In the mirror of the bathroom in his suite, Yoel checked his bruised lips and gasped in pain. 

"We haven't seen each other in such a long time, and you punched me in the face the moment we finally got to meet again?" 

Yoel glared resentfully at the man sitting on the sofa. The expression of Jace's face was as cold as ice. 

Jace said nothing as he thought about Sage and how she had looked. The scene flashed through his head, second by second, as her words rang through his ears. 

'Is that confident and charismatic woman with her sarcasm and indifference really Sage Luz?'

Jace had his doubts.

Sitting across Jace, Yoel lit a cigarette and said, "How unlucky can I get? Last night, I got slapped by your girl, and today you punched me in the face. I swear that the both of you are a match made in heaven. You're both violent and aggressive. So, tell me, why the sudden divorce?" 

Jace looke

The man had only gotten greasier after three years.

Upon seeing Julian walking toward her, Sage frowned and growled, "Stay away from me."

After being rejected by Sage again, Julian's face finally crumbled.

He was, after all, the CEO of the Jefferson Group, and he had plenty of women flinging themselves at him. It was only Sage Norah who treated him dismissively. 

Julian had grown bored of women like Yeva who were easily tamed. Now, he wanted a taste of women like Sage— hard to tame. 

His forehead was still wrapped in bandages from the injury he had suffered when Sage had thrown the rock at him at Rosa Garden. It was obvious by how Julian threw himself at her that he had forgotten how he had been attacked.

Standing just three steps away from where Sage was, Julian studied her appealing and pleasing face. All he could think about was how gorgeous Sage was.

The Jeffersons and the Norahs were family friends, and both Sage and Julian had known each other since they were young and could be considered childhood sweethearts. Sage was the prettiest of the three young ladies of the Norah family since childhood. 

Even as a child, Sage was pretty. Aside from losing the baby fat on her, Sage had grown up to be more gorgeous and her figure was simply alluring. His heart quickened just as he looked at her, and he felt the strong urge to keep her all to himself. 

"Sage dear, I know we have some misunderstanding between us. I'm here today to clear the air."

Julius looked serious and determined, especially when the guards turned up. "I'm telling you the truth! What happened that year, it was all Yeva's plan, and she tricked me into helping her!"

Unfazed, Sage listened to him as he rambled on. She knew well enough that Julian would do say anything that would help him place the blame on Yeva. She was, however, curious to know what story he would concoct. 

"You can leave for now," said Sage as she signaled for both the security and her assistant to leave the room. 

Sage then sat down on the sofa and said, "You have five minutes to say what you want."

Julian was about to take a seat next to Sage when she glared at him and hissed, "Did I say you can sit?"

In a half-crouch, Julian looked awkwardly at Sage with her icy-cold demeanor. He told himself that he would have to be patient if he wanted to have a taste of a feisty woman like Sage.

"Alright, alright, I'll stand."

Fixing his attire, Julian straightened his back and stood tall in front of Sage. In a saccharine voice, he started, "Dear Sage, I've missed you so much—"

"You can cut out the nonsense. I don't want to hear it."

Sage picked up her phone, set the timer, and set it aside. "You have four minutes left."

For whatever reason, timing someone always made them nervous. Julian gulped and rethought his speech before trying again. 

"It was Yeva who threw herself at me three years ago! I bet you had no idea that your cousin, who looks harmless, is always jealous of you. She is jealous of your pretty face, and she is even jealous of your identity as the Norah Group's eldest daughter. But of course, she is most jealous of the fact that I have feelings for you… In any case, she had tricked me into asking you out on a hike as a date. She had wanted to come clean to you about her feelings for me, and she wanted to have a fair fight with you." 

He sighed at the mention of the date before going on. "I am to blame for being so soft-hearted, too. I had only agreed to her outrageous request because I pitied her. But you have to trust me when I say that I love you! I had only accepted her request because I wanted to let her know that the person who I love has always been you, Sage Norah. But I had not expected Yeva to be so stubborn. She had taken my phone and used it to send you that message, but I had not known that she had wanted to murder you. I didn't turn up that day because she had drugged me, and by the time I woke up, I learned of your death." 

Julian's eyes reddened as he walked toward Sage. He kneeled down in front of her and grabbed her hands. 

"Sage, God has answered my prayers, and you've returned safely to me. Let's start over, can we?"

Yoel laughed as he walked toward Jace. He placed his arms around Jace's shoulders as he said, "Are you sure that she is that dull and tame ex-wife of yours? And it looks like you, her ex-husband, is only worth fifty cents." 

Clenching the fifty-cent coin tightly, Jace gritted his teeth. The veins in his forehead popped. 

Yoel went out cluelessly, "Since you guys are divorced, you no longer have anything to do with one another, right? So, you won't mind me making a move, right? I must say that that feisty woman is just my type…"

Before Yoel could even finish his sentence, Jace landed a punch on his face and hissed, "Get lost!"

'Pursue her? Yoel that idiot better not think about it,' cursed Jace under his breath.

…

The moment she got into the car, Sage lost her cool.

She reached for her phone and called Luther. "Luther, what is Jace doing at Skye Hotel?"

"What did you say?" cried o

In the mirror of the bathroom in his suite, Yoel checked his bruised lips and gasped in pain. 

"We haven't seen each other in such a long time, and you punched me in the face the moment we finally got to meet again?" 

Yoel glared resentfully at the man sitting on the sofa. The expression of Jace's face was as cold as ice. 

Jace said nothing as he thought about Sage and how she had looked. The scene flashed through his head, second by second, as her words rang through his ears. 

'Is that confident and charismatic woman with her sarcasm and indifference really Sage Luz?'

Jace had his doubts.

Sitting across Jace, Yoel lit a cigarette and said, "How unlucky can I get? Last night, I got slapped by your girl, and today you punched me in the face. I swear that the both of you are a match made in heaven. You're both violent and aggressive. So, tell me, why the sudden divorce?" 

Jace looked up; he was utterly cold when he said, "Ex-wife."

He had corrected Yoel's misaddress.

Yoel nearly

Chapter 20