ILLICIT #1 : New Moon

Chapter 3 - Professional

Phoenix Sterling

"Who?" Angelo asked as he gave me a glass of white wine for us to enjoy. I put my phone on the table and sighed.

"Lana Castroff." I answered as I swirled my glass of wine.

"You filed a lawsuit on her company?" He asked me in a curious tone and I nodded.

"You know what happened so I have to take actions." I said and took a sip of the white wine. "I wonder why didn't you jusy expose her to the public. You don't seem nice to her."

"She's the one who called Julie a commoner. I guess she just always hates them." I said and Angelo chuckled.

"I don't get it either why you're so nice to Julie. I don't like her when I first laid my eyes on her." I raised my eyebrows looking at him.

"At least you're not being rude to her."

"I never thought Castroff Beauty products will have this incident because they're one of the top brands out there for beauty. Somehow it's hard to believe that they have something going on in their products." Angelo said and I glared at him.

"They do have one of the best brands, that's why I bought it but it turns out like this." I hissed.

"Hello dicks." I turned to see Adrian walking into the room and he sat down on the sofa beside me. Sometimes I really doubt that this man is a Prince of Denmark. The youngest of all of them too. He's the immature one and will always troll around.

"Chance and Dean are out of town and I'm bored." He said as he grabbed a new glass of wine on the table pouring himself some.

"How's the airlines going?" I asked him and he gave me a thumbs up.

"It was doing okay. We just need to buy more airplanes to expand the business." He said as he sipped his wine.

"But I thought you already bought 13 airplanes last month." Angelo asked and he shooked his head.

"I need a bigger airplane for international flights." He said as he put his glass on the table.

"Interesting." Angelo said chuckling.

"How about you? Suing Castroff?" Adrian smirked looking at me.

"Yeah, you know why." I said simply and Adrian gave me a cheeky look. We all know that he's up for something with that look.

"Lana Castroff is something and she's the type of woman that I will date or maybe have fun with. She's hot." He smirked looking at me and I shook my head. Adrian is a playboy, just like his brother Carter back in the days before he settled down.

"She mocked Julie a commoner." Angelo said and Adrian laughed.

"That's hot." Adrian said and I shook my head disapprovingly. Adrian suddenly leaned his body foward to me.

"If you don't want to go after Lana, I'll be.. happy to have her." Adrian said and I raised my eyebrows.

"Why do you ask me? I don't like her so feel free to.. have her." I said and sipped my white wine.

"She's your type, Phoenix. I'm quite surprise that you haven't make a move on her yet but I guess it's my time to shine!" Adrian smirked and laid back to the sofa again.

After that, I went back to the office to continue to work. I have a lot of things to do and I have to go to Spain next week for an important meeting. I guess tomorrow, I'll be seeing Lana again for her to investigate what's wrong with her products.

The next day..

I got out from my car and found Lana already standing there in front of the hospital entrance with her team. I told my secretary to showed her team in. I walked towards her and she gave me a polite smile.

"Mr. Sterling."

"Ms. Castroff." I gave her a nod. My secretary led her team into the hospital and we both were left alone.

"Today, we took all the products that might have an unidentify ingredients so people won't get hurt." She said and I was quite surprised to see her pretty professional despite our encounter yesterday.

"I want to personally apologize to you." She said as her eyes met mine. Another surprise of her apologizing, I thought she won't apologize judging by her attitude on Julie.

"My team met your lawyers earlier this morning and I was hoping if you could give us time to investigate a little bit more."

"Very well, I will give you time to investigate and you know that I'm not dropping the lawsuit. I will never." I said seriously especially on my last sentence.

"I understand completely. Our company should have been more careful and we will discuss about the settlement sooner after we investigate further." She said without taking her beautiful blue ocean eyes off me. She was very professional and I really like her work ethic.

"For what I know, it contains hydrochloric acid." I stated and her eyes widen.

"Acid? That's impossible!" She gasped and I can see that she didn't see this coming at all.

"Why would it contains that? Shit!" She immediately walked into the hospital. "Take me to your employees, please." She turned to me and I nodded before leading her towards my 7 employees that's currently hospitalized.

She walked into the first room and she gasped seeing the burn on my employee's hand. Lana introduced herself to her and she immediately apologized. She didn't even think twice to apologize and she even told my employee that she will take care all of her hospital bills and she will give her money for the damage.

And again.. I was surprised.

She ended up saying the same thing to the other 6 employees. She felt so bad and never stop apologizing to the victim of her products. As soon as she's done apologizing to every single victims, she called someone and asked them to check on the dangerous chemical on her products that she pulled back to her factory.

She walked back and forth in her highheels and not to mention that she was wearing a blazer dress that made her look really professional. She has her hair on a ponytail making her look neat and intimidating. Her red lipstick was like a statement to people that you shouldn't mess with her.

After she finished her phone call, she walked towards me. "We're currently investigating if there's a possibility of acid being inserted in our products and I want to apologize one more time for all the damages. We will contact you further more for the settlement." She said with her eyes looking straight to mine.

"Very well."

"I will pay all the hospital bills and give them more money for the damages that they got. I promise you that this-" She stopped when we both clearly can hear her stomach grumbling.

"I.. I promise you that this won't happen again in the future." She continued as she avoided my eyes completely embarass.

"I'm assuming you haven't eat lunch, wanna have lunch together?" I asked and she turned to me blinking her eyes multiple times like I was possessed.

"Sure."