Hunter's POV

I pause in signing the documents I'm currently working on when I hear a commotion going on outside. I wait for a few minutes and when the noise doesn't subside, I stand up to find out what's going on.

Those people making such ruckus better have a damn good excuse.

When I step out of the office into the corridor leading to the elevator, I see Blake and Tyler staring in shock at Miss Griffin.

Oh God, not this again.

"Where have you been all these years?" Blake asks.

"We've searched for you everywhere!" Tyler adds.

"This Daisy girl again? For the last time, I am not Daisy!" Miss Griffin says sounding frustrated.

I quickly step forward before things get out of hand.

"Blake,  Tyler, she isn't Daisy. Meet Miss Griffin my personal assistant. Miss Griffin, meet Doctor Blake the CEO of the Denovan's group of hospitals and medical schools and Tyler the CEO of the Grant's shipping company" I say; trying to make the introductions.

"Miss Griffin?...but...Daisy....I thought.... Never mind. Nice to meet you Miss Griffin. Sorry for the mix up, you really look like someone I knew" Tyler; always the gentleman says smiling and offers her a handshake.

Miss Griffin takes Tyler's hand but doesn't stop glaring at Blake.

What the hell did Blake do now?

Since the incident with him and Bloom in high school, he had turned into a complete jerk to women. And with the messy divorce he's going through right now with Stephanie trying to win the custody case of Sophie their daughter, he has been extra moody. So I wouldn't be surprised if he had done something asshole-like to Dais-Esmeralda.

I frown at that thought and frown more at the fact that I feel protective over Esmeralda.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too" she replies.

"I'll be on my way now" she says giving Blake one last glare before smiling at Tyler and walking towards the elevator.

"Thank God she's gone. My head is too occupied for her drama" Blake says in relief and  I can't help but get angry about the fact that he was talking that way about Esmeralda.

Before I can say anything, Tyler beats me to it.

"You could have prevented all this if you had just stopped being an asshole for once and apologized to her after bumping into her" Tyler says sounding angry.

Blake uses the heel of both his palms to rub his eyes.

"I'm sorry guys, I'm just so tired of everything and it doesn't help that she looks like Daisy, which automatically means she reminds me of Bloo-HER" he says and I feel bad for him.

He has been through more shit than any of us have and he still turned out great. I never would have thought Blake would turn out to be a doctor. A professional football player? Definitely. But a doctor? I did not see it coming.

We move inside my office and seat down. I then loosen my tie since working hours were over.

"So what's the latest news about Sophie? Does it look like the final verdict will favor you?" I ask Blake and he sighs.

"I don't know but I'll do everything in my power to have my baby with me. Stephanie is not mother material" he answers and Tyler who was sitting close to him pats him on the shoulder.

"If there's anything we can do to help, tell us and we'll do it" Tyler says and I nod in agreement.

Blake's phone vibrate indicating he has a message and he picks it up to read it. When he keeps staring at the phone with a sad expression, Tyler and I immediately know what he's staring at.

"Blake, you know you can't keep doing this to yourself. What do you gain from that except pain to see her with other men?" Tyler asks looking worried.

Tyler snatches Blake's phone and passes it to me after looking at whatever is on the screen. When I look at his phone, I see the headline 'BLOOM GATES; THE QUEEN OF MUSIC SPOTTED LAST NIGHT IN A NIGHT CLUB IN LAS VEGAS WITH F-RED THE NEW RAPPER THAT HAS BEEN BLOWING OUR MINDS' on top of the cover of the article.

Below the extremely long headline was a blurry picture of Bloom and a guy with a Mohawk that looks like a rainbow vomited on holding her around her waist.

"Why should you subscribe to getting news like this? I thought you.said you were over her! That you can't forgive her for what she did! You're only hurting yourself" I exclaim angry that he's adding to his burden by torturing himself with pictures of Bloom.

"So what if I'm not over her? At least she's alive unlike Daisy..." Before he finishes his statement, I stand up from my seat, move around the table swiftly and punch him in the face.

"She's alive and yet you can't have her, you can only watch other men have her. That's worse than her being dead" I spit and he gets angry and punch me in the face unaware.

I stumble backwards a bit with the force of his punch.

"Guys, you're adults now. Stop behaving like you're still in high school. The bitter truth is we all lost our girls in high school. Shit happens. Fighting about it won't change a thing. Blake, you lost Bloom. Hunter, you lost Daisy. And I lost Chloe; I never even got the chance to tell her I was in love with her. Do you think punching each other like kids will make them all come back. So put on your big man panties and deal with your shit" Tyler yells and Blake and I pause to stare at him for a second before exploding into fits of laughter.

