After dinner, Hosea Lindley and Paxon Chevy both left Icy’s home. She could now let out a gasp, relieved and relaxed finally. What was going on today? It seemed so many things happening at the same time. “Mama, can I ask you a question?” Finishing bath, Little David popped his head out of the bedclothes and looked at his mother, who was concentrating on her design project.

“Say it. What do you want to know? I am listening.” Icy replied without thinking. “Uncle Chevy or Uncle Lindley, which one do you like?” Dave climbed out of his bed, tottered to his mother, and cuddled her waist from behind. “oh? Why are you asking this kind of question?” Icy was very surprised to hear this from her boy. She thought she had been acting normally and didn’t reveal her feelings about them.

“Mother, I can feel that they are not the same to you. Maybe one of them will become my father. Mom, I will support you, no matter what your decision is.” It was indeed a bad day for Icy; she was injured in the morning, was fully engaged in the afternoon and evening, and now she still couldn’t rest. Dave was thinking, if he had a daddy, her mother’s life would be much more easier.

“Neither of them will become your father. Dave. You are thinking too much. Please go to bed now. You need to wake up early to go to kindergarten.” She dared not think about Hosea Lindley nor Paxon Chevy. There was a huge gap between them and her; even if they were serious about this relationship, the gaps between them were too big that no bridge could connect them easily; their families would never agree; their relatives and business partners would consider it extremely awkward; the most important was that Icy could not believe that they were serious; they might be just fooling around.

“Mama, please do not change the topic, answer me,” David was unhappy because his mother always treated him as a baby who didn’t understand anything. He thought he had learned so much. “I am not changing topic, I want you to know that right now, you are my only concern; I wish you will grow up happily, and I don’t want to be distracted by other issues.” In fact Icy understood that she had absolutely no control over her relationship with Paxon or Hosea; things should develop naturally and she must not purposely plan or change anything.

“Mother,I do not want you to work too hard, you never have enough time to rest,” David bulged his cheeks and gnawed his lips. He thought his mother wasn’t totally honest to him. When they lived oversea, she always envied at other families which included a father, a mother and a child.

“I assure you I am perfectly fine and satisfied with my job, please don’t think too much, go sleep now or I will be angry.” Icy sighed, carried her little boy to his bed and laid him down. “Three two one, close your eyes and sleep,” the mother gave a soft kiss on her boy’s forehead, turned off the ceiling light, but kept the little desk lamp on.

Icy stayed home for few days until she decided to go back to work. She understood that if she returned to the office on the second day, people would get excited and gossips would surge again. To avoid unnecessary trouble or more explanation, it was better for her to take few days off. Furthermore, Mr. Lindley had promised her paid leave; that meant no money would be deducted from her salary.

When Icy Wilkinson stepped out of the elevator, she noticed that the whole designer storey had been renovated. Conference rooms, offices and desks had been moved to different places. Before she reached her original desk, Cheton intercepted her and said, “They have moved you,” Icy responded surprisingly, “ What do you mean? Where do they move me?”

"Mr. Lindley has assigned you a new room, which is over there. So from now on, you will be working there,” Cheton pointed to a newly renovated room in the other side of the storey with his index finger. There must be something very special about this Icy Wilkinson; Mr. Lindley seemed to think highly of her.

“Wow, I am having my own office? Pointing her forefinger to herself, Icy couldn’t believe what she had heard; did other employees have any opinions about this arrangement? “Nop, I don’t think so, I also heard that it was Ms. Shirley Lindley who suggested to give you a room; she said it was a compensation for that accident.” In fact, Mr Lindley was very glad when his younger sister made this recommendation for Icy, and his perspective about Shirley had changed for better; maybe he had misunderstood her before.

“Shirley Lindley?” Why was she being nice to Icy suddenly? Icy walked to her new lavish office and looked in inside. It could be another trap by the mistress of intrigue. Her conspiracy was to make Icy the bullseye or scapegoat of all employees, clients, and maybe even Lindley family members.

“You don’t like this? You have your own office; You have absolute privacy and quiet environment and no one will disturb you while you are working.” Cheton continued. As a senior designer, he always preferred to work in his own room; he really liked the room he had now, although his office was smaller and less adorned compared to Icy’s new chamber.

“Can I choose not to work in this new compartment? I prefer to work on my old desk.” Icy didn’t want other people to have wrong ideas; she was a novice here, who had not finished any big project or received any award. It didn’t make sense for her to sit in such a luxurious chamber. No one would think she earned this through hard work and talent; they would disdain and look down on her because they would consider her a secret lover of Mr. Lindley. And she was sitting here because of him; it was something that Icy hated to see.

“I don’t think you can choose not to accept this office. It was arranged by human resource department and was tailor-made for you.” Cheton shook his head gently; he didn’t understand why someone would refuse to work in this lovely independant office, which was actually a dream of all designers working in this company.

“Okay, I understand. Thank you very much, Cheton.” Icy thought he was a nice guy but he wasn’t in the position to help her. What could you expect him to do? Go knock on Mr. Lindley’s door and tell him Icy refuse to take that new office? She turned around and walked into her private chamber, which had included basically everything she needed and she could think of, new computers, air conditioners, a wide leather sofa, and there was a small compartment; Icy was interested and staggered into this small place which turned out to be a tatami toy room for kids.

“How is it? I hope you like your new office.” Icy was surprised by the voice of Hosea who suddenly appeared from behind. She faced round and saw Hosea and Shirley standing and smiling at her. Hosea was smiling sincerely, while Shirley was smirking strangely. “You don’t need to give me this ...office, I want to work with other staffs in the open area.” Icy didn’t want people to consider her having some kind of special status; in fact, she didn’t have, she was no one to the Lindley.

“Please don’t say that, I want to apologize for what I have done to you. I beseeched my brother to arrange this chamber for you; look at that toy room, now you can bring your boy to work.” Shirley smiled benignly and tried to hold Icy’s hand, but Icy flung. “Ms Lindley, I really appreciate your kindness, but you really don’t need to do this, I don’t want people to misunderstand.” All she wanted now was to work hard and to provide a stable environment in which she could raise her boy.

“Icy, are you still angry with us?” Shirley seemed disappointed and sad; she frowned, gnawed her lips and her face became expressionless. “You misunderstood me. I admitted that I made a big mistake, I was too concerned about Cheung, who had worked here for eight years. Maybe I have mistreated you, I am very sorry about that. If you still cannot forgive me, I can apologize to you in front of all employees in the company.” Shirley continued to act and pretend she was innocent, even in front of her elder brother.