Alexandra Von Cromich, the daughter and main inheritor of the Chromic family who specializes in everything business-related, was talking like a smitten girlfriend to a very ordinary guy like Patty. The paparazzi had rarely even seen Alexandra out in the wild before because her family was very overprotective of her.

Because of that, all her pictures sold like hotcakes. They would have thought they would see Alexandra in high-end clubs or exclusive hotels. But not here.

The most surprising thing about all of this was that she was greeting Patty as if he were her boyfriend! From what the journalists knew, Alexandra was a single lady. How do they know that? Well, that’s because her hand in marriage was the exact reason why the Cromich family was throwing an Emerald Dance Ball tomorrow!

There were lots of eligible males that would be attending that ball, all for the sake of trying out their luck and getting the attention of this very beautiful and talented lady. And if her beauty was not enough to entice all the men, they would also be pleased to find out that Alexandra was being groomed to be the next Matriarch of the Cromich family!

She was going to be a leader of a world-level company! And whoever she chose to be her husband would be privy to everything that realm entailed.

That’s why the Emerald Dance Ball was a very hot topic on the internet right now. All of the newspaper and television companies were trying to get an invite to the ball, but to their disappointment, the family refused any publicity at all. They wanted it to be a private event.

Imagine all of their surprise when they saw the main attraction of the ball suddenly appear on a random sidewalk. While greeting a very normal Patty, who's very far from being described as part of the elite.

Everyone wondered now what kind of man Patty was. How did he have hundreds of thousands of Chains at his disposal? How did he garner the respect and admiration of the three dark horses? How was he able to capture the heart of the woman whose reputation was described as the ‘ice princess’?

They looked at Patty to see if they could glean any kind of information from his reaction. But, he was as clueless as them.

My darling?

As far as he remembered, his fake relationship with Xandra only lasted one day. He thought she’d have forgotten about him by now. He thought he’d never meet her again, and that was fine with him.

However, she now came here looking at him and treating him as if he were her boyfriend.

“I’m doing fine…but what–”

And before Patty could ask anything, Xandra came close to him and hugged him. This left everybody stunned and unable to move. They didn’t think they’d see this kind of scandalous event right in front of their eyes.

Some of the journalists were so stunned that they forgot to do their jobs. One of them finally got out of their stupor and started to take pictures. He didn’t let go of his finger on the capture button, letting the camera take hundreds of pictures per second.

Soon enough, the whole place was lit up with flashing lights from the cameras. All everyone heard were camera shutters.

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Patty didn’t know what to do. His hand was awkwardly hovering on her back.

He looked over to Andres and the other interns for help, but they were all snickering at him. Roni was even taking a picture of the lovely scene by painting it with his Teqx powers. No matter how much Patty signaled them for help, they simply looked away and pretended that they were doing something else.

And even if Andres and the others wanted to help him, the viscous gaze of a very jealous woman prevented them from doing anything.

Even though Xandra looked at them with a smile, somehow, that smile felt like there was a sinister undertone to it. It felt like she was saying to them,

‘Interrupt us, and I’ll kill you.’

Xandra finally let go of her grip on Patty and stood straight.

“What’s up?” Patty asked her.

But before she answered, she glared at everyone who was looking at them. She only needed to give them one look for them to understand that she needed privacy between the two of them.

However, they were professional journalists and paparazzi. They simply couldn’t leave them alone without knowing anything juicy to report to their companies. They all had one question in their minds.

What was her relation to Patty?

Was he a relative? This was the most acceptable assumption that everybody had. It would make sense why Patty had tremendous amounts of wealth in his wallet. It would also explain why Xandra greeted him with love.

However, that was not spicy enough for the reporters. They wanted to know if the two of them were lovers.

Of course, Xandra had a lot of experience with these reporters, so she knew how to get them to back off. It was simple; she only had to feed them.

“This is an official declaration from me,” Xandra said as she addressed the paparazzi. Immediately the reporters took out their recorders and their video cameras to capture whatever she would say.

Xandra then pointed at Patty and said, “Yes. He is my man.”

The whole crowd erupted in many more questions amongst themselves. They couldn’t believe that the princess of the Cromich family would get a boyfriend ahead of the ball. Did that mean that the Emerald Ball was canceled? Was her relationship approved by her family? How did they meet? Why would she pick him out of all the amazing suitors she had?

All kinds of questions emerged from this revelation. However, Xandra simply raised her hand and closed it dramatically. And with that, the whole crowd ended up in silence. She said her piece, and that was the end of it. She wasn’t going to answer any questions.

The reporters wouldn’t get anything else from her. And if they tried to pester her with more questions, they would soon find out they were fired from their jobs. That was how influential and powerful the Cromich family was.

So, with nothing else to do, the crowd of onlookers disappointedly dispersed away from Xandra and Patty so that they could have their private chat.

After a few minutes, there was no one else on the streets. Patty was surprised at how much the crowd respected and feared Xandra. Even though he had no idea who she was, he finally knew the extent of her family’s power.

Andres and the three dark horses were impressed at seeing how amazing the boss’ girlfriend was. They felt that it was only natural that an amazing person like him would get the attention of a beautiful and talented girl like Alexandra Von Cromich.

Once everything was settled, Patty looked at Andres and the others with a disappointed look.

“Really? I thought you guys were loyal to me.”

Andres shrugged. “You know the hierarchy boss. We still respect you and all that, but we can’t ignore the wishes of the Queen! And it looks like she stings quite a bit!”

Xandra nodded at Andres’ words. She seemed very happy to know that they knew how to properly respect a girl like her.

“She’s not my queen yet!” retorted Patty. In the end, he just sighed in exasperation. He would just spend useless energy arguing with them.

“Why are you here anyway?” asked Patty.

Xandra pouted. “I can’t visit my boyfriend?”

Patty shook his head. “No one’s here anymore. I understand you using me as your excuse to not go to your ball or something, but I would appreciate you not using that in private.”

With her hands behind her back, Xandra moved her head closer to his. “What makes you think it’s just an excuse?”

He didn’t think that Xandra was the kind of girl who liked to tease and joke like this. “It’s over, right? I can go home?”

“Oh my, how fast! You already want to take me home?” Xandra giggled.

Patty looked over to Andres and the others for help once again. However, those traitors were already on the bus, waving back at him.

“I’m guessing you won’t go home today, boss!”

“Should we send over some of your clothes?”

“Remember boss! It’s better to be safe!”

Patty palmed his forehead. He couldn’t believe what those guys were saying. Even after he helped them so much, they still betrayed him and left him to fend for himself against a lioness. They could have at least waited for him to finish his conversation with Xandra and they could chauffeur him back home.

“You have nice friends,” commented Xandra.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Patty saw a glint of loneliness in her eyes for a second. However, that emotion was soon gone once she realized that she was being vulnerable. She looked like the confident girl that she was before.

“All jokes aside, why have you come here?” asked Patty.

“I need your help,” she said as she cupped his hands.