"Did he just.....he just....he.." Blake tries to form a sentence between his guffaws but can't seem to complete it.

"You just said.....said.......big man panties" he finally succeeds before going into another feet of laughter while banging the table.

I hold on to Blake's shoulder to be able to catch my breath.

"I just mentioned extremely sad things and the only thing you got out of my words is 'big man panties'? Your physique and position in the society might have changed as you grew up but you guys never matured" Tyler says smiling softly and after a few more chuckles, Blake and I finally compose ourselves.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't mean any of the shit I said" Blake says to me offering me a handshake.

"Neither did I" I say taking his hand and going back to my seat.

"I thought you guys were all going to arrive in the city tomorrow evening for the charity gala, why are you here early?" I ask them both.

"We heard from your Dad that there is a lead as to where Daisy is. Do you think Daisy will finally be found?" Blake asks and I shrug casually even though I was feeling anything but casual about this situation.

"Do you know that the lead Dad was talking about is Miss Griffin? But the clues are not adding up so I won't get my hopes up like the other times in the past" I answer.

"But what if Miss Griffin is Dais....." Blake gets cut off by my phone ringing.

"You need to come here right now, I just found out something very important regarding Daisy" Mike says urgently.

Esmeralda's POV

I stomp my feet in anger as I walk to the front of the humongous building to hail a cab. I really needed to fix my car soon. I didn't wait for long before a taxi stopped to pick me up. I describe my address and the driver nods before going back to ignoring me.

When I get to my two bedroom apartment. I throw my bag on my couch with a little too much force. I blame asshole Blake for putting me in a bad mood. I go into my bedroom and change into a casual outfit before moving to the kitchen to microwave dinner for myself.

While waiting, I decide to search up who the infamous Daisy everyone is mistaking me for is. I type 'Daisy and Hunter Stone' into the computer since I didn't know her last name. The computer loaded various articles, gossip blogs and pictures. I click on the first article with the heading "Heiress of the Heart group of hotels gone missing".

The article was about how Daisy was supposedly kidnapped and murdered. This led to the terrible health condition of her father since she was his only living relative. The article reported that the details of the whole incident remain unknown to the general public.

I opened another article but it was only repeating what the previous one said only with different words. All these was really sad but I still didn't see the connection between Hunter and Daisy. Maybe she was a fling.

One article finally catches my attention and I click on it. It read 'Hunter Stone of the Stone Empire and Daisy Heart of the Heart group of hotels ENGAGED!!!'. So she was his fiancé. The first thing on the page was a picture of a younger Mr Stone and Daisy dancing at their engagement party looking so oblivious to their environment. The resemblance between Daisy and I strikes me so hard that I jerk a bit.

The girl is the one in the picture I accidentally broke today in Mr. Stone's office. They looked so enraptured in each other that it almost looked magical. A weird longing stirs up in me as I keep staring at the picture. I shake my head and close the tab. I suddenly remember that I have dinner in the microwave so I rush to the kitchen and I get there just as the timer beeps. I take out the spaghetti and eat silently.

After a while, I get ready to go to bed. I decide to open the box Mr. Stone gave me and check what kind of dress it contained. I pray that it will be something conservative. I'm not a prude but my parents are Catholic and they will blow a fuse if I ever wore something indecent. Besides, I won't feel comfortable in it.

My  jaw drops in shock when I remove the dress from the box. It's basically a mosquito net! I'm supposed to wear this!!! What exactly was the designer thinking when he/she made this? This isn't even worthy to be worn to bed!

I check the tag and gasp at the name of the brand. It's flipping Arianna Cade! Middle class people like me can only dream of wearing this brand.

I bring the dress against my body to see how it looks like and I cringe at my reflection. I can't wear this. The large scar on my back will be bare for everyone to see and I don't want anyone poking their nose into my business. Even I can't remember how I got the scar. My mum told me that it was from the car accident that made me lose part of my memory.

My phone rings and I drop the dress on the bed to pick it up. A shriek is delivered to my ear as soon as I press the answer button and I distance the phone from my  ear to save what's left of my hearing ability. I check the identity of the caller and see that it's my crazy best friend; Keesha.

"Chica, why the fuck didn't you tell me that you've gotten a fucking job? If I wasn't so happy for you, I would be offended right now!" She shrieks some more.

