room who isn’t trying to be seen.
A calm face, a steady voice, a kind strength that didn’t beg for attention.
And that day, hearing his parents describe her with such certainty, his chest tightened in a way he didn’t like.
Because if Daisy was truly that rare, then he was already late.
And if she wasn’t, then he would rather find out now than make another mistake with his life.
He closed the report slowly.
“Felix,” he said.
“Yes, sir.
” Ethan’s eyes lifted.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to that branch myself.
” Felix hesitated, surprised.
Sir, you mean physically? Ethan gave a small nod.
I want to see her with my own eyes.
The next morning, the boutique was alive with the usual routine.
But the moment a black luxury car slowed near the entrance and a tall man stepped out in a dark suit, everything changed.
It was like the air froze.
The security man at the door straightened so fast it looked painful.
Inside, one staff member gasped.
Another one’s hand slipped on the glass shelf she was wiping.
Is that No way.
That’s him.
He’s even more handsome in a real life.
Why is he here? People began to move like ants whose nest had been disturbed.
The manager, Mr. Benson, nearly ran out of his office.
Anita and Annie quickly adjusted their hair, their collars, their smiles, everything.
Someone whispered, “This is his first time coming here in the person.
” another whispered.
Apex Lux CEO Ethan Adami.
Daisy was at the far end of the boutique arranging a display with steady hands.
She heard the sudden panic, the sudden excitement, but she didn’t rush forward like the others.
Not because she was proud, because she was tired.
