The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

8 1 | J U L I E T

"Where had you been? I thought you were coming," Abeo said in greeting when he spotted me in the crowd.

"Traffic. Happy birthday!" I said, rushing into his arms so he'd be satisfied.

"Thank you," he said, wrapping his arms around me and burying his face into my hair.

"I got you a gift," I said softly and led him away from the crowd. "It's not much but when I saw this, it reminded me of you." I let go of his hand to fish the bracelet out of my bag. It was full of tiny soccer balls. I thought it was a little ugly but I just didn't have time to pick a better gift and just because he'd told me soccer was his one true love in his life a million times, it wpuld have been too much work to get him anything else. Just get them a necklace or a bracelet that had something to do with what they were passionate about and they'd be happy and think it was the best gift ever.

As expected, Abeo's eyes lit up as I held it up for him to see. "This is beautiful!" He said, touching a little soccer ball.

"Here, let me put it on you." I helped him with the bracelet and he examined it carefully.

"This is so thoughtful. I got so many expensive gifts but this is best one." I already knew he was going to say something like that.

"I'm glad you like it. I know how much you love soccer." Then I looked at my watch. I was time bound. I had something more important to do. "Where are the others?"

"Scattered all around. Got tired of waiting for you but only I waited until you showed up."

I winced at how particularly cheesy he was being today. "Thank you. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

"Oh, okay."

I left him to mingle with the other guests and headed straight for his dad's office. It had already been five minutes since I came here. Nova wouldn't be far behind. I guessed I had five more minutes until he showed up here.

I intentionally avoided bumping into people I knew and steered clear of crowds. I took the longer and deserted route to the office in case someone had their eyes on me. Again, being gorgeous did have its downfalls when you were on a secret mission.

Finally, I reached the door and looked around to see if my surroundings were empty. Then I gripped the handle...only to find it was locked.

"Shit." I tried to twist it again but it wouldn't budge. "No, fucking hell!"

Today had been the perfect time to get things done but how did I not think that he would lock his office up when there were so many people in and around the house. It was unlocked during the pool party probably because he didn't know that Abeo had thrown a party.

I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to my temple. "Think. Think. Think. What can you do?" I muttered to myself.

"You can try this." A small squeal of surprise left my lips and my heart was about burst out of my chest.

Kaan held up a key to me. "Sorry, did I scare you again?"

I was so annoyed I kicked him in the shin. "You've got to stop doing that."

He hopped around with his leg in his hand. "That hurt."

I snatched the key from him. "Is this really the key to the office?"

"See for yourself."

"Why do you have it?"

"I knew you were up to something tonight. When I saw you here last time, I just got the feeling you'd come back for something. So I wanted to help."