"K, turn down the volume and Jesus Keesha, mind your language"

"Babe, I had to hear the news from your Fucking mom. So....any hot hunk at work?" She asks and I could practically feel her wiggling her eyebrows from the other end of the phone.

I open my mouth to answer her question but she cuts me off.

"What's the name of the company? Your mother said you didn't tell her, why?" She asks again.

"It's not a company...well it is a company but it's the headquarters of all the companies under it's name. You know the Stone Empire, right? And I didn't tell my Mum because she would freak out about being the secretary for such a notorious womanizer" I reply and wait for a response that never came.

"Keesha?....K?..... Keesha? are you still ther...."

"You're working for the younger stone, are you shitting me right now?" She screams into the phone.

I'll never get used to Keesha's loudness.

"Yes, I'm his assistant" I reply picking up the dress again and willing it with my eyes to grow a few more inches.

"I never thought I'd say this because of how much I love my life but I wish I was you right now" she says and I can hear the awe in her voice.

"Just...." She starts in a calm tone.

Calm Keesha was never a good thing.

"What K?" I ask dreading what she was about to say.

"Just please be careful with him okay? I know you just got out of a terrible relationship and I don't want you getting your heart broken again" she concludes.

"I only said I was working for him not that I was sleeping with him. And I'll be fine, we barely even talk." I say.

'Yeah, because almost swapping spit is not close at all' my sarcastic sub conscious chips in.

"If I was you, trying to keep my hands away from him would be the real job" Keesha says already back to her normal self.

"You need help" I say rolling my eyes knowing that she can't see it. She hates it when people roll eyes at her.

"And talking about help, I have a situation here. There's a charity gala tomorrow night and Mr Stone got me a dress and let's just say that the dress isn't even worthy enough to be an underwear. Plus, it'll expose my scar, what do I do?" I whine.

"Well, send me the picture and I'll see if I can get something that looks like it only a bit more conservative" she says.

"That might be a little bit impossible. It's Arianna Cade's design. You can't find anything like it anywhere" I mutter.

The shriek that follow my words were expected so I quickly move my phone away from my ear.

"Oh my God, oh my God! I'm coming over right away. I guess we're going to have a girls night today" And without saying goodbye, she hangs up.

I shake my head, she's crazy but I love her all the same.

My phone rings again and I pick it up knowing it's Keesha. She probably forgot to say something.

"Ever heard of warning people before hanging up?" I chide her.

"I need you Daisy" I hear Mr Stone's broken sob from the end of the line.

What the hell happened to him?

Esmeralda's POV

"Mr Stone?" I call out into the phone.

"You can't be dead, you just can't be" he sobs gut wrenchingly and my heart clench in worry.

I notice the drawl in his voice and guess that he was probably drunk.

"Mr Stone, where are you?" I ask trying to sound calm.

"Tell me you're alive and you still love me. Tell me you don't hate me." he groans from the other side.

"Tell me Daisy" the pain in his shaking voice was so real that I felt it to my bones. I can't even start to imagine what he was going through right now.

"I'm alive" I say trying to ease his pain even though I'm not Daisy.

"Tell me you love me Daisy" he mutters.

"I l-love you Hunter" I say closing my eyes at the absurdness of it all.

I had never told any guy I loved him except my father and brother, not even Jack. Saying it so casually is........I don't even have a description for how it feels.

"I love you so much Daisy" he says with his voice drifting off. My heart skips even though I know his words were not meant for me.

Silence reigns for a few seconds and  I just hope that he has fallen asleep because nobody deserves that kind of pain and if sleep can take it away from him for just a few hours, then so be it.

"Why are you looking like someone just stole your puppy?" My heart jumps out of my chest when I hear Keesha's voice.

"Christ Keesha, there's this thing called knocking, it helps to not send people to their early grave with a heart attack" I remark trying to calm my heartbeat.

"What's the use of having a key to this apartment if I still have to knock? And who is Hunter? How come I don't know this guy? And how come you're declaring your love so soon into the relationship? Unless you have....." I cut her off from the relationship speech she's about to give me.

Why don't people know Mr. Stone's first name? Most people refer to him as the younger stone while the media referred to him as Stone Empire heir and the paparazzi address him as a playboy.

"It's not a new guy, and you might want to bring out the takeout you brought along for this crazy story" I say and she opens the pizza while I go get us drinks.

After settling down, I find myself telling her about everything; how Mr Stone and all his friends keeps mistaking me for his fiance all to what just happened right now.

