“We weren’t; I showed the guy the Invitation, and he scanned it and said it came up invalid.” Mrs. Deborah said, her face turned red in pain and humiliation. “Emily, this is unfair. I was humiliated, people were looking at us like we were trying to sneak into the event we weren’t invited to. I even saw Asher, he was granted access because he held a VIP invitation.”She continued, “How did he get that when he doesn’t work here? You didn’t get me a VIP invitation; you should have seen his face when he entered; he mocked us like we were nobody.” “Mrs. Deborah, everything will be fine. I will sought things out.” Henry assured.Emily frowned, glancing towards the guards at the entrance. Without hesitation, she walked towards them.“Why are they not allowed inside? They are with me, I need an explanation. I personally gave them the invitations, they should have been on the list.”One of the guards pulled out the tablet, tapped quickly and glanced at them. He recalled their names, “Deborah

Jeremy’s fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard, he pulled up the feed from the hallway camera stationed outside the vice chairman’s office.“There,” Emily said, but her eyes were wide in disbelief when what she saw was different. She leaned forward squinting. Everything felt strange at that moment.The man who emerged from the vice chairman’s office was Mark Spencer; the camera caught him clearly leaving and turning left just like Asher did.Emily’s breath hitched, as her mind raced.“Is that who you saw?” Sandra asked with her brow raised higher than the other.“No..no. I know who I saw.” She shook her head slowly.Jeremy had to zoom in slowly, “That’s Mr Mark; we all know he walks into the vice chairman’s office regularly. This is no big deal.”“He didn’t even look like him, I know who I saw. It was my ex-husband, Asher,” she said with her voice barely above a whisper.“Your what?” Sandra asked.Emily exhaled softly, she asked Jeremy to go back again. This time, insisting that he

Asher paused for a moment, whoever it was that just called him knew something that he didn’t. He had spent weeks looking for Isabella but someone else had her in custody.His face turned red when he thought about what the unknown figure demanded in exchange for her. The map!But how did he know he had the map, and who could be the person on the other end?After a long pause, he stepped forward only to find Emily standing before him with a stoic expression. Her arms crossed below her chest.“Emily, not now. I am not in the mood for whatever you have to say.” He said while trying to think through his situation at hand.“Asher, I want to know the truth?”He furrowed, “What truth?”“Did you, by any chance go into the vice chairman’s office while everyone was away?” Asher was caught off guard by her question, he shifted slightly. “When and why?” “Stop acting like you don’t know what I am talking about.”“Because I don’t know, Emily. Why accuse me of something I don’t know? Is this anot

Don Francisco leaned on the table, both hands pressing into the polished wood as he stared directly into Asher’s eyes.“I’ll get to the point,” he said. “I don’t care about the artefacts, the gold trinkets, the ruins, or the traps on that map.”His voice dropped lower, becoming more intense.“I want the diamond.”Asher remained motionless. “There are several marked zones. Many could be vaults.”Don Francisco chuckled. “You have studied the map. Don’t insult me. You know exactly where the diamond is hidden.” Asher’s lips twitched into a faint smile. “If I did, I wouldn’t be here. I would have gone for it a long time, who wouldn’t want to be rich.”Francisco’s face turned from plain to dark; his smile faded as he stared coldly at Asher.“Don’t lie to me, you wouldn’t have gotten the map if you didn’t know what it contained. Stewart, is that true.”“Yes, boss.” He replied nodding in agreement..“That’s why I need you,” Don Francisco said, his voice returning to its earlier rhythm. “You’

The desert air was already dry and hot by sunrise, the kind of heat that drained the soul before the body. Three black jeeps were parked beside a medium-sized cargo plane, engines purring like sleeping beasts. A group of armed men, eight in total stood in khaki and tactical gear. Their eyes were hidden behind desert goggles, but their movements were sharp, trained, and efficient.A short distance from them stood Francisco, still wearing his signature cream linen suit, now accompanied by a matching wide-brimmed hat. He sipped coffee from a steel flask like this was a business trip, not an expedition into death itself.Asher and Chris stood beside each other, just as Asher had instructed. Asher dropped the bag at his feet and opened it casually. From it, he pulled out a metal compass silver, marked with strange etchings along its rim, and set it on the jeep’s hood.Stewart, leaning against the hood of a jeep with arms folded, narrowed his eyes and smirked. Stewart chuckled, eyeing the