Tia assumed that something must have happened in Luca’s past for her to be so afraid of blood, and the murder incident at her apartment only deepened that fear.

Anyone who had a fear of blood must be hiding a dark past.

Tia thought of dredging that dark past and telling Luke. Luke would definitely stay away from Luca after that.

Arriving at that thought, she clenched her fists and picked up her phone.

Sophia knocked on her office door. “Ms. Tia, your next client is waiting for you in the consultation room. She has an appointment with you.”

Tia stopped typing on her phone. ‘I know,” she said impatiently.

“Are you going over now?” Sophia asked. Usually, patients would not mind waiting for their doctor, but Tia’s next client was someone they could not afford to offend. That was why Sophie was so nervous.

“I’ll go over in a bit,” Tia said impatiently. She was typing a message to invite Luca out for lunch.

“Ms. Tia, I don’t think you should let the client wait for too long?” Sophia said. She dared not open the door without Tia’s permission.

That was one of Tia’s hard-and-fast rules.

Losing her patience, Tia opened the door and said, “The client doesn’t have to wait if she can’t wait. We have so many consultants here. Can’t you arrange another one for her? I’m busy now.”

Sophia tucked her head into her shoulders and said, “But Ms. Tia, the client is the wife of the mayor.”

They could not afford to offend the wife of the mayor. If they did so, they would probably find it hard to survive in A City.

Tia was taken aback. Her mind had been occupied by fantasizing the illicit relations between Luke and Luca, and she had forgotten about such an important meeting.

She realized that she had to attend to the client immediately and personally. “Pour her a cup of coffee. I’ll pack up a bit and go over.”

“Yes,” Sophia nodded and said. She turned around and went to the pantry.

In a hurry, Tia quickly finished the message and sent it to Luca. She put her phone on the table, picked up her briefcase, and left the office.

It was half an hour later when Luca saw Tia’s message.

She declined the invitation without giving it a second thought.

She knew that Tia had a crush on Luke, and there must be some ulterior motive for inviting her to dinner. Maybe she wanted to find out more about Luca’s thoughts, or maybe she wanted to declare dominance.

In either case, Luca did not want to be there.

Luca replied: [I’ve been quite busy recently. Maybe another time. Thanks for the invitation though.]

After putting the phone away, she saw Zoey come in with a stack of documents.

“What’s that?” Luca asked.

“These are insurance policy documents, Dr. Craw. The company bought travel insurance policies for everyone for the trip to B City, and we just received the policies today. This one’s yours.” Zoey handed

the topmost document to Luca.

Luca took the document and looked at it.

B City was quite far away from where they were. Not only did Luke bring all the employees there, but he also purchased travel insurance for anyone. He was quite generous indeed.

“Mm, thanks.” Luca put the document in her drawer.

Zoey smiled, then went away to distribute the documents to the other researchers.

Luca stayed for a little longer after office hours to finish the experiment on hand. When she was about to leave, she received a call from Tia.

She answered it and said, “Hello.”

“Hi, Dr. Craw. I’m Tia.” Tia’s voice was heard.

Luca was taken aback. She thought she had declined the invitation, but it looked like Tia was not going to give up so easily.

“Hello. Is there anything?” Luca sounded cold and distant, a stark contrast from Tia’s enthusiasm.

Tia had just sent off the mayor’s wife. When she returned to the office and saw Luca’s reply, she was not quite happy about it, so she gave Luca a call to invite her for dinner. Belongs to - All rights reserved.

Luca was a mature adult. She should know Tia’s implications behind the invitation for dinner.

“I invited you for dinner earlier this afternoon, and I saw your reply. I was wondering if you’d agree if I asked you over the phone,” Tia said. “It’s nothing much. A friend’s younger sister was thinking of venturing into pharmaceutical and health sciences in college, but I’m not too familiar with that industry. That’s why I wanted your professional opinion about it.”

She did not say anything about Luke or psychological counseling so that Luca would agree to meet.

Luca understood that it was only an excuse. She replied, “I got my degree overseas, so I don’t know anything about the colleges here. Moreover, I graduated so many years ago, and I don’t think I’ll be of any help. I can hook your friend’s sister up with my assistant if you want. He graduated this year, and he should know more than I do.”

Tia did not expect Luca to find another excuse to decline the invitation.

“Oh, is that so? But my friend’s sister is thinking of studying overseas, Dr. Craw. How about…”

Before Tia could finish her sentence, Luca said, “Excuse me, I have a call coming in. Please wait for a moment.”

“Ah, okay.” Tia was not very happy that she was interrupted, but she could not reprimand Luca either.

To her, Luca was only a stranger. Tia could not do anything to her.

Luca immediately ended the call after that.

While Tia listened to the busy tone, she realized that something was amiss. She looked at the screen and realized that the call had ended.

She gripped her phone tightly and waited. Luca did not call her, so she called back.

She received the automated message that Luca’s phone was switched off.

Tia immediately turned red with anger. She hurled the phone onto the couch.

Meanwhile, Luca had made up an excuse to end the call, then immediately turned off the phone.

She could not be bothered to deal with Tia.

Many women wanted to gain Luke’s affection. Come to think of it, none of those women ever got what they wanted.

That included herself. Even though she was walking freely in this city, she was actually trapped in a cage she could not escape from.

Luca tidied up her desk, then clocked out of work.

When she opened the door at Luke’s apartment, she noticed that the slip of paper she slit through the door had fallen onto the floor.