"Finally some drama in your life, I'm tired of it being me all the time" she teases.

I smile because Keesha definitely had a lot of drama in her life. She's the most gorgeous woman I've ever set my eyes upon and she has always been so unlucky with family and guys; always attracting jerks who only wanted her body. One thing I admired the most about her is her strong spirit. Despite all, Keesha never let any of it affect her or at least she doesn't show it.

"They'll soon discover that I'm an imposter and forget about all this Daisy" I state.

"So the dress, Can I see it?" She says and I can practically feel the stars shining in her eyes.

I gesture to the bed and she picks up the dress with awe.

"I can now die in peace" she says falling on the bed with the dress in her hand. I stand up from the foot of the bed where we were sitting and join her on the bed.

"Quit being so dramatic and tell me what to do. I just got the job and I'm treading on eggshells here. If I reject a dress that probably costs more than my apartment, won't it be weird?" I ask bewildered about what to do.

"Well, you can fake sickness and not go..." She responds not taking her  eyes off the piece of clothing.

Yup, Keesha was in love.

With her being a fashion columnist, I'm not surprised she's so fascinated with a particular brand.

I groan and plop face down into my pillow.

"What's that?" She asks and I raise my head to see whatever it is she's talking about.

I notice that she was staring at the gash on my finger that I got when I was trying to pick up the broken frame's glasses.

"Oh that. It's nothing. I was just a bit careless in the kitchen" I say waving it off.

She stares at me suspiciously for a few seconds before relenting. I don't know why I didn't tell her what happened. A little part of me knew that it was because I didn't want her to have anything against Mr Stone. Why? I don't know. It's not like I'm a teenage girl trying to get my friend to approve of my boyfriend.

'You're an idiot' my snobby subconscious says.

I mentally search for an off button for her annoying voice.

'You can't get rid of me' she adds smugly.

And now I'm pretty sure I'm going crazy. Who in her right mind talks to a voice in her head?

"That's it! This wound is the perfect excuse" Keesha exclaims.

"K, I'm supposed to wear the dress on my body not on my finger" I respond.

"Not that you goof. You'll tell him that you can't attend the gala because you had a little kitchen accident, lost a lot of blood and the doctor prescribed rest for you. You don't need to thank me, you're welcome" she says beaming proudly.

I raise one eyebrow and get ready to point out all the loop holes in her plan when she beat me to it.

"Yeah....that's a horrible idea" she admits deflating.

"The last time I checked, the scar on your back was fading. Let me take a look" she requests and I look at her warily before taking off my pajama top and turning my back to her.

"So....." I prod.

"It's almost unnoticeable now. If I wasn't aware of it before, I wouldn't even know" she comments.

I know that the thing was fading but I'm very insecure about it.

"Yeah but...." I sigh putting my top back on.

"No buts, you're going to that gala. It's about time you get over all these insecurities. Jack was a jerk. Hey that almost rhymed. But jokes apart, he's a moron for everything he said, don't let him win by letting his words affect you" she says and I nod solemnly.

I know she's right but insecurities don't just die overnight.

We spend the rest of the night catching up before we fall asleep. Very ungracefully might I add, with her sprawled on her stomach snoring and me sleeping the other way around with my legs on the headrest.

**********************

On getting to work today, I find that Mr Stone isn't around. Not that I was worried about him. Definitely not.

I find it hard to type the emails i didn't send yesterday because of my wounded right index finger and because I couldn't concentrate. I squeak in pain as I accidentally pressed my wounded finger too hard on the keyboard.

"Is everything alright Miss Griffin?" I immediately look up when I hear Mr Stone's voice.

"Uhmm....yes, everything's perfect" I answer trying to analyze his expression.

Why was he acting like he didn't ask his own assistant to declare her love yesterday?

Not that I was expecting a thank you; that would be awkward. But.....

I then remember that he was probably drunk yesterday and he might not recall a thing.

That's good then.

"The company car will be picking you up by eight '0' clock in the evening. We'll meet at the venue for the gala" he says making a move to walk into his office.

'Well good morning to you too sir' I mutter sarcastically under my breath.

He turns back to say something but something else catches his attention and when I look down following his view, I notice he was staring at my now bleeding finger.

Nice.

"You're bleeding, what happened?" he questions.

A little kitchen accident, nothing much" I repeat my reply to Keesha.

"Come with me" he orders.

I start to shake my head but he has already turned to walk into his office. Nothing good ever comes out of that office. I sigh and stand up to follow him.

What's the worse that can happen?